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Comment Only 24 active profiles posted to Google + (Score 2) 359

by Trax3001BBS (#49558463) Attached to: Google Insiders Talk About Why Google+ Failed

So little subject space.

Back in January /. had an article: that "just 9% of Google+'s 2.2 billion users actively post public content. "We've got a grand spanking total of 24 profiles out of 7,875 whose 2015 post activity isn't YouTube comments but Google+ posts." http://tech.slashdot.org/story...

I've avoided Google +, even got it removed from my account, at which point when I log into Google now I'm given the choice of which one of two accounts to log in with, both mine, both old, so one with Google +, one without. I only log into Google to post videos to Youtube then log off, POPing my Gmail, to my computer.

I have a 4 second video nobody likes, and the comments threating, yet it's seen 500K views - the demographics one gets with that kind of activity is amazing, and justifies logging in only when one must, and logging off as soon as possible.

Comment Re:Burial site of the first emperor of China (Score 1) 133

by Trax3001BBS (#49552919) Attached to: Liquid Mercury Found Under Mexican Pyramid

While there are high levels of mercury there, it isn't at a level that is particular unsafe and not the reason they've yet to open it. Various other tombs had been devastated by half-ass archeology attempts several decades ago, and the Chinese don't want to mess up something so important. They've been working on some more minor tombs in the area and want to make sure that one is done right.

I agree. While the levels of Mercury are very high, they do want to do this one right and in no hurry.

Comment Burial site of the first emperor of China (Score 2) 133

by Trax3001BBS (#49551909) Attached to: Liquid Mercury Found Under Mexican Pyramid

You'd know him from the Terracotta warriors uncovered. The Burial site is close to being a wonder of the world and it's known where it's at. They won't dig there due to the high levels of Mercury measured at the site, a vast simulated area of water was created using Mercury in the tomb (as claimed by legends). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q...

All of the early civilizations of pre-Columbian America used Cinnabar (a source of Mercury) in their rituals and almost always at burial sites due to it's red color.

Submission + - Microsoft continues earning money from Linux -- increases patent licensing agree (betanews.com) 1

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Many people — let's call them 'haters' — like to make fun of Microsoft's mobile market share with Windows Phone. True, the platform is a failure in this regard, but many users of the OS like it. Quite frankly, besides the lack of apps, Windows Phone is a rather smart and well-designed operating system.

If you choose to laugh at Microsoft over its mobile presence, feel free, but please know that Microsoft is laughing too; all the way to the bank. What you may not know is, Microsoft makes money from Android handset sales thanks to its patent portfolio. In fact, it also collects money from Chromebooks too. In other words, Microsoft is profiting from Linux, since both operating systems are based on the kernel. Today, Microsoft increases its number of patent licensing agreements, by making a deal with Qisda Corp.

Comment Older generations of PCs used software-based DRM (Score 1) 304

At the least a selling point to investors, No mention of the TPM chip. I bought my motherboards due to their lack of a TPM chip http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... (it's Hardware, it's a damn chip).

Now it's almost certain your new motherboard has a TPM chip installed. It's bloody overkill, the difference (I see) between PlayReady and the TPM chips are the availability and path the keys take.

To Quote Wikipedia:
"Almost any encryption-enabled application can, in theory, make use of a TPM, including:
digital rights management
protection and enforcement of software licenses.
prevention of cheating in online games.

Comment The gist of the article and it's a streach (Score 4, Interesting) 157

by Trax3001BBS (#49546999) Attached to: Wormholes Untangle a Black Hole Paradox

Here’s the heart of their argument: If a black hole’s event horizon is a smooth, seemingly ordinary place, as relativity predicts (the authors call this the “no drama” condition), the particles coming out of the black hole must be entangled with particles falling into the black hole. Yet for information not to be lost, the particles coming out of the black hole must also be entangled with particles that left long ago and are now scattered about in a fog of Hawking radiation. That’s one too many kinds of entanglements, the AMPS authors realized. One of them would have to go.

Submission + - Patents show Google Fi was envisioned before the iPhone was released (networkworld.com)

Submitted by smaxp
smaxp writes: Contrary to reports, Google didn't become a mobile carrier with the introduction of Google Fi. Google Fi was launched to prove that a network-of-networks serves smartphone users better than a single mobile carrier's network. Patents related to Google Fi, filed in early 2007, explain Google's vision – smartphones negotiate for and connect to the fastest network available. The patent and Google Fi share a common notion that the smartphone should connect to the fastest network available, not a single carrier's network that may not provide the best performance. It breaks the exclusive relationship between a smartphone and a single carrier.

Submission + - Pirate Bay Blockade Censors CloudFlare Customers (torrentfreak.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The blockade of the Pirate Bay by UK ISPs is causing trouble for CloudFlare customers. Several websites have been inadvertently blocked by Sky because a Pirate Bay proxy is hosted behind the same IP-addresses. In a response, CloudFlare threatened to disconnect the proxy site from its network.

Like any form of censorship web blockades can sometime lead to overblocking, targeting perfectly legitimate websites by mistake.

This is also happening in the UK where Sky’s blocking technology is inadvertently blocking sites that have nothing to do with piracy.

Submission + - Microsoft, Chip Makers Working on Hardware DRM for Windows 10 PCs (pcworld.com) 1

Submitted by writertype
writertype writes: Last month, Microsoft began talking about PlayReady 3.0, which adds hardware DRM to secure 4K movies. Intel, AMD, Nvidia, and Qualcomm are all building it in, according to Microsoft. Years back, a number of people got upset when Hollywood talked about locking down "our content". So how important is hardware DRM in this day and age?

Submission + - Russia ends effort to build a nuclear-powered rocket engine

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Russian government has decided to shut down its research project to build a nuclear rocket engine for interplanetary travel in space.

The idea of using nuclear power for propulsion in space has been around since the 1960s, and has shown great promise. It would provide far more power for less fuel than any existing engine. The U.S. unfortunately abandoned this research in the 1960s, partly because of the cut-backs after winning the space race and partly because of environmental protests that fear anything to do with nuclear. If the Russians had followed through, it would have given them an advantageous position in any competition to colonize the planets.

Comment I didn't know: Responsible Disclosure policy (Score 1) 148

Responsible disclosure fails to satisfy security researchers who expect to be financially compensated, while reporting vulnerabilities to the vendor with the expectation of compensation might be viewed as extortion. While a market for vulnerabilities has developed, vulnerability commercialization remains a hotly debated topic tied to the concept of vulnerability disclosure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...

Still fell Groupon has a debt to pay, unless he did indeed release the info before Groupon could act on the issues.

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