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Comment Re:Treason (Score 1) 327

Bullshit.

If I sold something that knowingly was designed to kill solders, than yes. Selling something to the military with degraded quality and attempting to defraud someone?. .. uh... I don't think so.

Seriously, there are numerous military contractors out there that are "gaming the system" to provide to our troops overseas. We could start with Haliburt.... oh nevermind.

Assholes? Yes! Illegal.. Yes!

Treasonous? Sorry, I don't think so.

Comment Code Review? (Score 1) 298

So, who is going to review the code in this closed process? The judge? :) Hehehe... I can see him now powering up is new Mac Book pro, reviewing the source code and exclaiming "There it is... the smoking gun!"

In all seriousness, how would they manage this process? Would the plaintiff and defendant hire expert programmers to comb through the code looking for evidence? Would it then be presented to the judge and he would decide? Would he even know how to decide?

I can see it now - "Your honor, you can clearly see here where Apple overloaded the xxYY class with functions that are clearly..... " Watching the judge's eyes glass over, you would have to wonder how something like this would actually come to a "successful" conclusion for either side.

Comment Power Fail Often (Score 2, Interesting) 100

Frankly, if data centers are going to proclaim their redundancy, they should test by power failing the entire data center once every two weeks at a minimum. A data center that goes down twice in a month would get ahead of any issue pretty fast. Lessons learned from the staff and the management are very valuable.

The marketing messaging:

"We power fail our data center every two weeks to ensure our backups work..."

Sound scary? Just think about the data center that has never been through this process. at that point, the wet paper bag you tried to market your way out of dried rather quickly and you are now faced with the prospect of slapping around inside of a zip-lock.

Comment Government problem solution... commercial sector. (Score 1) 210

It sounds to me like a cry for help directed to the public sector, from the US Government.

Imagine a subscription/license service for a geo-location broadcast platform from space that is unrestricted to users and as accurate as science knows how to make such things "accurate." How much do you think that license would be worth?

Scary? Absolutely.

Possible? More Absolutely!

There is serious money in geo-location today. Not just to target nuclear warhead.. if you call that a business.

Comment Re:Wow (Score 4, Informative) 359

Come on folks, this is a serious news article :-)

I've spent a tremendous amount of time listening to these bootleggers on the FLTSATCOM satellites. It is rather easy for them (the Brazilians and others) to modify a amateur radio or other transmitters to use these satellites.

Basically, these satellites work by listening on one frequency (an uplink), and rebroadcasting what they hear over a specified frequency bandwidth to listeners (a downlink). The uplink and downlink frequencies are well known and published across many mediums - including Mil-Std documents which specify how terminals should interact with these satellites.

I published a spectrum analysis article on this very topic here (shameless plus):

http://radioreference.blogspot.com/2008/10/vhfuhf-spectrum-analysis-using-rf-space.html

This method of communication is actually very secure for the US Military - since they rarely use clear voice on these transponders - meaning, they encrypt all transmissions to and from.

Now, an open repeater, in Geospacial orbit, provides a set of repeaters for anyone to use... either the US military (which they still actively use) - or others who have equipment that can transmit to, and reiceve from.

For those that are dismayed by this approach, understand that when this technology was developed, security by obscurity was a common approach even for military agencies. It wasn't feasible even 10 years ago to "authenticate" use access to open satellite transponders.

Security

Submission + - Brazilian Pirates Hijack US MIlitary Satellites (radioreference.com)

blantonl writes: "This article in Wired explains how Brazilians all over the country are using modified amateur radio equipment to communicate with each other using US Military communications satellites — effectively creating their own CB radio network on the backs of the US Military. Recent efforts to crack down have resulted in arrests of some of the users, however the behavior still continues today."
Linux Business

Where Does Linux Go From Here? 360

With the success that Linux is currently enjoying Linux.com (also owned by SourceForge, Inc) asks the question, where do we go from here? With such a high level of success and greater corporate participation (on both the consumer and provider fronts) will the spirit of freedom and idealism remain true or will the ever-present corporate bottom line eventually take over? "Linux is surrounded by proprietary IT firms. Some of them view Linux as a profit maker, others as a threat to their profits. Both sides represent a challenge for Linux in holding to its ideals of freedom and openess. The first large IT firm to really grok Linux was IBM. It has a long and mutually beneficial association with Linux, Apache, and other FOSS projects. The company has learned the language and the mores of the FOSS world, and has made significant code contributions as part of those projects along the way."
The Almighty Buck

United Makes Plans to Drop 'Baggage Neutrality' 682

theodp writes "If you need a clue as to how creative ISP execs might get in the absence of network neutrality, look no further than United Airlines CEO Glenn Tilton, who is wowing Wall Street with his willingness to examine new ways to wring money out of the carrier, including making economy passengers pay a fee unless they want their luggage to come last off the plane." Now I think when i was like gold ultimate handjob elite years ago my bags had tags that usually made them come out first, but this seems just kinda crappy. I mean, remember when you got a meal on airplanes? No wonder people hate to fly.
Media (Apple)

Apple Sues Over iGasm Ads 342

funkeymonkeyman writes "Apple is less than pleased with an interesting new peripheral for the iPod which promises to 'take your appreciation of music to a whole new level.' Legal action has been taken against Ann Summers, the manufacturers of the new device, specifically for the similarity of the iGasm advertisements to the iconic iPod silhouette ads. The CEO of the adult retail chain replied to the threat cheerily, 'Perhaps I can send them an iGasm to put a smile back on their faces.'"

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