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Comment Re:So much raw data (Score 1) 309

by spookymonster (#30227024) Attached to: Wikileaks Publishes 500,000 9/11 Pager Messages

In what context were these quotes made? What was the nature of the lies? Were they covering up their own incompetent response (like, say, the FAA taking too long to contact NORAD)? Or were they of a much larger scope (like trying to hide a missile attack on the pentagon)? Quite a bit of difference between those two...

Comment I already do (Score 1, Insightful) 687

by spookymonster (#29106863) Attached to: World's Only Diesel-Electric Honda Insight

"By using less fuel you are shifting the tax burden onto those who cannot afford a high tech vehicle."

How do you figure? If the sticker price is higher, then so is the amount of taxes I'm paying to roll it off the showroom floor.

Also, your argument is only valid at the leading edge of the paradigm shift to high tech vehicle adoption. Eventually, those brand new 'high tech vehicles' will fall into the secondary markets (e.g., used car lots), becoming more affordable with each resale. It's only a matter of time until we reach the tipping point where gas guzzlers are in the minority. When we're all driving cars that get 100 mpg, then we're all sharing the burden equally.

Fighting progress because it changes the status quo is a losing proposition.

Comment Re:Cool, but... (Score 1, Informative) 220

by spookymonster (#28942239) Attached to: Adjustable-Focus Glasses Can Replace Bifocals

Why not try laser correction? I used to have astigmatisms in both eyes (one significantly worse than the other). Laser surgery completely removed my dependency on eyeglasses.

Now that I'm getting older, I'm finding my arms a little too short ;). So a pair of reading glasses that can adjust as my presbyopia progresses would be greatly appreciated.
Security

Hackers Get Free Parking In San Francisco 221

Posted by timothy from the usually-spots-at-the-end-of-the-judah-line dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "PC World reports that at the Black Hat security conference this week, security researchers say that it is pretty easy for a technically savvy hacker to make a fake payment card that gives them unlimited free parking on San Francisco's smart parking meter system. 'It wasn't technically complicated and the fact that I can do it in three days means that other people are probably already doing it and probably taking advantage of it,' says Joe Grand. 'It seems like the system wasn't analyzed at all.' To figure out how the payment system worked, Grand hooked up an oscilloscope to a parking meter and monitored what happened when he used a genuine payment card. Grand discovered the cards aren't digitally signed, and the only authentication between the meter and card is a password sent from the former to the latter. Examining the meters themselves could yield additional vulnerabilities that might allow someone to conduct other kinds of attacks, such as propagating a virus from meter to meter via the smart cards or a meter minder's PDA."
Medicine

Swine Flu Kills Obese People Disproportionately 661

Posted by timothy from the super-size-someone-else-please dept.
Philip K Dickhead writes "Bloomberg is reporting that the World Health Organization discovered a single, surprising characteristic that's emerged among swine flu victims who become severely ill: They are all fat. Infected people with a body mass index greater than 40 suffer respiratory complications that are harder to treat and can be fatal. The virus appears to be on a collision course with the obesity epidemic. WHO officials are gathering statistics to confirm and understand this development. 'It's very likely that if we went back retrospectively and looked at people who did poorly during seasonal flu, what would shake out is that obesity would be one of the risks.' Fat cells secrete chemicals that cause chronic, low-level inflammation that can hamper the body's immune response and narrow the airways, says Tim Armstrong, a doctor working in the WHO's chronic diseases department in Geneva."
Microsoft

Microsoft-Backed Firm Says IBM Is Anticompetitive 174

Posted by timothy from the ibm's-suffered-under-the-antitrust-whip-before dept.
BBCWatcher writes "Microsoft has long claimed that the mainframe is dead, slain by the company's Windows monopoly. Yet, apparently without any mirror nearby, Microsoft is now complaining through the Microsoft-funded Computer & Communications Industry Association that not only are mainframes not dead, but IBM is so anticompetitive that governments should intervene in the hyper-competitive server market. The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft is worried that the trend toward cloud computing is introducing competition to the Windows franchise, favoring better-positioned companies including IBM and Cisco. HP now talks about almost nothing but the IBM mainframe, with no Tukwila CPUs to sell until 2010. The global recession is encouraging more mainframe adoption as businesses slash IT costs, dominated by labor costs, and improve business execution. In 2008, IBM mainframe revenues rose 12.5% even whilst mainframe prices fell. (IBM shipped 25% more mainframe capacity than in 2007. Other server sales reports are not so good.) IBM mainframes can run multiple operating systems concurrently, including Linux and, more recently, OpenSolaris."
Programming

On the Humble Default 339

Posted by kdawson from the ne-pas-décider-c'est-décider dept.
Hugh Pickens sends along Kevin Kelly's paean to the default. "One of the greatest unappreciated inventions of modern life is the default. 'Default' is a technical concept first used in computer science in the 1960s to indicate a preset standard. ... Today the notion of a default has spread beyond computer science to the culture at large. It seems such a small thing, but the idea of the default is fundamental... It's hard to remember a time when defaults were not part of life. But defaults only arose as computing spread; they are an attribute of complex technological systems. There were no defaults in the industrial age. ... The hallmark of flexible technological systems is the ease by which they can be rewired, modified, reprogrammed, adapted, and changed to suit new uses and new users. Many (not all) of their assumptions can be altered. The upside to endless flexibility and multiple defaults lies in the genuine choice that an individual now has, if one wants it. ... Choices materialize when summoned. But these abundant choices never appeared in fixed designs. ... In properly designed default system, I always have my full freedoms, yet my choices are presented to me in a way that encourages taking those choices in time — in an incremental and educated manner. Defaults are a tool that tame expanding choice."
Earth

Periodic Table Gets a New, Unnamed Element 461

Posted by CmdrTaco from the so-many-ideas dept.
koavf writes "More than a decade after experiments first produced a single atom of 'super-heavy' element 112, a team of German scientists has been credited with its discovery, but it has yet to be named. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry has temporarily named the element ununbium, as 'ununbi' means 'one one two' in Latin; but the team now has the task of proposing its official name." Slashdotium? Taconium? Man, I shoulda gone into science so I could have named something sweet that kids have to memorize in classes.

Comment Where will you be? (Score 1) 229

by spookymonster (#28012719) Attached to: What OS and Software For a Mobile Documentary Crew?

If you will always be in the same location as all the systems you're outfitting, go with what you can provide adequate support for (Linux/Open Source, I presume).

If these systems are going to be scattered around the globe, go for Windows. Say what you will about Windows, but you'll find on-site support in damn near every country you travel to.

Macs might be a good option if they'll be deployed to major metropolitan cities only (NY, LA, London, etc.).
Image

Swedish Tax Office Targets Webcam Strippers Screenshot-sm 384

Posted by samzenpus from the anything-for-my-job dept.
Sweden's tax authorities are cracking down on unreported webcam stripper income. They estimate that hundreds of Swedish women are dodging the law, resulting in a tax loss of about 40m Swedish kronor (£3.3m) annually. The search involves tax officials examining stripper websites, hours upon hours, for completely legitimate purposes. A slightly disheveled project leader said 200 Swedish strippers had been investigated so far, adding the total could be as much as 500. "They are young girls, we can see from the photos. We think that perhaps they are not well informed about the rules," he said.
Robotics

Robot Body Suit To Be Marketed In Japan 128

Posted by timothy from the we-all-want-exoskeletons dept.
destinyland writes "A Japanese company is preparing limited mass production of a cybernetic bodysuit which dramatically increases user strength up to ten times. The "Hybrid Assistive Limb" suit synchronizes movements of a mechanical exoskeleton to biological nerve signals detected by biopads on the body. (Originally envisioned for people with disabilities, the suit also has industrial applications, and the company is planning annual production of 400 units at $4,200 apiece.) Its battery life is five hours, according to the company's web site, which promises they're also opening an EU branch to begin sales outside of Japan."

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