Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:I never have understood (Score 4, Informative) 265

See: The Battle of Bretton Woods. It really is pretty fascinating.

A more useful answer is inertia.

After England's Sterling lost its place as reserve currency for the world, the USA's massive gold reserves (>50% of the world's holdings) let the US peg the Dollar to gold and everyone else pegged their currency to the Dollar (aka the Bretton Woods system).

Of course, (puts on flame suit) because gold standards are actually a terrible idea, the USA's overprinting of cash ended up causing exchange rate imbalances and Europeans started cashing in their dollars for gold.

So Nixon ended the gold standard and inertia + economic strength and maneuvering has kept the Dollar as the global reserve currency for 43 years.

Comment Re:Make it easier to hire people? (Score 3, Interesting) 628

In particular, humans have done the best in countries that have automated the most.

Which countries?
What is their tax rate?
How much socialism (aka social support) is mixed into their social structure?

The "cost of automation" has been declining for centuries, and humans have been doing better and better.

This is a bit of a red herring, in that for centuries, the declining cost of automation mostly served to free up huge amounts agricultural laborers to do other work.

The issue at hand is that now automation is taking over much of the "other work."

Comment Re:Can we stop the embellishment? (Score 3, Interesting) 177

Really? Apparently they quickly took control of almost every one one of Sony's servers and workstations.

Wired mentions (without giving a source) an interview with a self-proclaimed member of GoP who claims Sony's network was infiltrated for a year.

I'm not sure what you consider "quickly," but a year is a long time, even while rooting around in a corporate network as large as Sony's.

Comment Re:Sony security: strong or weak? (Score 5, Informative) 343

I'd be interested in knowing the details of the attack. Was it a "social engineering" attack of some kind (ie. a virus-laden email that someone with high privileges opened)? Was it a vulnerability in their networks? I've heard someone with high level admin privileges had their account hacked, but in what way was it done?

I can't find the story, but if i recall correctly, the short version is that the hackers probed Sony, couldn't get in, then started targeting affiliated companies until they found a remotely exploitable vulnerability.

Once they breached that company's network, they found cached(?) credentials for a top Sony sys admin account and used that to access the US Sony intranet.

They mapped the intranet, spread malware all over the place, exfiltrated ~100TB over the course of a ~year, then changed everyone's screensaver and went nuclear with the wiper attack.

Comment Re:Will Ripple Eclipse Bitcoin? (Score 2) 144

Without knowing why these movements are happening, raw market cap numbers are meaningless.

IIRC, most of the XRP (ripple's currency) are in the hands of the creators.
As a result of this large pool of illiquid XRP, even small market movements can have outsized effects on its price.

Comment Re:Really? The FCC is a "rethuglican" creation? (Score 2) 141

The FCC was formed by the Communications Act of 1934 to replace the radio regulation functions of the Federal Radio Commission.

The FCC exists because 100+ years ago, assclowns with radios were making false distress calls, cursing at people on the airwaves, and faking naval messages.

You could call it the Greater Radio Fuckwad Theory.
/And yes, 100+ years ago, foul language was a legitimate moral issue that the government felt compelled to regulate and punish on the shared airwaves.

Comment Re:10000 feet (Score 1) 177

This is the very bottom of the airspace used by commercial jets so it's not a problem. Below 10,000 feet you have possible uncontrolled aircraft operating VFR without communications equipment to talk to ATC. Above 10,000, you have to have a minimum set of equipment and be talking to ATC.

More importantly, if you RTFA, this spy balloon is being stationed at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, which is already restricted airspace.

The FAA is amending 14 CFR part 73 by creating a new restricted area, designated R-4001C, within a part of existing restricted areas R-4001A and R-4001B at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. R-4001C is a rectangular area, approximately 4.5 nautical miles (NM) by 2 NM in size, that extends from the surface to 10,000 feet MSL. The time of designation for R-4001C is "continuous." Because the moored balloons contained in the area will be airborne 24 hours per day (except for periods when maintenance is required, or the winds exceed 60 knots), R-4001C is not a joint-use restricted area. R-4001A and R-4001B continue to be joint-use areas, meaning that they may be released, in whole or in part, to the FAA controlling agency when the airspace is not needed by the using agency. During times when the airspace is released to the controlling agency, air traffic may be cleared through R-4001A and/or R-4001B. In addition, an editorial change is made to the using agency name for R-4001A and R-4001B by adding "U.S. Army" at the beginning of the agency name for format standardization purposes.

TLDR: The airspace will be marked on aviation charts as restricted airspace for the duration of the balloon's deployment.

Comment Re:This is not the problem (Score 1) 688

This labor reduction by efficiency improvements includes far more than automation; for example, Toyota saved 45 seconds from a 65-second process building seats by using a shorter hose (raises the steam temperature) and installing the bolts in a different order (easier, faster access by the tech, who installs bolts and then steams the seats to drive out volatile manufacture chemicals). Many such optimizations allow the same humans to use the same tools to build the same things, but in 80% of the time overall, or 60%, or 40%; thus you only need half as many humans to build as many things in as much time.

And yet labor isn't getting paid proportionate to their improved productivity.
That is a problem if you want an economy that isn't built on credit card debt.

Comment Re:any of them (Score 1) 175

I'm pretty sure that every printer I've ever owned was three-dimensional.

If it was four-dimensional, would you have been able to notice?

Comment Re:Can you say... (Score 1) 266

But does anyone in the debate consider the possibility that ER visits only represent a very small percentage of the overall costs to the health care system? Does anyone consider the possibility of perhaps just socializing the costs for ER visits--by using taxpayer dollars to implicitly insure the uninsured who use an ER, while leaving the rest of the system alone?

It may be "a very small percentage of the overall costs to the health care system," but it's a large cost to many hospitals.

The best (and cheapest) solution is not to have the government pick up the ER tab, it's to get those frequent fliers into a place where they can (1) regularly see a doctor or specialists, (2) consistently manage their chronic condition(s), and (3) not have to use the ER for basic medical care.

Some hospitals have proactively set up programs to do exactly this.
They were eating the ER cost anyways and it costs them less to pay for normal medical care for those patients.

Comment Re:Scummy (Score 3, Informative) 266

According to the article, the issue is that doctors in many areas are not allowed to prescribe generics directly. They must prescribe the name brand, and a generic may be substituted if it is identical to the name brand. In this case, the name brand would no longer be offered, meaning the generics may no longer be offered.

You might want to re-read TFA.

Most generic drugs are dispensed because state laws allow or require pharmacists to substitute a cheaper generic when a doctor prescribes the brand-name drug. But if the brand-name version is different from the generic, then the substitution cannot be made.

Nothing about not-prescribing generics directly.
That would be ridiculous and insane.

Comment Re:makes no sense (Score 1) 266

How do they insulate themselves from generic competition by stopping sales of their own brand name?

Step 1. Make a slightly new formulation (tweaked molecule, prodrug, extended release)
Step 2. Blanket the information channels with advertising for the NEW BETTER product
Step 3. Drop the price of your original drug to screw with the generic manufacturers ---They preempted this step by ending production entirely
Step 4. Profit because everyone has moved to your NEW BETTER product, which has no competition.

I personally take a XR medication, even though there are cheap generics for the older two-a-day formulation.
If my insurance situation changed for the worse, I'd switch in a heartbeat, even though b.i.d. requires more discipline to take.

Comment Re:Why does this need a sequel? (Score 1) 299

If it isn't based on the "Blade Runner 2" novel, I'll give it a shot. The BR2 novel was one of the worst written messes I've ever seen

Wait till you read Blade Runner 3!
Spoiler Alerts for Blade Runner 2:

Rick Deckard had left his career as a blade runner and the gritty, neon-lit labyrinth of L.A. behind, going to the emigrant colony of Mars to live incognito with Sarah Tyrell. But when a movie about Deckard's life begins shooting, old demons start to surface. The most bizarre and mysterious is a talking briefcase--the voice belonging to Deckard's most feared adversary. The briefcase tells Deckard that he's the key to a replicant revolution back on Earth. Deckard must deliver the briefcase--the secret contents--to the replicants of the outer colonies before he is tracked down and killed. Is the briefcase lying? Who is really after Deckard? And who is the little girl who claims her name is Rachael? Once again Deckard is on the run from a sinister force determined to destroy him--and already closing in.

Comment Re:Or people could, you know, do their damn jobs.. (Score 1) 57

As the article points out, the only reason this was able to work was because one of the upstreams didn't filter announcements correctly. So instead of one provider doing something simple, the "fix" is for the rest of the world to do something complex?

Yes.

If the entire BGP system is reliant on any 1 participant to properly implement security, then you can be assured there will be at least 1 participant who does not properly implement security.

We should assume the entire network is hostile and full of bad actors, then "fix" accordingly.
That's how you build robust networks.

For example: assuming everyone will play nicely is why the NSA got to tap datacenter-to-datacenter x-fers for the major internet companies. Once this came to light, each and every company did something complex, instead of the "simple" solution of the NSA not spying on them.

Comment Re:Here we go again... (Score 1) 1051

As I said above, this does not prove causation but sure as hell does indicate a link.

That's not how science works. Find some peer reviewed research that supports your theories

I really don't get why people are against science when it comes to vaccines. Against it to irrational religious levels.

or admit you are exactly the person that you "really don't get"

Slashdot Top Deals

One man's constant is another man's variable. -- A.J. Perlis

Working...