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Comment I'm in Canada and using an APK file (Score 4, Interesting) 110

by iONiUM (#52490757) Attached to: Infected Pokemon GO APK Carries Dangerous Android Backdoor

I downloaded the APK from apkmirror which I trust: http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/n....

Furthermore, I'm running Android Marshmallow and it allows you to grant or deny specific privileges to each app. This app asked for 4 permissions: contact list, camera, location and storage. This is how you know it's "authentic".

If it's asking for more than that (i.e. microphone), you've got a malware ridden copy.

Comment The community became toxic at the end (Score 2) 92

by iONiUM (#52270129) Attached to: BlackBerry Really Struggling In Android Market

As a Canadian, I should be more upset about this, but the BlackBerry community had become extremely elitist and and toxic near the end of BlackBerry's success and I have no sympathy.

Sometimes I would post reasonable questions in various places, including BlackBerry's official forums, and I would get ridiculed. I had a Z10 and a Q10 for a short while (testing for my company), and it was even still a problem at that point. I switched to Android (Nexus devices) and haven't looked back.

One very specific example: I had a friend's BB curve and they had forgotten the password. I asked on the forums how they could still login to BlackBerry (they had the account password, just not the phone's) and maybe somehow back it up (maybe via USB). I was accused of stealing the device and laughed at. My friend tried to remember, but after 5 guesses the device wiped itself and there's no way to recover it. Ever.

I get security, but come on, there were photos on there that they really wanted and there was literally no recovery process, and the community was shit. So I'm not upset by this. All those toxic supporters can go fuck themselves.

Comment Re:"Remain" in control? (Score 1) 260

by iONiUM (#52233621) Attached to: Bill Gates: AI Is The 'Holy Grail'

"My computer must answer to me," isn't anyone's priority or requirement, except for "OSS zealots."

I assume you put "OSS zealots." in quotes to try and emphasize that many people view this type of individually somewhat negatively. I'm not against (or even disagreeing) with what you said, but one thing I'd like to point is is the pure bullshit statement that OSS advocates often use of "it's open source so I can see what's in it."

The reason I call bullshit on this is because I doubt you, or any other "normal" OSS supporter has really read every line of source code that their application / OS has in it. There's no way, it would take too long. Instead, you trust that other people have done it for you, and you trust those other people more than a corporation of say Microsoft.

Really the entire OSS movement is about who you trust. For OSS advocates, you trust those in the community more than the "faceless corporations" because in the end, it's all closed source to an individual who can't realistically read it all.

Comment Re:Canada? Energy superpower status (Score 1) 327

That's mostly true, except I'm pretty certain Saudi Arabia is lying about their proven oil reserves. There's a lot of articles on this. Venezuela I don't think is lying, but I also don't think the government can continue to extract and sell oil as the country is currently collapsing into chaos.

Comment Re:Canada? Superpower status? (Score 5, Insightful) 327

I suppose it depends on your definition of "superpower." From the wikipedia article, Canada's GDP is 10th in the world, and 15th per capita (nominal). It's a first world nation with a very high HDI. It's also a member of the G7 nations, which represent 64% of the world's wealth.

I think one thing people overlook is that Canada has a massive treasure trove of natural resources and a very good setup for a modern economy (good income equality, good infrastructure). This combined with a high rate of immigration means the population is growing and companies will flourish (ideally). But, you never know. Resources are 20% of the GDP of Canada (http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/publications/key-facts/16013) so if that all went away at once it'd be a huge problem. I doubt it would go down like that though.

Submission + - Third of Central, Northern Great Barrier Reef Corals Dead (smh.com.au)

Submitted by iONiUM
iONiUM writes: More than one-third of the coral reefs of the central and northern regions of the Great Barrier Reef have died in the huge bleaching event earlier this year, Queensland researchers said.

Corals to the north of Cairns – covering about two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef – were found to have an average mortality rate of 35 per cent, rising to more than half in areas around Cooktown.

Bleaching occurs when abnormal conditions, such as warm seas, cause corals to expel tiny photosynthetic algae, called zooxanthellae. Corals turn white without these algae and may die if the zooxanthellae do not recolonise them.

Submission + - Meet Uber's First Self-Driving Car (theverge.com)

Submitted by iONiUM
iONiUM writes: Uber has finally released the first official photo of the self-driving cars that it is testing on the streets of Pittsburgh, almost a year to the day since reporters in that city first spotted an earlier prototype. The car, a hybrid Ford Fusion, is collecting mapping data as well as testing its self-driving capabilities, and is equipped with "radars, laser scanners, and high resolution cameras to map details of the environment," Uber says in a blog post. But as it collects data, a trained driver is always behind the wheel.

The car drove itself over the 31st Street Bridge and along River Avenue on the North Side before turning around at the Heinz Lofts. The car will accelerate, brake, steer and perform other basic functions on its own. It switches out of self-driving mode with a loud beep if its sensors detect a car swerving into its lane or it encounters something it does not recognize or know how to negotiate.

The driver can take control of the car at anytime. The car's sensors detected parked cars sticking out into traffic, jaywalkers, bicyclists and a goose crossing River Avenue.

Submission + - Scientists Find A "Weak Spot" In HIV That May Pave the Way to a Vaccine (futurism.com)

Submitted by iONiUM
iONiUM writes: Research conducted by a team from the National Institutes of Health reported a new vulnerable site on HIV for vaccines to target. It is based on an antibody from the blood of an HIV-infected patient that binds with the virus and also prevents it from infecting a cell.

A recent press release reports that a team of scientists led by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has discovered a new “weak spot” in HIV that vaccines can target. The area, called the fusion peptide, is a simple structure of eight amino acids that helps the virus fuse with a cell.

According to the study, the team used a particularly powerful antibody, called VRC34.01, taken from the blood of an unnamed HIV-positive patient that caught the weak spot in the virus. It’s not only capable of binding with the virus through the fusion peptide but also preventing it from infecting an entire cell.

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