Also if they find a big flaw, the reason for burning the project, announcing that it exists and what it is, opens it up for exploitation.

Knowing it is there, large enough that it is not fixable within the current state of the code or at least not easily (say without starting from scratch), might make them abandon the project, yet be quiet about the actual details as to why. If they say how it is broken, and expose peoples data to exploitation, are they going to get sued? Likely there is wording that indemnifies them, but that might not keep people from trying. Just defending yourself can cost money. Also I have seen plenty of situations, where people know they are in the right legally, but choose a non-confrontation path, as it is best to avoid it altogether if at all possible, taking the lowest possible risk as they can, and if possible I am pretty sure lawyers would suggest this course of action if it is an option..

It very well could be "code speak" (pardon pun) for; "yes our code is compromised, no we are not allowed to talk about it, end communication".

Then again it could me less complicated than that, and taken at face value they could be saying; "Our code is a mess. Fixing it would take more effort than we are willing to expend for this project so we ended it. You are welcome to try, but we would recommend you just start from scratch as it contains many fundamental problems."

It is too bad, I've always considered it the defacto standard in encryption. I am not a huge fan of the idea of MS being my provider of encryption with bitlocker, though I have heard some good things about it. Then again it isn't exactly free either.

The Slashdot tinfoil hat part of me wants to believe the NSA story, however common sense tells me it is just another open project that was led by a dedicated few with little resources that became too much to maintain over time. That said, they were rather elusive about it in the end, so who knows. Then again that could be a professional record thing, liability, or legal... plausible deniability limiting personal liability sort of thing.

As opposed to eating something else? Would you prefer soul eating spiders?

Heh. Almost spelled it sole, just for the relevant pun. But that would just be wrong.

I was thinking the same thing. There was a slashdot article a few weeks ago asking if we were in another tech bubble, and I was like, nah.....

However now, I am not so sure. This is like the rest of these multi-Billion dollar deals, for companies I have never heard of, and probably like most people on slashdot consider myself pretty savvy insofar as tech news goes...

OK, if you are going to make us drink our own pee, can you NOT base our diet around Asparagus? k thx bye!

Exactly. This has far more to do with "hacking" than probably 90% of the crap that is out there.

People used to dumpster dive corporate headquarters looking for user manuals to pour over looking for vulnerabilities. Trying to understand the system intimately better than anyone else and taking advantage of that using clever hacks.

It is pretty much the definition. However like anything involving "hacking", I would be this story is being blown out of proportion. The kids found a manual, were able to get into an admin mode that let them change some trivial settings, and output some machine statistics, but that was about it, no money, etc... Just sensationalism, probably because they are 14.

A) He was at large for the whole duration of one day before giving up.
B) Canada has more Guns per captia than the US.
C) The long gun registry was scrapped by our current government. Canada does have slightly stricter handgun laws, however exactly zero hand guns were used.
D) This did not involved explosions, or killing 20 children. 3 Police officers died. While tragic, I believe that is called a Tuesday night in some parts of the US.

It *is* a big deal in Canada however. I can only think one one other instance in living memory in Alberta.

The Nintendo and Sony aren't really in the same console market.

Is the real story here, that Microsoft bungled the Xbox One console launch so horribly that it drove users to the PS4, giving them enhanced sales?

Do the results mean that AI is getting smarter, or that Humans are getting dumber?

It is probably a protection thing for transport.

Not really the same but close, you can get certain form factors with the CPU soldered to the MB... All CPU come with a basic HS, and some "goo".

Thought it is an interesting question. It is well known that CPU *REQUIRE* a heat sink, yet I have never seen any integrated into the actual design... perhaps it just doesn't work very well if they have tried it at some level...

Ah. Obviously didn't read the article.

Though I remember people lapping CPU's back in the day, though again that was more to level and ensure a good mating with the HS. Thought I have seen some that got the metal pretty thin as well almost exposing the core.

However the whole conversation is a bit moot. By Intel "targeting" the OC you pretty much eliminate the purpose for doing so in the first place. The whole idea was you take a cheap chip, and OC it to something much better. Now the chips you can OC are more expensive anyway...

One of the two new "features" is basically TIM that doesn't suck so much?

A) The first thing than an OC does is wipe whatever the fsck is on there off.
B) Quality stuff is literally 4$ a tube, and per application is measured in pocket change. Is that significant to the cost of a high end CPU?
C) Many new components like aftermarket HS and water blocks now come with quality TIM, and not just silicone sludge.

"What next, brick all of the XBox 360s so people have to buy an XBone?"

Bob: This guys got upper management written all over him

Also quit giving them evil ideas!

Excel is terrible at this. It wants to *help* and makes all sorts of assumptions. Even when you change to to what it should be, it will change it to something else and be all like "Hey wasn't I helpful for you!". Which can be defeated by some weird workaround you can find on the internet that you can never remember when it inevitably comes up again.

Most database ID keys are stored as text, even though they are literally a "string" of numbers. As are a lot of other unique keys that are used. Excel loves to put that into fantastic scientific notation for you as they are really big numbers and that is what you want right? Or into Long. Or Double. Format. Re-format. Copy values. Smash face against monitor. Set Format. Import. Cry. Search Internets. Eventually figure it out again. Swear. Curse whoever gave you stupid data in the first place... Why are people sending you data in excel in the first place, in such a horrible way? Face Palm.

If someone is having a problem with excel, or with access after importing data, I would guess about 90% of it is excel's messed up formatting/Typing.

That has nothing to do with spreadsheets, and more to do with people not understanding, math, business, or trying to push some agenda using BS statistics.

I reviewed a spreadsheet that statistically *proved* that a project was succeeding excellently. What it actually proved is that the project was a complete failure as it made absolute zero significant difference to actual operations. When I confronted the guy, and said, you know this is a huge lie right, that it is totally misrepresenting the values, he just made excuses, hand gestures and a lot of shrugging motions. It was presented to management and they all loved it. Later when it was brought up by management with me, I told them directly that it was complete bullshit. They don't care. They can show the same BS numbers to their managers, and get kudos. Everyone gets a feel good slap on the back and stuff for the CV.

So I don't know what the percentage might be, but I suspect a lot of *mistakes* have little to do with spreadsheet software, math skills, or even anything other than a collective desire for some decision to be justified.