They didn't qualify it at all. That was the editor who wrote the story, and the Slashdot editor who quoted the story. Neither quoted it from the report. https://opencryptoaudit.org/re...

Yes, the NSA has been accused of colluding with RSA to promote the Dual_EC_DRBG random number generator as a standard, despite claims that it contained a backdoor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... . The NSA has also been accused of interfering with standards that would enable ubiquitous effective encryption for popular communications tools, such as phones and email, resulting in the current hodgepodge of patchwork. Sure, you may use TLS to send and retrieve your email to and from your ISP, but the data is unencrypted in their servers, and is vulnerable to interception there. Your cell calls may be encrypted, but Chris Paget demonstrated at DEFCON how easy that is to defeat, using his almost legal homemade version of a Harris Stingray. And the encryption algorithms used by cell phones only protect the data flying over the airwaves, not on the cellular wired infrastructure which is already required to be vulnerable by CALEA.

However, the existence of one backdoor in one algorithm does not prove or disprove the existence of backdoors in other algorithms. Most exploitable weaknesses we do know about come from either protocol flaws or implementation errors, and these auditors found evidence of neither.

According to the article in Nature at http://www.nature.com/news/exo... , it only improves normal walking speed on level ground.

Which is too bad. My sister in law's right side was mostly paralyzed by a stroke. She shuffles around, swinging her body weight on her good leg, and is quite the effort. I was hoping this could help her, but given her gait it's unlikely.

And you wouldn't get them from this. This reduces the amount of exercise your muscles do, not increases it.

The funniest thing is that every story is filled with comments from whingers who don't realize they're being trolled by Slashdot. The editors are no doubt sitting in a conference room, keeping score on all of the comments. Maybe they've even turned it into a drinking game where they drink every time someone types 'stop', and have to chug for each goatse.

YHBT. HTH. HAND.

That's a premature pronouncement, too. My Windows tablet is also now my laptop, just smaller and lighter. Not as light as my iPad, but the iPad has been relegated to a desk drawer because it's essentially useless compared to carrying around a tablet with a fully functioning OS.

If Apple were to install OSX on the iPad family of devices, that would indeed change the game again. But that would mean cutting into their insanely lucrative monopoly with their App Store model, so that's not likely to happen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_%28epithet%29
Use of the term has been a point of contention within the Republican Party. In 1984, when a delegate of the Republican platform committee asked unanimous consent to change a platform amendment to read the Democrat Party instead of Democratic Party, New York Representative Jack Kemp objected, saying that would be "an insult to our Democratic friends" and the committee dropped the proposal.[2] In 1996, the wording throughout the Republican party platform was changed from "Democratic Party" to "Democrat Party": Republican leaders "explained they wanted to make the subtle point that the Democratic Party had become elitist".[19] A proposal to use the term again in the August 2008 Republican Platform for similar reasons was voted down with leaders choosing to use "Democratic Party". "We probably should use what the actual name is," said Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, the panel's chairman. "At least in writing."

Yeah, Jack Kemp and Haley Barbour, flaming libruls both. Got it. Nice try though.

"Democrat Party" is a slur, originally developed by Jesse Helms and later picked up and expanded upon by Karl Rove, intended to take away from Democrats - that is, members of the Democratic Party, the right to choose their own name.

As Theon can tell you having an entity that is attempting to obtain dominance over you impose a name not of your choosing is not a good thing. Members of the Democratic Party have been pretty vigilant about this since George W. Bush started doing it regularly. Hard right wing radicals don't like to be called out on their attempts though for some weird reason.

sPh

What's a "Democrat Party"? Whig, Republican, Bull Moose, and Democratic are some major US political parties that come to mind but I don't recall a "Democrat Party" from the history textbooks.

sPh

= = = Women make less than men over their careers because they have babies, = = =

Last time I checked, the vast majority of people in the US who have babies are married. It takes two to have a baby, and care of the child is both parents' responsibility. So you're basically saying that men in the tech industry shirk their childrearing responsibilities too.

= = = Then men and women hit their 50s. Kids are out of the house and on their own. Men starting taking months at a time off for prostate cancer and heart surgery, while women are hitting their stride at work. And yet oddly the salaries and titles of the 50-something men are never reduced to match their lower productivity. What a meritocracy! = = =

Ouch.

Then men and women hit their 50s. Kids are out of the house and on their own. Men starting taking months at a time off for prostate cancer and heart surgery, while women are hitting their stride at work. And yet oddly the salaries and titles of the 50-something men are never reduced to match their lower productivity. What a meritocracy!

sPh

= = = And guess the primary cause of that.....

Prostate cancer? Heart bypass surgery? Snapped Achilles tendon?

sPh

If you have a business use for what they can print today, you already have one, and are likely contemplating buying a better one. If you have a personal use for the parts they can print, you probably already own one. And even if you don't have a real use for them, you may have one as a cool toy. But not everyone is going to buy the same toys as you.

Once they get a lot more capable (maybe not Star Trek replicator capable, but substantially better than they are now) then they'll become ubiquitous. Until then, not everyone needs one. I'm thanking you now for being an early adopter, but don't expect me to join you yet.

The problem is they're too limited. They have to get more capable, not faster, in order to meet my needs. If they can insert circuitry, maybe I can print things that are somewhat more useful. As of right now, I have needed exactly one 3D printed thing (a battery holder for an electronic project, which a friend provided gratis.) But at no point in the last five years have my needs for small plastic things added up to the $300 price of a Simplebot, let alone a printer with better quality, resolution, size, or capabilities.

Maybe you have kids who need thousands of plastic army men. Maybe you are in a business where fabricating prototypes is valuable to you. Great for you, I'm glad you have a use for one. Hopefully you'll help drive volume so the costs come down even further. But as they stand today, they're too expensive for anything I need, and would take up more storage space than I want to waste on a toy.

It has nothing to do with thinking big or small. I'm sorry you can't imagine a scenario different from your own experience.