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Comment Re:A BIG thumbs-up so far! (Score 1) 114

The OP's point was probably a criticism of the sad state of network TV. Most of the shows you cite are on basic cable (AMC/FX) or premium cable, not basic over-the-air network TV. Thus, your criticism only underscores how pathetic network TV has been by comparison. I mean, as far as network TV goes, we only have Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and then what else? Jane the Virgin? Fresh Off the Boat?

AMC: Mad Men; Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Half and Catch Fire, Walking Dead

HBO: The Wire, The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, The Leftovers, True Detective

FX: The Shield, Justified, The Americans, Fargo, It's Always Sunny,

Starz: Black Sails

History: Vikings.

Comment Need to Make "Safer" Nuclear Weapons (Score 4, Insightful) 74

The computers are probably part of an effort to make "safer" nuclear bombs without nuclear testing. Our warheads are now decades old. They need to be rebuilt and redesigned to institute safer technologies. Many warheads do not have inert explosives, which means that the warheads may become dirty bombs during a fire. We have created insensitive munitions that will not explode even when dropped or burnt. These newer explosives have different properties that require testing with computers to simulate.

Comment Isn't this stupid for hiring businessmen? (Score 1) 892

Doing away with negotiations might make sense if you were hiring programmers, but what about executive level staff? The C-suite people need to negotiate on behalf of the business. They need to go to vendors, clients, suppliers, etc. and argue their case. You might save a bit of money here and there but you're also losing people who are really good at negotiatingâ"I bet that the people who are good at negotiating would be negotiating themselves better salaries at other firms for more than Reddit is handing out.

Comment STEM Fosters Structured Thinking (Score 1) 397

As someone who double-majored in biochemistry and economics and now works as an attorney, I can say that math and science training encourages logical thinking. I am not saying, of course, that all STEM majors are logical dudes, but it definitely encourages consideration of evidence, logical reasoning, and critical thinking.

Comment Re:Fukushima and Chernobyl not worse case failures (Score 1) 227

Nobody is saying that nuclear reactors are perfectly safe, but as the BP leak showed, nothing is perfectly safe. The Chernobyl and Fukushima reactors were designed back in the sixties with a horrific lack of fail safes. A modern plant would be much safer given the superior understanding of previous failure modes, advances in material sciences, and computer aid in simulating operations and design.

Hell, Chernobyl was a graphite moderated light water reactor. These reactors were designed so that they could be refueled while the plant was running. This was useful because if you left the nuclear fuel rods in there for too long, then the fissile P-239 that could be used for bombs would become P-240, which was a poison to bombs. In short, Chernobyl was designed to make fuel, not to be safe.

Fukushima was flawed in that it would require active cooling for three days after full shut down in order to be safe. Reactor 1 had a passive cooling system that relied on convection to keep the fuel at a safe temperature. An operator turned off the passive cooling system before the tsunami hit, and wasn't able to turn it on after the tsunami strike knocked out the backup generators. Newer designs provide passive cooling for up for 72 hours after a shut down.

There is no safe way to make energy. Coal mining kills many people. BP leaked tons of oil while drilling. You cannot judge nuclear power by the failure of old technologies whose flaws have been addressed in newer designs.

Comment Re:MY data in AMAZON's cloud ?? (Score 1) 122

What people need to realize is that rolling your own data storage solution increases the risk of being hacked, losing data due to disasters, or losing remote access to files due to stupid crap like a router dying. If you're just using a NAS to store your porn, then that's fine. You'll just torrent the files back again. BUT if you are talking about pictures from your childhood, business files, or other critical documents, you seriously need to consider if you have a sufficient backup policy with off-site storage, and if you're going to be disciplined enough to update your disaster recovery plans.

I used to believe in rolling your own solution, until Synolocker came out. It became clear to me that Synology had no idea what it was doing with regard to security. I finally gave up and move my data over to Google Drive for Work. Sure, I'm giving data over to evil Google. BUT, I have access to my files anywhere with Internet access; I have two-factor authentication with the FIDO U2F app; I have a copy of the files on my computer as well as a backup in the Google cloud, which is pretty much a million times better than anything I can cook up.

I also don't have to worry about hard drive failure, updating firmwares, etc., etc.

Comment Re:We desperately need unflashable firmwares (Score 1) 120

I agree 100% that manufacturers should spend the extra ten cents to make things "writeable/flashable". Users will probably freak out that their flashes are flashing but the upgrade in security would be worth it. Dell would probably have to put a special button in the back that you have to hold down in order to get a flash through. The NSA, would, of course, intercept and flash the crap out of any computers going to "bad places" but they wouldn't flash everyone's computer. Right? Right? Right?

Comment Re:Funded by the NSA? (Score 2) 322

At any other point in time, I would have laughed at such conspiracy theories. However, there is a good chance that the NSA simply wants to keep its backdoors. Now, there may not be intentionally backdoors in Windows, but certainly, as Stuxnet has revealed, the NSA has a very good understanding of the security flaws in Windows. Why risk losing good intel because of a new operating system that is based on Linux?

Comment Re:depressed (Score 3, Interesting) 123

The only way to avoid technical surveillance is to keep everything sensitive away from email or phone calls or instant messages. There is no way to avoid being the target of the NSA and CIA if they really want to get your data. None at all. The NSA and CIA are creating these techniques against countries such as Russia, China, and Iran with devastating success. (Look at the Iranian nuclear weapons program getting hacked by Stuxnet.) You have no way to avoid the hacking of your data if they are really set in doing it.

Now, you can try to make your data so computationally intensive that the CIA/NSA hopefully will not go out of their way to hack your accounts. Email is NOT secure. But you can use PGP or whatever to try to encrypt your emails. You can encrypt your hard drives to try and avoid hacking. You can avoid the iPhone and move to an open source cell phone firmware such as Cyanogenmodâ"at least you have a CHANCE of someone finding any NSA/CIA backdoor. Use anonymous VPN religiously to avoid having the same IPs.

Otherwise, there's nothing much you can do except to decrease your electronic footprint. Everything you put out there is hackable.

Comment Re:Yes. What do you lose? But talk to lawyer first (Score 1) 734

You are insinuating that the Chinese government are sending infiltrators in a long game to influence American elections but you're completely wrong about that. The rich Chinese people are having kids in the United States as a Plan B if China decides to kill everyone when the political winds change.

Let me explain. In China, almost every way of making big money is technically illegal. The government owns all the land, and the means of production are owned by the government or government oligarchs. The rich got that way by breaking laws, and bribing the right people. Once in a while, there are political changes. New people are installed; older ones fall out. Then when there's a consolidation of power, the laws are suddenly enforced against you. That means that the disfavored are facing long jail terms or even execution.

http://blogs.reuters.com/nader...

You have Chinese nationals buying real estate in the United States and European countries as a Plan B. Their kids are raised outside Chinese, if they can afford it, to make sure that they don't get ensnared in any uprisings. If things go wrong, then you can escape with your life to the United States.

Comment Re:Is it finally happening? (Score 3, Interesting) 112

The end game that Intel is considering is everyone running Windows 10 or 11 on their phones using Intel processors. Android can go run on whatever cheap architecture is out there, but if you want to run full-on Windows, you'll have Intel and pay a premium. Or at least, that's what Intel hopes.

The hardware is getting fast enough to put Windows on a phone. The Dell Venue 8 Pro is over a year old and runs Windows 8.1 in a small form factor on an old Intel Baytrail. It's not a far leap to expect a Windows phablet about the size of a Galaxy Note 4 that runs freaking Windows. Windows RT got eaten up by Windows 8. Windows Phone will eventually get eaten up by Windows 8 as well.

Docking will be wireless and easy. Just walk up to a BT keyboard/mouse and connect to a Miracast device. If your phone supports wireless charging, just drop your phone on the charging pad. Are you afraid that you'll lose your data if you lose your phone? Don't worry! Use Microsoft OneDriveâ"it's 100 GB free for two years! (Don't ask how much it'll cost later.)

Is Intel cost-competitive with other mobile solutions? Probably not. But why chase commodity markets on SoCs when you can ride along the Windows/Office monopoly?

Comment Re:Live by the sword... (Score 4, Informative) 186

Apple files a bunch of crazy patents and design patents (such as for the curves of their phone) but at least they sell products. Trolls that simply buy up patents to sue people with are a much worse problem because they aren't contributing anything to society. They are basically rent-seekers who glom off the efforts of others.

Just the same, I agree with you 100% that Apple bought into the game, made the game expensive, and then now cannot complain about the game.

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