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Comment Re:Money climax (Score 4, Interesting) 356

I would say once enough of the middle class are unable to continue throwing billions of dollars at the corporate entities and that bubble does finally pop, mass starvation will hit. I would believe that is when the revolution and major changes will take place. It is not a question of If but when (is that the question anymore?).

Comment Re:Knowing someone who is infected is the conditio (Score 1) 171

For this reason, we have a rule. Always ssh FROM the more trusted machine TO the less trusted one, never the other way around. For scp and rsync, that means always PUSH files to a client's machine or any server on the public internet, never PULL to a less trusted machine from a more trusted one.

How would that work? Honestly I don't know so don't troll me ;P. How would I connect to my local ssh server from a work resource (that uses rsa key concatination), from my house?

Security

Submission + - How do YOU establish a secure computing environment? 3

sneakyimp writes: We've seen increasingly creative ways for bad guys to compromise your system like infected pen drives, computers preloaded with malware, mobile phone apps with malware, and a $300 app that can sniff out your encryption keys.
On top of these obvious risks, there are lingering questions about the integrity of common operating systems and cloud computing services. Do Windows, OSX, and linux have security holes? Does Windows supply a backdoor for the U.S. or other governments? Should you really trust your linux multiverse repository? Do Google and Apple data mine your private mobile phone data for private information? Does Ubuntu's sharing of my data with Amazon compromise my privacy? Can the U.S. Government seize your cloud data without a warrant? Can McAfee or Kaspersky really be trusted?
Naturally, the question arises of how to establish and maintain an ironclad workstation or laptop for the purpose of handling sensitive information or doing security research. DARPA has approached the problem by awarding a $21.4M contract to Invincea to create a secure version of Android. What should we do if we don't have $21.4M USD? Is it safe to buy a PC from any manufacturer? Is it even safe to buy individual computer components and assemble one's own machine? Or might the MOBO firmware be compromised?
What steps can one take to insure a truly secure computing environment? Is this even possible? Can anyone recommend a through checklist or suggest best practices?
Patents

Submission + - Fark.com founder Drew Curtis links patent trolls with 'terrorists' (foxnews.com)

Velcroman1 writes: Other than the shifty eyes and faint smell of cheap aftershave, it’s often hard to identify a patent troll. The derogatory term "patent troll" describes a company established as a legal entity solely to make cash through patent lawsuits — stifling creativity and emptying the bank accounts of even the smartest Silicon Valley start-up. According to a 2011 report by the Boston University School of Law, patent trolls have cost U.S. companies about $500 billion in lost capital. Drew Curtis, the founder of Fark.com, calls them terrorists to be avoided at all costs. “It boils down to one thing: don’t negotiate with terrorists,” Curtis said during a talk at the TED 2012 conference in Long Beach, Calif. He explained how he won a patent dispute over e-mail newsletters by refusing to settle.
Space

Submission + - Was Earth a Migratory Planet? (discovery.com)

astroengine writes: "Why our planet isn't a "snowball Earth" — a dilemma called the "faint young sun paradox" — has foxed solar and planetary scientists for decades. Since the Earth's formation, a planet covered in ice should have stifled any kind of greenhouse effect, preventing our atmosphere from warming up and maintaining water in a liquid state. Now, David Minton of Purdue University has come up with a novel solution that, by his own admission, straddles science fact and fiction. Perhaps Earth evolved closer to the Sun and through some gravitational effect, it was pushed to a higher orbit as the Sun grew hotter. But watch out, if this is true, planetary chaos awaits."
IBM

Submission + - Cringely predicts IBM will shed 78% of US employees by 2015 (cringely.com)

Third Position writes: Cringely with more predictions about IBM: "The direct impetus for this column is IBM’s internal plan to grow earnings-per-share (EPS) to $20 by 2015. The primary method for accomplishing this feat, according to the plan, will be by reducing US employee head count by 78 percent in that time frame." So far, Cringely's pronouncements about IBM have been approximately true, even if he missed the exact numbers and timeframes. Is he right this time?
Hardware

Submission + - Wind turbine can extract liters of water from air (geek.com) 1

An anonymous reader writes: Getting access to enough water to drink in a desert eveironment is a pretty tough proposition, but Eole Water may have solved the problem. It has created a wind turbine that can extract up to 1,000 liters of water per day from the air. All it requires is a 15mph wind to generate the 30kW's of power required for the process to happen. The end result is a tank full of purified water ready to drink at the base of each turbine.
Games

Submission + - Rockstar San Diego working on a new open world game (gamergaia.com)

Fevron writes: "The studio posted three new open positions on Gamasutra over the weekend to join other positions they posted on the site last month. The openings are seeking tools, gameplay, and network programmers, with the latter two indicating specifically that they are for a new open-world game in development. Considering Rockstar’s central technology group, aptly called RAGE, is also based in the San Diego area, there are high hopes that the two studios will be able to work together to produce another A-list hit in the vein of Red Dead Redemption or Grand Theft Auto IV."
Google

Submission + - Google Solve for X website, video go live (networkworld.com)

alphadogg writes: Google on Monday released a website http://www.wesolveforx.com/ and video regarding its Solve for X project, which the company says is "a place where the curious can go to hear and discuss radical technology ideas for solving global problems." It's got a TED-like think tank feel to it, but possibly with oodles of Google resources behind it. It appears related to Google's up-to-now largely secretive Google X research lab that the New York Times recently shed some light on.
Earth

Submission + - 2011 Fukushima Earthquake Visualization (wired.com)

mdsolar writes: ""YouTube user StoryMonoroch has posted a computer-generated video that displays seismic activity near Japan around March 3, 2011– the time-frame of the devastating earthquake and resulting tsunamis. The data rendering once again conveys the scale of this event, though this time from a geologic point of view.""

Comment FUN! With programming and Achievements!?!? (Score 3, Interesting) 353

WTF is my first reaction. Second reaction is that that would have been awesome to work on the team that built that in because it shows that they have a bit more freedom with what goes in a program like Visual Studio. This sounds like a progressive step forward in the engineering team @ Microsoft. I can't give them kudos for this _exact_ application of listening to programmers but the idea that people are allowing for ownership and creativity is gratifying to see in a development firm. Its something different than the boring troll of debugging the application, fixing build errors, and building more.
The Internet

Submission + - Harvard Business Review comes out against SOPA (hbr.org)

hype7 writes: "The Harvard Business Review has come out with an article extremely critical of SOPA. As opposed to a battle of "content" vs "technology", they are characterizing it as a battle of "giants" vs "innovators". From the article: "If you take a look at many of the largest backers of SOPA and PIPA — the Business of Software Alliance, Comcast, Electronic Arts, Ford, L'Oreal, Scholastic, Sony, Disney — you'll see that they represent a wide range of businesses. Some are technology companies, some are content companies, some are historic innovators, and some are not. But one characteristic is the same across all of SOPA's supporters — they all have an interest in preserving the status quo. If there is meaningful innovation by startups in content creation and delivery, the supporters of SOPA and PIPA are poised to lose.""
Science

Submission + - Silver Solution Ink Makes Faster Flexible Circuits (techweekeurope.co.uk)

judgecorp writes: "Silver-based compounds dissolved in ammonia, could make finer and more flexible circuits, according to researchers at the University of Illinois. Existing inkjet based circuit printing systems use particles which are less predictable. The silver-based ink remains dissolved until the ammonia evaporates, and can be delivered through 100nm nozzles. In all senses, it's a better solution."

Comment TAX BREAK (Score 0) 302

It is nearing the end of the year isn't it? Crap we need to pay taxes again: well what can we spend a crap ton of money on: well there's human rights. What about the hundreds of sites that we found soliciting for slaves? That sounds like something we can sink our teeth into: Enslaving ... I mean freeing the people who are subject to these things. -- BAZINGA

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