Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Hope Rockstar doesn't miss the release date (Score 1) 53

Critically short career fields have Selective Reenlistment Bonuses (SRB). Those careers that are critically undermanned, have extremely long training programs, or require unique skills (SEALs, submarine nuclear technicians, cybersecurity, critical language linguists, etc.) will pay bonuses to entice members to reenlist.

The bonus is calculated by the member's monthly base pay x number of years reenlisting x SRB multiplier. An E-5 earning $4000 a month that reenlists for 6 years in a career field with an SRB multiplier of 3 could receive a SRB bonus of $72,000. This bonus is paid with 50% at the reenlistment and the remaining partial percentage paid each year. Reenlisting for 6 years would give 50% at signing, then 12.5% at year 2,3,4,5.

SRB bonuses are normally highest at the first reenlistment time frame. Members that reenlist for 6 years to get the maximum bonus are usually advance to the 10 year point in their career and at that point most of them will normally continue to the 20 year retirement without needing an added incentive. A critical career with a SRB multiple of 3 during the windows of 4-6 years might drop to an SRB bonus multiple of 1, 0.5, or 0 for years after 8.

Comment Re: quiet part out loud (Score 1) 90

True, in fact it might give a word-for-word translation round trip, which would defeat the purpose of trying to get rid of the watermarked phrasing.

Without knowing exactly which phrase in a 10-ish page document is the watermarked phrase, you would have to hope the translating round trip would remove or modify the phrase without introducing translation or logical errors. Overall I don't think using Google translate would be as helpful as he hoped.

Comment Re:Is This Not RADAR? (Score 1) 39

What is the difference between this and RADAR?

In RADAR the transmitting and receiving systems are controlled by the same system. That system determines when to transmit and when to listen with time of flight giving the range and directional antennas giving rough angle to the reflection.

In this technique, the WiFi transmitters are always transmitting and the receivers are trying to gather information from the interference caused by people obstructing the signal. Imagine having fairly powerful lights at one end of a room and a translucent sheet blocking the middle of the room. This technique is trying to resolve individuals based on their shadows on the translucent sheet. Different WiFi transmitters will be beamforming toward and adjacent to people and the receivers are trying to resolve two or three similar shadows into a composite associated with a unique individual.

Comment Re: quiet part out loud (Score 3, Interesting) 90

Watermark removal is available for almost no cost now. Google Translate and then back.

Depending on the language you choose, that's probably not going to work as well as you assume.

Random sample from the web:
Electric cars are the future in the auto industry. As climate change gets worse, governments are going to start
limiting the number of gasoline cars being built. The cost of gas will continue to rise, which will make it harder for
people to afford to run gas powered cars. As battery technology improves, electric cars will be able to travel
further on a charge and cost less to buy. Eventually most gas powered cars will be replaced by electric cars.

Translated to Japanese and back. Other languages will give different round trip translations:
Electric vehicles are a future for the automobile industry. As technology advances, national governments will begin to drastically
reduce the production of gasoline vehicles. Gasoline cars will continue to improve, and gasoline cars will become more readily available.
Electric vehicles, which do not require a battery technology factory, will be able to operate more efficiently with just one battery,
and their cost will also decrease. In short, most gasoline cars are no different from electric vehicles.

You are correct - sending the original text through Google Translate will most definitely get rid of AI watermarks. It will also get rid of any meaningful information compared to the original text.

Comment Re:How about (Score 2) 84

Specifically, when you try to open an ODF in an M$ product, you get a screenfull of FUD claiming it's malware, designed to scare away any non-technical user.

My version of MS Office 2016 doesn't give any alert when I open a sample copy of a .odt file, other than the standard yellow bar at the top stating it was downloaded from the web and is opening in read-only mode until I select to switch to editing mode. I can also save any file in .odt using Office 2016.

I can't verify what happens with the newer O365 versions because I refuse to "rent" my software from MS.

ODT is an open standard. If you open the file in a text editor you will see the first two letters are PK (RIP Phil Katz) Microsoft's .docx also starts with PK. Both are compressed zip files that contain the actual document, images, markup, etc. in specified folders, according to the open standards. Try opening either a .odt or .docx using 7zip to see the internal format.

Comment Re:They'd serve different purposes. (Score 1) 20

I assume thr 'drones in TFA are the typical home-gamer quad-copters... unless we're talking a big 'un, or a hex or even octo, it's not gonna have remotely close to enough battery to even get up to so-and-so altitude, let alone hang around long enough to gather data for an extended time period

Wow! You know you wouldn't have to ASSUME anything if you would just RTFA!

Comment Re:Governments don't have the right (Score 3, Insightful) 132

The actual problem is we, the people, have not yet decided if mass recording and storage of identifiable images should be illegal. The people must decide if they wish to enact laws that prohibit this activity and create laws to prevent it. This means we need to let our local representatives know we want to restrict this mass surveillance and storage of our whereabouts. They write the bills and if enough people support it, it passes and becomes law.

Without a law to prevent it, these companies will attempt to generate income from anything not yet illegal. If we feel strongly enough, we need to create these laws to stop it. Many cities and states are writing laws that prevent capturing information, limit how long the data is saved, or who can query the data. The laws in Boston, Boise, and Barstow will very different depending on the amount of public pushback each location generates.

Comment Re:I remember when the phone companies (Score 2) 38

I remember when you were finally allowed to connect your own phone handsets to your phone line, but you had to contact the phone company and give them the Ringer Equivalence Number (REN) printed on the bottom of the phone. Because the power to ring the bell in the phone came from the phone line, the phone company needed to know if your total REN was above 5 so they could supply more power on your line.

As more phones started using electronic ring sounds instead of mechanical bells, the whole REN reporting disappeared. As homes transitioned to multi-handset cordless phones, the whole line-powered phone was forgotten.

Comment Re:The Army is not capitalist (Score 2) 93

While I would love to grouse about how this is the result of corruption or incompetence, I don't see this problem as surprising. It's like the army fielding a new close combat battle rifle and then complaining about all the ammunition the army is firing.

The modern battlefield is changing. We saw a similar shift in the 1980s when electronics went from tubes to discrete components to integrated circuits and then microprocessors. The war in Ukraine has shown how drones have become integral to the battlefield. Using AI for planning, image analysis, pattern analysis, and tactical analysis is something the military is just getting a handle on. Getting the ground troops familiar with how AI can enhance or reduce their workload is something that is going to take familiarization and experimentation to find what helps, what is noise, and what is hallucinations. It's hard to categorize something as normal or abnormal if you've only used a tool twice.

Comment Re:Survivable crashes are now rare (Score 2) 63

The thing I find interesting is they still show how to secure and release a seatbelt. When the safety briefings began in 1952, it was not all that common for cars to have seatbelts, so explaining back then how they work made sense. Seatbelts were not federally required equipment in cars until 1968 and more years away from common usage. I didn't start consistently wearing seatbelts until they started checking for them at entry checkpoints in the 1980s.

I can understand the logic in pointing out where the nearest exit is, explaining that floor lights will pulse to show you the route to the nearest exit, how to start oxygen flowing if the masks drop from the overhead panels, but explaining how to secure and release a seatbelt seems like something that is now common knowledge.

Comment Re:How to turn off these silent installs? (Score 2) 122

There are two quick ways to turn manage Device Installation Settings on Home editions:

Method 1: Using Registry Editor (works on all editions)

This method involves changing Registry values and requires administrative rights. Before you proceed, create a backup.

        Press Win + R, type regedit, and hit Enter.
        Using the Registry Editor’s address bar, navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Device Metadata

        In the right-hand pane, double-click PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork.
        In the Value field:
                Type 0 to allow automatic driver updates.
                Type 1 to block automatic driver updates.
        Press OK.
        Restart the workstation to apply changes.

Method 2: Using Control Panel

If modifying low-level settings isn’t necessary, using the Control Panel is the simplest way to configure automatic driver update settings.

        Press the Windows key and type "device installation", click on the "Configure Device Installation Settings"
        When asked if you want to automatically download manufacturer apps for your devices, choose depending on your needs.
        Click Save Changes, then OK.
        Restart your PC to apply changes.

Almost all Group Policy settings can be configured by manually changing or adding registry values.

Comment Re:Might be for fingerprinting (Score 2) 77

A user that logs into Windows with an organizational account does not have a Microsoft user account. The backup data itself is stored in the enterprise's domain, and the feature does not support cross-tenant migration. Cloud PCs are also not yet supported.

All this "backup" tool does is enumerate the installed programs that came from the Microsoft store so provisioning a new computer or creating a new profile on an existing computer offers the user the option of installing the previous set of listed programs from the Microsoft store. It does not backup program settings or program data. The same process could be accomplished in AD group settings, but not admins configure individual or group provisioning settings.

I see this as a tool for busy AD admins that haven't spent the time to pre-configure deployment settings. It also has absolutely no impact on home users.

Comment Re:Avoid student debt like the plague (Score 1) 153

Student loan interest rates are usually less than 10%, much much better than credit card debt.

Good point. I had seen some interest rates on private loans that were above 15% but I see now that is not common.

I've seen both opinions championed. Jump into a four-year degree using student loans and plan on getting a job capable of paying the debt in a reasonable time frame, or working and stretching a degree to six years with no debt. Both have advantages and the choice heavily depends on the demand for the job your degree supports.

Slashdot Top Deals

A fanatic is a person who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. - Winston Churchill

Working...