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Comment: Re:Not actually a bad idea. (Score 1) 364

by danomac (#43763483) Attached to: Bloomberg To HS Grads: Be a Plumber

This right here is what needs to stop: just because you're a plumber, or a carpenter, or an electrician, doesn't mean you're dumb.

I know for electricians, at least, there is a fair bit of math and physics involved. Not understanding it can literally be the difference between life and death. When my brother went through getting his electricians ticket he was surprised about that part. While he didn't have any problems with the math and physics he said classes were held up several times due to people not understanding. About a third of the class dropped out due to the math and physics content. Not sure how many passed, but there were likely several borderline pass marks, at least in the class he was in.

+ - Canipre caught using images without permission from copyright holders

Submitted by danomac
danomac writes "Canipre, a Canadian anti-infringement enforcement company, has been using photos on their official website without permission.

This company hopes to bring US-style copyright lawsuits to Canada, and they are the company behind Voltage's current lawsuits.

It says right on their website "they all know it's wrong, and they're still doing it" overlaid on top of the image used without permission. There apparently are multiple photos from different authors used, and none gave permission for Canipre to use on their website.

Canipre's response? "We used a third party vendor to develop the website and they purchased images off of an image bank", trying to pass the blame to someone else.

Some of the photos were released under the Creative Commons, meaning they could've used the photos legally if they attributed the author."

+ - Interactive Raycaster for the Commodore 64 under 256 bytes->

Submitted by Wisdom
Wisdom writes "1bir (1 Block Interactive Raycaster) is a simple ray casting engine implemented only in 254 bytes to run on a stock, unexpanded Commodore 64. The name comes from the fact that on a C64 floppy disk, 1 block is equivalent to 254 bytes stored on a disk sector. In 254 bytes, 1bir sets up the screen for drawing, creates sine and cosine tables for 256 brads based on a simple approximation, casts rays into a 2D map that lives inside the C64 KERNAL ROM, renders the screen in coordination with KERNAL, evaluates 8-way joystick input and detects collision against walls. The ray casting core employs a brute force algorithm to determine visible walls, while the mapping portion supports both open-ended (infinitely looped) and traditional, closed maps. The source code in 6502 assembly is available, with extensive comments. A YouTube video showcases 1bir in a detailed manner with both kind of maps and more information, while a Vimeo video presents a shorter demonstration."
Link to Original Source

+ - New Search Engine Peers Inside Binaries->

Submitted by chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes "The Security Ledger reports that researchers at The University of Cambridge in the UK have created a Google-like search engine that can peer inside applications, analyzing their underlying code. The search engine, dubbed "Rendezvous" (http://www.rendezvousalpha.com/) was unveiled in a seminar on Tuesday by Wei Ming Khoo, a doctoral student in the Security Group working at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory. It allows users to submit a binary, which is then parsed and compared against a library of code harvested from open source projects across the Internet. Rendezvous has a number of applications. For example, it could be used to help reverse engineer potentially malicious files, copyright enforcement or to find evidence of plagiarism within applications, according to a blog post by Ross Anderson (http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2013/05/14/a-search-engine-for-code/), a Professor of Security Engineering at the Laboratory."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:Sounds good. (Score 1) 614

Can't say much about the sports, but I've been using mythtv for television for more than 2 years.

I haven't had any issues with it at all. I do have a guide (I pay for the guide data, I think it's about $2.50 a month) so I can schedule programs. I have four tuners on it, but mythtv can support more than that if your write speed to storage is fast enough. I also have frontends on all TVs (I only have two) that are IR-controlled with a Harmony remote. They all use the same server, so all frontends can watch live TV, schedule recordings, and watch recordings.

As far as ease of use, my grandmother can use my setup. It's not that hard. It has clear menu options "Watch TV" and "Media Library" (where recordings are available.) I did edit the default menu layout to put those two options at the top, however.

The only thing with OTA is that it doesn't show a lot of sports (I find it does on weekends, though) so if you're a sport nut OTA is not for you. In my case, cable was basically 150 channels of nothing on. I still have moments with my whopping 6 channels when there's nothing on, but at least it isn't costing me $100+ a month...

I can say that 5 years ago if you said something about watching TV OTA I would have been "yeah, right", but I'm a convert and I always seem to find something to record.

Comment: Re:had this explained to me by a driver ed instruc (Score 1) 374

by danomac (#43634773) Attached to: Why US Mileage Ratings Are So Inaccurate

But they do drive safe. It's just slow, in the left hand lane.

This endangers traffic around them. How is that safe?

I have a relative working in the auto insurance industry - she says that seniors do have the experience to drive safely. But they also drive less. Per kilometre/mile driven, seniors have generally the same amount of accidents as new drivers. Their insurance should reflect this, but it doesn't. Nice that young drivers get penalized, but seniors don't.

Comment: Re:Not only the milage ratings are false (Score 1) 374

by danomac (#43634741) Attached to: Why US Mileage Ratings Are So Inaccurate

That makes no sense - sure, the car enters open-loop mode under hard acceleration, but eventually the load is taken off the engine and the emissions systems/ECU will go back into closed-loop. Not to mention on most modern cars the A/C compressor clutch will be disengaged under full throttle. You can't stay under hard acceleration all the time. You'll either hit the speed desired or the ECU's programmed limit.

For others that don't know: open-loop is when the O2 sensors and other emissions sensors are ignored (generally under hard acceleration/full throttle and when the car is initially warming up, this can be observed with an air/fuel gauge which can be installed aftermarket.) Closed-loop is when the ECU actively monitors the O2 and other emissions sensors.

If anything, if they (EPA) really wanted to game the system, they should do it on a steep downhill where there's no acceleration input required - all modern cars shut off the fuel injectors in this case and mileage would go up drastically.

"It's in process": So wrapped up in red tape that the situation is almost hopeless.

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