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Comment Re:The ban on primary sources is stupid (Score 3, Insightful) 113

"In theory" is sadly the best anyone may get out of wikipedia. I gave up contributing years ago; the amount of effort required to argue any point (even well-sourced ones) with a fanatical power-editor who has 'claimed' a particular subject's page or pages isn't worth it. As others have pointed out here in these comments, wikipedia is, at best, a starting point to find your own sources and come to a better conclusion.

Submission + - Could Multiple Personality Disorder Explain Life, the Universe and Everything? (scientificamerican.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: A new paper argues the condition now known as “dissociative identity disorder”(DID) might help us understand the fundamental nature of reality.

And here is where dissociation comes in. We know empirically from DID that consciousness can give rise to many operationally distinct centers of concurrent experience, each with its own personality and sense of identity. Therefore, if something analogous to DID happens at a universal level, the one universal consciousness could, as a result, give rise to many alters with private inner lives like yours and ours. As such, we may all be alters—dissociated personalities—of universal consciousness.

Submission + - Google has to face lawsuit that claims it tracks users even in Incognito Mode (theverge.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: A judge in California ruled Friday that Google has to face a class action lawsuit that claims the search giant secretly collects data from users even when they’re using its private “Incognito” mode. Three users filed a complaint last June alleging Google has a “pervasive data tracking business,” and its tracking persists even if users take steps to protect their private information, such as using incognito mode in Chrome, or private browsing in Safari and other browsers. The lawsuit seeks at least $5 billion.

Google had sought to have the case thrown out, but US District Judge Lucy Koh wrote in her ruling that the company “did not notify users that Google engages in the alleged data collection while the user is in private browsing mode.” The company said in a court filing that it makes clear to users “that ‘Incognito’ does not mean ‘invisible,’ and that the user’s activity during that session may be visible to websites they visit, and any third-party analytics or ads services the visited websites use.”

Submission + - 'We're going to lose fast':USAF held war game starting with a Chinese bio attack (yahoo.com) 2

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: "Last fall, the U.S. Air Force simulated a conflict set more than a decade in the future that began with a Chinese biological-weapon attack that swept through U.S. bases and warships in the Indo-Pacific region. Then a major Chinese military exercise was used as cover for the deployment of a massive invasion force. The simulation culminated with Chinese missile strikes raining down on U.S. bases and warships in the region, and a lightning air and amphibious assault on the island of Taiwan.

“Whenever we war-gamed a Taiwan scenario over the years, our Blue Team routinely got its ass handed to it, because in that scenario time is a precious commodity and it plays to China’s strength in terms of proximity and capabilities,” said David Ochmanek, a senior RAND Corporation analyst and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for force development. “That kind of lopsided defeat is a visceral experience for U.S. officers on the Blue Team, and as such the war games have been a great consciousness-raising device. But the U.S. military is still not keeping pace with Chinese advances. For that reason, I don’t think we’re much better off than a decade ago when we started taking this challenge more seriously.”

Part of the problem is that China advanced its A2/AD strategy while the Pentagon was largely distracted fighting counterterrorism and counterinsurgency wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for two decades. Beijing is also laser-focused on Taiwan and regional hegemony, while the U.S. military must project power and prepare for potential conflict scenarios all around the globe, giving the Pentagon what Ochmanek calls an “attention deficit disorder.” Finally, there is the complacency of the perennial winner that makes it hard for senior U.S. military officers to believe that another nation would dare to take them on."

Submission + - Two UK Broadband ISPs Trial New Internet Snooping System (ispreview.co.uk)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Two unnamed broadband or mobile ISPs are reportedly helping the UK Home Office and the National Crime Agency (NCA) to trial a new internet snooping system on their customers, which is being conducted as part of the controversial 2016 UK Investigatory Powers Act (aka – snoopers charter).

The act introduced a new power that, among many other things, could force ISPs – upon being ordered to do so by a senior judge – into logging the Internet Connection Records (ICR) of all their customers for up to 12 months (e.g. the IP addresses of the servers you’ve visited and when), which can be accessed without a warrant and occurs regardless of whether or not you’re suspected of a crime.

The core ICR data should include a customer’s account reference, source IP address, destination IP address + port and the date/time of the start and end of the event or its duration. Other data may additionally be added if available (e.g. volume of data transferred and partial URLs – i.e. only that which contains communications data, not content).

Comment Not surprising (Score 2) 47

When you consider that the launch lineup was so tiny as to be almost negative, it doesn't come as a shock that the only truly notable title sold as many units as the console.

I still don't see the market for the Switch, given its less-than-competitive performance; it just feels like Nintendo is counting on the gimmick to hit the same lucky timing the Wii did. I'm no expecting much longevity, particularly given the brisk pace that smartphones set as far as portable performance.

Comment Re:No bluetooth and probably 1GB RAM (Score 1) 41

by lytlebill (#53326591) Attached to: Barnes & Noble Announces A New $50 Android Tablet

Well, according to the FCC filing, at least, it does have Bluetooth:

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas...

Probably right about that single gig of Ram, though, but I expect that this baby might be just as accurately named the 'Barnes&Noble Cut As Many Costs As We Possibly Could Because Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ We're Really Desperate For Money'.

Comment Re:Won't buy from Motorola or Verizon again! (Score 1) 123

by Rigel47 (#50643387) Attached to: Stagefright 2.0 Vulnerabilities Affect 1 Billion Android Devices
Seriously just buy a damned blackberry.. I've been using my z10 for three years now and have no real interest in upgrading it. Sure a better camera could be nice but it runs smooth as butter, has amazing battery life, I can side-load most android apps (I don't really need to though), has the best messaging platform (the hub) bar none, the best multi-tasking capabilities out there, and best of all.. I don't have to worry about this constant drumroll of security flaws found in android and iOS.

Comment Bad news for recovery of the black boxes (Score 2) 89

by Rigel47 (#50217609) Attached to: Indian Ocean Debris Believed To Come From Missing Flight MH370
If big wing sections broke off it suggests the onboard computer was not able to cruise the plane to a gentl landing (or maybe it tried and slammed into a giant wave). Anyways, if the plane broke up then the sonar signature for the jet is probably not what they're looking for and the pieces of the plane could be scattered over a very wide area. I imagine jet wings that are empty of fuel will float around for a while.

Comment Unpaid Blackberry shill... (Score 1, Insightful) 203

by Rigel47 (#50191249) Attached to: 'Stagefright' Flaw: Compromise Android With Just a Text
Yep, gonna be that annoying SoB and just make note that my BlackBerry z10 has had no ridiculous remote exploit vulnerabilities like this, has the worlds best messaging platform (BlackBerry Hub), awesome battery life, a rock-solid OS that multi-tasks like a dream. And it can run most all Android apps (though they are sandboxed to prevent their many flaws from compromising the rest of the system).

Now bring on the BB bashing!

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