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  1. Burnt? on Lenovo Reveals Wearable Smartband To Track Exercise Stats · · Score: 0

    Isn't burnt reserved for use as an adjective, as in, "burnt offering", while burned would be the verb form?

  2. Re:someohow I think on "Police Detector" Monitors Emergency Radio Transmissions · · Score: 1

    Out on the motorway it gave ample warning of a police car approaching on the opposite carriageway. The LEDs slowly went from green to yellow to red. In theory this gave plenty of time to check the speedometer or stash any mobile phones that shouldn’t be in use.

    Last time I was pulled over, the speed limit dropped from 65 MPH to 45 MPH in a couple-hundred feet, and the officer was parked 100 feet past the 45MPH sign. Relying on an approximate range to the officer wouldn't have helped in those circumstances.

  3. Re: Space Odyssey on Elon Musk Warns Against Unleashing Artificial Intelligence "Demon" · · Score: 1

    Because Canada is apparently filled with horny adolescent fantasies.

    La Femme Nikita
    LEXX
    Andromeda

    Can confirm.

  4. Re:By yourself you know others on Elon Musk Warns Against Unleashing Artificial Intelligence "Demon" · · Score: 1

    Fact of the matter is, we can't really draw an analogy to predict how an AI, especially a learning AI with the ability to self-edit, would behave.

    I think that AIs that can self-edit need to be limited to no network connectivity outside of the building which they work, and that they need to be limited to research. Either special-field research, or AI research.

  5. Re:Makes sense to me on Elon Musk Warns Against Unleashing Artificial Intelligence "Demon" · · Score: 1, Insightful

    That's daemons. And it's still pronounced "demon", as Caesar is pronounced "cesar"

  6. This'll end up in court... on Rite Aid and CVS Block Apple Pay and Google Wallet · · Score: 1, Insightful

    This isn't the sort of thing that "the market" can decide. I expect that it'll end up in court.

    I wouldn't be surprised if patents come into it too, and since retailers aren't technology companies, they probably won't have the patents to even develop what they want without licensing, and tech companies with those patents are under no obligation to license them.

  7. Re:Time for a revolution on Law Lets IRS Seize Accounts On Suspicion, No Crime Required · · Score: 2, Informative

    "First they came for the Tea Party, but I did not speak out because I wasn't a fiscal conservative."

    Hint, neither are they.

  8. Re:Curious economics of private spaceflight on SpaceX Capsule Returns To Earth With Lab Results · · Score: 1

    Flynn, an ardent libertarian, thought that as early as the turn of the millennium, private industry would be ready to offer all kinds of spaceflight services that the general public would rush to buy, such as FedEx delivery anywhere on Earth in 90 minutes.

    Right now, there's simply no market for that kind of delivery, and launches are not able to be set-up and made in that short of a duration either.

    There's literally almost nothing on this world that is both so unique as to exist singularly and so instantly-needed potentially anywhere to justify the expense of launching that one thing into a suborbital flight on a rocket for delivery. Between warehousing of goods and relatively rapid transport of things by-air, just about anything the size and mass of a car can be transported to anywhere in the world in about a day.

    If there were a market for delivery faster than that, I would expect surplus military supersonic jets would take up that market. Get something the size of a human being anywhere in the world in under twelve hours.

    Unfortunately we can see how supersonic really isn't in demand; the Concorde never saw its fleet expand beyond its initial, tiny order, and when it was retired from age and design flaws rearing their ugly heads there was nothing to replace it. If anything would justify instant transportation it would be passengers, not cargo, and if there simply aren't enough passengers to keep a fleet of fourteen flying, then I don't see how Flynn's dreams were in any way close to reality.

  9. Bull on Microsoft Exec Opens Up About Research Lab Closure, Layoffs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He also stresses that Microsoft will continue to invest in and value "fundamental research".

    That's a load of bull. Just about every company that's had significant research institutions and has closed them down has suffered long-term from that choice. Xerox, Bell, IBM, and several others in telecom/computing alone have done this and suffered the consequences.

    Fundamental research is what drives long-term profit. Sure, it costs money. But it also produces patentable products that can revolutionize the market and allow the company to profit from patent licensing even when they aren't interested in the market that the patent would apply to. Get rid of the research and the company's products go stale over time, no new ideas, rehashing of existing ones to the point that someone with new innovation comes along and steals away all of the customers. Short-term it might make more profit, but long term it's like selling one's investments for cash.

    This is a terrible mistake for Microsoft.

  10. Free aggregation? A problem? on German Publishers Capitulate, Let Google Post News Snippets · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm trying to wrap my brain around how these news outlets thought it was bad for Google to send traffic their way. Seems like any news agency would want to be a high-placed hit on Google's, or anyone else's, news listing.

  11. Re:Security + Telnet on Cisco Fixes Three-Year-Old Telnet Flaw In Security Appliances · · Score: 1

    Depends on how the network is VLANned. I agree, it's not optimal for certain, but in cases where the management team for the devices have one VLAN for just themselves trunked to them, and where they use a common set of credentials to manage (ie, no TACACS/Radius) then it's not really any less secure.

    Admittedly if someone makes a mistake and puts the wrong user on that VLAN, or if they need to get to the devices from elsewhere then they may have to traverse the network before getting to that VLAN, so there are issues. I wouldn't use Telnet anymore either if it can be avoided.

  12. Re:Here you go: on Michigan Latest State To Ban Direct Tesla Sales · · Score: 1

    Sorry, forgot to add, I hate the looks of the Leaf. I'd be fine with an electric car that looks like a normal car, but I don't want a Prius or a Leaf or a Volt, I want something that looks normal.

    I've considered converting an old pickup with batteries under the bed, but lead-acid would be the most likely battery, and the truck still runs too well to do that to it right now.

  13. Re:Tesla wasn't the target, it was China on Michigan Latest State To Ban Direct Tesla Sales · · Score: 1

    I want 150 miles based on the size of the (sub)urban area in which I live. My commute is 20 miles round-trip. My wife's is 40 miles round-trip. I want to be able to at least reach downtown after work and back home again. It's also not uncommon to do things on the weekends that are much further away than work.

    I don't think that 150 miles is unreasonable. That's half of the range of a gasoline powered car on a single tank of fuel. I'd love it if a car could get a 300-mile range for $30,000, but I know we're not there yet.

  14. Re:Oh, things like our... on Deutsche Telecom Upgrades T-Mobile 2G Encryption In US · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately any large collection of people destroys the ability of a modern cell network to communicate with handsets. When I go to conventions I bring my 2m HT. Granted that means I'm limited to talking with other hams, but still better than absolutely nothing.

  15. Re:Tesla wasn't the target, it was China on Michigan Latest State To Ban Direct Tesla Sales · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's a lot more likely that foreign auto makers would use a dealer network than sell direct though, as there are more storage concerns with the importation of vehicles compared to when they're produced domestically, plus the nature of international trade might require an American holding company to do business more easily.

    I think this is more an auto-industry trying to screw with the very nature of the market itself with protectionist practices than it is anything else. American automakers have never happily sold non-petroleum-fuelled vehicles in any real quantity, and while Tesla's cars so far have been luxury, they're looking to ramp up economy of scale and pricing for mid-line products that could really threaten the status quo. Teslas might be more expensive to purchase initially, but their lower operating costs and lower maintenance costs make them attractive to those drivers that don't need to go more than a couple-hundred miles a day and plan to keep their cars for more than a few years.

    I can state, definitively, that if a $30,000 electric car with a 150 mile range on a single charge became a thing I'd have to consider it. That's plenty for commuting and errands for my household, and since we already have a four door sedan with low miles as the out-of-town trip car, we wouldn't need extended range on something in the city. Having relatively clean maintenance would also be a plus.

  16. Re:Just keep it off the servers.... on The Classic Control Panel In Windows May Be Gone · · Score: 1

    So why not make the GUI application run on the client workstation being used by an administrative-level account? After all, lots and lots of servers are VMs now, not OSes tied directly to real hardware.

  17. Re:Just keep it off the servers.... on The Classic Control Panel In Windows May Be Gone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why is there a resource-intensive GUI on a server anyway? Is the server supposed to be able to play Solitaire or World of Warcraft? Or is the server supposed to, oh, I donno, serve files and applications to client stations?

    That's one thing I never understood, why Microsoft went GUI with the servers like they did, other than to know that they sold a lot of server OSes to people that had no business running servers in the first place...

  18. Oh, things like our... on Deutsche Telecom Upgrades T-Mobile 2G Encryption In US · · Score: 1

    ...security system?
    ...server room HVAC system?
    ...Halon fire suppression system?


    Fairly low-tech, but rather important none the less, and monitored via cell network as a backup in case the WAN link goes down...

  19. Re:Just keep it off the servers.... on The Classic Control Panel In Windows May Be Gone · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Had to maintain a Windows newer Server system last weekend.... dealing with the Windows newer configuration interface on a server makes me very angry.

    Said every Windows admin, ever.

    Though all joking aside, changes should make the job easier, or more intuitive, or more cohesive. The change from the 3.1/NT3.5 interface to the Windows 95/NT4.0 interface was an improvement, but slowly fragmented as the GUI design kept changing over time (I dare not call it evolving!).

    It's already awkward enough having separate control panels, one for most functions, the other for "Administrative Tools - Computer Management". That needs to be addressed, along with reconciling between two separate GUIs.

  20. Re:More changes I don't want ... on Google Announces Inbox, a New Take On Email Organization · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One could thread messages before webmail if one's mail client had support for it. Hell, Usenet and Fidonet clients could thread messages, as could public message boards. That technology dates back to the dawn of the personal computer, and may well have existed on big-iron machines before that.

    That's kind of what pisses me off about modern "innovation", it's reimplementing something that already existed, much of the time, and trying to call it novel or new. There are very few legitimate new technologies these days.

    Even when they're going on about VPC and being able to spawn apps, that's just X Consortium all over again. From 1984.

  21. Re:All the movies had women in business on NPR: '80s Ads Are Responsible For the Lack of Women Coders · · Score: 1

    Don't forget the weird era between the invention of the personal computer and its modern ubiquitousness, where computers were not necessary for every day life, but were useful as communications devices for the lonely, introverted, inept, or ostracized. People that sought solitary habits got into computers, software development, and the like, and developed something of a counterculture of computers that drew in the computer professional to an extent, but also became easy to stereotype.

    While there have been ostracized or otherwise non-mainstream women in society, they did not seem to adopt computer culture, such as it was, during this period of growth. Maybe chauvanism from the men, maybe greater options for women socially, whatever the cause, women didn't end up in this line of work as much as men, and the culture that was constructed wasn't terribly woman-friendly.

    It takes a long time for a culture to change when it doesn't want to. If men don't want to see women in coding jobs, it's not difficult for men to make it less desirable or difficult for women without even having to break the law.

    What I find amusing is that computing is one of the few places where gender, race, age, and any other characteristics of the flesh aren't necessarily identifiable or even important for doing the work, yet it still has these problems. It's almost easier to integrate a construction site than it is an IT department.

  22. Re:Pros and Cons on Cell Transplant Allows Paralyzed Man To Walk · · Score: 1

    My father-in-law worked for Boston's sewer department until he was forced to retire at 70. Approaching 20 years later he's still going strong, and last year actually dug-down to find a sewer drain pipe breakage in his own yard, probably six feet down.

    I don't think that the man has had a sense of smell for close to 50 years, and it hasn't held him back.

  23. Re:Pros and Cons on Cell Transplant Allows Paralyzed Man To Walk · · Score: 1

    One can get used to smells a lot easier than one can get used to being bodily severely handicapped...

  24. Re:I'm still waiting... on Cell Transplant Allows Paralyzed Man To Walk · · Score: 2

    There have been several medical procedures that were piloted with embyronic stem cells first, then later they figured out how to do them with adult stem cells or other cells from the patient.

    The point wasn't to use embyronic stem cells for treatments, that leads to immune compromise and rejection. The point is that embryos that were unused from IVF procedures and slated for disposal were able to provide some benefit before destruction, in the form of research.

    Unless you're willing to volunteer your womb to implant these embryos then they never had a chance of becoming people anyway, and were one refrigeration accident away from being lost anyway.

  25. Re:USB Device Recommendation on Google Adds USB Security Keys To 2-Factor Authentication Options · · Score: 4, Funny

    So, what is a good USB device for this?

    Probably one whose controller firmware hasn't been compromised...