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Comment Re:It's a government contract job. (Score 1) 288

With respect, the state can go straight to hell. Spent fuel storage is a national emergency, not a political issue.

Than the nation should pay for it. Every affected state should bid for storage in the Yucca mountain repository, and if it reaches a reserve set by Nevada, they can use it. All proceeds go to Nevadians, after expenses. If no one is willing to pay what Nevada is asking, then no one is allowed to store their shit in Nevada.

What you are proposing is that the Government can step right it, declare your backyard a nuclear waste repo and all their industry lobyist can dump toxic shit there because it's "a national emergency". As a staunch nuclear proponent, you can go straight to hell.

Comment Wrong (Score 4, Insightful) 235

There is no such thing as a "black market value" of a security vulnerability. Both the demand and supply have curves. I.E there are security researchers who would demand say 1 million bucks before selling the bug to the CIA (because they view that action as unethical, illegal and risky careerwise) while they would gladly accept 10.000$ in a responsible disclosure offer. Other color hats would go to the highest bidder. Similarly, there are large transaction costs and information asymmetries, it's not necessarily true that the demand and supply meet or that they can trust each other. A spy agency might rather develop in house (at a much larger cost) then shop around and rise suspicion.

In short, offering a non-trivial sum of money will always increase the costs of the average attacker and might completely shut off the low impact attacks like spam zombification, email harvesting etc., the developers of which can't invest millions in an exploit but would gladly use the free zero day+exploit just made public.

Comment Regulate last mile (Score 1) 223

The free market will yield low competition because providing the service is a strong technical monopoly, similar to electricity, gas and water. The author proposes we treat Internet like a basic utility but this is a bad idea: the municipal internet pipe will soon become outdated, the city council will reject any improvements because "it works good enough for most citizens", a private alternative will emerge and we are back at square one.

Instead of treating internet like a utility, the preferred solution in Europe is to create a public corporation that digs the trenches and channels where fiber and equipment are placed, with equal access for all competing providers. Since the technology evolves quickly, a nimble private investor is much more efficient in upgrading the network and maintaining a competitive speed. The low tech, highly expensive trench or pole can be amortized over a few decades with a flat fee that ISPs can pass on to consumers. It works.

The issue is not choosing between the market and the state, rather we should correct market failures with keyhole solutions that restore competition without creating bureaucratic and governmental behemoths. Municipal internet is probably better than what you have now, but is still an inferior solution.

Comment Re:name? (Score 1) 62

Cheap, effective, but maybe incorrect. Seems more like a bullshit proposal from a politician spewing buzzwords he can't understand:

We will found the Alan Turing Institute to ensure Britain leads the way again in the use of big data and algorithm research.
"I am determined that our country is going to out-compete, out-smart and out-do the rest of the world."

The government said that big data "can allow businesses to enhance their manufacturing processes, target their marketing better, and provide more efficient services".

Let's hope some good research can come of this, it's not like basic science research is included in the budget of any corporation. Of course, it's unlikely that any of it will directly help UK, with maybe the sole exception of keeping talented researchers in the country.

Comment Re:That's capitalism. (Score 1, Troll) 710

I'm a guy and after reading her story I would feel the same if I were in her shoes. This is not a gender problem, this is a people problem.

You would fave picked a fight with the husband of your female boss then quit you job in a hissy fit citing "a sexist culture" ? A people's problem indeed.

I wonder, can we legally go full throttle on this "borz culture" for a tech firm ? It has been proven, time and time again, that despite major effort by the companies to accommodate females they still make up no more than 10% of some firms (most gaming companies for example), and they are still rejected/discriminated/unable to fit in/whatever.

It stands to reason that a firm who openly promotes a male culture, without actively discriminating against females, would be far more productive and retain the best male talent. Unisex lavatory. Alcoholic beverages allowed and provided. Unlimited fastfood allowances. An in-house Bunny Ranch (legal for a Nevada campus). No bullshit anti-discrimination training and assorted brainwashing. Crash couches where you can chill or sleepover if you don't feel like going home. Generous basements for those of us who can't stand direct sunlight anymore. We hire females but they never stay more than a few days, with the exception of the Bunny Ranch of course. Man, I'm excited only typing this, where do I send my CV ?

Comment Non sequitur (Score 5, Insightful) 381

It's so absurd that Google is still presenting itself as the lovable geek who's the friend of the young everyman. Don't kid yourself, kids: Google is the establishment. It is a multibillion-dollar information portal that makes dough off of every click on its page and every data byte it streams. Do you really think Google gives a s**t about free speech or your inalienable right to access unfettered content? Nope. You're just another revenue resource

That may all be true, but that does not change the fact that Sutter is also part of the establishment and also looking at viewers as a revenue stream. Google vs Hollywood are two bears fighting over a beehive, and we are the bees. Pick your side carefully, when the fight is over someone eats the honey and it's not you or me.

Comment Does not make sense (Score 4, Interesting) 58

criminalize exports of non-shredded displays, cell phones, and computers

I don't see how this makes sense. Shouldn't they criminalize export of waste (ex.shredded electronics) and allow the export of usable office equipment, Pentium 4 computers and first generation flat panels ? That stuff has a high chance of being reused in Africa, it's market value is much above the lead and tin they contain. Reuse is the best form of recycling: a poor family gets a perfectly usable, 4-5 year old computer at 50$, and no waste is generated. My first computer was a second hand unit imported in Eastern Europe from the West. It cost $90, a month of income for my family, I used it for 5 years and it was the best purchase I have ever made in terms of ROI. I am now a software engineer earning a internationally competitive paycheck.

What they are doing is destroying usable electronics and exporting THE JUNK. This must be lobbied by the IT industry, it has nothing to do with environmentalism.

Sure, the second hand computers will eventually end up in the Lagos dump. But so would new ones, after a few more years. So you either deny computers to Africans or you fix the waste management problem. Banning export of USABLE hardware will improve waste problem but massively impact the growth of the African economies, which in turns generates all the other symptoms: bad public finances and public education, corruption, and no environmental policy.

GUI

Microsoft Ignores Usability With All-Caps Menu in Visual Studio 415

mikejuk writes "The recent release of Visual Studio 2012 contained a UI element that few believed could make it into the final version — ALL-CAPS menus. After lots of user criticism and disbelief, Microsoft has moved swiftly to do something about it — by tweaking the typography. '... we explored designs with and without uppercase styling. In the end we determined it to be a very effective way of providing structure and emphasis to the top menu area in Visual Studio 2012.' This must be a new meaning of the word 'structure,' because putting the menu items into all-caps means that they are all the same height. When each menu items starts with a cap then there is structure because you can see the change in height, marking the start of the next menu item. The idea that putting a menu into all caps adds structure is something that is very difficult to see. If you wanted to put structure into a menu, well how about color? Oh wait, I forgot the design department dumped color in favour of the 'everything-is-grey UI.' Developers are the people who invented CamelCase to make sure that the structure of run together words would stand out better — and now we are asked to believe that making a menu all-caps adds structure. I don't think so."

Comment Re:Really? (Score 3, Insightful) 1359

Stupid people voting beats stupid people in tyrannical control any day!

That's a pragmatical and defeatist argument, you are saying that although morons indeed "ruin it for us" in an ideal sense, there's no practical way to reach that ideal. Any practical method to restrict the vote of the morons would come back against "us", so this is the best of all possible realities.

Even accepting that argument as is, I still believe there's some leeway here for smart people: educate the morons by force, ridicule their belifes on every occasion, don't just sit back and take their crap in the name of religious tolerance.

Comment Re:Really? (Score 1) 1359

Life being older than 10.000 years is not a religious issue. If I'd take offense with the people who believe in "guided evolution", then yes, that would be a religious issue.

On the other hand, if you can't grasp the basics fact that underpin biology, geography and human history (to name but a few...), then you are a blithering idiot no mater if you claim to be christian, muslim or atheist.

Comment Re:Nokia still holds the patents (Score 3, Funny) 83

The new design, being really similar to the old one, also means that Nokia holds the patents for it already.

Here's a radical idea: keep the same electrical interface with the old SIM, arrange the contact pads in a way that makes sense, and simply shrink it in size [patent pending].

Why we are unable to make the most trivial technical advances without the whole thing degenerating in a intellectual property shit throwing contest ? Does anybody still believe this state of affairs promotes the Progress of Science and useful Arts ?

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