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James Bond Film Skyfall Inspired By Stuxnet Virus 187

Velcroman1 writes "No smartphones. No exploding pens. No ejector seats. No rocket-powered submarines. 'It's a brave new world,' gadget-maker Q tells James Bond in the new film Skyfall. The new film, released on the 50th anniversary of the storied franchise, presents a gadget-free Bond fighting with both brains and brawn against a high-tech villain with computer prowess Bill Gates would be envious of. What inspired such a villain? 'Stuxnet,' producer Michael G. Wilson said. 'There is a cyberwar that has been going on for some time, and we thought we'd bring that into the fore and let people see how it could be going on.'"

Comment So just patent the test... (Score 1) 85

Ok, I'm sure I'm missing something here.

But I don't see where a specific test can't be patented to determine if a gene is present, without patenting the gene.

If someone else comes up with a different way to detect that gene, then they wouldn't be in violation of the patent.

Comment A missing circle... (Score 2) 126

And that's "Accreditation hell". Where policy prevents you from fielding systems that aren't certified to certain levels of robustness / security, but management hasn't (or won't) budget the time or money to actually secure a system.

"Just stand it up now", they say. "We'll put the security money in next year's budget."

Of course, it doesn't show up in next year's budget, and pretty soon, you're the next Sony (in the getting hacked repeatedly sense).

Comment Re:Play favorites? I believe it (Score 1) 323

Actually, it can. Certainly not at all temperatures and pressures, but it is usable for a range of them. Which we had learned in the physics classes.

Or here, if you need a link (not from my school, but still valid):

https://ecourses.ou.edu/cgi-bin/view_anime.cgi?file=th020403f.swf&course=th&chap_sec=02.4

We were, as I recall, in the area where the percentage of error was in the .1% range.

Comment Re:Play favorites? I believe it (Score 2) 323

I've seen worse, though not in Lit.

At Carolina, the Engineering program had a professor who, one semester, failed -everyone- ...except for the guy who was from the exact same part of India that he was.

Everyone there tromped down to the Dean's office and showed him the facts. They all got regraded, and the prof was not retained.

But worse than that was the Thermodynamics prof who graded entirely on the curve. As in, the Bell Curve.

The first test was six definitions and one problem involving steam. All but one person in the class used the Ideal Gas Law to solve it. And he marked us all wrong, because -he- hadn't taught us the Ideal Gas Law yet. (Never mind that you had to have two semesters of Physics to take Thermo...)

So that first test the class average was a 34 (the one guy pulled it up that high), with a standard deviation of around 17... so the 30s that most of us got was a... C.

Second test, the class average was a 92 with a standard deviation of around 19. So my 100 was a... C.

The final, the class average was a 100. There was no standard deviation. So my 100 was a... C.

Needless to say, a lot of pissed off people in that class.

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