Comment Re:Someone who hasn't read the book (Score 1) 1054
...or confused it with Gerald's Game
Comment Re:Government Waste (Score 0) 220
The first part, where "More walking and biking would lead to lower obesity rates for Portlanders", I think only requires a couple working neurons, so I do too sincerely hope they didn't need the model to find out that.
The second part, where less obese people would find walking and biking more appealing, well I sincerely hope they didn't use the model for it either, as they could have as well pulled it straight out of their asses. People from Portland are posting here they find it useful to walk and use bikes, and it desn't look like they are counting "fitness" among the reasons. I don't know in Portland, but where I live, if people could use their cars to go to the bogs they'd just do, irregardless of their obesity or slimness.
The second part, where less obese people would find walking and biking more appealing, well I sincerely hope they didn't use the model for it either, as they could have as well pulled it straight out of their asses. People from Portland are posting here they find it useful to walk and use bikes, and it desn't look like they are counting "fitness" among the reasons. I don't know in Portland, but where I live, if people could use their cars to go to the bogs they'd just do, irregardless of their obesity or slimness.
Comment Re:Real books (Score 1) 283
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your Amazon.
Submission + - Banks Faulted for Fake Antivirus Scourge (krebsonsecurity.com)
krebsonsecurity writes: "Merchant banks that process credit card payments for fake antivirus or "scareware" exhibit a distinctive pattern of card processing that could be used by Visa and MasterCard to weed out the rogue processors, according to a new study by the University of California, Santa Barbara. From the study: "The UCSB team found that the fake AV operations sought to maximize profits by altering their refunds according to the chargebacks reported against them, and by refunding just enough to remain below a payment processor’s chargeback limits. Whenever the rate of chargebacks increased, the miscreants would begin issuing more refunds. When the rate of chargebacks subsided, the miscreants would again withhold refunds." The study also highlights how few customers ever request a refund, and how affiliates pushing this junk software made more than $133 million."
Submission + - Nuclear engineers: Don't tell the truth (latimes.com)
mdsolar writes: "Walter Tamosaitis, once a top engineer in the nation's nuclear weapons cleanup program, has been relegated to a basement storage room equipped with cardboard-box and plywood furniture with nothing to do for the last year.
Tamosaitis' bosses sent him there when he persisted in raising concerns about risks at the Energy Department's project to deal with millions of gallons of radioactive waste near Hanford, Wash., including the potential for hydrogen gas explosions.
"Walt is killing us," said Frank Russo, Bechtel Corp.'s top manager at the project, in an email to Tamosaitis' boss urging that the engineer be brought under control.
Now, an independent government watchdog agency, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, has backed up Tamosaitis and issued a rebuke to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, concluding that the safety culture at the $12.3-billion project is "flawed" and that significant risks exist in the plant's design."
Tamosaitis' bosses sent him there when he persisted in raising concerns about risks at the Energy Department's project to deal with millions of gallons of radioactive waste near Hanford, Wash., including the potential for hydrogen gas explosions.
"Walt is killing us," said Frank Russo, Bechtel Corp.'s top manager at the project, in an email to Tamosaitis' boss urging that the engineer be brought under control.
Now, an independent government watchdog agency, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, has backed up Tamosaitis and issued a rebuke to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, concluding that the safety culture at the $12.3-billion project is "flawed" and that significant risks exist in the plant's design."
Submission + - How Apple became a Monopsonist (cnn.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Writing for CNNMoney, Phillip Elmer-Dewitt draws on several sources to argue that "Apple has become not a monopoly (a single seller), but a monopsony — the one buyer that can control an entire market." According to Dewitt, Apple uses its $70 billion cash hoard to "pay for the construction cost (or a significant fraction of it) of [tech factories] in exchange for exclusive rights to the output production of the factory for a set period of time (maybe 6 — 36 months), and then for a discounted rate afterwards." This gives Apple "access to new component technology months or years before its rivals and allows it to release groundbreaking products that are actually impossible to duplicate."
Submission + - HTC Buys Graphics Veteran S3 To Block Apple? (itproportal.com)
siliconbits writes: Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC has announced that it is buying VIA's stake in S3 Graphics which the press release says is "a leading provider of innovative graphics visualization technologies used in PCs, game consoles and mobile devices".
Obviously those in the tech trade for long enough will remember that S3 used to manufacture graphic chipsets towards the end of the last century before being purchased by VIA in 2001 after S3 filed for bankruptcy. The acquisition comes only a few days after Apple was found guilty of infringing two patents owned by S3 Graphics which covered IP found in SoC used in iOS Devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV)
Obviously those in the tech trade for long enough will remember that S3 used to manufacture graphic chipsets towards the end of the last century before being purchased by VIA in 2001 after S3 filed for bankruptcy. The acquisition comes only a few days after Apple was found guilty of infringing two patents owned by S3 Graphics which covered IP found in SoC used in iOS Devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV)
Comment Re:Bunch of smarties, those guys. (Score 1) 96
Exactly.
But hey, if you look at Microsoft's LIS draft, you'll see that there is nothing to worry about, and/or nothing a Congress member will worry about, or understand.
(And just to quote TFA from yesterday: "A request for clarification we sent to Microsoft has remained unanswered so far.")
But hey, if you look at Microsoft's LIS draft, you'll see that there is nothing to worry about, and/or nothing a Congress member will worry about, or understand.
(And just to quote TFA from yesterday: "A request for clarification we sent to Microsoft has remained unanswered so far.")
Comment TL; (Score 0) 145
DR
Comment Most people are getting it wrong... (Score 1) 34
...it' s just a rather convoluted way to promote voyeurtools.
Comment Re:I am a curmudgeon (Score 2) 119
Oh noes you mentioned the hosts file... countdown running...
Comment Re:I am a curmudgeon (Score 2) 119
NoScript should do.
Comment Re:Welp (Score 3, Informative) 306
I'm afraid stupidity is not a "suitable" (sorry...) offense. Maybe based on criminal negligence...
Comment Re:Interesting timing... (Score 1) 575
Well, whoever is behind the PSN facts, it looks like they weren't dumb enough to leave their names around, so technically they are anonymous :P
We have to admit this trend of giving things general labels is really relaxing. Somebody blows something up, it's Al Qaeda. Somebody "hacks" something, it's Anon. If it wasn't like this, imagine the amount of time journalists (or professional investigators!) should spend doing, OMG, research and even investigation to find the actual causes of things. The stress. The fatigue. (The chance of being laid off if your work doesn't bring results.) So much easier like that: something happens, you have somebody to blame in a matter of minutes.
And this way, it is much easier to hide your own responsibility as well, at least to the general public... only a few will know (or care) about the "hack" being bad password policies and/or overconfidence (I'm looking at you HBGary), poor security, and you know, the usual reasons for "Anonymous's" "hacks".
Side Note: not talking about terrorist attacks here... but the Al Qaeda reference is really appropriate.
We have to admit this trend of giving things general labels is really relaxing. Somebody blows something up, it's Al Qaeda. Somebody "hacks" something, it's Anon. If it wasn't like this, imagine the amount of time journalists (or professional investigators!) should spend doing, OMG, research and even investigation to find the actual causes of things. The stress. The fatigue. (The chance of being laid off if your work doesn't bring results.) So much easier like that: something happens, you have somebody to blame in a matter of minutes.
And this way, it is much easier to hide your own responsibility as well, at least to the general public... only a few will know (or care) about the "hack" being bad password policies and/or overconfidence (I'm looking at you HBGary), poor security, and you know, the usual reasons for "Anonymous's" "hacks".
Side Note: not talking about terrorist attacks here... but the Al Qaeda reference is really appropriate.
