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Comment Re:there's a strange bias on slashdot (Score 4, Interesting) 192

by storkus (#49490977) Attached to: Microsoft's Role As Accuser In the Antitrust Suit Against Google

Oh, please, pot meet kettle:

Google has only been acting really evil in the last few years; for M$, Oracle, and many other companies, doing evil is corporate policy and they have *NEVER* STOPPED being evil. To put it another way, Oracle is the Monsanto of software, M$ is the DuPont of software, and Google is more like factory farms, doing both good and evil at the same time. (I freely admit the Google comparison is weak--please feel free to come up with a better one.)

I have no problem with Google being investigated, but they should go after M$ as well, especially with what they did to Nokia, Linux, and Android; fat chance that'll happen, though.

Comment Missing tag for this story: CYANOGEN (Score 4, Interesting) 245

by storkus (#49483747) Attached to: Google Responds To EU Antitrust Claims In Android Blog Post

I couldn't figure out why Google wasn't getting pissy AT ALL over Cyanogen forking and talking smack about them.. Now the other shoe has dropped: Cyanogen's fork (and the company's very existance) is Google's main anti-trust defense, at least at the OS level.

Now Google's ad business, that's a whole 'nother matter...

Comment Re:uhh...wrong Wikipedia article (Score 1) 173

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_latitudesare what you are referring to. These deserts are referred to as "sub-tropical", as opposed to, say, the northern Great Basin or eastern Washington, which is mainly created from rain shadowing.

Also, Sahara is north of the equator (the desert, the street, and the casino).

Comment Re:Legitimate Uses (Score 1) 74

by storkus (#49450717) Attached to: Amazon Gets Approval To Test New Delivery Drones

IMO we shouldn't outlaw a technology purely because of what someone could do with it. It's the act of invading someone's privacy that should be outlawed. This accomplishes the same thing while preserving the multitude of legitimate uses for these devices.

Tell that to the NSA, FBI, CIA, etc. (If not in USA, substitute for your own equivalent like GCHQ, GRU, etc.)

[digression]Captcha to post this was "conspire", lol![/digresson]

Submission + - How the government just protected some of your favorite podcasts (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: When you're listening to your favorite podcast — This American Life, maybe, or Radiolab — patents are probably the last thing on your mind. But behind the scenes, the podcasting world has been living in fear of one particular patent that threatens to force many independent producers out of business.

Now, a government board has revoked key parts of that patent, handing a huge victory to podcasters.

Submission + - As encryption spreads, U.S. grapple with clash between privacy, security (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: For months, federal law enforcement agencies and industry have been deadlocked on a highly contentious issue: Should tech companies be obliged to guarantee U.S. government access to encrypted data on smartphones and other digital devices, and is that even possible without compromising the security of law-abiding customers?

NSA director Adm. Michael S. Rogers wants to require technology companies to create a digital key that could open any smartphone or other locked device to obtain text messages or photos, but divide the key into pieces so that no one person or agency alone could decide to use it?

What's to stop the FISA court from secretly ordering all key masters to secretly give their key to the NSA? How would we know that the government doesn't already have all of the keys?

Submission + - Should robots make life/death decisions? UN to debate lethal autonomous weapons (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Should robots be allowed to make life and death decisions? This will be the topic of heated debate at the United Nations (UN) Palais des Nations in Geneva next week (April 13-17th, 2015). As part of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), experts from all over the world will gather to discuss “questions related to emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems.” The Open Roboethics Research Initiative will be presenting public views at the debate.

Submission + - Google Lollipop Bricking Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 devices 2

Submitted by Zape
Zape writes: The Lollipop update has turned sour for me and several other Nexus 7, Gen 2 (and Nexus 5) owners. It seems that I'm not alone in having my tablet boot to the Google Logo since a couple of days after updating to Android 5.0.2. Now Nexus 5 owners are reporting a reboot loop in Android 5.1. My device, like many others, is a couple of months out of warranty, but worked great until the latest OTA update from Google. They branded it, and they updated it, but Google claims it is between the buyers and ASUS, the manufacturer.

Submission + - Being Overweight Reduces Dementia Risk (bbc.com)

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: Being overweight cuts the risk of dementia, according to the largest and most precise investigation into the relationship. The researchers were surprised by the findings, which run contrary to current health advice. The team at Oxon Epidemiology and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine analysed medical records from 2 million people aged 55 on average, for up to two decades. Their most conservative analysis showed underweight people had a 39% greater risk of dementia compared with being a normal healthy weight. But those who were overweight had an 18% reduction in dementia, and the figure was 24% reduction for the obese. Any explanation for the protective effect is distinctly lacking. There are some ideas that vitamin D and E deficiencies contribute to dementia and they may be less common in those eating more. Be it any way, let's still not forget that heart disease, stroke, diabetes, some cancers and other diseases are all linked to a bigger waistline. Maybe being slightly overweight is the optimum to strike, if the recent study is to be followed.

Submission + - NIST Solicits Comments on Electronic Authentication Guideline (nist.gov)

Submitted by Jim Fenton
Jim Fenton writes: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is poised to make what is expected to be a major revision of Special Publication 800-63-2, Electronic Authentication Guideline. While normative only for the Federal Government, it is widely referenced elsewhere and specifies requirements to meet each of four Levels of Assurance (LOA). Should this structure change? Are there changes in technology or threats that should be considered in the revision? NIST would like to hear from you!

Submission + - Linking The War on Terror to the War on Drugs

Submitted by Nicola Hahn
Nicola Hahn writes: As news of the DEA’s clandestine phone record collection program emerges into public view an article published by The Atlantic highlights the links and recurring themes between the so called long war (the global war on terror) and the global war on drugs:

“Both are brutally expensive and arguably un-winnable. And in both cases, use of the word ‘war’ is a deliberate and calculated language choice. Americans are taught that a war is something an entire nation must fight, and something that requires sacrifice for the greater good. Considered in the context of government surveillance, both ‘wars’ are euphemisms for a specific kind of government rationalization.”

Indeed it’s not surprising that the word “cyberwar” has likewise been conspicuously wielded by officials in a deliberate effort to both enhance government control and channel hundreds of billions of dollars to the patronage networks of the defense industry.

Submission + - Social Media Is Ruining Marriage for the Millennial Generation

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Anthony D'Ambrosio writes at USA Today that marriage seems like a pretty simple concept — fall in love and share your life together. Our great grandparents did it, our grandparents followed suit, and for many of us, our parents did it as well. So why is marriage so difficult for the millennial generation? "You want to know why your grandmother and grandfather just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary? Because they weren't scrolling through Instagram worrying about what John ate for dinner. They weren't on Facebook criticizing others. They weren't on vacation sending Snapchats to their friends." According to D'Ambrosio, we've developed relationships with things, not each other. "Ninety-five percent of the personal conversations you have on a daily basis occur through some type of technology. We've removed human emotion from our relationships, and we've replaced it colorful bubbles," writes D'Ambrosio. "We've forgotten how to communicate yet expect healthy marriages. How is it possible to grow and mature together if we barely speak?"

D'Ambrosio writes that another factor is that our desire for attention outweighs our desire to be loved and that social media has given everyone an opportunity to be famous. "Attention you couldn't dream of getting unless you were celebrity is now a selfie away. Post a picture, and thousands of strangers will like it. Wear less clothing, and guess what? More likes," writes D'Ambrosio. "If you want to love someone, stop seeking attention from everyone because you'll never be satisfied with the attention from one person." Finally D'Ambrosio says the loss of privacy has contributed to the demise of marriage. "We've invited strangers into our homes and brought them on dates with us. We've shown them our wardrobe, drove with them in our cars, and we even showed them our bathing suits," writes D'Ambrosio. "The world we live in today has put roadblocks in the way of getting there and living a happy life with someone. Some things are in our control, and unfortunately, others are not."

Submission + - Plaque-busting nanoparticles could help fight tooth decay (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Nanotechnology might soon save you a trip to the dentist. Researchers have developed tiny sphere-shaped particles that ferry a payload of bacteria-slaying drugs to the surface of the teeth, where they fight plaque and tooth decay on the spot. The approach could also be adapted to combat other plaquelike substances, known as biofilms, such as those that form on medical devices like orthopedic implants.

Submission + - Better to buy the ad-free version of an app (rit.edu) 1

Submitted by Mei Nagappan
Mei Nagappan writes: Researchers from USC, Queen's U, and RIT have found that there are hidden costs associated with advertisements in apps (https://news.usc.edu/79081/beware-of-an-ads-hidden-costs-in-free-mobile-apps/). Apps with ads consume 16% more energy and 79% more network data than their ad-free counterparts. Thus, 99 cents for a paid version without ads might be cheaper in the long run.

Submission + - 150 dolphins stranded on beach in Japan

Submitted by hcs_$reboot
hcs_$reboot writes: About 150 melon-headed whales beached in Japan on Friday, April 10. The melon-headed is a member of the dolphin family usually found in the deep ocean. “We see one or two whales washing ashore a year, but this may be the first time we have found over 100 of them on a beach,” a coast guard said. In 2011, about 50 melon-headed whales beached themselves in a similar area, and a week later Japan was hit by a monster earthquake and tsunami. It seems the larger the number of whales that beach the bigger the earthquake. While the reason for the beaching is unclear a researcher at the National Museum of Nature and Science said the dolphins might have got lost. “Sonar waves the dolphins emit might have been absorbed in the shoals, which could cause them to lose their sense of direction”, he said.

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