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User: Tiger4

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  1. Re:Unclassified on Air Force Blocks NY Times, WaPo, Other Media · · Score: 3, Informative

    Information is remains classified until someone with the proper authority de-classifies it. Just because it is released into the wild does not de-classify something. No more than if a thief sells your property to a third party it is no longer your property. You may not have physical possession or control of it, but you certainly would assume you still owned it.

  2. Re:Central Cybernetics on USDA Services Moving To the Microsoft Cloud · · Score: 1

    Another step back to the 50s. Soon there will be just one central computer for every major city, and everyone connected to it. Just like Science Fiction predicted 60 years ago.

  3. Older than dirt! on Emergency Broadcast System Coming To Cell Phones · · Score: 1

    I heard about this idea back in *1989* from a guy that was trying to get tornado warnings onto cell phones. The cell sites in the effected area are usually pretty well known, and if those sites are linked to phones, the phones gets a message. Easy, obvious, incredibly useful, SAVES LIVES!

    And here we are still talking about implementing it 20+ years later!

  4. Re:no one blames the fans? on News Corp. Shuts Off Hulu Access To Cablevision · · Score: 1

    Remember Wild Wild West, the TV series? Roll it back 60 years (and make Artie a woman) and you have Jack of All Trades. Except without the budget or production values. Campbell was bailing out the Titanic on that one.

    While you're at it, look at the companion show Cleopatra 2525. You'll get to see the future Zoe Washburn, Gina Torres, in action as Sarge, in a show I saw described as "a criminal waste of videotape".

  5. Re:It's tougher than you think... on Convincing Your Employer To Go With FOSS? · · Score: 1

    I'll bash MS with everyone else - but outlook/exchange/project just don't have good oss/gnu replacements

    When I win the lotto come look me up. Maybe I'll fund something.

    ps. And maybe beef up the OO spreadsheet (Calc) too.

    pps. And has Oracle done anything to smooth out integration of Base to their high end SQL engine(s)? MS wasn't shy about having a path from Access to MS SQL Server.

  6. Re:Obligatory XKCD on FAA Reports Heat In Cargo Holds Can Ignite Laptop Batteries · · Score: 1

    I went looking for it, but you found it first. Congratulations Sir or Ma'am!

  7. Re:800 employees? on Final Space Shuttle External Tank Ready For Its Closeup · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Didn't SpaceX get fined for cutting too many corners? Yep, you don't need many people if you don't intend to do the whole job.

    And considering they are only where NASA was 50 years ago, "The company plans next to launch a Falcon 9 to place a capsule into orbit." I wouldn't be comparing them to a fully developed operation just yet. NASA might be fat but they at least can get a fully mission capable shot off.

  8. Really? on Negroponte On OLPC's New Path, Plans For XO 3 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    'Paper books are really dead — they're gone. And they're not being killed by tablets, they're creating tablets,' he says."

    Do people really take such over the top wheedling seriously? And why would an otherwise pretty sharp guy say such a narrowminded blindered thing? Books are doing just fine, despite the coolness factor of OLPC or tablets or handhelds. People like them, use them, buy then, and keep them. And 100 years from now they'll still have them, unlike most digital ephemera. We're still working on getting good conversion of writing to text, but preserving writing on paper was mastered a few thousand years ago.

  9. Re:Also as a practical matter on British Teen Jailed Over Encryption Password · · Score: 1

    The whole thing would have nothing to do with the 5th amendment in the US anyway, and I doubt self-incrimination is the problem in Britain either. In the US this would be a search and seizure, 4th amendment issue. Basically, he has a locked box, the court demanded the key, he didn't cough it up, so the court locked him up. He would have got the same treatment in the US.

    The 5th amendment says you cannot be compelled to give *testimony* against yourself. But it doesn't say you can withhold physical evidence. The 4th amendment governs that, and once the court ordered the search and seizure, he was screwed on that account. People are required to give blood, breath, and urine samples (DUI cases), DNA and fingerprint samples (murder, rape, and robbery), and handwriting samples (forgery) all the time. A computer password easily falls within that range. It isn't testimonial evidence (i.e. "I did X, Y, and Z"), it is physical evidence (i.e. "My papers are in that locked chest").

  10. Yes but on E-Books Are Only 6% of Printed Book Sales · · Score: 1

    it is the BIGGEST 6%. All those other sales figures mean nothing in the face of a new technology wave.

    And the thing is, this is both ironically sarcastic, and sardonically true.

  11. Re:Interesting on Elo Chess Rating System Topped By Proposed Replacements · · Score: 1

    So the Turk is irrelevant to this discussion (aside from the not minor issue that the operator has been dead for some time.)

    So now we'll never know the answer to the Istanbul - Constantinople naming question!

  12. Re:SEE! on Boeing Gets $89M To Build Drone That Can Fly For 5 Years Straight · · Score: 1

    Controlled airspace ends at 60,000 feet. You are on your own. Above that is technically outside air traffic control purview, although radar coverage goes well up to and beyond 100k. They can see you, they just won't talk to you ;-)

  13. Re:Satellite replacement? on Boeing Gets $89M To Build Drone That Can Fly For 5 Years Straight · · Score: 1

    "Guided by ground radar"? What do you think this is, 1955 ? We've been using GPS navigation and satellite guidance systems for over 20 years. Send the commands up to the satellite, the satellite retransmits to the aircraft. It works for your home dish TV, and I'd bet Boeing can make the aircraft work at least as well as that.

    And I suspect it would be pretty hard to get the target countries to host a US radar guidance system so we can spy on their nation. So "guided by ground radar" has some major operational problems from day one.

  14. Re:Summary: on Super Principia Mathematica · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Upload to Amazon. The other review is lonely.

  15. Re:Dude is a crank, and anon reviewer is likely hi on Super Principia Mathematica · · Score: 1

    i have over 100 reviews, and they are all 4 or 5 stars... my word should be trusted less because i'm an informed consumer that only buys and reviews quality products?

    Yes that is correct.

    Or we could say you are a binary indicator, with a bias offset of 4 stars.

    If we never see you go full range, how do we know you don't just love everything?

  16. Re:I quickly determined... on Video Games Lead To Quick Thinking Skills · · Score: 4, Funny

    "other results of the study indicated subjects had a reduced attention span when comp... Squirrel!! ...ared to a control group."

  17. Re:More importantly on Torvalds Becomes an American Citizen · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    For some reason, It's ok as long as you are making fun of the right here.

    Of course. On the left it is expected and not particularly notable. On the right, it points out the hypocrisy they both trade on for power and engage in when our back are turned.

  18. Re:The price is actually pretty nice on Gigabit Speeds At Home In the US · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can't believe the ignorance of some people on slashdot to think that you could run a 1gbps service on a T1.

    I on the other CAN believe the ignorance of people on Slashdot. Just because they have access to information doesn't mean they understand it.

  19. Re:I don't care on Wikileaks Source Outed To Stroke Hacker's Own Ego · · Score: 1

    More like you wouldn't understand. Or any kind of explanation would just be twisted into something it wasn't, but people with an agenda to sensationalize the news or slur the military.

    Why play in a rigged game? especially when it ISN'T the only game in town. They can release their own news in their own way on their own schedule.

  20. Re:I love moderates on Pakistani Lawyer Wants Mark Zuckerberg Executed · · Score: 1

    This is about standing up for what you believe in, against traditional bonds and beliefs. This is arguably a GOOD thing, assuming what you believe in is not nutty in itself. It is an outright warning that conflict will and should result from breaking away from the old ways and following a new (better?) path.

  21. Re:I love moderates on Pakistani Lawyer Wants Mark Zuckerberg Executed · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Mankind will never be free until the last King is strangled with the entrails of the last Priest"(and the last advertising shill is buried alive alongside them)...

    Look, we've got just about all the Kings finished off, but we have a long way to go on all the priests. Are you saying we need to preserve the last King until we're down to the last priest as well? That is going to complicate the logistics horribly.

    And God knows how long until the ad man goes down for the count. I think this whole timetable needs to be revisited.

  22. Re:There's got to be a better way... on Finland To Legalize Use of Unsecured Wi-Fi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If the protocol automatically left a token on the host machine, it would then be up to the host to decide if she cared or not about who had been visiting. Of course that would just lead to some kind of spoofing behavior.

    Or we could get the vendors to just have security ON by default. Or even have the OFF setting have a timeout, so it defaults back to ON after a few hours/days. Then when the owners turn it off, they can't claim they didn't know what it meant.

  23. Minefield walking on Microsoft Hides Firefox Extension In Toolbar Update · · Score: 1

    I'd like to again thank those of you that run the update Tuesday minefield for me. I set my machines to notify but not install when a new update comes out. Then I wait a week or so, just in case something like this kind of trickery manifests. So now I know to wait a bit longer on actually runnig the update, until a "fix", if needed, comes out.

    Thanks guys!

  24. Re:Define 'Harm' on PETA Creates New Animal-Friendly Software License · · Score: 1

    By the way, what's with the distinction between human and animal? Hearts (or pumping organ), blood (or some kind of circulating fluid), bodies (or protoplasm) we're all just members of the same kingdom, right?

    The Protists, Plants, and Fungi can get stuffed, but we Animals all hang together!

  25. Re:FLOSS software? on PETA Creates New Animal-Friendly Software License · · Score: 4, Interesting

    PETA is anti-free all on their own. By definition, they want to people to either voluntarily, or by restriction of law, to behave in their version of "Ethical" or face serious consequences. Most reasonable people oppose animal cruelty and torture. But PETA's definition and most everyone else's are far different things, as in No pets, No work animals, Veganism for all.

    It is a silly, shabby, and soon to be ineffective ploy for attention whoring.