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User: stiggle

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  1. Sarbanes-Oxley Act says only delete within policy on The Importance of Deleting Old Stuff · · Score: 1

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act says you should retain company/corporate documents, and emails are company documents despite the triviality on the comments within.

    So by all means delete the emails, and then when the SEC comes knocking and asks about the deleted emails you've got to convince them they were only pics of cute kittens off the internet and not insider dealing. So to cover yourself you backup and retain everything for a period as designated in company policy.

    So ensure you have a short retention policy.

  2. Re:revolutionary idea? on Happy Public Domain Day: Works That Copyright Extension Stole From Us In 2015 · · Score: 1

    So to make Lord of the Rings (movies) public domain we just need to shoot Peter Jackson?

    What's wrong with the original 21 years. If you can't recoup the costs or generate a reasonable income from 21 years of copyright then you've got bigger problems.

  3. Re:One fiber to rule them... on Google Fiber's Latest FCC Filing: Comcast's Nightmare Come To Life · · Score: 1

    This is what some counties have tried to do. Municipal owned cabling which anyone can use to deliver their services.
    Comcast and others blocked these with lawsuits over competition and promises of increasing their capabilities and capacity.

    In the UK - BT Openreach operate the cabling and ANY ISP/Phone company can provide their services over these cables. The ISP/Phone company can also use their own backhaul with their own equipment sited in the exchange. Other companies also provide their own cable & fibre to the premises - like Vodafone, Virgin Media bypassing BT completely.

    Personally I think the cabling should be treated as a public utility and a national asset and owned accordingly - with any company allowed to use the cables to provide a service. Just like the road network.

  4. Re: PRIVATE encryption of everything just became.. on Congress Passes Bill Allowing Warrantless Forfeiture of Private Communications · · Score: 1

    If you're throwing a large amount of encrypted data around then that will show up and make you a target, after all anyone who encrypts must have something to hide from the NSA and so they'll want to see what it is.

    As the malware Regin shows - they route your data through other hosts known to you to disguise it phoning home - it phones your friends and asks them to pass the message on.

  5. Re:Why does the isotope ratio of one comet matter? on Rosetta Results: Comets "Did Not Bring Water To Earth" · · Score: 1

    Also the life on earth has been processing the water for a few million years - splitting the water to be make sugars and splitting sugars to make carbon dioxide and water. The ratio in water we have now is due to the water from life (I'm avoiding the Dune reference with Water of Life :-) ) which is based on the availably hydrogen in the environment which is attached to hydrocarbons and other molecules as well as water. I think they physicists need to talk to a biologist about the facts of life :-)

    What we do know is that the Kupier Belt bodies (which is the source of this comet and others with the same ratio) absorb a lot of neutrons to make the deuterium found in them.

  6. Re:There is no single "fair" value. on UK Announces 'Google Tax' · · Score: 1

    Fractional Reserve banking is one of the main drivers of inflation due to the "creation" of debt out of nothing.

    You can have a bank making loans without being fractional reserve - they can loan LESS than the about of deposits. eg. $1k deposited, bank lends $500, rather than $10,000. The depositor & bank only risk 1/2 the original deposit rather than 10x the amount. This have the bank creating no money and so no inflation. It also means there is less "money" in circulation, but the risk of debt and a financial crash is removed as all the deposited money doesn't vanish if no loans are repaid.

  7. Re:These are real engineers, you Ruby weenies. on Orion Capsule Safely Recovered, Complete With 12-Year-Old Computer Guts · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually there have been a few years of tests of Orion leading up this.
    Tank drop tests to see how it lands in water and how well it floats afterwards.
    Parachute drops out the back of planes to test the parachutes and descent characteristics.

    This is just the combined test where all the features are tested together - think of it as the first beta with the individual feature tests as being the alpha testing.

  8. Re:Knee-jerk... on UK Police To Publicly Shame Drunk Drivers On Twitter This Christmas · · Score: 1

    This is in the UK - so there isn't the "fine and points" rather than "court case". The "fine and points" is the court case - with it goes up to disqualification and jail time. Even if you plead guilty by post, your case will have been "to court" to be processed.

    The accusation is a roadside breath test followed up by 2 further breath tests at the police station, or a blood test. The station tests are those which are used for the charges. You are shown the results of the tests at all stages.

    Its not as if there aren't taxi, public transport or other forms of transport available to get home from a night drinking.

  9. Re:Privacy on Obama Offers Funding For 50,000 Police Body Cameras · · Score: 1

    Depends on the reason for wanting the video.

    How about all requests should be presented before a judge and you need to justify the reason why you want the video.
    Wanting to put them online is not in the public interest.

  10. Re:Separate firewall box blocking traffic on Regin Malware In EU Attack Linked To US and British Intelligence Agencies · · Score: 1

    Stuxnet worked by the devices it was attacking being on a network - even a private network is still a network with every USB port, floppy drive and CD/DVD drive being an attack vector.

    Just because something can be networked doesn't mean it should be.

  11. Separate firewall box blocking traffic on Regin Malware In EU Attack Linked To US and British Intelligence Agencies · · Score: 1

    Why do these places get hacked like this?

    Secure work done on a non-networked system.
    The networked system is routed through a firewall (running on a different OS, so no Windows everywhere) where only traffic to specific locations is permitted.
    If you want to visit a "suspect" site then start up a disposable VM running a different OS containing a browser, connect over a VPN to a less tightly controlled exit point, and use it then dispose of the VM when you're done.
    Do everything possible to block admin/network shares, and remember - not everything needs to be connected to the internet.

    End users want easy everything then complain when their easy systems are compromised.

  12. Re:How will I explain this to my children on Regin Malware In EU Attack Linked To US and British Intelligence Agencies · · Score: 1

    They don't say whose standards of behavior they are adhering to.
    Its only really on the standard of "a legal democracy with full disclosure" where they fall down so pick anything else and their statement is true.

    National security interests - these include anything which affects the US position in the world so thats the economy, communications, military advancements, technological advancements, scientific discoveries, etc. So any industrial espionage to benefit American industry is OK by the NSA. So is ensuring that those pesky Europeans don't invent any extra secure encryption to keep the Americans out of their communications. If Disney lobby the government, then protecting Mickey Mouse is in the national interest (as its a key symbol of American freedom).

  13. So its a sports hall you can fly your RCs in on Ohio College Building Indoor Drone Pavilion · · Score: 1

    We've been using sports halls to fly RC helicopters in for years - nothing new here.

  14. Just "let it go!" on 2014 Hour of Code: Do Ends Justify Disney Product Placement Means? · · Score: 1

    Seriously, "Let it Go!"

  15. Re:PR screwup on What Would Have Happened If Philae Were Nuclear Powered? · · Score: 1

    They even the landing was "if possible/survivable"

    Some of the non-scientist media journalists keep trying to play it as the lander failing. The clued up journalists and the scientists keep pushing the extraordinary data they've got back from the lander. Also they point out that they've managed to re-orientate the lander so that when it gets further into the solar system they should hopefully be able to pick up enough light to waken the lander and continue collecting data.

    Rosetta is old news - we started orbiting the comet months ago.

  16. Re:Accelerando IRL on A Worm's Mind In a Lego Body · · Score: 1

    My "bird-based" flying car just dropped out of the sky onto a rodent.
    I don't think I should have gone for the night-driving Owl upgrade.

  17. Re:The Carreidas 160. on NASA Tests Aircraft With Shape Shifting Wings · · Score: 1

    The Panavia Tornado (British, German, Italian, Saudi air force) still uses swing wings.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

  18. Re:Not subject to Carnot efficiency limit on Enzymes Make Electricity From Jet Fuel Without Ignition · · Score: 1

    Sandia Labs have a project creating hydrocarbons using photosynthesising cyanobacteria (easier to genetically manipulate)
    As the hydrocarbons float - they just need to skim the top of the tank to get the product.

  19. Re:But DC is different,no? on Marijuana Legalized In Oregon, Alaska, and Washington DC · · Score: 1

    And even if its legal in DC - its still illegal federally and so on federal land (national parks, seashores, military bases, etc) you can still be arrested for possession. A few stoner campers found this out in Washington State - camping in a national park and smoking up got ticketed by a park ranger.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/new...

  20. Still a fossil fuel with a carbon footprint. on Enzymes Make Electricity From Jet Fuel Without Ignition · · Score: 1

    So much for developing low carbon fuels - this is just kicking out more fossil fuel based CO2.
    Doesn't matter what method you use to fully oxidise long carbon chains to release energy the results are still CO2 and H2O. There enzymes are only converting available energy at around 30%

  21. Re:Needs to be real money on Flaw in New Visa Cards Would Let Hackers Steal $1M Per Card · · Score: 1

    Don't even need to bump into people - Scanning terminal with a range of a few feet and just stand in a crowd with it in your backpack.
    Do this at say a theme park or a major tourist destination with a high turnover of passing people (eg. Tower Hill tube station in London, Champ de Mars metro station in Paris) through a narrow choke point where your scanner can pick up everyone passing and you can yield a much higher number of cards.

  22. Re:Well... no. on Flaw in New Visa Cards Would Let Hackers Steal $1M Per Card · · Score: 2

    Its via the "contactless" chip system - which doesn't need to do online authentication. Its all done in the card for transactions under £20 (or hack foreign currencies). The card generates a transaction key which is passed to the bank when the shop communicates with the bank.

    Using the foreign currency hack - you can ask the card for upto 999,999.99 in a foreign currency (not the default currency for the card). No one is going to use the hack to pull the full amount over - you'll use it for something like $50.00 or $49.99 so it looks less obvious on the statement. You scam cards in a tourist location where many vendors offer transactions in multiple currencies. I know a number of stores in Ireland offered me transactions in Euro, GBP or USD

  23. Re:Pixie Dust on Lego Ends Shell Partnership Under Greenpeace Pressure · · Score: 4, Informative

    Generally its the delivery crew who use the sails to get the boat to where the rich guy wants to sail from. Often the crew are given a budget, for all expenses including fuel, and so anything they save on that means they have more spending money for more vital supplies like beer, beer and more beer :-)

    These crews move the yachts around the world as "the rich guy" wants spring in the Caribbean, summer in the Med, fall/autumn in the Indian Ocean, winter around Australia. So you move the yacht to meet the guy and his family/friends for the holiday onboard at specific times.

    You use the diesel engine when you're likely to miss the departure/arrival dates.
    Its a fun life but badly paid, but you get to spend your time on a luxury yacht.

  24. Re:For crying out loud on Ask Slashdot: How Would You Build a Home Network To Fully Utilize Google Fiber? · · Score: 1

    Dragging CAT6 is better than a phone line as you can use it for so many other things (aswell as a phone line).

  25. Re:Color me shellshocked! on Hackers Compromised Yahoo Servers Using Shellshock Bug · · Score: 1

    So sys-admin only use Debian based systems?
    What about RHEL, AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, Tru64, VMS, Windows/Cygwin

    How about all that networking kit which use Bash for their scripting & WebUI