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  1. Mail^h^h^h^hFedEx fraud? on P-P-P-PowerBook for a S-S-S-Scammer... · · Score: 1

    Do the mail fraud laws apply to FedEx and other non-USPS carriers? I thought, by definition, only the USPS could be used for delivering mail. FedEx and UPS are not allowed to carrier common postal correspondance, only parcels and time sensative documents.

  2. Re:Great... on The Security Risk of Keyboard Clicks · · Score: 1

    A lot of ATM's I've used lately have headphone jacks for use by the blind. I was curious, so I plugged in one day to hear some very nice naration telling me which key to press for withdrawls, transfers, etc. A simillar system could work for the randomized keyboard. Either the ATM reads out the order of the keys, or it detects that a headphone has been plugged in and unscrambles the keys to their normal configuration, essentially opting the sight impared user out of the extra security. Really, there could just be a button to opt out for anyone.

  3. Re:Styx Question on What Happens To Your Data When You Die? · · Score: 1

    No coin, but it does travel to the afterlife on a token ring network.

  4. Re:Actually, they do. on Video Games - Lost in Translation? · · Score: 1

    Strict kosher diets forbid the mixing of beef and dairy in the same meal. Some families even have separate dishes and utensils for preparing meat and dairy.

    lo' te-bassel gdi ba-haleb 'immo
    ("Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk." -- Ex. 23:19, Ex. 34:26, Deut. 14:21)

  5. Re:Bic Cars on Technology Makes New Cars Too Expensive to Fix · · Score: 1

    I drive an 89 Volvo 745 Turbo.. I paid $1500 for it 2 years ago. It has over a quarter of a million miles on it. I have put another $1000 into the car fixing little things here and there (engine wiring harness started acting up after 15 years in a turbo engine compartment.. not bad!), and in routine stuff like oil changes, filters, some new hoses. $104.17/month. I only carry liability and uninsured motorist coverage on it. My taxes and car tag run me $35/year + $25/year emissions test here in Atlanta.

    My wife drives the "new" car in the family. It's a 98 Corolla, that she's had since new. She has recently realized how much the car's value has depreciated(While my 89 is still pretty much worth the $1500 I paid for it). It is now old enough that it also has to be tested for emissions anually, and the tag and taxes run about $175. We keep full coverage on it for piece of mind if nothing else. She also used to think it was horrible that I had to buy a $150 air mass meter for my Volvo, followed by the engine harness the next month ($350). Then she took her car in for the 60k mile service and got hit with over $900 of services (timing belt, leaking oil pan gasket, transmission service and filter, etc.). She's now thinking that I might look for a slightly newer, old Volvo for her.

  6. Re:Support your classic car restorer on Technology Makes New Cars Too Expensive to Fix · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Another point in keeping the exising car on the road is simply to keep it out of the junk yard. Most junk yards are nasty places, with old batteries, old gas tanks rusting out, old tires slowly dry rotting.

    Old cars are usually made of some heavy duty metal that will rust away for years. The bodies are filled with lead instead of plastic body fillers (Bondo). A patient owner who takes care of an old car and keeps it out of these yards is doing the environment a favor. Old car owners are also excelent recyclers! A lot of parts aren't made any more, and they are the ones hitting these junk yards, reusing these old parts. If a modern car was too complicated to keep on the road in the first place, how many people will be disasembling them for parts 10, 20, or 30 years down the line?

    As for gas efficiency, my 1965 Volvo 1800S gets in the high 20's MPG, even in the city, with a pair of SU carbs. No computer to be found anywhere on that car. I could probably rejet the carbs to get in the low 30's, but I'm not sure of the powerband compromises that would cause.

  7. Re:Um, just use the 'generic' one... on Amazon Search Bar Will Track Your Browsing · · Score: 1

    Ohh no! Not a targeted ad! Let's see.. I live in an apartment, and people keep sending me postcards and flyers for great mortgage deals.. HOW DARE THEY TARGET ME!
    Radio Shack used to send my flyers when I bought stuff there and gave them my phone number. HOW DARE THEY PRESUME I MIGHT WANT TO SHOP THERE AGAIN?! Hah, I showed them though.. now I give them the wrong phone number, and they never send me coupons or inform me about sales that might ssave me money!

    Seriously though, do you really consider it an invasion of privacy that they want to target some ads your way in exchange for their "free" service? You're on Slashdot, so I have to assume you're a fairly capable person on a PC. You should know how to delete cookies, and turn any of these tracking toolbars off before you go to a website you might now like them knowing about. I don't care if people know I read Slashdot, search Amazon for *gasp* books, read technical sites for work, research cars, etc. Maybe before I go to OverthrowTheGovernment.Com I'll clear my cookies and turn off my free toolbars though...

  8. Re:134 years to find on HMS Beagle (Possibly) Found · · Score: 5, Funny

    I never understood this attitude. Ok, the Bible is supposed to be God's word, but written through man. Man is stupid and doesn't have the capacity to understand the vastness of the universe, so God had to dumb a lot of things down.
    GOD: "Ok, so there are these things called atoms.. they're really small and.."
    MAN: "Wait ummm Lord. Did you say Adam?"
    GOD: "Sigh.. ok, yeah. There was this guy named Adam..."

  9. Re:Is there a privacy issue? on Tivo Tracks Superbowl Viewing Habits · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I see more an more of these specialty shows with direct, in show sponsors and I think it's great. Doesn't seem to have reduced the number of ad spots though.

    I don't mind banner ads on web sites. I occasionaly click through one and have made a purchase. In fact, it I know I'm going to order something from, say, ThinkGeek, I'll hit my favorite site that usually has ThinkGeek banner ads first and try to make the purchase via a click through. The company still got my money and I hopefully helped out the site. I never make purchases from unsoliceted e-mail though, and outright avoid those companies.

    If I go to a web site, I expect to see some on topic, non intrusive banner ads, just like I expect commercials on TV. They're more useful for me and the advertiser (and in the long run, the site/show being sponsored) if they're ads I actually need.

    I've written a few custome applications for companies that do marketing tracking, customer care card, coupon redemtion sorts of data collection. These people aren't evil. They're just trying to be more effective in their advertising. Most don't want to waste time or money advertising to people who don't/won't purchase. They aren't collecting the fact that I bought shoe polish and a frozen TV dinner at 2am to sell it to big brother, because that's just some wierd ass purchase and I must be a bad person that should be put on a watch list... they do it becuase if they can find out that people who buy X usually buy Y, or that any time Z is on sale for $.75 off, I buy 10 of them, they can better plan their ad campaigns. If they waste less money on marketing, but are just as succesful, in a perfect world, I'm better off as a consumer. In the real world, I remain employed because I sometimes write these applications that companies see a return on, and my 401K does better because these companies turned a proffit.

  10. Re:No, Digital Cable Can't Tell on Tivo Tracks Superbowl Viewing Habits · · Score: 1

    My digital cable box doesn't have an upstream link? Care to explain how I can order pay per view, watch video on demand, and various other two way activities via my remote control?

  11. Re:Is there a privacy issue? on Tivo Tracks Superbowl Viewing Habits · · Score: 1

    I agree that on a major network, in a prime time slot, they expect to have a good chunk of the eyes on a show or they'll can it. But with the hundreds of channels we have today, there's plenty of room for niche programming. With better demographics of who watches these niche programs, the network can lure advertisers to continue making these specialty shows. At least they can prove that Monster Garage (a bad example really since TLC/Dicovery have become very popular in the last few years) durring a prime time slot rather than watching the latest WB hit. Or that there really are thousands and thousands of people watching some talking head show on TechTV instead of watching local news and Letterman/Leno.

    If Tivo offered it, I'd gladly volunteer even more information about my habits. I'd tell them demographics on each of my family members, and log in/log out from a viewing session, ala a Nielson box. I'd answer occasional surveys about show. That would be really cool... "Hey we noticed you watched the pilot for this new series the other night. Care to take a survey on it?"

  12. Re:glad or not glad? on Tivo Tracks Superbowl Viewing Habits · · Score: 1

    I'll watch a good comercial the first time I see it. I might even watch it again if it was really good. I can only scip commercials with my Tivo if it's recorded or buffered. About half of my viewing time is live TV.

    If Tivo tracked my commercial skipping habits on the shows I record, the advertisers would learn that if I'm watching the Paintball World Cup, I'll watch commercials for paintball products and comapanies. If the same commercial is on every single break, I'm skipping it the second and third time. Am I going to watch the long distance commercial or the one trying to sell me a feminine care product? Probably not.

    If I'm watching Classic Car Restoration on the DIY network, I'll watch an Eastwood Company restoration product commercial, I may watch a Car and Driver ad trying to get me to subscribe (I already do though).. I may watch an oil commercial if it's not one I've seen a thousand times before. Again though, I'm skipping the Bowflex commercial, the Viagra ad, and the AOL ad.

  13. Re:Is there a privacy issue? on Tivo Tracks Superbowl Viewing Habits · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm glad Tivo logs what I watch, and presumably sells the rolled up info to marketing types. In fact, we should all be glad for this! The next time our favorite show is about to be canceled, just remember, they would have known you were watching if you had been using a Tivo.

    I watch a lot of obscure shows on cable. I'm glad the people who decide if they want to renew those shows have an additional source of information than the traditional Neilson family to know if people are watching.

    Two questions though: Couldn't my cable company do the same thing with my digital cable box?

    Are the Tivo watching habits really worth anything. Right now, as I sit here at work typing this message, my Tivo is on. It has no idea if the power to the TV is on or off though. It THINKS the digital cable box is on channel X, but I could have turned it or the TV off, or changed the digital box with a different remote. Does Tivo try to guess if I'm really watching the show on channel X right now by seeing how long it's been since I changed the channel/paused/used rewind/etc? I'm sure there are times when I spend several hours on a single channel and don't press any Tivo remote buttons.

  14. Re:Meanwhile in Russia on Trojan Horse Caused A Siberian Explosion · · Score: 1

    Yes, no and maybe.. those are the values we can store in a single bit field in a database, as long as the field is nullable. :)

  15. Re:so when will they open googleporn.com on Google Social Network: Orkut · · Score: 1

    You seem to be looking for
    http://www.booble.com/
    I'm sure Google owns googleporn.com just so no one else would buy it and use it, not because they have any attention of using it themselves.

  16. Re:1982 Volvo GL to Mustang Conversion on Obtaining Replacement Parts for Your Laptop? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    >cutting edge 1950s technology of a Ford iron-
    >block pushrod tractor engine shoved in its throat

    The 140 and 1975 240's had Volvo B20 engines. These engines are as much tractor engines as anything Ford ever made. :) Bullet proof reliable none the less. 5 main bearings on the crank for a 4 banger.

    Speaking of tractor engines though.. ever read the story of the origin of Lamborghini?

  17. Forgot the link on Obtaining Replacement Parts for Your Laptop? · · Score: 1

    http://www.converseengineering.com/

  18. Re:1982 Volvo GL to Mustang Conversion on Obtaining Replacement Parts for Your Laptop? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This site offers a pretty good kit. A mid to late 80's Volvo 240 wagon with a V8 is the ultimate sleeper car. No one expects it to be able to move that fast.

    Also, I have a personal theory that old station wagons appear to be moving 5-10 MPH slower than they actually are. This comes from years of driving one and having people pass me and then slow back down in front of me.

  19. Re:Just PC (aka Windows?) on Linksys DVD player w/ WiFi and ethernet · · Score: 1

    I have a Gateway connected DVD player with simillar (the same?) Windows software to facilitate the streaming.

    While the software has to run on Windows, I have my MP3s on a linux box, and mapped as a drive on my Windows box. All the software cares about is if it can see and access it. Works just fine.

  20. Re:Electrons in universe on Finding MD5 Collisions With Chinese Lottery · · Score: 1

    If this kind of hash lookup atack were feasible (and it isn't yet) then it could be easily combatted by appending a known "secret phrase" to the end of the passwords before hashing. Even appending a single character to the beginning or end of a string would create a vastly different hash. Even if the secret phrase of a system were to become compromised, the entire hash lookup database would have to be regenerated from the source dictionary.

    Also, I've thought about storing itterative hashes for passwords. Hash the password, hash the hash X times, where X is some small configured value. The hash algorithm is pretty fast.

  21. Time (Centons?) Was: "Frack" on New Battlestar Galactica - Worth a Series? · · Score: 1

    >Yes, I remember. At least they aren't measuring >time in "centons" anymore.

    Yes, but what DO they measure time in? Durring one scene there is a countdown and the time units seemed much longer than seconds. :)

  22. Re:Starbuck and Apollo on New Battlestar Galactica Premieres Monday · · Score: 1

    I'm not going to try to defend the change. I'm waiting to see it.

    I have seen Shakespearean and even older play that have been re-visioned and updated, and they came out ok. Romeo and Juliet in modern day LA?! King Lear on a Harley? :) Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The journey of Hurcules as a woman? Let's make her a woman, put her in a leather get-up and call her Xena...

  23. Re:Make it stop! on "Star Wars: Clone Wars" coming to Cartoon Network · · Score: 1

    >> Nightmares of the Christmas Special!
    Actually, the animated section of the Star Wars Holiday Special was probably the only good part. It introduced the world to our favorite bounty hunter, Boba Fett.

  24. Re:Hour Rate is Best on Negotiating Pay for Open Source Work? · · Score: 1

    On any fixed bid project, you have to have a solid statement of work, and a solid contract that lays out what a scope change is, and the process for handling them.
    You, or whoever is managing the project, has to enforce the formal scope change process with the client. Scope changes do NOT have to mean more money. Removing a requirement (and theoretically, reducing the scope) should be handled the same way as changing an existing requirement or adding a new one. Requirements are always living documents and should be treated as such. Fixed bid means it's fixed based on the original requirements. Changes to the requirements lead to changes in the bid.
    Clients sometimes have a hard time understanding this. What do they have to loose by trying to get more from you for free? The strange thing to me is, in similary industries, no reasonable person would expect this kind of behavior. You wouldn't, for instance, expect your contractor to accept adding a new bathroom on to a house in the middle of the construction without some sort of impact to the final cost and schedule.

  25. Re:never bought a CD on Universal Music To Cut CD Prices · · Score: 2, Funny

    how many of us are still in grade school and can't afford to buy anything but Pokemon cards with the lousy allowance our parents give us? Just you man... just you.