Comment Firefox OS? (Score 2) 97
I want investor fun money.
Comment Words of wisdom from Linus (Score 2) 238
quite apart from the risk of loss in a court, the real risk is something that happens whether you win or lose, and in fact whether you go to court or just threaten: the loss of community, and in particular exactly the kind of community that can (and does) help. You lose your friends."
Lawsuits always create divisions and force people to take sides. It can be really fun. But it's also probably something you shouldn't do to colleagues and friends because computer science is a small world.
Comment Re:If Google is doing something illegal (Score 1) 156
Their claim was that the Java API was copyrightable (judge ruled it isn't). But, I get the claim. Should you be able to copyright a protocol, like TCP/IP? Cryptographic algorithms are even patentable.
Comment Re:Pot, meet kettle (Score 1) 156
I like Oracle. They do innovative computer engineering and research.
Comment Re:We're All Dying (Score 1) 515
But what's a hacker? I usually think of it as the poor man/woman's EECS degree. People with an intrinsic interest in computers but without academic resources or direction. Computers are a really new and unexplored invention.
Comment Re:Freeze Peach (Score 2) 134
I thought the answer to speech you don't like was more speech. Not if you're Peter Thiel. He used his money and power to destroy a website because they called him a homo.
Had nothing to do with free speech. The website published a porno without permission of those in it. The website ignored a judge's order to take it down. The website destroyed itself. Mr. Thiel just helped that along. Think of that the next time you donate to the ACLU to do your bidding.
It's a league game, Smokey.
Or in the Hulkster's own words:
They messed with the wrong guy brother HH
— Hulk Hogan (@HulkHogan) August 18, 2016
Comment I'm Sorry Dave (Score 3, Informative) 11
A) It's not that intelligent and certainly doesn't reason. There was a framework to the competition, so it wasn't a wild goose chase within the x86 ISA. For example, https://github.com/CyberGrandChallenge/samples/blob/master/examples/CADET_00001/src/service.c. This code has a 'bug" that's only found by brute forcing ASCII characters on input to that function.
B) EFF doesn't need to worry about this thing becoming sentient and starting Skynet. It's certainly a predefined set of common system flaws which, at best, use machine learning for their implementation.
https://www.cybergrandchallenge.com/tech
B) EFF doesn't need to worry about this thing becoming sentient and starting Skynet. It's certainly a predefined set of common system flaws which, at best, use machine learning for their implementation.
https://www.cybergrandchallenge.com/tech
Comment Re:Slashbros, freak the fuck out! (Score 1) 119
Actually, the government intervenes in your private affairs quite frequently. A relevant case comes directly from Silicon Valley: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruneyard_Shopping_Center_v._Robins
Comment Office for Mac (Score 1) 77
The lab's initial research has found that Microsoft's Office suite for OS X, for example, is missing fundamental security settings because the company is using a decade-old development environment to build it, despite using a modern and secure one to build its own operating system, Mudge says
hahah I went to undergrad with one of the developers. Good to know he hasn't been asked to update it since then. Seriously though, that's kind of the problem with the corporate form and fiduciary duty: companies will nicely box and sell a turd as a wholesome source of fiber if it's the only way they can figure out how to increase profit.
Comment Re:Sad but unavoidable (Score 1) 162
Upmod parent. Please.
Google needs to look up the definition of Technical Debt:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_debt
Google needs to look up the definition of Technical Debt:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_debt
Comment Re:Wireless Keyboards (Score 1) 85
The problem is public key algorithms are too computationally expensive to do, so they're left, usually, with AES (symmetric -- pre-exchanged key). But the key-exchange for AES is hard/impossible to do without adding something else into the solution. In the end, yeah, they don't want to pay to do all that (and most buyers don't really care).
Comment Drones. (Score 1) 193
Netflix's April 1st, 2016 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucz3JpvDQjk
Comment Cars? Really? (Score 1) 143
Are both Google and Apple really developing self-driving cars? I can see the allure: if it works perfect, it'll sell and they'll make trillions in profit. But it just seems so afar from consumer electronics to start developing mechanical systems. I helped perform electronic analysis in a major automotive case once, and what surprised me was the /interaction/ between electronics and mechanics created its own system which failed (i.e., neither independently failed). This is something automotive manufacturers have dealt with for a long time. Also, I don't see how machine learning alone could really lead to self-driving cars in unprepared environments -- that's kind of the point of statistics, you need "training data" and anything not within or near that training it can't handle.
Comment TrollCrunch (Score 1) 12
Oh-em-gee. Good thing there was a news story telling people about it or the only thing people would've noticed was the marginal less spam on the Internet.
Comment Go to Blue Alert! (Score 1) 133
"Go to Blue Alert!"
"Sir, are you absolutely sure? That does mean changing the bulb."
Red Dwarf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa_gZ_7sdZg
"Sir, are you absolutely sure? That does mean changing the bulb."
Red Dwarf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa_gZ_7sdZg
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"Being against torture ought to be sort of a multipartisan thing." -- Karl Lehenbauer, as amended by Jeff Daiell, a Libertarian
