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Submission + - Car Companies Say Home Repairs Are 'Legally Problematic,' Seek Copyright Restric (autoblog.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Automakers are supporting provisions in copyright law that could prohibit home mechanics and car enthusiasts from repairing and modifying their own vehicles.

In comments filed with a federal agency that will determine whether tinkering with a car constitutes a copyright violation, OEMs and their main lobbying organization say cars have become too complex and dangerous for consumers and third parties to handle.

Comment Re:workshop (Score 1) 229

Or they could, you know, consider an account that has at least one retail code registered to have spent at least $5? I doubt there are many Steam-based games that you can buy at retail for under $5, unless it's some kind of super clearance sale item.

The point is to restrict accounts that have with no purchase activity at all, because apparently it's easy (and free) to create a bunch of them with an automated script. You can't (or shouldn't be able to) generate retail codes with a script, so you can't use a script to create a large number of accounts with registration codes. The important difference is an account created with no effort vs one created with the effort to register games worth at least $5.

Comment Re:Larger landing area (Score 2) 342

I had heard that a valve got stuck, causing the throttle and gymbaling to get out of sync. Now that I see the video, it looks like it was coming down really well until that last moment. It probably wanted to make a final course adjustment, but the rocket bits didn't work the way the computer bits expected them to. It even seemed a bit like the kind of crashes I would get in Gravitar after getting a bit confused.

A larger landing area would have just meant no bits to fall into the water after the kaboom.

Comment Re:Landed OK but tipped over (Score 1) 117

by Megane (#49477493) Attached to: SpaceX Dragon Launches Successfully, But No Rocket Recovery
The main problem with that is that the walls are relatively very thin. Imagine something the size of a paper towel roll, but made of one thickness of aluminum foil, and some rocks at one end to represent the weight of the engines and remaining fuel. Now drop it from the roof of a building and try to catch it with a net. It's not going to be very round after you do that.

Submission + - Truth and lies about ESD (networkworld.com)

Submitted by netbuzz
netbuzz writes: The discussion started on Reddit’s section devoted to networking with this question: “Has anyone here ever destroyed anything via ESD (electrostatic discharge)?” Yes they have. Network Work culled a few of the more colorful anecdotes, and readers there added some of their own. It was also noted that not every claim of ESD-related damage is to be taken at face value: “Most failures claimed to be ESD-related are probably covers for something else.” Most? Probably?

Comment Re:I hate your rules (Score 2) 136

by Megane (#49477011) Attached to: Cracking Passwords With Statistics

I hate it when my low-security password is rejected by some ego-driven web site that thinks I should memorize a special password just for them.

I also hate it when a web site locks you out completely, requiring you to contact someone to do a manual reset, for failing your password three times. At work, the "enter my goals for this year for the stupid review" site is like this. It's not like this is something that lets people steal money from me, sheesh! Sure, if it was an online banking, etc. password, but most of the sites that do this don't have any information worth a lock-out with a manual admin reset.

The whole point of lock-outs was to prevent someone from trying hundreds of different passwords with a program, not "I forgot which password I have to use this month, and I fumble-fingered one of my three tries". Even a five minute automatic reset should be more than enough to prevent random automated guessing.

Even worse, do they even do a proper check that it's really you when they do the reset, especially if they have to give you a NEW password to do a reset, because their security policy is even more out of proportion with the kind of data they have?

Comment Re:Incidentally... (Score 1) 218

by Megane (#49469085) Attached to: Legislation Would Force Radio Stations To Pay Royalties

For those who didn't click on the link, the "HD" in "HD Radio" means "Hybrid Digital", not "high definition", and it was probably intended to be confusing like that. It's about 128Kbps on FM and 40Kbps (presumably mono) on AM. That's the level of data compression that people turn up their noses for in their MP3 player. Okay, so it uses AAC instead of MP3, but that's like saying it's not got as much boiled spinach in it.

And it's proprietary on top of that. Anyone can build an analog AM or FM receiver out of a few electronic parts, but you have to have a computer and a bunch of algorithms to decode this audio slush.

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