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Comment Re:It's like Swatch .beat Internet time all over (Score 1) 209

Complicated totally unfamiliar representation of date and time for the "information age"?

Why is it unfamiliar, it is almost the same as current representation:
YY.MM.DD,HH.MM.SS TC+7H
RFC3339 is
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS+07:00

And that May 31st corresponds to 5.20. is logical, as there are fewer days in their month.

Comment Zero-Day allowing the attacker run arbitrary code (Score 2, Interesting) 134

"Zero-Day exploit allowing the attacker to run arbitrary code"

I thought these words should be history based on the implemented NX bit, sandboxing, multiple lines of defense and Data Execution Prevention features of MS Windows after XP.

Why do all these features fail, when they are specifically designed for exposed code like IE? Or does this warning assume the worst case, where all these other features are turned off?

Comment Re:What goes around comes around (Score 1) 97

Not just that, but by ignoring any bacteria that might have survived the trip from Earth to Mars aboard Curiosity (and presumably earlier probes all the way back to Viking) they could potentially be ruling out other strains of the same bacteria that may have made the trip by means such as impact ejecta.

You can always later on send new probes to another part of Mars that do not have these strains, and get a sample from there. Mars' conditions are not exactly to make these bacteria thrive globally.

Comment Re:What goes around comes around (Score 3, Interesting) 97

It just occurred to me that even if we were to find only bacteria whose ancestor's hitchhiked their way to Mars from Earth on one of our probes, that would be a remarkable find in itself. It would demonstrate that life could have existed on Mars at one time even if we don't find any native Martian bugs.

A mars rover is encapsulated during travel, so bacteria do not experience UV radiation and solar wind they would on other bodies (meteoroids).

Comment When you go to prison (Score 5, Insightful) 108

You should only lose one right: Freedom.

Not
  - security of your personal well being
  - privacy
  - respect to the human
  - torture (psychological or physical)
  - physical punishment.

The punishment is withdrawing freedom, not becoming a sub-human. Once you leave prison, you should be considered a typical citizen again -- you served your sentence, so it must not carry on forever.

That said, punishment is known to not be efficient, and not a deterrent for others (as most crimes are not driven by thinking long about the consequences). So modern prisons focus on re-constituting the citizen to full capacity. Because it works better than punishing.

Comment Re:GENOCIDAL? (Score 2) 43

The armed, "Syrian" opposition, that seeks to topple him? Not so much. These are the Wahabbist fighters sponsored by US and Qatari dollars - who'd implement whippings and stonings for teaching girls to read.

The Syrian opposition consists of multiple parties, the one you describe being a small fraction. The sad thing is that they do not agree with each other substantially.

You are making Assad sound like a defender of his country. No doubt that is what he thinks. But he and his army have committed atrocities

The U.N. commission investigating human rights abuses in Syria confirms at least 9 intentional mass killings in the period 2012 to mid-July 2013, identifying the perpetrator as Syrian government and its supporters in eight cases, and the opposition in one.[526][527]

By late November 2013, according to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) report entitled “Violence against Women, Bleeding Wound in the Syrian Conflict”, approximately 6,000 women have been raped (including gang-rape) since the start of the conflict - with figures likely to be much higher given that most cases go unreported.[528][529][530]

According to three eminent international lawyers.[531] Syrian government officials could face war crimes charges in the light of a huge cache of evidence smuggled out of the country showing the "systematic killing" of about 11,000 detainees. Most of the victims were young men and many corpses were emaciated, bloodstained and bore signs of torture. Some had no eyes; others showed signs of strangulation or electrocution.

find this and more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Indeed, not genocide, but: When the political opposition started to demonstrate, and Assad began to detain, torture and kill them systematically, these people begged the international community to step in and support peaceful demonstration. These educated, intellectuals, potential leaders -- who could have formed a new Syria -- are dead now. We left them to die. That is precisely why only the radicals are left.

Comment Re:Ban them all you want (Score 3, Insightful) 180

Bans will not only not prevent them being developed, probably even by a technologically advanced State that is a signatory to the treaty, but it will also not prevent them being used by rogue or puppet states who don't care about bans, or who use them at the behest of a signatory state that is just using them to do their dirty work.

Any state today is dependent on trade from the international community. If the US and the EU (or any other large fraction of the international community) decide not to trade with a country, and not grant bank transfers to that country, that has a huge effect on their economy. The countries able to withstand this are countable on one hand. Of course, trade sanctions are not a plan, but the lack of a plan.

It is always better though to help the particular country address their actual problems rather than supporting their approach. For example, perceived threats can be thwarted by establishing a neutral buffer zone controlled by a third party.

So no, contrary to the common opinion on Slashdot, I think collectively agreeing to not use a certain, dangerous technology can be useful, and is also enforceable.

Comment Re:Overreacting (Score 1) 384

I'm all for LGBT rights and such, but really to criticize a game just cuz it don't include your sexual orientation..? I dunno about that. What's next? Is the LGBT community going to demand air time in Disney cartoons next?

Now read that with s/LGBT/animals/.

Now read that with s/LGBT/power tools/.

I completely support the right of gays to marry (to the extent that I support any marriage, an institution I wholly reject, as does my long-term partner). But this amounts to a purely manufactured controversy. The game contains what it contains; don't like it? Don't play it. Send a message with your wallet, rather than pissing and moaning about a game you didn't create not behaving like you want it to.

Ehm, there are Disney movies about animals and power tools, you know?

And they were not made because someone cried "Is the power tools community going to demand air time in Disney cartoons next?" Mostly because they can not speak. Except in Disney movies. Where we empathize with them. Like with humans irregardless of race, sexual orientation and use of the word irregardless ...

Comment Re:Sugar (Score 1) 329

You think they didn't have sugar, fatty foods and exercising decades ago?

They did, but now it is in every thing you eat. Because we love the taste of fat and sugar.

Instead of a special occasion of the day when you eat sugar, it is eaten routinely. That is what is new.

For instance, replacing a piece of bread with a thin layer of bread and jam in the morning with a muffin (so essentially eating cake for breakfast).
Drinks also have vast amounts of sugar in them. A typical Starbucks coffee contains tons of fat and sugar to make it tastier, whereas black coffee does not.

Animals are getting fatter too though. link, link paper

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