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Comment: Do you need to? (Score 4, Informative) 428

by Galaga88 (#43746069) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Dealing With a Fear of Technological Change?

If the current tools you have are getting the job done, I don't see a need to change.

If you want to force yourself into getting started with new technology, I'd start with a rootable Android smartphone, or a Nexus 7 if you don't want to spring for a phone plan. Then just jump right in to exploring it.

You'll learn a lot of the new interface tricks that are shared with tablets/phones, there's a lot of devices and web services they can integrate with, and you can still get your hack on and put SSH and all that other fun stuff on the device.

Security

Did the Spamhaus DDoS Really Slow Down Global Internet Access? 70

Posted by samzenpus
from the what's-to-blame dept.
CowboyRobot writes "Despite the headlines, the big denial of service attack may not have slowed the Internet after all. The argument against the original claim include the fact that reports of Internet users seeing slowdowns came not from service providers, but the DDoS mitigation service CloudFlare, which signed up Spamhaus as a customer last week. Also, multiple service providers and Internet watchers have now publicly stated that while the DDoS attacks against Spamhaus could theoretically have led to slowdowns, they've seen no evidence that this occurred for general Internet users. And while some users may have noticed a slowdown, the undersea cable cuts discovered by Egyptian sailors had more of an impact than the DDoS."

Comment: Re:Uhm... GERTY? (Score 1) 77

by Galaga88 (#43034695) Attached to: <em>2001: a Space Odyssey</em>'s Dave Returns To Sci-fi In New Film

Was I the only person who spent the entire movie on pins and needles waiting for GERTY to do his heel turn? He even had a big smily face for crying out loud! There's no way he could be anything *but* evil, right? Right?

Rather showing of audience expectations nowadays, and part of the reason I so adored Moon.

Comment: Fallacy of Sunk Costs (Score 5, Insightful) 185

by Galaga88 (#42915237) Attached to: California Cancels $208 Million IT Overhaul Halfway Through

I'm glad to see that they didn't fall prey too badly to the fallacy of sunk costs. Too many places wouldn't realize they've already lost the money they threw at the project, and no amount of extra spending in the hopes that it will eventually succeed will get that back.

Comment: Re:No contract plans? (Score 1) 1052

by Galaga88 (#41317789) Attached to: Apple Announces iPhone 5

It's an option. They cost a helluva lot more (The $S is currently $549, I presume the 5 would be $100 more), and I don't know if the carriers give much of a discount for no-contract BYOP plans. (T-Mobile does, but you're not going to get 3G, no less LTE with an iPhone on T-Mobile).

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone/iphone4s

Pick a color, then "Unlocked" is an option instead of carrier.

Comment: A bit sad to see (Score 4, Interesting) 109

by Galaga88 (#41194771) Attached to: NCSoft Closes "City of Heroes" Publisher Paragon Studios

I haven't played the game in years, but it was the only MMORPG I ever played in which I actually made it to the endgame.

The combat seemed faster paced and generally less grindy than other MMORPGs at the time.

It helped that I played a Tanker, which was a horribly unbalanced class at the time. I remember forming a team, and single-handedly holding aggro on an entire instance worth of mobs, herding them into a corner, and letting the blasters let loose all at once. Good times.

Comment: The actual tracking... (Score 4, Informative) 489

by Galaga88 (#41110657) Attached to: Windows 8 Tells Microsoft About Everything You Install

There's no indication that Microsoft themselves keeps track of which individuals downloaded/installed which programs.

The issue this article seems to propose is that somebody could sniff the network traffic between yourself and Microsoft to grab the SmartScreen data and see what you'd installed when Windows contacts MS to see if the file is marked as safe/unsafe/unknown.

If they're in a position to do that, wouldn't they theoretically be in a position to have potentially snooped on the download of the software which is triggering the SmartScreen traffic? (Depending of course, on where in the network their sniffer is at.)

The only valid complaint seems to be that Microsoft is using a known-insecure version of SSL for the website all this data is sent to. If they fix that, I'm not sure what reasonable issue would be there.

I would argue that for the average user, SmartScreen is a useful feature and having it turned on by default (assuming MS is tracking individual user downloads of software for some nefarious purpose) is a good thing.

Comment: Re:Breathless summary by the clueless (Score 3, Informative) 734

Propaganda? The summary comes straight from the policy guideline document.

Knowledge-Based Education - We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.

I would rather say that a desire to drive fast sports cars is what sets man apart from the animals.

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