The problems with a closed source blackbox system always show it's face. The string entered into a search bar is only a very small part of your search.

The rest happens by watching your browsing habbits when other sites install tracking code which phones home and keeps a running tab on you. Most of this tracking code by all accounts are trojan horses. Most web developers probably aren't even aware of what they are participating in when they install such things.

If we could see all the information Google uses to find our results, many would probably be appalled. If you wanted a giant Advanced Search page that let you tweak your settings such as age, gender, browing habits, then getting a job at Google as an analyst is probably what you want. Openness and transparency would make the clean and friendly homepage at Google look a lot uglier and intimidating to the end users.

We need to liberate search through open source. However, the framers of such must be careful to not create some monster like Bitcoin that allows all to see all transactions. I sometimes wonder where coders with no "feel" for security earn their wings. /endrant

and just like the X-files, the FBI agent is being jerked around and his progress closely followed.

It will be a good headline whenever the the inevitable celebrity love-child finds his or her father through this tool.

This made me wonder why this or similar voltage boosters aren't simply used in the circuitry of the devices that they are powering .. which it sounds like some already are.

I think most large companies just voluntarily quit putting these into things. I used to use a few products that used them which eventually disappeared from the shelves. I even remember the big name corporations that own the subsidiaries that make up most of the market in these sectors announcing the voluntary phase out. So is this new law even necessary?

I was about to say that he should tell his story on reddit so that they'll give him some money.

From what I have observed of Slashdot, everyone here made their lives for themselves with no help from anyone while working 40 hours a week going through University and then onto a graduate program. Not sure what this guys gripe is because he gave his mom a little money.

So this summary doesn't even go into which Microsoft product is vulnerable, and how these vulnerabilities could be potentially exploited. This level journalism is what causes people to say that Windows NT left a ship marooned.

For transparency doesn't give us the courage to find these hidden treasures which have been bestowed upon us.
 
May we be forever grateful and humbled by our overlords.

This is why bloggers aren't taken seriously in the journalism world.

The problem is that they are still taken seriously by the masses.

If you're running a CRM at your work and use Asterisk to send a text message or email to a link to that customers information. Works great in the field. Not a new or novel idea.

This is where cross examination can be your best friend.

I'd like to see a completely open search engine that allowed people to download the search indexes freely so that they may create their own in-house appliances for search without the need for going through some proprietary site that may or may not be available in the next ten years or even months.

A site that promises to deliver you your privacy is not enough, because they could really be doing anything. Google promised us our privacy, and changed and deleted their old privacy policies even though they said that they'd always keep all copies of a privacy policy on archive. They went back on the word "never" and have continued to discontinue online services that people have become accustomed to with little to no notice.

A reasonably sized search index that is extensible based on what one is searching for would be great. Localizing URL suggestions, wikipedia caches, and other toolbar-suggestion searches in a networked work environment would all have benefits; the applications are almost endless. Freeing the shackles of search from a few could do so much for innovation, privacy, and security.

IT Systems Administrators have been officiating weddings ever since the creation of the Universal Life Church some years ago.

People that can't be found via their last known address, found by the police, or at a workplace are normally hiding from the law, and can be, with permission from the court, served by things such as notice in the newspaper several times. If they can't be found through friends, relatives, employers, etc, similar tactics have been used in similar cases.

I'm a firefighter, we already have infrared heads up displays. If the smoke is that thick, some windows are going to have to be broken or a hole cut in the roof so that the room can be ventilated. This adds oxygen to the fire, but it allows us to see the fire so that you can put it out. If the room is really really hot, then people don't need to be in there; and at that point you are probably only rescuing a body. Early detection and fast response are a key to controlling a fire.