It doesn't matter if the file is protected. If you can breach the kernel, and store your malware/rootkit/etc as part of the "session 0" data mentioned in the summary, then the OS will automatically save it all for you. No need to crack the file.

However, the file does provide another vector for attack.

I'm a bit late to the party, but yes, a real geek would use an HP, because all real geeks know that RPN is superior to DAL.

So this legislation makes it mandatory for them to notify the government within 48 hours... What about notifying customers and/or the general public? If someone steals my private info, especially banking info, I need to know ASAP. If they can still wait a week (or a month) before reporting to customers, this legislation is basically useless.

TFA mentions "nationwide" notification, but not a timetable.

Apparently you need a 'mirror' to view these optical illusions...

To me, it's not about number of screens, but the total amount of available screen space (both pixels and inches).

I regularly use one large screen (26" widescreen) for most of my work. I find this screen large enough to do side-by-side work when necessary. If I needed to have 3 items open at once (code/documentation/google search?), I would probably find it easier if I had more space than I do.

That said, when I'm really in the groove, I don't want anything but what I'm working on visible on my main screen. If I need a reference document open to glance at once in a while, I do find it better to have it on a separate screen, where it doesn't interfere with my concentration, but still lets me see both at once if I need to.

So let me get this straight.

The head of the FCC has just said, "We know this merger could be bad for consumers in several ways. Here are the ways: 'A, B, C'. However, I'd like to let the merger go through, if Comcast just promises not to do those bad things."

Genius. Trust a business to put the interests of the people ahead of their profit. Sounds like a brilliant plan.

Even if the promise is backed by punishment if they break it, it's still a terrible idea, and there's no way they can cover every bad thing Comcast could do in the promise.

I don't know if your post was supposed to be either sarcastic or funny, but Go is neither Japanese nor chess.

It's Chinese, and it's older than chess.

The game commonly referred to as "Japanese chess" is Shogi.

Why the heck does everyone keep saying stuff about 3 seasons?

Many, many sci-fi shows don't make it past one season. Some of them don't make it to the end of season one.

If a show has less than 20 episodes, it ain't done yet (unless it was a mini-series).

If it has more then 50-60 episodes, you've entered the realm of the neverending opera, where you no longer have actual story arcs (e.g. most of the Star Trek series).

That's why shows that get really popular need to "reset" once in a while, switch the focus to new characters and/or a different part of the timeline.

Occasionally a truly epic show with really good writers can manage to tie together story arcs into a nearly infinite show, 200+ episodes. This is very rare.

I've strayed off my point.

Please don't yell at the producers for trying to make money off a show that actually turned out well. They keep canceling shows before they even make it to 20 episodes. Please encourage them to find good writers, pay the writers well enough to keep them happy, spend just enough on special effects to make it not suck, and see if they can keep a show on the air for at least 2 seasons. If they can manage to that, *then* we can start trying to convince them that shows do need to end.

In other news, an experiment by SourceForge, using it's meatspace zombienet "Slashdot" proved that even Google-owned YouTube can be brought to it's knees by enough people trying to watch the same video at the same time.

Is it just me, or do the video and article both CLEARLY state that it's rat brain cells, not human brain cells?

IANAP(hysicist), but here's my thought:

The problem with this view is twofold, one is that of using "is a similar concept to" as if it were a mathematical "=". Entropy is similar to disorder and one type of disorder might be a messy room. This does not mean that a messy room has a higher entropy than a clean room.

The second is thinking that homogeny is the opposite of entropy, when, in fact, it is the ultimate form of entropy. If every single atom in the universe were the same (and stable, such as a Noble gas), then it would be very difficult to make anything happen. No useful energy is available. OTOH, if you have lots of different kinds of atoms, you can mix some of them together to make new things or generate different forms of energy (such as heat, light, or kinetic energy).

To get back to the messy room analogy--if everything in your room were thrown into a giant blender, and made into a sea of sand, it would have reached maximum entropy. However, in the messy room, there might be just as much potential energy as the clean room, possibly even more. Therefore is difficult to distinguish which has greater entropy.

And, finally, to get back to black holes: Assuming that Hawking Radiation really exists and functions as speculated, black holes take useful energy (light & matter) and turn it into less useful energy (hawking radiation), thus increasing entropy.

As I said, IANAP, so if someone wants to correct me, feel free, but please explain why, so that I can learn something.

Even if Oracle knew they would be fined $10,000 it was probably still well worth the cost of the fine + the cost of the ad. Not to mention that receiving the fine has gotten them the front page of Slashdot and probably lots of other tech sites as well.

Value for money, 10 Grand was a steal.

TFA is talking about using an existing network of 1100 GPS receivers currently tracking plate tectonics to also track snowfall, without any additional equipment and without interfering with their current operation.

This not about using your Garmin to find out how much snow is in your front yard.