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Comment Re:Someone Please Provide a Better Explanation (Score 1) 392

While I agree that one might assume the Pedestrian detection system might be part of the City package - I have to say that the owner was a dumbass.

Did you go out and try the airbags to show them off to your friends?

As for anti-lock brakes - when I purchased a car with this feature, Yes, I did try them out. I never had them before. First I found an empty parking lot and drove slowly, tried them, drove faster, tried them again. Drove in a circle - tried them. Each time making sure there was enough room *just in case* something didn't work as expected. I did NOT drive full tilt at a wall !!!

Maybe these features are complicated enough we need training.

I remember the first time my traction control was activated in a time of need. My car has a lot of horsepower - but the Stability system turns the engine down and applies the brakes to bring the car under control. Not a wonderful feature when trying to pull into a lane and "full power" is required. The car went idle and coasted for a few seconds because the wheels spun on black-ice. Thankfully there was room for this mistake. Now I know and anticipate it. The system can't tell the difference between "I'm out of control" and "Get me out of here now!" Just need to be quick on the "ESP" on/off button.

Submission + - Insurer denies healthcare breach claim citing lack of minimum required practices (securityledger.com)

chicksdaddy writes: In what may become a trend, an insurance company is denying a claim from a California healthcare provider following the leak of data on more than 32,000 patients. The insurer, Columbia Casualty, charges that Cottage Health System did an inadequate job of protecting patient data.

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in California, Columbia alleges that the breach occurred because Cottage and a third party vendor, INSYNC Computer Solution, Inc. failed to follow “minimum required practices,” as spelled out in the policy. Among other things, Cottage “stored medical records on a system that was fully accessible to the internet but failed to install encryption or take other security measures to protect patient information from becoming available to anyone who ‘surfed’ the Internet,” the complaint alleges.

Disputes like this may become more common, as insurers anxious to get into a cyber insurance market that's growing by about 40% annually use liberally written exclusions to hedge against 'known unknowns' like lax IT practices, pre-existing conditions (like compromises) and so on. (http://www.itworld.com/article/2839393/cyber-insurance-only-fools-rush-in.html)

Submission + - Ways to travel faster than light without violating relativity

StartsWithABang writes: It’s one of the cardinal laws of physics and the underlying principle of Einstein’s relativity itself: the fact that there’s a universal speed limit to the motion of anything through space and time, the speed of light, or c. Light itself will always move at this speed (as well as certain other phenomena, like the force of gravity), while anything with mass — like all known particles of matter and antimatter — will always move slower than that. But if you want something to travel faster-than-light, you aren’t, as you might think, relegated to the realm of science fiction. There are real, physical phenomena that do exactly this, and yet are perfectly consistent with relativity.

Submission + - 25 Years today - Windows 3.0 1

An anonymous reader writes: Windows 3.0 was launched on 22 May 1990 — I know, coz I was there as a SDE on the team. I still have, um, several of the shrink-wrapped boxes of the product — with either 3.5 inch and 5.25 floppies rattling around inside them — complete with their distintive 'I witnessed the event' sticker!

It was a big deal for me, and I still consider Win 3 as *the* most significant Windows' release, and I wonder what other /.ers think — looking back on Win 3?

Comment Security Rehash Part Deux (Score 1) 82

The more I see this happen - the more I think we need to change the economy for stolen data. Remember when they stopped arresting prostitutes and targeted the John's ? Locks can be picked and there to keep honest people honest. Credit monitoring must be pretty cheap as more companies buy it as an insurance product. This data is going to be stolen !

Now we need to make it worthless.

In the world of digital "signup on the web" stolen data can be used pretty quickly. Like the bad checks loop hole (popular on Craigslist and others). The detection of bad id's needs to be easier and products for purchase harder to get. There are days that I believe the 3 credit reporting agencies are responsible - they created a market & product that is easy to abuse. Yes - I can flag my credit rating (even "lock" it) - but then my life becomes difficult.

Maybe a smartApp that allows easier monitoring and blocking of requests. My AMEX credit card already gives real time purchase details on my phone. This might aid in detection.

Now - how to reduce the value of the products? (or increase the cost to acquire).
And just maybe - make it expense for the companies that hold this data to the point they find another way.

Submission + - Mansion Fire: DNA on Pizza Crust Led Authorities to DC Murder Suspect (go.com)

mpicpp writes: Authorities searched a Maryland home overnight in the investigation of a deadly mansion murder, going through the trash and removing bags of evidence — but in the end it was a piece of pizza crust that could lead to the suspect's arrest.

Daron Dylon Wint, 34, was identified on Wednesday as the key suspect in the quadruple slaying and arson attack in Northwest, a section of Washington, D.C. A court issued an arrest warrant for Wint with “murder one while armed,” authorities said.

Two sources familiar with the case told ABC News that DNA found on the crust of a Domino's pizza that had been delivered to the house led authorities to identify Wint as the suspect.

Submission + - Army develops blast-proof wallpaper (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader writes: U.S. army engineers are developing a new blast-proof wallpaper prototype that they claim could help protect soldiers from the impact of an explosion and flying debris. The lightweight adhesive fabric is lined with ballistic Kevlar fibers embedded in flexible polymer film. Nick Boone, a research mechanical engineer at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said that the rolls of paper could be easily transported by military troops and used to quickly line the walls in temporary buildings. Without the wallpaper, a wall that is hit will “rubblize,” said Boone, hurling shards of rock and mortar at the soldiers inside. However when the blast occurs with the wallpaper installed, he explained that the fabric acts as a “catcher's net,” and is able to contain the flying rubble and prevent debris from injuring soldiers.

Submission + - Gravitational anomalies beneath mountains point to isostasy of Earth's crust

StartsWithABang writes: Imagine you wanted to know what your acceleration was anywhere on Earth; imagine that simply saying “9.81 m/s^2" wasn’t good enough. What would you need to account for? Sure, there are the obvious things: the Earth’s rotation and its various altitudes and different points. Surely, the farther away you are from Earth’s center, the less your acceleration’s going to be. But what might come as a surprise is that if you went up to the peak of the highest mountains, not only would the acceleration due to gravity be its lowest, but there’d also be less mass beneath your feet than at any other location.

Comment Re:North Pole (Score 1) 496

I too knew the answer of North Pole - but suspected it was a trick question. My "second" guess was about relative position. If memory serves - the Earth rotates East. Therefore if you walked West at an appropriate speed you could maintain your position relative to the plane tangent to the surface. Kind of like a circus animal that walks on a large Ball or treadmill. The animal stays on top (yet moves through space) on the ball - or treadmill, you maintain a constant position in the room while the floor moves. So if you walked South --- then West -- then North you would wind up in 3D space in the original relative position.

The more I thought about this though, the speed of your walk would need to be faster during the West journey. Your North/South walk would produce a Zig shape. It isn't sqrt(2) - you trace a isosceles triangle (non-right triangle) and North/South must be the same length.

I'm ignoring the arc as 1 mile doesn't seem significant.

Submission + - E-paper Display Gives Payment Cards a Changing Security Code

itwbennett writes: Using payment cards with an embedded chip makes payments more secure in physical stores, but it’s still relatively easy for criminals to copy card details and use them online. Payment specialist Oberthur Technologies has another idea, which it will soon be testing in France. Oberthur’s Motion Code technology replaces the printed 3-digit CVV (Card Verification Value) code with a small e-paper display. The code changes periodically, reducing the time a fraudster has to act.

Comment Re:Solution (Score 1) 384

I was going to suggest contacting the pump vendor and see if they have a solution. It might be considered cheaper to pay this guy than it is to fix the problem.

Or - get a dozen of those new Intel PCs on a stick. Rather than running a dozen wires across the parking lot to trip on or finding a managed switch that can support that many VLANs - just create PC dongles.

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