Our Intrepid Admin should have taken a few notes from the BOFH and stopped trying to "convince the users" as much as he should have been trying to "inflict upon the users." Then again our Intrepid Admin is probably an overgrown PFY so we can't really expect much, now can we?

More like, "Why won't this executable virus I got off facebook run!? Linux is shit, going back to windows!"

So I'm pretty sure my linux machine is malware free.

I'm going to try this right now. I'm going to break into my neighbour's house, and change all the locks on all their doors and windows. Each one will require a different key. It may be expensive, but it'll be interesting.

I suppose I could booby trap the home and steal the TV remote for good measure, but I'd like to see how they cope. I'll leave a key to each room hidden somewhere and they can start with a key that I'll tape to their back door. They have to unlock every single door in order to solve the final puzzle. Hell, I think I just came up with a way to have endless fun.

All I'll need now is to video stream it using a Raspberry Pi and I can make an entire story on Slashdot about it too!

Obligatory TED links, that might actually be a bit more insightful than TFA.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/hans_rosling_religions_and_babies.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_on_global_population_growth.html

While I am skeptical that we'll have enough resources either way, I think that humans are going to have to adapt hard or the entire race will just fade away. This won't necessarily be a problem for a few generations, but there is very little left in this world that is untouched, or that we can leave untouched. Solutions to the energy crisis aside, food and water are still major concerns, and we can't infinitely increase the amount of farming, because we'll also need to increase our living spaces; however, this is unless we go full Tokyo and build above and below ourselves and learn to live in cramped situations. Even still, it will be an incredibly difficult feat to convince most Westerners that they aren't allowed cars anymore and that they need to walk or use trains to go to work. I don't mind myself, since I'm a student who uses trains and busing all the time, but few people want to give up the luxury of driving to work in favour of using a subway system (similar to how most east asian countries operate).

In the meantime, I'm going to be developing my zombie formula so that I can do my part to end overpopulation. Call me if you can help, I'm trying to put a patent together so I can sue others who want to destroy the Earth while the zombies and lawyers (?difference) take over.

Between this and the lawyer that was behind theOatmeal vs FunnyJunk I'm getting this funny impression that lawyers outside silicon valley are actually pretty nice people.

I must be getting brainwashed. Where's my tinfoil hat?

OH!!!! A WIFE!!!!

Now here I thought you said you'd be giving me girlfriends. I thought that if they're in an endless supply I could use the same life expectancy model on the relationship that silicon valley uses on technology nowadays. Planned obsolescence anyone?

Yes, actually. This is exactly what I propose.

If you send beautiful women my way, I'm not going to complain.

Don't be ridiculous. There are no girls on the internet.

Quite frankly, as an undergrad student in the middle of his degree, I'm more interested in the benefits, such as on the job training, or networking.

That said, I'm working in research right now, so any pay is probably more than what I'm making.

It is simple. We build our malls out of plastic and we'll navigate just fine.

Another plus is that you'll be able to use this to find your kid in the ball pit at McDonalds next time they disappear.

I would argue the opposite, actually. Most Adobe stuff just simply cannot keep up with Linux.

Why would they even try when the end product comes out like garbage anyways? I'm looking at you Flash.

So you're telling me that they're just as harmful as cellphones, and are just as much of a privacy invasion as cellphones?

Why don't we just strap a cellphone to the sides of our houses? Sounds like the general public would be more impressed if there was an android app that measured power usage.

I'm pretty positive this drone wasn't using very many advanced algorithms. I mean, in the base case, you could easily spoof the unencrypted signal and try to force the drone to change directions. Unfortunately, this really only works when you're using Pseudorange measurements, as opposed to Carrier Phase. Moreover, if there was an INS on the drone as well, this interference problem would become rather trivial.

When using a GPS, if you notice large gaps where your data suddenly "jumps" from one location to another, it tends to be due to poor satellite geometry, i.e.: you have a cycle slip and you need to reconnect to the satellite and estimate the carrier ambiguity again before you can continue to use that satellite's measurements. Of course, this sort of thing is only detectable if you use Carrier Phase measurements, because Pseudorange can have an expected error of +/-10 metres. Now, suppose you're using Carrier Phase to detect cycle slips, and somebody manages to still spoof the signal. With an INS on board, you can still detect the direction of travel, as well as the acceleration at which you are traveling. If your INS does not agree with your GPS, then it would be assumed that the GPS is erroneous, and thus to ignore it until it starts agreeing again. There should be next to no excuse for somebody to take over a drone other than a mechanical malfunction or shoddy software.

Lastly, the idea that the military channel (aka P-code / encrypted channel) could easily be spoofed is ridiculous. GPS gives updates for satellite position approximately every 2 hours, if I remember correctly. That means you could effectively update the keys for the encryption every 2 hours, if you were so inclined. On top of that, the bandwidth of the P-code is much higher, and when interference/multipath/noise/spoofed signals try to mess with that, they end up having a far smaller effect on the signal than is given to consumer / civilian channels. Overall, the P-code is really hard to break, since encryption roll over can update very frequently, and noise and other interference can be mitigated quite well. It should also be noted that military based systems use very expensive receivers, often ones that don't track weak signals (that are more easily spoofed) and ones that can track multiple frequencies (L1, L2, L5, L1C, L2C, P-code) as well as multiple systems (GLONASS, GPS, Beidou/Compass, and more). Quite frankly, it's too expensive and too difficult to spoof that many signals and systems, since GLONASS runs on completely different frequencies, and doesn't even use the same type of signals (Amplitude Modulated GPS vs Frequency Modulated GLONASS). Overall, this article is FUD, and shows that the writer doesn't know jack lanterns about GPS.

Let me try to explain:

If Microsoft implements Do-Not-Track as default in IE, then the majority of users will never notice the setting and then leave it on. This means, most ad companies will start losing revenue, and fast. This is a problem for most ad companies. So, since Do-Not-Track is just a flag that says "I don't want you to track me," it can't actually prevent companies from tracking you online (since it doesn't have any technical blocking or filtering) if they decide they want to.

If ad companies start finding out that Do-Not-Track is default, and that everyone is using it, they're just going to ignore the feature for everyone, which makes it worthless. Therefore, it is better that Do-Not-Track is opt-in, since this will legitimately show that users don't want to be tracked, as opposed to users who were just too lazy or ignorant to change the settings.

In the long run, companies will be more likely to follow the Do-Not-Track standard if they aren't losing significant market share to it. Since the people opting in should effectively be just the tinfoil hats, they won't care about that revenue, since these people use adblock and don't make them money anyways.

All in all, it's a touchy issue. I don't think anybody here agrees that tracking is good. In fact, most of us think it's deplorable the amount a company tracks us on the web just in the name of a couple ad clicks. However, Do-Not-Track is completely useless unless it is opt-in. Otherwise, companies would just ignore it anyways, since it's not mandated by governments or any powerful institution. Hope that helps clear things up.