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Comment Re:Jury nullification exists because... (Score 1) 629

Jury nullification is a side effect of the prohibition against retrying a defendant for the same crime after having been found not guilty

This prohibition is important because, at least in theory, it prevents a determined prosecutor from repeatedly retrying until there is a conviction, the defendant caves or the prosecutor gets tired. Of course, it's not impossible to get around this by filing charges for other things the defendant might have done at the same time. In theory, the defendant or defendant's lawyer could argue these new charges are "lessor included charges" and get them dismissed.

Comment Re:thank God they didn't have computers.... (Score 1) 629

Interesting. Were your charges dropped ? As I understand they do not stick with you if so. It may be different if for a 19 year old vs under 18. But if the charges stay no matter what, then I agree that would overdoing it as a scare tactic.

Legally, the charges (and, maybe even the arrest record) might disappear (depends on the state) if dropped, but any details that were reported in the media will stick around. Similarly, the "seal" on juvenile records is only a legal matter, not a media matter.

Comment Re:What you and what the FCC wants (Score 1) 489

They won't. The FCC doesn't have the power or the authority to wiretap or monitor anyone's Internet usage. Your argument is fallacious.

That first step on the slippery slope is perfectly safe!

Title II or not, Net Neutrality or not, other parts of the government are already tapping and monitoring.

Comment Re:Payola (Score 1) 489

If corporations are choosing to perpetrate something like payola and say its "because of net neutrality", that would be their rationalization for having broken the law, rather than evidence of a bad law.

Agreed.

The more interesting part is that the article seems to be saying that paying for special treatment is a good thing:

one of the best ways to route around a big firm's brand recognition is to buy special treatment in the form of promotions, product placement and the like (payola, after all, is how rock and roll circumvented major label contempt for the genre). That will almost certainly be forbidden under the FCC's version of neutrality

The problem, though, is that the big firms are the ones who have the money to pay for special treatment, so routing around them is a lot harder.

Comment Re:The internet has just become Ma Bell (Score 1) 489

Everything from the hardware, to the permits, but especially the construction.

Local level lobbying also plays a big role.

My neighborhood is split between 2 cities: About 70% is in the first city and the other 30% is on the other. I live in the "other city". My neighborhood was originally wired by the cable company serving the "other city", Year later, another cable company comes along. The first city get completely wired - including its side of my neighborhood. The incremental cost to include my side of of the neighborhood would have been small at the time as all the needed crew, equipment and supplies were in the neighborhood. But the "other city" utilities board [1] caved to the original cable company's demand to not let the new company in - not even the quarter square mile section of my neighborhood that is in the "other city". Yes, everyone in my section of the neighborhood wrote both the utilities board and the city counsel asking that the new company be allowed to wire our part of the neighborhood. But we were just "a few dozen households" vs a huge corporate enterprise. (At the time, the new company had no plans involving other areas on the borders of the "other city", so the other residents didn't care.)

---

[1] Utilities board because they have control over the installation and use of the "utility poles" that carry power, phone and cable TV lines. In theory, the city counsel could have overruled, but that would have been unlikely even if the incumbent cable company wasn't also lobbying them.

Comment Re:OSS solution (Score 1) 88

and compatible with many current IoT protocols

How many of these protocols support adequate security?

Unfortunately, simply not supporting unsecure devices is likely to severely limit the market for a "secure IoT Hub". Manufacturers know this, so are very likely to to make "communicate with any device" the default setting..

Comment Bigger problem - Re:No kidding ... (Score 2) 88

The biggest problem I have seen with these connected devices is that many of them need to "call the mothership". While that does make it easier for the device vendors to support their products, it also means that could be used to determine when you are least likely to be home is being sent over the Internet.

I have 3, separate, wired networks in my house. One is for the home automation system, and has NO connection to the Internet.

The system does have IR receivers, so could be vulnerable to a phone or tablet app that sends IR signals using something like an IRED, so the IR receivers accept a very limited set of commands. BUT, the IR communications are one-way: Simple commands in, nothing out.

Submission + - Central Mint Infiltrated by Teenager

UnderCoverPenguin writes: Several sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that the Central Mint's security was compromised by a teenage boy. Outraged senators are calling for a comprehensive review of the Treasury Department's security procedures. A spokesperson for the Treasury has emphatically denied that such a breach has occurred. Meanwhile, investigative journalists have identified the boy as James deGris, a recent graduate of a technical highschool where he studied electronics and locksmithing.

Comment Re:Remove access ASAP (Score 1) 279

I've never resigned from a job, though been laid off twice. Once because the company went out of business and the other because the CFO (chief finance officer) panicked when one of the major customers had not issued an RFQ (request for quote) on an expected huge project. He persuaded the CEO to order a 35% reduction in staff. Because I was in the "hand off to manufacturing" phase of the project I was working one, I was one of "unlucky" people. Anyway, we were given 2 months notice and had full access until turning in our badges in on our last day (was after 8pm by the time I was finished and turned mine in). My tasks during the last 2 months were what I would have been doing anyway - finalizing project documentation and providing support to manufacturing engineers. When the bad news came, the VP of Engineering personally apologized to each of us, then on our last day, he hosted a "good bye" lunch and personally thanked each of us for all of great work. Months later, some of us, including me, received bonus checks as thank you for our work.

FWIW, a month after the bonus checks were sent, the customer finally issued the RFQ. But, I was not available to return to that company. (The return offer was not enough to justify resigning my new job, but was enough to "inspire" my new employer to raise my pay.)

Comment Re:New boss - same as the old boss (Score 1) 79

AOL and similar services, like CompuServe, were founded while the Internet was still restricted to "non-commercial entities". They were giant, nation-wide bulletin board systems. They worked and were profitable. At the time they connected to the Internet, it was seen as a way to increase profit. But then came "big content". The major ISPs now perceive that forcing the major content providers to directly pay for access will increase their profits even more.

Will this really work? I don't know. But it will have the side effect of squeezing out the little content providers. The little ones will be dependent on the tolerance of the big ones to get their content seen.

Comment Re:Check their work or check the summary? (Score 1) 486

It is not always quicker to do things in memory. Statement proved. QED.

Maybe

The disk-only code, although apparently writing to the disk excessively, is only triggering an actual write when operating system buffers are full.

The "disk-only" code is still writing to memory. If anything is proven, it's that the OS is doing its memory management better than the Java or Python run time environments.

Would be interesting to add another case to compare: Open an unnamed pipe, write to "write end" of the pipe in the loop, then read the final string from the "read end" of the pipe.

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