Comment Encryption key (Score 3, Funny) 67
The breakthrough was when he figured out that the encryption key was "Be sure to drink your Rioja"
Comment Missing underpants (Score 1) 504
Step 1: Threaten to sue any company that demands access to a user's Facebook account
Step 2: Write an app that allows users to grant temporary account access to a prospective employer. Sprinkle in a few BS "safeguards" to make users feel better about letting recruiters rifle through their life
Step 3: Charge the companies through the nose for access
No underpants required.
Comment Re:His name was Leonardo (Score 1) 114
I submitted it as Leonardo in the title, but the name was changed en route to posting. However, they also added some extra links so that part was good.
Submission + - Is anyone else offended by the 'sugar daddy dating' banner ads? 8
jdogalt writes: I'm honestly just curious to see a comment thread on this one- Are others here as offended as I am by the lack of advertising discretion that seems to have led to a massive influx of the ads with the following text — "Establshed Men. Sugar daddy dating. Where beautiful girls and successful men meet.". Now, I'm not interested the social reality, but rather I'd just like slashdot, for slashdot's sake, to have better taste in ads. I'd be less offended if the quote was a bit more balanced as '/successful men/succuessful boys/".
Submission + - Evidence of lost Leonardo fresco behind Florentine wall (nationalpost.com)
Lev13than writes: Art historians working in Florence's city hall claim to have found evidence of Leonardo da Vinci's lost Battle of Anghiari fresco. Painted in 1505, the fresco was covered over by a larger mural during mid-16th Century palace renovations. Historians have long speculated that the original work was protected behind a false wall. Attempts to reveal the truth have been complicated by the need to protect Vasari's masterpiece Battle of Marciano that now graces the room. By drilling small holes into previously-restored sections of Vasari's fresco, researchers used endoscopic cameras and probes to determine that a second wall does exist. They further claim that the hidden wall is adorned with pigments consistent with Leonardo's style. The research has set off a storm of controversy between those who want to find the lost work and others who believe that it is gone, and that further exploration risks destroying the existing artwork.
Submission + - Can $60 Games Survive? (gamesindustry.biz)
donniebaseball23 writes: Game budgets continue to rise with each successive console generation, and with the Wii U launching later this year, the industry is on the cusp of yet another costly transition. Publishers started regularly charging $60 for games this generation, but that's a model that simply cannot survive, Nexon America CEO Daniel Kim told GamesIndustry International. "I think at some point the console makers have to make a decision about how closed or open they're going to be to the different models that are going to be emerging," Kim remarked. "Today it's free-to-play, and I'm convinced that that one is going to continue to flourish and expand into other genres and other categories, but there may be something else completely and entirely different that comes out that again changes the industry." He cautioned, "If your mind is just set on keeping the current model of buy a game for $60, play for 40 hours, buy another game for $60, play for 40 hours, that model I think is eventually going to change. It's going to have to change."
Submission + - The Return Of The Fat App (infoworld.com)
snydeq writes: Mobile devices are turning the app dev ship around, and everything old is new again, writes Deep End's Paul Venezia. 'Fat apps are making a comeback. Thanks to mobile devices, we're drifting back to the fat app model, or at least a hybrid of Web and native app. In many cases, it's not enough simply to reformat a website for mobile browsing. The user experience on mobile devices is just too different than on a PC — you can't hover over links on a tablet or use pop-up windows, for instance. You can rearrange your website's CSS all you want, but the result is usually a poor representation of the original site, shoehorned to fit on a phone or tablet. The solution? A fat app.'
Submission + - Jimmy Wales To Become UK Government Adviser (techweekeurope.co.uk)
judgecorp writes: "Wikipedia founder Jimmy wales is to become a UK government adviser on open government. The unpaid post, announced at SXSW will see him contributing ideas on issues including the single government portal open.gov.uk. among other things. Wales has been an outspoken critic of some government intiatives in the US, including the SOPA act on copyright — whose British counterpart, the DEA, is already law."
Comment Really a big deal? (Score 3, Insightful) 217
POTS infrastructure is fully depreciated, lines are self-powered and system is completely compatible with all existing equipment. Even if you put a fibre-based POTS system in every exchange you'd still need to keep the copper running for non-subscribers. Seems like a reasonable trade-off if they are taking the savings and using the capital to accelerate the roll-out of fibre internet.
Interested to hear from an actual telecom engineer about how hard/expensive it would be to update the exchanges.
Comment Re:check out their site (Score 1) 387
I Googled the accident mentioned in the summary, and it turns out that the the other group of urban explorers had derailed a Mail Rail car. Didn't know that the line existed - very interesting. Looks kind of like the Chicago freight tunnels.
Comment Check the direction (Score 4, Funny) 414
Did they remember to plug it in with the direction marks pointing to the computer?
Comment Some background (Score 5, Informative) 84
Toews is Canada's version of Newt Gingrich with a bit of John Edwards thrown in for good measure. When he tabled an invasive citizens spying bill this week he declared that citizens were either with him or with the child pornographers.
Toews campaigns on family values and "worships the ground that his wife walks on" (more on that below). He is a devout Mennonite and runs on his faith. He is on record for being anti-same sex marriage, anti-abortion and pro-gun. So, what does a fine, upstanding anti-pedophile Christian like him do on his days off? Why, he knocks up his family's teenage babysitter, of course. In Canada the age of consent is 16, but goes up to 18 when the younger party is in a position of trust - such as between a babysitter and employer. The girl in questions is believed to have been 17 when the affair started, so it's just plain sleazy on any level.
The Vickileaks site (rumoured to be from a Parliament Hill staffer) has been publishing the (public) records of his ugly divorce. What Toews is missing here is that information, once collected, takes on a life of its own. The parallel between his public divorce file and the impact of his proposed snooping legislation is a delicious irony, especially considering that the remarkably fertile prick is himself basically a child molester with better PR.
Comment Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. (Score 1) 365
The box you check determines what trustee you vote for, not where your tax dollars go. School funding is based purely on enrollment, and Catholics get the same $/student as public. Back under the bridge for you
Comment How to explain the law to a non-techie (Score 5, Informative) 583
The proposed bill is like the Government of Canada forcing the phone companies to keep a record of every call that you make or receive, and insisting that Canada Post keep a register of every piece of mail that you send or receive. They'd still need a warrant to actually open your mail, but they don't need anyone's permission to build a profile of who you correspond with including who, how often, at what time of day etc...
The minister has gone on record to say that if you don't want the government to have a complete list of the letters you send through the mail, then you support child pornography. There is apparently no middle ground.
Now take the phone/mail analogy and replace it with everything that you do online - all the websites you visit, Facebook posts you make and emails you send. If you think that's a reasonable limit on your freedom then you should support the bill. If you don't want the government poking around your history file then you should let them know.
Comment Quite the write-up (Score 5, Funny) 311
That was an amazingly detailed and quite interesting write up - I found the numerous close-up photos and descriptions quite informative. Based on your proclivity for detail I am very glad that you suffered from cataracts and not colorectal polyips.
