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User: bhtooefr

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  1. Re:Reverse-Engineering for Interoperability on Skype Protocol Has Been Reverse Engineered · · Score: 1

    The problem is, sure, humans are capable of separating the thoughts.

    But how do you prove that they did that? And, in a civil suit, the standard for a judgement against them is far, far lower than the standard for a criminal conviction.

    If there's two separate teams of people that can be demonstrated to have been sealed from one another - one that creates an API doc from the actual code, and one that creates an implementation from the API doc - with a third neutral team of lawyers that have both the actual code and the API doc to compare for any potential violations, before the implementing team gets the doc, then you've got a quite reasonable amount of proof that you did it right.

  2. Re:They did what now? on Apple Nixes iPad Giveaways · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but an Omega watch likely doesn't have even a single line of code, yet was still affected by this.

  3. Re:They did what now? on Apple Nixes iPad Giveaways · · Score: 1

    http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/12/supreme-court-lets-ban-on-gray-market-imports-stand.ars

    If it's not made in the US, and it's copyrighted, first sale no longer exists. So, yeah, this may actually be enforceable.

  4. Re:...what? on Samsung Launches Exynos-Based Origen Dev Board · · Score: 1

    The market they're targeting is "companies who want to develop for the Samsung Exynos SoC".

    If you're developing some hardware around it, you buy one of these dev boards, and develop your software on the dev board before your hardware is ready.

  5. Re:TinyURL on Spammers Establish Fake URL-Shortening Services · · Score: 1

    Because copying and pasting is a pain in the ass when you can have a clickable link instead.

    Especially when you're on a phone.

  6. Re:Kudos to Apple on Apple Acknowledges MacDefender · · Score: 1

    It can happen if you use one of the following methods to connect to the Internet:

    Cable or DSL modem, USB attached
    Cable or DSL modem that doesn't use NAT natively, directly ethernet attached
    Dial-up

  7. Re:Oh, great on Apple Acknowledges MacDefender · · Score: 1

    Not... necessarily. There is a way for most users to be happy, giving them software to install, without installing arbitrary software, and Apple even DOES this on one of their platforms.

    It's called locking the system down so that Apple approves every piece of software that runs, and not giving users admin.

    Problem is, it also means that, as you don't have admin rights on your own machine, you don't own your own machine.

  8. Re:Not a Sony fan but... on Sony Suffers Yet More Security Breaches · · Score: 1

    The difference between money and data is, you never lost your data, it was just copied.

    Money, if you lose it due to such an attack, can be replaced via various mechanisms. Personal data, the only way to replace it involves losing your job, all of your friends, and your relatives, and going into a witness protection program.

  9. Re:What's with the math? on Sony Suffers Yet More Security Breaches · · Score: 1

    Sony will need to minimize the apparent impact of this, though, to their shareholders - otherwise, the bleeding gets far, far worse. Hence why Sony would share a much lower number.

  10. Re:TinyURL on Spammers Establish Fake URL-Shortening Services · · Score: 1

    By the way, YouTube URLs can be shortened easily, without using an untrusted shortener...

    http://youtu.be/KagkNFYJvuY

    And Google does own the domain.

  11. Re:Has this actually happened? on Increased Power Usage Leads to Mistaken Pot Busts for Bitcoin Miners · · Score: 1

    Sounds like, if they weren't illegal, those problems wouldn't be problems.

  12. Re:It's all about sales on Users Want Matte LCDs While Glossy Screens Dominate · · Score: 1

    The problem is, when it costs billions of dollars to build an LCD plant...

    Upshot is, I'm running a 5 year old laptop, so that I get a 15" 4:3 chassis, so I can run a matte 2048x1536 IPS display.

  13. Re:What the hell? on RIAA-Backed Warrantless Search Bill In California · · Score: 1

    However, Indiana's supreme court ruled that you're not allowed to resist an illegal search. Of course, if enough people fight back, either the cops will back down, or civil war will start.

  14. Re:Karma's a bitch, Sony. on Sony Music Greece Falls To Hackers · · Score: 1

    The point is that Sony DRM freaks out if you screw up when reconfiguring the projector for the 2D lens.

  15. Re:Ummm on NC Governor Allows Anti-Community-Broadband Law · · Score: 1

    What about a government-granted monopoly to a customer-owned co-op?

  16. Re:Ummm on NC Governor Allows Anti-Community-Broadband Law · · Score: 1

    I've heard of such insanity as Atlanta->Chicago->points in Texas, before. That may actually be an Amtrak problem, though, more than a freight routing problem.

  17. Re:Ummm on NC Governor Allows Anti-Community-Broadband Law · · Score: 1

    I feel that part of government's job is to, at the smallest level possible, step in when competition is either not feasible (for example, when barriers of entry are too high), or actually detrimental to the common good.

    Last mile communications is one. Two ways to do it. Either the local (township, city, village) government can own the last mile, and sell access to it to ISPs, or the local government can give exclusive last mile access to a community-owned cooperative.

  18. Re:Ummm on NC Governor Allows Anti-Community-Broadband Law · · Score: 1

    Well, except for some braindead routing issues (sometimes to get from point A to point B, you have to go through point Z that's well out of the way of either), Amtrak works OK as a passenger rail carrier on a freight rail system...

  19. Re:Hey, Oracle. Here's another target for you. on Inside NVIDIA's Massive Hardware Emulation Lab · · Score: 1

    IBM's VM operating system dates back to CP-40, from 1967.

    The VM name was used in 1972.

  20. Re:Four More Years on Congress Makes Deal To Renew Patriot Act For 4 Years · · Score: 1

    Actually, if enough people vote for a third party, then it does change that.

    Alternately, I'm wondering if the best tactic is to get all the third parties to work together, and join together as a party whose sole purpose is to get a replacement for FPTP pushed into law, then disband and resign from that term, triggering a fresh election cycle.

  21. Re:Four More Years on Congress Makes Deal To Renew Patriot Act For 4 Years · · Score: 1

    I'm almost wondering if running a third party as a not-for-profit corporation, and then trademarking the party's name, might work.

    Then, get litigious on any attempts to hijack the party like what happened to the Tea Party.

  22. Re:Dare I say it? on Apple Proposes Smaller SIM Card Design · · Score: 1

    On CDMA phones, the MEID (equivalent to IMEI, and I believe exists in the same pool) is the sole unique identifier of the phone. (It is spoofable, but even possessing the tools to spoof it is a felony, if they want to go after you for it.)

    The phone has the MEID, MDN (phone number), and MIN (an internal number that can be different from the MDN, and with cell number porting, is quite often different) stored on it. It authenticates to the tower with that information.

    The tower checks whether the MEID, MDN, and MIN are correct according to the subscriber information.

    Now, as for activation, it works one of three ways:

    1. You call your cellular provider from another phone, and provide your MEID. They provide a Master Subsidy Lock code (calculated from the MEID, although some carriers use 000000), and then have you manually enter the MDN and MIN. (This is mainly used on older phones, or phones where the automated programming process fails.)
    2. You call your cellular provider from another phone, or go online, and provide your MEID. The phone will check with the tower to see if it needs reprogrammed on boot up, and then reprogram itself with the new MDN and MIN. I believe Sprint is still using this.
    3. You call your cellular provider from the phone you want to activate (*28 on Verizon, IIRC). The phone will provide its own MEID, and then you provide your account PIN and phone number, and it pushes the MDN and MIN down.

  23. Re:Ten points if reading this on your second monit on Do Developers Really Need a Second Monitor? · · Score: 1

    It can handle 60, it just pulls down to 48 or 41, depending on revision. (Mine, 48.)

    I don't get that 100 points (I rarely use my T221), but do I get 50 points for reading it on a IDTech IAQX10N 15.0" 2048x1536 panel? It can't handle 60 either, but it can do 50.

  24. Re:Derhythmed on The Rise of Filter Bubbles · · Score: 2

    Did you watch the video?

    There's still a bunch of inputs they use, even when you're logged out.

  25. Re:Cat5 on HDMI Brands Don't Matter · · Score: 1

    The cheap cable testers that just use LEDs to indicate how good the cable is, they'll happily light up, when the cable drops packets like a mofo at 10 megabit, and is useless at 100 megabit.