Comment Re: This is a solution in search of a problem. (Score 1) 765
CA SB-293 would make guns that do not have smart gun technology illegal to purchase (unless you are a cop or work for Hollywood).
Comment Re: When police and military start using them . . (Score 1) 765
Negligent discharge rates (and corresponding injury/fatality rates) amongst law enforcement and military are not significantly different from the general population.
Comment Re:Tech isn't there yet (Score 1) 765
Here is what Armatix says about the reliability of the iP1:
"The iP1 pistol is intended for target shooting only and will not function if it is not within 10" of the referenced iW1
wristwatch and the PIN code entered, or it or the referenced iW1 wristwatch do not have sufficient battery power, or
communication between them is blocked. It should not be relied upon for purposes of self-defense."
Do you think the government should make owning any firearm that does not contain this technology illegal?
Comment Re: And any idiot with a soldering iron can bypas (Score 1) 765
CA will make all guns that do not have "smart gun technology" illegal to purchase unless you are a cop.
http://leginfo.legislature.ca....
SB 293 would require guns submitted for testing to incorporate owner authorization ability starting two years after two “smart guns” have been approved for sale. The Armatix iP1 is the first of the two.
Comment Re:And any idiot with a soldering iron can bypass (Score 5, Informative) 765
From the user manual for the Armatix iP1:
"The iP1 pistol is intended for target shooting only and will not function if it is not within 10" of the referenced iW1
wristwatch and the PIN code entered, or it or the referenced iW1 wristwatch do not have sufficient battery power, or
communication between them is blocked. It should not be relied upon for purposes of self-defense."
Comment Re:Well actually he's pretty solidly anti-gun too. (Score 1) 234
“My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of this horrific tragedy and their families. These events are shocking to all of us and sadly remind us of the carnage that is possible when assault weapons get into the wrong hands. It is imperative that we take every step possible to eliminate the types of senseless killings witnessed in Aurora, Colorado. We must limit access to weapons that can carry massive rounds of bullets or that can be easily reloaded. SB 249 is a step in that direction and should be approved by the Legislature as soon as possible.” - Leland Yee
What Would You Do With the World's Most Powerful Laser? 143
sciencehabit writes "This week, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California announced an important milestone on the road to achieving ignition, which could lead to producing controlled fusion reactions here on Earth. But NIF isn't just about harnessing the energy of the stars—it's about learning how stars produce their energy in the first place. In fact, pushing matter to extreme pressures and temperatures lets scientists explore all sorts of unanswered questions. At the annual meeting of AAAS in Chicago four physicists sat down with Science Magazine to discuss NIF's basic science potential and what experiments they would do if they had the laser all to themselves."
Comment Re:Simplyfying inventory management (Score 1) 371
They still need a *globally* unique MAC per device. Yes, technically, it only needs to be unique per subnet, but NOBODY depends on that.
Comment Not unusual (Score 2) 371
From the start, OUIs were 3 out of 6 bytes long.
Not All Bugs Are Random 165
CowboyRobot writes "Andrew Koenig at Dr. Dobb's argues that by looking at a program's structure — as opposed to only looking at output — we can sometimes predict circumstances in which it is particularly likely to fail. 'For example, any time a program decides to use one or two (or more) algorithms depending on an aspect of its input such as size, we should verify that it works properly as close as possible to the decision boundary on both sides. I've seen quite a few programs that impose arbitrary length limits on, say, the size of an input line or the length of a name. I've also seen far too many such programs that fail when they are presented with input that fits the limit exactly, or is one greater (or less) than the limit. If you know by inspecting the code what those limits are, it is much easier to test for cases near the limits.'"
US Federal Judge Rules NSA Data Collection Legal 511
New submitter CheezburgerBrown . tips this AP report:
"A federal judge on Friday found that the National Security Agency's bulk collection of millions of Americans' telephone records is legal and a valuable part of the nation's arsenal to counter the threat of terrorism. U.S. District Judge William Pauley said in a written opinion (PDF) that the program 'represents the government's counter-punch' to eliminate al-Qaeda's terror network by connecting fragmented and fleeting communications. In ruling, the judge noted the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and how the phone data-collection system could have helped investigators connect the dots before the attacks occurred. 'The government learned from its mistake and adapted to confront a new enemy: a terror network capable of orchestrating attacks across the world. It launched a number of counter-measures, including a bulk telephony metadata collection program — a wide net that could find and isolate gossamer contacts among suspected terrorists in an ocean of seemingly disconnected data,' he said."
Comment Re:Enough (Score 5, Informative) 224
There are whistle blower laws that would have protected him if he'd played by the rules. He chose to make a martyr out of himself.
Fool. That isn't how whistleblower laws work, not even in theory, let alone practice, especially in the intelligence industry.
And he did try to play by the rules; his superiors made it abundantly clear to him (repeatedly so) that his opinion on the matter was not solicited, and furthermore, endangered his career.
It's getting old hearing the same story day after day.
Until naive, delusional fools like yourself can't see the problem we're facing, it should be repeated constantly and continuously until you get the fucking message.
Embedded SIM Design Means No More Swapping Cards 192
judgecorp writes "A new remotely-programmable embedded SIM design from the GSMA operators' group means that devices can be operated on the Internet of things and won't have to be opened up to have their SIM card changed if they move to a different operator. The design could speed up embedded applications."
Comment Re:kWh/day is stupid. (Score 1) 424
It was a typo. My post should have said kWh, not kW/h.
The latter, as you point out, is a meaningless unit.
Comment Re: kWh/day is stupid. (Score 1) 424
No. Power consumption is typically measured in watts, not joules, since power is generally more useful as a rate measurement than energy.
