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Media

Virtual DVDs, Revisited 147

Bennett Haselton writes: "In March I asked why Netflix doesn't offer their rental DVD service in 'virtual DVD' form -- where you can 'check out' a fixed number of 'virtual DVDs' per month, just as you would with their physical DVDs by mail, but by accessing the 'virtual DVDs' in streaming format so that you could watch them on a phone or a tablet or a laptop without a DVD drive. My argument was that this is an interesting, non-trivial question, because it seems Netflix and (by proxy) the studios are leaving cash on the table by not offering this as an option to DVD-challenged users. I thought some commenters' responses raised questions that were worth delving into further." Read on for the rest of Bennett's thoughts.
AI

Data Center With a Brain: Google Using Machine Learning In Server Farms 26

1sockchuck (826398) writes "Google has begun using machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze the oceans of data it collects about its server farms and recommend ways to improve them. Google data center executive Joe Kava said the use of neural networks will allow Google to reach new frontiers in efficiency in its server farms, moving beyond what its engineers can see and analyze. Google's data centers aren't yet ready to drive themselves. But the new tools have been able to predict Google's data center performance with 99.96 percent accuracy."
Security

Do Embedded Systems Need a Time To Die? 187

chicksdaddy writes: "Dan Geer, the CISO of In-Q-Tel, has proposed giving embedded devices such as industrial control and SCADA systems a scheduled end-of-life in order to manage a future in which hundreds of billions of them will populate every corner of our personal, professional and lived environments. Individually, these devices may not be particularly valuable. But, together, IoT systems are tremendously powerful and capable of causing tremendous social disruption. 'Is all the technologic dependency, and the data that fuels it, making us more resilient or more fragile?' he wondered. Geer noted the appearance of malware like TheMoon, which spreads between vulnerable home routers, as one example of how a population of vulnerable, unpatchable embedded devices might be cobbled into a force of mass disruption. Geer proposes a novel solution: embedded systems that do not have a means of being (securely) managed and updated remotely should be configured with some kind of 'end of life,' past which they will cease to operate. Allowing embedded systems to 'die' will remove a population of remote and insecure devices from the Internet ecosystem and prevent those devices from falling into the hands of cyber criminals or other malicious actors, Geer argued."
Cellphones

Really, Why Are Smartphones Still Tied To Contracts? 482

Bennett Haselton writes: "It's not trivial to explain why cell phone companies find it profitable to sell phones at a deep up-front discount and make it back over a two-year contract. Why don't other companies sell similarly-priced goods the same way? (And why, for that matter, has T-Mobile found it more profitable to do the opposite, selling the phone and the service separately?) I'm trying to come up with an explanation that makes realistic and consistent assumptions about the stupidity of the buying public, and still makes sense." Read on for the rest of Bennett's thoughts.

Comment Re:This is newsworthy??? (Score 1) 77

If by 'screen sharing' you mean VNC or RDP: that is often acceptable within a single LAN. But when VPN'ing in from home, the latency can be tiresome. With a character-based interface, there is of course still latency, but it is much less tiresome because the stream is a tiny trickle compared to the graphical modes.

Comment Re:This is newsworthy??? (Score 2) 77

Terminal multiplexers such as screen and tmux still have their place. Not only do they allow you to organize your terminals by task, but they are also detachable from your console. This allows you to (example) start a build at the office, where your machine physically resides, then later from home SSH into your work machine and reattach to the tmux / screen session.

Comment Re:Life itself is a Von Neumann machine... (Score 1) 608

The problem with living crew is that-- as you mentioned-- they would evolve enough over time that they would lose interest in their original purpose. "Screw those embryonic proto-xenohumans, we xenohumans need to look out for 'Number One'."

Remember, the 'xeno-humans' would be as much our descendants as the embryos, just more removed. It's entirely possible to have far more massive populations in space than on the ground.

Hell, at some point intellectual curiosity would probably ensure the 'rebirth' of ground based humans. It'd just be after there's 10B or so space-humans in the system. As a bonus, that gives a goodly amount of time to conduct some terraforming on the target planet to improve it's suitability.

I know both groups would be evolutionary cousins. My point was: 1. A generational ship is much more expensive than a 'spore' ship containing frozen embryos.
2. If you're going to bother with a living crew, then you lose all the economy of the frozen embryos, and so why even bother with the embryos?
3. The living crew will diverge into a different, possibly-incompatible species over time, and thus their motivations may no longer be aligned with the original goal of the mission.

So: embryos w/ ship-mother, or living crew. But not both.
Finally: I assumed that we would choose our target planet well before launching, so no terraforming necessary. (But: wildlife & environmental hazards unknown.) The spore-ship would be analogous to tree pollen, floating on the wind; either it lands in a viable place, or it doesn't.)

Comment Re:Life itself is a Von Neumann machine... (Score 1) 608

Since we are talking about the distant future, I was envisioning an automated craft that acted as vessel, womb, mother, and teacher. Craft would resume gestational development once it reached orbit. Wouldn't bother landing until the children had decanted, and had been taught sufficient survival skills. Then land, and let them apply their textbook learnin's as best as they can, do-or-die.

The problem with living crew is that-- as you mentioned-- they would evolve enough over time that they would lose interest in their original purpose. "Screw those embryonic proto-xenohumans, we xenohumans need to look out for 'Number One'."

Comment Re:What is the alternative? (Score 1) 170

Who do you want setting telecommunication policy: experts in that field, or experts at winning elections? 200+ years ago, when our system of government first formed, life was simple enough that the qualifications for competent governance were not much above a grade-school education. Today's world is far more complex. The bar to entry into Congress is too low to fill those shoes competently.
Education

L.A. Science Teacher Suspended Over Student Science Fair Projects 253

An anonymous reader writes "A high school science teacher at Grand Arts High School in Los Angeles was suspended from the classroom in February, after two of his science fair students turned in projects deemed dangerous by the administrators. "One project was a marshmallow shooter — which uses air pressure to launch projectiles. The other was an AA battery-powered coil gun — which uses electromagnetism to launch small objects. Similar projects have been honored in past LA County Science Fairs and even demonstrated at the White House."
Bug

Bug Bounties Don't Help If Bugs Never Run Out 235

Bennett Haselton writes: "I was an early advocate of companies offering cash prizes to researchers who found security holes in their products, so that the vulnerabilities can be fixed before the bad guys exploited them. I still believe that prize programs can make a product safer under certain conditions. But I had naively overlooked that under an alternate set of assumptions, you might find that not only do cash prizes not make the product any safer, but that nothing makes the product any safer — you might as well not bother fixing certain security holes at all, whether they were found through a prize program or not." Read on for the rest of Bennett's thoughts.
Books

Seattle Bookstores Embrace Amazon.com 83

An anonymous reader writes "Even though many independent bookstores around the country blame their closing on competition from Amazon.com, bookstores in Seattle are booming thanks to Amazon's growth. It turns out many of the thousands of new workers at their downtown headquarters are avid readers who prefer shopping at the local stores. '"A lot of our customers work at Amazon," said Tracy Taylor, the general manager at the Elliott Bay Book Company, one of the city's largest independent booksellers. The store, about a mile from Amazon headquarters, last year earned what Ms. Taylor called the "first substantial profit" in almost 20 years, enough to even pay employee bonuses.'"

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