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Comment From many points of data (Score 4, Interesting) 772

by alphatel (#47107007) Attached to: Belief In Evolution Doesn't Measure Science Literacy
While Dan has certainly taken pains to show the many correlations between one subset and another, I think the most important one to consider is this:

Those who firmly believe that a "God" was involved in the universe/mankind, were less likely to score at the upper tier of scientific knowledge. Everyone else drew mixed results.

I also like this quote here:
Nevertheless, the subgroup of such students who did back away from two particular beliefs hostile to naturalistic evolution (that the “living world is controlled by a force greater than humans” and that “all events in nature occur as part of a predetermined master plan”) consisted of the students who scored the lowest in critical reasoning skills.

Comment Re:Correlation vs correlation (Score 1) 433

by alphatel (#47065017) Attached to: U.S. Drone Attack Strategy Against Al-Qaeda May Be Wrong

OK, so "there has been no significant correlation between successful strikes and a reduction in al-Qaeda attacks".

Am I the only one thinking things might have been much worse if no terrorist leaders had been taken out at all?

There's only one way to handle this. The US is a bunch of pansies with girlie underpants.

Drone Strike every leader, and at the same time hit every second-in-command
You will miss a few leaders so now you must drop heavy artillery all over their compounds
You will have missed a few followers so now you must drop nuclear weapons all over their towns
You will have missed a few sympathizers so now you invade the country and kill everyone using your might at land and sea.
Anyone who lives should be put in prison.

Victory!

Comment Re:Blizzard Shizzard (Score 1) 252

by alphatel (#47061001) Attached to: Blizzard Sues <em>Starcraft II</em> Cheat Creators

they're just suing since despite tying their game to their servers they still haven't figured out the shit enough to not transmit troop positions or map pieces to the client the client shouldn't know about - and they pretend to be serious about competitive online play.

You're right. I don't see what the problem is. However, because someone makes a profit off of the company's failure that's where the loophole is, as far as the civil courts are concerned. Alternatively, if you create a cheat based on data packets sent to the client, even in this piss-poor environment of protect-the-corporation-first, you'd still probably get away with it, although you'd likely spend a miserable few years back and forth in court.

Comment Work harder at what? (Score 4, Insightful) 238

If you own a clothing store and want to prevent theft by increasing security you can:

Add metal tags to clothing
Hire more security guards inside the store
Install cameras in the ceiling and watch shoppers

The NSA opts instead to
Ask shoppers to wear metal tags
Hire agents to follow them after they leave
Install video cameras in their homes

And now we call it "America"

Comment Re:I beg to differ. (Score 1) 370

It gives companies like Google the ammunition they need to take to the US government and say look, we can't just hand you this data because that then puts us in breach of European data law. It gives them ammunition in their arguments against the US government's excessive over reach and abuse of secret courts and so forth.

It's one of those cases where the simple nature that everyone points to belies the trove of wealth that can be leveraged behind it.

Comment oh lord who has the finger on the button (Score 1) 216

by alphatel (#46990363) Attached to: Who controls the HVAC at work?
There is nothing worse than an open thermostat in a small office. We have people here setting the cool setting to 76 and heat settings to 80. When I tell them that it's completely unreasonable, let's at least shoot for 74 degrees I have to endure hate crimes for being dressed in something other than the thinnest material above and below the waistline.

Comment Re:Aaron Swartz was charged for scraping content. (Score 2) 139

The big difference between Swartz and McAffee is that Swartz's motive was for what he believed to be in the public interest. McAffee's motive is for profit.

And since step 3 is profit, we all know that it's perfectly legal. And if not, endless litigation followed by a small fine will serve!

Comment Re:Give up the keys (Score 3, Insightful) 125

by alphatel (#46870067) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Intelligently Moving From IT Into Management?

If you can't trust your sysadmin, you shouldn't have hired them in the first place. Anybody capable of doing the job, with a reasonable background, should be given the opportunity to show their mettle without being arbitrarily restrained.

Keep your own administrative access, but since you were barely qualified to be a sysadmin in the first place, just learn to let go. The organization will be better for it while you move back into finance where you belong.

Colonel Meyers: Are you new to the infantry, Major?
Maj. Malcolm A. Powers: Yes, sir. Just came over from supply.
Colonel Meyers: Were you good at that?
Maj. Malcolm A. Powers: Yes, sir!
Colonel Meyers: Well then, stick to it because you're a walking cluster fuck as an infantry officer. My men are hard chargers, Major! Leutenant Ring and Gunny Highway took a handfull of young fire pissers, exercised some personal initiative and kicked ass!

Comment Re:Old phone cords? (Score 4, Funny) 120

by alphatel (#46834981) Attached to: New Shape Born From Rubber Bands

No, it's a new shape, dammit!

I have also invented several new shapes. One of them, I draw part of a circle, and then it turns into a squiggly line for a while, and then a quarter of a square, followed by a third of an asymptote. Another time, I drew 3 squiggly lines connected to a 4th line that was almost straight but still a little squiggly. I call it a squiggle-square.

By the Gods boy, where are your patents?

Comment "It's Not a Tumor" - Oh Wait, It Is (Score 4, Interesting) 301

by alphatel (#46714171) Attached to: Theo De Raadt's Small Rant On OpenSSL
This could get a lot more ugly...

Once upon a time, SSL certificates were signed against a single root certificate, each SSL cert issuer had a single root certificate authority for each of its product lines. Now all corps issue an SSL certificate that is signed against and INTERMEDIATE certificate, which in turn is signed against the root certificate.

What happens if a provider's server has this exploit and the intermediate certificate is compromised? EVERY certificate signed against that intermediate must be revoked. Or put another way, the ENTIRE PRODUCT LINE must be tossed into the garbage and all certs reissued.

So if Verisign or Thawte discover new their intermediate certificate MIGHT have been exploited, would they say anything? The servers implementing those certs are in the hands of a select few - it would be easy to hide the possibility they might have been compromised.

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