Comment Re:Novelty is overrated (Score 1) 55
And yet Seth MacFarlane's life and work seem to confirm it.
Comment Re:It depends... (Score 1) 585
I don't know
Comment Drunken Sex Party Photos (Score 1) 139
I think you'll find that when it comes to Drunken Sex Party Photos, most of us who are going out of our way to look at them really don't care whether or not they have been edited.
Comment Interesting. (Score 1) 145
Even though the "conventional wisdom" is that the science of programming has entirely changed to consider security issues from end to end, in reality this does not appear to be the case at all.
I think this is a very interesting and valuable insight. The people doing the talking have completely sold everyone on a vision in which the coder keeps security in mind from the get-go, but the people doing the, uh
Is it that programmers in general simply believe that buyers are unreasonably paranoid? Or is it that planning for security throughout the process is too costly and time-consuming?
Comment I can only imagine... (Score 2, Insightful) 213
ME: Can you help me out here? I scraped a concrete barrier while trying to park my car.
REPAIR SHOP: Sure we can. That will be seven thousand dollars.
Comment Re:Easy (Score 1, Informative) 470
talented-musician/artist
Girls don't like poor guys.
Comment Re:I blame Boomers. (Score 1) 1343
I see what you mean. I cut out a bunch of text there and it shows. What I mean is that boomers looked at themselves as victims of "the system" and that attitude lasted long after they became "the system.
Comment I blame Boomers. (Score 3, Insightful) 1343
Boomers took a look at the structure of their culture, found it lacking, and abandoned all of it. They did not like Dick and Jane, and so instead of improving upon it, they threw it out, and Chaucer along with it. It remains probably the 2nd worst case of "throwing the baby out with the bath water" in civilized history, the first being the French Revolution.
Anything not meeting an immediate earthy need was discarded. It began with "what the hell do I need with Brahms? Brahms isn't going to get me laid." Before long it became "what the hell do I need with religion? Religion doesn't dazzle me like LSD does." Finally it settled into "what the hell do I need with regulation and social betterment? There's money to be made."
How can there be any wonder that our parents' and bosses' generation is so insufferably self-centered? I find it pertinent that we talk about this within a week of J.D. Salinger's death, as his Holden Caulfield can be very illustrative in teaching us about the kind of dysfunctional, disenfranchised individual who currently runs our world. As far as the Boomers are concerned, they have defined the culture through their rebellion, and discouraged us from absorbing the kinds of things that gave context to our surroundings. We had to find them on our own. The newest generation entering college now is so detached from context that they seem to be aliens in their own world. They are idiots of course, but I don't hold them to account for it. Their entire world has been scrubbed of context.
I'm in Generation X, and I don't pretend that we did everything right either. We made mistakes, like fetishizing exclusivity, and needlessly feeding the rage of others. Yet at the end of our troubled youth, we sat down, and we wrote about it, as a way of hoping to establish some kind of context. I am slightly comforted in knowing that the next generation, if they hope to understand us any better, will at least be able to read something by Dave Eggers or the like. What worries me is that the coming generation will not read any of it, because they are not interested, and will not leave anything of their own for posterity either.
Comment Re:And this is how we die (Score 1) 1343
There must be some place in the world that welcomes those Americans who manage to not be complete morons.
Having just returned from abroad I can confidently say that the answer is "Er, sorry, no." Even if you have good grades and a valuable skill, there's still a possibility that you find your background as a dog walker grants you a dismissive understanding of evolutionary theory that exceeds that of biology PhDs, or that you will fight to the death for the human rights of a blastocyst. You're not worth the risk.
Submission + - MP3 Pioneers Launch New Music File Format (bbc.co.uk)
krou writes: Norwegian developer Dagfinn Bach, who worked on the first MP3 player in 1993, has unveiled a new music file format called MusicDNA, which can 'include things like lyrics, videos, artwork and blog posts, which will continually be updated, as well as the music.' The new file format has a number of investors, including German researcher Karlheinz Brandenburg, who invented the MP3. Labels Beggars Group and Tommy Boy have both signed on to use MusicDNA. Bach said: "We can deliver a file that is extremely searchable and can carry up to 32GB of extra information in the file itself. And it will be dynamically updatable so that every time the user is connected, his file will be updated." Brandenburg also added that he thought this was "one very nice way" of enriching legal music with extras for customers to enjoy.
Submission + - Old virus returns as new malware (techworld.com)
rifles only writes: Pranksters have re-used the code from the 1995 One-half virus to create a new virus, 'Zimuse', that infects and destroys the MBR section of hard and USB drives. Spreading across the world in small but destructive volumes, researchers think Zimuse was originally a targetted attack on a Slovakian off-road motorcycling club. What did they do to deserve this?
Submission + - NY to Allow DNA Investigations of Family Members 1
Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times reports that under a rule approved by the state of New York in December, DNA found at a crime scene that does not exactly match that of someone in the state’s DNA database can still be used to pursue suspects if the DNA closely resembles that of someone else on file. Since family members share genetic traits, a partial DNA match allows investigators to narrow searches to relatives of people whose DNA is already in the state database, forensic experts say. “You could have a horrific crime — a serial rapist or killer — and you could have a clue in a lab that could identify the killer or rapist that we’re currently not allowed to use,” says Denise E. O’Donnell, New York’s deputy secretary for public safety and chairwoman of the Commission on Forensic Science. The commission’s approval came despite arguments from the New York Civil Liberties Union that the rule should have been put before the State Legislature. “It’s quite clear that the commission is adopting a fundamental change in law enforcement,” says Robert Perry, legislative director of the civil liberties union. “By definition, the commission has relaxed the standard of precision regarding the use of DNA evidence.” Mitch Morrissey, the Denver district attorney, says fears of privacy violations were overblown. “It’s counterintuitive for me to go knocking on people’s doors and tip off a serial rapist or a murderer to leave town,” says Morrissey. “The last thing you want to do is alert their families that the police are looking for them.”"
Submission + - SPAM: Data breach costs top $200 per customer record
alphadogg writes: The cost of a data breach increased last year to $204 per compromised customer record, according to the Ponemon Institute's annual study. The average total cost of a data breach rose from $6.65 million in 2008 to $6.75 million in 2009. Ponemon Institute based its estimates on data from 45 companies that publicly acknowledged a breach of sensitive customer data last year and were willing to discuss it. Ponemon Institute based its estimates on data from 45 companies that publicly acknowledged a breach of sensitive customer data last year and were willing to discuss it. In tallying the cost of a data breach, Ponemon Institute looks at several factors including: the cost of lost business because of an incident; legal fees; disclosure expenses related to customer contact and public response; consulting help; and remediation expenses such as technology and training.
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Submission + - China rejects claims of Internet hacking attacks (cytalk.com)
Dovecara writes: The Chinese government denied involvement in Internet attacks and defended its online censorship Monday after the United States urged Beijing to investigate complaints of cyber intrusions in a dispute that has added tension to bilateral relations.
China’s policy against Internet hacking attacks is transparent and consistent, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said, nearly two weeks after search giant Google Inc. threatened to pull out of the country after finding that the e-mails of activists had been pried into.
“Any accusation that the Chinese government participated in cyber attacks, either in an explicit or indirect way, is groundless and aims to discredit China,” an unidentified ministry spokesman said.
China’s policy against Internet hacking attacks is transparent and consistent, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said, nearly two weeks after search giant Google Inc. threatened to pull out of the country after finding that the e-mails of activists had been pried into.
“Any accusation that the Chinese government participated in cyber attacks, either in an explicit or indirect way, is groundless and aims to discredit China,” an unidentified ministry spokesman said.
Bell Labs Says Networks Can Be 1000 Times More Energy Efficient 156
judgecorp writes "Bell Labs believes that data networks can be more efficient and has launched a consortium which aims to develop technology that uses only a thousandth of current network energy requirements by 2015. The Green Touch initiative is going to focus in particular on wireless, seeking to reduce wasted energy in signal broadcasts. Cynics might say Alcatel-Lucent is using its research division to distract attention from its troubles — the Financial Times described it as 'a poster child for much that is wrong in the telecoms equipment industry' — but Bell Labs still commands respect and support, and the goal it has set is an interesting one."
