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Comment Re:Yes (Score 1) 238

I have always wondered why some parental control vendor doesn't make their own browser (or adapt an existing browser) that can sit there and monitor whats going on in the browser before the HTTPS is ever applied.

Comment There are 2 different issues here... (Score 1) 73

The first issue is that it can take time for updates to roll out over-the-air even once they are available. There are usually ways to manually download and install it if you dont want to wait for OTA.

The second issue (and the more important one) is that for many phones carriers will take sometimes months to approve an update or may not release it all (usually making some claims about some "carrier acceptance testing" BS). In some cases updates for the generic unbranded versions of a phone still get hit with a delay in order to keep the OEMs carrier partners happy.

Apple got it right by controlling all updates for the phone from day one and not giving the carriers any ability to block or hold up updates.

Comment Re:More than cash and cc (Score 1) 375

All those things COULD move to smartphone apps. But its unlikely that they will anytime soon, especially when there are so few phones that support NFC (and support the right flavors of NFC in the right way)

Even if EFTPOS (and the entities that own it) brought in a way to pay for EFTPOS transactions via a NFC phone, there would still be tens of thousands of businesses out there that don't support such payments. And the 1000s of ATMs would need to be updated too (although at least one bank has a system where you dont need a card, you just log into your smartphone online banking app and it gives you a token you input into the ATM and both systems talk to each other and give you money)

As for the Go Card, how many of the NFC-enabled phones out there are capable of supporting the proprietary MIFARE Classic format that the cards use? Not to mention issues it could cause

And for the health cards, same thing as the EFTPOS, how long will it take for all those doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, optometrists, dentists, physios and other medicos to update their gear to support it? Not that the government would want to spend the costs involved in making a medicare card app...

Comment Re:More than cash and cc (Score 2) 375

My wallet has:
a proof-of-age card (government photo ID card like a drivers license but doesn't let you drive), useful for when I need to show ID for some reason
a Go Card (payment smart card for the local bus and train system)
Loyalty cards for stores
Library card
VISA Debit/EFTPOS/ATM card
Cash
Australian Government Medicare card (for the public health system)
Private health insurance card

None of these are likely to be replaced by a smartphone anytime soon (even if I could use my phone to pay for stuff with the VISA, I wouldn't be able to withdraw cash from an ATM with it plus I prefer to pay with EFTPOS rather than credit)

Comment Always great to see code for console platforms... (Score 1) 323

Its always great to see code for console and computer platforms which don't otherwise have a lot of code available.

The source code for the Atari Jaguar version of Doom is out there somewhere too.

Personally I want to see more source for games (Doom or otherwise) on platforms like the NES, SNES, N64 and Genesis. Would be very interesting to see the code (assembly I would imagine) for a proper commercial SNES title...

Comment Re:Police legal authority (Score 1) 165

The issue here isn't that AT&T or Verizon are handing over data.
The police are basically using devices produced (without the cooperation of carriers in many cases) that essentially "man in the middle" cellular telephony signals to capture the information they want.

Comment Re:Its a step forward, but not a permanent solutio (Score 1) 143

There are plenty of ways to make cars better without going all-electric-all-the-time. Firstly they need to close all the loopholes in the fuel economy regulations that give free passes to big gas guzzling SUVs and crossovers (like the one that doesn't count them for fuel economy purposes if they happen to be capable of running on E85 even though most of them will never see a drop of E85 in their lifetime or the loophole that made the ugly-as-sin PT Cruiser count as a truck when it clearly wasn't or the regulation that allows big pickups and SUVs to gain weight to avoid fuel economy regulations and guzzle even more gas)

Comment Won't happen if the utillities get their way (Score 4, Informative) 516

Many utilities in the US are fighting rooftop solar through various means. The south-eastern states in particular are the worst for this.

Utilities are getting laws passed banning the "solar lease scheme" so popular in other parts of the US. And getting laws passed banning off-grid solar installs. And not providing net metering (either "you get paid for your excess electricity" or the "electricity you feed into the grid offsets what you use when the sun isn't shining but you wont get any money if you produce more than you use" model). And doing everything they can to push electricity generated from dirty black coal or nuclear reactors built to outdated 50s era designs instead of clean green energy.

Comment How will they get other browsers to support this? (Score 1) 212

Being backed by Mozilla, Firefox will obviously support it, as will SeaMonkey and Thunderbird (since they use the same set of certs as Firefox from the same NSS tree). But how will they get the other big browser vendors to support it? In particular Microsoft (you can bet VeriSign will be using its very close relationship with Microsoft to lobby hard for MS not to support this in IE)

Comment Re:Why isn't then the price exploding ? (Score 1) 323

The problem is that companies like Mars, Hershey's, Nestle and Cadbury aren't willing to pay more for their cocoa since that would mean making the end product more expensive (or making less profit). If you increase the price (to cover the higher cost of the cocoa), less people will buy your product and more people will buy from your competitors (who haven't increased the price)

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