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Comment: big difference (Score 5, Insightful) 239

by TheMeuge (#38819479) Attached to: Google Consolidates Privacy Policies Across Services

You're not correct. And THAT is where the big difference between Google and Facebook lies. Google sells eyes, but the fact of the matter is that they are anonymous eyes, but sold as eyes belonging to people most likely to purchase the product being marketed. However, until you click on that link, all the company knows is that they've been matched to you by the black box of Google magic.

Facebook, on the other hand, shares information with "partners". They are BY DEFINITION a personal info vendor.

Google sells ads, and tailors them to the vendor. Facebook sells your data to the vendor directly. BIG difference in privacy implications.

Comment: Re:Why the Apple reference? (Score 4, Informative) 99

by TheMeuge (#38793131) Attached to: How Much LTE Spectrum Do Big Carriers Have?

In a way, Apple has been wise to wait on 4G to catch up to the point where... well, where it actually means something because it doesn't mean anything right now.

I have been enjoying LTE on my Verizon HTC Thunderbolt for almost a year now, and I categorically disagree with that statement. It certainly means something because it's about 10x faster than the competitors, and is significantly (read - 2-3X) faster in real world use.

Comment: Re:Nice from a tech point of view, *BUT*... (Score 1) 226

by TheMeuge (#38781625) Attached to: Engineered Stomach Microbe Converts Seaweed Into Ethanol

But considering the fact of global warming/climate change and the topic of greenhouse gases, isn't our core problem that we are simply burning too much stuff? With that in mind, is this really going to help?

Shouldn't our focus be on creating forms of energy that produce energy without burning things?

Your argument is fundamentally flawed, because ultimately, any energy generation will result in rising global temperature. After all, heat is the ultimate byproduct of reducing local entropy in any system.

Comment: Re:seawater into fuel? (Score 4, Informative) 226

by TheMeuge (#38781605) Attached to: Engineered Stomach Microbe Converts Seaweed Into Ethanol

If they can keep this GMO sequestered in a watertight tank and remember that it could possibly destroy the ocean it would help the population of the world. It's sort of silly, however, that they spent all those resources creating this GMO when hemp is a very common and old source for ethanol. But nooo, we don't want to upset the fine folks at Dow, Goodyear, or Monsanto do we. Let's forget hemp and create a new organism.

The above illustrates the problem of informing the uninformed about scientific developments.

What reproductive and survival advantage does E Coli get from having these modifications done? Right... none. So while it'll happily digest the seaweed in a lab, or even in a manufacturing tank, if you dump it into the ocean it will a) die from incorrect environmental osmolality and pH b) be eaten by a variety of sea creatures.

Introducing rabbits to Australia was FAR worse than dumping TONS of this stuff into the ocean. This bacterium is so far from being able to "destroy the ocean" that it would take a colossal act of ignorance to claim it as such. Oh wait...

Question: How do I obtain enforcement of my copyr->

Submitted by DERoss
DERoss writes "I have a personal Web site with many, many pages. One of the pages — one of my very first from before 1999 — describes the community in which I live. As with most of my Web pages, this one carries a copyright notice.

Often, my community page is plagiarized by real estate agents and brokers without my permission. Can I get the U.S. government to enforce my copyright. Or is enforcement limited to the MPAA , RIAA, and their allies."

Link to Original Source
AI

Face Swap App Puts WP7 Ahead? ->

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes "Could AI be the way to get a phone brand into more hands? If you make apps that are really clever it might take time at least for the others to catch up. Microsoft Research is undoubtedly clever and so who better to put WP7 ahead of the pack — well at least for a while. The latest two make use of face recognition but in different ways — one is serious and the other just fun. Face Mask will automatically place an obscuring blob or pattern. You can select which faces to recognize and which patterns to use as a mask — some of which can be silly. The second app really doesn't seem to have a serious use but who knows. Face Swap allows you to take a photo and swap faces on the subjects. Why would you want to do this? Well it's amusing — apparently."
Link to Original Source

Google News Sci Tech: Hackers Dump Credit Card Info - Daily Beast->

From feed by feedfeeder

Daily Beast

Hackers Dump Credit Card Info
Daily Beast
Hacker collective Anonymous is continuing its campaign to embarrass the security think tank Stratfor, dumping the names, email addresses, and passwords of around 860000 customers, as well as credit card information for 75000 clients. ...
Hackers release credit card, other data from Stratfor breachCNET
Anonymous Hacks Military Gear Web SitePC Magazine
Hacking Group Releases More Stratfor Subscriber DataPCWorld
Mashable-CRN-AFP
all 259 news articles

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The Military

What War in the Hormuz Strait Would Look Like

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes "The high stakes standoff between Iran and the US over the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for one-fifth of the world's oil, escalated this week as Iran's navy claimed to have recorded video of a US aircraft carrier entering the Port of Oman and the deputy chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Hossein Salami rejected US claims that it could prevent Iran from closing the strait. To drive the point home, Iran has started a 10-day naval exercise in the Persian Gulf to show off how it could use small speedboats and a barrage of missiles to combat America's naval armada while in a report for the Naval War College, US Navy Commander Daniel Dolan wrote that Iran has acquired “thousands of sea mines, wake homing torpedoes, hundreds of advanced cruise missiles (PDF) and possibly more than one thousand small Fast Attack Craft and Fast Inshore Attack Craft. The heart of the Iran's arsenal is its 200 small potential-suicide boats — fiberglass motorboats with a heavy machine gun, a multiple rocket-launcher, or a mine — and may also carry heavy explosives, rigged to ram and blow a hole in the hull of a larger ship. These boats will likely employ a strategy of “swarming”—coming out of nowhere to ambush merchant convoys and American warships in narrow shipping lanes. But the US Navy is not defenseless against kamikaze warfare. The US has put more machine guns and 25-millimeter gyro-stabilized guns on the decks of warships, modified the 5-inch gun to make it more capable of dealing with high-speed boats, and improved the sensor suit of the Aegis computer-integrated combat system aboard destroyers and cruisers. “We have been preparing for it for a number of years with changes in training and equipment,” says Vice Admiral (ret.) Kevin Cosgriff, former commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command."

Comment: Oh noes: the anti-victoria's secret law! (Score 5, Insightful) 226

by TheMeuge (#38228776) Attached to: How Photoshopped Is That Picture?

You mean they're promoting a law that would make Victoria's Secret disclose the endless belly-fold-tucking and (B to D) breast enlargements they love so much? As a doc, looking at those anatomically-impossible bodies it makes me sad, because they change our perception of what should be seen as attractive to a standard that is literally impossible to meet. And at times even I have caught my own perceptions as being skewed, despite knowing full well how it happened.

The Courts

Judge rules to forcibly medicate Loughner

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "A federal appeals court refused to stop prison officials from forcibly drugging Jared Lee Loughner, the key suspect in the shooting rampage that left a congresswoman with brain damage, and six dead. Prosecutors argued that Loughner needed to be medicated as he was a danger to himself and to others, and was not psychologically fit to stand trial."

Microbiology Lab: Staph Only!

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