Comment Re:Android makes this worse. (Score 1) 117
Both of our Android phones both have multi-user capability.
Comment Re:NEWS FLASH!!! (Score 1) 117
That may be a true statistic, but the subset of 51% of people who are stupid are not necessarily the same as the subset of 51% that share their passwords.
Comment Two people have access to my passwords (Score 1) 117
There are two people who have access to all of my passwords: My wife and my lawyer.
These are the only two people on this planet with whom my communications are protected by legal privilege.
Should the thinkable happen (let's face it, calling untimely death unthinkable is stupid, as it is entirely thinkable), there should be someone left who can access everything to put my affairs in order.
If Fusion Is the Answer, We Need To Do It Quickly 305
Lasrick writes: Yale's Jason Parisi makes a compelling case for fusion power, and explains why fusion is cleaner, safer, and doesn't provide opportunities for nuclear smuggling and proliferation. The only downside will be the transition period, when there are both fission and fusion plants available and the small amount of "booster" elements (tritium and deuterium) found in fusion power could provide would-be proliferators what they need to boost the yield of fission bombs: "The period during which both fission and fusion plants coexist could be dangerous, however. Just a few grams of deuterium and tritium are needed to increase the yield of a fission bomb, in a process known as 'boosting.'" Details about current research into fusion power and an exploration of relative costs make fusion power seem like the answer to a civilization trying to get away from fossil fuels.
Comment Thank you, Captain Obvious (Score 2) 267
"The editor of a Bitcoin advocacy site believes the proliferation of altcoins (cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin) is harming Bitcoin"
Gee, you don't say?
Comment Explain it like I'm not an astrophysicist (Score 1) 109
Because I'm not. But, where does the 92 billion light year thing come from? I would think what, 28 billion across if it's 14 billion years old?
Comment Re:WTF is the extra 'M' for? (Score 1) 107
People who aren't USAsians who know that MM means 1000 * 1000 which is French for 1,000,000
Comment How long does it last? (Score 1) 178
If I put a supercap made of organic hemp into an oven at 105C for 5000 hours, what's left when I am finished? It is still a supercapacitor or is it a small metal can full of organic goo?
Comment Re:Typical slashdot poll (Score 1) 246
What is this "female body" of which you speak?
Fugitive Child Sex Abuser Caught By Face-Recognition Technology 232
mrspoonsi sends this BBC report:
"A U.S. juggler facing child sex abuse charges, who jumped bail 14 years ago, has been arrested in Nepal after the use of facial-recognition technology. Street performer Neil Stammer traveled to Nepal eight years ago using a fake passport under the name Kevin Hodges. New facial-recognition software matched his passport picture with a wanted poster the FBI released in January. Mr Stammer, who had owned a magic shop in New Mexico, has now been returned to the U.S. state to face trial. The Diplomatic Security Service, which protects U.S. embassies and checks the validity of U.S. visas and passports, had been using FBI wanted posters to test the facial-recognition software, designed to uncover passport fraud. The FBI has been developing its own facial-recognition database as part of the bureau's Next Generation Identification program."
California May Waive Environmental Rules For Tesla 327
cartechboy writes: We all know Tesla is working on its Gigafactory, and it has yet to announce officially where it will be. But the automaker did announce a shortlist of possible locations, and California wasn't on it. The state has quickly been trying to lure Tesla to get back into contention. Now the state may waive environmental rules which would normally make construction of such a large manufacturing facility more difficult. Apparently, Governor Jerry Brown's office is currently negotiating an incentive package for Tesla that would waive certain parts of the nearly half-century-old California Environmental Quality Act. Not only that, but state officials are reportedly considering letting Tesla begin construction and perform damage mitigation later, along with limiting lawsuits that could slow down the project. Let's not forget some massive tax breaks, to the tune of $500 million. Is California stepping out of bounds here?
Snowden: NSA Working On Autonomous Cyberwarfare Bot 194
WIRED published a long piece on Edward Snowden today (worth a read on its own), and simultaneously broke news of "MonsterMind," an NSA program to monitor all network traffic and detect attacks, responding with a counterattack automatically. From the article: Although details of the program are scant, Snowden tells WIRED in an extensive interview with James Bamford that algorithms would scour massive repositories of metadata and analyze it to differentiate normal network traffic from anomalous or malicious traffic. Armed with this knowledge, the NSA could instantly and autonomously identify, and block, a foreign threat. More than this, though, Snowden suggests MonsterMind could one day be designed to return fire — automatically, without human intervention...
Snowden raised two issues with the program: the source of an attack could be spoofed to trick the U.S. into attacking an innocent third party, and the violation of the fourth amendment since the NSA would effectively need to monitor all domestic network traffic for the program to work. Also in Bamford's interview are allegations that the NSA knocked Syria offline in 2012 after an attempt to install intercept software on an edge router ended with the router being bricked.
Comment Re:It should be tied up (Score 1) 393
You missed my point entirely. I'm not saying people don't make mistakes. I'm saying I want the guy who does validation work and debugs his shit BEFORE handing it over to the customer, not AFTER.
Comment It should be tied up (Score 1) 393
Let me put it this way. When I hire an engineer, do I want to hire the guy who gets stuff right the first time, and thoroughly validates and identifies and fixes little issues before publishing results? Or, do I want to hire the guy that gets it done, hurries to publish results with tons of niggling little problems, and ultimately gets it right after several iterations of fixing minor problems?
Of course I want the first guy. Yes, lots of development has issues, but if the government is finding all of these little issues that can be fixed "within hours," you'd think SpaceX would have a good enough process in place to find and fix those trivial errors before releasing results or product.
Comment Whoa, hold the phone (Score 1) 327
"They are experts in their fields, often with master's and doctoral degrees. They earn at the top of federal pay scale, with the highest taking home $148,000 a year."
When I was a senior in college, the USPTO was at a career fair trying to snap up as many new grads as possible for patent examiner positions.
New grads are not experts in their fields. Period. No matter what degree they're walking away with.
That said, if I can make $148K working at home for USPTO, where the hell do I sign up?!?
