Comment Re:As We Speak (Score 5, Funny) 296
"Either your name is on the volume licensing agreement... or your brains."
Comment Re:pfft, 3.5% overrun (Score 2, Insightful) 132
"I can't imagine how demoralizing it is to spend years working on a project that would ultimately succeed"
None of NASA's major manned spaced projects are even remotely likely to succeed, they are not intended to do so any more. They are just a place to blow money, create jobs and put money in Lockheed and Boeing pockets. More importantly they buy votes in the critical swing state of Florida.
They are designed to run 4-8 years, produce nothing except votes, paychecks and contractor profits, then they get cancelled and start over. It is way easier and less risk than actually making anything that will fly.
It is not the political process that is broken, it is NASA and the political process.
Get a clue, and spend a few billion on SpaceX to help finish Falcon Heavy. I'm not sure why SLS is even on the table at this point, it isn't remotely competitive.
Lockheed and Boeing also need to be completely removed from the process. They are making a mint milking DOD contracts, they don't need to be in middle of the civilian space program fleecing NASA and taxpayers there too. They do not use money wisely, they devour everything thrown their way and produce as little as possible in return.
Comment Re:Heck, we probably already fund them (Score 2, Insightful) 125
Saudi? Hey! And Israel! Don't forget NSA and Israel - the most moral military on earth! They bomb hospitals under UN protection with the morality of the old testament!
The NSA's New Partner In Spying: Saudi Arabia's Brutal State Police 125
Advocatus Diaboli sends this news from The Intercept: The National Security Agency last year significantly expanded its cooperative relationship with the Saudi Ministry of Interior, one of the world's most repressive and abusive government agencies. An April 2013 top secret memo provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden details the agency's plans "to provide direct analytic and technical support" to the Saudis on "internal security" matters. The Saudi Ministry of Interior—referred to in the document as MOI— has been condemned for years as one of the most brutal human rights violators in the world. In 2013, the U.S. State Department reported that "Ministry of Interior officials sometimes subjected prisoners and detainees to torture and other physical abuse," specifically mentioning a 2011 episode in which MOI agents allegedly "poured an antiseptic cleaning liquid down [the] throat" of one human rights activist. The report also notes the MOI's use of invasive surveillance targeted at political and religious dissidents.
Submission + - Compromise struck on cellphone unlocking bill (gpo.gov)
NotSanguine writes: The US Senate has passed a bill (S.517) today allowing users to unlock their phones when moving to another provider.
From a recent article at thehill.com:
From a recent article at thehill.com:
“Consumers should be able to use their existing cell phones when they move their service to a new wireless provider,” Leahy said in a statement. “Our laws should not prohibit consumers from carrying their cell phones to a new network, and we should promote and protect competition in the wireless marketplace,” he said. Grassley called the bipartisan compromise “an important step forward in ensuring that there is competition in the industry and in safeguarding options for consumers as they look at new cell phone contracts.” “Empowering people with the freedom to use the carrier of their choice after complying with their original terms of service is the right thing to do,” he said. The House in February passed a companion bill sponsored on cellphone unlocking from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.).
Comment Re:Where's Snowden the second? (Score 1) 98
Chump change for these guys. The NSA spend more with Narus and Verint.
Russia Posts $110,000 Bounty For Cracking Tor's Privacy 98
hypnosec writes: The government of Russia has announced a ~$110,000 bounty to anyone who develops technology to identify users of Tor, an anonymising network capable of encrypting user data and hiding the identity of its users. The public description (in Russian) of the project has been removed now and it only reads "cipher 'TOR' (Navy)." The ministry said it is looking for experts and researchers to "study the possibility of obtaining technical information about users and users' equipment on the Tor anonymous network."
Comment Re:Whelp. (Score 2) 139
For me, the resistance comes when I look at the large reptiles of today which are descended from dinosaurs.They don't have feathers.
Which large reptiles are those? And which dinosaurs are they descended from? And how did dinosaurs, which were all killed at the KT boundary, manage to have descendents?
Dinosaurs are reptiles with their legs under their bodies. This makes them distinct from other reptiles (the kinds we have today, which are not descended from dinosaurs) which have their legs off to the side.
Mammals also managed the legs-under-the-body trick, and birds (which are descended from dinosaurs, unlike all modern reptiles, none of which are descended from dinosaurs, what with dinosaurs all being extinct without issue at the KT boundary.)
Comment As We Speak (Score 5, Insightful) 296
As we speak, Microsoft is instructing its European "business partners" to give a certain French city a shitload of really cheap Office licenses.
Comment Re:wat - There are real cirles! (Score 1) 227
Hand me one of these.
Google Looking To Define a Healthy Human 125
rtoz writes: Google's moonshot research division, "Google X," has started "Baseline Study," a project designed to collect anonymous genetic and molecular information from 175 people (and later thousands more) to create a complete picture of what a healthy human being should be. The blueprint will help researchers detect health problems such as heart disease and cancer far earlier, focusing medicine on prevention rather than treatment. According to Google, the information from Baseline will be anonymous, and its use will be limited to medical and health purposes. Data won't be shared with insurance companies.
Comment Re:Why? (Score 2) 92
I have to confess, I'm pretty mystified. For our own internal servers, I have my own CA, and can see no reason why I would want to have someone else sign internal certs.
Sounds like yet another way in which the commercial CAs scam stupid CIOs out of cash.
Comment Re: Cost (Score 1) 184
Comment Re: Cost (Score 1) 184
Comment Re: Cost (Score 1) 184
"Army"
I don't think that word means what you think it means.
BTW: You reject most of the brainwashing - don't believe the hype about the brown people, either.
