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The Military

New Tech Makes Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Verifiable 93

Harperdog writes "In 1999, Senate Republicans rejected the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty on the grounds that it wasn't verifiable. The National Academy of Sciences feels this is no longer true, due to new technology. Quoting: 'Technologies for detecting clandestine testing in four environments — underground, underwater, in the atmosphere, and in space — have improved significantly in the past decade. In particular, seismology, the most effective approach for monitoring underground nuclear explosion testing, can now detect underground explosions well below 1 kiloton in most regions. A kiloton is equivalent to 1,000 tons of chemical high explosive. The nuclear weapons that were used in Japan in World War II had yields in the range of 10 to 20 kilotons.'"

Comment Re:Good (Score 1) 407

As much as I dislike Best Buy, some of these ideas seem good: new checkout lines, presumably faster, better online pick-up options and a place in the center of the store to find help.

However, if their "technology support" plans are just expanding the current "Geek squad" offerings then that will further alienate people and lead to more bad word of mouth.

Comment Re:What do they expect? (Score 1) 349

I mean, I would have been a lot more okay with things if they'd just been straightforward and said "look, the people we get our content from are raising the prices on us, we need to charge you more to cover it". That's fine, that I can understand.

Yeah if you were in Netflix's position what would you do? Potentially piss off the people who set the prices for the content your customers want access too or shit on part of your customer base? It puzzled me too for a bit, then I realized there was probably some business contracts where they could not name the studios as being a cause, I mean there are only about 6 major content distributors and they all march very closely together.

In fact all the stories that reported the price increase only speculated it was due to a probable licensing rate rise, no one besides Netflix has the real numbers, the rest is speculation.

Comment Re: optical drive (Score 1) 394

I know I did not even blink about missing an optical drive from my latest build. Even MS supports creating a boot-able USB drive with Windows 7 on it! Granted you need an existing copy of windows but still. I cast my vote firmly in the fewer moving parts camp.
Star Wars Prequels

Submission + - George Lucas messing with Star Wars again (badassdigest.com) 5

FrankNFurter writes: Once more George Lucas has been caught messing with the original Star Wars trilogy — this time for the Blu-Ray release later this year. What changed? He added Darth Vader saying 'NOOOOOO' to the scene where the Emperor is electrocuting Luke.

Leave Star Wars alone, George!

Security

Submission + - This telephone bug stole PINs from inside a bank (scmagazine.com.au)

mask.of.sanity writes: This telephone bug was found attached to a phone line inside one of Australia's biggest banks.
The device, attached by a cleaner, was listening to dial tones as unwitting consumers keyed in PIN numbers at the teller.
It broadcast the tones over a radio frequency to a laptop outside, while a card skimmer recorded credit and debit numbers.

Comment Re:Take a lesson from Mac OS X (Score 1) 404

Apple dropped the price of OS updates from $129.99 to $29.99. Piracy for OS updates dropped significantly and they actually make more money at the lower price point. Plus since more machines are running the latest version of the OS, they have less problems with old OS issues.

Apple can do this because their software is tied directly to the hardware, MS is solely a software company, realm of computers anyways. Office and Windows are currently the most profitable divisions of the company http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/04/microsoft-beats-estimates-but-not-apple-in-third-quarter-earnings.ars I'm sure they would sell more upgrades at a lower price but the question to answer is: "What price point nets them the most money?"

Government

Submission + - More Fedral Laws- More Felons (wsj.com) 1

KrisJon writes: ""As federal criminal statutes have ballooned, it has become increasingly easy for Americans to end up on the wrong side of the law. Many of the new federal laws also set a lower bar for conviction than in the past: Prosecutors don't necessarily need to show that the defendant had criminal intent. These factors are contributing to some unusual applications of justice."

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Digital library management

doishmere writes: How do you organize your digital library? I want organize all kinds of digital text media, such as academic papers, user manuals, e-books, or even local copies of HTML pages. I'm most interested in actually managing the content, but bonus points if there is a reference manager too.

Comment Re:Yeah - maybe if you look at it in a silo (Score 3, Funny) 154

You are having flashbacks decades later over some "broken heart"? Sorry, but you sound like a pussy who really needs to grow a sack. Women are simply holes for men to relieve themselves into, much like public toilets. Never forget this.

Take heed gentlemen, this anonymous internet commenter has all the traits women desire but chooses to bestow his wisdom onto us.

Comment Re:Limited number of simultaneous connections? (Score 1) 495

If this was of concern to Netflix (which, I presume, faces pressure from the studios which license their content to Netflix), I wonder why Netflix would not place a limit on the number of simultaneous connections / streams delivered to any given account, or else the number of simultaneous IP addresses to which a stream is delivered for any given account?

Depending on your plan you are allowed to have only a certain number of streaming devices associated with your account. So there is no need for Netflix to place a hard limit on the simultaneous number of connections as you are already limited by the number of devices you can use.

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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