Song of the South movie? Banned.
To Kill a Mockingbird? Banned in various states.
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut? Banned
Kite runner? Banned.
Homegoing? Sought be banned.
Various Dr. Seuss books? Banned.
Between the far left (i.e. goon squad) and the far right (i.e. fascists) we will soon not have any books, movies, songs,etc available to read, view, listen to.
The amazing thing is that the far left kills off various books/movies for possible racist issues, while at the same time, ignoring songs like WAP. If WAP is good enough for stallion, then it should be good enough for Katy, Taylor, Gaga, Adele, Selena, etc to sing.
If they are not allowed to sing it, then it kind of indicates that there is a REAL ISSUE with it.
Then we have the far right screaming about books with sexual passages, while at the same time, we find them with hookers, in men's room with other guys, etc.
America is being destroyed by BOTH far right and left Extremists.
Time to kill off the Goon Squad/BLM, along with Trumpers/Fascists/KKK/Neo-nazis from having ANYTHING to do with politics.

Time to focus on National Security issues, since CONgress will not.
We have many, many Nat Sec issues that CONgress COULD solve but refuses to do so.
For today, I want to talk about University R&D and Student numbers.

America has for decades brought in foreign students to study and do research here. We have even hired a number of these within our universities. However, for the last 20+ years, we have been heavily targeted by just a few nations with focus on various science degrees/research. This is more of issue for foreign-born professors. With a number of these professors, they take in mostly students from their own nations and not America or other foreign nations. For all intents and purposes, these professors are training students to take various research back to their nation and ONLY their nation. Add to that, universities are focused more on foreign students for degrees that all nations want/need.
CONgress needs to do several things to fix this:
1) require that the results of the R&D that is paid by America, remain in America. IOW, if we funded more than 50% of the R&D, then any patents AND manufacturing/usage, needs to remain here.
2) For all research grants/labs, > 50% of the students on the grants MUST be American. Not Green Cards, but American citizen, who is likely to remain here. In addition, the other 100% support for next semester.
b) 3.0-3.5 => 75%.
c) 2.5-3.0 => 50%.
d) a free application to McDonalds.

We need to make this grade based to encourage students to work at it. Note that even if they pay for the next semester, but pull their grades up, they get back on track. I further suggest that if the student comes from a poorly rated high school/school district, then for the first 2 semesters, the above scale is dropped by .5, while the student must also take remedial courses to address their short coming (i.e. math, reading, how to study, etc).
4) Ok, so what fields/trades does America need? Well, at this time, we are limited, but in the future, the needs will shift. In the mean time, the core fields will likely be hard sciences (physics, chem, bio-chem, etc), Most bio science, Math, Computer Science, Robotics, engineering, medicine (nursing, Paramedic, EMT, etc), teaching, with trades like Construction, plumbing, electrician, Police, etc. What do we NOT need? How about nearly all business, most liberal arts, Beautician, and esp. Political science.

Note that by society paying for these needed AS/BS, it will drive many more of our students into these fields, and still have relatively high paying jobs when they get out. And this is without incurring large amounts of debt.
From National Security POV, it keeps the research here, while also increasing the number of Americans in needed fields, without the severe debt that we have had in recent times.

I finally have my laser engraver in, after two months at port due to insane fucking importer fees. Nice piece of equipment. I thought I was about to get ripped off for $330. Noooooope. This beast is a straight industrial-class machine.

Let's say I'm running a servo off PoE, 48V. The servo at maximum can handle 30V. Assuming that, could I toss 18V worth of LED drop in there, and still have PWM control signals pass through cleanly from LED to the servo motor, since the LED is a passive component? I'm thinking that this would serve also as an indicator for operation, as if it is on obviously the signal/current/voltage is passing and the circuit is complete.

Computers have trouble generating good-quality random numbers. The only decent source of randomness used by the average PC, without user interaction, is hard drive sensor noise. On a single-board computer or VM (or perhaps even a computer with just an SSD?) the situation is a bit scary if you think about it. These are the computers you're generating your cryptographic keys on.

Infosec professionals often suggest half-jokingly that there's some NSA conspiracy keeping HRNGs out of everyday computers. HRNGs do cost money, but there are some high-quality sources of HRNG-generated randomness you can access online for free, a few even anonymously. I've written a script (adapted from one in a /dev/urandom manpage) that will seed your /dev/urandom from these and then save a file with some /dev/urandom output for later use, in case your computer is offline. Run it on startup:

#! /bin/bash
 
echo "Downloading random strings and seeding to /dev/urandom..."
curl -s "https://www.random.org/strings/?num=8&len=16&unique=on&digits=on&upperalpha=on&loweralpha=on&format=plain&rnd=new" > /dev/urandom
curl -s "https://beacon.nist.gov/beacon/2.0/pulse/last" | grep -A 2 uri | grep -i value > /dev/urandom
curl -sL "https://random.uchile.cl/beacon/2.0/pulse/last" | grep -A 2 uri | grep -i value > /dev/urandom
curl -s --insecure "https://beacon.inmetro.gov.br/beacon/2.0/pulse/last" | grep -A 2 uri | grep -i value > /dev/urandom
wget -qO - "https://qrng.anu.edu.au/API/jsonI.php?length=10&type=hex16&size=2" | cut -d ":" -f 5 > /dev/urandom
curl -s "https://drand.cloudflare.com/api/public" > /dev/urandom
echo "Loading and rewriting random seed..."
random_seed=/var/run/random-seed #file for holding random data
# Carry a random seed from start-up to start-up
# Load and then save the whole entropy pool
if [ -f $random_seed ]; then
    cat $random_seed > /dev/urandom
else
    touch $random_seed
fi
chmod 600 $random_seed
poolfile=/proc/sys/kernel/random/poolsize
[ -r $poolfile ] && bytes=`cat $poolfile` || bytes=4096
dd if=/dev/urandom of=$random_seed count=1 bs=$bytes

It would be a good idea to keep the random seed data file that could potentially be the primary source of randomness on your computer's startup inaccessible to non-root users, but you could modify this to generate a second file just for sharing with other computers.

RIP Sweet Jupiter kitty. 23-24 years is an awesome life for a kitty. I'm so sorry I had to end your life in a sterile and noisy environment instead of letting you die in peace at home, you were suffering too much. Have a good journey, little one.

Anyone that wants his contact info, or that of any of his relatives, let me know. My info fees are very cheap (on the order of cents versus nearly hundreds of dollars which any other site generally tries to charge/nickel-dime you out of.)

This appeared in my /. notifications today. I will treasure this always.

Relationship Change
sent by Slashdot Message System on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @12:05AM
GayAnalSex (5103247) has made you their foe.

I have to suspect that my CFO knows about my inherent ability to either make things right or seriously fuck things up by simply being present or part of something. Go figure as soon as he tosses me into the cryptocurrency ring, everything drops like a fucking rock. Bitcoin almost below 13K, ETH was at 800 and now in the 600 range, Ripple rose and fell with only the tiniest overall gain since I looked at it the first time, but of course those bastards can't send me the e-mail to finish making a Ripple wallet. I'd be willing to bet once I get out of this, the market will go back up, and until then, it's downhill from here. But that'd be the good thing, as the CFO would then be able to get all of this for cheap, and wait for the next inevitable irrational rise after he pulls me out of the game.

Only good thing I've pulled so far is figuring out how to get this GTX 970 to pull 12Mh/s when unconfigured it only does ~3Mh/s, and that took some risky driver fiddling and overclocking after telling the card to optimize for compute, and then doing what I could to eke out additional memory bandwidth.

lamness filter cruft because you cant delete JEs apparently

Flynn pleads guilty to lying to FBI, is cooperating with Mueller

It really is a shame that impeachment isn't on the table, but at least some nice heads will be rolling.

Tim Burke on special snowflakes:

If America is not great, it is not for a lack of attention to our sensitive right-wing snowflakes. They said: hands off our guns. Well, we stand now at the moment of the most intense judicial restraint on any attempt to restrict gun ownership and use in the history of this republic. They said: lower our taxes! We are the least taxed liberal democracy on the planet, we are 37 years into a national regime of ceaseless tax reduction. They said: cut the welfare state, get rid of the safety net! The safety net has been cut, the great revolution of the late 19th and early 20th Century in favor of public goods is nearly totally undone. They said: stop teaching our children what we donâ(TM)t want them to know. Creationism is back in schools, the government is actively hostile to science, itâ(TM)s ok for the top leaders of this country to endorse historical falsehoods and insist they be taught to the nationâ(TM)s children. They said: weâ(TM)re too free to see pornography and get divorced and live together outside of marriage and take drugs. And where is it that pornography is most popular and adultery flourishes and opoids and meth take hold? In Trumplandia, where people apparently need the Nanny State to stop them from doing what they blame on others who do it far less. They said: stop crime at all costs! And thirty years later, theyâ(TM)re still afraid in a country that locks up more of its own people than any other comparable nation, that allows cops to kill black men with impunity.

A while back I discovered that theyâ(TM)re selling photographic film again, so I bought a package of three rolls of 35mm Kodak color film. Not sure what Iâ(TM)ll photograph, but the Minolta 35 mm SLR takes a hell of a lot better pictures than my phone. Actually, than any phoneâ"and any digital camera.
        I got home, set the film aside (itâ(TM)s a lot more expensive than the last time I used film) and looked for my camera, which hadnâ(TM)t been used for a couple of decades.
        I couldnâ(TM)t find it. I was sure Iâ(TM)d put it in the middle drawer of my dresser, but no matter how much I rummaged I couldnâ(TM)t find it. And damn it, Iâ(TM)d paid eighteen dollars for the film and didnâ(TM)t keep the receipt. That was a few days ago.
        So yesterday I decided to look again, maybe it was in a different drawer? I looked through all of them, and finally rummaged through the one Iâ(TM)d looked in earlier. And I found a small case with a zipper, and there was a camera inside.
        An old sixteen millimeter, the kind you used flash cubes with. Looking more, I found another camera. It was a cheapo as well. And then at the back of the bottom of the drawer, there it was. My old camera, the SLR (I have another 35mm but itâ(TM)s not nearly as good).
        Checking it out I wondered if I could remember how to use it. On the bottom was a screwed in battery cover. I opened it and stuck the battery in my pocket, since after half a century that batteryâ(TM)s certainly more than dead.
        So I want back to Walgreenâ(TM)s for a new battery.
        They donâ(TM)t make them any more. Itâ(TM)s a mercury battery, and they no longer sell anything with mercury in it. And itâ(TM)s a strange 1.6 volts, the new ones are 1.3 or 1.5, which is going to make my light meter inaccurate. Iâ(TM)ll have to experiment to find out how to adjust it... that is, if I can get it to work at all. Itâ(TM)s thinner than the old battery, and I donâ(TM)t think the polarity is marked. And itâ(TM)s thinner, so Iâ(TM)ll probably have to use aluminum foil as a spacer to make it connect. That means Iâ(TM)ll have a burrito from La Bamba for lunch tomorrow, because they wrap them in foil. Iâ(TM)m not buying a whole roll for a square inch of foil!
***
        Two days later as I was eating my burrito I remembered that film changed sometime in the 1980s, with the film speeds changing from ASA to ISO, so I put off opening the battery until I could do a little research. I found that the cameraâ(TM)s built-in light meter wouldnâ(TM)t work; conversion was more complex than converting Fahrenheit to Celcius. So now Iâ(TM)m going to have to schlep all the way over to the west side of town, or all the way up to the north side.
        And then I thought of the other cameraâ"the one we call a âoephoneâ. It could probably be used as a light meter, so it looks like I have a little more research.
        So I downloaded two or three photographic light meters, all of which were completely incomprehensible and none of which came with instructions.
        So it looks like my only recourse is to go to the camera store and buy a light meter. I googled, and everything was either on the far north side of town or the far west side. One listed was Best Buy, and since Iâ(TM)d decided to hook my TV to the network I needed a cable and went there.
        They had the short cable I needed, and lots of camera supplies, but no light meters. Itâ(TM)s probably because cameras had built-in light meters for the last half century, but film changed from ASA to ISO three decades ago or so, so it would no longer work even if they still made batteries for it.
        So I asked the guy for directions to the camera shop, got in the car and looked at Google Maps, and couldnâ(TM)t find the damned place! When I got home I looked it up again, have a better idea of where it is, and will have to go back out there, but Iâ(TM)m calling first.
        I should have called. I found it on the map, drove out there, and found the hard to find camera store.
        Their cheapest light meter was over $250! Thatâ(TM)s way, way too much. The store guy explained that it was because so few people are shooting film now, and new cameras have built-in light meters so they only made really fancy ones. It made sense, but of course I was disappointed. Not sure what to do now, Iâ(TM)m not paying that much for a light meter! I only paid fifteen bucks for one when I was a teenager.
        Then, on my way out, I saw something that cheered me greatlyâ"a small blackboard with a notice that they could digitize VCR tape! Itâ(TM)s worth twenty five bucks to me to get that tape of my kids when they were kids digitized.
        But I still donâ(TM)t know what to do about that light meter. Guess Iâ(TM)ll have to check Google Play again and try all the light meter apps. Iâ(TM)m not very hopeful...
        Any ideas?

All the cops and newspapers are searching for a motive in the horrific mass murder in Las Vegas last week. No connection to any terrorist groups, no indication at all that it would happen, and the newspapers are all asking âoeWhy??â

        The answer is simple and I canâ(TM)t figure out why nobody else can figure it out.

        For well over a century the line between fame and infamy has been blurred. The eighteenth century James Gang were murdering thieves, but still well regarded. The reason was the hated Pinkertons, hired by banks who were also not well liked. The Pinkertons did some horrific things themselves, like killing an innocent fifteen year old mentally challanged boy. The Pinkertonsâ(TM) infamy caused the James gang to be famous despite their foul deeds.

        In the 1930s there was Bonnie and Clyde, also murderous thieves, but the people they murdered and stole from were bankers, who were hated more than anyone in the country, having taken away peopleâ(TM)s homes, crashing in 1928 to 1930 leaving the country in poverty.

        By the twenty first century, actually before, the words âoeinfamyâ and âoeinfamousâ have almost disappeared. We think of Mark David Chapman, the man who shot John Lennon in the back four times, killing him in 1980 not as infamous, but famous.
        Itâ(TM)s simple. The mass murderer last week did it to become âoefamousâ. Because he knew full well that the media would release his name, and by all accounts he wanted everyone to know he was the perpetrator.

        The media should stop printing the names of these monsters. But they wont; I
wrote about this two decades ago and nobody listened. Nobody will now, either.

Ad networks

There are millions of websites on the Internet, operated by millions of publishers. A single advertiser cannot practically contact millions of publishers individually to inquire about placing ads. Nor can an advertiser necessarily trust reach metrics (views and clicks) provided by a publisher that isn't well known. So instead, advertisers and publishers use web advertising networks. These allow an advertiser to place an advertisement on websites operated by a wide variety of publishers.

Interest-based targeting

Advertisers don't want to waste their money buying ad space only to show ads that are completely irrelevant to a viewer's demographic. So they pay a premium for ad space more closely aligned to a particular interest. To better match ads to viewers, ad networks build interest profiles about the behavior of visitors to sites operated by publishers that use the ad network.

"Retargeting" occurs when these profiles become as narrow as "viewers who have visited a page about X product". Sellers of this product then place ads for this product through the network in order to encourage people who are interested in this product to complete the purchase. Some users consider retargeting creepy, as if the stores were "stalking" a particular user.

But as phozz bare pointed out in a comment:

Sure, "retargeting" [has] happened to me. As a Firefox user. I don't really care

So long as the ad network operator doesn't disclose an individual visitor's interest profile to the advertisers or publishers using the network, what's the downside of this surveillance?