Comment Re:fud (Score 1) 499
This is why I now use an add-in that disables all flash unless and until I activate it. Along with ghostery, DoNotTrackMe, adblock plus....
Comment Re:Larry on the NSA Spying (Score 1) 692
More to the point, Larry thinks the NSA program of collecting everything is "excellent" and "necessary".
Of course! You can't do big data with out Oracle DB!
Submission + - "Trusted" computing to contain key logger? 2 question at end.
charliemerritt writes: As I hear more about "Mystery Meat" trusted computing being installed, undocumented, no schematics, CLOSED everything — well I do not come close to trusting a software OFF switch. There are not enough Open Source Paranoids to get Open Everything Motherboards, I guess at least not at a price most of us can afford. With all the stories about the NSA running a parallel fibre system leading to Ft George Mead, or Utah — with all major carriers corrupted with FISA "say nothing" orders... HOW could I trust a "Trusted" computer. What do they snoop? Where is it sent? Where is that forwarded? — Well that last question I know, "To contact the NSA, just pick up the phone and start talking". Can "Wire Shark" (and friends) block, or flag trusted computing information?
Good Grief, I built an Altair 8800 — in those days peripheral boards came as "you solder the chips in and save $50" and a template driver was included, so that you could write your own, better one. These drivers were super well documented with references to test points on the board. Yes clock speeds were around 1-2 MegHz, with "wait states" included for stability — technology has passed out of the garage.
Mother COBOL (Grace Hopper) handed out Nano Seconds (one foot strings) at the start of a speech. Nano Second = Clock Speed of 1 GigHz. A 2 Gig Mobo has two clock ticks alive at one time — not to mention distance between pins — FAR beyond a guy/gal with a soldering iron, hemostat and jeweller's loop. So we must TRUST the magicians and their 4 layer Mobos. — HOW do we do that?
A key logger would be pure simplicity,
I hear about NSA Ordering (via FISA) the
keys, seeds, salt, and keystrokes of clients.
(Oh BTW, key loggers in anything you import or build)
Keystrokes should never go further than your box, damn it!
Can we form a TRUSTED COMPUTER (from a customer POV) certification .org?
Can we get a software suite that monitors our modem connection automatically, with alerts? ...cm
Good Grief, I built an Altair 8800 — in those days peripheral boards came as "you solder the chips in and save $50" and a template driver was included, so that you could write your own, better one. These drivers were super well documented with references to test points on the board. Yes clock speeds were around 1-2 MegHz, with "wait states" included for stability — technology has passed out of the garage.
Mother COBOL (Grace Hopper) handed out Nano Seconds (one foot strings) at the start of a speech. Nano Second = Clock Speed of 1 GigHz. A 2 Gig Mobo has two clock ticks alive at one time — not to mention distance between pins — FAR beyond a guy/gal with a soldering iron, hemostat and jeweller's loop. So we must TRUST the magicians and their 4 layer Mobos. — HOW do we do that?
A key logger would be pure simplicity,
I hear about NSA Ordering (via FISA) the
keys, seeds, salt, and keystrokes of clients.
(Oh BTW, key loggers in anything you import or build)
Keystrokes should never go further than your box, damn it!
Can we form a TRUSTED COMPUTER (from a customer POV) certification
Can we get a software suite that monitors our modem connection automatically, with alerts?
Comment Re:wireless basic needs (Score 1) 115
Agreed! We want to do everything without getting off of our butts, then complain that we're too fat.
Submission + - Feds demand user passwords (cnet.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Following the /. story on the Feds demanding the SSL keys, now the feds are demanding the user passwords, and in some cases, the encryption algorithm and salt
If the government is able to determine a person's password, which is typically stored in encrypted form, the credential could be used to log in to an account to peruse confidential correspondence or even impersonate the user. Obtaining it also would aid in deciphering encrypted devices in situations where passwords are reused.
...
Some of the government orders demand not only a user's password but also the encryption algorithm and the so-called salt, according to a person familiar with the requests. A salt is a random string of letters or numbers used to make it more difficult to reverse the encryption process and determine the original password. Other orders demand the secret question codes often associated with user accounts.
I'm next expecting to see the regulation or law demanding that all users use plain text for all web transactions, to catch terrorists and for the children
Comment Re:Valid Reasons (Score 1) 356
I think you misunderstand what 501(c)(3)'s are, and how they compare to for-profit corps.Having headed a (c)(3), (c)(4), and for profit companies, maybe I can help.
A not for profit, (any of the (c)'s, they all just exist for differing purposes), is supposed to lose (or more properly use) money for certain purposes for which it is formed. If I form the "Red Wiggler Defense League" to educate people about how modern land use is wiping out that worm, I can incorporate as a (c)(3) educational org and accept donations to fund that effort. I can pay my self a salary as a worker for the org, create worm shaped gimmicks to sell as fund raisers, and even make a profit on them, enough to fund the whole organization, BUT I must put that profit back into the organization and not give it to other people of for profit corps. I can donate some it to the "Earthworm Defense Fund", another (c)(3), or form a (c)(4) that's related and fund it with some of the money, to lobby for changes in the law. I can also abuse the money by giving myself a $250,000 salary, use of an organizationally owned car and home, etc, but you usually only get away with that if you're United Way or the like.
As a (c)(3), my profits are not taxed, because they are all flowing back into my charity work, and not for making me rich. Because I'm a (c)(3), you get to deduct any donations you make to me from your net income for income tax purposes. It's treated just like you didn't make 'X' amount when you file.
As a corporation, all my profits are taxed, but that should not be confused with income. If I spend $600K a year paying for programmers to make my software better, that money is deducted from the income I make to figure my profits. If my company spent 10 million to make 100K, I only got taxed on 100K. I can take that 100K and (after paying corporate taxes on it) return it to investors, buy a competitor, whatever I want. Of course, the Investors will also be taxed on any money they receive from the corp, hence the double taxation of corporate profits.
As a corporation, I can't take donations from others to help make my software better without counting that as income, and possibly adding tax liability to it. As a (c)(3), I can. That's really just about the only advantage of doing my development as a (c)(3) or some other (c) code.
Submission + - 3 Habitable Super-Earths Found Orbiting Nearby Star (discovery.com) 1
astroengine writes: Gliese 667C is a well-studied star lying only 22 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Scorpius, but it appears to have been hiding a pretty significant secret. The star has at least six exoplanets in orbit, three of which orbit within the star’s “habitable zone” — the region surrounding a star that’s not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to exist on their surfaces. Astronomers already knew that Gliese 667C had three worlds in orbit, one in the star’s habitable zone, but the finding of three more exoplanets, two of which are also in the habitable zone is a huge discovery. Finding one small planet in a star’s habitable zone is exciting, but finding three is historic. “The number of potentially habitable planets in our galaxy is much greater if we can expect to find several of them around each low-mass star — instead of looking at ten stars to look for a single potentially habitable planet, we now know we can look at just one star and find several of them,” said Rory Barnes, of the University of Washington, co-author of the study, in an ESO press release Tuesday (June 25).
Comment Re:The Not-So-Glorious Reality (Score 1) 528
The problem is that during times of good profits, the unions negotiate contracts that say: "Our members don't have to pay into a pension fund, it all comes out of future profits".
That way, the unions don't look like thy're scalping the company because their compensation is "only x dollars". However, since the company sooner or later gets real competition, or the product/business model is no longer valid, profits decrease, and they're stuck with staggering payments to retirees, making less money available for the present day workers.
If the workers want a pension fund that's stable, they need to fund it themselves. Put it into the compensation package like they used to, like the Trade Unions still do. The companies pays so much per hour into the Unions run pension plan, and the union pays the retiree. That way if the company folds, your pension is still safe.
Comment Re:why replace once you have the screwdriver? (Score 1) 260
Hey! Don't forget Binford Splines! Us old IBM equipment repairmen still have those, too!
Comment Re:so I can't choose my own food? (Score 1) 417
If you pile that horse crap on to the garden, it gets very green!
Comment Re:so I can't choose my own food? (Score 1) 417
My great granddad delivered to you door with his horse cart - very green! You could go out to the cart and pick out whatever you wanted.
Later, my grandparents had a store. In those days mail was delivered twice a day, so people would send their list in the morning mail, and the store would get it in the afternoon mail. Pop or one my uncles would deliver it by wagon - the kids pull behind type. VERY green!
My grandparents knew each customer, what type of bread, fruit, meat, etc they liked, and that's what they delivered. The old and lessor quality things they consumed themselves. Sometimes, excess of this was donated to the poor, but grandma's best known method of dealing with them was to go over the customer's bills (most ran a tab and paid it off on payday) and sort out those who couldn't pay and tell Dad to "go burn these in the alley before your father find out."
Submission + - DDoS Feud Backfires: Bulletproof CyberBunker Busted (informationweek.co.uk)
kierny writes: The tables turned Thursday on anarchic Dutch hosting provider CyberBunker, which has been accused of backing an Internet-busting DDoS disruption campaign against anti-spam site Spamhaus. But as of Thursday morning, CyberBunker found its own "bulletproof" website knocked offline, making it the apparent victim of a sustained DDoS attack. Similarly, the website of the Stophaus.com campaign that's been organizing the attacks was also disrupted, displaying on a "database error." No one has claimed credit for the pro-Spamhaus takedowns.
Comment Re:Just wondering (Score 2) 422
You spelled proof wrong consistently.
But at least he's more consistent than the AWG guys!
Comment Re:how does 2013 compare to the 1980's? (Score 1) 422
How does this jive with the Jurassic Period when there was warmth everywhere, but so little CO2 because of all the lush, tropical vegetation that created an oxygen rich atmosphere for all of that evolution to take place in?
Submission + - DNA Patents going to the Supreme Court (ft.com)
HexaByte writes: The U.S. Supreme Court is getting a case on whether or not patents are valid for human DNA sequences. At issue is whether a company's patent on a human gene that's associated with breast cancer is valid. The company discovered the gene, patented it and is the only legal source of testing for it, because of the patent. Since the gene occurs naturally, (even though only thru mutation) should it be patenetable?
