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User: crymeph0

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  1. Re:Thats up to FaceBook on DoJ: Law Enforcement Can Impersonate People On Facebook · · Score: 1

    Yes, just because they can get a judge to say it's not illegal "because it's the government doing it because drugs and terrorists", doesn't mean that Facebook actually has to allow them to violate the terms of service. I don't have a FB account, but if I did, I would be spamming https://www.facebook.com/DOJ with questions about this while reporting them to the admins for abuse.

  2. Re:No matter where it is ... on Murder Suspect Asked Siri Where To Hide a Dead Body · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wow. According to that story, the prosecutor did show a screengrab of an iPhone Siri query for this, but it was actually taken from the Facebook cache on the defendant's phone, meaning it was just a funny picture making the rounds on Facebook. I can't imagine why the judge let him show that, since it proves absolutely nothing, but it is a hell of a way to prejudice the jury against the defendant.

  3. Re:A couple things about TFA on Hearing Shows How 'Military-Style' Raid On Calif. Power Station Spooks U.S. · · Score: 1

    A note about the video at http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23388359/san-jose-sheriffs-office-release-video-attack-pg (linked in TFA) for those of you using Firefox with NoScript on Windows: I had to allow mercurynews.com and brightcove.com.

  4. Re:Maybe because the Guardian has surprisingly lit on Academics Should Not Remain Silent On Government Hacking · · Score: 4, Informative

    This NSA document published at the NYT states explicitly that the NSA is attempting to "Influence policies, standards and specifications" for public key encryption, and given that the project described in that same document is about expanding the NSA's access to data, rather than increasing the security of that data, this proves that the NSA is working to weaken, not enhance, public key crypto. That NSA document doesn't specifically mention DUAL EC DRBG, but this NYT story does say that the Snowden documents somewhere list DUAL EC DRBG as one backdoored technology.

    Of course DUAL EC DRBG is only one algorithm. How many other algorithms has NSA contributed to? At this point, they're all suspect, because it's obvious now that the NSA is more worried about decrypting communications it intercepts rather than protecting any communications transmitted. So what academics should be doing is independently vetting all widely used encryption technology, starting with anything the NSA is known to be involved with, even peripherally. That is a tall order, and it used to be tin-foil-hat thinking, but like a police officer caught lying under oath causing decades worth of court cases to be thoroughly redone or thrown out, there is no alternative if we want to be sure that nothing else got through.

  5. Re:Hopefully on Chrome Will End XP Support in 2015; Firefox Has No Plans To Stop · · Score: 1

    That's what I came to say. A massively vulnerable installed base of computers is a self-solving problem, once the computers get so slow and unusable that their owners just give up. Sure, some of them will pirate XP or miraculously recover their decade-old installation media to wipe their computer and start fresh, but once it gets to the point where you can't even put XP on the internet without it getting trashed within minutes, even those die-hard fans will be forced to see the writing on the wall.

  6. Re:Phone alerts on Pre-Dawn Wireless Emergency Alert Wakes Up NYC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Have you heard one of those things go off? On my phone, it's an awful klaxon sound that seems psychologically designed to maximally distract you from whatever unimportant thing you were doing, like steering a 100-ton crane, and focus on the flood warning two counties over, which is clearly more important. These alerts are good in theory, but there's a real boy-who-cried-wolf problem with the current implementation.

  7. Tahir's blog is currently 500 on NSA Recruitment Drive Goes Horribly Wrong · · Score: 1

    I wonder if it's the /. effect, or if that's just what we're supposed to think. Not bothering to post anonymous because they'd find me anyway. =), I mean =| <SIGNAL HIJACKED> I mean =)) I'm so happy to be protected by your watchful eyes, NSA!

  8. Re:Robotics on Ask Slashdot: How Can I Make a Computer Science Club Interesting? · · Score: 2

    That's what I would recommend as well. I work in industrial automation, building tooling for the kind of robots that build cars, and for me, it is really cool to see something physically move based on your programming. With a serial port or other kind of connection (maybe some sort of wireless) between the moving thing and your PC, you can also create stuff that's fairly advanced, e.g. a command program on the PC that uses voice synthesis to warn a student to leave the area before sending the robot to "attack" them, or something similarly interactive.

  9. Re:Really? on 30 Days Is Too Long: Animated Rant About Windows 8 · · Score: 1

    What about the start search field? Does it replace that? Can I just push the windows key, start typing a couple of characters, and launch my app if it's not in the folder?

    Actually, yes. I just tried it now, I hit the Start key, and, yes the stupid Start Screen came up, but just start typing and it automatically searches, just like the Windows 7 Start Menu search. I entered "calc", calculator came up, I pressed enter, and it didn't even come up with a stupid Metro version of calculator, it brought me back to the desktop and launched the regular calculator program. I do think the forced mode switching between a tablet-style interface and a "normal" PC desktop is weird and kludgy. Metro apps should really just run in a window on Windows 8, even if that window is forced to maintain a constant aspect ratio to match the tablet experience. You could even still allow the user to maximize Metro apps to their full-screen "glory," if they wished to do so. But I can see they're trying for a unified experience across PCs and tablets, they just got off on a wrong foot. Hopefully Windows 9 will apply some lessons learned.

  10. Re:A good reason to go independent on Is Your Neighbor a Democrat? There's an App For That · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The organizer of Chick-Fil-A appreciation day, Mike Huckabee, is a former, not current governor. I'm not sure if any active governors endorsed Chick-Fil-A appreciation day. But I'm not aware that any politicians expressing support for Chick-Fil-A were implying that they would spend government resources supporting Chick-Fil-A, e.g. by catering their department lunches exclusively from Chick-Fil-A. Several of the mayors who have spoken out against Chick-Fil-A, however, at least strongly implied, if not directly threatened, to use government resources to punish Chick-Fil-A for its president's personal opinion, by denying permits for new store locations, etc. Those opposed to the views of Chick-Fil-A's president have every right to protest and boycott, and the mayors would have been well within their authority to denounce the views of Mr. Cathy, including endorsing boycotts by private citizens, but using tools of government to punish individuals or corporations is not acceptable or legal. For what it's worth, I voted against a recent constitutional amendment in North Carolina that prohibits gay marriage, and disagree very strongly with Mr. Cathy's apocalyptic viewpoint on the issue, but I am even more firmly opposed to the government rewarding or punishing points of view.

  11. Virgin Galactic Vs. SpaceX on Virgin Galactic's Suborbital Spacecraft Gets FAA Blessing · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When Rutan won the X-Prize in 2004, I was seriously excited. It seemed like commercial suborbital joyrides for anyone with money to burn were happening right then. 8 years later, still no commercial flights. What happened? SpaceX went from first launch in 2006 to ISS in 2012. I know, manned flights require more rigorous design, but SpaceX has been designing for human flight all along, and Musk is in serious contention to get crew flights to ISS by 2015 or 2016. At this rate, we may be able to buy orbital joyrides before suborbital ones. I know Burt Rutan and crew have the engineering skill to get this thing done, what's been holding them back?

  12. Re:OK, but.... on Exercise and Caffeine May Activate Metabolic Genes · · Score: 2

    Drink lots of coffee before hopping on the treadmill and you'll wake up with super strength and the ability to climb walls. Make it a double espresso and you can also shoot sticky goo from your wrists.

  13. Re:What you can do on Ask Slashdot: What Can You Do About SOPA and PIPA? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Thanks, troll. I actually had the opposite problem - I was wondering if they chickened out on the blackout. I guess they figure anyone savvy enough to use NoScript is already aware of these bills.

  14. Re:Just like evil hyperlinks on Malicious QR Code Use On the Rise · · Score: 1

    Absolutely, this is no different than before - if you see a URL spray-painted on the side of a building, would you type it in without up-to-date antivirus?

  15. Re:A classic example... on PR Firm Unwisely Tangles With Penny Arcade · · Score: 1

    That's what I'm thinking - drugs or some sort of psychological issue that recently popped up (I'm assuming that a consistent pattern of similar behavior over any reasonably long period of time will result in that person being removed from the marketing profession).

    Kotaku has pretty good evidence that someone with the same email address as this guy openly talked about using steroids on a web forum, so that may be the explanation.

  16. I Hate to Threadjack, But... on Are You Better At Math Than a 4th (or 10th) Grader? · · Score: 3, Informative

    The school board member took a test for tenth graders. The sample questions are for fourth and eighth graders. The impression given by submitter and editor is not supported by the evidence presented.

  17. Fail on Google Kills Desktop Search and Gadgets · · Score: 1

    I use Google desktop search every day, and I hope they reconsider.

  18. Re:who cares on Steve Jobs Health Worries Escalate · · Score: 1

    I didn't say the market as a whole was behaving irrationally regarding Steve Jobs' health, only that the people who insist they need to know his private health details to properly value the company are. But, you know, you called me dumb, so I guess that makes you right.

  19. Re:who cares on Steve Jobs Health Worries Escalate · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Even a healthy Steve Jobs could get hit by a bus tomorrow. If you find yourself needing to know the health details of a particular individual before buying a stock, you shouldn't be looking at that stock in the first place. It is not healthy for a company as large as Apple to be dependent on a single man. Mind you, I bet Apple has plenty of excellent designers, and will actually survive the eventual demise of Steve Jobs, whether it's tonight or 1000 years from now, but the reality distortion field around Jobs seems to make otherwise reasonable people forget very basic rules of investing and value.

  20. Re:Medium is appropriate... on Android Text Messages Intermittently Going Astray · · Score: 1

    Performance: is in regards to phone performance and responsiveness (raw speed), not user-related effectiveness.

    I call troll, but I can't help feeding you. If a bug made the phone into a brick that did nothing but execute nop instructions at 1 Ghz when idle, and just flashed random lights when a button was pressed, your definition would not classify this a performance bug.

  21. Re:Fireworks! on Indian Launch Vehicle Explodes After Lift-Off · · Score: 4, Insightful

    First rule of spaceflight #9: Most of your early attempts end in tears. I hope to see India's space program try, try again until they get it right, and not let the inevitable early failures dampen their spirit. With the United States government bound and determined to cede our #1 status as a spacefaring nation (unless Elon Musk already has designs for a rocket capable of taking us beyond the moon), I can only hope another democracy like India, and not a fascist regime like China, takes the lead.

  22. Re:Wha? on Copyright As Weapon In US Senate Campaign · · Score: 3, Interesting

    By the time I read this news item, the site Reid posted, www.therealsharronangle.com, was redirected to a site that is clearly mocking Angle. However, if I understand correctly, Reid's campaign originally reposted her entire website verbatim, with no indication that it was not being hosted by Angle's campaign.

    If so, Angle's complaint may not be without merit. She seems to deserve a lot of mockery, but you don't get to pretend you're someone else in a political campaign, especially when you have a functioning mailing list sign-up form on your 'fake' site.

  23. Re:hmmm on Twitter API ToS To Force Routing Clicks To Twitter · · Score: 1

    Nevermind what the extra load will do to their already-fragile servers. The stupid whale is the only thing I've seen for two days now.

  24. Re:And how would you do that? on BP Prepares Complex "Top Kill" Bid To Plug Well · · Score: 5, Informative

    So what do you do? Pretty much what they did - cotinue and hope for the best.

    Wrong. You stop drilling and eat the $10 million you've dropped on the well so far. If that's not acceptable to you, don't drill off my damn coast.

  25. Re:Obviously this is... on Office Guardian Angel Worse Than Clippy · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't think Microsoft goes so far with its April Fool's jokes as to file an actual patent application.