I don't understand all the cynical comments about the government forcing Google to decrypt everyone's data.
Would 128-bit AES encryption really bother the NSA that much? Would it even bother a committed hacker that much? If anything, this will just provide Google with a little ass coverage in case they every get hacked by someone other than the NSA.
But seriously, if this is something that you're really worried about, you should be encrypting your online storage yourself. Or better yet, don't store anything online. Even better, don't network a computer that you aren't willing to have hacked. The level of inconvenience goes up with the level of security; everyone needs to decide what will work for themselves.
I don't really think that it is that novel a discovery that that there are bone eating organisms in a part of the ocean where animals regularly die and discard bone matter. Nor is it particularly odd that there are no wood-eating worms in an area that hasn't had any trees for several million years.
Hopefully there was more than that to their research focus.
The controlled burn decent shown in the video looks impressive but will always be impractical from a financial perspective.
In fact, it is the most horrific way to land a rocket coming from space due to the amount of fuel that would need to be used to decelerate it. We use parachutes or wings to slow things down for landing in an atmospheric environment because it saves a lot of energy compared to doing a direct burn for deceleration.
Essentially, you have to use at least as much fuel as you needed to get the return payload up in the first place. Then remember that you need to also use extra fuel on the ascent to lift all that extra fuel that you need for the descent! Compare this to a heat-shield/parachute re-entry where you use almost no fuel.
Thus, this technique will only be useful for landing in places with no atmosphere or as a final descent stage after using some other method to slow the rocket down from the hypersonic re-entry velocity. Also remember that the Eagle lunar landing module did everything shown in that youtube video back in 1969.
Not to be harsh but why is this on slashdot? Is it because it was invented by a young female? (If a nerdy boy with really thick glasses invented it, would people care less? Probably.)
Reasons why the light is not interesting:
1. She is using an established technology (Seebeck effect), Peltier coolers are commonplace.
2. It runs for up to 20 minutes.
3. It isn't that bright.
4. You have to have to hold it for it to work.
When I use a light to see in the dark, I generally either (a) want it to be really bright and/or (b) I don't want to hold it so that I can have my hands free to work. This device satisfies neither of those objectives.
I've had similar problems as I have gotten older, but I don't think that it is the light frequency (for me). Instead, I think that I just can't punish my body like I used to do.
I'd try the following things before getting too worried: 1. Take work breaks every 30 minutes; 2. Update my eyeglass prescription; 3. Make sure that no other bright light sources (like windows) are in your field of view when looking at your monitor (It should be the brightest thing in the room); 4. Sleep 8 hours a night; 5. Don't use the computer when you are hung over; 6. Take allergy medication if you have seasonal allergies.
When I do all of the above, I don't get headaches or watering eyes. Generally, I do not do all of the above, but happily accept the headache or watery eyes because I know that I can make it go away if I sleep more.
Yet more evidence that the terrorists have won. We have here yet another citizen who believes that terrorism is a major problem. Each and every day, more Americans die in automobile accidents, than the terrorists have managed to kill since 9/11/01. Yet, "we're dog meat" because of terrorists.
Far to few Americans have any balls these days. Is it something in the diet? To many drugs? To much brain washing? What is it that causes Americans to whine like whipped dogs? "we're dog meat".
On the day of the Boston Marathon bombings, I saw a lot of people who have a bit of fortitude running TOWARD the explosions, to care for their fellow citizens. People with big brass balls, who understood that something bad had happened, and decided that they should disregard the potential for further explosions. Most of the severely injured have survived because all those people ran toward the disaster, and not away from it. The crowd at the marathon bombing made me proud.
This "we're dog meat" shit is embarrassing as all hell. I can see why he posted as AC.
Brave words from someone who goes by the handle Runaway1956!
This is a base requirement for fracking: there is no way to do fracking without polluting the ground water.
That is an extraordinary claim and it requires extraordinary evidence. Specifically, it requires explaining why fracking liquid injected into a gasfield inevitably ends up in an aquifer, despite these being separated by impermeable layers (which is a requirement for gas to stay put in the first place).
Idiot. Fracking is short for hydraulic fracturing. First they drill into that gasfield. Then they pump high pressure liquid into it to fracture the rock. Then they extract the gas.
So to recap, you start with an impermeable layer. Then you drill holes in it. Then you try to fracture the rock inside it. And after that, you expect it to still be impermeable to adjacent layers 100% of the time?
Seriously, did the roaches actually evolve and pass it to their young, or did the specific roaches which HAD the sugar aversion trait simply avoid being poisoned and passed along said aversion to their offspring?
I'm kinda thinking it's the latter.
You're right, it's the latter. But for someone who doesn't understand biology (evolution), the latter is the same as the former!
I would counter that something is messed up with the population.
What is your priority? Would you rather be raped and murdered while getting your government-subsidized college degree? Or would you rather pay more for your degree and have less criminals on the streets?
Also, prisons cost more because you have to pay for everything (room, board, medical expenses, education, legal fees, etc.) for prisoners. There are no football games and donors to offset the costs.
It's a car that flies, so it's a flying car. Sorry if that doesn't satisfy your Jetsons dreams.
I don't know if a two-seater kit-car with no cargo-space qualifies as a car by today's metric. It's a glorified motorcycle attached to a parasail.
It can fly and drive. But it doesn't look very maneuverable in the air (by nature of the high-drag parasail) and I wouldn't want to be in a road accident with it either... the other car will drive right though it.
Also, they make it street legal with a loophole: It's sold as a "kit car" and wouldn't pass the full road certification (no crash tests) required by what most people consider cars. You might as well try to drive a Cessna down the road and call it a kit.
Personally, I think that it's awesome, but it's clearly only meant for remote areas and not high traffic areas. Apparently it also needs a terrain avoidance system.
Blackberry previously had almost exclusive control over the government market. Now they don't - there are now other equally acceptable options such as Samsung and Apple. Blackberry has to compete, rather than simply exist.
Sounds like Microsoft. And it's working well for them!
If it's my device that I paid for, I *don't* want to connect to work resources. Fuck that. My device, my number, none of your business.
Yup, agreed.
And there are plenty of at-will employers that will respond with "You're fired. Fuck you. My company. My rules. None of your business as to why I fired you. Bye."
One can be firm in a stance, but one might find themselves standing alone.
Actually, they won't do that because it is a lawsuit waiting to happen. It's discrimination to only retain employees who have their own smartphone. If an employee doesn't have means to pay for a smartphone, the company needs to provide a basic one for them OR a stipend able to cover the entire cost of one for the functionality necessary for company work.
This is very similar to only hiring employees with cars: You can't legally get away with that for most jobs; instead they can only expect employees to have reliable and on-time transportation.
Think of the field-day that the ACLU will have with this issue.
It's new and interesting. Obviously it is going to take a few iterations to be fully functional, but why should that stop the early adopters from beta-testing the device if they want to pay for it? Other companies make us do it all the time with computers, phones, software and cars.
Also, how much battery life is enough? The hardware is very small... would you rather have a gigantic Lithium ion battery strapped to your head? (That might help with balancing the device center-of-mass.) Or maybe a micro-nuclear reactor? Just like your phone: If you want it to last all day, don't use it all the time.
Have we really become so elitist that we cannot appreciate novel technology unless it is completely and utterly perfect?
The Earth-Sun L2 point is out of reach with the old Space Shuttle, but the original point is a good one. It is too bad that we do not have the capability to repair and restock the consumables on spacecraft in the inner Solar System. It has been nearly 45 years since we first went to the Moon. We should be able to move around in our band of the Solar System by now.
Was it not possible to put enough fuel into Herschel for it to return to near earth orbit for a refueling capability?
Why is Congress not getting paycuts as a result of the sequester?
Their base salary is $174K for less than 180 work days per year. (That annualized to $252K for 260.7 work days per year. And they get better benefits than most people.) For reference, the median US income is $50.5K. The leaders of the House and Senate make around $200K.
That seems like a lot of cash for people who are barely able to complete the basic functions of their job, like passing a budget every year and keeping the country functioning smoothly.
Bullshit. You can't teach muscle memory and instinctive reactions in a three-day CCW class and you'd be foolish to think that a single CCW class would improve your chances of going up against two or more armed homicidal maniacs. They teach you just enough to get the magic number of rounds into the right place on the qualification target. I am not talking about being taught to say "Leave now or I will shoot!" while you draw down on a paper target, but rather simunition-equipped against other people in real-life scenarios. You can take advanced classes, but I (and hopefully you) both know that you need to retrain often to keep from getting rusty.
Also, remember that in a city, you can't legally take your gun into most stores or offices. If you illegally take it in, you are subject to a felony and loss of your CCW permit.
You should really specify what municipality you live in prior to spouting off like that. In Minnesota, neither of those are true. The store/office has the duty to ask you to leave... and if you don't, you are subject to a misdemeanor and NOT loss of permit, nor loss of firearm, for first offense. MN is also technically open-carry, and I carry everywhere.
Besides, the whole point of concealed is that nobody knows you are carrying unless you show them or you submit to a check.
Hopefully you don't carry it "everywhere," otherwise you are one of those cowboys that give the rest of us gun owners a bad reputation:
Places Prohibited by statute in Minnesota (Wikipedia)
- K-12 School property
- A childcare center while children are present
- State correctional facilities or state hospitals and grounds (MN Statute 243.55)
- Any jail, lockup or correctional facility (MN Statute 641.165)
- Courthouse complexes, unless the sheriff is notified (MN Statute 609.66)
- Offices and courtrooms of the Minnesota Supreme Court and Court of Appeals
- Any state building in the immediate vicinity of the capitol building unless the commissioner of public safety is notified (MN Statute 609.66)
- In federal court facilities or other federal facilities (Title 18 U.S.C. 930)
From the NRA for Minnesota: Concealed carry is prohibited in certain locations. These include:
- All school properties, which are defined as public, private, elementary, middle or secondary school buildings or grounds, including properties under the temporary exclusive control of a school.
- Any licensed childcare center during a time when children are present.
- Any private property where the owner or operator has posted a notice which reads, “(the owners name) BANS GUNS IN THESE PREMISES.”
Also, no-permit open carry in a school will get you a felony in Minnesota.
Won't stop a bomb, but would be pretty handy if people like these two chuckle heads decide to start shooting things up instead of blowing them up.
You should take some basic handgun safety classes followed by some active shooting classes before you consider a CCW permit.
See if you can handle your shit in a mock active-shooter scenario. Because I guarantee that, in practice, if you can't consistently clear a jammed feed, draw your gun properly, disable the safety, and stay behind cover, then you won't be able to do it properly when you are actually about to kill someone. Plus, it is really hard to hit someone who is shooting back at you, especially if they planned ahead and have body armor, a shotgun, a semi-auto rifle and 200 rounds as compared to your two (legal) low-capacity magazines.
You may also find that you do not like the responsibility associated with carrying a firearm... Are you going to help others in danger or just yourself? Are you willing to accept the consequences of misinterpreting a rapidly evolving situation and doing the wrong thing? What if you accidentally shoot an undercover cop? What if you shoot a gang-member and the gang comes after you or your family? What if you accidentally shoot another CCW-holding citizen responding to the same situation? What if he shoots you? Is your spouse on-board with you carrying a loaded weapon on your person? Are you willing to no longer be able to drink alcohol on the days that you are carrying?
Also, remember that in a city, you can't legally take your gun into most stores or offices. If you illegally take it in, you are subject to a felony and loss of your CCW permit. And the average legal fees associated with shooting someone in self-defense are spectacular... upwards of $400K if the family decides to sue you.
I am not saying that you shouldn't go for it. Just be aware there is a lot of baggage associated with the "right" to carry and it is better to be aware of those issues up front.
Slashdot Mirror
They will lay off all of their system administrators at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th.
That's when PRISM will become fully self-aware.
I don't understand all the cynical comments about the government forcing Google to decrypt everyone's data.
Would 128-bit AES encryption really bother the NSA that much? Would it even bother a committed hacker that much? If anything, this will just provide Google with a little ass coverage in case they every get hacked by someone other than the NSA.
But seriously, if this is something that you're really worried about, you should be encrypting your online storage yourself. Or better yet, don't store anything online. Even better, don't network a computer that you aren't willing to have hacked. The level of inconvenience goes up with the level of security; everyone needs to decide what will work for themselves.
I don't really think that it is that novel a discovery that that there are bone eating organisms in a part of the ocean where animals regularly die and discard bone matter. Nor is it particularly odd that there are no wood-eating worms in an area that hasn't had any trees for several million years.
Hopefully there was more than that to their research focus.
The controlled burn decent shown in the video looks impressive but will always be impractical from a financial perspective.
In fact, it is the most horrific way to land a rocket coming from space due to the amount of fuel that would need to be used to decelerate it. We use parachutes or wings to slow things down for landing in an atmospheric environment because it saves a lot of energy compared to doing a direct burn for deceleration.
Essentially, you have to use at least as much fuel as you needed to get the return payload up in the first place. Then remember that you need to also use extra fuel on the ascent to lift all that extra fuel that you need for the descent! Compare this to a heat-shield/parachute re-entry where you use almost no fuel.
Thus, this technique will only be useful for landing in places with no atmosphere or as a final descent stage after using some other method to slow the rocket down from the hypersonic re-entry velocity. Also remember that the Eagle lunar landing module did everything shown in that youtube video back in 1969.
Obama will fix this. Just keep waiting for it!
These arguments lead nowhere. There's one inescapable fact:
Electricity is 100% efficient. Gas is not.
Technology will continue to advance and the impact of building the cars will be lessened.
Combustion is 100% efficient. We just can't use all the energy released efficiently.
There are input and output losses from batteries. And if your input energy is coming from coal... well...
Not to be harsh but why is this on slashdot? Is it because it was invented by a young female? (If a nerdy boy with really thick glasses invented it, would people care less? Probably.)
Reasons why the light is not interesting:
1. She is using an established technology (Seebeck effect), Peltier coolers are commonplace.
2. It runs for up to 20 minutes.
3. It isn't that bright.
4. You have to have to hold it for it to work.
When I use a light to see in the dark, I generally either (a) want it to be really bright and/or (b) I don't want to hold it so that I can have my hands free to work. This device satisfies neither of those objectives.
"Normal-looking offspring were obtained from all four strains tested."
Link from article http://www.biolreprod.org/content/early/2013/06/25/biolreprod.113.110098.abstract)
One scary a$$ line, indicates a 100% success rate.
The ramifications of what's implied are numerous and cover every aspect of our future.
Really? Who, other than a slashdotter, would be excited to be set up with a "normal-looking" date?
I've had similar problems as I have gotten older, but I don't think that it is the light frequency (for me). Instead, I think that I just can't punish my body like I used to do.
I'd try the following things before getting too worried:
1. Take work breaks every 30 minutes;
2. Update my eyeglass prescription;
3. Make sure that no other bright light sources (like windows) are in your field of view when looking at your monitor (It should be the brightest thing in the room);
4. Sleep 8 hours a night;
5. Don't use the computer when you are hung over;
6. Take allergy medication if you have seasonal allergies.
When I do all of the above, I don't get headaches or watering eyes. Generally, I do not do all of the above, but happily accept the headache or watery eyes because I know that I can make it go away if I sleep more.
"The terrorists are smart and we're dog meat"
Yet more evidence that the terrorists have won. We have here yet another citizen who believes that terrorism is a major problem. Each and every day, more Americans die in automobile accidents, than the terrorists have managed to kill since 9/11/01. Yet, "we're dog meat" because of terrorists.
Far to few Americans have any balls these days. Is it something in the diet? To many drugs? To much brain washing? What is it that causes Americans to whine like whipped dogs? "we're dog meat".
On the day of the Boston Marathon bombings, I saw a lot of people who have a bit of fortitude running TOWARD the explosions, to care for their fellow citizens. People with big brass balls, who understood that something bad had happened, and decided that they should disregard the potential for further explosions. Most of the severely injured have survived because all those people ran toward the disaster, and not away from it. The crowd at the marathon bombing made me proud.
This "we're dog meat" shit is embarrassing as all hell. I can see why he posted as AC.
Brave words from someone who goes by the handle Runaway1956!
That is an extraordinary claim and it requires extraordinary evidence. Specifically, it requires explaining why fracking liquid injected into a gasfield inevitably ends up in an aquifer, despite these being separated by impermeable layers (which is a requirement for gas to stay put in the first place).
Idiot. Fracking is short for hydraulic fracturing. First they drill into that gasfield. Then they pump high pressure liquid into it to fracture the rock. Then they extract the gas.
So to recap, you start with an impermeable layer. Then you drill holes in it. Then you try to fracture the rock inside it. And after that, you expect it to still be impermeable to adjacent layers 100% of the time?
Which oil company do you work for?
Now they can make the OS and application coding less efficient!
Seriously, did the roaches actually evolve and pass it to their young, or did the specific roaches which HAD the sugar aversion trait simply avoid being poisoned and passed along said aversion to their offspring?
I'm kinda thinking it's the latter.
You're right, it's the latter. But for someone who doesn't understand biology (evolution), the latter is the same as the former!
I would counter that something is messed up with the population.
What is your priority? Would you rather be raped and murdered while getting your government-subsidized college degree? Or would you rather pay more for your degree and have less criminals on the streets?
Also, prisons cost more because you have to pay for everything (room, board, medical expenses, education, legal fees, etc.) for prisoners. There are no football games and donors to offset the costs.
It's a car that flies, so it's a flying car. Sorry if that doesn't satisfy your Jetsons dreams.
I don't know if a two-seater kit-car with no cargo-space qualifies as a car by today's metric. It's a glorified motorcycle attached to a parasail.
It can fly and drive. But it doesn't look very maneuverable in the air (by nature of the high-drag parasail) and I wouldn't want to be in a road accident with it either... the other car will drive right though it.
Also, they make it street legal with a loophole: It's sold as a "kit car" and wouldn't pass the full road certification (no crash tests) required by what most people consider cars. You might as well try to drive a Cessna down the road and call it a kit.
Personally, I think that it's awesome, but it's clearly only meant for remote areas and not high traffic areas. Apparently it also needs a terrain avoidance system.
How many undiscovered glitches are there that cause the player to lose unfairly?
Blackberry previously had almost exclusive control over the government market. Now they don't - there are now other equally acceptable options such as Samsung and Apple. Blackberry has to compete, rather than simply exist.
Sounds like Microsoft. And it's working well for them!
Nope, I am going to go with the scientists here and say its very credible that it was a Galaxy far far away. Also a long long time ago.
So I'm going to further speculate that it was the death star blowing up the Aldebaran system. Or perhaps the deathstar being blown up it self.
Now how the Ewoks would survive such a massive gamma burst is anyones guess.
Ewoks are obviously highly resistant to gamma ray radiation due to their furry coating.
If it's my device that I paid for, I *don't* want to connect to work resources. Fuck that. My device, my number, none of your business.
Yup, agreed.
And there are plenty of at-will employers that will respond with "You're fired. Fuck you. My company. My rules. None of your business as to why I fired you. Bye."
One can be firm in a stance, but one might find themselves standing alone.
Actually, they won't do that because it is a lawsuit waiting to happen. It's discrimination to only retain employees who have their own smartphone. If an employee doesn't have means to pay for a smartphone, the company needs to provide a basic one for them OR a stipend able to cover the entire cost of one for the functionality necessary for company work.
This is very similar to only hiring employees with cars: You can't legally get away with that for most jobs; instead they can only expect employees to have reliable and on-time transportation.
Think of the field-day that the ACLU will have with this issue.
Why is everyone so critical of this technology?
It's new and interesting. Obviously it is going to take a few iterations to be fully functional, but why should that stop the early adopters from beta-testing the device if they want to pay for it? Other companies make us do it all the time with computers, phones, software and cars.
Also, how much battery life is enough? The hardware is very small... would you rather have a gigantic Lithium ion battery strapped to your head? (That might help with balancing the device center-of-mass.) Or maybe a micro-nuclear reactor? Just like your phone: If you want it to last all day, don't use it all the time.
Have we really become so elitist that we cannot appreciate novel technology unless it is completely and utterly perfect?
The Earth-Sun L2 point is out of reach with the old Space Shuttle, but the original point is a good one. It is too bad that we do not have the capability to repair and restock the consumables on spacecraft in the inner Solar System. It has been nearly 45 years since we first went to the Moon. We should be able to move around in our band of the Solar System by now.
Was it not possible to put enough fuel into Herschel for it to return to near earth orbit for a refueling capability?
It's funny when someone tries to use their limited logic set to predict the actions of 1000x more intelligent than them.
Bi-partisian (or anti-partisian?) comment:
Why is Congress not getting paycuts as a result of the sequester?
Their base salary is $174K for less than 180 work days per year. (That annualized to $252K for 260.7 work days per year. And they get better benefits than most people.) For reference, the median US income is $50.5K. The leaders of the House and Senate make around $200K.
That seems like a lot of cash for people who are barely able to complete the basic functions of their job, like passing a budget every year and keeping the country functioning smoothly.
Good CCW classes do all three.
Bullshit. You can't teach muscle memory and instinctive reactions in a three-day CCW class and you'd be foolish to think that a single CCW class would improve your chances of going up against two or more armed homicidal maniacs. They teach you just enough to get the magic number of rounds into the right place on the qualification target. I am not talking about being taught to say "Leave now or I will shoot!" while you draw down on a paper target, but rather simunition-equipped against other people in real-life scenarios. You can take advanced classes, but I (and hopefully you) both know that you need to retrain often to keep from getting rusty.
Also, remember that in a city, you can't legally take your gun into most stores or offices. If you illegally take it in, you are subject to a felony and loss of your CCW permit.
You should really specify what municipality you live in prior to spouting off like that. In Minnesota, neither of those are true. The store/office has the duty to ask you to leave ... and if you don't, you are subject to a misdemeanor and NOT loss of permit, nor loss of firearm, for first offense. MN is also technically open-carry, and I carry everywhere.
Besides, the whole point of concealed is that nobody knows you are carrying unless you show them or you submit to a check.
Hopefully you don't carry it "everywhere," otherwise you are one of those cowboys that give the rest of us gun owners a bad reputation:
Places Prohibited by statute in Minnesota (Wikipedia)
- K-12 School property
- A childcare center while children are present
- State correctional facilities or state hospitals and grounds (MN Statute 243.55)
- Any jail, lockup or correctional facility (MN Statute 641.165)
- Courthouse complexes, unless the sheriff is notified (MN Statute 609.66)
- Offices and courtrooms of the Minnesota Supreme Court and Court of Appeals
- Any state building in the immediate vicinity of the capitol building unless the commissioner of public safety is notified (MN Statute 609.66)
- In federal court facilities or other federal facilities (Title 18 U.S.C. 930)
From the NRA for Minnesota:
Concealed carry is prohibited in certain locations. These include:
- All school properties, which are defined as public, private, elementary, middle or secondary school buildings or grounds, including properties under the temporary exclusive control of a school.
- Any licensed childcare center during a time when children are present.
- Any private property where the owner or operator has posted a notice which reads, “(the owners name) BANS GUNS IN THESE PREMISES.”
Also, no-permit open carry in a school will get you a felony in Minnesota.
Time to get my Concealed Carry Permit.
Won't stop a bomb, but would be pretty handy if people like these two chuckle heads decide to start shooting things up instead of blowing them up.
You should take some basic handgun safety classes followed by some active shooting classes before you consider a CCW permit.
See if you can handle your shit in a mock active-shooter scenario. Because I guarantee that, in practice, if you can't consistently clear a jammed feed, draw your gun properly, disable the safety, and stay behind cover, then you won't be able to do it properly when you are actually about to kill someone. Plus, it is really hard to hit someone who is shooting back at you, especially if they planned ahead and have body armor, a shotgun, a semi-auto rifle and 200 rounds as compared to your two (legal) low-capacity magazines.
You may also find that you do not like the responsibility associated with carrying a firearm... Are you going to help others in danger or just yourself? Are you willing to accept the consequences of misinterpreting a rapidly evolving situation and doing the wrong thing? What if you accidentally shoot an undercover cop? What if you shoot a gang-member and the gang comes after you or your family? What if you accidentally shoot another CCW-holding citizen responding to the same situation? What if he shoots you? Is your spouse on-board with you carrying a loaded weapon on your person? Are you willing to no longer be able to drink alcohol on the days that you are carrying?
Also, remember that in a city, you can't legally take your gun into most stores or offices. If you illegally take it in, you are subject to a felony and loss of your CCW permit. And the average legal fees associated with shooting someone in self-defense are spectacular... upwards of $400K if the family decides to sue you.
I am not saying that you shouldn't go for it. Just be aware there is a lot of baggage associated with the "right" to carry and it is better to be aware of those issues up front.