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Submission + - Verizon Tells Customer He Needs 75Mbps For Smoother Netflix Video (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Verizon recently told a customer that upgrading his 50Mbps service to 75 Mbps would result in smoother streaming of Netflix video. Of course, that's not true — Netflix streams at a rate of about 3.5 Mbps on average for Verizon's fiber service, so there's more than enough headroom either way. But this customer was an analyst for the online video industry, so he did some testing and snapped some screenshots for evidence. He fired up 10 concurrent streams of a Game of Thrones episode and found only 29Mbps of connection being used. This guy was savvy enough to see through Verizon's BS, but I'm sure there are millions of customers who wouldn't bat an eye at the statements they were making. The analyst "believes that the sales pitch he received is not just an isolated incident, since he got the same pitch from three sales reps over the phone and one online."

Submission + - A virtually unknown but safe and effective treatment for depression

Submitted by NichardRixon
NichardRixon writes: The government of the United States has been enormously effective in warning citizens about the dangers of opiate abuse, while at the same time recognizing the fact that these drugs have their place in medicine in treating physical pain. This is common knowledge. However, what is virtually never discussed, and almost unknown even among therapists, is the fact that opiates are also the most effective known treatment for major depression. When use is properly managed opiates often allow people with physical or emotional pain to live reletively normal lives, and it is far more effective, even, than electroconvulsive therapy. (http://www.opioids.com/antidepressant/opiate.html) is one example of available information. Although written by physicians, it's barely more than anecdotal.

The reasons that opiate efficacy is not often discussed is unknown to this author. Logic would suggest that the FDA must have determined that emotional pain is less severe than physical pain, but the fact that 90% of suicides are caused by mental illness--most commonly depression--rather thoroughly refutes this particular misconception. (http://www.suicide.org/suicide-causes.html)

Furthermore, the drugs currently used to treat depression are addictive, the only difference being that the person coming off antidepressants generally is glad to be doing so because of the many side effects. There's also no "high" that they might miss. That difference is probably not as true as it might at first seem, however, because people dependant upon medically prescribed opiates have mostly left that part of the experience behind them as they became tolerant to the drug. In fact studies show that less than 5% of people prescribed opiates become dependent, and it's important to understand that dependency is NOT the same as addiction! (http://www.rsdhope.org/drug-therapies-for-crps.html)

When searching the internet for information on the subject, one gets the feeling that much of what is known on the subject has been supressed. With persistence the data can be found, though, and one of the best I've seen can be found in documentation on development of a new drug, ALKS-5461 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALKS-5461). The FDA has reportedly placed this drug on the fast track for approval. It contains a strong narcotic in combination with another drug that supresses any euphoria the patient might otherwise experience from taking it. I don't personally like the idea of taking a drug with it's own set of side effects, that I don't need, for the purpose of making it difficult to abuse. If approved it will also undoubtably be very expensive, but it may be a step in the right direction.

Incidence of depression is increasing at an alarming rate in the U.S., so don't dismiss the possibility that you or a loved one may at some point become a victim. (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/prevalence/major-depression-among-adults.shtml)

NR

Submission + - Dangers Of Dihydrogen Monoxide (dhmo.org)

Submitted by bswarm
bswarm writes: Each year, Dihydrogen Monoxide is a known causative component in many thousands of deaths and is a major contributor to millions upon millions of dollars in damage to property and the environment. Some of the known perils of Dihydrogen Monoxide are:

Death due to accidental inhalation of DHMO, even in small quantities.
Prolonged exposure to solid DHMO causes severe tissue damage.
Excessive ingestion produces a number of unpleasant though not typically life-threatening side-effects.
DHMO is a major component of acid rain.
Gaseous DHMO can cause severe burns.
Contributes to soil erosion.
Leads to corrosion and oxidation of many metals.
Contamination of electrical systems often causes short-circuits.
Exposure decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes.
Found in biopsies of pre-cancerous tumors and lesions.
Given to vicious dogs involved in recent deadly attacks.
Often associated with killer cyclones in the U.S. Midwest and elsewhere, and in hurricanes including deadly storms in Florida, New Orleans and other areas of the southeastern U.S.
Thermal variations in DHMO are a suspected contributor to the El Nino weather effect.

Submission + - Adware Privdog worse than Superfish

Submitted by Presto Vivace
Presto Vivace writes: Comodo ships Adware Privdog worse than Superfish

tl;dr There is an adware called Privdog that gets shipped with software from Comodo. It totally breaks HTTPS security.

From Naked Capitalism's summary:

So here we have the CEO of a Certificate Authority (CA), Comodo, who is also the CEO of Privdog, whose product subverts the certificate authority system. Oh, and Comodo ships that very product with its software. These bottom feeders make Bill Gates look like St. Francis of Assisi. How deep does the rot in the software industry go, anyhow?

I am beginning to believe that Richard Stallman is right, living in freedom means using free and open software.

Submission + - The cause of the Moon's great crater chains

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: You might think that your odds of getting 3, 5, or even 10 or more craters all next to each other and in a row on an object like the Moon are astronomically small. Yet, we've identified dozens of features that show exactly this! Here are some of the most spectacular, along with the redux of the leading ideas of where they came from, including secondary impacts, tidally disrupted impactors and volcanic and geologic explanations.

Submission + - Credit Card Fraud Could Peak in 2015, as the US Moves To EMV, 10 Years Late

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: Some analysts expect fraud to increase this year as thieves will step up their efforts to capture more credit card details before the EMV conversion goes into full throttle.

The next time US cardholders receive a new card it will probably be equipped with an EMV chip, and most likely be contactless. The US is finally making the transition to secure cards based on the European EMV standard, mostly because the liability shift imposed by the three big credit card brands — Visa, MasterCard and American Express — will start on October... ten years later than Europe

the European Union, where EMV became standard ten years ago, has the lowest level of credit card fraud in the world, the US accounted for 47.3% of the worldwide payment card fraud losses but generated only 23.5% of total volume.

Comment Re:Block spoofing. Or charge for that privilege (Score 2) 145

by bswarm (#48924271) Attached to: How One Small Company Blocked 15.1 Million Robocalls Last Year
AT&T lost me as a customer due to the ridiculous amount of telemarketers calling me. They wanted to charge me even more money to add call blocking or Caller ID. No thanks, got a cell phone for 1/3 the price of my landline and only family got that number, all others get my google call number.

Submission + - Facebook Is Being Skimmed For Info By Bots

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I've started receiving spam emails using forged names from my Facebook friends. These spam emails have their names, but come from various foreign email addresses that they don't own. I do not have their email address and they do not have mine, so the only way this could happen is by bots skimming Facebook for names, emails, and friends lists. After trying for half an hour trying to find some way to contact Facebook and only being redirected to their help pages, I gave up. Apparently Facebook doesn't want to be contacted for a serious problem.

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