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Comment Re:Target just couldn't handle this any worse (Score 0) 115

I know my card was hit, since I have friends who shop at the same store using non-Target cards that got notified...

No, you are assuming your information was taken because other people had their information taken at the same store.

  • Perhaps if Target was able to identify which POS terminals were compromised and determine your information was never processed by one of them, you don't need to be notified.
  • Perhaps the terminals encrypt the Target card information and only transmit outside card info in the clear. Your information was never in jeopardy.
  • Perhaps Target has programmed their POS terminals to automatically re-write new card numbers onto their cards the next time you use it in Target so the stolen info would be useless.
  • Perhaps they have decided the cost of notifying all the Target card holders is more than the anticipated losses and they will just eat the small cost of fraudulent use. As you said, Target cards can only be used in Target stores.

.
There are many reasons why you might not need to be notified.

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Comment Re:I have zero problems with BU's patents (Score 1) 129

There are other companies that did the same thing. Look at the patent on the LZW compression technique in the .GIF format. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Interchange_Format

Unisys waited almost 10 years until .GIF files were the ubiquitous picture format on the web, THEN they started suing for patent infringement. The led to the .PNG file format being developed, but everyone was still mad at Unisys for waiting so long.

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Comment Re:good ruck, chuck! (Score 1) 59

Passing down property to heirs can be socially dangerous...

Besides which, you're missing the main point of progressive taxation, which is that if a certain amount of taxes need to be raised, it's more fair for people to contribute what they can afford such that they feel the same amount of burden, rather than for the burden to be mathematically uniform but to have widely disparate effects in reality.

Citation? Or are these just your opinions based on YOUR interpretation of "fairness"?

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Comment Re:I think I speak for us all... (Score 1) 335

Because if more people paid with cash, businesses could lower their prices because they wouldn't have to pay as much for the credit card service fee.

I see this at some gas stations. They have one price for cash/debit cards and a higher price for credit cards. They make the customer pay for the service fee.

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Comment Re:not exactly a troll. IA made similar, met Ninte (Score 1) 87

Perhaps because Nintendo could buy the patents for almost nothing. If IA owes Nintendo 10 million and can't pay it, so they have a sheriff's sale to raise the money. Nintendo buys the patents for 7 million, get the money back as payment for the court judgement, and is still owed 3 million in case IA has any other assets.

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Comment Re: Get a real mail account (Score 2) 388

So, isn't it obvious this is the problem he is running into? If his email address is F.M.Last(at)gmail, he will receive FMLast, F.MLast, FM.Last, FML.ast, etc.

I'm a little surprised Gmail will allow a new email account that has dotted username if they already have a user that receives all related dotted username variations.

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Comment Re:HD (Score 1) 112

Unfortunately, most of your citations are from discussions back in 2007 when a 5MP camera was state of the art.

Imaging sensors, digital signal processors, and optics have all improved substantially since then. I'm not saying the quality is an order of magnitude better, but some of those calculations might need to be reviewed.

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Comment Re:Motion detector fixtures (Score 1) 944

You haven't given us enough information to agree or disagree with your conclusion. How have the fixtures saved you money? Do you need to turn the lights in the garage on every time you enter it? If your motion controlled lights turn on during daylight hours, isn't that wasting electricity? What about the energy needed to monitor the passive IR signal for the motion detection? If you don't go down into the basement for a week, why is it saving you electricity to monitor the staircase unnecessarily?

It seems like a simple light switch would do as well as your motion detection system and save you even more electricity. Or is there still more information you didn't post?

The other item is your statement that incandescent bulbs handle on/off cycling better than LEDs? Where did you get this information? Incandescent bulbs almost always fail during the initial power surge during turn on. LED bulbs last for 50,000 to 100,000 hours and don't have a problem with turning on and off. The LED driver circuit shouldn't have a problem either.

If a LED has a MTBF of 50,000 hours and you use your light 1 minute each and every day, your LED bulb would be expected to last over 8000 years. (50K*60/365=8219)

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Comment Re:Reliability? (Score 1) 107

Most of these systems are alternative ways of authenticating to Windows, but not the only way. (Most of the biometric systems require an enrollment process that is optional.) Most people will still have an Administrator account that uses the traditional password method.

~~(Mod -1 for too many uses of the word "most")

Comment Re:Not Secure (Score 1) 107

Not unless you can print a picture that will show different levels of reflection to the near-infrared wavelengths.

If you've seen a thermal images of a house showing where the heat loss is, compare that to the normal image of the house. This method is using the equivalent of a thermal image.

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Comment Re:Good (Score 1) 1143

Why would they be paying an extra $4000 every two years?

That $4000 is the difference between the 13 SEER model and the 16 SEER model. He said he would recoup that money in two years, so every two years after that would be a savings of $4000, or $2000 every year by switching to the more efficient model.

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