What, you're saying swamp coolers don't qualify as A/C? They may not use the traditional compression/expansion cycle, but they certainly do cool an area. And a mucosal surface like the nasal cavity would provide plenty of evaporation to further expel heat from the body. (Although I suspect that the dinosaurs in TFA used swamp cooling primarily in its most literal sense of "hey, let's stand in the swamp because it's cooler".)

The study postulates that dinosaurs' nasal cavities acted as heat exchangers. Without a heat exchanger, your traditional A/C wouldn't work, either. I wouldn't quibble with this categorization.

My biggest gripe is the article misused the term "model" when it clearly meant genus or species.

Social engineering will always work as long as humans have access to the data and systems. There are steps sys admins can take that can limit or mitigate the damage, but the bottom line is that if people need to access the data, then other people will be able to exploit them.

Heavy handed security often isn't the panacea it's advertised as, because ordinary users will find ways to deal with it. Do you make them change passwords daily? They'll resort to keeping a file of daily passwords. Do you make them fill out a big form to request access to a system? They'll request access to a dozen, in hopes that they will stumble across the correct one, and so won't have to repeat the ordeal; out of the dozen departments they request access from, some may approve the inappropriate request. Or some department head will proclaim "grant everything to my department, because I don't want to waste our time with all these expensive little requests." All of these can be exploited even in the best of situations.

If you think this is an attempt at marketing, you should recognize they're doing a terrible job at it. Read page 3 of the PDF above, the section titled "Executive Summary". That is not even close to an executive summary, and wouldn't explain jack to any of the executives I work with.

An executive summary for this paper should read like this:

"We have documented a sophisticated espionage ring that is targeting the laptop computers of upper level executives who travel to Southeast Asia. The attackers are using WiFi attacks, compromising hotel networks, compromising hotel business center computers, and tricking the executives into installing malware. Hotel staff are often complicit in either providing access to the attackers, notifying the attackers when the rooms are unoccupied, or by providing a distraction to the executive. They are stealing intellectual property, contacts, notes, schedules, and passwords. They are implanting keyloggers. They are tracking the executive's movements around the globe. They are installing custom malware to gain further access once the compromised computer is brought inside the corporate firewall. They are using sophisticated cryptography to hide their malware and their exfiltration activities. And they are carefully maintaining the compromised computers to ensure continued access for sustained, multi-year attacks."

That's an executive summary.

Perhaps it's better programmed than you think. Your wife called...

You can certainly get some home automation systems that are cloud-optional. I have a Vera, which is an (overpriced) DD-WRT box, and it doesn't need internet access. You can get to it from outside the house via VPN, or you can use their SSL site to access it if you want. It runs the lights, sensors, and stuff like that. There are some proprietary devices with local interfaces of varying quality.

Some closed source devices want to phone home, just not to your home. Honeywell, Samsung, Craftsman, they don't have a locally accessible interface. You might want to avoid them.

I built mine initially to control greenhouse lighting, and liked it so much I put it in the rest of my house.

When you were in school, Leibnitz hadn't yet invented his Calculus, so there wasn't as much STEM to learn.

I know, I'll get off your lawn.

Which ROM chip is it? Which crypto key did it use? Did it encrypt properly? How do I see what's in the flash?

Paper suffers from none of those problems.

Selective Availability wasn't a separate signal; it was the encryption of the least significant bits of the satellite's position found in the C/A data. Only a military grade receiver had the keys to decrypt the signals, allowing the receiver to understand the precise location of the satellite, allowing for a more accurate computation.

The "4th signal" the GP may have been referring to is WAAS, the Wide Area Augmentation System. It's a set of precisely surveyed ground stations that continually measure the amount of timing error they're receiving (generally due to atmospheric interference), which is sent back up to the satellites and included in a set of correction data. It was added to serve the FAA in providing accurate altitude and approach data for aircraft that work at all airports. But it's not a separate signal, it's part of the data sent by each satellite. It's effective, and it's cheap - the receiver doesn't need a separate radio to receive DGPS data.

Unlike WAAS, DGPS data does not go back to the satellite. It is transmitted directly by the ground stations to the user receivers. Its a completely different signal, carried on a terrestrial frequency.

Assuming you're an American, your passport's cover is built with a mesh that is already RF dampening. It can't be read unless it's open. Even a fairly narrow crack can permit reading, so carry it someplace that will keep it closed.

The good thing about RFID readers is that the readers are very reliable. They don't have fragile electrical contacts that can get corroded, mechanically damaged, or electronically damaged by static electricity. They don't require a scanner that can get dirty and fail to read. They don't require a mag stripe head that can pick up embedded abrasives causing it to scratch following stripes. They don't have any moving parts that might break. The reason you might care about that lower maintenance costs us taxpayers less, and means fewer "out-of-order" lines at the border.

A man with one watch always knows what time it is.
A man with two watches is never sure.

So I'm not the only one picturing an actual washing machine crashing into the moon. Good!

OK, since this is slashdot, the terms of service require someone to explain it to you using a car analogy.

The physical world is like a car. Let's say you're thirsty. You get in the car, you turn the key, you engage the transmission, you depress the throttle and use the wheel to steer yourself around. You navigate the roads, avoiding obstacles and making appropriate turns. When you arrive at the bar, you hit the brakes, disengage the transmission, turn off the key, exit the car, go in the bar, buy a beer, and drink it. The information world is exactly the same thing, except there is no car and no beer, and four hours after you realize you haven't gotten anywhere, you're still thirsty.

Dammit, now I'm thirsty too.

I also thought it sounded like a good thing. When safety components have to structurally withstand higher impact loads, that really means they cover a wider range of occupants. It doesn't mean they won't continue to test with infants and children.

Besides, they run many thousands of simulated crashes before they expend real dollars on actual crash tests. The dummy is nowadays just the "proof" test.

"He took a duck in the face at 250 knots."

So you're saying that cloud metaphors blow? I concur.