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Comment Re: Good and Bad (Score 1) 268

The hackable door lock means that you have to give up the security of your home for the convenience of the landlord.

Not that the new lock is going to be better, but you make it sound like he had great security before. Residential locks are awfully easy to hack, in terms of lock picking.

Comment Re:Bullshit (Score 2) 361

"The U.S. National Highway Transportation Department said the rules will cost the auto industry about $39 million annually because automakers will need to add an external waterproof speaker to comply."

A $3 speaker and $1 of wiring per car will add up to $39 million? Too bad. Raise the cost of the car by $5 and stop whining.

No one puts off buying a car because it costs $32,535 instead of $32,530.

If you assume they manufacture ~500k new hybrids per year, then their quote works out to $78 per hybrid. To me, I wouldn't be put off buying a car if it was $32,608 instead of $32,530.

As for the speaker, if it's in the engine compartment it's probably rated for temperatures from -40 through 150F, if not more. Plus it's likely going to be exposed to a LOT of dirt/dust/water, while still needing to be heard. It also needs to probably make some non-trivial sound that is based on speed and shuts on/off appropriately. Maybe not $78, but definitely a lot more than $3 in my opinion.

Comment Re:the joy! (Score 1) 307

I've been running internet-connected Windows desktop for 20 years, and have never gotten a virus. Surf smart, lock your door, and don't click on the damn .scr files.

When you say lock your door, I'm presuming you mean behind a firewall or router?

The only time I've been infected was during a Win98 install. I ended up connecting it directly to the internet instead of using my router (I don't recall why; that was a long time ago.) After my first set of updates had applied (ie: rebooted from), I discovered that it was already infected. The most interesting part was it was compromised in under 25 minutes.

Since then, a router has been my best and first line of defense. After that, the rest of stuff is avoiding most of the social engineering that's trying to get you to click them.

Submission + - Overeager Compilers Can Open Security Holes In Your Code (itworld.com)

jfruh writes: Creators of compilers are in an arms race to improve performance. But according to a presentantation at this week's annual USENIX conference, those performance boosts can undermine your code's security. For instance, a compiler might find a subroutine that checks a huge bound of memory beyond what's allocated to the program, decide it's an error, and eliminate it from the compiled machine code — even though it's a necessary defense against buffer overflow attacks.

Submission + - Solar Roadways Project Blows Past $1M Crowdfunding Goal (computerworld.com)

Lucas123 writes: It appears an Idaho-based company that created prototype panels for constructing roads that (among other features) gather solar power, will be going into production after it exceeded it's crowdfunding goal of $1M. With two days left to go, Solar Roadways' Indiegogo project has already exceeded $1.6 million. The hexagonal-shaped solar panels consist of four layers, including photovoltaic cells, LED lights, an electronic support structure (circuit board) and a base layer made of recyclable materials. The panels plug together to form circuits that can then use LED lights to create any number of traffic patterns, as well as issue lighted warnings for drivers. The panels also have the ability to melt snow and ice. Along with the crowdfunding money, Solar Roadways received federal grant money for development.

Submission + - Bipedal Robot Does 46km/h (ibtimes.co.uk)

schwit1 writes: Scientists from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have built a fast-running biped robot that can reach a top speed of 46 km/hour (28.6mph) on a treadmill.

Inspired by the velociraptor –the predatory dinosaur which lived 75 million years ago, and was made infamous by Jurassic Park – the scientists decided to build a sprinting robot with two legs and a mechanism that works as a tail.

While Raptor is not as fast as Boston Dynamics' Cheetah, the world's reigning fastest legged robot, which has a top speed of 47 km/hr, the new Korean robot can beat Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, the fastest human ever whose top speed is estimated to be 43.92 km/hr.

Comment Re:Proposal for Australia (Score 1) 271

Now /. needs a "Informative yet Funny" mod, if not at least for the above comment.

Next thing they'll be banning IE, Firefox, et al, for making one-click hacking software. Retarded* politicians.

(* I have a Down's syndrome brother, so I liberally apply the word retarded for those who act worse than my brother.)

Comment Re:As long as the URL is secret, it is an attack (Score 1) 271

I know I RTFA, but I haven't had my coffee yet. I had thought they guessed URLs within the site to see if there was something new but they just clicked on a link.

On that I change my tune a bit as I think of regular pings as normal knocks on the door. Answer and expect to get a visit from a salesman. Just because I only gave out my domain name to my 10 close friends doesn't mean that I don't expect others. However, I start for my phone/baseball bat when someone tries to get in after they've been denied regular access.

Comment Re:As long as the URL is secret, it is an attack (Score 1) 271

I was thinking along these lines. I remember coming across the following in my linux apache logs and definitely thought of it an attack probe: "GET /c/winnt/system32/cmd.exe?/c+dir HTTP/1.0" Surely this can also be done via just an URL but that doesn't make it right.

Just because you leave your door open doesn't make someone going through it not trespassing, lock or not. Checking all of the windows and doors to see if there's a way in also doesn't really help with the "I wasn't trespassing" argument, either.

I do admit it should have been locked down, though. At least IP filter access to the site if you're still in testing.

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