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Comment Re:The last sentence in the summary... (Score 1) 232

actually weather forecasters have pretty good accuracy, >90%, out to abot four days.

For who? For how much of the land? In any case, that's not even possible, because if I check three sources for my area, they will say three different things at least two days out of three.

Security

Obama Administration Argues For Backdoors In Personal Electronics 575

mi writes Attorney General Eric Holder called it is "worrisome" that tech companies are providing default encryption on consumer electronics, adding that locking authorities out of being able to access the contents of devices puts children at risk. “It is fully possible to permit law enforcement to do its job while still adequately protecting personal privacy,” Holder said at a conference on child sexual abuse, according to a text of his prepared remarks. “When a child is in danger, law enforcement needs to be able to take every legally available step to quickly find and protect the child and to stop those that abuse children. It is worrisome to see companies thwarting our ability to do so.”
IOS

iOS Trojan Targets Hong Kong Protestors 72

First time accepted submitter Kexel writes Security researchers have claimed to discover the first Apple iOS Trojan attack in a move to thwart the communications of pro-democracy Hong Kong activists. From the article: "The malicious software, known as Xsser, is capable of stealing text messages, photos, call logs, passwords and other data from Apple mobile devices, researchers with Lacoon Mobile Security said on Tuesday. They uncovered the spyware while investigating similar malware for Google Inc's Android operating system last week that also targeted Hong Kong protesters. Anonymous attackers spread the Android spyware via WhatsApp, sending malicious links to download the program, according to Lacoon. It is unclear how iOS devices get infected with Xsser, which is not disguised as an app."

Comment Re:Drug charges (Score 1) 261

We restrict access to certain drugs for (mostly) very good reasons.

All the evidence shows that this is nonsense, that you always cause more problems than you solve because you drive addiction underground and people wind up taking drugs of varying quality because of their illegal nature.

If you can explain to me the upside to society of someone having a cocaine or heroin addiction then I'll concede the point.

If prohibition prevented use, you would have a point.

Comment Re:Moire expensive car, richer driver, that's FINE (Score 1) 261

I *know* they wouldn't have done that had I been driving a BMW 745i - drastically different experiences, all based on the make/model of the car.

And this is why I shifted to driving top-of-the-line Kraut Kans. Even an old one still commands respect. I can fly by at 80 in my 300SD, nothing. But go by at 70 in the Astro and they squint hard to see how Mexican you are. I'm working on prepping an A8 now, which should make me even more invisible. Paint's much better than my 300SD.

Comment Re:Who drives $2,500 used sports cars? Teen boys (Score 2) 261

> TFA was bullshit when I saw the Supra on the list ranked at #4 (and the 3000 GT at #17).
> They stopped making both of those cars well over 10 years ago

So they are sporty cars that are ten years old and now worth about $2,500.

HAHAHAHA. If you buy a Supra or a 3000GT for $2,500, you'll be lucky if you can get it up to law-violating speed.

Comment Re:Study is quite incomplete (Score 1) 261

In what direction does that bias work, and why?

It works against younger drivers, who are more likely to still have the points on their record. Once the accidents drop off your record, you don't tell the insurance companies about them, for fear that they will move you to a higher-risk group. Deny, deny, deny!

Comment Re:Which users? (Score 1) 269

A lot of people said the same thing about XP. Then Microsoft forced them to upgrade. They will do the same to you.

But, I won't. I haven't bought any Windows software in a long time, and I'm continuing that trend. I play games on it, and it will continue to run my old games well after EOL so that's fine. I also have some automotive service software, but that will do fine in a VM.

Windows 7 is really fantastic to use in a lot of ways, and I've enjoyed it. I'm enjoying it right now. But Microsoft has gone full asshole. They were always pretty damned bad, of course — I've ranted and railed about them time and again, as mentioned nearby. But they always sort of pretended they cared about the user experience until recently.

Comment Re:Simple answer (Score 1) 942

Beyond the reason of 'that's what I grew up with', how is the Fahrenheit scale more comprehensible than the Celsius scale?

Beyond the reason of "I didn't write it", what was wrong with the comment that was already there which asked the same thing, to which replies have actually been left, and is this a sock puppet to the account with the mod point that your comment received?

Comment Re: Simple answer (Score 0) 942

In the centigrade system, we solve this higher resolution issue by adding decimals, just as Fahrenheit does, such as 37.8 degrees.

Yes. We don't use the decimals. Nobody says "It's going to be 73.2 degrees and sunny today!" because that would be stupid. You cannot feel a difference of less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit, so why would anyone comment upon it? By comparison, centigrade requires you to use fractional degrees, because you can feel changes of less than 1 degree. The direct compatibility between centigrade and Kelvin scales is utterly irrelevant to the average person, who is never going to make use of it, and so it can safely be ignored during the scope of this discussion. Being better for some scientists who ought to be able to handle conversion is not an argument for everyone using it.

I am divided on the issue of English-style measures for volume; certainly, it's handy enough in the kitchen, but I don't have any trouble dealing with liters and dividing them down. In terms of measurements of distance, I am firmly in the metric camp. But when it comes to discussing the temperature of the air, which is what most people use a temperature scale for most of the time, the Fahrenheit scale simply makes more sense. The right tool for the job, please.

Comment Re:Simple answer (Score 1) 942

What makes Fahrenheit more comprehensible?

Because the numbers are bigger, but not so big that they're unwieldy. There's more variation. Arguably, there's more variation than is actually needed, because the average person cannot detect a variation in [air] temperature of less than two degrees Fahrenheit. But you get to talk about a broader range of temperatures, so the numbers seem more different. Since most people are unlikely to ever encounter weather far outside the 0-100 scale, it's very useful and it immediately makes extreme temperatures evident. This easily justifies having gradations smaller than what can be felt, or meaningfully used while cooking.

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