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User: spaceman375

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  1. A few challenges on How Can I Make Testing Software More Stimulating? · · Score: 1
    First of all, try to break what you just wrote. Not hack it; just break it. Lean on the control key while typing input, feed it binary files for text & data. Run it in a VM on the slowest hardware you have. Make a game of trying to break your own code.

    Then go back and do it again, but this time play black-hat hacker. Get creative rather than methodical. Try sql statements everywhere that might touch a database. Hammer every communication method it uses with denial of service abuse and then crafty mis-information that only you know enough to design.

    The point is, make a game of it and you'll enjoy it. You could always trade code with a co-worker and keep score of how many bugs you each find in eachother's code.

  2. Re:Not so awesome as you might think on The Brain's Secret For Sleeping Like a Log · · Score: 1

    Not remembering dreams well indicates a deficiency in vitamin B6 and or Zinc. Try taking 40 or 50 milligrams of each every morning or at lunch. It takes zinc about 3-4 days to build up a serum level, so give it a good week before deciding if it helps. REM sleep (dreaming) is a more awake state than deep theta. At least more dreaming can make sleep more fun.

  3. Re:Event horizon paradox.. on How To Destroy a Black Hole · · Score: 1

    To an observer within the aggregation, the formation of an event horizon would make it seem as if the entire rest of the universe were suddenly infinitely far away in space and time. You can't get there from here anymore. As you said, you can't really get there from the outside; that's because what was inside is infinitely far away. Spacetime is stretching towards the center faster than light can go.

  4. Re:Something I was wondering on How To Destroy a Black Hole · · Score: 1

    To an observer within your aggregation, the formation of an event horizon would make it seem as if the entire rest of the universe were suddenly infinitely far away in space and time. You can't get there from here anymore.

  5. Missed the point on US Needs Secure Coding Office · · Score: 1

    The goal is security. Centralizing software development, whether closed source or not, will change the landscape but not solve the problem. Yes, closed source and hard-to-get binaries may impede small hackers, but not government-level cyber-espionage. They'll infiltrate or socially hack your now centralized, easy pickings, offices. The biggest problem with Microsoft's dominance is not code quality, business practices, or other [insert rant here]; it's the ubiquity of their code. Once a security hole is found by someone, it can be exploited fricking everywhere. I've felt for years that all banks should do in-house only development from the hardware up; no outside operating systems, not just applications. What SHOULD be public is communications standards and other APIs, but what is under the hood should be new and different. Anyone who wants to be a cyber-criminal would have to specialize pretty hard on just a small niche, and would therefore be both easier to trace and catch and would have a much smaller chance of "making it big." Even viruses would be less able to spread.

  6. Human input on GUI-Based Asset-Tracking Tools For a Datacenter? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't know your solution, but I can tell you it will involve automatic network mapping and polling of services. You need to find a solution that relies on human input as little as possible. Otherwise documentation gets out of date, no longer trustworthy, leading to lack of incentive to update it, ... With a big budget, I'd go for RFID on everything, with local readers doing triangulation. That's the only way to really track physical objects. Add that to the maps that network discovery makes and you've got what you need.

  7. Uh Oh on Computer Vision Tech Grabs Humans In Real-Time 3D · · Score: 1
    Looks around...
    Red Light source --check
    Yellow light source - check
    Green light source - check
    Other colors from monitor ......

    I think I'll go polish my tinfoil hat.

    /// Oooo, Shiny

  8. Re:Verizon Wireless Extender on How Do You Extend Your Wireless Connection? · · Score: 1

    The extender connects to the phone network via ethernet. If your connection comes via WiFi, then a nearby rogue AP could hijack it and sniff the traffic.

  9. Re:sprint on How Do You Extend Your Wireless Connection? · · Score: 1

    The picocell connects to sprint via ethernet. If you are doing that wirelessly, then it might be hijacked.

  10. Re:sprint on How Do You Extend Your Wireless Connection? · · Score: 1

    Two questions: Can the guy your neighbor get a signal thru your extender? What about the kid across the street running a rogue AP and transparent proxy?

  11. Re:Verizon Wireless Extender on How Do You Extend Your Wireless Connection? · · Score: 1

    Two questions: Can the guy in the hotel room next to yours get a signal thru your extender? And, can the hotel IT staff sniff said connection? What about the kid accros the hall running a rogue AP and transparent proxy?

  12. Which way first? on Scientists Demonstrate Mammalian Tissue Regeneration · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The next step is to make some p21 specific RNA interference molecules and shut it down in an adult, non-regenerative mouse. Then clip its ear and see what happens.
    Since it also increases apoptosis, would this make a good diet pill?

  13. Location Location Location on Nose Scanners — the New Face of Biometrics? · · Score: 1

    We have many ways of identifying people; biometrics is only one category. Every means of identifying a person is hackable in some way. I would feel much safer if authentication were based on multiple sources. In particular, GPS tracking, bluetooth presence, facial recognition, each time you enter a password, all should be used to build a continuous track of your location, with confidence ratings as you move between various protocols. Credit card purchases, boarding an airplane, logging in at work; all should verify that your location data says that you are where they think you are, with a continuous trail leading to that location, before granting access.

  14. Re:How do you develop good teachers? on Improving Education Through Better Teachers · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Peer review. Not from the other teachers who work at the same school, but from teachers all over the state or country:
    What I envision is that all teachers should log some 4 or 5 hours per month watching a video feed of a few randomly chosen teachers, and then give those teachers (and their bosses) feedback. This will lead to both nurturing the good teachers and quicker identification of those who should not be in charge of kids. Even those who are watching may learn something from seeing another's approach. Good all around.
    The feedback should not be anonymous to avoid the occaisional personal connection that may arise. A bad review from your husband's ex should be challengable.

  15. Re:Good privacy is really difficult on Did We Lose the Privacy War? · · Score: 1

    Your VPN was through a WiFi access point. One quick token to a google database and it knew what hotel you were in.

  16. I saw it from New Jersey! on Shuttle Endeavour Blasts Off For Space Station · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I was watching on NasaTV and knew when to look. I didn't really expect much, if anything.
    It was Awesome! At least as bright as Jupiter, and it rocketed (heehee) right past an airplane that was on the same line of sight. I saw from about six minutes after launch to cutoff, apparently at twice the height of the houses around mine.
    Awesome - I saw a real spaceship launch. I DO believe!

  17. Missing the point on OnLive One Step Closer · · Score: 1

    All these whiners claim latency will kill this before it ever starts. Guess what? FPS is not the only game category. I game all the time, but latency means nothing to games like Civ4, Neverwinter, and thousands of others. Sure, lower latency is a great goal to aim for, but this platform is a good step towards moving MMOGs onto lower powered clients. The games are just an excuse to extend their reach to more customers in a "new" way, so they can sell them things.

  18. Try supporting linux on Critics Call For NASA TV To "Liven Up" · · Score: 1

    I'd love to comment on the format of nasaTV. I'd love to just watch it. But they don't support ANY non-proprietary formats, nor do they support watching in a browser under linux.

    Major fail, especially given their inherent nerd appeal.

  19. Voice recognition on The Case For Mandatory Touch-Typing In High School · · Score: 1

    This likely to become law just in time to obsoleted by voice recognition software. Honestly, I think going to all the trouble to implement it is not worth it just for that reason. All the proponents are saying it was a wonderful investment of their time. Learning to ride a horse used to a good investment too.

  20. Re:Could this save power? on What to Do With a $99 Wall Wart Linux Server · · Score: 1

    You can set your print serving pc to boot on network signal. Then just send it an ARP packet & pause while it boots before printing. If your power supply is old enuf you can plug the printer into the monitor power plug on it, and you're golden. You can also use an addressable power strip to control both. I use an old X10 home automation module for my printer.

  21. Make it so on Sophos Releases Klingon Language Version · · Score: 1

    When is Rosetta Stone going to include Klingon?
    I'd actually give it a shot if they did.

  22. Not big enough to eat on Giant Spiders Invade Australian Outback Town · · Score: 1

    Spiders are related to crabs and lobsters, so I want to find some that are big enough to make a decent burger, or at least a crab-cake equivalent.

  23. Re:Lunar sunshine and lunar soil on Growing Plants In Lunar Gravity · · Score: 5, Informative

    The biggest problem with the soil is that it's sharp. There's no weathering on the moon; the "soil" is dust and grit with very sharp points and edges. The plants would be enduring constant irritation and injury.

    Of course, you could sift the dust through a concentrated beam of sunlight and melt it into little spheroids. That would still be cheaper than grinding or importing something softer. The point is, you'd have to process your lunar resource of choice somehow; you can't use it "straight up."

  24. Re:Here's a match.. on Is the Relational Database Doomed? · · Score: 1

    The database you describe used to be called Pick. I worked full-time on pick from 1986 to 1990. It was written in the late '60's by the army and was WAY fantastically advanced for its time. I've seen an office with 12 people, 4 printers, and a streaming tape backup all running simultaneously on a 286 with fine performance and response times. Their "mulridimensional" database was amazingly flexible.
    I really love this bit: Since computers weren't so great in 1969, they wrote a kernel that just emulates a better computer, then they wrote the actual OS on that virtual machine. When RISC became popular in the '80', the virtual processor in the pick machine was so close to the real RISC chips that pick was the first OS ported to the new IBM RISC servers, even before any IBM OS's like AIX.
    I Love PICK. There's many variations these days (PICK, UniData, Universe, Ultimate, PICK OA, R83, R9, Advanced PICK, D3, MvEnterprise, Prime Information, Revelation, Mentor, jBase, Sequoia), many of whom started in the '70's. And Yes, I think Pick-like databases can run rings around any other db. They aren't just a db that runs on some OS; Pick IS the OS (tho it can be a guest too) IBM actually came to Pick first for an OS for the original PC, but its requirements were too much for the hardware, so Bill Gates won out. The owner of Pick actually laughed at the IBM guys; I'll bet he choked on that memory quite a few times.
    Check out Pick - it really is what you describe and a LOT more.

  25. The College is not the problem on Iowa Seeks To Remove Electoral College · · Score: 1

    The Party system is the problem. I'm all for using party affiliation for elections. But they need to be banned from government. Right now 90% of the resources any polititian has are spent trying to tear down the "other half" of our government. This is schezophrenic idiocy. Senators and congress(wo)men should sit and vote according to what state they are from, NOT according to who their political affiliates are.
    Nowhere does the constitution give power to the parties, yet they run the whole country now. Each party performs multiple treasonous acts every year, yet they get away with it all the time. Stop the IDIOCY!