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  1. They are not mutually exclusive on Obama Significantly Revises Technology Positions · · Score: 1
    Have it your way, Obama's voting record on net neutrality and privacy issues had been generally good. Or if you look at his goals (the whole PDF, not the overview), you find not only strong support for net neutrality, but a 5th grade level explanation of what it means.

    He also has a section of detail on filtering of content, which sounds like filters and blocks at the client side, to protect free speech. That's my opinion, your right to free speech doesn't imply a right to make me listen. My reading of the McCain position is that he's "going to get the filth off the Internet." Oh, and he'll provide experts to tell you what's filth.

  2. There's a lot happening in the field on 7th-Grader Designs Three Dimensional Solar Cell · · Score: 1

    The recent note on the avalanche effect and work on bringing light to the edges of windows and putting cells only on the edge have given promise that the watts per dollar will be going up, even if the watt per area figure does not rise as fast as hoped. Another new direction is printing cheap low efficiency cells on windows and possibly even clothing.

  3. Re:This is an ongoing investigation on The Fedora-Red Hat Crisis · · Score: 1
    That's why I said "however you define stolen" in case two. Administrative failures happen, but like the rogue employee case, there's no reason why I feel at increased risk from those issues, just as good practice at the Fedora servers doesn't protect me against bad practices on mine.

    What does concern me is if there was a way and outside attack could get into the Fedora servers, and that I have the same hole. I don't need to know details until there's a fix in that case, just that even more monitoring would be useful.

  4. Re:This is an ongoing investigation on The Fedora-Red Hat Crisis · · Score: 1
    There are three ways that a breach of such "inside information" like a signing key could be accomplished:
    - a rouge employee (or contributor)
    - someone had a key stolen (however you define stolen)
    - there is a serious hole in server security

    It's that last one which worries me, because if they have the hole, it's likely that I have it, too. And the fact that they refuse to categorize the problem indicates that they have a different view of good practice than mine. The first two causes are in the "it happens" category, the last doesn't. If your users have a potential hole they should know it so they can make their own decision what to do, and if the problem is known not to be on other systems the users should know that, too.t if there is a problem common to Fedora systems, users should be aware of it so they can make informed decisions.

    "Security through obscurity" is a failed approach, what you don't know can hurt you. Every vendor has problems, how they are handled is what differentiates the good from the bad.

  5. Re:The Jury is Still Out on The Fedora-Red Hat Crisis · · Score: 1

    IT managers now know that RH is going to go unresponsive when there's a problem.

    The issue isn't even fully known, so you're jumping to conclusions.

    For some reason Fedora has to re-key all their repos and, while I think that's done, it's still being mirrored. One would assume a signing key has been lost.

    Redhat isn't doing that. They apparently have a signing server, and a user's credentials were apparently lost, and some packages got signed, but not put in the repos. If you run a RedHat machine and get an unsolicited contact to install some new OpenSSH packages - don't.

    Given that enterprise RHEL and CentOS users did get a notify that there was an updated ssh package at that time, are you claiming that it was a forgery rather than a preemptive fix? This is either big news or bad advice.

  6. Re:No, just very, very difficult to do right. on World's First "Unclonable" RFID Chip · · Score: 1
    Your last paragraph is the key to the value of a chip like this, if the only way to clone it is molecule-by-molecule replication, it will be a "secure" chip as long as the cost of replication is significantly greater than the value of having a copy.

    There's also the time value, the cloning needs to be done before the value of having a clone decreases, and if you need to have physical posession of the original your options are further limited.

    I think this chip could be highly useful just by being secure against electronic evesdropping.

  7. Looks legit on Unsolicited Offer For My Personal Domain Name? · · Score: 1
    The question is, will the money compensite you for the hassle. Only you can say, and as noted earlier you can put mail forwarding in the deal, so people who don't know who or where you are will still be able to reach you.

    Being in the midst of a similar deal, I can just advise that you get a good lawyer to write the contract. It can be profitable, however.

  8. The interesting garbage collection implementation on Google Chrome, the Google Browser · · Score: 1
    One of the claimed advantages of chrome is that it creates a separate process for each tab. The docs note that this takes more memory, don't mention that it generally slows startup as well. The description continues to say that this avoids memory leaks, because the Java garbage collector misses memory.

    They also claim that their object pointers allow fast GC due to being in known places rather than requiring a search for pointers. That sounds as if the pointers to an onject are kept in a linked list, with the head in the object metadata. But if the garbage collect leaks memory, it is faster but no clearly better than other implementations. And using a process rather than a thread simply moves the GC from the Java environment to the kernel, which doesn't mean it will always be done better, just done elsewhere.

    Clearly having each sandbox in a separate process buys some increased security, as does the file access model. And the idea of a private tab which records no history after close certainly has uses, although I would want to check very carefully that the information really isn't saved or sent anywhere.

  9. If I ever run Windows I'll care on Google Chrome, the Google Browser · · Score: 1

    Went to the URL for chrome, saw the "browser for windows" warning. End of interest.

  10. Re:Very Interesting... on Google Chrome, the Google Browser · · Score: 1

    Actually the illustration in several blog articles shows a screenshot with the tabs in a sidebar. Also show 70 tabs open, which is impressive but not generally useful.

  11. Point of Transaction on Newegg Defies New York Sales Tax Law · · Score: 1
    The whole idea of sales tax is flawed, but that's another discussion. The point is that the tax should be charged at the point of the sale. The idea that I buy gas in Maine (taxed) and drive to New York (where I should pay a use tax) is crazy, and requires that merchants know sales tax for every location in the US.

    The transaction should be taxed at the point of sale, rather than the point of delivery, meaning states with mail order business would benefit, states with high sales tax would lose. And retailers would collect tax at a single rate and pay it to a single state, keeping the cost down to small businesses.

  12. Re:Damn, was an easy way to buy gold... on E-gold Owners Plead Guilty To Money Laundering · · Score: 1

    Gold has intrinsic (industrial) value, currency is just how you measure it. And in most societies in the last few thousand years most of th time it has significant collector value, jewelry value. Th e term "bling" is new, but the concent goes back at least four thousand years, six if you accept some accounts as accurate.

  13. You should have written sample code on How To Show Code Samples? · · Score: 1
    I've been writing open source code since the days of comp.sources.unix on usenet, and anyone wanting to take some time with google can not only find examples, but see that I have improved my code, can use many languages, etc.

    You should have been donating code and you wouldn't have the problem.

  14. Re:I had to tag this 'wtf', it's so unlike them on Google Launches Lively, an Avatar Based 3D World · · Score: 1

    How sad, Google has benefitted from open source, but when they get something like this they make it commercial only. Wonder if MSFT paid them to do this, or if G just made a business decision?

  15. Software ECC will help on Best Way To Store Digital Video For 20 Years? · · Score: 1
    Burn your data to quality DVD including software ECC (I use dvdisaster). That will greatly reduce the chance that you can't read it. Keep multiple copies in multiple places, away from temp swings and light.

    Remember that kids are like kittens, they get less cute with time, and their activities don't change so much because they are decreasing their learning percent day-to-day, until at age 15 they know everything. You will shoot fewer pictures and videos each year. Just remember to have someone else take some pictures, when you are dead and gone, and have preserved these memories, your kid will want to see you, not the other way round.

    While the storage medium will probably change over the years, hopefully the data format won't have to change often, I would expect jpeg to endure, but you might want a 2nd copy of videos saved in frame by frame stills plus wav audio.

  16. Re:Bunches of small drives on What To Do With a Hundred Hard Drives? · · Score: 1

    I suggest using DBAN disk nuker instead. Performas anything from a light random pass to DOD, DOE, RCMP removal. Perhaps a tad faster than just dd, uses less CPU, and can be adjusted to whatever level you find balances comfort and time (and paranoia).

  17. What they have doesn't work on Super-Sensitive Spray-On Explosive Detector · · Score: 1
    The last time I was checked I was wearing shoes I wear to the range (I'm a trap chairman and instructor) and carrying luggage which has been in the trunk with guns and ammo, a suitcase which often hold a pistol, etc.No positive. So how much is needed today to get a positive?

    A friend tells of traveling with his gun and ammo, and having the agent swab down the case outside for explosize residue after verifying the gun inside. And not checking the rest of the inside of the case for anything. And they got a negative!

  18. Few stereo images available on How NASA Will Bring the Phoenix Mars Mission To the Web · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry to see that only a few stereo images are available so far, particularly since many of the images released are from the right stereo camera, and there's probably a left image as well. If you think life coverage is like being there, viewing a stereo image is really like being there! It's a whole other sensation.

  19. Re:Ehh, it's been done before on Pushing a CPU to Heat Death, Intentionally · · Score: 1

    This is like... the vent slots on the computer, not the roach, right?

  20. Over-priced and under-understood on Get the Family Dog Cloned · · Score: 1
    Some company was offering to clone cats for ~$6k, and that might actually be worth it. However, unless they have some new technique not reported, the clones are DNA-only, they put the DNA of the original into an empth egg cell and implant it. This means the RNA comes from the egg, not the original donor.

    Good luck finding two geneticists who agree how much that changes the clone, but virtually all agree that it does make a difference, and the clones are not as alike the original as identical twins created via enbryonic splitting.

  21. Another good one on Linux Networking Cookbook · · Score: 1

    I just got the cookbook and "Linux Firewalls" by Michael Rash. Different solutions and problems, but they complement each other.

  22. Stripped down Linux on What To Do With Old Laptops? · · Score: 1

    I bought an adaptor from newegg for less than $10 which puts a laptop drive in a USB enclosure, using the USB for power. Now I can install a small Linux distro without fighting low memory, slow CPU and no CD. Or even a stripped down subset of a large distro like Fedora. The encrypted filesystem feature makes it easy to have a secure home directory for anything you don't want to share, while avoiding overhead of encryption for the open sopurce os.

    Makes a great box for taking notes and the like, in text mode, and a larger version will record meetings with the addition of a webcam.

  23. Re:bad test on Performance Showdown - SSDs vs. HDDs · · Score: 1

    The important advantages of solid state drives are faster seek, less noise, faster "spin up" time on power up, and lower power when not in use. Of these, none was discussed in the article, only seek time showed in the tables.

  24. Re:We've heard that before. on Consumer Ethanol Appliance Promised By Year's End · · Score: 1

    I have two reservations about this, first making ethanol is also known as moonshining, and the process must comply with restrictions of the ATF.

    The second is that ethanol is still really the wrong answer, a quick check of butanol fuel at wikipedia shows that it is a far better substitute for gasoline, not requiring so called "flex fuel" capability. And the recent progress in making butanol from cellulose shows promise of providing a cheap(er) fuel supply.

  25. Where did the sale occur? on End of the Internet's Tax-Free Ride? · · Score: 1

    When I used to sell items out of state, I got purchase orders marked "title passes at buyer's dock," which means damage in transit is my problem. It also means that the sale takes place at their location, subject to their taxes or lack thereof.

    Other POs were marked "title passes at shipper's dock" (LANL mainly), and they paid local sales tax at my end, and had their own insurance. If Internet sales took place at the shipper's dock, sales tax would be collected by the vendor's state. And many would start shipping from NH and other states without tax, I bet. ;-)