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Submission + - Russia vetoes U.N. resolution on nuclear weapons in space (spacenews.com)

schwit1 writes: Russia cast the only vote against the draft resolution that reaffirmed provisions in the Outer Space Treaty prohibiting the placement of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in space. Thirteen other members of the Security Council voted in favor of the resolution while China abstained. As a permanent member of the Security Council, though, Russia’s vote acted as a veto preventing adoption of the resolution.

The Outer Space Treaty already forbids those, so this is basically a symbolic move on both sides. But to the extent that the Outer Space Treaty's prohibition is weakening, the prospects for a nuclear Orion spaceship improve.

Submission + - Open Sourcing DOS 4 (hanselman.com)

stikves writes: Microsoft releases one of the most popular versions of MS-DOS as open source today:

Ten years ago, Microsoft released the source for MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0 to the Computer History Museum, and then later republished them for reference purposes. This code holds an important place in history and is a fascinating read of an operating system that was written entirely in 8086 assembly code nearly 45 years ago.

Today, in partnership with IBM and in the spirit of open innovation, we're releasing the source code to MS-DOS 4.00 under the MIT license. There's a somewhat complex and fascinating history behind the 4.0 versions of DOS, as Microsoft partnered with IBM for portions of the code but also created a branch of DOS called Multitasking DOS that did not see a wide release.

https://github.com/microsoft/M...

Submission + - US 'Know Your Customer' Proposal Will Put an End to Anonymous Cloud Users (torrentfreak.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Late January, the U.S. Department of Commerce published a notice of proposed rulemaking for establishing new requirements for Infrastructure as a Service providers (IaaS) . The proposal boils down to a 'Know Your Customer' regime for companies operating cloud services, with the goal of countering the activities of "foreign malicious actors." Yet, despite an overseas focus, Americans won't be able to avoid the proposal's requirements, which covers CDNs, virtual private servers, proxies, and domain name resolution services, among others. [...] Under the proposed rule, Customer Identification Programs (CIPs) operated by IaaS providers must collect information from both existing and prospective customers, i.e. those at the application stage of opening an account. The bare minimum includes the following data: a customer’s name, address, the means and source of payment for each customer’s account, email addresses and telephone numbers, and IP addresses used for access or administration of the account.

What qualifies as an IaaS is surprisingly broad: "Any product or service offered to a consumer, including complimentary or “trial” offerings, that provides processing, storage, networks, or other fundamental computing resources, and with which the consumer is able to deploy and run software that is not predefined, including operating systems and applications. The consumer typically does not manage or control most of the underlying hardware but has control over the operating systems, storage, and any deployed applications. The term is inclusive of “managed” products or services, in which the provider is responsible for some aspects of system configuration or maintenance, and “unmanaged” products or services, in which the provider is only responsible for ensuring that the product is available to the consumer."

And it doesn’t stop there. The term IaaS includes all ‘virtualized’ products and services where the computing resources of a physical machine are shared, such as Virtual Private Servers (VPS). It even covers ‘baremetal’ servers allocated to a single person. The definition also extends to any service where the consumer does not manage or control the underlying hardware but contracts with a third party for access. “This definition would capture services such as content delivery networks, proxy services, and domain name resolution services,” the proposal reads. The proposed rule, National Emergency with Respect to Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities, will stop accepting comments from interested parties on April 30, 2024.

Comment Re:So many contradicting numbers (Score 1) 58

In your example you described the phone that needed replacing as "Ancient".

When you get to "Ancient", it doesn't really matter whether its apple or android. It's out of support on either, and yes, app support starts to fall apart at that age too.

My brother in law just updated from a Galaxy S5 this year (10 years old).

Comment Re:So many contradicting numbers (Score 1) 58

Disagree. Perhaps it _should_ be a big factor, but it's really not.

People text, and snapchat, and tiktok, and watch youtube and play spotify, a mobile game, and take pictures, and maybe once in a while even make a phone call.

As long as that all just works, they don't really care, and will use the phone until they break it or it stops holding a charge.

Or if they're on some sort of subsidy-treadmill, they replace it every 2 years regardless.

Very very few people are 'oh noes, Samsung/Apple/HTC is no longer sending me annoying updates that make me reboot my phone... I need a new phone now!'

Comment Re:she seems less than open and honest herself (Score 1) 29

Correct nothing he can legally do as she royally fucked him.

Let me see if I can find words small enough for you to grasp:

There's nothing he can do with the knowledge that she's pregnant that isn't illegal. And it doesn't matter if he intends to do something illegal or not. If he changes the way he handles her employment, even if he doesn't realize it, he opens the company up to a lawsuit.

By not telling him, she did him and the company a favor.

Then acts shocked that he wasn't happy about it. fucking entitled bitch.

Misogynistic tech bros - like you - are the reason the law is what it is. Every word you post reinforces that it's the only viable option. If you were some kind of militant feminazi mole trying to make the tech bro culture look bad, you couldn't do a better job.
 

Submission + - South Korean military set to ban iPhones over 'security' concerns (straitstimes.com)

Kitkoan writes: South Korea’s military is considering a comprehensive ban on iPhones in military buildings due to increasing concerns about possible leaks of sensitive information through voice recordings, according to multiple sources on April 23.

The sources, a group of ranking officers who wished to speak on condition of anonymity, said that the Air Force headquarters released an internal announcement on the military’s intranet server on April 11, instructing a complete prohibition on any device capable of voice recording and which does not permit third-party apps to control inherent functions, effective June 1, with iPhones cited as items subject to the ban.

According to the document, the decision to ban iPhones in the military came from joint meetings held by the headquarters of the army, navy and air force, located at Gyeryongdae in South Chungcheong province.

Comment Re:Economic harship (Score 2) 247

You probably don't know any trans people personally. I grew up with the same beliefs about transgender people you have, until I actually got to know some of them. As impossible as it is for us to understand and as nonsensical as it appears to us, it's clearly not something most trans people choose.

It's OK for people to be different in ways we don't understand. Nobody has a duty to make sense to *us*. In any case, only about 0.6% of the population identify as transgender. Even if you completely outlawed gender reassignment surgery an gender-affirming care, it wouldn't budge the fertility needle even assuming trangender people decided to have children -- which they won't.

Of course, there's a counter example for any theory about people in general, so there's probably someone out there who chose it as a lifestyle. But that's just not the norm.

Comment Re:Economic harship (Score 2) 247

Also, employment is a lot less stable than it used to be. When I entered the workforce in the early 80s it was still common for people who were retiring to have worked for the same company all their lives. Young people now live in a gig economy; if they *do* work for a company, often they don't know how many hours they'll get from week to week.

And while things like TVs are cheaper than ever, essentials are often far more expensive. Median rents for a studio apartment in the US were about $250 when I got out of school; today they're $1200. If you have income twice the poverty rate and you follow the advice we were given back then to spend no more than 20% of your income on housing, you'd be looking to pay $483/month in rent. In most of the US even if you have roommates you'll be spending over $1000 per month.

Today it's more economically important to have a degree than ever. While wages for new college graduates have increased only modestly, wages for non-college graduates have dropped since the 1980s. Let's say you're thrifty and decide to commute to a state college. Your four year costs have risen from $3,200 to over $44,000. So families in their prime reproductive years are burdened with debt; it takes years to overcome that and to raise.

We often take poor families to task for being irresponsible and having children they can't afford, but the fertility rate in families below the poverty line isn't that high and it's remained steady for decades. What's happened is that the fertility rate at 200% of the poverty line has crashed.

Most women, with access to contraception and abortion, are doing what we told them is the responsible responsible thing. But if they *all* did it, it would be a demographic catastrophe.

Comment Re: When no one is employed (Score 5, Interesting) 103

The lack of clear English isnâ(TM)t the frustrating thing with modern day customer "service". I have lived in non-English speaking locales and can roll with a language barrier. The problem is outsourced customer "service" ain't empowered to do a damn thing except read from a script and by the time I'm frustrated enough to make a call it's invariably for a problem too complicated to solve with a script. AI will not fix this problem. It will just leave you yelling at a disempowered computer rather than a disempowered human being. The solution to this problem would require the C-Suite thinking of customer service as SERVICE rather than a pointless expense to be minimized.

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