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User: penix1

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  1. Re:The reason is more simple on Why Electric Vehicles Aren't More Popular · · Score: 2

    Talk to me when that price point is less than $15,000 and there are charging stations in rural WV.

  2. Re:Clearly they haven't checked my patent on Rumblefish Claims It Owns 'America the Beautiful' By United States Navy Band · · Score: 1

    Unless you write software....

  3. Re:Taxes on Can New Chicago Taxes On Netflix, Apple, Spotify Withstand Legal Challenges? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And even then it is not free. Lots of hoops to jump through. Far more than the corporate welfare system we have.

  4. Re:Taxes on Can New Chicago Taxes On Netflix, Apple, Spotify Withstand Legal Challenges? · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Meanwhile Mr. AC I am sure you are one of the first to scream when the government doesn't provide the services you think they should provide. Remember, there is no such thing as a free lunch!

  5. Re:Civil versus criminal law on 8 Yelp Reviewers Hit With $1.2 Million Defamation Suits · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...but if you do so maliciously and mendaciously...

    That has nothing to do with the case IF what is said is true. Remember, truth is a defense against slander / libel. The motivation behind what is said is only considered if what was said is not true.

  6. Re:Scare quotes? on School Lunch Program Scans Student Thumbprints For 'Tracking Purposes' · · Score: 1

    Seriously, people don't want accountability for anything, and they're probably in the right of it judging by human history. But they sound hilarious when they get all ranty about it.

    Quite the opposite actually. The stated purpose of doing this is for "transparency". That is also the reason for most government breeches in security. The rush to put everything on the Internet to be more transparent will be the cry for the foreseeable future.

  7. Re:It doesn't matter matter who did it on China Denies Responsibility For US Government Data Breach · · Score: 2

    First off let me start this by saying I work in Homeland Security for my state and used to work for the feds doing the same thing. I received my notice about the breach at a staff meeting. The word is it wasn't a hack into the computer but it was malware installed on a computer at OPM. It was installed in December and wasn't noticed until April.

    Now the question I have is was the individual that brought it in disciplined?

  8. Re:Surprise, Surprise! on China Denies Responsibility For US Government Data Breach · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I tend to agree with your evaluation but want to add...

    Why on Earth doesn't the government simply drop all packets coming form or going to their infamous lists? What is the reason to allow an IP originating from China to access OPM? Don't get me wrong. From what I read earlier this thing was malware installed in December and not found until April. Still, any packets coming or going to a Chinese IP address should be dropped at the router. Black hole them in other words.

  9. Re:I am shocked, shocked. on How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars For Haiti and Built 6 Homes · · Score: 2

    Red Cross blood services has been separated from the National Red Cross Disaster Services for many years. I remember when it happened. It caused the closure of many Red Cross offices because it was Blood Services that was supporting the Disaster side. They have a separate management tree, budget and facilities. A big part of the cost associated with blood is in the testing for blood diseases and processing such as blood separation processes. The testing alone costs a small fortune.

    So please keep in mind that although Blood Services carries the Red Cross name it really is a separate entity.

  10. Re: Damn, I trusted them on nmap Maintainer Warns He Doesn't Control nmap SourceForge Mirror · · Score: 2

    They alter the Eula, your selections in the installer are overriden, and malware installs.

    I wonder if the authors can bring a violation against their license if SF doesn't release the source code for an open source project they abscond with for those licenses that require reciprocity such as the GPL? Or a copyright violation for derivative works? Would be interesting to see if it happened.

  11. Is it a part of the MCP?

  12. Re:Horse feathers on 100kb of Unusual Code Protecting Nuclear, ATC and United Nations Systems · · Score: 1

    Oh come on... That isn't even bullshit.... It's horse shit!

  13. Re:Private Profiles on Orange County Public Schools To Monitor Students On Social Media · · Score: 1

    It's right there in their privacy policy:

    https://www.facebook.com/polic...

    We collect the content and other information you provide when you use our Services, including when you sign up for an account, create or share, and message or communicate with others. This can include information in or about the content you provide, such as the location of a photo or the date a file was created. We also collect information about how you use our Services, such as the types of content you view or engage with or the frequency and duration of your activities.

    and...

    We also collect content and information that other people provide when they use our Services, including information about you, such as when they share a photo of you, send a message to you, or upload, sync or import your contact information.

    The list goes on and on. Most troubling is this is how they descrie their "anonymous" data:

    For example, we may tell an advertiser how its ads performed, or how many people viewed their ads or installed an app after seeing an ad, or provide non-personally identifying demographic information (such as 25 year old female, in Madrid, who likes software engineering)...

    It has already been proven that anonymized data can be unraveled and associated with an individual again. Facebook makes it even easier to unravel by providing the sex, age, likes and city of the victim. (Search /. for the multitude of stories on this). So don't feed me that pap on it being "anonymous".

    Even given the policy, Facebook doesn't come right out and say EXACTLY what and with whom they are sharing information BEFORE THEY SHARE IT. It is intentionally nebulous.

    Lastly, the default settings in the Privacy Center is to share as much as they can without triggering aggressive privacy concerns generating bad PR. Admittedly, that is the whole purpose of the site. So the idea to not use social media or at most provide as little private information as possible (or fake it when not avoidable) is sound advice.

  14. Re: Sounds cheap if it works on Orange County Public Schools To Monitor Students On Social Media · · Score: 1

    Schools have guardian rights. So legally its no different than your parents checking Facebook.

    [Citation needed]

    Nowhere in state or federal law is guardianship granted to schools. The parents do not relinquish their parental responsibilities or rights while the kids are in school. State and federal law does require a safe, sanitary and healthy learning environment. That is the extent of their authority. We have stretched the definitions of those three directives to the breaking point with crap policies like this.

  15. Re:Preserving is not the right word on Artist Uses 3D Printing To Preserve Artifacts Destroyed By ISIS · · Score: 1

    Don't underestimate the importance of copies.

    Absolutely right especially given that the ones they are copying were copies to begin with!

    http://rt.com/news/240801-isis...

    The ancient statues that Islamic State militants smashed in Mosul on camera last month have been proved to be exact replicas of precious artifacts of Iraqi heritage. The real masterpieces of antiquity are said to be in Baghdad.

    "They were copies. The originals are all here," Baghdad's museum director told Germany's Deutsche Welle.

  16. Re:Sounds cheap if it works on Orange County Public Schools To Monitor Students On Social Media · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Of course, this WILL rapidly degenerate into "Deidre got detention because she posted a selfie on Instagram with a really revealing outfit."

    FTFY....

    So the school officials need to have plenty of common sense.

    No... The schools need to be treated like the government entities they are and get the shit sued out of them for violating the Constitution's 4th and 5th Amendment rights. Think of the children only goes so far. But given the shithead fossils we got for a Supreme Court, it wouldn't surprise me if they uphold this shit.

  17. Re:View from a patent holder ... on Supreme Court Rules In Favor of Patent Troll · · Score: 4, Interesting

    To me there is a much easier fix. Remove the assumption that patents reviewed by the USPTO are valid since a vast number have been proven to not be. That will shift the burden of proving validity to the patent holder making it less profitable for patent trolls.

  18. Re:Germany should pay war reparations for WWII on Greece Is Running Out of Money, Cannot Make June IMF Repayment · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I agree with everything you said but will add this....

    I have yet to see any country taking IMF funds come out any better in the end. The demands of the IMF are too extreme for any country it goes into to "rescue". Not to long ago the IMF went into South American countries and now they are in serious financial trouble I argue because of the IMF.

    In my opinion, it would be better for Greece to declare insolvency, pull out of the Eurozone and begin again. It will be less torture than dealing with the IMF.

  19. Re:What? on Oculus Founder Hit With Lawsuit · · Score: 1

    No it doesn't dumbass... It starts from the violation of contract. Otherwise you have nothing to sue over.

    From Wikipedia:

    Statutes of limitations are written laws passed by a legislative body in common law systems to set the maximum time after an event when legal proceedings may be initiated.

    Emphasis added.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...

  20. Re:Transparency on Researchers Devise Voting System That Seems Secure, But Is Hard To Use · · Score: 2

    There are many factors that play in low voter turnout but to name the worst offenders here we go:

    1. The two party system itself. Having only two nationally recognized parties by the media ignores a very large part of the population that doesn't agree with either of them. This is the primary reason gerrymandering works too.
    2. Primaries. Having primaries in the two party system means those that support a candidate that doesn't win the primary feels left out and doesn't see a need to vote in the general election.
    3. Winner takes all in national elections. This means that electoral votes get ignored once a majority is achieved. This is how President Obama won.
    4. Using an electoral college. The electoral college made sense when communicating voter wishes meant paper delivered by horse to the capitol. It makes no sense in the age of computers and high speed communications. Also, because there is no real assurance that an elector will vote they way the voters want, you wind up with messes like the 2000 election where the electoral vote did not match the popular vote.
    5. No holiday for election days. Nobody wants to work all day just to have to stand in long lines all night to vote. Let's face it, if a person had all day to vote those lines would be considerably shorter with only the procrastinators being punished.

    Those are just a few off the top of my head. I know there are many more.

  21. Re:Or they're just proxying their connections on Canadian Piracy Rates Plummet As Industry Points To New Copyright Notice System · · Score: 4, Interesting

    True, it is impossible to win against a group of self-entitled individuals who feel they deserve everything for free.

    You shouldn't talk about copyright holders like that... They are people too...

    The point is that a copyright holder doesn't deserve the life+70 or whatever the ever expanding length of copyright is for a work. How is that promoting the science and useful arts? How is that benefiting the public domain which is the sole reason for the existence of copyright in the first place? What other job do you know of where a person can keep getting paid long after they quit the job outside of these government grants of monopoly?

  22. Re:Except you didn't, therefore on Survey: 2/3 of Public Sector Workers Wouldn't Report a Security Breach · · Score: 1

    I work in state government and not only do I have to change the password every 30 days but I can't repeat any password combination I used in the past 30 times. To make it worse, if I don't change the password within the 30 days the system locks me out requiring IT to reset it. Lastly, I am required to take security training every 6th change before the system will allow me to change it. And that training doesn't ever change the questions... I get 100% on it every time.

    It has gotten to the point of ridiculous nonsense.

  23. Re:Controversial because? on Bill Gates Still Trying To Buy Some Common Core Testing Love · · Score: 1

    It's only a huge lever because they allow it to be a huge lever. Taking federal funds in any program always comes with minimum standards. If you don't meet the standards in most federal funding the usual remedy is refunding the federal dollars you took. Just ask anyone who got funding from SSI or FEMA when they didn't meet the standard for those funds to find out just how vicious the feds can be in this area.

    So, to sum it up don't take the money if you don't want to live up to the grant agreement.

  24. Re:Controversial because? on Bill Gates Still Trying To Buy Some Common Core Testing Love · · Score: 1

    The schools have the children for more hours a day than the parents do in most cases and some of that time has to go toward athletic activities, eating, bathing, and other activities. 7 hours in school 4 or 5 hours before bed. The schools are the ones who should be held directly accountable.

    You need to readjust your math there bud...

    School is in session from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM 5 days a week with 180 education days a year in my state. That is 1080 hours they are in school. Compare that to the time they are home...

    365 days a year = 8760 hours - 1080 hours spent in school = 7680 hours (320 full days) at home. Granted, some of that time is spent doing the activities you describe but the majority of the time is spent pursuing leisure activity (holidays, vacations, etc...)

  25. Re:And customers always want cheaper on FWD.us To Laid-Off Southern California Edison Workers: Boo-Hoo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I tried to unionize our shop (all I needed was 50%), and while the other coders agreed that it was a good idea in principle, less than half would sign up when the crunch came, even though the law prohibits firing for unionizing.

    It isn't a fear of firing but the realization that unions are simply trading one management bureaucracy with another.And although they can't legally fire you for joining a union they certainly can eliminate your position and off-shore it with the net effect being the same.