6598695
submission
mrcaseyj writes:
California penal code section 537e makes it a felony punishable by up to 3 years in prison to be in possession of an integrated computer panel where the serial number or any other distinguishing number or identification mark has been covered. It's also a crime punishable by 6 months or a year to cover or obliterate the serial number or identification mark of just about any other personal property, from tools to CDs and much more. While a district attorney might have a hard time prosecuting you for such a crime, it appears a police officer could still take you to jail without having to worry about getting in trouble, because covering is apparently illegal by the letter of the law.
827471
submission
mrcaseyj writes:
SpaceX has posted a video of flight three of their Falcon 1 rocket, and unlike the initial video this one includes the disastrous collision when the first stage surged ahead and collided with the second stage. The bump was mild so perhaps the big problem was when the engine ignited and blasted the first stage just as it re-contacted the second stage. I'm surprised the news media doesn't cover SpaceX more, considering that if they can make their reusable rockets work then the much lower costs may put all the other rocket companies out of business, and enable a new age in space flight. Also, lets all send SpaceX an email begging them to seed a torrent of the broadcast quality launch video.
158525
submission
mrcaseyj writes:
Microsoft has criticized some banks for no longer using secure connections for entire login pages and only encrypting the password as it goes back to the bank. This prevents simple password sniffing but doesn't prevent a man in the middle attack from replacing the unsecured login page with one that has disabled encryption. This is especially a problem if you are using an unencrypted wireless connection such as at a coffee shop, because hackers can easily use the airpwn package to intercept the login page and steal your password. An easy remedy for when a secure page isn't available is to enter a bad username and password which usually brings up a secure page telling you to try again. But can you really trust your money to a bank that doesn't even offer the option of a secure login page?
