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Submission + - Google Fiber to Launch in Austin, Texas in December (wsj.com)

retroworks writes: WSJ blog reports on the third city to get fiber-optic high speed internet networks laid down by Google (Kansas City and Provo, UT were the first). The service averages 1 gigabit per second, about 100X the average US household speed, and costs $70-120 per month (depending on television). Google promotes the roll-outs by holding "rallies" in small neighborhoods. Suggested slogan — "Don't be Comcast".

Comment Number of Passwords / Sites Risk (Score 1) 549

"The fact is that the number of passwords you should memorize is pretty small..." ...Says the author. I mostly agree with him but feel that any password is as weak as the weakest internal security of the weakest site you use it on. It drives me nuts when coworkers use a complex password on a news site or to register to leave a comment somewhere. Unless you know all the employees at Slashdot, /. should be the weakest password you use. What, someone's gonna steal your mod points? The use of complex passwords on low risk sites confuses users who, when they forget their passwords, wind up "guessing" important passwords onto weak sites.

Submission + - Facial Recognition At Retailers: How Are They Used To Target Facebook Ads? (adage.com)

retroworks writes: I made a comment a couple of days ago about how specific items I stopped to view at retail stores, without purchasing, showed up in hours on my Facebook ads. One respondent thought it was just coincidence, another told me to take off my tinfoil hat.

However, it was just last December (Bloomberg News) that Facebook and Walmart announced a "voluntary system" to keep identification by retail store camera from being misused. CBS also covered the story last December. http://newyork.cbslocal.com/20... Business Insider covered it earlier, May 2013. http://www.businessinsider.com...

It seems hush hush, but I'm certain I'm getting ads targeted at me solely based on time I spend viewing certain products (Sony video camera, HP Laser printers) at Staples and Best Buy. There are dozens of cameras and dozens of laser printers in the aisle, and I got ads for the specific camera / printer I touched or held in the store. Can we really believe that technology start ups like Facedeals http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/... have not recognized the opportunity to sell the "opportunity" to marketing firms? As we approach the holiday shopping season, how big is this advertising market going to get, and how fast?

Comment Ads On Facebook (Score 2) 122

I walk into Staples to buy something, and then am distracted by the price of an HP laser printer, spend a minute looking it over. I get home and find an ad for the same HP Laser printer on Facebook. Ok, maybe they identified me from the credit card I used and just randomly advertised that? Nope. Because this weekend I walked into a Best Buy and wound up getting curious about a particular Sony movie camera. Left the store without making a purchase. Facebook ad for that specific Sony camera when I got home.

Minority Report is here, and I don't see any AntiPhorm or Digital Haystack / Data Pollution solution. Guy Fawkes Masks or Groucho Marx glasses don't seem realistic. Maybe if people boycott the stores using facial recognition cameras for internet advertising it would blunt the ads, but the tech is still there.

Comment Re:Define "counterfeit" (Score 1) 35

Glad to. Did you read the articles linked behind the Slashdot stories you cite? The only two sources of "disputed" chips in the articles are 1) first use lawsuit chips (parts purchased by OEM 2 from OEM 1, sold as surplus to OEM 3 which lacks licensing agreement with OEM 1), and 2) used harvested chips from military parts.

I witnessed it first hand in 3 Chinese factories, and have previously read and/or commented on the three /. links. None of the articles discounts/contradicts used and harvested chips at the sources. In fact the only one of the three articles to mention the source of chips describes them orienting from a chip harvesting center profiled in Junkyard Planet (2014 Adam Minter).

Back at you, where is the fake chip manufacturing plant? You realize how difficult it replicate Intel chips below the cost of Intel? Check the court cases on chip patent infingement cases (e.g. Qualcomm), and the maker of the chip is always the original chip maker, the suits are over the license and the first use doctrine (Samsung sells 1000 chips to LG, LG uses 800 of them and sells 200 excess to Qualcomm, Samsung sues Qualcomm). Now, for military grade, it is possible and even probable that a foreign government would reverse engineer and copy a restricted chip. But they couldn't likely produce them cheaply at commercial sale. Consumer product chip counterfeiting is something I've never seen and isn't evidenced in your links.

Comment Define "counterfeit" (Score 4, Informative) 35

Most of the accused "counterfeit" chips I've read about aren't "counterfeit" at all. They are used, secondary market, chips harvested from used boards. The "infamous Guiyu" of China e-waste fame is a hub where workers cut out individual microprocessors and chips from boards and repurpose them. The general term in the industry is "gray market"... gray because it's not purely black market, and because of the difficulty in distinguishing what the illegality is when a Chinese factory has substituted a working used part for an OEM part.

Comment Article is about Measurement (Score 1) 232

"Scientists are now armed with the most accurate gravity model ever produced."

Unfortunately "global warming" has become politicized to the extent that it's really hard to follow the science and technology being discussed. For me the original article is about measurement and our ability to detect minute changes in gravity. There is no "global threat" from the ebbs of gravity. But the scientists behind the satellite gravity monitoring probably figured that introducing the findings with "reveals" and relating the tools to "climate" would find a "hook" in the global warming debate. Not dismissing the debate, and this new ability to measure the ebbs and flows of gravity may well tell us something about "global warming". We just don't know what that would be yet, but the tool gets pulled into the shouting match.

Science is like "South Park". Science is not your Political Ally, no matter what you believe. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... South Park

Comment Calls from Credit Cards on "Suspicious Activity" (Score 3, Interesting) 78

Over the years I can think of many times we've received a call from our credit card companies to "report suspicious activity". Sometimes it's annoying (yes, we are travelling, please don't cancel our card) but other times it's saved us thousands of dollars.

I personally cannot think of anyone who has gotten a call from medical establishment to report "suspicious activity" or any other kind of "fraud alert", but perhaps others have? If not, the fact that credit card companies respond to these would make them less profitable activity than defrauding companies that don't alert or respond.

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