Comment Damn (Score 1) 496
And encryption won't help.
Mystery 'Missile' Identified As US Airways Flight 808 335
sean.peters writes "The mystery missile discussed on Slashdot Tuesday? It was US Airways 808 from Honolulu to Phoenix. An amateur sleuth checked the time against airline schedules, then the following day, checked out a webcam that was trained in the appropriate direction. He found the exact same contrail at the time AWE808 was coming over. The author deals persuasively with a number of objections to his argument."
Military Uses 'Bat-Hook' To Tap Power From Lines 282
Zothecula writes "As soldiers are fitted out with more and more electrical sytems to extend their capabilities, they become increasingly dependent on the power needed to run them. Since soldiers in the field don't always have ready access to an electrical outlet when they need to top up the batteries, the US Air Force has developed a device that taps directly into the electricity flowing through overhead power lines ... a kind of bat-hook for real-life superheroes."
Comment Pointers (Score 2, Funny) 227
0x00000047, 0x000008C4, and 0x00000A08 All hold awful vulnerabilities, make sure no one has access to them.
Comment For all those who don't know (Score 1) 402
Partial Temp by partial time = partial squared Temp by partial space squared.
$$ \frac{\partial T}{\partial t} = \frac{\partial^{2} T}{\partial x^{2}} $$
$$ \frac{\partial T}{\partial t} = \frac{\partial^{2} T}{\partial x^{2}} $$
Comment Re:You're Bugged (Score 1) 68
We have those, they are called `insects'. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4808342.stm
China Now Halting Shipments of Rare Earth Minerals To US 738
blackraven14250 writes with news that China, after putting at least a temporary stop to rare earth exports to Japan, is now doing the same with exports to the US; according to the linked article, this is in response to recent US promises to investigate certain Chinese trade practices.
Comment Define Half. (Score -1, Redundant) 237
41.2% is `less than half', yet 43.6% is `nearly half'. Who thinks samzenpus' threshold between these two phrases is really between these two numbers. Also: Douglass Adams fans, 0.42 == 42% != 42.
The Intimate Social Graph 21
jamie tips an article by Slashdot vet Keith Dawson about the uncertain state of privacy protection for one-to-one online communications through social sites and services. Quoting:
"The privacy of these communications is protected mainly under a law — ECPA, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act — dating from 1986 and crafted for then-existing email (think Compuserve and Prodigy) and emerging cellular networks. This law is an increasingly poor fit for modern and emerging communication modalities. Email stored on servers is treated differently depending on whether or not the user has read a particular message; and messages older than 6 months in storage enjoy different protection than newer messages. In attempting to apply the ECPA to social networking media, courts have interpreted users' privacy rights in a variety of ways. ... One shortcoming of the ECPA is that it does not require email, search engine, cloud computing or social networking sites to report how many requests for private data they get from authorities. Whatever the number, it almost certainly dwarfs the number of real-time online intercepts (wiretap, pen register, and trap and trace orders), for which statistics must be kept."
Comment Seriously? (Score 3, Insightful) 311
I have seen polls where there are 2 answers that are essentially the same, but this one has 4 that do not practically differ.
Comment Call me cynical, (Score 2, Insightful) 264
I suspect that Dido has cut a check to McCandless. This is great, and probably cheap publicity.
Comment Write Your Own (Score 1) 366
Just code your own virus. You'll know how to remove it. Alternatively, if you are teaching an advanced class as well, have those students write it.
Apple Patents Directional Flash Tech For Cameras 145
tekgoblin writes "A patent application has surfaced that shows Apple's attempts at creating a new way for a flash to work on a camera. The way the new flash works is very intriguing: a user can select a dimly lit area of the photo and the camera will try to illuminate just that area with the flash. The way Apple is attempting to accomplish this is similar to the way the autofocus works on the iPhone 4 where you can touch the screen in certain areas to focus on that area. Instead you will be able to light up that area with the flash. This is accomplished by the camera flash passing through a 'redirector' so the flash can be placed other than directly centered when a photo is taken."
Comment Re:Beware? (Score 2, Interesting) 265
I am afraid of Iris scanning technology, because it MAY give someone an incentive to rip my eyeballs out.
I like my eyeballs.
I like my eyeballs.
Comment Did We Screw Up? (Score 1) 116
Can we at least wait until the US department of commerce significantly screws things up before we go around demanding international treaties?
