Comment The Tom Clancy solution (Score 1) 160
A tech billionaire should hire a team of mercenaries to track down and kill scammers, spammers, and malware authors.
Comment Blivet? (Score 1) 170
So we're stuck with either "impossible object" or "ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag".
Naming is hard, but it's not *that* hard.
Comment Re:I now know what age Russell Edwards is (Score 1) 135
With a story like this, it's clear you are 48.
Comment Re:Define technology (Score 1) 231
I think the idea is that B&W TVs were a "fad" in the fifties, not the late seventies. If you were 65, your original comment would make sense. At 35.....maybe not.
Comment Re:Just the warm-up (Score 3, Informative) 48
Some technologies just don't make sense. At least with our current battery and silicon constraints.
A nice tablet at $500 didn't make sense... until the iPad came out. (Some early speculation had it priced at @$1,000). An expensive smartphone without a keyboard didn't make sense... until the iPhone. A laptop that is
Apple has a track record of pushing limits, and of not releasing products that aren't highly refined. If they come out with an "iWatch," I'd bet it will be something special. And the following iterations will only improve it.
Comment Re:Just the warm-up (Score 1) 48
This time there is no SJobs.
True, but I think that's overrated as a problem for Apple. Jobs was there long enough to leave his mark, and he knew for a while that he was dying. He taught a lot to many people there, including starting the little-talked-about Apple University. Apple now (and for a long time) has been far more than Jobs. I think they'll be a bit different than when Jobs was in control, but those differences are more likely to be positive than negative.
Comment Just the warm-up (Score 4, Funny) 48
Let's admit it: all these smart watches are like MP3 players, pre-iPod: early pioneers, but destined to be forgotten. Once Apple enters the field, the category will take off. You don't have to be an Apple fanboi to see that coming.
Also predictable: Apple's entry will not be cheap, will be criticized for lacking features and openness, but buyers won't care. Samsung will rush a copycat revision of their entry, and the press will laud various "iWatch killers," but they won't be terribly successful.
iPod, IPhone, iPad: we've seen this story before.
Comment Re:How does he (Score 1) 226
Why this would be marked a Troll is puzzling in that it is an absolute fact.
Comment How do you explain slashdot's reaction? (Score 2) 226
Although I realize you are a "physicist," not a "psychologist," it's still one of those "phy" type words. What do you think of Slashdot's (so far) overwhelmingly negative reaction to its editors asking for questions about the SCIENCE of the show for the show's SCIENCE ADVISOR and instead getting comments about the show's characterizations, humor, laugh track, and a fixation on the size of Kaley Cuoco's breasts? As the show's SCIENCE ADVISOR are you in a position to change or influence any of these "transgressions?"
Is this proof that the Geekdom of Slashdot is not capable of paying attention to the question at hand and has completely missed the point, were all forced to play the cello as kids, are letting their pent up emotions get in the way of asking an intelligent question and instead choose to lash out at a show they all watch, or still, after all these years, are incapable of getting laid? Or all of the above?
Comment Re:How does he (Score 1, Troll) 226
Actually, she had them "augmented." She said it was the best thing she has ever done.
Comment Re:JAVA (Score 1) 230
Apache Struts, Tomcat, and elasticsearch (mentioned in the summary) are all written in java.
To me, that indicates a JAVA vulnerability, not a Linux vulnerability.
"Write once, exploit everywhere."
Comment Off-topic apology (Score 1) 54
Jane Q. Public: I just accidentally moderated one of your comments in the Antarctic ice thread as "Redundant," when I meant to click "Insightful." I can't figure out how to undo that, and I don't have an email address for you. Sorry!
Submission + - Stars Exposed in Massive Nude Photo Leak
PapayaSF writes: Nude celebrities, bitcoins, and Apple: it's a story seemingly designed to stir up the entire internet. Scores of private photos of celebrities such as Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Kirsten Dunst, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead have been leaked (allegedly from Apple's iCloud), and posted on 4chan in exchange for bitcoins. A list of 100+ names has appeared, but pictures have not yet appeared for many names on the list (including Kate Bosworth, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, and Kaley Cuoco). Victoria Justice claims the photos of her are fake. Twitter accounts are being shut down. The story is still developing, so grab your popcorn.
Feds Want Nuclear Waste Train, But Don't Know Where It Would Go 258
mdsolar writes with news of a plan to move radioactive waste from nuclear plants. The U.S. government is looking for trains to haul radioactive waste from nuclear power plants to disposal sites. Too bad those trains have nowhere to go. Putting the cart before the horse, the U.S. Department of Energy recently asked companies for ideas on how the government should get the rail cars needed to haul 150-ton casks filled with used, radioactive nuclear fuel. They won't be moving anytime soon. The latest government plans call for having an interim test storage site in 2021 and a long-term geologic depository in 2048. No one knows where those sites will be, but the Obama administration is already thinking about contracts to develop, test and certify the necessary rail equipment.
Why Women Have No Time For Wikipedia 579
Andreas Kolbe writes Wikipedia is well known to have a very large gender imbalance, with survey-based estimates of women contributors ranging from 8.5% to around 16%. This is a more extreme gender imbalance than even that of Reddit, the most male-dominated major social media platform, and it has a palpable effect on Wikipedia content. Moreover, Wikipedia editor survey data indicate that only 1 in 50 respondents is a mother – a good proportion of female contributors are in fact minors, with women in their twenties less likely to contribute to Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation efforts to address this "gender gap" have so far remained fruitless. Wikipedia's demographic pattern stands in marked contrast to female-dominated social media sites like Facebook and Pinterest, where women aged 18 to 34 are particularly strongly represented. It indicates that it isn't lack of time or family commitments that keep women from contributing to Wikipedia – women simply find other sites more attractive. Wikipedia's user interface and its culture of anonymity may be among the factors leading women to spend their online time elsewhere.
