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User: obtuse

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  1. So the only way to authenticate your iphone is with the single existing bluetooth dongle from a Belgian company that is sold out on Amazon with no known availability. They appear to have no other outlet in the states.

    So no iphone, at least for now.

    Yubico says effectively that bluetooth looks interesting for U2F but they aren't ready to implement.

    Unrelated: U2F is great, but when will we see this tool extended beyond just the web browser? I'd enjoy using this in place of 2fa in lots of applications, even windows login. I know that's not the design goal, but this seems to have been done right (no shared keys etc.)

  2. Re:I would be very surprised... on Donald Trump Signs Pledge To Crack Down On Internet Porn (pcworld.com) · · Score: 1

    Exactly. The attack machine on Hilary has failed. They can't make anthing stick, and they've tried forever. Just as Ken Starr wasted millions virtually proving Bill innocent (no, getting him to lie about a totally unrelated personal matter doesn't count) they can't find anything on Hilary who is one of the most truthful politicians we've got.
      http://www.politifact.com/pers...
    yes, truth has a liberal bias.

    By the way, Ken Starr just resigned his position for covering up rape. Too bad all that moral outrage over Clinton was nonsense.

  3. Frontier's loss is Comcast's gain on Comcast Excited To Have Lost 4,000 TV Subscribers This Spring (consumerist.com) · · Score: 1

    Frontier's takeover of FIOS has something to do with this too. Frontier is another traditional cable company (whose business model is to drive customers away as quickly as possible) and the churn is driving people to Comcast. I know several who made that choice quickly after Frontier took over.

  4. Re:Maybe Apple just has the better position? on Apple Files Final Response In San Bernardino iPhone Case (reuters.com) · · Score: 1

    I think the DOJ lawyers may be better than they look. I don't think the DOJ is expecting to win in the courts. This is setting up a public fight, to get this legislatively fixed in the long run. We all know this particular case is setting precedent. I'm not convinced that the DOJ lawyers are worse, I think they are just playing to a different room. This show is for the court of public opinion.

  5. Re:nature's 4-fold harmonic IP addresses on America Runs Out of IPv4 Internet Addresses · · Score: 1

    Is your name Jaromir Hladik?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  6. Pay through nose for support and use forums on Ask Slashdot: Tech Customers Forced Into Supporting Each Other? · · Score: 1

    I pay through the nose for support and still am sent to the community (Thwack) for answers. If I'm giving you thousands of dollars, don't tell me to look at your forums.

  7. hubris and strange misunderstandings on The Strange Story Of the Sculpture On the Moon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is this a promotional piece for the artist? Interesting that van Hoeyndonck's pride isn't in his chubby tuning fork, but in conning other people into doing a tremendous amount of work for him. "I am the only human being who has been able to get a sculpture to the moon." That, and the tendency of the Apollo era astronauts to be stand-up guys, makes me skeptical of skewing all those misunderstandings in his favor. They negotiated pretty carefully with the stamp dealer, but didn't discuss the intention of the piece or marketing of copies or any timeline? I don't feel sorry for the guy, and am a little irked that this promotion will likely make him a pile of money.

  8. Re:Feds, pick one or the other! on Bitcoin Token Maker Suspends Operation After Hearing From Federal Gov't · · Score: 1

    This is incorrect, as his bitcoins have value beyond the coin itself. He is buying and selling financial instruments (bitcoins) and packaging them. When they were a few bucks each, nobody cared. Now that they're around a grand each, it makes a difference.

    He doesn't just package your bitcoins, he takes yours and gives you one in a nice brass or silver package, minus fee.

    Franklin mint coins have trivial precious metal value, and no other value (their "collectible" value is borderline fraudulent.)

  9. Re:Here come the internet attention whores on Gene Variant Can Cause Nattering Nabobs of Negativity · · Score: 1

    And your attitude demonstrates what a special snowflake you think that you are. Troll.

  10. Hardest problem on Doctorow: Rivalry Keeps Google From Doing Evil · · Score: 1

    I have often said that this is the hardest problem Google faces: How not to be evil, and how to make that an ongoing legacy. It's just possible as long as the founders retain control, but after that it becomes truly hard.

    Assuming they take this seriously, I hope they dedicate resources to this, and do not underestimate the complexity of the problem.

  11. Lying for the Lord on Orson Scott Card Pleads 'Tolerance' For Ender's Game Movie · · Score: 1

    This is a known tactic. He can say anything he wants, as long as it serves what he perceives as serving a higher purpose. Look up "lying for the lord". See also Mittens Romney.

    I can tolerate him, but I don't ever have to give him money or listen to him again. I'm not asking that he be jailed for his treason. That's pretty tolerant.

  12. Re:Psychologists vs Psychiatrists on Psychiatrists Cast Doubt On Biomedical Model of Mental Illness · · Score: 1

    The other thing clinical psychologists sometimes assert is that they should be able to prescribe drugs. It's the converse argument in this turf war.

    Incidentally, I was speaking with someone who identified themselves as a psychologist, and mentioned that my father was an experimental (as opposed to clinical) psychologist. Her response "Ah, he's a scientist!" Yup.

  13. Re:No help for the OED until they change pricing on Help the OED Find a Lost Book · · Score: 1

    This was one of the best christmas gifts I ever got from my wife. It's the single volume, recently printed, nine pages to one, on onionskin paper. It is a beautiful thing. To they guy who said the plates had worn in the recent printings, I see no such effect, and mine is from the early 2000's. Used copies of the compact OED (compact is the complete 2nd edition) can be had for less than a hundred dollars.

  14. Re:Targeted Ads at their best on Schneier: Security Awareness Training 'a Waste of Time' · · Score: 1

    To be fair, Mitnick's Security Awareness Training is directed at IT people & management, & so is part of Schneier's solution of helping us keep the user out of these situations in the first place. It is the sort of thing that helps us as IT professionals avoid these situations, and it's engaging. I got a quickie session, and it was very informative, and a hoot as well.

  15. Re:OSX is doing great on The State of BSD At the Start of 2013 · · Score: 1

    OK, cp is fixed. From
    man CpMac

    As of Mac OS X 10.4, the cp command preserves metadata and resource forks of files on Extended HFS volumes, so it can be used
    in place of CpMac. The /usr/bin/CpMac command will be deprecated in future versions of Mac OS X

  16. Good Samaritan Laws on What To Do When an Advised BIOS Upgrade Is Bad? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My main concern is this: If the manufacturer gets punished for failing to properly support out of warranty hardware, they'll just stop altogether. Too many manufacturers will already refuse to talk to you about out of warranty equipment.

    Since they tried to help, I'd prefer not to see them punished for this mistake. Think of it like good samaritan laws: They protect a person who stops to offer aid to the injured, from being sued.

    My other thought is that perhaps there was some hidden problem that something in the update triggered. Updates often have new functionality, or may write to memory not used before, so it isn't too hard to imagine them tickling an existing bug. For a car analogy, imagine you bought a used car from a friend and complained that it shook horribly at 75, but since your friend never went over 65 he never noticed when the tires and alignment deteriorated to that point.

    Finally, I'm appalled that they don't make old firmware versions available. That would be the appropriate response to your problem. Hopefully you can find someone helpful who has the old firmware around, either inside or outside the companies. Definitely appropriate for people to be warned that these updates can cause problems.

  17. Working Interview, crazy environment on Making Sure Interviews Don't Turn Into Free Consulting · · Score: 1

    Awhile ago, I answered an ad and took an online test for a position where I'd be sole sysadmin and support person for a camp in the mountains. Terms were $20 per hour and room and board, but I'd get snowed in reguarly. I aced the online test, and went up for my interview. On arrival, I was told to be subtle, as the person I was replacing was still working there, and didn't know he was leaving. Welcome!

    After the interview with the owner (old lesson: Sole Proprietors are crazy) I met with various high level users, to discuss their problems. In each case, I suggested a solutions, some of which were implemented then and there.

    Not a place I was eager to work, but I'd been out of work for a long time, and they were eager to have me. Fortunately, I took a position which payed a great deal more, wasn't an insane environment, and I never looked back. The camp did hold the position for me for quite some time, in case the other job didn't work out. Just a data point about the "working interview."

  18. Pschiatry for depression saves lives on The Atlantic's Scientology Advertorial · · Score: 1

    Still nonsense. Psychiatry for depression saves lives. Not a scam. This matters.

    Psychiatrists are not frauds (which is exactly what the word "scam" implies.) Tom Cruise is "not right about this too." Psychiatric treadment for major depression saves lives.

    Tom Cruise is Jenny McCarthy to depressives. Tom Cruise claims his religion works better that medicine. Medicine that helps people with major depression (which you ignore) to not commit suicide. Suicide: 10th leading cause of death worldwide.

    It is unfortunate that SSRIs appear to be overprescribed. Having personally known people for whom they seem to have worked, I certainly can see how psychiatrists (whom you have characterized as scammers) might sincerely disagree with you.

    If you don't mean do support Scientology, stop mischaracterizing a treatment that saves lives as a scam. Stop claiming that "Tom Cruise is right".

  19. Re:If you sleep with a dog, you get fleas on The Atlantic's Scientology Advertorial · · Score: 1

    Nonsense. Assuming your quoted study is valid, there is much more to psychiatry that works, and well.

    You've pointed out one limited mistake, but the fact is that even granting that, we know for certain that other antidepressants save lives in severely depressed people. The referenced study is very limited (only addresses moderately depressed people, only SSRIs.) That's not where antidepressants are most important. Severly depressed people tend to kill themselves, and antidepressants help prevent this. Calling all of psychiatry a scam because some popular methods are flawed, is a far worse error than your accusation against psychiatry.

    Like a lot of medicine, it doesn't work as well as we'd like, but it's much better than anything else out there. Psychiatry includes other methods of treatment besides drugs as well. Scientology doesn't. You aren't allowed to use any treatment they don't approve of, including proven psychiatric drugs.

  20. Not an incentive problem on Ask Slashdot: Best Incentives For IT Workers? · · Score: 0

    This is a management problem, not an incentive problem. Deal with these people as individuals. Some aren't pulling their weight? The manager should probably convey that to them, and that their behavior is unfairly causing others to have to work harder. Just remember that slacking off when things are quiet is its own incentive, and be sure you're not just asking people to look busy.

  21. conservatives oppose testable results on Texas GOP Educational Platform Opposes Teaching Critical Thinking Skills · · Score: 1

    Outcome Based Education means only having testable results, and promoting based on achievement, not on what has been thrown at the students. Look it up yourself in Wikipedia, that's what I did. You can call names all you want, but the article is very clear on that. This is how education traditionally worked, not the "social promotion" and other programs that aren't serving us well now.

    From Wikipedia:
    "OBE in itself does not specify or require any particular style of teaching or learning. Instead, it requires that students demonstrate that they have learned the required skills and content."

    Now, the article goes on to make unsupported claims about how OBE is praticed, but in principle, you're opposing testable results.

    You need to improve your critical thinking skills.

  22. likely MUCH more common (orders of magnitude) on Mad Cow Disease Confirmed In California · · Score: 1

    This appears in the human population at a much higher rate than that, according to one study that found a significant number 13% of Alzheimer's patients were misdiagnosed Creuzfeld Jacob Disease patients. Note that this was a small study, and behind a paywall so the original material isn't easily available. I'll be looking for the original.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Retrieve&list_uids=2545230&dopt=abstractplus

    Add to this that the disease takes a decade to produce symptoms in people, and it becomes apparent that our testing of cows isn't likely to find anything.

     

  23. Re:Licensed through ASCAP on Eye of Tiger Composer Sues Gingrich To Stop Campaign From Using Song · · Score: 1

    There's no indication whether or not the song is paid for through the standard licensing. To assume it is, is as unjustified as to assume it isn't. Politicians tend to assume everything they do is fair use as in http://politics.slashdot.org/story/12/01/29/2015203/romney-invokes-fair-use-in-dispute-with-nbc-over-campaign-ad. Unfortunately, without that information, the article is pointless.

    Artist with existing contract doesn't like what happened to his song, with no information about existing contract.

  24. Re:Password manager? on Ask Slashdot: Changing Passwords For the New Year? · · Score: 1

    https://pip.verisignlabs.com/
    Passwords can be stored encrypted and online with 2-factor for access with Symantec Personal Identity Portal. The 2-factor was the point at which I became willing to store the passwords online. Sorry if it's spammy, but it's a free product that works well for me. Online encrypted storage, second factor token software.

    I don't necessarily trust Symantec, and half expect them to discontinue this in the most inconvenient way possible, but it works for me for now.

  25. my wife's novels on Ask Slashdot: What Do You Like To Read? · · Score: 1

    I like to read my wife's novels. She has participated in National Novel Writing Month for the last few years, besides writing all her life before that, and amazes me with her fiction. I am the luckiest man alive.