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Comment Re:Simple (Score 1) 635

. . . and my daily-use TV is a widescreen, high-definition tube . It works great! Cost me only $40! And at 126lb, no one is going to steal it. In fairness, it fits the built-in TV cabinet perfectly and at the time a similarly-sized LCD model was close to $600, so it made sense to go with the tube.

With the massive power savings you could get by replacing this old junker, you could pay for a new flat screen in a few years. However you'd have to make sure it had the inputs to talk to your old signal sources. I've seen some new TVs with HDMI inputs only.

Comment Re:New for Nerds? (Score 4, Funny) 132

It's not nothing. It's a glimmer of hope for us here in Australia, that that piece of shit Murdoch could eventually lose his near monopoly in Australian newspapers - and, therefore, a significant part of his ability to manipulate the government. And not before time.

With our luck, he'd probably sell the papers to Gina Rinehart. :-(

Comment Re:What kind of fish? (Score 1) 180

We have an overabundance of carp here. Normally eating carp seems to be an ethnic thing around here.Even then, only an older generation bothers with it. I would like the world to come and rid the Mid U.S. of carp, so I have included the only recipe I know for carp. 1 pressure cooker 1 5-lb. rock 1 carp Pressure cook the meat till it slips from the bone (about 2 hours) let cool, discard the fish and eat the rock.

I've never tried it, but I've heard they can be OK eating if prepared correctly. The recommendation I heard was to skin and fillet the fish, and age it in a freezer for some weeks. I think they used it in a stew after that.

Comment Vitamin D and Alzheimers (Score 1) 105

A recent study has found low vitamin D levels associated with Alzheimer's disease, as well as a bunch of other ailments. It seems like modest daily supplementation with vitamin D3 might be a good idea if Alzheimer's runs in your family.

https://www.yahoo.com/health/clear-link-found-between-vitamin-d-deficiency-and-94074543072.html

Comment Re:Microsoft's child porn collection (Score 3, Informative) 353

In order to successfully perform these matches, Microsoft likely has one of the world's largest collection of child porn.

Actually, no.

They get a big list of file hashes from the National Center for Exploited Children or something, and it's implemented as part of the file scan. All that happens is they check file hashes and if it matches, then they do more in-depth analysis (is it an image file? etc).

Which begs the question on the general stupidity since hashes are so trivially easy to change and it's extremely easy to obfuscate (just zip it up with a password).

People are lazy. Even ones who really know that what they do isn't really appreciated by the general population and really ought to try to cover their tracks... and don't.

Nope, from the TFA they process the image to derive a signature which can survive things like resizing, changing resolution etc. It's not just a simple hash.

Comment Re:Hide behind todays popular hate-topic... (Score 1) 182

...and that's how and WHY they get away with this. This is against any human rights, but shout "won't anyone PLEASE think of the Children", and these agencies can get away with murder.

So that said, to any whistleblower out there who doesn't have the tech savvy that we have, I'd offer a little bit of advice, read it - and don't forget it, you might just be next if you do:

1) Download Tails. Install it preferably on a CD.
2) Remove your hard disk connection (removing the power is enough) when you intend to boot from Tails.
3) Shut down your WiFi. And only use WIRED connections.
4) Boot tails, and when you start Iceweasel - make sure to turn NoScript ON for ALL sites. It's not on by default, when the SHIELD shows...it's on!

Stuff deleted

If you really need to be anonymous, use a computer that you bought for cash, that is ONLY used for communicating over Tor with Tails, preferably using somebody else's Wi-Fi. Even if the Feds do manage to plant a beacon on this computer, it will only show up when you are communicating anonymously. Your secure computer should be air gapped from your main work/internet computer.

Submission + - Tesla Model S hacking prize claimed (autoblog.com)

savuporo writes: AutoBlogGreen reports: The $10,000 prize for successfully hacking a Tesla Model S has been claimed. A team from Zhejiang University in China claimed victory at the Symposium on Security for Asia Network (SyScan360) event in Beijing by exploiting a "flow design flaw," whatever that means, to gain access to vital systems including the door locks, horn and window controls, while the vehicle was moving.

Last year, potential security pitfalls of high-tech electric and hybrid cars came to light when the DARPA successfully hacked into hybrids from Ford and Toyota. For illustration about why this might become a big deal, here is a video report about Prius ECUs and internal CAN network being messed around with while driven.

Submission + - PayPal allows change of amount without customer confirmation (seclists.org)

An anonymous reader writes: Like if a restaurant owner could change the billed amount in the card-terminal _after_ you entered your PIN,
or just like changing the amount in an already signed cheque by the recipient without knowledge.

The worst part is that PayPal actually calls this a 'feature' and not a BUG..

Submission + - Biggest "patent troll" slapped hard by appeals court (arstechnica.com)

mpicpp writes: Dozens of companies were sued over an old Polaroid digital imaging patent.

The most litigious "patent troll" in the US has lost a major case after the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found its patent was too abstract.

Court declines to stop software patents altogether.

The ruling from last week is one of the first to apply new Supreme Court guidance about when ideas are too "abstract" to be patented. In the recent Alice v. CLS Bank case, the high court made clear that adding what amounts to fancy computer language to patents on basic ideas shouldn't hold up in court.

The patents in this case describe a type of "device profile" that allows digital images to be accurately displayed on different devices. US Patent No. 6,128,415 was originally filed by Polaroid in 1996. After a series of transfers, in 2012 the patent was sold to Digitech Image Technologies, a branch of Acacia Research Corporation, the largest publicly traded patent assertion company. A study on "patent trolls" by RPX found that Acacia Research Corporation was the most litigious troll of 2013, having filed 239 patent lawsuits last year.

Comment Re:I lost the password (Score 1) 560

I lost the password in a hard drive crash.

Apparently he admitted to the cops that he could decrypt the drive, but wouldn't. Which once again goes to show that when you are arrested by the cops SHUT THE HELL UP, or use TrueCrypt in "plausible deniability" mode (yes, I'm aware of TrueCrypt's current situation).

The fact that the defendant is a lawyer makes his admissions even more stupid.

Comment Re:I lost the password (Score 1) 560

It amazes me that you subscribe to the idea that a local desktop hard drive crash wiped out all email for a high-ranking IRS official... and that the IRS is essentially shrugging at any notion of ineptitude. Clearly you know fuck all about tech.

I thought so too, but when you read the Ars Technica article on what a clusterfuck the IRS IT system is, It becomes a little more believable.

Comment Rural Applications (Score 1) 199

While drone delivery is a stupid idea for the city and suburbs, I think it has some real possibilities for rural areas.

Being able to fly long distances over largely unpopulated regions, line of site and not affected by road conditions and with no on-board pilot/driver, seems potentially efficient.

Of course these are also the areas with toothless yokels with shotguns, so that may pose some problems.

Comment Re:Bitcoin mining? (Score 1) 89

Imagen if all that computer power was put to use such as finding the cure of HIV.... We would be done by lunch time.

If anyone wants to contribute to computer research on HIV with their own systems then there is a World Community Grid project called Fight Aids At home (FAAH) that uses your computer's spare cycles to work on AIDS research, using the BOINC platform.

There are versions for Windows, Apple, Linux, and Android software.

Comment Re:Can a company patent it? (Score 1) 207

Gaining a drug's approval by the Food and Drug Administration in the US — and similar government agencies in other countries — is a very expensive process. The expense is normally offset for by the patent(s) granted to the pharmaceutical company, that developed the drug, which make it an exclusive maker/seller of the medicine for decades.

However, if the drug is long-known — and only needs an approval for new application — who will undertake to pay for the approval, if there is no way to patent it and the approval will allow all drug-makers (both domestic and foreign) to put their own versions on the market?

Or, the parents can just take their kids to Mexico for a week.

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