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User: TubeSteak

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  1. Encryption? on Eggcyte is Making a Pocket-Sized Personal Web Server (Video) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The Kickstarter page makes no mention of encryption between my device and the Egg.
    Nor anything about encrypted storage on the device itself.

    If your selling point is personal security, you should really be mentioning how your device is meaningfully secure.

  2. Re:Designed in US, Built in EU, Filled in Iraq on Pentagon Reportedly Hushed Up Chemical Weapons Finds In Iraq · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not clear if the contents of those weapons is still usable or whether ISIS has the technology to deploy them.

    From the NY Times

    All had been manufactured before 1991, participants said. Filthy, rusty or corroded, a large fraction of them could not be readily identified as chemical weapons at all. Some were empty, though many of them still contained potent mustard agent or residual sarin. Most could not have been used as designed, and when they ruptured dispersed the chemical agents over a limited area, according to those who collected the majority of them.

    They're still effective as IEDs and those require no special technology to set up and detonate.

  3. Re:Already gone on Technology Heats Up the Adultery Arms Race · · Score: 4, Informative

    In modern divorce law it doesn't matter. It gets split 50/50 unless there's a prenup.

    This is almost entirely wrong.

    There are two different philosophies you'll run into, depending on which State you're in.
    1. Equitable distribution - 40 States + Alaska + DC
    2. Community property - 9 States + Alaska + Puerto Rico

    Community property states presume a 50/50 ownership interest in marital assets (a lot of money gets spent on defining what is and isn't a marital asset), but judges can still base their distribution on what is fair (aka equitable).

    /Alaska's default is equitable distribution, but couples can sign a community property contract
    //I'm not a lawyer

  4. Over the phone? on Millions of Voiceprints Quietly Being Harvested · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Vanguard Group Inc, a Pennsylvania-based mutual fund manager, is among the technologyâ(TM)s many financial users. Tens of thousands of customers log in to their accounts by speaking the phrase: âoeAt Vanguard, my voice is my passwordâ into the phone.

    The problem with biometrics is that you can't ever replace them if they are stolen.

    So naturally they want to use a password that you have to announce publicly. :facepalm:

  5. Solyndra on Can the Sun Realistically Power Datacenters? · · Score: 1

    The second link brings up Solyndra and government loan guarantees.
    The author conveniently leaves out the fact that Solyndra's failure was a direct result of China dumping solar panels onto the market.

    The USA and China have been fighting a slow motion battle at the World Trade Organization over solar subsidies and tariffs.

    In 2012, the USA slapped billions in tariffs on Chinese products.
    In 2014, the WTO said that the USA overstepped with its tariffs.
    Then the Chinese appealed the WTO ruling even though it was in their favor.

    Solyndra's failure and the ensuing finger pointing led to $14+ billion in tariffs, over 2 years, on Chinese products.
    All because of a $535 million federal loan that didn't pay off.

  6. Re:Isn't this what Netflix OpenConnect is for? on Netflix Video Speed On FiOS Doubles After Netflix-Verizon Deal · · Score: 1

    Verizon has a competing (to some extent, anyway) video service.

    Verizon owned a majority stake in Redbox's online streaming, which just shut down.
    Verizon also announced plans to launch a new online video platform sometime next year.

  7. Re:I never get these kinds of stupidity on Too Much Privacy: Finnish Police Want Big Euro Notes Taken Out of Circulation · · Score: 1

    Organised crime fears cause ban on 500 euro note sales
      http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/8678886.stm
    13 May 2010

    Exchange offices in the UK have stopped selling 500 euro banknotes because of their use by money launderers.

    The Serious Organised Crime Agency says 90% of the notes sold in the UK are in the hands of organised crime.

    I can't really find a better article, but as I recall, the investigation showed that a relatively small number of financial organizations were ordering huge volumes of 500 euro notes, which were then never showed up for circulation in England.

  8. Re:A bit early on Who's In Charge During the Ebola Crisis? · · Score: 1

    TFA's commentary on patient zero being sent home with a bottle of antibiotics (for a virus, of course) was spot on though. That's what happens when you insist on running healthcare as a business.

    The suspicion is that either the ER Doctor(s?) ignored the nurse's notes,
    or the hospital's electronic health record (EHR) software didn't let the Doctor see the nurse's notes.
    http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2014/10/6/dallas-hospital-issues-correction-says-no-flaw-in-ehr-system

    I first heard about this from an ER doc who was explaining that pretty much every hospital updated their intake protocol overnight to ask about foreign travel and contact with individuals who have traveled.

  9. Re:No the constitution is fine.. on Who's In Charge During the Ebola Crisis? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My gut reaction is if citizens were to take personal responsibility
    and act on all the common influenza, food handling, common cold
    basic sanitation programs Ebola would vanish only to be found in
    footnotes referencing a small number of individuals and hospitals in
    the US.

    The USA is seeing a resurgence of formerly conquered diseases because of the anti-vaccination movement.
    Whooping cough, diphtheria, measles, mumps, and rubella are all making a comeback.

    Stopping Ebola in the USA is trivial compared to stopping the repeated outbreaks of diseases we already have vaccines for.

  10. Re:Climate change is degrading the military on Pentagon Unveils Plan For Military's Response To Climate Change · · Score: 2

    Here in the real world, the Secretary of Defense is proposing budget cuts.

    The DoD has two problems:
    1. The sequester
    2. Wildly over-budget acquisition programs for the F-35, the Littoral Combat Ship, IT efforts, and a bunch of other stuff

    There's also the issue of the Navy buying a large number of submarines it doesn't have the money to pay for, despite the submarines coming in under budget.

  11. Re: Thats Fair on Netflix To Charge More For 4K Video · · Score: 1

    You are Netflix Customer
    You are Verizon FIOS Customer
    You are already paying for their service (both sides).

    You are a potential customer for Verizon's (in-house) streaming offerings.
    Hence the conflict between Verizon and Netflix.

    Verizon owned 65% of the now-defunct Redbox Instant.
    Speculation is that the Redbox Instant team will be retasked to work on Verizon's new digital video service.

  12. Re:GMAIL SPAM is fairly accurate on Ask Slashdot: Why Can't Google Block Spam In Gmail? · · Score: 2

    But if you miss a critical email because Google accidentally thought something was spam when it wasn't, then Hello lawsuits.

    I'm betting you've never read the TOS of your e-mail provider.

    For Gmail, the short version is that that they make no commitments about anything, including reliability.

    When permitted by law, Google disclaims all warranties and liability for damages.
    To the extent permitted by law, Google limits its total liabilities to the amount you've paid them.
    Also, you agree that Santa Clara County, California is the controlling jurisdiction for any dispute.

    I'm not saying you can't sue Google over misdirected e-mails, just that it'll be a tough case to make and you'll have to rely on California or Federal laws.

  13. Re:Victim Blaming vs Common Sense on The Correct Response To Photo Hack Victim-Blamers · · Score: 1

    The law needs to track down that car if it is stolen but the person doing this is still an idiot.

    A basic primer on contributory and comparative negligence

    It's not exactly victim blaming if the victim could have acted in a more prudent manner.
    But in this case, a user of online storage isn't being negligent in assuming their backed up files are secure.

    The next time, I wouldn't have a problem blaming the victims, as now everyone should know their nudes can get hacked.

  14. Re:hubris on Texas Health Worker Tests Positive For Ebola · · Score: 1

    We have the same in Europe. At least one health care worker here has been infected and will probably die because someone thought it's smart to bring people infected with a 90% lethality virus home for treatment. Good job.

    From March till now, the mortality rate for ebola infected Government and NGO workers has been around 55%.

    It's higher for the the rest of the infected, as they usually have preexisting medical problems which renders them less able to fight the virus.

  15. Re:Protocols on Texas Health Worker Tests Positive For Ebola · · Score: 1

    There was a piece on NPR a few days ago that said that the Doctors Without Borders people use a buddy system like this - and despite having hundreds of people on the ground in Africa for a month or more, have only had three staff infections.

    I heard that too, so I went looking for more information.

    October 04, 2014: Since March 2014, 16 MSF staff members contracted the virus; nine of them have died.

    The "three" that NPR reported is probably Doctors Without Borders international staff, with the other infections being local staff.

  16. Re:Translation... on Experts Decry Randomized Ebola Treatment Trials As Unethical, Impractical · · Score: 1

    Conveniently these "alternative trial designs" are not detailed in any way. Doing something different for the sake of doing something different is rarely a good idea.

    The alternative I've repeatedly seen mentioned is the stepped wedge trial.

    Basically, you take your sample, create subgroups of random patients, then give the treatment to one group at a time.

    This allows you to use the upcoming subgroups as controls, while avoiding the ethical problems of denying people treatment.

    The ethics are something reasonable people can and do disagree about. The problem in this particular situation is that you're trying to run a clinical trial during an active pandemic against a disease with a high mortality rate. And, IMHO, those facts tip the ethical scales quiet heavily in favor of giving everyone experimental drugs that aren't known to be actively harmful.

  17. Re:Snowden on Core Secrets: NSA Saboteurs In China and Germany · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Am I the only one that is still wondering why these "snowden leaks" are still coming out in the way that they are?

    Yes.

    The rest of us remember the wikileaks document dump and how important stories got did not get appropriate attention because of the sheer volume that was getting reported at once.

    Another (perhaps unintended) aspect of the continuous reporting is that almost every time a denial is issued, the NSA is subsequently revealed as lying to the public and Congress.

  18. Re:Alternative headline on BitHammer, the BitTorrent Banhammer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He can't get the access he wants, so he just pushes his way in and takes it.

    As opposed to the bittorrent user(s) who are pushing everyone else out of the way and preventing their access?

    Assuming that both parties are wrong does not logically lead to the conclusion that their wrong acts are equivalent.
    I'm on the side of preserving the common good, not protecting the random data hog.

  19. Re:Sociopath Ruins Lives, Film at 11 on Why the Trolls Will Always Win · · Score: 5, Informative

    What I Learned from My Time in Prison
    Andrew Auernheimer

    I have some new tattoos that mark the wisdom I gained from my time in prison, which happens to be the same as the wisdom of my ancestors. [...] My first tattoo is a 4.5 inch swastika on my chest featuring Odinn, Baldr, Freyr, and Ãzor. My second is a Jormungandr-wrapped Ãzorshamar flanked by Huginn and Muninn on my forearm.

    There's also some comprehensive antisemitism in that article.
    http://www.dailystormer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/weev.jpg
    This is not the hero you are looking for.

  20. Re:VPS on Ask Slashdot: An Accurate Broadband Speed Test? · · Score: 5, Informative

    Rent or trial a VPS. You can get them for literally a few pounds/dollars per month.

    The old timey way of doing speed tests is to hit up FTPs and see what your max sustained speed is.

  21. Re:It's not technology that's the problem on Outsourced Tech Jobs Are Increasingly Being Automated · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Technology didn't cause the purchasing power of a dollar to collapse nearly 66% over the last 34 years. Federal reserve and congressional policy are the direct culprits. You don't have to be "anti-government" to pin much of this squarely on the federal government and Federal Reserve.

    Between inflationary policies and allowing nearly unrestricted (even incentivizing by tax law) exploitation of arbitrage, we've see various government policies annihilate all of the savings and benies that technology would have brought to our economy.

    I don't follow.
    As in, your conclusion doesn't naturally follow from the facts presented.

    I'd suggest you look up the stats on worker productivity.
    You'll discover that there have been enormous benefits from technology,
    but all of those benefits (profits) have accrued to the executives and shareholders,
    instead of being distributed in anything resembling an equitable fashion.

    Productivity has massively improved over the decades, employment has declined, and profits are up.
    This is true in agriculture, manufacturing, and white collar jobs.

  22. Re:Don't beg the question on Ebola Vaccine Trials Forcing Tough Choices · · Score: 1

    we don't know yet if the experimental vaccine is effective

    Effective?
    We don't even know yet if it's safe for a large population.

  23. Re:Color Me Surprised on US Says It Can Hack Foreign Servers Without Warrants · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Of course, this is all ignoring the fact that US is a democracy. You don't need a revolution to change the people in charge, you simply need to express support for someone else, and anonymously at that. So if the rulers approve of bullshit like this, and still get re-elected, then don't blame the Government, blame the citizens.

    I think you underestimate the power of political gerrymandering .
    It's one of several reasons that change is very hard to come by in the USA's political process.

    There's also the separate issue of our De Facto dual party system which has gone to great lengths to create roadblocks for alternative political parties.

    TLDR: The two parties have rigged the electoral process in their favor, damaging the democratic part of our democratic republic.

  24. Re:Don't even think it on Fuel Efficiency Numbers Overstate MPG More For Cars With Small Engines · · Score: 1

    For most cars, fuel economy declines as speeds climb past 55-60mph (wind resistance being non-linear).

    The truth is, it doesn't take much horsepower to maintain highway speeds.

    With the current/coming flood of 7/8/9/10 speed transmissions, we can optimize the final gear or two for highway cruising speeds without compromising acceleration at lower speed.

    If you want to get technical, here's a calculator that you can use if you know lots of details about your particular vehicle.
    Even an F-150, which has about the same aerodynamics as a brick, only needs 80~90 hp to maintain 75 mph.
    That's trivially available at super low rpms, it's just a matter of gearing down far enough to get there.

  25. Re:Mod parent up. on Belkin Router Owners Suffering Massive Outages · · Score: 1

    The issue, specifically, is that it breaks DNS if it can't get it's heartbeat. It's still stupid but the device continues to be a router.

    Why would switching over to Google's DNS fix this?