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User: rtb61

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  1. Re:The REAL value of the transit system on Cracking Atlanta Subway's Poorly-Encrypted RFID Smart Cards Is a Breeze, Part II · · Score: 1

    The problem with funding mass transit is that it must be designed for peak flows ie have sufficient capacity to fulfil demand during morning and afternoon rush hour. Outside of rush hour this capacity whilst still available is largely idle and thus losses money even though during peak transit times it generates a profit. So either adjust work start and finish to distribute demand and make public transit more profitable or just learn to suck it up when in a traffic jam as that will be the norm without public transit freeing up roads during peak hour, each passenger is one less car on the road and that is what you are paying for.

  2. Re:The REAL value of the transit system on Cracking Atlanta Subway's Poorly-Encrypted RFID Smart Cards Is a Breeze, Part II · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Keep this in mind before going off on a public transit rant and why should your taxes pay for it when you drive. The more people on that public transit then the less people on the road with you in private vehicles and the less crowded your drive. So your paying public transport taxes to have better access to your roads.

  3. Re:What logic! on Norway Scraps Online Voting · · Score: 1

    You can choose to abridge your responsibility and pay the fine, it would be a token fine just slightly more annoying than making the effort to vote.

  4. Re:Be polite on What To Do If Police Try To Search Your Phone Without a Warrant · · Score: 2

    What needs to happen is US police need to be shifted from local funding to state based funding and control only. This means local cities and communities side with the citizen against state police in the recovery of damages, which means the city doesn't fine itself when it investigates and pursues police corruption but stick the bill to the state. This also provides uniform training across the state, breaks up corrupt reinforced collusion via transfers across the state, which also allows the transfer in of investigatory officers. It also makes far better use of special investigatory resources and cuts down administration of police from hundreds of bodies with those associated costs to one body.

  5. Re:What logic! on Norway Scraps Online Voting · · Score: 1

    If it all is about voter turnout then simply make voting compulsory. This has two advantages, it force the government to ensure voting is fully accessible so that they can send out the fines for failure to do so and secondly in terms of a sound society it reinforces the importance of voting, not a right but the core responsibility of any citizen of a democracy, do not vote and you deserve to pay a fine.

  6. Re:The Golden Age of Spying on Saudi Government Targeting Dissidents With Mobile Malware · · Score: 2

    Saudi Mobile Malware, the thing that immediately pops to mind is not electronics but the very mobile terrorist funding cheque books. I know they own large chunks of the US political scene but how the fuck do they continue to get away with funding terrorism on a global scale via their Wahhabist indoctrination centres. There was that whole threat by Russia to directly retaliate against Saudi Arabia if there were any Islamist attacks on the Sochi Olympics and well, they were pretty much trouble free. So why is the US continuing to allow it to happen do a search of 15 of 19 and well the answer really does beg the question of why was nothing done.

  7. Re:Probably not on Why The Korean Government Could Go Open Source By 2020 · · Score: 1

    No bloody way, Samsung, LG and Android say so. Android has been the spear to finally kill the beast of Redmond dominance of the desktop. Many tech companies in Korea will not want the government to subsidise M$ at their triple expense ie paying for it to happen in training at schools and then paying again to retrain those students and paying yet again with regard to all of their interactions with government.

    LG and Samsung are both big on Linux which of course underlies Android and they will want to extend that growth well beyond smart phones and smart TVs.

  8. Re:Watch out, communists on Australian Government Seeks To Boost Spy Agencies' Powers · · Score: 1

    The intent of the right wingers is pretty bloody obvious, They want to pull the teeth of Australian courts who routinely kick ASIOs arse for misbehaving. Everything to do with security risks but not in the way they claim, the security is right wing governments attempting to implement autocratic control. One wonders what ASIO has actually been able to do other than burn up hundreds of millions of dollar, demonstrate a palpable right wing political bias and be the obedient puppets of the CIA and SIS/MI6. The current Luddite Exploiters (let's not call them Liberal Conservatives as it is a lie not to mention being an oxymoron, rather an apt word for the current Australian government, well, at least part of it) government is just proving to be worse and worse and worse by the day.

  9. Re:Not in USA on Supreme Court Rules Cell Phones Can't Be Searched Without a Warrant · · Score: 0

    Of course due to the NSA full frontal perversion exposure, they thought, nudge nudge, wink wink, it might be useful for some pet court to help rebuild the illusion of privacy and security without a search warrant, so the NSA could go back to it's happy perverted privacy invasive ways before people started deleting private information from mobile phones. Private data really doesn't belong on a mobile phone. Encryption is a waste of time on a mobile because once they own your touch screen OS every tap can be recorded and forwarded. Yep, the NSA would certainly love the idea that everyone would believe their mobile phone is totally 100% secure.

  10. Re:Only if... on Ask Slashdot: What Would It Take For You To Buy a Smartwatch? · · Score: 1

    I would rather have a bluetooth stylus with speaker and mic that recharges in its parking slot between uses. It would enable you to use your phone more effectively whilst making a call. A stylus is really much better than you finger for making inputs on a smart phone, you only have a relatively thin 'pen' obscuring you screen, something you are used to when writing on paper, rather than your whole hand. It could pop up and illuminate in various colours for various notifications. Add in flash ram and you could transfer bulk data much more quickly from one phone to another, say a large home movie in seconds. So smart stylus far more useful than smart watch. So new shape required for stylus, cylindrical at one end for comfortable holding and battery and flattened at the other end for say micro USB connection and flash ram and blue tooth circuitry.

  11. Re:Your taxes at work on A Physicist Says He Can Tornado-Proof the Midwest With 1,000-Foot Walls · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I always thought the best method was to create inverted solar heated funnels with built in wind turbines at ground level and at the outlet, to basically create safety valves to enable hot air at ground level to continually vent to upper atmosphere and as a bonus provide energy to pay for the system. This to prevent the destructive funnel that would otherwise occur. You would need to space them so as to substantially reduce the risk of the natural funnel forming. You could also use them as communication towers, wireless and microwave broadband and mobile phones. As an additional bonus dependent upon region they can also collect water via direct rainfall as well as condensation.

    So rather than just attempting to solve one problem badly. A little out of the box thinking and funnel, 'heh' 'heh', many problems into one solution and achieve a far higher level of cost efficiency.

  12. Re:Well, this won't backfire! on Wikipedia Editors Hit With $10 Million Defamation Suit · · Score: 1

    Canada follows UK defamation/libel laws http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.... Make a statement of fact and you have to be able to prove it in a civil court, give an opinion no matter how damaging or false and freedom of speech applies, you are legally entitled to give your opinion but not entitled to make a false statement of fact. Basically it means if you couch you language or include a clarifier that regardless of expression or wording used, all information remains the opinion of the authors and not to be construed as statements of facts, you are provided an out. Note as has to be covered before evidence for a civil suit is a whole lot simpler than evidence for a criminal case. Hence whilst the evidence provided for a criminal case might be insufficient to successfully prosecute it could still be more than sufficient to prove or defend a civil case.

    You can of course still smoother a very public case in hard copy evidence, unbound and poorly sorted, full context and not selective, thousands upon thousands of pages and thus bog down the civil suit, for years and years, until they get sick of spending money whilst earning bad publicity and give up.

  13. Re:Well, this won't backfire! on Wikipedia Editors Hit With $10 Million Defamation Suit · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It is not whether or not he has a crooked dogs hind leg to stand on, it is whether or not he can conspire via his lawyers to intimidate those person with the threat of court costs.

    Catch is those people will be able to call on the public for assistance in the gathering of evidence to substantiate their claims, hugely reducing their costs. Where as he will have to pay his lawyers to contest that evidence, in this case the more evidence the merrier. All none digitised, all hard copy, page after page, volume after volume, the more evidence his lawyers have to review the more his costs blow out. His intent is clearly to threaten all Wikipedia contributors with threats of civil suits by the wealthy. The most effective counter is tens of thousands of pages of evidence with his lawyers being paid to review and challenge every page at say something in the vicinity of $100 per page.

  14. Re: our Universe shouldn't exist. on The Higgs Boson Should Have Crushed the Universe · · Score: 1

    More logically with time just being a relative measure of change and that relative change itself being significant to itself the amount of time it takes is arbitrary. So relative motion with the sub dimensions of rest, constant speed and acceleration from and deceleration to rest, rather than completely arbitrary time which itself is only ever measured against change, is the more logical.

  15. Re:records go back to 1880, very funny on NOAA: Earth Smashed A Record For Heat In May 2014, Effects To Worsen · · Score: 1

    What is inevitable is psychopathic insatiable greed but that doesn't mean you let them do what they want, you just get rid of them and their inevitable greed is avoided. Just as you don't try to hold back the flooding you seek to prevent it occurring in the first place.

  16. Re:Best Lawsuit Ever. on Venture-Backed Bitcoin Miner Startup Can't Deliver On Time, Gets Sued · · Score: 1

    Especially as each and every bitcoin mining machines worsens the odds for all existing bitcoin mining machines and for the next machines to be produced, so rapidly diminishing results. Now that further complicates matters as you could incorporate all potential computer processing power of the entire globe into the bitcoin mining calculations and the huge alteration of odds. So damages can only be the value of the machine and the extra electricity used which in turn would be subject to ambient environmental temperatures. Ahh, the bitcoin pyramid ponzi scheme where late comers basically pay for the profits of the early birds or is that vultures (the latecomers efforts creating the illusion worth by the capital and work they put in).

  17. Re:Same tracking expenses either way on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Ensure Creative Commons Compliance At Your Company? · · Score: 1

    So how many years old? 70 years after the creators death, now that is a lot of tracking especially when it comes to photos and trying to establish proof of who actually took the image and keeping a record of the contractual conditions and the payment. Obviously some rework of copyright has to occur, especially when they are trying to push the idea of a similar idea and patented methods of creating an image. Lawyers have been very hard at work for decades ensuring they will have lots and lots of work.

  18. Re:First post on China Starts Outsourcing From ... the US · · Score: 1

    Actually, it is the perfect way to insert espionage agents from China into the US as well as establishing control over elements of the US government. China has paid attention to the machinations of Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UK and ever so quietly Japan. It also establishes the basis for more leverage able connections with lobbyists. Russia needs to pay attention and start doing the same thing, hmm, perhaps with aero-space technology for example like space launch engines or far more cost effective and reliable jets.

  19. Re:Oh well, Jeff on FAA Bans Delivering Packages With Drones · · Score: 1

    How about, high speed fibre to the home broadband and 3d printers with bulk media deliveries.

  20. Re:Awesome! on Federal Judge Rules US No-fly List Violates Constitution · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Technically speaking, the game they were playing was not putting people on the nofly list but putting people's names on the no fly list. So it was not a particular individual that was banned from flying but a particular name that was banned from flying and if you happened to share that name you were also banned. So it makes that list a legal loop hole because no particular individual was banned but also far worse because many people were banned for no legal reason at all. Remember this no biometric data that is usually and normally used to identify people was ever used, no finger prints, no DNA and no photo. So it was all theatre and punitive punishment targeting particular individuals for largely political reasons and designed to be ramped up over time to create non-citizens or citizens without rights, basically all those persons considered to be enemies of the 1% as substantiated by it costing a lot of money to get your name off the list.

  21. Re:work life balance is a myth on Workaholism In America Is Hurting the Economy · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Oh yes, production line workers love being on a production line, road side cleaners love cleaning roads, soldiers love being shot at, food services people love serving serving cranky customers etc etc etc. Seriously and I mean it FUCK OFF. Only the very luckiest few manage to get away with jobs they love, many more than them end up doing jobs they hate while desperately trying to get a job they love ie waitresses and the movie industry and far more than that end up doing jobs that straight up suck but they need to get done.

  22. Re:records go back to 1880, very funny on NOAA: Earth Smashed A Record For Heat In May 2014, Effects To Worsen · · Score: 1

    Regardless of the cause, the way we build our numerous coastal cities, our ports, our coastal airports, our coastal power stations etc. Means our society can not tolerate any substantial changes in sea level and must take equal substantial steps to stabilise global climate otherwise we risk societal collapse in the event of major climate change. So temperatures are rising we must take what ever steps are required to reduce that, so white roofs, white roads, less CO2, less methane etc. One of the technological advances of mankind should be steps to control and moderate weather, potentially high risk but the payout is the elimination of weather extremes.

  23. Re:records go back to 1880, very funny on NOAA: Earth Smashed A Record For Heat In May 2014, Effects To Worsen · · Score: 1

    It kinda is when it involves the whole globe rather than a particular region (they even showed the colder than average bits). Look at the end of the day, you know you are lying, I know that you are lying, you now know that I know you are lying and all I will do it point you to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?..., hope it works out for yah. In fact all everyone should do when caught up arguing with a climate change denialist is show them that video and walk away laughing.

  24. Re:Nothing But Trash Pics on World's First Large-Scale Waste-to-Biofuels Facility Opens In Canada · · Score: 1

    By that they mean by a guided tour, what ever a private for profit corporation will willingly release with regards to operations, associated trade secrets and anything the public might perceive as being risky. Note this is a for profit exercise so will problems arise, certainly, that short cuts will be taken to maximise profits is inevitable with corporations the only regard to consequences being. Can management disappear with the bonuses prior to getting caught? Will the penalties be less than the fines? Can lobbyists make adjustments to regulations?

    Still worthwhile doing but probably being privatised will be a long term mistake, there are simply so many things you can no longer trust private for profit corporations with and the larger the corporation the worse it is. No matter how well run today, some douche psychopathy will pop up backed by a multinational finance corporation and buy the company based upon increasing profits by taking basically criminal short cuts with safety, staff conditions, maintenance and secretly dumping toxic wastes. Not maybe, not if but when.

  25. Re:I don't understand how this is a "record" on Fabien Cousteau Takes Plunge To Beat Grandfather's Underwater Record · · Score: 1

    By the way so Richard Presely 69 days http://news.google.com/newspap... . Now that was an unusual place to pick up some information.

    No as for why the lame arsed news story, I guess too many people are being killed in the Ukraine, Syria, Palestine, Iraq at the moment and US media looking for any kind of yarn to bury those stories. All largely the US's fault employing quick dirty solutions that fail (resulting in more quick dirty solutions that also fail) when meddling in other countries.