Comment Re:I believe it.... (Score 1) 179
OH yeah, for relevance this is in a town just north of Boston.
Comment Re:I believe it.... (Score 1) 179
Last winter I stepped out my front door and smelled gas and called NSTAR and they came out with a truck and detectors and the whole lot. They smelled it too, but the concentration wasn't high enough to call it an emergency, so they put me on a repair list. Two weeks later I come home to find the street in front of my house spray painted by DigSafe and a note on my door saying I need to be home the next day. They came, ran a liner in the pipe from the main to my house, connected it inside, and were gone. No more gas smell.
Then they came 2 months later to replace my meter (which they do every 7 years).
--Mike
Comment Re:Close the door. (Score 1) 480
pants
Comment Re:Just keep in mind the tradeoff (Score 1) 556
And the EVIL Exxon Mobil's Net Profit Margin is 8.68% and its Operating Margin is 15.06% compared with the EVIL Microsoft's of 33.1% and 38.3% respectively.
Comment Re:Just keep in mind the tradeoff (Score 1) 556
There are three types of drug ads in the US - http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/PrescriptionDrugAdvertising/default.htm
The ones that mention both the drug and what it is indicated for are called Product Claim Ads and must enumerate the benefits and the risks including potential side effects. Reminder Ads give the drug's name but not what it is indicated for and Help-Seeking ads describe a condition does not recommend or suggest a specific drug or drugs.
Comment Re:Story is wrong: (Score 2) 455
Didn't Motorbootkompanie 10 used to open for Kraftwerk?
Comment Re:oven (Score 1) 1016
LOX + bagel works for hunger. LOX on a HDD? Not effective at wiping data or satisfying hunger.
Comment Wow... (Score 1) 32
This is totally one step beyond! It's madness!
Comment Re:This is a sad day for the tech world (Score 1) 1027
Fidelity and State Street are the two largest inst shareholders of Apple. Wanna know why? It is part of an index and therefore part of index mfs. A lot of people benefit from Apples performance.
--Mike
Comment Re:It's the risk you take (Score 1) 179
I guess it depends on what you mean by "trashed." if they punch a few holes in the walls, mess up the paint, and stain the carpets, the repairs shouldn't ruin you financially. If they tear out all the drywall, the wiring, the plumbing, the flooring, and appliances, leaving you with nothing but a room full of 2x4s holding up the ceiling, then yeah, you could end up paying tens of thousands. But I've never seen a place THAT trashed, and I work for a real estate company that specializes in selling foreclosed properties.
Kind of reminds me of Pacific Heights starring Michael Keaton....
Submission + - Can the NSA Track Your Phone's Location? (itworld.com)
itwbennett writes: "Responding to questions from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday, Matthew Olsen, the NSA's general counsel, said that the NSA 'may', under 'certain circumstances' have the authority to track U.S. citizens by intercepting location data from cell phones, but it's 'very complicated.' 'There's no need to panic, or start shopping for aluminum-foil headwear,' says blogger Kevin Fogarty, but clearly the NSA has been thinking about it enough 'that the agency's chief lawyer was able to speak intelligently about it off the cuff while interviewing for a different job.'"
Comment Re:cost (Score 1) 482
More along the lines of, "I'm talking about the 686 prototypes, with the artificial intelligence RISC chip."
Submission + - Galaxy Tab 10.1 judged "no match for iPad" (foxnews.com)
tripleevenfall writes: Clayton Morris reviews the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and finds it lacking, especially at the $400 price point, saying "I can't in good conscience tell you to go out and spend $400 on this half-baked experience when the fully baked iPad experience can be had for just a few dollars more."
Submission + - Hospital Turns To Palm Reading To ID Patients (computerworld.com)
CWmike writes: "NYU Langone Medical Center said it is the first hospital in the Northeast to use a biometric infrared scanning system that converts a digital palm image into a unique patient ID. The technology, called PatientSecure, is a biometric reader that uses an infrared light to map an image of the blood-flow pattern through the veins in a person's palm. That digital image is then converted into a unique patient ID that can be used with the medical center's electronic health record (EHR) system.
The technology has been deployed at about 10 other U.S. hospitals. More than 8,000 patients Langone patients have agreed to use PatientSecure. 'Vein patterns are 100 times more unique than fingerprints,' said Dr. Bernard A. Birnbaum, senior vice president of hospital operations at NYU Langone. 'It not only protects privacy and enhances quality, but will transform the patient experience.' Research shows that patient identification errors are not uncommon, and the failure to correctly identify a patient can result in serious treatment errors."
The technology has been deployed at about 10 other U.S. hospitals. More than 8,000 patients Langone patients have agreed to use PatientSecure. 'Vein patterns are 100 times more unique than fingerprints,' said Dr. Bernard A. Birnbaum, senior vice president of hospital operations at NYU Langone. 'It not only protects privacy and enhances quality, but will transform the patient experience.' Research shows that patient identification errors are not uncommon, and the failure to correctly identify a patient can result in serious treatment errors."
Submission + - US warns of problems in Chinese SCADA software (networkworld.com)
alphadogg writes: Two vulnerabilities found in industrial control system software made in China but used worldwide could be remotely exploited by attackers, according to a warning issued on Thursday by the U.S. Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team. The vulnerabilities were found in two products from Sunway ForceControl Technology, a Beijing-based company that develops SCADA software for a wide variety of industries, including defense, petrochemical, energy, water and manufacturing. Sunway's products are mostly used in China but also in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa, according to the agency's advisory. SCADA software has come under increasing attention from security researchers, as the software has often not undergone rigorous security audits despite its use to manage critical infrastructure or manufacturing processes. SCADA systems are increasingly connected to the Internet, which has opened up the possibility of hackers remotely breaking into the systems. Last year, researchers discovered a highly sophisticated worm called Stuxnet that was later found to target Siemens' WinCC industrial control software.
