Smithsonian Magazine has an article in their current issue about copiers. The Soviet Union controlled access to copiers initially.

I haven't read the article yet, but it sounds interesting (Smithsonian Magazine is a gem, the TV channel, a travesty):

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/...

The topic at hand is a history chorus, and it's rhyming...

Iran is a "young" country in terms of population age.

From 2011, but that's only 4 years ago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...

So if 70% (7 out of 10) are using VPN and being cataloged, they are basically doing a census.

If they are tracking usage then they remind me of the US, they just track everyone. I'm from the US.

Nasty face isn't required, just the dead stare. Relax face completely and stare directly into the eyes of the other. Let them move. And don't look back, but they will.

I'm not imposing but move with purpose. And I'm not aggressive or passive, just standing there, staring at you. I've walked into larger drunk guys with their chick who initially start to act aggressive but stand down once they meet my eyes. The dead stare says "I don't care."

This. It was a relationship movie, about how some are persecuted for their relationship preferences.

I found it enjoyable and my wife, who was familiar with the name, did not know how it was going to end. And it really bothered her.

Her reaction was the movie fulfilling its intended goal in terms of getting someone to think about persecution. The historical perspective or "tech" was largely irrelevant in my opinion, it was a movie about how one person can be incredible, in the face of increasingly difficult odds, and then be destroyed by the same people after proving effective at being a genius.

It's almost like everyone except him was guilty of "not thinking well enough" while he alone (mostly) was guilty of "thinking/feeling wrong".

I haven't seen it, but I'm expecting Boyhood to win. It should have a lot of support on the concept and execution alone (it's a grander project than Lord of the Rings in my opinion, given the time frame during which it was produced - and a lack of CGI...).

A security camera (powered with DVR but not web connected of course) at the entry is all that is needed.

The car wash logs should expose when it was tampered with and who via license plates (excepting a deep break that can override/clear logs, a lot of work for a car wash...).

I think the police would enjoy tracking down people hacking car washes, it would give them positive/fun visibility (local news would eat this up) and probably involve felony level charges for hacking (rather than just stealing a $10 car wash).

In the end it is risk vs. reward for someone considering this, and the risk (felony hacking for a $10 car wash) is just a non-death Darwin award in my opinion.

Of course there is just messing with the car wash without actually using it. I could see someone setting the washes to extra long and then going and paying for one... I'm not worried about safety as the machines can't move beyond certain tolerances, and driving out, even through a door, is not difficult.

To decrypt things it would appear that bincoins would need to be transferred. So maybe this would be a good way to get paid by Uncle Sam.

Come up with detailed document names about attacks in places like Afghanistan (places we currently have troops in active theaters), and then have the document be an obviously fictional short story (have aliens attack, or maybe sand creatures depending on the locale).

Of course if they crack it, then they don't need to pay.

And even if you get identified by the Feds, it's not like you were defrauding anyone. You were putting up a "secret" document. That it is of no use or value doesn't deny the fact that it was known by few...

ISIS has a lot of US made weapons, procured from Iraq when they took over military bases there.

Granted, we didn't sell directly to ISIS, but we certainly setup the power vacuum that allowed them to obtain them.

So the US "accidentally/inadvertently" let ISIS get US made weapons. It's not like the power vacuum wasn't an obvious outcome when we pulled out of Iraq, but no one thought it would involve such an organized group.

We underestimated the enemy (and started the original war without thinking through the consequences, this stuff was pretty obvious to me over a decade ago, the entire war was one of attrition, just waiting as long as needed for the US to leave).

The smart phone option can be very useful though. We have the Roku app on our phones and it's great to be able to operate it when the remote is lost (which it usually is).

When it gets over $350 million I spend $20 on 10 tries.

I read the article, and it is interesting considering what one's initial expenditures would be.

Of course I don't expect to win, I will check my numbers in the morning.

I have, luckily, had much better performance with roulette, where I stand at about 300% above where I started all told (under $2000 in earnings total). Good times, I like Vegas every few years...

I believe it's considerably different from Siri or OK Google in that the TV is probably always listening (I'm assuming even when turned "off" so it can listen for the command to power up).

They can't do that. The electronics side has only lost money for years (at least $8.5 billion lost over 10 years). I'm not sure if that includes the Playstation brand.

Film and music has brought in about $7 billion in earnings.

And the life insurance arm (that's right, Sony Life) brought in over $9.07 billion in that time. Life insurance represented 63% of their operating profit last year (2012 or 2013, I'm not sure).

So they need to shed electronics completely, it has proven, over a reasonable time period, to be a consistent way to lose money.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05...

I was thinking of ways to capture the rarer moments without having to be present. The Grand Canyon full of clouds is pretty rare (I've seen much better photos than the one I posted).

The system would also have to have a configurable way to manage exposure settings when taking a batch of photos. This is accomplished via bracketing features (which would also lend itself to HDR photos).

There's a particular view I have taken thousands of photos at over the years, it's that type of location I'm thinking about.

The Sunsets section here are some of the photos I have taken at this location, which came to mind in this case (Fort Kaskaskia Historic Site in southern Illinois):
http://fortkaskaskia.org/Photo...

This type of analysis would be better for taking pictures rather than analyzing existing ones, and even more so for outdoor photography (landscapes, natural events, etc.).

The best landscape/storm photos are about timing, you have to be there when the awesomeness happens and snap the shot.
Think the Grand Canyon full of clouds:
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/d...

Imagine a scenario where you setup a camera at a great view/vista (somehow securely) and leave it there for a while, letting a system decide when to take photos. Program it to capture sunset/sunrise (depending on the camera's orientation) every day, and stormy conditions (it sees lightning and then starts taking shots).

Let it take batches of photos that match some predefined conditions, and then go get the camera to look for the shot(s) that are awesome.

When you monitor everything, you get everything.

I'd be more interested in what they aren't/can't monitor. As would evil people, but I'm not evil. You can take my word for it...

Thank Snowden for revealing the exception you pointed out. I don't recall when news organization ran the budget breakdown.