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Comment Re:Apple is on very shakey ground (Score 1) 386

First - I agree with your comments. But one thing to note is that Technology Muggles don't know much (if anything) about the previous devices and thus see Apple as revolutionary. Where you and I know differently. I eventually tired of telling my friends that no, my iMate JasJar from 2005 could do more than their iPhone 3G, four years before the iPhone 3G was released. The perceived "revolutionary" iPhone compared to the realistic "evolutionary" iPhone and the ignorance in others not acknowledging that is what infuriates me.

Comment Re:If you want real security (Score 2) 189

(Can't believe I'm replying to an AC).

This sounds great and all that, but that's a very unreasonable statement. Consider C. I don't know a single person who would say that C is secure or that security wasn't built in from the get-go. The same can be said of C++. But those languages offer different benefits (speed and control both come to mind). It's a trade off, to be sure. But sometimes, you have to use a language that isn't secure "from the get-go" to build an application that needs security. We don't always have the luxury of doing the perfect (or near perfect) thing.

Comment Re:ASP? (Score 2) 189

Yes, but it's far easier to say, ".NET is .NET", or, more accurately, "Microsoft is Microsoft". i.e. Proprietary.. i.e. bad. While I don't have numbers, I'd wager that Classic ASP (which runs on the .NET framework) is vastly more unsecure than ASP.NET MVC.

Don't mistake my comment for blind support for Microsoft. But, when a study fails simply acknowledge this very basic fact about the Microsoft ecosystem, it's numbers really don't mean much.

Comment Re:AWS is NOT cheap (Score 1) 146

Don't forget the other savings you get for using AWS (or other cloud providers). Facilities (and associated maintenance), power costs (cloud centers are almost always more efficient), and hardware administration. Obviously, you have to run the numbers yourself, but remember it isn't JUST hardware costs that are saved by moving to a cloud.

Comment No license for Hyper-V (Score 1) 146

Assuming you already own a Windows Server (or Windows 8 or greater), Hyper-V comes with your OS. Obviously you may have to purchase the OS that is going on your VM if you are installing a proprietary OS, but there's no explicit charge for Hyper-V anymore.

"Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is a stand-alone product that is available as a free download via the Microsoft Download Center. Hyper-V is a technology built into Windows Server 2008 R2. If you own Windows Server 2008 R2 then you already own Hyper-V. Find out more information on how to buy Windows Server 2008 R2."

Comment Re:Better Idea (Score 1) 94

Yes, we have a smallpox vaccine. However, it's efficacy is dubious against a weaponized form of smallpox. I'll refer you to the book "The Demon In The Freezer." Towards the end, the author points to real research and publicly accessible information on how to make smallpox effective even against immunized individuals. It's apparently so easy, the author did it on a different pox virus in a lab.

That book scared the living crap out of me.

Comment Re:That makes sense (Score 1) 197

If you were leaking Botulism Toxin, they'd never know it when you were driving down the road. BT is has an incredibly high potency at almost untraceable levels. Especially in real-time. And it would take some time for your acetylcholine receptors to get blocked. That being said, if I caught you driving down the road dripping liposuction reclamation material, I'd beat you senseless...
Crime

Time Dilation Drug Could Let Heinous Criminals Serve 1,000 Year Sentences 914

Hugh Pickens DOT Com (2995471) writes "Like something out of the movie Inception, Rhiannon Williams reports in the Telegraph that Dr. Rebecca Roache, in charge of a team of scholars focused upon the ways futuristic technologies might transform punishment, claims the prison sentences of serious criminals could be made worse by distorting prisoners' minds into thinking time was passing more slowly. 'There are a number of psychoactive drugs that distort people's sense of time, so you could imagine developing a pill or a liquid that made someone feel like they were serving a 1,000-year sentence,' says Roache. Roache says when she began researching this topic, she was thinking a lot about Daniel Pelka, a four-year-old boy who was starved and beaten to death by his mother and stepfather.

'I had wondered whether the best way to achieve justice in cases like that was to prolong death as long as possible. Some crimes are so bad they require a really long period of punishment, and a lot of people seem to get out of that punishment by dying. And so I thought, why not make prison sentences for particularly odious criminals worse by extending their lives?' Thirty years in prison is currently the most severe punishment available in the UK legal system. 'To me, these questions about technology are interesting because they force us to rethink the truisms we currently hold about punishment. When we ask ourselves whether it's inhumane to inflict a certain technology on someone, we have to make sure it's not just the unfamiliarity that spooks us,' says Roache. 'Is it really OK to lock someone up for the best part of the only life they will ever have, or might it be more humane to tinker with their brains and set them free? When we ask that question, the goal isn't simply to imagine a bunch of futuristic punishments — the goal is to look at today's punishments through the lens of the future.'"

Comment Re:Or Preexisting conditions. (Score 1) 578

Question for you. You mention that healthcare is cheaper in Europe, but that does not mean it is the best system. Do you know anyone in Europe (or any 1st world single payer system) that would trade their healthcare coverage for the US's system? I don't mean a rich guy coming down from Canada for a Knee Replacement. I mean actually trading the whole system. I don't know of any, but perhaps they are out there in numbers.

Comment Or Preexisting conditions. (Score 5, Informative) 578

I was with a start-up for a little over a year. One of the conditions I had for joining with them was that they would cover my COBRA expenses, because a) I couldn't afford it with my start-up salary and b) I couldn't get independent coverage because of a few preexisting conditions with me and my family. People forget about that clause. And lord help you if you are pregnant or have a pregnant wife (or want to get pregnant soon). Impossible to get coverage (or so I was told by two different brokers). Say what you want about Obamacare, but just the change of getting reasonably priced insurance even with preexisting conditions is enough for some people to have the freedom to jump into start-ups. Whether it's "right" or "wrong" is a completely different story.

Comment Re:CS is not IT / system admin (Score 1) 137

Mean is an understatement, but yes. I've experienced it, along with practically everyone I've talked with from my previous profession. .Some examples I was told to me would absolutely floor you. I wish I could be more specific, but it's hearsay... But I believe them. Take that for what it is. And this was almost 20 years ago. Thanks for the compliment, too.

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