Comment Re:Great! (Score 2) 267
Yes, but only until you pay for it, at which point that feature is automatically disabled.
Comment Wrong market - Wrong target audience (Score 5, Insightful) 202
This baby is not for gamers or engineers. It's for marketing and sales. Remote screens at trade shows and in a show rooms pumping out messages while all the ugly boxes are tucked away in a room elsewhere. No un-slightly wires to trip over or to run. Funky little kiosks that float in the open air. That kind of thing.
Comment WoW authenticator - But for everything. (Score 1) 277
Why not a universal authenticator? At the very least, I could see a common system setup by the banks here in North America allow the use of any debit card to work on almost every debit machine.
I'm not sure why my video game character is the most secure bit of digital data I have.
I'm not sure why my video game character is the most secure bit of digital data I have.
Comment Why not just take driving away? (Score 4, Insightful) 1065
Seriously, it seems to me the #1 cause of accidents is the bag of meat behind the wheel. Automate the whole damn system. It would help cut traffic problems as well. Sure the system might flip out now and then and a few hundred people could die, but really, it would still be less then the number of people who get killed on the road in any given month.
Comment Re:This has all happened before. (Score 1) 602
I'm skipping most of the earth stuff in Stargate Universe....Additionally, they need to figure out who the audience is supposed to be identifying/cheering for - Other then the gamer nerd, everyone on that ship is a jerk. Currently, I'm cheering for Rush, because at least he gets sh!t done.
As for Caprica, that writing universe lost me with the BSG final. The Final was the writer's chance to prove that the last couple years weren't a total waste of my time.
As for Caprica, that writing universe lost me with the BSG final. The Final was the writer's chance to prove that the last couple years weren't a total waste of my time.
Comment More then the sum of its parts? (Score 2, Interesting) 128
I thought the research was pointing at the fact that bacteria seem to function as collectives and are therefore more complex then their individual components would indicate.
http://www.ted.com/talks/bonnie_bassler_on_how_bacteria_communicate.html
Comment Re:Wait... (Score 5, Insightful) 779
You're not supposed to have free time - Any time that you're not working in the fields for your King/Leader/Authority figure you should be spending in contemplation on how awful a person you are, and begging for forgiveness for that. At least that's my understanding of the situation.
Submission + - National Security Letters challenged, man ungagged (democracynow.org)
An anonymous reader writes: For six years, the FBI has barred a New York man from revealing that the agency had ordered him to hand over personal information about clients of his ISP. Finally allowed to speak, Nick Merrill joins us in his first broadcast interview to talk about how he challenged the FBI’s use of national security letters. We also speak with Connecticut librarian George Christian. He and three other librarians also sued the US government after receiving a national security letter demanding information about library patrons. One of the clients of his ISP at the time was the Democracy Now! daily TV/radio program, hosted by Amy Goodman, who reports on this.
Submission + - Internet 'Kill Switch' Approved By Senate Homeland (secondteaparty.com)
vinlander writes: The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has approved a cybersecurity bill, Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act (PCNAA), that would give the president far-reaching authority over the Internet in the case of emergency.
As The Hill explains, the bill, sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman, Susan Collins, and Tom Carper, would give the president “emergency authority to shut down private sector or government networks in the event of a cyber attack capable of causing massive damage or loss of life.” The original bill granted the president the authority to “indefinitely” shut down networks, but an amendment to the PCNAA, approved yesterday, mandates that the president “get Congressional approval after controlling a network for 120 days.”
The authority granted to the government in the bill has been likened to an Internet “kill switch.”
As The Hill explains, the bill, sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman, Susan Collins, and Tom Carper, would give the president “emergency authority to shut down private sector or government networks in the event of a cyber attack capable of causing massive damage or loss of life.” The original bill granted the president the authority to “indefinitely” shut down networks, but an amendment to the PCNAA, approved yesterday, mandates that the president “get Congressional approval after controlling a network for 120 days.”
The authority granted to the government in the bill has been likened to an Internet “kill switch.”
Submission + - World’s First Flywheel Energy Plant Set to O (inhabitat.com)
Elliot Chang writes: While it doesn’t get nearly as much attention as alternative energy sources like solar or wind power, flywheel storage technology is definitely worth looking into. A kinetic energy-based technology that stems from the same elementary movement that potters and spinners have been using for centuries, the power storage tech will soon be harnessed at the world’s first grid-scale flywheel-based energy storage plant in New York. The flywheel system will use fast-rotating rims to store excess energy from the grid as kinetic energy that can be tapped into when demand rises or power from other sources is unavailable. Composed of a carbon-fiber composite material, the rims spin on magnetic bearings in a vacuum in order to minimize energy loss due to friction. Flywheel-based energy regulation is both cleaner and faster than traditional methods – it can fluctuate 10 times more quickly to match increasing or decreasing energy demands.
Comment Re:simple math (Score 1) 973
Does a construction worker continue to get money after he's finished the road you're driving on?
Does the engineer still get money after he finishes the plans for a bridge? (Even though he will catch hell if that bridge falls).
Does any drone at any major tech firm get on going money for the sale of the widget he helped create?
There are all sorts of people out there that create a lasting, reused idea within society and have to survive on whatever the market valued that idea at when it was first created. Once you've released your idea into the wild, you've lost it. Why should society create a special bubble to protect the person who can't negotiate what they believe is a fair market price?
Does the engineer still get money after he finishes the plans for a bridge? (Even though he will catch hell if that bridge falls).
Does any drone at any major tech firm get on going money for the sale of the widget he helped create?
There are all sorts of people out there that create a lasting, reused idea within society and have to survive on whatever the market valued that idea at when it was first created. Once you've released your idea into the wild, you've lost it. Why should society create a special bubble to protect the person who can't negotiate what they believe is a fair market price?
Comment Re:Privacy paranoia (Score 1) 206
Then maybe you shouldn't have given that information to Facebook.
I don't understand why people trust things that are important to them to total strangers, and then freak out when the stranger does something they didn't see coming. Would you hand your wallet to a stranger, while you ran into the bathroom?
I don't understand why people trust things that are important to them to total strangers, and then freak out when the stranger does something they didn't see coming. Would you hand your wallet to a stranger, while you ran into the bathroom?
Comment Re:It's News, but... (Score 5, Insightful) 352
It highlights the personality types of the people we've trusted with this technology. It additionally demonstrates that there is enough private information shared by the device to create a uncomfortable breach of privacy.
Comment Re:Answer: No. Unless you only mean video. (Score 1) 468
Games or creating specific styles of user activity. I've seen some amazingly beautiful websites that require flash to execute some of their tricks.
I'm aware this is /. so functionality will trump form, but flash does some things that are pretty much impossible to pull off with just JS.
Plus, given that flash is more or less browser independent, it's easier to create a ubiquitous user experience. That was always the big selling point in my mind for flash....it took me out of the browser wars.
I'm aware this is
Plus, given that flash is more or less browser independent, it's easier to create a ubiquitous user experience. That was always the big selling point in my mind for flash....it took me out of the browser wars.
Comment X-ray? (Score 3, Interesting) 322
Wouldn't this look bizarre under an x-ray, given change is usually zapped by itself in a little bowl? I'm not sure I risk a full cavity search trying to fly internationally with one of these...
