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Submission + - US Supreme Court Gives Tacit Approval for Govt to Collect DNA With No Warrant

An anonymous reader writes: On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a case involving the conviction of a man based solely on the analysis of his "inadvertently shed" DNA. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argues that this tacit approval of the government's practice of collecting anyone's DNA anywhere without a warrant will lead to a future in which people's DNA are "entered into and checked against DNA databases and used to conduct pervasive surveillance."

Submission + - Raspberry Pi 2 NAS Experiment HOWTO (mikronauts.com) 1

An anonymous reader writes: Interesting article tests the Raspberry Pi 2's potential as a NAS, with a lot of benchmarks. Has setup instructions. Tests 10/100 vs USB Gigabit adapter, and tries an SMB optimization,

Comment Re:Zombies versus Predators (Score 1) 247

I personally have never killed anything larger than a bug in my life; I suspect a lot of other people haven't either. I've never had to, because there have always been other people who are willing to do those unpleasant tasks for me, in exchange for modest amounts of money.

You're safe; I'm sure in our dystopian zombie future, the phones will still need sanitizing.

Submission + - But for the video ... (washingtonpost.com)

schwit1 writes: The latest example of cellphone video vindicating someone from false charges is a doozy.

He was not only arrested, he was also charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor. A prior drug charge on his record meant he was potentially looking at decades in prison. Seven witnesses backed up the police account that Dendinger had assaulted Cassard.

But Dendinger had asked his wife and nephew to record him serving the papers. It was a last minute decision, but one that may have saved him his freedom. That’s all well and good. And Dendinger has since filed a federal civil rights lawsuit. But why aren’t the seven witnesses to Dendinger’s nonexistent assault on Cassard already facing felony charges?

Comment I strongly disagree. (Score 1) 95

I strongly disagree. The whole idea is nonsense. If there is a failure of the "command channel" in the table, everything I said is correct. Do you trust Ikea to make 100% reliable electronics?

A few days ago, at a store called Dollar Tree, I bought a Charge and Sync dock for $1. Wouldn't a dock be better than buying cheap-looking Ikea furniture, especially since the convenience is minimal or non-existent?

Who would EVER put an expensive phone flat on a table??? That's asking for trouble. It's easy to knock it off.

I'm NOT saying the $1 dock is better. I'm saying that a dock is better than laying a phone flat on a table. (The $1 dock needs a charging transformer, of course.)

Look at the Wikipedia page to which you linked! Quoting: "This article appears to be written like an advertisement."

Air core transformers, especially air core transformers with distance between the primary and secondary, don't transfer much energy. Do you want to wait longer because you bought an ugly-looking Ikea table?

Comment Obligatory, #2: Laws of Physics (Score -1) 95

Quote from the article: "The wireless charging works through an energy induction transfer."

Translation #1: There is a coil in the table. There is a coil in the back of the phone. The 2 coils act as a transformer with an air core. That only works if you bought a new phone. (And paid huge amounts for it including the 2-year contract.)

Problem: The coil in the table will also induct energy (induce electricity) into anything that conducts electricity.

So, if a child puts a phone on the charger area that is not one meant for rear-side induction, there will likely be problems.

Library books have chips with high-frequency antennas. The chips help libraries prevent theft. It is possible that putting electricity into the antennas will cause problems.

What else could go wrong? Lots. Some of the chemicals in your body are conductive. So, if you rest your hand on the table, the coil will cause electrical current in your hand.

Translation #2: The CEO of Ikea has no technical knowledge.

Submission + - Ghostery lists Adobe TypeKit as privacy threat (leaseweblabs.com) 3

Maurits van der Schee writes: In order to provide the Typekit service, Adobe may collect information about the fonts being served to your website. The information is used for the purposes of billing and compliance, and may include the following:

Adobe TypeKit's privacy policy says that, but AFAIK "may include" does not imply "is limited to". Also this "compliance" is not further specified. What do you think? Should I take off my tin-foil hat?

Submission + - Which classic OOP compiled language: Objective-C or C++?

Qbertino writes: I've been trying to pick up a classic OOP oriented compiled language since the early 90ies and have never gotten around to it. C++ always was on my radar but I'm a little torn to-and-fro with Objective-C. Objective-C is the obvious choice if you also want to make money deving for Mac OS X, but for the stuff I want to do both languages would suffice on all platforms. I do want to start out on x86 Linux though and also use it as my main development platform. Note: The fight is only between these two. Yes, I know quite a few other PLs, but I want to get into a widespread compiled language that has good ties into FOSS and both Objective-C and C++ fit that bill.
I'm leaning towards C++ but what do you recommend? How do these two PLs compare to each other and how easy is cross-plattform development in either? (GUI free, 'headless' applications). Thanks for your opinion.

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