So this is in effect, a way of bypassing the carriers? If not, then would we need to have Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-mobile branded LTE-Direct spots?

I sure see this as a way for warehouse-like stores like Ikea and Costco to offer cell services and have a captive portal for web users (and potentially voice users as well - ugh).

But what is preventing a rogue actor from setting up their own LTE direct hotspots and MITM-ing a large group's entire communications? Especially if said actor were doing so with tacit approval from the carriers?

Is it really the case, or was this justification for conquest of the new world - I don't think the business world has changed significantly in the past few centuries - we put a new name on some business model, but the underlying goals and direction is the same.

In this case, I can clearly see it as "something to tell the people and our competitors" - if the mission fails, no hint is left that it is the "new world" that was failed, only what others have failed at before (ie, faster route to India). If the mission succeeds... well, again we want exclusive access the plunder and possibilities.

Are you sure you understand the interstate commerce? What you're describing sounds exactly like interstate commerce. Are you saying that Iowa could prevent a California-based internet company from selling products over the internet to be delivered in Iowa?

Clearly technology in fingerprint scanners could never have improved since then.

Exactly - those prints they have on file for you from many years ago should perfectly translate into TouchID-compliant proofs. They likely already stocked up on latex milk and the various things that CCC used.

Basically sounds like the OSX keychain, but using your name/credentials/etc to login to public wifi spots automatically - I wonder what kind of coverage they'll have?

Other than that, though - seems like they're de-mobilifying the desktop OS part. Such a waste of money, attention and marketshare - all because Steve wanted to be more like the other Steve.

What would you recommend? Morse is well understood and standardized in many contexts like HAM radio. Perhaps an adapter that can the breaths and turn them into phonemes that then get converted into text? A cloud NLP application tying into such a device (simple as querying Google with the output and seeing what it suggests) could result in some very useful (and maybe even tailored) responses.

Just wondering, though, how would backspaces be handled...

All hail open source - Chrome is not (completely) open source, Firefox is. Google doesn't want or care if you want 64bit (or don't want it).

I posit that the rise of Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and the like allowed people to share and discuss about things they actually care about, rather than TV shows or even movies. Hell, I spend more time on /. than watching TV - and I'm increasingly feeling like most of my family is the same (not on /., but you get the picture).

For those who still watch TV, TiVo and Netflix have set the standards too high for many to really give a crap about last century's TV model anymore.

Maybe this law has *good* unintended consequences?

How feasible was the CCC method of cracking? Has it been reproduced? What was the time investment to perform the cracking - I remember them using a 2400 dpi scanner and latex milk.

Actually, something that you don't do every day (at the same time) you won't build a habit around. I kept forgetting to charge my Pebble and so didn't use it much for the first few months (well, to be honest, not really until iOS7 and better notification support) - one of the big reasons is I didn't have the habit of charging the device every night. So I'd forget on day 4, then day 6 it would run out of battery and stay unused until the weekend when I'd be like - why TF did i buy this thing?

Now I charge every night. And I use it every day - it helps me not miss calls (phone is always muted b/c meetings) or important texts (did you know that some daycare centers charge like $1/min for being late? If wife can't pick up the kids on time, I better not miss the call/text/voicemail).

You know you could just tilt your monitor (or use VESA mounts for the mountable ones). I've had my monitors in portrait side-by-side (two towers) at work for several years. Really great way to get very many pixels (roughly 4k, but 4.5:5 ratio - almost square). I only recommend getting good viewing angle screens, however - IPS preferred - as most monitors don't have good vertical angles (which become horizontal - terribly important).

http://www.theonion.com/articl...

"What part of this don't you understand? If two blades is good, and three blades is better, obviously five blades would make us the best fucking razor that ever existed. Comprende? We didn't claw our way to the top of the razor game by clinging to the two-blade industry standard. We got here by taking chances. Well, five blades is the biggest chance of all."

The NSA and the security industrial complex don't need stinking laws and the approval of the public to aggregate and track you. They're already doing it. I doubt this role will help them (or hinder them). What integrated data could provide is more effective programs and less paperwork, and possibly more data.gov APIs.

Worrying about the CTO "improving things the wrong way" is the same as worrying about sharing your bank password with your spouse while storing your password file in cleartext on a malware infested desktop.