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Comment Re:What about the banks? (Score 2) 57

What about them? They got screwed.

No, they didn't get screwed.

The contract is written in such a way that it is always the merchants that take the financial hit for fraudulent charges, not the banks (even if the merchants themselves did everything correctly on their end).

Also calling the receptionist at a dentist's office "an insider" is misleading. That kind of language was specifically designed for the banks to avoid taking responsibility for the fraud. It was not the dentist's office that was being ripped off, it was Apple. By that novel definition "an insider", there are millions of Apple/Banking insiders in the US alone, from the waitress, the janitor, and the bus boy of every restaurant or little hole in the wall where they serve food, to the regular employee, janitor, intern, and temporary employee of every office building where credit card numbers are taken over the telephone.

I know the use of the word "insider" was introduced by Slashdot itself (either the submitter or the editor), but the word "employee" used in the title of the original ITWorld article leaves a lot to the imagination too, probably for that same reason that if one was to clearly describe what happened, everyone would be assigning blame to the banks and their system, instead of excusing the breach on having an insider employee somewhere (which is very hard to protect against).

Comment Re:oh no (Score 1) 254

They can't even get basic computer use or hacking correct in a $200 million movie. How are they going to accurately represent software programming in a cartoon? The computer will probably beep every time she types like some 90's movie.

This is actually a job for a good Japanese animation/manga studio, not Disney. There is an entire Japanese manga/anime genre for doing that kind of stuff. Hikaru No Go has inspired me to learn the game of go (although, I've only read the manga, I haven't watched the anime itself). Beck has inspired me to learn to play the guitar. Beck is actually a great anime series (that is nothing like the feel-good oversimplified typical American cartoons/animated movies that we know Hollywood and Disney to produce).

And there is this Japanese anime that inspires teenage girls to become fashion models, or them not to become fashion models, I can't recall its exact underlying aim, nor can't I recall the name of the series (it had a pink butterfly as its main symbol), but that anime made me cry even thought as a guy, I'm definitely not part of the target demographics this anime was made for. That was definitely a great anime series as well.

Comment Re:HP & Xerox (Score 1) 271

Run by women, not so great revenue per employee.

What are you talking about? When you freeze salaries, decrease the employee count, cut the company in half and throw away the half that went bad, you better have increased the revenue per each remaining employee at the very least.

Mitt Romney is also very good at increasing the revenue per employee. Does that also mean he's a woman? Or does he have a gender issue?

Comment Re:Two things... (Score 1) 208

I wouldn't blame the University. Sometimes, students are just stupid.

In this particular case, the student was not only stupid, but also super lazy. And this false positive will in no way affect the reputation of the police or the bomb squad. In this case, they reacted the exact right amount (given the suspicious nature of the attachment).

Comment Re:Bound to happen (Score 1) 619

Everyone running ad blocking software is not sustainable, since ads pay for a lot of stuff.

If ads are no longer sustainable, it won't be the fault of ad blocking software. It will be the fault of the ads themselves.

There is actually an entire spectrum of advertisements, and Adblock doesn't block all of them. On Craigslist for instance, it's actually helpful that potential employers and potential landlords pay significant fees for each listing, it helps keep the noise down from third party recruiters and third party brokers that would flood those categories with too many listings otherwise.

Also for the sites that don't abuse the system of advertisements, it's easy enough to disable that ad-bocking software for the particular site you're on with just a right-click of the mouse. Generally speaking thought, people don't install ad blocking software unless there is a web site constantly pushing the boundaries of how many ads they'll serve you. The latest culprit being Hulu for instance.

Comment Re: Eating itself? (Score 1) 265

The insurance that Uber provides has many limitations on it. If you get hurt in an Uber car, expect to have to sue both Uber and the driver.

Yes, that was at the beginning, but on March 2014 Uber actually updated/modified its commercial insurance coverage. This is in effect old news, for Uber in the US at least.

Not that this guarantees that you won't need to sue. If you get seriously injured in a taxi cab as well, expect to have to sue (or threaten to sue) the taxi insurance company and anybody else involved to try to extract a fair settlement.

Comment The switch could make things worst (Score 1) 224

The address (a gmail address) is associated with a real person (not her), so someone now has all of her personal details.

Since similar usernames can also mean similar full names, it could make identity theft that much easier for that other person bearing a similar name as your sister.

Anyway, I hope that's not the case, and I hope that other person is not a criminal.

Comment Re:Eating itself? (Score 1) 265

Between the liability/risk issues of potentially not having commercial insurance...

Uber drivers are covered under Uber's commercial insurance. The commercial insurance policy is online. And you're actually free to read it, which is more than you can do with the insurance policy of traditionaly Taxi companies.

The only thing about Uber's insurance is that the driver must be logged into the Uber app for it to apply (so this also implies that the driver is covered when he/she is on his way to pick up a ride, or just waiting around for people needing rides). For the rest of the time, the Uber driver must have personal driver's insurance.

...the increasing prices,

I think you meant to say decreasing prices. The prices of Uber have actually been decreasing. And that fits your main thesis better "that they're eating their own".

...and now the disclosure that some drivers may be just as petty as riders,

You must not take taxis very frequently, because taxi drivers can be as petty as the rest of us.

Comment Re:Wait... what? (Score 1) 56

I'll say this... being a cyberwarrior is probably the best job if you can get it. I mean... the worst that can happen is some LEET HAXOR could PWND you... :P

If it's anything like in the US, the idea of being cyberwarrior is also a great recruitment strategy (where recruitment has become damn impossible otherwise). Once you sign on the dotted line, you can be transferred to any other duty and you won't be able to do anything about it.

Comment Self-selection Bias (Score 1) 307

The problem is that they interviewed a self-selected group of security-unaware idiots.

Only idiots, and old people who don't know any better, answer telephone surveys from perfect strangers anymore.

These days, it's either marketing people using the excuse of a survey to speak to you, and reselling that information they gather from you to others, or it's "You're windows PC is infected" social engineering scammers, or identity theft criminals trying to get personal identifiable information from you. You don't want to say anything to them, because the next time they call you (or an accomplice of theirs calls you), they'll use whatever previous information you told them to try and make you fall for a new scam (you or anyone else living in your household).

The analysis in this report is based on telephone interviews conducted January 7-11, 2015 among a national sample of 1,504 adults, 18 years of age or older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia (528 respondents were interviewed on a landline telephone, and 976 were interviewed on a cell phone, including 563 who had no landline telephone). The survey was conducted by interviewers at Princeton Data Source under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International. A combination of landline and cell phone random digit dial samples were used; both samples were provided by Survey Sampling International. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. Respondents in the landline sample were selected by randomly asking for the youngest adult male or female who is now at home. Interviews in the cell sample were conducted with the person who answered the phone, if that person was an adult 18 years of age or older. For detailed information about our survey methodology, see http://people-press.org/method...

Comment Re:Opting out... (Score 1) 111

Yeah, you'll probably need to keep an opt-out cookie on your device in order to opt-out.

I know you're kidding, but since Verizon is making it difficult to opt-out of the super cookie, that means that even the absence of the super cookie coming from a Verizon IP will be used as a way to uniquely identify you. It would be like going out in your neighborhood and being the only one wearing a ski mask in the middle of summer. It will just make advertisers notice you more. Expect to see many more ads for off-shore accounts, libertarian politics, mail-order brides, guns, and bitcoins, if you opt-out of that super cookie.

Comment Re:track record (Score 1) 293

Now, generally im against no bid contracts, but this one makes sense.

Using Boeing makes sense. If Airbus was used, it would be more expensive because it would have to be stripped down and built back up again to make sure it was free from European listening devices. After all, if the US already does this to other countries with its presidential Boeing airplanes and Merkel's cell phone. It can't really complain when other countries retaliate and try to do the same thing back to the US White House.

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