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Comment Re:question: does IE support adblock and noscript? (Score 1) 426

No it doesn't which is one reason DHS has issued at least a dozen "do not use Internet Explorer" alerts over the years.

Oddly enough though, employees of DHS can't use any other browser so to make those alerts without following it themselves rings hollow to me. And yes, I used to be a DHS employee. Now I'm with my state. You know, you grow...

Comment Re:Not my job (Score 2) 167

I read that line quite differently. It IS the job the the Chinese citizens to change a situation they don't agree with and this is one tool to help them do that. To say it is solely up to outsiders to change the system of a country without the support of the citizens is forcing your will on those citizens.

Comment Re:Fucking anti-social Millennials (Score 1) 120

Are self-service checkouts surrounded by impulse-buying items in the US?

Yes... At least at the Kroger in my neck of the woods...

And if it takes you a noticeably longer time to go through the self-service checkout than the human cashier, you might just be clueless at technology, which isn't something I'd expect on Slashdot.

It isn't the /. user holding things up it is the granny before him and the twelve other grannies before her. Add to that the one human checkout lane that is backed up around the block because nobody can stand waiting for hours while granny tries to figure out the machine.

Comment Re:Neither (Score 1) 436

Advertising does that without requiring a direct cost from you.

I see this argument a lot and it just doesn't hold water. There is a direct cost to the end user in wasted bandwidth if nothing else. Then there is the social cost of being tracked and worse, drive-by infections.

Besides, I never did see how showing an ad that is never followed through (meaning the product being hawked was sold because of the ad) can be profitable. Which is why I think the advertising based business model is extremely flawed.

Comment Re:Advertised on YouTube? (Score 0) 97

I predict that's the way things will be in the future: "Don't want to see ads? Then, leave. We already provide 'free,' content. We will not provide content for ABSOLUTELY free."

If you have advertising on your site, then your content isn't free and it is false advertising to claim it as such. It simply is being paid by proxy. A more apt statement would be advertising supported.

Comment Re:Institutional hypocrisy (Score 1) 186

For all the whining here, the option they've taken is actually the least intrusive.

And the best response that could be given would be to blackhole everything EU. They want to be forgotten, then let's forget them. Removing all links to everything EU including businesses, government and humanitarian sites would fit the bill. Restrict the crawler preventing new EU stuff from being indexed would solve the problem for the future.

The EU wants to be forgotten, let's see how the EU economy survives that.

Comment Re:a question.... (Score 1) 64

What is the solution? Other than allowing insurance companies to price such considerations into their policies, I don't see one.

You seem to be eliminating the most powerful tool in the box. The insurance should reflect the risk. Another tool is requiring FULL disclosure by realtors trying to sell such a structure. Lastly, build sensibly taking the risk into account. If you are building into a flood zone, require the structure to be elevated above the base flood elevation. If you are building in known hurricane territory, require wind resistant building on top of the elevations. For landslide, require the developer to stabilize the slope BEFORE issuing the building permits for the structure. Had that happened in this case, those buildings wouldn't have been built because the cost to stabilize the hillside would be astronomical pricing the land out of development.

Comment Re:I wonder who is doing the actual posting. (Score 1) 165

There is a far, far easier way assuming the government really wanted to get the individual who did this.

All federal internet traffic goes through Mount Weather, VA in the East (Denton, TX in the west). Every activity done right down to mouse clicks and keyboard keystrokes are recorded with no expectation of "privacy". It is in fact a part of the agreement you sign every time you take the required network security training every year. So finding out who was accessing Wikipedia at the time of the edits becomes extremely easy.

I know this because I have had access to the federal systems for years. It is a job requirement. I do GIS (among other things) and every time I send a map across the federal network I get a call from someone out of Mt. Weather asking what it is and why I am sending it. So yes, they can identify, by user, who is doing what.

Comment Re:Privacy is dead (Score 2, Informative) 175

Better yet, from TFS...

That means there's a good chance we're about to get a look into the ins and outs of Google's advertising backbone: what information is shared with whom, and when.

Google: Judge, we are filing this motion to seal any and all documents for trade secret and proprietary information reasons. To release them would do irreparable harm to our business.

Judge: Granted

Comment Re:a question.... (Score 5, Insightful) 64

No. Deforestation is not the problem. The problem is the entire area is a natural slide area because of the soil type. People encroached on that slide area and expected it to be stable (much the same as they encroach on floodplains and barrier islands and wetlands).

No, what "caused" the loss of life more than anything was people moving into a high risk area.

Comment Re:lawsuit? (Score 1) 35

But purposely didn't tell the most important party in the chain.... The customer that may have been affected! As I stated above, it isn't like the thieves put a metatag on the stolen data saying "this stolen data brought to you by Catch of the Day". So identity theft resulting from this breech wouldn't be connected to them assuming the thieves even get caught.. And by then it is too late.

Customers deserve a right to be informed IMMEDIATELY of breeches in security that may have an effect on them to alert them to watch for suspicious activity or afford them the opportunity to cancel the card before it racks up the outrageous charges.

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