Submission + - Exxon makes only 7 cents profit per gallon (exxonmobilperspectives.com)
jcgam69 writes: Exxon explains why gas prices are so high and why Washington should stop demonizing the oil and gas industry.
Submission + - Apple Eases Rules for Publishers on Apps (nytimes.com)
pjfontillas writes: Apple has quietly reversed their decision that required publishers who sell content and subscriptions in their iPhone and iPad apps to go through iTunes, with Apple taking a 30% cut. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/10/technology/10apple.html?_r=1&hp
It's not so quiet in the workplace, however, as this news has a pretty big influence on developer workloads.
Here at The New York Times our developers breathe a sigh of relief once we realized we don't have try and work around that requirement like The Financial Times did: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/technology/08ftapp.html?scp=10&sq=apple&st=cse
Apple seems to have been doing much better with their community (consumers and developers alike) recently. As a long-time Linux advocate it's hard to say but I've actually come to appreciate some of Apple's products.
It's not so quiet in the workplace, however, as this news has a pretty big influence on developer workloads.
Here at The New York Times our developers breathe a sigh of relief once we realized we don't have try and work around that requirement like The Financial Times did: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/technology/08ftapp.html?scp=10&sq=apple&st=cse
Apple seems to have been doing much better with their community (consumers and developers alike) recently. As a long-time Linux advocate it's hard to say but I've actually come to appreciate some of Apple's products.
Comment Your link is broken (Score 1) 4
Here's a new one: http://www.news10.net/news/article/141207/2/DOE-raids-Stockton-home-as-part-of-fraud-probe.
OIG is a semi-independent branch of the education department that executes warrants for criminal offenses such as student aid fraud, embezzlement of federal aid and bribery, according to Hamilton. The agency serves 30 to 35 search warrants a year.
I really distrust this multiplication of departments with police powers. They tend to be answerable to no one. Not that the local police are a whole lot better, but at least they are local. Any organization exercising police powers should be subject to direct public oversight. Not just Arne Duncan, even though he did play in the NBA Celebrity All-Star game.
That said, I'm not sure that this was actually unlawful. The DOE was executing a legal search warrant. Whether or not that gives them the right to handcuff him and keep him in a squad car for the duration, I do not know. It would probably depend on his behavior.
The way that this happened probably should be unlawful. Whether it actually is, or not, is open to question.
Submission + - Los Angeles to Stop Traffic Light Cameras
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The LA Times reports that theLos Angeles Police Commission has voted to kill the city's controversial red-light camera program, rejecting claims that the system makes streets safer while costing the city nothing. The police department says the cameras help reduce accidents, largely by deterring drivers looking to run red lights or make illegal turns while critics of the technology question officials' accident data, saying the cameras instead cause rear-end collisions as drivers slam on their brakes and liken the cameras to Big Brother tactics designed to generate revenues. More than 180,000 motorists have received camera-issued tickets since the program started in 2004 but thecommission estimates that the program costs between $4 million and $5 million each year while bringing in only about $3.5 million annually. Members of the public who attended the meeting urged the commission to do away with the cameras, which trigger seemingly boundless frustration and anger among drivers in traffic-obsessed L.A."It's something that angers me every time I get in my car," says Hollywood resident Christina Heller. "These cameras remove our fundamental right in this country to confront our accuser. And they do not do anything to improve safety.""
Submission + - trend micro constantly 'sampling' your files (self_reporting_no_url.com) 1
stenn writes: software: trend micro titanium internet security
os: windows 7 (yes yes, i know...)
situation:
the issue started while i was 'tail -f' the access_log on a server i'm working with. my system has a simple website and a standalone app that will hit the server via url with a handful of parameters for settings, one of those being a guid.
the problem:
i started noticing log entries for urls coming from the client app, with my guid, but not coming from my ip address. additionally, it was only the requests coming from the client app, not those starting in the browser. the duped requests would come from multiple ip addresses, all starting with 150.70.xx.xx. obviously, this is concerning. i am not going through any cloud services or using any proxies. i traced the ip addresses (ie: 150.70.172.106, 150.70.64.195, 150.70.75.33, etc) and they all pointed to Trend Micro Inc. i do have trend micro installed for anti-virus software, and as far as i could tell.. it was working fine and fairly lightweight. any reporting or proxy settings i have turned off. so i made a call.
after bouncing through a few people, i ended up with a guy trying to explain that they are trying to insure the 'web reputation' of the sites i was visiting. if that were the case, i pointed out, then you would echo the url calls originating from my browser. i can update my browser page and see it in the access_log immediately. no echoes. but when i issue urls from the stand alone client, i see an echo within 90 seconds.
it gets worse:
at this point he said he was going to need to see the screen to confirm what i'm seeing (?!). i asked how he'd do that, he said he'd take a screenshot and it would be sent to his machine (?!). i asked how and he said their software would do it if i allowed him to. obviously, i wasn't happy. that shouldn't even be an option. he backed away from this quickly.
the other shoe:
after another chorus of 'why the hell are you sending my internet traffic to your servers', he said trendmicro routinely samples files on the system and sends them to their malware experts for analysis (?!). he explained that they randomly sample from those files that have changed... bundling them up... and sending them to their servers every 3 hours. he tried to assure me that no 'sensitive' information was being sent from my machine (suuure...), just some random samples so the 'malware experts' can look for malware.
ip theft:
being a software developer, i write code that is copyrighted, at least by me, as i create it. for them to be 'sampling' the files that have changed essentially has them stealing my source code so their 'malware experts' can look through them. yes, i know... that's a lot of files and they aren't watching *my* files... but my name is on the trend micro license. if they wanted to, they could monitor one person's files without an issue.
i might be having a small cow over this issue, but i don't think it's unwarranted. it sure seems like spyware to me. if not, i'd love to know the difference, besides incorporation papers and a phone number.
thoughts?
os: windows 7 (yes yes, i know...)
situation:
the issue started while i was 'tail -f' the access_log on a server i'm working with. my system has a simple website and a standalone app that will hit the server via url with a handful of parameters for settings, one of those being a guid.
the problem:
i started noticing log entries for urls coming from the client app, with my guid, but not coming from my ip address. additionally, it was only the requests coming from the client app, not those starting in the browser. the duped requests would come from multiple ip addresses, all starting with 150.70.xx.xx. obviously, this is concerning. i am not going through any cloud services or using any proxies. i traced the ip addresses (ie: 150.70.172.106, 150.70.64.195, 150.70.75.33, etc) and they all pointed to Trend Micro Inc. i do have trend micro installed for anti-virus software, and as far as i could tell.. it was working fine and fairly lightweight. any reporting or proxy settings i have turned off. so i made a call.
after bouncing through a few people, i ended up with a guy trying to explain that they are trying to insure the 'web reputation' of the sites i was visiting. if that were the case, i pointed out, then you would echo the url calls originating from my browser. i can update my browser page and see it in the access_log immediately. no echoes. but when i issue urls from the stand alone client, i see an echo within 90 seconds.
it gets worse:
at this point he said he was going to need to see the screen to confirm what i'm seeing (?!). i asked how he'd do that, he said he'd take a screenshot and it would be sent to his machine (?!). i asked how and he said their software would do it if i allowed him to. obviously, i wasn't happy. that shouldn't even be an option. he backed away from this quickly.
the other shoe:
after another chorus of 'why the hell are you sending my internet traffic to your servers', he said trendmicro routinely samples files on the system and sends them to their malware experts for analysis (?!). he explained that they randomly sample from those files that have changed... bundling them up... and sending them to their servers every 3 hours. he tried to assure me that no 'sensitive' information was being sent from my machine (suuure...), just some random samples so the 'malware experts' can look for malware.
ip theft:
being a software developer, i write code that is copyrighted, at least by me, as i create it. for them to be 'sampling' the files that have changed essentially has them stealing my source code so their 'malware experts' can look through them. yes, i know... that's a lot of files and they aren't watching *my* files... but my name is on the trend micro license. if they wanted to, they could monitor one person's files without an issue.
i might be having a small cow over this issue, but i don't think it's unwarranted. it sure seems like spyware to me. if not, i'd love to know the difference, besides incorporation papers and a phone number.
thoughts?
Submission + - Does Quantum Theory Explain Consciousness? (discovery.com)
astroengine writes: "Quantum theory is often seen as the root cause of unrelated, mysterious phenomena. Take consciousness for example. British physicist Roger Penrose recently argued "that we will need to invoke 'new physics and exotic biological structures': rewriting quantum theory to make sense of consciousness." But why do this, especially as there is no apparent causal link between quantum mechanics and the conscious mind? There appears to be a very basic logical fallacy here that even the most prominent physicists seem to be making."
Journal Journal: Must have been a code drop last night 3
This is the entire content of the front page (outside of the slashboxes), in Firefox: "No matches found. Try a different search or head back to the main stories." Problem is, I'd not searched for anything.
Comment Re:Glad I still rate (Score 1) 5
LIkewise...
I only remove from from my friends list when I want to add someone. I do wonder what happened to some of those people, though.
Comment Re:Of course... (Score 1) 9
And the quote on this page? "Flee at once, all is discovered."
Comment Of course... (Score 1) 9
It would be completely hacker-proof. No chance of ever getting a presidential alert that your pants are unzipped.
If one was the President, this could be a lot of fun.
Submission + - High-Tech Gas Drilling Is Fouling Drinking Water (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: Drilling for natural gas locked deep in a shale formation--a process known as fracking--has seriously contaminated shallow groundwater supplies beneath far northeastern Pennsylvania with flammable methane. That’s the conclusion of a new study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The analysis gives few clues, however, to how pervasive such contamination might be across the wide areas of the Northeast United States, Texas, and other states where drilling for shale gas has taken off in recent years.
Comment Re:Even Worse (Score 1) 932
I'm not sure who you are addressing; that was my first post on the subject. The idea is the fairness of the tax - it should apply to every vehicle based on the wear it causes. There are many more cars than trucks, so each should bear a proportionate share.
However, I don't think that increasing the fairness of the tax justifies invasive measures such as GPS tracking.
Comment Re:Even Worse (Score 2) 932
I didn't believe what you said, so I searched for some facts. From what I see (here), it's actually the fourth power of axle load. It also correlates with speed - slower speeds cause more damage. So this might be the germ of a good idea, though probably hard to enforce and collect fairly.
A gas or diesel tax is relatively simple to measure and collect, and it correlates directly to one quantity that we wish to control - carbon emissions. However, wear and tear on roads is also a measurable expense, and an electric vehicle will cause as much as a gasoline vehicle of the same weight. So I think that there is a role for this sort of tax, if done correctly based on axle loading.
Comment Surface Transportation Revenue Alternatives Office (Score 1) 6
Or, "how can we extract some more money from drivers, without getting pitched out of office due to high gasoline prices?" It's a regressive tax, so it hits the poor and middle-class the hardest. Not to mention that it's essentially a tax on economic activity, which is exactly what we don't need. Yes - stay at home and don't spend money. That'll bring the economy back in no time! </sarcasm>
Submission + - New Fed Agency Proposed to Tax Cars by the Mile 6
theodp writes: Just when you thought your commute couldn't get any worse, The Hill reports that the Obama administration has floated a transportation authorization bill that would require the study and implementation of a plan to tax automobile drivers based on how many miles they drive. The plan is a part of the administration's 'Transportation Opportunities Act', and calls for spending $200 million to implement a new Surface Transportation Revenue Alternatives Office tasked with creating a 'study framework that defines the functionality of a mileage-based user fee system and other systems.' The office would be required to consider four factors — the capability of states to enforce payment, the reliability of technology, administrative costs, and 'user acceptance' — in field trials slated to begin within four years at unspecified sites. Forbes suggests the so-called vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax should be called the Rube Goldberg Gas Tax, because while its objective is the same as the gas tax, the way it collects revenue is extremely complex, costly and cumbersome. IBM, on the other hand, finds a place for a VMT in its Smarter Planet plan, arguing that 'usage-based tax models such as road-user charging based on miles driven, zone entry charges, or tolls can replace gas tax revenues while helping shape behavior.' So, to paraphrase James Hong and Jim Young, is the VMT Smart-or-Not?
