Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Competition (Score 5, Informative) 265

"CurrentC Allegedly Breached" would have been a more appropriate headline, that also doesn't necessarily expose anyone to a lawsuit if it turns out to be bullshit.

Did you read the fine article? MCX confirmed that "unauthorized third parties obtained the e-mail addresses of some of our CurrentC pilot program participants and individuals who had expressed interest in the app." They also sent emails notifying their users, No "allegedly" needed; it's not bullshit.

Businesses

Can Ello Legally Promise To Remain Ad-Free? 153

Bennett Haselton writes: Social networking company Ello has converted itself to a Public Benefit Corporation, bound by a charter saying that they will not now, nor in the future, make money by running advertisements or selling user data. Ello had followed these policies from the outset, but skeptics worried that venture capitalist investors might pressure Ello to change those policies, so this binding commitment was meant to assuage those fears. But is the commitment really legally binding and enforceable down the road? Read on for the rest.

Comment Re:No FDTI (Score 1) 572

You very clearly didn't see the die exposure article.

The counterfeit chip is in fact WAY more complex. It's not off the shelf, so to speak. They custom-modified. It's obvious once you start looking at the physical silicon.

Oh, Khyber, Khyber... when will stop pretending to know things? It's "off the shelf" in the sense that they didn't have to design anything... they just grabbed an existing microcontroller design and added an extra module or two to it. tibit didn't say that it was cheaper because it's less complex; he said it's cheaper because, "Whoever packages it didn't have to do all the silicon and driver R&D." Just like there are software libraries that a software developer can grab and use without having to do a lot of work, there are hardware libraries that hardware designers can grab and use without having to do a lot of work. You need to do some AES encryption? No need to design that yourself; grab an AES core. You need to do some low-pass digital filtering? Get a filter core. There's even a site that has open-source hardware cores you can use: OpenCores

Comment Re:/. is getting more and more unbelievable !! (Score 2) 217

If you break language into four tasks: speaking, listening, reading and writing, then speaking is by far the easiest.

I'd say that depends on what you consider "reading and writing". For Westerners, Mandarin is difficult to speak and listen to because of the tones--it takes a lot of practice for them to pronounce the tones properly, and also a lot of practice to distinguish the tones. Reading and writing is difficult because of the large number of characters that need to be memorized. However, if you're allowed to have computer assistance, reading and writing becomes much easier; I'd say easier than speaking and listening. You can easily look up a word in an online dictionary, and when typing, the IME will present you a list of possible characters, and you choose the one you want. The latter is a huge simplification, since you don't have to remember exactly how to write a character; you just need to have a general idea of what it looks like, and the IME will take care of the details. This is even affecting the current generation of Chinese people... it's not uncommon for even a college-educated person to draw a blank on how to hand-write a character: "Character Amnesia"

Comment NetBSD CVS repo already converted to git (Score 1) 245

So is ESR trying to convert the NetBSD CVS repo in some weird and special way or something, and that's why it failed? Because it has already been converted and is on Github; if he needs info on how it was done, there's probably someone on the tech-repository mailing list that can help. It's been converted to Fossil too.

Comment Re:1st or 2nd transmission within the US? (Score 4, Informative) 421

But last week it was reported that Sgt. Michael Monning contracted ebola while trying to get the quarantine order signed.

No, it says a possible second Ebola victim. He didn't actually have the symptoms of Ebola, but felt sick, and since he had been in Thomas Duncan's apartment, he went to get checked out just in case. But his test for Ebola was negative.

Comment Re:Barney (Score 1) 487

There are New York Times and CNN and Texas local media outlets that carried the story. I just picked the first two google results.

I knew that, but did you? If you did, why didn't you link them instead of some random Google results? Results that contradict the BS you wrote.

The Dallas News says that he went in unprotected and that he was accompanied by people in protective gear.

http://thescoopblog.dallasnews...

Does it say that he was offered protective gear, but refused it? Because that's what you claimed: "When offered protective gear, he declined, and entered the man's apartment without gloves, or even a facemask." The Dallas Morning News article you linked just says, "Dyer said that the deputy and four other deputies accompanied Dallas County health director Zachary Thompson into the apartment, most without protective gear." It does not say that he was offered, but refused protective gear. Also, the Dallas Morning News blog post contradicts this WFAA report that says, "No one who entered the apartment that day wore protective gear." And a different Dallas Morning News article also says, "Monnig was one of several deputies who went to serve the warrant. None wore protective gear." In any case, none say that Monnig refused protective gear.

Comment Re:Barney (Score 1) 487

The second person you're referring to does not have Ebola.

Well, you can understand the confusion, since Texas TV stations national news sites and newspapers were reporting exactly the story I relayed.

http://www.wcnc.com/story/news...

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/1...

I think you need to work on your reading comprehension there... for one thing, wcnc.com isn't a Texas TV station, national news site, or a newspaper. It's a local Charlotte, North Carolina TV station. While just about every TV station has a web site these days, accessible from around the world, WCNC still a local station, with news geared for a local audience--it's no CNN or New York Times. And secondly, neither site reported "exactly the story [you] relayed". You claimed that there was a "second Ebola patient"--one of the sheriff's deputies. However, neither site says that the deputy contracted Ebola--just that he was feeling sick to his stomach/having stomach issues, and since he had been in the Ebola victim's apartment, the hospital wanted to observe him "out of an abundance of caution." FYI, the test results are back, and he doesn't have Ebola. You also said, "When offered protective gear, he declined." However, the articles never say that he was offered protective gear, or that he declined it. One simply states, "No one who went inside the unit that day wore protective gear."

Comment Re:21 day incubation period... (Score 1) 487

Well, ten days ago, these guys were saying it could never spread beyond the original source patient, because this is America.

Who said that? And it hasn't spread beyond the original source patient, so if anyone actually did say that (which is unlikely), they're correct for now.

Ten days before *that*, these guys were the ones saying it could never even reach America, because... I don't know.

Who said that? I never heard anyone in an official position say that. In fact, I heard some say that it could, and probably would reach America, but that it would be contained. E.g., this article from back in July 29: "Why Deadly Ebola Virus Is Likely to Hit the U.S. But Not Spread"

Slashdot Top Deals

I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning. -- Plato

Working...