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Comment Re:Bootable USB (Score 2) 377

by stating_the_obvious (#38109512) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Good, Useful Free Software For Gifts?
I have no desire to start a fight over FOSS ends versus means, but is it fair to say that for most non-technical users, the thing that matters most is the 'F' in FOSS?

Also, while the Blender story is interesting, why does that matter from a FOSS perspective? Don't deathbed converts get admitted to Heaven?

Comment Re:So is there an alternative? (Score 2) 109

by stating_the_obvious (#38103718) Attached to: Of Mice and Cancer
Specifically, mice strains used in research (of which there are many different strains) are bred to be genetically identical. That's the whole point. All the different strains represent identical genetics and each strain may have attributes that are desirable for the researcher.

The mice aren't valuable because they are similar to people; they're valuable because they are identical to each other.
Encryption

Submission + - Full disk encryption is too good, says US intellig (extremetech.com) 4

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "A new research paper, titled "The growing impact of full disk encryption on digital forensics," illustrates the difficulty that CSI teams have in obtaining enough digital data to build a solid case against criminals. According to the researchers, one of which is a member of US-CERT — the US government's primary defense against internet and digital threats — there are three main problems with full disk encryption (FDE): First, evidence-gathering goons can turn off the computer (for transportation) without realizing it's encrypted, and thus can't get back at the data (unless the arrestee gives up his password, which he doesn't have to do); second, if the analysis team doesn't know that the disk is encrypted, it can waste hours trying to read something that's ultimately unreadable; and finally, in the case of hardware-level disk encryption, tampering with the device can trigger self-destruction of the data. The paper does go on to suggest some ways to ameliorate these issues, but ultimately the researchers aren't hopeful: "Research is needed to develop new techniques and technology for breaking or bypassing full disk encryption.""

Comment Perhaps Not All Remote Management Worth The Risk (Score 5, Insightful) 136

Perhaps it's time to start we stop believing that everything in the world needs to be connected to external networks.

In the battle of the sword and the shield, the sword eventually wins, but it takes a hell of a lot longer when the sword and shield are separated by the moat and a thick stone wall...

Submission + - Messaging apps, VoIP already eating into carrier r (bgr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new breed of messaging services and mobile Voice over IP clients like Skype are already eating into carrier revenues according to a new study.

Submission + - Credit Card Settlement Checks in the Mail (ccfsettlement.com)

Submitted by stating_the_obvious
stating_the_obvious writes: After more than 3 years, the class action suit against a number of credit card companies for how they calculated exchange rates and charged foreign transaction fees has reached the stage where checks are going out in the mail. More than 10 million claims were submitted against a $49.5MM settlement (between 36 and 37MM after legal fees and expenses).

Watch your mailbox.
Science

Submission + - US Army Has First Test Flight of Mach 6 Weapon (defense.gov) 2

Submitted by
Stirling Newberry
Stirling Newberry writes: "In a terse press release the US Department of Defense announced the first test of the the AHW, which uses rockets to launch and then glides to its target, in a manner similar to the Space Shuttle's re-entry. Earlier ABC News posted a story with animation video of the concept. Over at DefenseTech they argue that the trajectory being different from an ICBM is meant to show that it is not a first strike, but even the comments don't think that explanation flies.

More likely it is the speed of deployment, the ability to strike targets without going high enough to be seen by many advance warning radars, and without using nuclear warheads makes it a precision surprise attack weapon, a kind of super cruise missile for surprise asymetric attacks."

Submission + - Europe in the Grip of Drug-Resistant Superbugs (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by Pierre Bezukhov
Pierre Bezukhov writes: K. pneumoniae is a common cause of pneumonia, urinary tract, and bloodstream infections in hospital patients. The superbug form is resistant even to a class of medicines called carbapenems, the most powerful known antibiotics, which are usually reserved by doctors as a last line of defense.

The ECDC said several EU member states were now reporting that between 15 and up to 50 percent of K. pneumoniae from bloodstream infections were resistant to carbapenems.

To a large extent, antibiotic resistance is driven by the misuse and overuse of antibiotics, which encourages bacteria to develop new ways of overcoming them.

Experts say primary care doctors are partly to blame for prescribing antibiotics for patients who demand them unnecessarily, and hospitals are also guilty of overuse.

Comment only first and last letter matter (Score 0, Redundant) 420

by stating_the_obvious (#38065310) Attached to: Skilled Readers Recognize Words By Shape
According to a raseerch at Caibrmdge Unviersity, it deosn't mettar in waht oedrr the letetrs in a wrod are. The olny imaortpnt thnig is taht the fisrt and lsat letetr be in the rgiht plcae.

The rset can be a ttoal mses and you can sitll raed it wiohtut peoblrm. Tihs is bucaese the hmuan mnid deos not raed erevy letter by itslef, but the wrod as a whloe.

http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/cambridge.asp

Comment Re:It was part of his job (Score 1) 267

Except that the Phonedog brand was used by Mr. Kravitz to potentially attract followers and he admittedly tweeted work related content. If it was his personal account, he shouldn't have used the company name.

Draw a clear line between your work life and your personal life... don't ever blur the line...

Comment Re:Police Ssurveillance (Score 1) 761

by stating_the_obvious (#37990024) Attached to: Two New Fed GPS Trackers Found On SUV
The GPS tracker is not constrained by traditional boundaries of privacy -- like the locked front gate of a long driveway. The cop trailing the car is free to observe public actions, while the GPS makes no distinctions of public and private activities. There may not be a lot of private locations where the GPS affixed to a vehicle is "crossing the line", but we're not that far away from a tracking device small enough to be embedded in your clothing without your knowledge...
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Divorced Man Sues Photographer to Recreate Wedding (nytimes.com)

Submitted by stating_the_obvious
stating_the_obvious writes: Dan Remis, an unemployed equity analyst in New York is suing his wedding photographer for 48,000 dollars to recreate the bouquet toss of his 2003 wedding. The 48K is necessary to fly principals (including his ex-wife — address unknown) from Latvia to recreate the ceremony.

Justice Doris Ling-Cohan of State Supreme Court in Manhattan finds guidance from Babs, "This is a case in which it appears that the ‘misty watercolor memories’ and the ‘scattered pictures of the smiles ... left behind’ at the wedding were more important than the real thing”

According to the Times, "Mr. Remis’s lawyer works for Goodwin Procter, where Mr. Remis’s father, Shepard M. Remis, is a litigation partner. The younger Mr. Remis has testified that he is paying his lawyer himself."

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