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User: StripedCow

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Comments · 2,032

  1. Hardly surprising on Navy Creates Fuel From Seawater · · Score: 1

    After all those oil spills recently, this story hardly surprises me.

  2. We need those tribes in the USPTO... on Isolated Tribes Die Shortly After We Meet Them · · Score: 3, Insightful

    These tribes, that have never been in contact with western civilization, could be very helpful in the USPTO.
    Being void of any reference to technology, we could use them to figure out whether patent applications are truly non-obvious inventions.

    E.g., if a tribe member can figure out "slide-to-unlock" by himself, then we can be sure that it is obvious stuff!

  3. Re:How does this simply not move the goalposts? on Australia May 'Pause' Trades To Tackle High-Frequency Trading · · Score: 1

    Anyway, if trades are load balanced over various machines using various constraints (for instance, not just the user's ip address), those timestamps must also be distributed.

  4. Re:Yes, yes it is. on Apple: Dumb As a Patent Trolling Fox On iPhone Prior Art? · · Score: 1

    A Patent is technically REQUIRED to not be obvious to a person 'skilled in the art' when given information of the prior art.

    This patent was obvious to a person skilled in the art of sliding to unlock.
    So what is the big deal here?

  5. Re:interesting on Apple: Dumb As a Patent Trolling Fox On iPhone Prior Art? · · Score: 1

    Indeed, most of us would solve all UI problems if only we didn't have more important stuff to do.

  6. Re:the magic words on Apple: Dumb As a Patent Trolling Fox On iPhone Prior Art? · · Score: 1

    It all depends on the size of your hands.

  7. Re:The Slide-to-Unlock Claim, for reference on Apple: Dumb As a Patent Trolling Fox On iPhone Prior Art? · · Score: 1

    Given that time is infinite, every idea possible is likely to be conceived by at least two different beings at some point.

    Except for the invention that annihilates the universe.

  8. Re:I have a wise idea. on Australia May 'Pause' Trades To Tackle High-Frequency Trading · · Score: 1

    In that case a short delay added to the order should do the job just fine. No need to mess around with captchas.

  9. Re:I have a wise idea. on Australia May 'Pause' Trades To Tackle High-Frequency Trading · · Score: 1
  10. Re:How does this simply not move the goalposts? on Australia May 'Pause' Trades To Tackle High-Frequency Trading · · Score: 1

    This could be more difficult to implement, because you'd need to keep track of all the trades.

  11. Re:How does this simply not move the goalposts? on Australia May 'Pause' Trades To Tackle High-Frequency Trading · · Score: 2

    How about: incoming trades are delayed by a random amount of time (within reasonable limits).

  12. Re:500 ms on Australia May 'Pause' Trades To Tackle High-Frequency Trading · · Score: 2

    True.

    However, I still think it is wiser to slowly increase the delay from 0ms to 500ms over several months, because that would prevent any shock waves going through the markets.

  13. Re:Mars Trilogy future comes closer on 3D-Printed UAV Can Go From Atoms to Airborne in 24 Hours · · Score: 1

    AFAICT, RepRap cannot print itself. It still needs external components like wires, printed-circuit-board, etc.

  14. Re:Meh on "Nearly Unbreakable" Encryption Scheme Inspired By Human Biology · · Score: 1

    You are forgetting that once the existing cryptographic schemes are broken, we would probably need a replacement pretty fast. That's when this work could come in handy.

  15. Still the wrong format on EU Should Switch To ODF Standard, Says MEP · · Score: 1

    They should instead switch to an online format, where users (citizens) can provide feedback on the documents.

  16. But watch out on How the Internet Is Taking Away America's Religion · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The internet can be a dangerous place too.

    Just like religious services can put you in an "information bubble", so can the internet.

  17. Re:solution on Ad Tracking: Is Anything Being Done? · · Score: 1

    But this is something we can at least fight against, like net neutrality.

  18. Re:solution on Ad Tracking: Is Anything Being Done? · · Score: 1

    This assumes that the administrator for www.cuteandfluffy.com is a dumb*ss that just installs and runs any code offered by ad networks without thinking.
    If I were an administrator, I would expect and require the use of clean APIs for showing ads.

    But of course, the ad networks can still make their APIs such that the user can still be tracked. However, this approach would soon expose the dirty practices of ad networks (google included).

  19. Re:Here's a thought on Ad Tracking: Is Anything Being Done? · · Score: 1

    It's what Hollywood and music labels are good at too.
    Essentially, the US has turned into one big propaganda machine.

  20. Re:solution on Ad Tracking: Is Anything Being Done? · · Score: 1

    One big problem with advertisements as it stands now, is that they are served from different servers than the content is being served from. This allows advertising networks to collect information about your browsing habits (through e.g., cookies, http referer header, fingerprinting, etc.) Ad blockers make this close to impossible, but they are not prevalent enough to be of a big threat to advertisers.

    One solution would be to install ad-blockers in web-browsers by default (starting with e.g., firefox).

    Of course, the reaction to this will be that advertisers demand their clients (websites) to show the ads in an "inline" fashion, one which the ad-blocker cannot block.
    So this is not a solution against ads per se, but at least it will keep advertisers from snooping browsing behavior.

  21. Re:$30 an hour is actually fantastic for these kid on App Developers, It's Time For a Reality Check · · Score: 1

    The problem is that this is still a "success story".

    If the success story earns slightly above average, then you probably don't want to know what the average earnings are.

  22. Re:Huh? on Dropbox's New Policy of Scanning Files For DMCA Issues · · Score: 2

    But computing a hash-value IS going through your files.

    What if they use a hash that is computed like this:
    1. compute md5sum of the data
    2. make the last bit zero or one, depending on whether the file has some interesting property.

    Suddenly, they can profile you based on "hash-value" alone.

  23. Re:Huh? on Dropbox's New Policy of Scanning Files For DMCA Issues · · Score: 1

    you are far more likely to win the biggest price there than to every find a hash collision.

    That, of course, only makes it more painful to encounter a hash collision.

  24. Re: patented keyboard technology? on Typo Keyboard For iPhone Faces Sales Ban · · Score: 2

    So we are living in a society where only a select bunch of "experts" know the laws.
    Seems like a terrific idea!

  25. Huh? on Dropbox's New Policy of Scanning Files For DMCA Issues · · Score: 1

    So, if I get this correctly, Dropbox will prevent you from sharing a file that was blocked due to somebody else uploading it and getting busted?

    What does somebody else's data have to do with your data?
    And what if there is a hash collision?