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Comment Re:TV? You mean, single-use device? (Score 1) 418

by Roblimo (#44814605) Attached to: Is It Time to Replace Your First HDTV? (Video)

Agreed re cable TV. I need to wean my wife from a few cable-only shows, then we'll have Internet and over-the-air TV with a two-tuner media PC behind the TV and a wireless keyboard to control it. Savings? Maybe $75/month. would be more except for the damn bundling crap the cable/ISP providers insist on. Damn thieves. $75 for fairly quick Internet alone, with all the crap they load on it. I don't *need* tech support and their email and "webspace." Give me a connection, keep it working, and leave me alone. Bet they could charge me $20/month and make money. (mutter mutter mutter)

Comment Re:Parlament election (Score 2) 239

by Tom (#44811871) Attached to: German Federal Police Helicopter Circles US Consulate

You're an idiot. The only reason this country is still standing is because we learnt during the Kohl era (her mentor, btw) how to run a country without a government, because its official attitude is basically that they're not interested in running the country.

The greatest strength of Germany is that it really doesn't matter who's in the drivers seat, because we have long removed the pedals and the steering wheel from there anyways.

If you want to understand Germany, the first thing you need to know about politics is that the central government does not matter one bit. Since Kohl, we've had 4 different parties in 4 different coalitions running the country. You need a microscope to find the changes in the actual politics.

Credit where credit is due: Everywhere but the government. The rest of the country is doing a pretty good job keeping the country running even though we haven't had an actual government for a decade or so.
Displays

Video Is It Time to Replace Your First HDTV? (Video) 418

Posted by Roblimo from the newer-is-not-always-better dept.
Millions of Americans bought their first HDTVs between four and seven years ago, because that's when prices for 40" - 50" sets started dropping below $700. Those sets are obviously between four and seven years old now. Are new ones so much more wonderful that it's time to get a new HDTV? Not necessarily. Alfred Poor, long-time display technology expert and senior editor for aNewDomain, has some insight here, which he shares with us in today's video. There's obviously a lot more to discuss about TV technology advances (such as 3d) that we didn't get to today, so look forward to another discussion on this topic in two or three weeks.

Comment Re:Parlament election (Score 3, Insightful) 239

by Tom (#44805817) Attached to: German Federal Police Helicopter Circles US Consulate

This.

It also remains unclear

Uh, no it doesn't. The current ruling coalition is not guaranteed to continue having the majority after the election. We will most likely keep our mother-troll, mostly because she spent the last 10 years wiping out everyone who could challenge her within her own party, but it's unclear if they can rule with their favorite coalition partner or someone else.

Of course this was a publicity stunt. Ponfalla is not in the business of stuff like this unless it is of personal important to the government.
Privacy

Keeping Data Secret, Even From Apps That Use It 59

Posted by samzenpus from the no-information dept.
Nerval's Lobster writes "Datacenters wanting to emulate Google by encrypting their data beyond the ability of the NSA to crack it may get some help from a new encryption technique that allows data to be stored, transported and even used by applications without giving away any secrets. In a paper to be presented at a major European security conference this week, researchers from Denmark and the U.K. collaborated on a practical way to implement a long-discussed encryption concept called Multi-Party Computation (MPC). The idea behind MPC is to allow two parties who have to collaborate on an analysis or computation to do so without revealing their own data to the other party. Though the concept was introduced in 1982, ways to accomplish it with more than two parties, or with standardized protocols and procedures, has not become practical in commercial environments. The Danish/British team revamped an MPC protocol nicknamed SPDZ (pronounced 'speeds'), which uses secret, securely generated keys to distribute a second set of keys that can be used for MPC encryptions. The big breakthrough, according to Smart, was to streamline SPDZ by reducing the number of times global MAC keys had to be calculated in order to create pairs of public and private keys for other uses. By cutting down on repetitive tasks, the whole process becomes much faster; because the new technique keeps global MAC keys secret, it should also make the faster process more secure."
Technology

Tricorder Project Releases Prototype Open Source 3D Printable Spectrometer 41

Posted by samzenpus from the scan-me dept.
upontheturtlesback writes "As part of developing the next open source science tricorder model, Dr. Peter Jansen of the Tricorder project has released the source to an inexpensive 3D printable visible spectrometer prototype intended for the next science tricorder, but also suitable for Arduino or other embedded electronics projects for science education. With access to a Makerbot-class 3D printer, the spectrometer can be build for about $20 in materials. The source files including hardware schematics, board layouts, Arduino/Processing sketches and example data are available on Thingiverse, and potential contributors are encouraged to help improve the spectrometer design."
China

China Allows Most Online Criticism But Cracks Down On Mobilization and Gossip 94

Posted by samzenpus from the sticks-and-stones dept.
hackingbear writes "Harvard sociologist Gary King has just completed two studies that peer into the Chinese censorship machine — including a field experiment within China that was conducted with extraordinary secrecy. Together, the studies refute popular intuitions about what Chinese censors are after. He found that the censors actually permit 'vitriolic criticism' of China's leaders and governmental policies but the censors crack down heavily on any move to get people physically mobilized to act on such criticism. In a related development, China's top court issued a ruling on Monday to threaten a 3-year sentence for people posting online rumors viewed by 5,000 internet users or reposted more than 500 times. Though, in the same ruling, the court also clarified that a person reposting false rumor should not be punished if he or she does not clearly know the information is false, even if real harm is done. "
Transportation

Aeroscraft Begins Flight Testing Following FAA Certification 158

Posted by samzenpus from the I'm-floating dept.
Zothecula writes "After a 70-year absence, it appears that a new rigid frame airship will soon be taking to the skies over California. Aeros Corporation, a company based near San Diego, has received experimental airworthiness certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to begin flight testing the Aeroscraft airship, and it appears that the company has wasted no time getting started."
Books

Book Review: The Practice of Network Security Monitoring 15

Posted by samzenpus from the read-all-about-it dept.
benrothke writes "It has been about 8 years since my friend Richard Bejtlich's (note, that was a full disclosure 'my friend') last book Extrusion Detection: Security Monitoring for Internal Intrusions came out. That and his other 2 books were heavy on technical analysis and real-word solutions. Some titles only start to cover ground after about 80 pages of introduction. With this highly informative and actionable book, you are already reviewing tcpdump output at page 16. In The Practice of Network Security Monitoring: Understanding Incident Detection and Response, Bejtlich takes the approach that your network will be attacked and breached. He observes that a critical part of your security posture must be that of network security monitoring (NSM), which is the collection and analysis of data to help you detect and respond to intrusions." Read below for the rest of Ben's review.
Apple

The iPhone 5S Hasn't Been Officially Announced, Already Has Line 181

Posted by samzenpus from the but-I-want-it-now dept.
Daniel_Stuckey writes "The iPhone 5S line has already begun, despite Apple not even having made its announcement yet. From the looks of the invite to the unveiling in San Francisco on Sept. 10 (and another event the following day in Beijing, where iPhones are all the rage), the company will not only be announcing a next generation iPhone, the 5S, but also the lower-priced 5C model, in a variety of cheaper-looking colors."
Privacy

The Reporter's Fifth Amendment Paradox 452

Posted by samzenpus from the no-information dept.
Bennett Haselton writes: "The ongoing case of New York Times reporter James Risen -- whom the U.S. Department of Justice wants to force to testify against one of his sources for leaking classified CIA information -- brings up a more general question about the Fifth Amendment: Why are criminal defendants allowed to remain silent, but not third-party witnesses like Risen?" You'll find the rest of Bennett's story below.

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