Comment Re:Marketing? (Score 1) 239
But actually, no. The president will not order, or sanction, the killing of the douchebags who hacked Sony.
Nudge, nudge, wink, wink... know what I mean, know what I mean.
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Comment Re:Established science CANNOT BE QUESTIONED! (Score 1) 719
This is actually a standard tactic to belittle your opponent in a debate. It is called an ad hominem attack. When someone argues in this fashion - they have actually lost the debate!
QED: Climate change is false
Comment Re:Damn (Score 1) 66
Its human hacking. Pretty soon we could be literally hooking two people's nervous systems up to each other. I can't imagine why, but I bet it happens.
For the kaiju, obviously...
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Comment Re:What? (Score 1) 440
If he's an undocumented democrat, why don't they just deport him instead of going through all of this?
Fixed that for you.
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Why Elon Musk's Batteries Frighten Electric Companies 461
JoeyRox writes: The publicized goal of Tesla's "gigafactory" is to make electric cars more affordable. However, that benefit may soon be eclipsed by the gigafactory's impact on roof-top solar power storage costs, putting the business model of utilities in peril. "The mortal threat that ever cheaper on-site renewables pose" comes from systems that include storage, said physicist Amory Lovins. "That is an unregulated product you can buy at Home Depot that leaves the old business model with no place to hide."
Submission + - Comcast Forgets To Delete Revealing Note From Blog Post
An anonymous reader writes: Earlier today, Comcast published a blog post to criticize the newly announced coalition opposing its merger with Time Warner Cable and to cheer about the FCC’s decision to restart the “shot clock” on that deal. But someone at Kabletown is probably getting a stern talking-to right now, after an accidental nugget of honesty made its way into that post. Comcast posted to their corporate blog today about the merger review process, reminding everyone why they think it will be so awesome and pointing to the pro-merger comments that have come in to the FCC. But they also left something else in. Near the end, the blog post reads, “Comcast and Time Warner Cable do not currently compete for customers anywhere in America. That means that if the proposed transaction goes through, consumers will not lose a choice of cable companies. Consumers will not lose a choice of broadband providers. And not a single market will see a reduction in competition. Those are simply the facts.” The first version of the blog post, which was also sent out in an e-mail blast, then continues: “We are still working with a vendor to analyze the FCC spreadsheet but in case it shows that there are any consumers in census blocks that may lose a broadband choice, want to make sure these sentences are more nuanced.” After that strange little note, the blog post carries on in praise of competition, saying, “There is a reason we want to provide our customers with better service, faster speeds, and a diverse choice of programming: we don’t want to lose them.”
Comment Re:Well, let's face it ... (Score 1) 390
gstoddart said:
But let's not for a minute pretend this is being done for any reason besides the zillions of dollars Disney expects to wring from this franchise.
I understand your point, but why would anyone think that Disney is doing this for any other reason than the profit? Seriously, no studio is going to make a movie like this for the fan service - especially as a 'loss leader'.
Indie studios may do a movie for the art, but it's obvious that Disney paid ~$4.1B US for a property they think will make them money back in excess of the purchase price.
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Submission + - What Does The NSA Think Of Cryptographers? (i-programmer.info)
mikejuk writes: A recently declassified NSA house magazine, CryptoLog, reveals some interesting attitudes between the redactions. What is the NSA take on cryptography?
The article of interest is a report of a trip to the 1992 EuroCrypt conference by an NSA cryptographer whose name is redacted.We all get a little bored having to sit though presentations that are off topic, boring or even down right silly but we generally don't write our opinions down. In this case the criticisms are cutting and they reveal a lot about the attitude of the NSA cryptographers. You need to keep in mind as you read that this is intended for the NSA crypto community and as such the writer would have felt at home with what was being written.
Take for example:
Three of the last four sessions were of no value whatever, and indeed there was almost nothing at Eurocrypt to interest us (this is good news!). The scholarship was actually extremely good; it’s just that the directions which external cryptologic researchers have taken are remarkably far from our own lines of interest.
It seems that back in 1992 academic cryptographers were working on things that the NSA didn't consider of any importance. Could things be the same now?
The gulf between the two camps couldn't be better expressed than:
The conference again offered an interesting view into the thought processes of the world’s leading “cryptologists.” It is indeed remarkable how far the Agency has strayed from the True Path.
The ironic comment is clearly suggesting that the NSA is on the "true path" whatever that might be.
Clearly the gap between the NSA and the academic crypto community is probably as wide today with the different approaches to the problem being driven by what each wants to achieve. It is worth reading the rest of the article.
The article of interest is a report of a trip to the 1992 EuroCrypt conference by an NSA cryptographer whose name is redacted.We all get a little bored having to sit though presentations that are off topic, boring or even down right silly but we generally don't write our opinions down. In this case the criticisms are cutting and they reveal a lot about the attitude of the NSA cryptographers. You need to keep in mind as you read that this is intended for the NSA crypto community and as such the writer would have felt at home with what was being written.
Take for example:
Three of the last four sessions were of no value whatever, and indeed there was almost nothing at Eurocrypt to interest us (this is good news!). The scholarship was actually extremely good; it’s just that the directions which external cryptologic researchers have taken are remarkably far from our own lines of interest.
It seems that back in 1992 academic cryptographers were working on things that the NSA didn't consider of any importance. Could things be the same now?
The gulf between the two camps couldn't be better expressed than:
The conference again offered an interesting view into the thought processes of the world’s leading “cryptologists.” It is indeed remarkable how far the Agency has strayed from the True Path.
The ironic comment is clearly suggesting that the NSA is on the "true path" whatever that might be.
Clearly the gap between the NSA and the academic crypto community is probably as wide today with the different approaches to the problem being driven by what each wants to achieve. It is worth reading the rest of the article.
Comment Thank ${DEITY}... (Score 1) 197
I thought this might be another Haselton story.
Comment Re:Dumb idea ... Lots of assumptions .... (Score 1) 698
You can go to any gun show and pick up a crate full of Mosin Nagant pistols for as cheap as 20 bucks each, No background check.
Rubbish...
First of all, a Mosin-Nagant is a bolt action rifle introduced in 1891 in Russia. There is a Nagant revolver, but you aren't going to get one of those for $20/ea. And you certainly won't find 'cases' of them.
Second, if you buy from a FFL dealer, you *will* get a NICS background check, even at a 'gun show'. You might find a private individual who will sell you that case for $20/ea, but that is unlikely.
m
Comment Re:Getting shot down =/= crashing... (Score 1) 236
Crashing is when there is an aircraft fault or the pilot runs out of altitude. KAL 007 was shot down by an agressor.
Comment Getting shot down =/= crashing... (Score 2) 236
Seriously, when did it become OK to revise history that getting shot down by an Russian Su-15 with a Kaliningrad missile is now a crash?
Comment Re:What the Hell (pun intended) (Score 1) 29
All I can say is that Weo is one of the smartest guys I know (his wife is no slouch either!)
He has been involved in Laser related research since I met both of them back in the 1980s. He also has some note from ham radio world where he and N6KL wrote something called ARESDATA that provided a real time database available on packet radio.
Submission + - Details of iOS and Android Device Encryption
swillden writes: There's been a lot of discussion of what, exactly, is meant by the Apple announcement about iOS8 device encryption, and the subsequent announcement by Google that Android L will enable encryption by default. Two security researchers tackled these questions in blog posts:
Matthew Green tackled iOS encryption, concluding that at bottom the change really boils down to applying the existing iOS encryption methods to more data. He also reviews the iOS approach, which uses Apple's "Secure Enclave" chip as the basis for the encryption and guesses at how it is that Apple can say it's unable to decrypt the devices. He concludes, with some clarification from a commenter, that Apple really can't (unless you use a weak password which can be brute-forced, and even then it's hard).
Nikolay Elenkov looks into the preview release of Android "L". He finds that not only has Google turned encryption on by default, but appears to have incorporated hardware-based security as well, to make it impossible (or at least much more difficult) to perform brute force password searches off-device.
Matthew Green tackled iOS encryption, concluding that at bottom the change really boils down to applying the existing iOS encryption methods to more data. He also reviews the iOS approach, which uses Apple's "Secure Enclave" chip as the basis for the encryption and guesses at how it is that Apple can say it's unable to decrypt the devices. He concludes, with some clarification from a commenter, that Apple really can't (unless you use a weak password which can be brute-forced, and even then it's hard).
Nikolay Elenkov looks into the preview release of Android "L". He finds that not only has Google turned encryption on by default, but appears to have incorporated hardware-based security as well, to make it impossible (or at least much more difficult) to perform brute force password searches off-device.
Comment Re:Walmart (Score 1) 651
ThatsNotPudding typed: I saw my first gun-packing meathead in Walmart last week end (why, he was White - how did you guess?). I was very tempted to go up to him and ask
Or you could mind your own business and shut your piehole. Don't want a gun? Don't buy one. If you feel the need to project your own feelings of inadequacy ("What are you so scared of, that you have to carry a gun in public?"), think calming thoughts and repeat to yourself: My feelings are my own, I know nothing about that other guy. I should take up knitting.
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