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Comment Why encrypt my network at all? (Score 1) 438

The vast majority of my on-line browsing is ssl anyway (and some of it through an extra VPN) so I'm not too worried about
eaves dropping on my network my porn browsing isn't that interesting.
It is far more likely some neighbor/passer by simply wants to check his e-mail or bus schedule and I see no reason
not to supply that curtsy. I certainly enjoy finding open wi-fi networks when away from home.
If anyone started abusing my bandwidth I would probably notice quickly, I've been doing this for many years in my last 3 apartments and my parents home
and this hasn't happened yet.
I keep contemplating a more complicated setup where eavesdropping would be difficult but I would still be running an open network for anyone who needs it but never get around to doing it(I wish my router simply gave it as a standard option).

Comment smart people use dumb phones (Score 0) 194

My phone doesn't need Gorilla glass to be very durable, It simply has a small screen.
It can last without recharging for more then a week of normal use.
And it can take quite a beating, (my wife washed hers 3 times)
It's not very good for surfing the internet or taking pictures but it is a much better phone then any "smart" phone.

Comment 80% precision isn't very good (Score 1) 167

And can easily be achieved without any sarcasm detection.
Social media mentions have a strong positive bias, so simply guessing positive all the time will get you
pretty close to the 80% mark. and with a simple list of negative phrases you can pass the 80% mark in identifying if a social media mention(twitter, facebook, etc.) is positive or negative.

Comment Don't worry about it (Score 4, Insightful) 252

The question is, who are you worried will find this super secret sensitive information (Your name, address and fact you use the site)?
The government? They don't need to intercept the e-mail they have easier ways of knowing it?
Some criminal targeting you specifically who manged to intercept this e-mail? He already knows who you are all he learned is you use this site,
simply seeing the IP is enough?
Some random script kiddie on the internet? intercepting e-mails is not that easy, yes they are in plain text but they are not broadcast over the internet for everyone to see
you have to position yourself along the route it travels (and this route normally doesn't change much) and attack somewhere along it, not impossible but hardly effortless. and why would he?
Which only leaves corporate espionage targeted against the site you are visiting, which though more likely then any other vector still seems a bit far fetched, and in the end all they learn is your name&address.
There are plenty of serious threats out there on the internet, this doesn't seem like one of them.
focus your worrying else where.

Comment We don't want them as safe as manned aircrafts (Score 1) 129

We build and operate manned aircrafts to a very very high safety standard.
A simple software upgrade for a manned aircraft takes years to complete, because of the standards employed.
When operating manned aircrafts we have strict standards as well on how to do everything and many many small and large things we don't do.
These are all very limiting both in the cost they impose and in the ability to get the job done.
We use unmanned aircrafts so we operate more freely both when building and when flying them, this comes with a higher accident rate from all causes but that
is the whole point.
We need to remember unmanned aircrafts are not only cheaper then their manned counterparts they also do things the manned counterparts can't or won't do.

Comment It's a vicious cycle that must be broken (Score 1) 728

In modern days education is more accessible, and almost everyone strives to get higher education, the result is more college graduates on the market, which allows more position to require a degree which drives more kids to college and the cycle continues.
This also causes more colleges to open up, many of them sacrificing quality and it helps raise the cost of education.
The root issue is lack of feedback between the job market and the universities.
We need the number of seats in colleges and universities to be closely related with limited surplus to the job market requirements.
The colleges will not self regulate and limit the number of seats because too many of them are in the business of making money,
and though this is very unpopular I see no solution other then some sort of governmental regulation to limit the number of seats fro bachelor degrees which will both increase the quality of graduates and save a whole lot of money on wasted tuition and years out of the job market.

Comment Missile Deffence works for assymetric warfare (Score 1) 589

Even after taking into account that not every incoming missile will be intercepted
It requires a more advance more sophisticated more expensive weapon to shoot down a cheap missile.
a Vulcan Phallanx is more expensive than a mortar unit and you need many of them to protect even a smallish area.
An Iron Dome interceptor is more complicated and expensive than a Kasam or Grad rocket.
An Arrow missile is likewise more advanced and more expensive then a Scud or even a Shihab/Sagil missile.
This is why such defense makes sense for Israel vs Terror organizations
but make little sense for USA vs USSR.
Israel has a budget much larger than Hamas and can afford expensive solutions.
Some argue the cost for the enemy is irrelevant, it is only cost for the protective side vs potential damage from the threat
And when you add to the potential damage not only the direct damages of a missile attack but the ability of the population to continue living
a normal productive life during a time of conflict, you quickly see the cost of expensive Iron Dome interceptors is well worth it.
The trade-off becomes less favorable for the larger missiles, unless you fear unconventional weapons or are protecting strategic sites.

Comment The question is fast to write not fast to run (Score 1) 437

When I have something performance sensitive I can always work hard to optimize it, and even switch to a different platform
for some small part of the project.
The question therefor is not how fast can I write it, but how easy is it, this has a lot to do about libraries and tools but language makes a difference too.
The JVM environment is an excellent environment to work in, with a plethora of excellent libraries and tools (including the Tomcat server).
Yet the Java language is falling rapidly behind, and C# is rapidly gaining new bells and whistles while Java is stagnating,
I find it mind buggling Java 7 doesn't have lambda expressions.
That's why I have switched to Scala which gives all the good of the JVM in a modern functional yet object oriented language
giving me all the protection of a strongly typed static language yet with minimal boilerplate reminding me of dynamic languages.

Comment Isn't this economic without DARPA funding? (Score 5, Insightful) 72

It seems to me a x75 increase in power efficiency should be worth to nVidia (or any competitor) much more than $20M, why does DARPA need to fund this, this seems exactly like the kind of work which doesn't need DARPA money. DARAPA should spend money where it is not clearly economic for others to do so.

Submission + - Amazon launches RedShift a managed column based data database (eweek.com)

iceco2 writes: "Amazon appears to be going head to head with Vertica and launched a limited public beta of RedShift, a column base database for data warehousing.
DataWarehouse DB such as Vertica, GreenPlum etc. are notorious for not taking well to the cloud due to unreliable disk performance. Can amazon do better?
publications seem to be scant on technical details.
more by amazon: http://aws.amazon.com/redshift/"

Comment The limits of free speach (Score 2) 486

Free speech is a sacred right, even murderers have it.
However encouraging people to commit crimes when there is good reason to believe someone will act upon your words
is illegal pretty much anywhere.
Hamas should not be censored because they are evil (they are as evil as they come),
They should be censored when they call for terror or other illegal activity.
I myself have not read too many of their twitter posts so I don't know if they use them to spread general propoganda (false or other)
or if they overtly call for terrorism.
All of this is purely on the moral aspects of censorship, ignoring the effectiveness of censoring twitter.
I suspect censoring Hamas effectively may prove difficult.

Comment Iron Dome works well for some threats (Score 1) 377

If we study our history we will learn that Hamas started using rockets as it's main weapon only after the security fence made suicide bombings less practical.
When you close off one option for the enemy he will inevitably find a new one, preferably a less effective one
but this is not to say you shouldn't close off his options.
We also need to remember that the modern warfare is more about morale then number of casualties, The Hamas wants as many Israelis as possible to live in fear, killing them is just an added bonus. having an effective defense makes the civilians under attack feel less defenseless.

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