Comment: I feel sorry for rich people, (Score 1) 139
what with the rabble's concerns boiling over and impinging on the fringes of their attention.
+ - The Koch brothers political network plans to spend almost $1B in 2016 elections->
Submitted
by
whoever57
whoever57 (658626) writes "The Koch brothers revealed plans to spend $889M during the 2016 election cycle . The money would be spent on both congresisonal and presidential races. This level of spending will require commitment from both the Koch Brothers themselves and about 300 other donors. The money will put considerable pressure on Democratic supporters and candidates who will likely be at a considerable funding disadvantage in 2016."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Comment: Re:We Really Don't (Score 1) 146
Sorry... I was going for the joke and didn't pitch it very well. My actual views are more like yours.
As for the reality of the subject matter, I would borrow the concept of "probably approximately correct" from machine learning, and give it a 90-95% chance of being ~80% correct. (The 80% is lower to allow room for some more big discoveries like inflation.)
Unfortunately, people will be (hopefully) studying this for thousands of years on top of the <100 we have so far, and none of us will live to see how it turns out in the long term.
Comment: Re:"Fraudulent" (Score 1) 276
And I'm guessing that the publishers who use region codes cry like babies whenever governments impose artificial barriers to free trade.
Comment: Re:I have an idea.. (Score 1) 276
It's like the old Texan saying: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, can't get fooled again."
I always heard it as: "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."
And of course, the word of choice usually wasn't "fool".
(Is this really a regional saying?)
Comment: Re:Pot, meet Kettle (Score 1) 288
National Sheriff's Association, not National Security Agency. I think that makes a difference.
+ - As real Flash patches go out, fake ones hit thousands of Facebook users->
Submitted
by
River Tam
River Tam (3926677) writes "On the heels of two real Flash Player security updates being distributed by Adobe Systems this week, hackers are spreading a fake update for the media player via a scam on Facebook that has exposed at least 5,000 users to the threat.
Fake Flash Player update through a three-day Facebook scam beginning Friday. The hackers are targeting the social network’s users by tagging would-be victims in photos that purport to be racy videos."
Link to Original Source
Fake Flash Player update through a three-day Facebook scam beginning Friday. The hackers are targeting the social network’s users by tagging would-be victims in photos that purport to be racy videos."
Link to Original Source
+ - Comcast Ghost-writes Politician's Letters to Support Time Warner Mega-Merger
Submitted
by
WheezyJoe
WheezyJoe (1168567) writes "As the FCC considers the merger between Comcast/Universal and Time-Warner Cable, which would create the largest cable company in the U.S. and is entering the final stages of federal review, politicians are pressuring the FCC with pro-merger letters actually written by Comcast. According to documents obtained through public records requests politicians are passing letters nearly word-for-word written by Comcast as their own, politicians are passing letters nearly word-for-word written by Comcast as their own. "Not only do records show that a Comcast official sent the councilman the exact wording of the letter he would submit to the FCC, but also that finishing touches were put on the letter by a former FCC official named Rosemary Harold, who is now a partner at one of the nation’s foremost telecom law firms in Washington, DC. Comcast has enlisted Harold to help persuade her former agency to approve the proposed merger."
Ars Technica had already reported that politicians have closely mimicked Comcast talking points and re-used Comcast's own statements without attribution. The documents revealed today show just how deeply Comcast is involved with certain politicians, and how they were able to get them on board."
Ars Technica had already reported that politicians have closely mimicked Comcast talking points and re-used Comcast's own statements without attribution. The documents revealed today show just how deeply Comcast is involved with certain politicians, and how they were able to get them on board."
Comment: Re:Consumers? No just whiny fanboys (Score 1) 99
As an owner of a GTX 970 card, all I can say is I can run Shadow of Mordor at full 1920x1080 res with the "ultra" texture setting and it never dips below 30fps, usually getting 45-60.
The additional fact I got the card as an open-box return at the local computer store for $220 makes things a no-brainer for me even if the allegations of 3.5gb vram were true.
There is no game in existence that a 980 or titan card can play that my 970 couldn't, even if I had to bump the settings down to just "very high".
If I bought a thousand of the things for super computer style multi-GPU number crunching, then I would probably be more upset and yelling a bit louder at Nvidia.
As a gamer I just can't see myself getting any worked up over this.
+ - FCC Fines Verizon for Failing to Investigate Rural Phone Problems
Submitted
by
WheezyJoe
WheezyJoe (1168567) writes "Verizon agreed to a $5 million settlement after admitting that it failed to investigate whether its rural customers were able to receive long distance and wireless phone calls. The settlement is related to the FCC's efforts to address what is known as the rural call completion problem. Over an eight-month period during 2013, low call answer rates in 39 rural areas should have triggered an investigation, the FCC said. The FCC asked Verizon what steps it took, and Verizon said in April 2014 that it investigated or fixed problems in 13 of the 39 areas, but did nothing in the other 26.
"Rural call completion problems have significant and immediate public interest ramifications," the FCC said in its order on the Verizon settlement today. "They cause rural businesses to lose customers, impede medical professionals from reaching patients in rural areas, cut families off from their relatives, and create the potential for dangerous delays in public safety communications." Verizon has been accused of letting its copper landline network decay while it shifts its focus to fiber and cellular service. The FCC is working a plan to protect customers as old copper networks are retired."
"Rural call completion problems have significant and immediate public interest ramifications," the FCC said in its order on the Verizon settlement today. "They cause rural businesses to lose customers, impede medical professionals from reaching patients in rural areas, cut families off from their relatives, and create the potential for dangerous delays in public safety communications." Verizon has been accused of letting its copper landline network decay while it shifts its focus to fiber and cellular service. The FCC is working a plan to protect customers as old copper networks are retired."
+ - Bill Nye Botches Deflate-Gate Science 1
Submitted
by
spiedrazer
spiedrazer (555388) writes "It looks like America's favorite non-scientist science authority has weighed in on the physics of the NE Patriots Deflate-Gate "scandal", saying that to change the pressure in a football, you need to have a needle to either let air in our out. This, of course, completely ignores the Ideal Gas Law and the effect that changing temperature would have on the pressure of the gas within the ball. MIT did a "slightly" more scientific look at the physics here and found a pretty significant effect.
I didn't realize that Bill Nye had so little science background, but from his wikipedia page: "Nye began his professional entertainment career as a writer/actor on a local sketch comedy television show in Seattle, Washington, called Almost Live!. The host of the show, Ross Shafer, suggested he do some scientific demonstrations in a six-minute segment, and take on the nickname "The Science Guy".[14] His other main recurring role on Almost Live! was as Speedwalker, a speedwalking Seattle superhero.""
I didn't realize that Bill Nye had so little science background, but from his wikipedia page: "Nye began his professional entertainment career as a writer/actor on a local sketch comedy television show in Seattle, Washington, called Almost Live!. The host of the show, Ross Shafer, suggested he do some scientific demonstrations in a six-minute segment, and take on the nickname "The Science Guy".[14] His other main recurring role on Almost Live! was as Speedwalker, a speedwalking Seattle superhero.""
Comment: Re:The solution is obvious (Score 1) 498
So a customer 'bought' a busted phone. Not getting updates is one of the downsides. Buy unlocked or from a different carrier.
+ - FreeFileSync Served With Vostran Malware->
Submitted
by
BrendaEM
BrendaEM (871664) writes "FreeFileSync is an Rsync-like GUI file synchronization program. It has been an example of an excellent open source utility, but now, the Windows version comes with Vosteran malware which, provides no benefit and is difficult to remove.
The mere fact that Source-forge serves malware reduces the credibility of all open source software.
Freefilesyc's page: http://sourceforge.net/project...
I have started a discussion here: http://sourceforge.net/p/freef..."
Link to Original Source
The mere fact that Source-forge serves malware reduces the credibility of all open source software.
Freefilesyc's page: http://sourceforge.net/project...
I have started a discussion here: http://sourceforge.net/p/freef..."
Link to Original Source
Comment: Re:We Really Don't (Score 2) 146
This is the comic book version of what happened.
Like all esoteric fields of study, we outsiders can't understand it because we don't have The Right Stuff.
(Presumably that's something they smoke.)
+ - Kim Dotcom launches end-to-end encrypted voice chat 'Skype killer'->
Submitted
by
SternisheFan
SternisheFan (2529412) writes "Kim Dotcom’s encrypted file sharing service has added free end-to-end encrypted voice and video chat through the browser.
MegaChat, which promises to keep video chats secure and private, has been developed by the Mega “Conspiracy Team” and is being described as a “Skype killer” by Dotcom.
“We are releasing #MegaChat beta step by step. Starting with video calling today. Text chat & video conferencing will follow soon,” said Dotcom.
MegaChat does not require software beyond a web browser to operate, unlike many other similar services, although plugins for Google’s Chrome and Firefox are available for “faster loading and added resilience against attacks”.
‘No US-based online service provider can be trusted’
The system allows users to share encrypted files having previously shared a personal decryption key with them."
Link to Original Source
MegaChat, which promises to keep video chats secure and private, has been developed by the Mega “Conspiracy Team” and is being described as a “Skype killer” by Dotcom.
“We are releasing #MegaChat beta step by step. Starting with video calling today. Text chat & video conferencing will follow soon,” said Dotcom.
MegaChat does not require software beyond a web browser to operate, unlike many other similar services, although plugins for Google’s Chrome and Firefox are available for “faster loading and added resilience against attacks”.
‘No US-based online service provider can be trusted’
The system allows users to share encrypted files having previously shared a personal decryption key with them."
Link to Original Source
