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Submission + - NSA Revelation Leads FTC To Propose "Reclaim Your Name" Initiative (ftc.gov)

Submitted by clegrand
clegrand writes: Ms. Julie Brill, a member of the Federal trade Commission, has proposed a voluntary big data industry initiative to allow consumers access to their personal records and the ability to correct them. She has coined it "Reclaim Your Name". While some big data companies such as Acxiom (http://www.acxiom.com/site-assets/privacy-acxiom-marketing-products/) already allow such access, it is not an industry-wide practice. She sees this campaign as a natural extension of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and a logical partner for the ongoing effort of the Do Not Track mechanism currently under standardization review with the W3C. The New York Times has a take on it here: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/reclaim-your-name/?nl=technology&emc=edit_ct_20130627 Link to full text of her speech is listed below.

Comment Re:Again, just a few winners (Score 1) 192

by clegrand (#40839389) Attached to: Internet Billionaire Creates Huge Physics Prize
Well.. let's take a look at that .. if the winner is one of the young guys at 47 and we expect him to live into his 80s .. then we have to cover his life for 40 years. The median available 3 bedroom house in Berkeley right now is $1M. Add up 40 years of property tax (~$775K), house insurance (~$120K), health insurance (~$192K), a new Prius every 10 years (~$120K), car insurance (~$48K), food (~$438K), computers (~$24K), communications (~$48K).. and ...well, you know, a life. $3M barely gets you there.
Microsoft

Submission + - NBC purchases MSNBC rights from Microsoft, rebrands MSNBC.com to NBCNews.com (msn.com)

Submitted by flatt
flatt writes: Ending a sixteen year partnership between the now Comcast-owned NBCUniversal and Microsoft, the MSNBC.com website has been immediately renamed to NBCNews.com. Both parties note that the integration between both parties is deep and will require 2 years to complete the decoupling. For the immediate future, NBC will continue to provide news content for MSN.com and Microsoft will continue to be the advertising provider for the site. Content control, brand confusion, and partisan content are cited as reasons behind the breakup.

Microsoft sold its 50% share in the MSNBC TV rights to NBC back in 2005.
Space

Submission + - Not a Dwarf: Is Pluto a Binary Planet? (discovery.com)

Submitted by
astroengine
astroengine writes: "If the Pluto-Charon system were viewed in a similar way to binary stars and binary asteroids, Pluto would become a Pluto-Charon binary planet. After all, Charon is 12% the mass of Pluto, causing the duo to orbit a barycenter that is located above Pluto's surface. Sadly, in the IAU's haste to define what a planet is in 2006, they missed a golden opportunity to define the planetary binary. Interestingly, if Pluto was a binary planet, last week's discovery of a fifth Plutonian moon would have in fact been the binary's fourth moon to be discovered by Hubble — under the binary definition, Charon wouldn't be classified as a moon at all."

Comment Re:usage based (Score 1) 463

by clegrand (#28611259) Attached to: The Dilemma of Level vs. Skill In MMOs

One simple change could be to make progression depend on skill, not trivial success and grinding.

.....

Absolutely non-trivial to implement and balance, so it's probably not the end of the idea. But it might be a start.

The Trouble With Trivials ....ummm.. which end are we starting at?

Comment Re:skill? (Score 1) 463

by clegrand (#28611093) Attached to: The Dilemma of Level vs. Skill In MMOs
I'd have to agree. In the end, general familiarity with a given genre leads to uniform gaming experiences where the only differentiators are the relative coding skills of the programmer responsible for the module your are currently playing. A couple of examples might be: an out of place poly in an FPS can catch your toon or give an unfair advantage; aggro range on mobs in MMORPGs can directly affect the difficulty of an encounter. As skill, or

... intimate knowledge of a game's mechanics ...

increases, you are in effect, playing against the programmer directly. A programmer who is hobbled by the required script.

Comment Re:Most people won't care, but at Orlando... (Score 1) 171

by clegrand (#28439707) Attached to: Verified Identity Pass Shuts Down "Clear" Operations

... All of their staff signed up for Clear and said it was either unavailable or pretty much worthless everywhere EXCEPT Orlando...

I am disappointed at the news .. I fly out of San Francisco regularly and it was an incredible convenience. Of course, traveling with family who DIDN'T have the card meant I had to walk thru the normal line with them while I stared longingly at the Clear lane.. heh.

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One of the most overlooked advantages to computers is... If they do foul up, there's no law against whacking them around a little. -- Joe Martin

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