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Comment Re:Security is hard (Score 3, Interesting) 162

Actually, those centrifuges were never on the public Internet. Stuxnet was cleverly designed to infect the workstations running Step 7 PLC programming software, hijack the communications with the PLC to install its payload on the PLC. I don't know if the Step 7 workstations were on the Internet either; they may have been infected by sneakernet - USB keys, CDROMs, and the like.

Comment Re:Who didn't see this coming? (Score 5, Informative) 789

Sorry, the ipod connector could not have been mini/micro USB. Unless you have some way to pass analog audio and composite video via USB without an additional set of a/d/d/a. Now, it could have been mini/micro USB PLUS analog line out/ composite out, but that's something else entirely.

Comment Re:Hand washing (Score 2, Insightful) 232

New Yorkers are not suckers, and those of us who have lived here a while know roughly how much a cab ride from Point A to Point B will cost. But the taximeter labels on fare schedules ("fare 1" versus "fare 4") are subtle and easily missed. I'm sure the hacks knew to cheat people who are either (a) tourists, (b) people in a REAL hurry (c) drunks. Plenty of those to go around.

Comment Re:Maybe it's not the taxi drivers (Score 3, Informative) 232

Not true. In NYC, Taximeters are installed in individual cabs and are controlled by the driver. All the GPS/credit card/entertainment systems with two way radio communication were installed very recently. Before now it would have been impossible to prove fraud other than by hand matching receipts and rates charged to driver logbook to/from/time entries.

Comment Re:Fools. (Score 0, Troll) 572

The problem is that those BS detectors are tuned to be so sensitive that they tend to register false positives. I.e., 9/11 "truthers", the people who believe Obama's birth certificate is a fraud, etc. The question I ask these people is "what amount of evidence would cause you to change your views?" They'll toss off a few impossible to satisfy conditions or just crank up the crazy. Bottom line is, you're never going to convince these folks that their view is wrong, evidence be damned. Same for the global warming "skeptics". Exactly what amount of evidence will be required to convince the board of Exxon that global warming is a fact?

Science

Submission + - Bloom Box Debuts on 60 Minutes 1

theodp writes: Its official public launch is on Wednesday, but Bloom Energy CEO K.R. Sridhar just gave 60 Minutes viewers a sneak peek at the 'Bloom Box' (video clip), the company's potentially revolutionary fuel-cell system. The boxes combine oxygen and fuel in a combustion-less process to generate electricity off the grid. Bloom says each large box — which can power about 100 homes — currently sells for $700-800,000 (hefty 'green subsidies' are available). Initial customers include eBay, Google, FedEx, Staples and WalMart. A smaller home version is planned for about $3,000 a unit, but is still 5-10 years out. Even if Bloom can mass produce the boxes and sell them cheaply enough, 'The problem is then G.E. and Siemens and other conglomerates that can probably do the same thing,' said Michael Kanellos of GreenTech Media. 'They have fuel cell patents.' Bloom is backed by KPCB, which 60 Minutes notes brought the world Amazon, Google — and Segway.

Comment Re:WAT is Voluntary and Doesn't Impact OS Usage (Score 2, Insightful) 819

"Voluntary patch" ...And what happens if one does not choose to accept this "voluntary patch"? Do I lose access to other system updates, am I locked out of other Microsoft services? ... And is this "voluntary patch" going to be included in the next Windows 7 Service Pack as a mandatory component for non-corporate installs?

Comment Don't bother. (Score 1) 197

If your Tivo has lifetime service then the best use of it is to sell it (working or not) on eBay and recoup your lifetime service cost.
Otherwise, you're looking at a doorstop. The Tivo (series 1 and 2) are woefully underpowered by today's standards. You're better off buying any reasonably expandable PC made in the past 4 years, add on MythTV and some video capture cards with hardware acceleration.

Comment Abby Someone. (Score 1) 438

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [to Igor] Now that brain that you gave me. Was it Hans Delbruck's?
Igor: [pause, then] No.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Ah! Very good. Would you mind telling me whose brain I DID put in?
Igor: Then you won't be angry?
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: I will NOT be angry.
Igor: Abby Someone.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [pause, then] Abby Someone. Abby who?
Igor: Abby Normal.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [pause, then] Abby Normal?
Igor: I'm almost sure that was the name.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [chuckles, then] Are you saying that I put an abnormal brain into a seven and a half foot long, fifty-four inch wide GORILLA?
[grabs Igor and starts throttling him]
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Is that what you're telling me?

Comment Re:My hopes for Chrome OS (Score 1) 1089

Google is going to follow the model used by Mac OS X - ship your own next generation windowing system, then follow up with a rootless X window manager for compatibility with all the apps that are out there.

I am not a regular OS X user so I'd like to hear from those who use it daily; do you find yourselves running X apps frequently, or are you running Cocoa apps exclusively?

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