Comment Re:plastic is for junk (Score 1) 266
Spot on, but also in the US trucks are cheaper than the equivalent SUV. Different tax on purchase for 'utilitarian' vehicles.
Lenovo Could Remake the ThinkPad X300 With Current Technologies 219
MojoKid writes: The ThinkPad brand has been around for a long time; the first model was introduced by IBM way back in 1992. And although technological advances over the past two decades have lead to Lenovo ThinkPads that are lighter, much faster, and highly more cable than any model in the early 1990s could have ever imagined, there's still a clear visual link between yesteryear and today with regards to design cues. Well, apparently, Lenovo is seriously toying with the idea of making a "unique" model that would incorporate some of the strong ThinkPad language that has been erased in recent years. "Imagine a blue enter key, 7 row classic keyboard, 16:10 aspect ratio screen, multi-color ThinkPad logo, dedicated volume controls, rubberized paint, exposed screws, lots of status LEDs, and more. Think of it like stepping into a time machine and landing in 1992, but armed with today's technology." It might not be for everyone but some execs at Lenovo think there might be a market for it.
Comment Re:Desktop on Linux? (Score 1) 383
Half of the people at work (research lab) have been using Ubuntu for the last few years. The others are on Macs. The choice of OS is left open. Windows (XP) runs almost exclusively in a few virtual machines kept on tight leashes.
Comment Re:Laptops (Score 2) 383
Get a Dell. The Linux option is well hidden on their site, but I had no problem getting an M6700 with tons of funky options (keyboard different from the country I ordered it from). We order Linux laptops from them at work, but I also did as a private customer. Yeah, I know, Dell is not sexy, but all the Linux laptop companies (System76 and others) couldn't get me what I wanted (I'm not in the US).
Wi-Fi Router's 'Pregnant Women' Setting Sparks Vendor Rivalry In China 207
colinneagle writes: When one Chinese technology vendor, Qihoo, launched a new Wi-Fi router with a safety setting for "pregnant women," a rival vendor took offense to the implication that their routers might be dangerous. Xiamo, which also sells Wi-Fi routers, took to its page on Chinese social media site Weibo to denounce Qihoo's pregnant women mode as a "marketing tactic," and clarify that "Wi-Fi usage is safe."
Zhou Hongyi, chief executive and president of Qihoo, acknowledged in a statement to the South China Morning Post that there is no evidence supporting claims that Wi-Fi routers pose a risk for birth defects. But he said the company is appealing to consumers' beliefs, whether they are supported by science or not.
"We are targeting people who are afraid of radiation," Hongyi said. "We aren't scientists. We haven't done many experiments to prove how much damage the radiation from Wi-Fi can cause. We leave the right of choice to our customers."
Zhou Hongyi, chief executive and president of Qihoo, acknowledged in a statement to the South China Morning Post that there is no evidence supporting claims that Wi-Fi routers pose a risk for birth defects. But he said the company is appealing to consumers' beliefs, whether they are supported by science or not.
"We are targeting people who are afraid of radiation," Hongyi said. "We aren't scientists. We haven't done many experiments to prove how much damage the radiation from Wi-Fi can cause. We leave the right of choice to our customers."
Comment Re:I'm spending 60% of my monthly income on rent (Score 1) 940
I believe a simple solution to that is to use higher tax rates the richer you get, to keep you from accumulating wealth without limit. There has to be a point of diminishing returns which should be fixed by careful consideration by economists and politicians, and certainly not by lobbyists for the housing/renting/construction industry.
Comment Re:Stupid reality! (Score 1) 80
The situation is not as symmetric as you imply because of the vastly different budgets. And I'd much rather see the budget of the NSA targeted at finding and FIXING security holes rather than exploiting them and letting them be also discovered by others, possibly even more evil. And also it would be cheaper for allies to collaborate efficiently than to spy on each others.
Comment Note quite like the real thing... (Score 2) 32
As someone who has climbed El Cap 4 times, I can say that it's not going to feel quite the same watching it in 3D than to actually do it. Eating vs watching foodies pics? Being in love vs watching porn?
Comment Re:Stop interconnecting systems (Score 1) 165
Bullshit. You can have for instance separate busses: internal secure (for anything critical), internal unsecure (read-only, so info like speed can be read by others), external unsecure (car stereo, etc). You can even have them all on the same copper with the proper subnetting.
Comment Re:"Other types of electromagnetic radiation" (Score 5, Interesting) 529
I have a perfect example here at work. After we installed a Wifi relay in the lobby, the idi^H^Hperson manning the entrance started taking sick days after sick days, claiming the wifi was making her sick. Problem was, it wasn't activated yet (building installation wasn't finished), but since it was already powered, it was blinking. Then we activated it and placed a piece of black tape on the LEDs, told her 'Fine, we won't be using it then', and all was fine.
Comment Re:Who buys them? (Score 2) 668
Ever hear a badly injured person screaming from the pain? It's a weird high pitched and very disturbing keen. They might give you a hundred dollars just to knock them unconscious.
This aptly describes my ex's first orgasm ever.
Encryption Would Not Have Protected Secret Federal Data, Says DHS 142
HughPickens.com writes: Sean Gallagher reports at Ars Technica that Dr. Andy Ozment, Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity in the Department of Homeland Security, told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that in the case of the recent discovery of an intrusion that gave attackers access to sensitive data on millions of government employees and government contractors, encryption would "not have helped" because the attackers had gained valid user credentials to the systems that they attacked—likely through social engineering. Ozment added that because of the lack of multifactor authentication on these systems, the attackers would have been able to use those credentials at will to access systems from within and potentially even from outside the network. "If the adversary has the credentials of a user on the network, they can access data even if it's encrypted just as the users on the network have to access data," said Ozment. "That did occur in this case. Encryption in this instance would not have protected this data."
The fact that Social Security numbers of millions of current and former federal employees were not encrypted was one of few new details emerged about the data breach and House Oversight member Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) was the one who pulled the SSN encryption answer from the teeth of the panel where others failed. "This is one of those hearings where I think that I will know less coming out of the hearing than I did when I walked in because of the obfuscation and the dancing around we are all doing here. As a matter of fact, I wish that you were as strenuous and hardworking at keeping information out of the hands of hackers as you are in keeping information out of the hands of Congress and federal employees. It's ironic. You are doing a great job stonewalling us, but hackers, not so much."
The fact that Social Security numbers of millions of current and former federal employees were not encrypted was one of few new details emerged about the data breach and House Oversight member Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) was the one who pulled the SSN encryption answer from the teeth of the panel where others failed. "This is one of those hearings where I think that I will know less coming out of the hearing than I did when I walked in because of the obfuscation and the dancing around we are all doing here. As a matter of fact, I wish that you were as strenuous and hardworking at keeping information out of the hands of hackers as you are in keeping information out of the hands of Congress and federal employees. It's ironic. You are doing a great job stonewalling us, but hackers, not so much."
Comment Re:StartSSL ? (Score 2) 97
I used StartSSL to obtain a certif for my small website when they came up. Spent a while to learn the procedure. A year later I had to redo it all when it expired. Pain in the ass, so I gave up. There should be either: long duration certificates (just like you can get a domain for 10 years), or a shell script that you can cron on your server that will renew automatically yearly.
Comment Re:And now for the bad news... (Score 5, Funny) 168
Can you imagine crime in Alaska: "what were you doing in the night from november 1st to february 15th ?"
Comment Set it on fire (Score 1, Funny) 479
Ask for a new one. Say you're not suing them for the soot in the apartment. Problem solved.
