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Comment Re:Randomness is like Magic (Score 1) 326

Randomness is often considered to be an unpredictable pattern, but what is and isnt predictable is dependent on knowledge, so its not an absolute truth.

According to quantum theory, you're wrong. The point of using this technology is that the results cannot be predicted, however knowledgeable you may be. That's why there's a fuzz.

Now, what's needed is some mechanism to ensure no tampering with the diamond can be done.

Comment Re:But its NOT centralized trust... (Score 1) 152

The root of the problem (pun intended) is NOT that the SSL/TLS certificate hierarchy is a centralized trust, but that there are hundreds of roots of trust, any one of which may be compromised,

The problem is the consequences when a centralized trust is broken. In principle, the number of roots does not matter (even if in real life, it makes it easier to find a viable attack route), because the root of the evil is that it will suffice to break a single point.

A proper design would make sure that even in the case of successful hackers, rogue employees, silent break-and-entry by foreign intelligence agencies or hostile government take-overs, the consequences would not be dire.

This is why some people like the idea of using DNSSEC for distributing key material: there exists only a single valid path of trust to a single root for a key associated with any given name: its actually more centralized than SSL/TLS, which is what is desired.

Even though based on false premises (IMHO), your conclusion is intriguing. Would you kindly explain which threats dnssec will remove?

Comment Re:They're all apeing OSX (Score 2) 835

One thing Windows did right was the Taskbar. It is, in all seriousness, an extremely good metaphor. It separates the acts of launching programs from managing which ones are running, because, dammit, those are different things.

The importance of this difference is entirely in the eye of the beholder. At the moment, I'm still stuck in the same world as you, I'm used to a better feeling of control. But the iOS and OSX users certainly don't care if the application is starting or is already started - what they want is to use it where they left it.

OSX, with its Dock, conflates launching a program with looking at a window that it has opened. The implicit metaphor is that all programs are always "running,"

I don't agree. The implicit metaphore is that the tool should be where you left it in the state that you left it. It's just a different approach. I think it's better for most people. Linux kernel developers and sysadmins are not most people in this sense.

Role Playing (Games)

Looking Back At Dungeons & Dragons 189

An anonymous reader sends in a nostalgic piece about Dungeons & Dragons and the influence it's had on games and gamers for the past 36 years. Quoting: "Maybe there was something in the air during the early '70s. Maybe it was historically inevitable. But it seems way more than convenient coincidence that Gygax and Arneson got their first packet of rules for D&D out the door in 1974, the same year Nolan Bushnell managed to cobble together a little arcade machine called Pong. We've never had fun quite the same way since. Looking back, these two events set today's world of gaming into motion — the Romulus and Remus of modern game civilization. For the rest of forever, we would sit around and argue whether games should let us do more or tell us better stories."
Portables

Submission + - 12 hour battery life in a high-end laptop? Asus sa (hjkladshjkladshjkladfs.org)

ScuttleMonkey writes: "Asus' new high end laptop could finally be the traveler's best accoutrement, touting twelve hour battery life thanks to intelligent, second-by-second, switching between the two GPUs and automatic on-the-fly re-clocking of the Intel Core i7 CPU. All this also comes in with a price tag of just over $1,000. "ASUS's solution is different because it's user-transparent; even a novice user will get the fullest possible benefit because the laptop itself is deciding when to switch. The same principle applies to the dynamic CPU clocking. ASUS includes a desktop widget to track CPU clock speed. While using the UL80JT, I could see it moving up and down with what I did; up with program openings and CPU-intensive processes, and way down at idle. Between the GPU switching, dynamic clocking, and ASUS's other power management features, the UL80JT manages to consume less than half as much power as the unibody Macbook while browsing.""
Movies

Submission + - Here We Go Again: Video Standards War 2010 (consortiuminfo.org)

Andy Updegrove writes: Think of the words "standards war," and if you're of a certain age you're likely to think of the battle between the Betamax and VHS video tape formats. Fast forward, and you'll recall we just finished another video standards war between most of the same companies, this time between HD DVD and Blu-ray. Well, here we go again, except this time its the movie studios that are duking it out, and DRM issues is a big part of it. On the one side are five of the six major studios, dozens of cable, hardware, software, distribution and device vendors, and on the other side there's just Disney — and maybe Apple as well, and that's enough to have the other side worried.
Games

Submission + - How to judge legal risk when making a game clone? 1

An anonymous reader writes: I'm an indie game developer making a clone of a rather obscure old game. Gameplay in my clone is very similar to the old game and my clone even has a very similar name because I want to attract fans of the original. The original game has no trademark or software patent associated with it and my clone isn't infringing on the original's copyright in any way (all the programming and artwork is original work), but nevertheless I'm still worried about the possibility of running afoul of a look and feel lawsuit or something similar. How do I make sure I'm legally in the clear without hiring an expensive lawyer that my indie developer budget can't afford?
Censorship

China Faces Piracy Suit Over Censorship Software 113

angry tapir writes "Web software filtering vendor CyberSitter has filed a $2.2B lawsuit against the Chinese government, two Chinese software makers, and seven major computer manufacturers for their distribution of Green Dam Youth Escort, a controversial Web filtering package the Chinese government had mandated to be installed on computers sold there. Researchers at the University of Michigan found that Green Dam copied code from CyberSitter."
Security

Slovak Police Planted Explosives On Air Travelers 926

Entropy98 writes "Slovakian Police have planted explosives on 8 unsuspecting air travelers. Seven were stopped by airport security, including one man arrested and held upon arriving at a Dublin airport. Unbelievably, one innocent traveler made it home with 90 grams of explosives, and had his flat surrounded by the police and bomb squad."
Earth

CIA Teams Up With Scientists To Monitor Climate 417

MikeChino writes "The CIA has just joined up with climate researchers to re-launch a data-sharing initiative that will use spy satellites and other CIA asets to help scientists figure out what climate change is doing to cloud cover, forests, deserts, and more. The collaboration is an extension of the Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis program, which President Bush canceled in 2001, and it will use reconnaissance satellites to track ice floes moving through the Arctic basin, creating data that could be used for ice forecasts." Even though the program is "basically free" in terms of CIA involvement, the Times notes: "Controversy has often dogged the use of federal intelligence gear for environmental monitoring. In October, days after the CIA opened a small unit to assess the security implications of climate change, Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, said the agency should be fighting terrorists, 'not spying on sea lions.'"

Comment Illusion of dark matter (Score 1) 575

"Horava’s graviton fluctuates as it interacts with normal matter, making gravity pull a bit more strongly than expected in general relativity."

Now that's what sounds promising. Dark matter always seemed like an ad hoc explanaition. How would you (try to) falsify that dark matter exist under the current theories that are predicting it?

Comment No hit-by-bus protection (Score 3, Interesting) 429

While it seems the prosecutors in this case are overreacting (why's this even a criminal case?), what I find curious is that there was no scheme to retrieve the passwords if Childs were to pass away accidentally (no HBB protection). Passwords written on paper in a safe, safety deposit box or similar, or the passphrase to Password Safe written down somewhere secure.

It's pretty stupid to have to physically access all the routers to reset passwords in the event that the network admin dies or quits in fury. Just write the procedure into the admin's job description.

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