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User: alispguru

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  1. This should not be a paritsan issue on Net Neutrality Bill Sails Through the House But Faces an Uncertain Political Future (washingtonpost.com) · · Score: 1

    In a sane political world, representatives would look at how their constituents were affected by legislation and vote accordingly.

    The people who have the most to lose by the lack of net neutrality are the ones who live in areas where there is a wired broadband monopoly. The vast majority of those areas are outside the major cities, and mostly Republican voting.

    Republican legislators who are looking out for their constituents should thus be in favor of net neutrality.

    Or at least, they should offer market-based amendments to it like "NN only has to be enforced in areas that have a wired broadband monopoly".

    The fact that this IS a partisan issue means it's being treated as tribal bullshit.

    Again. As usual.

  2. ... will be available and affordable when they are really needed.

  3. If the FTC really believed in the market... on FTC Allows ISPs To Block Apps But They Must Disclose It (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    They would say an ISP can do anything it wants, but only in areas where there are at least two providers of:

    * 25 megabits +
    * 100 ms -

    Last I heard, that's only about 5% of the US.

  4. ... and not one you'd want to associate with modern AI: Bolos are autonomous, self-aware tanks.

  5. The atmosphere doesn't care about per-capita on EU Aims To Be 'Climate Neutral' By 2050 (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    It cares about emissions, full stop.

  6. I'd like a distance lock on Cops Told 'Don't Look' at New iPhones To Avoid Face ID Lock-Out (vice.com) · · Score: 1

    Where my phone would lock if it got more than 5 feet away from my Apple Watch.

    Apple already has a system for detecting your Apple Watch for logging into Mac desktop/laptops, so this isn't much of a stretch.

  7. Sysadmin 101 on The Coders Programming Themselves Out of a Job (theatlantic.com) · · Score: 1

    Anyone who has done sysadmin knows the drill on working at a new place:

    1. Set up logging on all functions
    2. Write log filters for normal operation and automatic responses
    3. Respond to things that get through the filters

    Sysadmins initially work like dogs until they get a first pass at steps 1 and 2 running - after that, it's routine maintenance and spurts of work for new functions.

    System administration IS automating yourself out of work. Sysadmins don't get fired for doing it, often because management doesn't understand what they do.

  8. ... dumb/desperate enough to voluntarily do this.

    Ivy League college students.

    We're doomed.

  9. I am actually fine with this on The 'Post-PC Era' Never Really Happened... and Likely Won't (techpinions.com) · · Score: 1

    If the "consumer" market for desktop computing dries up, the market for home-tinkerable desktop computing will expand in comparison.

    My Mom doesn't care about soldered-down RAM and SSDs, but I do, a lot.

    Anything that makes the market in general (and Apple in particular) listen more to people who just want to add more RAM later when they actually need it, is a good thing in my book.

  10. According to this:

    ...Magic Leap has contracted with former Apple executive Ron Johnson’s startup, Enjoy, which sends customer service people to deliver new tech gadgets and help users set them up. Enjoy representatives will deliver every Magic Leap headset, fit it, and provide a tutorial on how it works.

    This is a concierge-based trial release - don't buy it unless you have $2500 you can throw out the window without major pain.

  11. Just use a pass phrase, already on Hashcat Developer Discovers Simpler Way To Crack WPA2 Wireless Passwords (hashcat.net) · · Score: 2

    The password for my home network is a correctly capitalized and punctuated sentence.

    Everyone on my network can spell, and knows where the shift key is, even the guests.

  12. .. and it's not very impressive. This article says: ...the current status of the literature is that there is no evidence to support the use of Learning Styles in this way [matching instruction style to student learning style improves learning]. There are lots of links in the article to the underlying studies.

    This is not exactly the same thing as screen-based vs. living-world-based learning, but it does support the idea that statements like "Children learn best when their bodies are engaged in the living world" without supporting studies are not helpful.

  13. We don't need to go that far on Senate Democrat Floats First Serious Proposals For Regulating Big Tech (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    I would be happy if they made one small change in the current "sharing" regulations.

    Today, sharing is opt-out - information can be shared by default, anyone who gets it from you just has to tell you:

    You can stop us from sharing your data - call this number during a full moon and give us your user number, shoe size and blood type.

    I think that sharing needs to be opt-IN, with statutory penalties for sharing without permission.

    This would make held data a liability, instead of the asset it currently is.

    This alone would have broken Equifax, as they deserved.

  14. Dammit, you took my serious post... on FBI Director: Without Compromise on Encryption, Legislation May Be the 'Remedy' (cyberscoop.com) · · Score: 1

    ... and did the satirical version!

    Publishing source code for how to encrypt securely is First Amendment protected free speech - this was settled in the Pretty Good Privacy case in the 1990's. Phillip Zimmerman put the source for PGP in a dead-tree book, to make absolutely sure the First Amendment would be cited.

    So, actually we have a constitutional right to see how to communicate securely.

  15. Re:Storing water in oil wells on To Hit Climate Goals, Bill Gates and His Billionaire Friends Are Betting on Energy Storage (qz.com) · · Score: 1

    I would be more worried about earth tremors resulting from repeatedly compressing and releasing pressure on the underlying shale formation.

    There have already been problems with earth tremors in fracking zones, and this sounds like lots of fracking cycles in the same place.

  16. Check your data link on Apple CarPlay Will Now Support Third-Party Navigation and Mapping Apps (techcrunch.com) · · Score: 1

    CarPlay in my experience is way picky about the data link between the phone and the car.

    My Kenwood after-market unit had CarPlay crashes all the time until I:

    * Took the battery case off the phone
    * Connected with a decent quality Lightning cable

    Some battery cases don't switch cleanly between charging the case and charging the phone, and the momentary hiccup seems to break CarPlay. The cheap micro-USB connector in the case might also contribute to this.

    Agreed, CarPlay should not crash on transient data interruptions.

  17. There's an easy fix for that on Apple Is Testing a Feature That Could Kill Police iPhone Unlockers (vice.com) · · Score: 1

    Apple should just make the USB lock come on one hour after the last unlock-via-passcode event.

    The vast majority of my phone unlocks are via fingerprint/TouchID, and these should not count.

    I enter the passcode on my iPhone:

    * After a reboot
    * When my thumb is damp and won't read
    * When installing an update

    If it works this way, my phone will require a passcode for USB access... essentially all the time.

  18. Anybody - a government, a group, an individual - who wants secure encrypted communications they trust can get them.

    If you're just careful, you can download code from trusted sources, spin it up, and run your own servers.

    If you're paranoid and have more resources, you can audit the code before using it.

    if you're REALLY paranoid, you can go to the theory papers and write your own code.

    Governments and law enforcement agencies have to stop dreaming about systems that are secure against everyone except them - that horse left the barn in the 1990's, never to return.

  19. Only if they say the right things on Forget Learning To Code, Bosses Value Collaboration and Communication (fastcompany.com) · · Score: 1

    Bad bosses only listen when you agree with them.

    Collaboration and communication has to go both ways for it to actually work.

  20. It was a throwaway in A Fire Upon the Deep on Scientists Say Space Aliens Could Hack Our Planet (nbcnews.com) · · Score: 1

    In Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep, there's a mention of whole star systems being under attack by sapient Net packets.

  21. Does Google still get to see all my transactions? on Google Just Launched Another Answer To Apple Pay (cnbc.com) · · Score: 1

    If so, then still no sale.

    Google has not abused my trust with search data... yet, that I know of.

    They will still be a one-stop shop for government snoopers, via the third-party doctrine. I see no reason to make hoovering up everything I do with my money easy for them.

    Apple has gone out of its way to be a we-don't-want-to-know middleman in contactless payments, which makes them easier to trust.

  22. ... is that Facebook is that good and that thorough at tracking.

    Did anyone have any doubt that Facebook would be trying to monitor its employees to the same level they do their customers^Wraw material?

  23. I wish Pai had a consistent ideological belief... on FCC Chairman Slams Trump Team's Proposal To Nationalize 5G (axios.com) · · Score: 1

    ... in free markets.

    If he was against Title II net neutrality, and also against competition-limiting state and local regulations, that would be globally consistent.

    The FCC has the power to strike down anti-competitive local/state regulations.

    The only reason I can see for them not doing that would be regulatory capture by the telecom industry.

  24. So, do we get support and updates for this? on BMW's Apple CarPlay Annual Fee is Next-level Gouging (cnet.com) · · Score: 1

    We don't?

    No sale, then, absolutely.

  25. Compensation for tax code losers? on Apple Gives Employees $2,500 Bonuses After New Tax Law (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 1

    There are in fact people whose taxes will go up, big-time, as a result of the new tax code.

    One group that will get it in particular are Apple employees in California.

    California has high state taxes, high property taxes, and high housing prices which lead to high mortgages and high interest payments on them.

    All of those used to be deductible on federal taxes.

    All of those deductions are either eliminated, or capped at a level that bites California residents hard.

    People with Apple engineer level salaries will see their federal taxes go up by thousands next year.

    Apple may be in part cushioning this blow.