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Comment Re:Bloatware turds with stupid keys (Score 1) 99

I just bought my first bilingual keyboard laptop and it is driving me nuts. I'm getting used to the Enter key placement, but that shift key is a pain. I came across this program which lets you remap the bottom-left backslash to shift.

http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/

It isn't perfect. It works well when typing words and paragraphs, but doesn't work for highlighting or some other functions.

Privacy

Submission + - Richard Feynman's FBI Files (muckrock.com) 1

v3rgEz writes: "The FBI files of noted physicist, esteemed author and all-around geek Richard Feynman have been released:

http://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2012/jun/06/feynman-files-professors-invitation-past-iron-curt/

Feynman and the FBI had an extended encounter after the Bureau discovered he had been invited to speak at the USSR, which set off a flurry of investigations into his loyalty — even as he pestered the State Department for guidance on whether he should or shouldn't go, guidance they only gave belatedly.

Of particular interest to the FBI was his avid devotion to the art of lock picking, his high school membership in a socialism club (for social reasons, he swore), and the fact that he was a godless scientist who loved his bongo drums.

Original Documents are available:

http://www.muckrock.com/foi/view/united-states-of-america/fbi-files-on-richard-feynman/1165/#366921-responsive-documents

One other element? A seven-page letter detailing a conspiracy theory that Feynman was a sleeper agent for enemies unknown, but probably communist ones.

http://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2012/jun/06/richard-feynman-master-deception-and-enemy-america/"

Comment Encryption? (Score 1) 250

Dropbox states that all files on their servers are encrypted. I had assumed this meant the key was encrypted with your own password, but this exploit suggests that the files either are not encrypted, or encrypted with a freely accessible key.

From: https://www.dropbox.com/help/27
"All files stored on Dropbox servers are encrypted (AES-256)"

Comment Re:not true. (Score 1) 452

Also, you don't have to be online to play the base game. However, if you have any DLC, you must be connected to the internet and logged into your BioWare account through Dragon Age to access it -- and if your saved games have any of that content in them, that means you can't load those saved games unless you're connected to the internet.

I have DLC and have no trouble loading my saved games while disconnected from the internet. Oddly enough, while I *am* connected to the internet I occasionally get an error saying I must login to load a saved game with premium content. So far I've always just been able to click "OK", and then "Resume" a second time and I get in just fine.

I'm playing the PC deluxe edition ordered from Impulse.

Math

Finding the First Trillion Congruent Numbers 94

eldavojohn writes "First stated by al-Karaji about a thousand years ago, the congruent number problem is simplified to finding positive whole numbers that are the area of a right triangle with rational number sides. Today, discovering these congruent numbers is limited only by the size of a computer's hard drive. An international team of mathematicians recently decided to push the limits on finding congruent numbers and came up with the first trillion. Their two approaches are outlined in detail, with pseudo-code, in their paper (PDF) as well as details on their hardware. For those of you familiar with this sort of work, the article provides links to solving this problem — from multiplying very large numbers to identifying square-free congruent numbers."
The Courts

Harlan Ellison Sues For "Star Trek" Episode 483

Miracle Jones writes "The ever-quotable speculative fiction writer Harlan Ellison has launched a lawsuit against Paramount and the Writer's Guild West for rights to residuals surrounding his famous and award winning 'City on the Edge of Forever' episode for the original Star Trek series. Ellison, recently featured in the documentary 'Dreams with Sharp Teeth,' said that 'The Trek fans who know my City screenplay understand just exactly why I'm bare-fangs-of-Adamantium about this.' Regarding his lawsuit, he had this to say: 'The arrogance, the pompous dismissive imperial manner of those who "have more important things to worry about," who'll have their assistant get back to you, who don't actually read or create, who merely "take" meetings, and shuffle papers — much of which is paper money denied to those who actually did the manual labor of creating those dreams — they refuse even to notice... until you jam a Federal lawsuit in their eye. To hell with all that obfuscation and phony flag-waving: they got my money. Pay me and pay off all the other writers from whom you've made hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars... from OUR labors... just so you can float your fat asses in warm Bahamian waters.'"

Comment Re:Speaking as a valve fanboy and steam early adop (Score 1) 159

Most large companies have their code in escrow. In the event they go under, terrorists take over, the pink unicorn rampages through their offices etc.

Hopefully this is something like what Valve means.

On a personal note I'm more a fan of ImpluseDriven from stardock. They have actually given me a refund on a game that crashed on startup, this is a first for me from any game company.
The Courts

Italian Red Lights Rigged With Short Yellow Light 353

suraj.sun writes with an excerpt from Ars Technica which brings to mind the importance of auditable code for hardware used in law enforcement: "It's no secret that red light cameras are often used to generate more ticket revenue for the cities that implement them, but a scam has been uncovered in Italy that has led to one arrest and 108 investigations over traffic systems being rigged to stop sooner for the sole purpose of ticketing more motorists."

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Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (9) Dammit, little-endian systems *are* more consistent!

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