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Comment Re:Not going to happen anytime soon (Score 1) 61

I also prefer checks over credit cards because I don't want Visa getting any of my money.

Technically those fees are paid by the merchants, though a recent settlement with MasterCard and VISA may change things a bit.

Visa, MasterCard reach $38 billion swipe fee settlement, draw opposition

Submission + - A 1950s material just set a modern record for lightning-fast chips (sciencedaily.com)

alternative_right writes: Researchers engineered a strained germanium layer on silicon that allows charge to move faster than in any silicon-compatible material to date. This record mobility could lead to chips that run cooler, faster, and with dramatically lower energy consumption. The discovery also enhances the prospects for silicon-based quantum devices.

Submission + - Idaho Lab Produces World's First Molten Salt Fuel For Nuclear Reactors (cowboystatedaily.com)

schwit1 writes: The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy announced this week that researchers at INL have successfully created the first batch of fuel salt.

Fuel salt is a molten salt mixture used as both a carrier for nuclear fuel and coolant in a molten salt reactor, a type of advanced nuclear reactor.

The fuel salt is critical for conducting the world’s first fast-spectrum, salt-fueled reactor test, known as the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE).

The test will help inform the future commercial deployment of a new class of advanced nuclear reactors, something a number of Wyoming-connected companies are proposing to build.

“There is a lot of push for this,” said James King, project lead for the Molten Chloride Experiment at INL. “We need to have a lot of different options so we can move away from less safe power generations methods.

“This is one of those technologies that can move us to better safety.”

The liquid form of the salt fuel means the fuel can’t melt. The technology would also offer another low-carbon alternative to generating power.

Comment Re:I assume you are joking, but ... (Score 1) 154

We are only a year out from the murder of a health-insurance executive, so the police are more on edge than usual.

Then we need to threaten such things much more often, so that the cops will eventually get used to it, and relax. ;-)

Debian never tried to kill me through my computer. I'd appreciate it if my car manufacturer made their car as safe as my computer.

Fuck it, I just want a Debian car. Then I won't need to extract bloody vengeance from beyond the grave, as my zombie revenant tracks down the CEO of Subaru, and the rotting flesh of my hands tightens around his throat as payment for the time a popup distracted me.

Comment There's no consensus definition of E2E encryption (Score 1) 89

Some people are busting out "definitions" of "End to End Encryption" but people were already using that as in informal descriptive term long before your formalized technical jargon was made up. Nobody should be surprised if there are mismatches. Have faith in our faithlessness.

I personally view the term as an attempt to call semi-bullshit on SMTP and IMAP over SSL/TLS. In the "old" (though not very old) days, if you sent a plaintext email (no PGP!), some people would say "oh, it's encrypted anyway, because the connection is encrypted between your workstation and the SMTP server, the connection from there to some SMTP relay is encrypted, the connection from there to the final SMTP server is encrypted, and the recipient's connection to the IMAP server is encrypted."

To which plenty of people, like me, complained "But it's still plaintext at every stop where it's stored along the way! You should use PGP, because then, regardless of the connection security, or lack of security on all the connections, it is encrypted end to end. Never trust the network, baby!"

Keep in mind that even when I say that, this is without any regard for key security! When I say E2E encrypted, it is implied that the key exchange may have been done poorly/incorrectly, mainly because few people really get to be sure they're not being MitMed when they use PGP. You can exchange keys correctly, but it's enough of a PITA that, in the wild, you rarely get to. You usually just look up their key on some keyserver and hope for the best. Ahem. And I say "usually" as if even that happens often. [eyeroll]

Indeed, every time I hear about some new secure messaging app/protocol, the first thing I wonder is "how do they do key exchange?" and I'm generally mistrusting of it, by default. And sometimes, I'm unpleasantly unsurprised, err I mean, cynically confirmed.

But anyway, if my E2E definition matches yours, great! And if it doesn't, well, that's ok and it's why we descend into the dorky details, so that we can be sure we're both talking about the same thing.

Comment Missed it by *that much* (Score 2, Insightful) 52

Two Virginia brothers Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter ...

I was going to snark about how Trump will just pardon them for this "white collar" crime, but then saw their names. Guess they'll either have to buy a *bunch* of his crypto or become presidents of another country, like former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez - convicted of conspiring in smuggling +400 tons of cocaine into the U.S., sentenced to 45 years in prison 1 year ago, and just pardoned (at the recommendation of Roger Stone and others).

Comment Re:I must be getting old. (Score 1) 122

Am I the only person on the planet who still opens the garage door with, you know, my hands? Is that completely crazy? Am *I* crazy?

Around my neighborhood almost no one parks in the garage (they park in their driveway, or the street). The garage is where you store stuff (and you rarely open the garage door).

I park in the driveway because it's difficult to get into my garage. It's a 90 degree turn and there's fencing along the top and opposite sides of the driveway. Not impossible, but a PITA.

Also, insert joke/commentary about "parking on a driveway" and "driving on a parkway." :-)

Submission + - Trump stuns auto industry with tiny-car move that promises ultra-cheap wheels (dailymail.co.uk)

sinij writes:

President Donald Trump says he's moving to legalize Japan's beloved kei cars — the tiny, boxy, almost toy-like vans, trucks, and coupes that have a cult following overseas. And he wants US automakers to start building them here.

This makes a lot of sense in urban settings, especially when electrified. Hopefully these are restricted from highway system.

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