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Comment Re:So, uhhh (Score 3, Funny) 66

"Back in my days as a video game white-hat tester I wrote a python script. After much refactoring, it now logs in to every box through a client listener socket I have open on each workstation, and checks to make sure everything is patched." So you have homegrown python code listening on a custom socket and that has the ability to do administrative things on the computer? I see... tell me more about this setup, please... in the interest of "science."

Comment Re:Ah the 90s. (Score 1) 228

"It was in the 80s when everyone started wetting the bed about kidnappings and child safety."

Satanists. Don't forget that Satanists were everywhere and were grabbing kids for ritualistic torture and sacrifice. Strangely, they disappeared around the time the Teletubbies became popular...

Submission + - Fedora 25 Alpha Linux distro now available (betanews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Today, Fedora 25 Alpha sees release. While the pre-release distribution is not ready for end users, it does give testers an early start at poking around.

Keep in mind what an Alpha release is folks — this is pre-Beta. In other words, it is littered with bugs, and you should definitely not run it on a production machine. There are already some show-stopping known issues — a couple are related to dual-booting with Windows (scary). One bug can destroy OS X data when dual-booting on a Mac!

Submission + - How many servers does it take to deliver Netflix to the world? This many (ieee.org)

Submitted by Wave723
Wave723 writes: For the first time, a team of researchers has mapped the entire content delivery network that brings Netflix to the world, including the number and location of every server that the company uses to distribute its films. They also independently analyzed traffic volumes handled by each of those servers. Their work allows experts to compare Netflix's distribution approach to those of other content-rich companies such as Google, Akamai and Limelight.

To do this, IEEE Spectrum reports that the group reverse-engineered Netflix's domain name system for the company's servers, and then created a crawler that used publicly available information to find every possible server name within its network through the common address nflxvideo.net. In doing so, they were able to determine the total number of servers the company users, where those servers are located, and whether the servers were housed within Internet exchange points or with Internet service providers, revealing stark differences in Netflix's strategy between countries.

One of their most interesting findings was that two Netflix servers appear to be deployed within Verizon's U.S. network, which one researcher speculates could indicate that the companies are pursuing an early pilot or trial.

Submission + - NASA Funds Plan To Turn Used Rocket Fuel Tanks Into Space Habitats (ieee.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A couple of weeks ago NASA announced it has committed $65 million to six companies over the course of two years for the purpose of developing and testing deep-space habitats that could be used for future missions to Mars. One of the six companies, called NanoRacks, is attempting to take empty fuel tanks from the upper stages of rockets and turn them into space habitats on-orbit. IEEE Spectrum reports: "A rocket like the the Atlas V, which can deliver payloads of nearly 19,000 kg to low Earth orbit, consists of three primary pieces: on the bottom, you've got the first stage booster, which consists of a huge engine and some big tanks holding kerosene fuel and oxidizer. Above that, there's the second stage, which consists of one or two smaller engines, a big tank for storing liquid hydrogen fuel, and a smaller tank for oxidizer. The payload, which is what all of the fuss is about, sits on top. The first stage launches the rocket off of the pad and continues firing for about four minutes. Meanwhile, the second stage fires up its own engine (or engines) to boost the payload the rest of the way into orbit. On the Atlas V, the second stage is called Centaur. Once Centaur gets its payload where it needs to go, it separates, and then suicides down into Earth's atmosphere. Getting a payload into space is so expensive because you have to build up this huge and complicated rocket, with engines and guidance systems and fuel tanks and stuff, and then you basically use it for like 15 minutes and throw it all away. But what about the second stage? You've got a whole bunch of hardware that made it to orbit, and when getting stuff to orbit costs something like $2,500 per kilogram, you then tell it to go it burn itself up in the atmosphere, because otherwise it's just useless space junk." NanoRacks thinks this is wasteful, so they want to turn these tanks into deep space habitats. IEEE notes that the hydrogen fuel tank on a Centaur upper stage has a diameter of over 4 meters, and an interior volume of 54 cubic meters, while the inflatable BEAM module that arrived at the ISS earlier this year has an interior volume of 16 cubic meters.

Submission + - Microsoft apps will be pre-loaded on Lenovo and Motorola Android devices (betanews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: There was a time when Microsoft was seen as the enemy of the Linux and Apple communities. Understandably, at the time, the company only wanted Windows to succeed. Nowadays, however, the operating system is sort of inconsequential. Microsoft seems happy to have its software succeed on 'competitor' platforms such as iOS, Android, macOS, Ubuntu and more.

Today, Microsoft announces that it has partnered with Lenovo on a new mobile initiative. The Windows-maker's productivity apps will be pre-loaded on Lenovo and Motorola-branded devices running Google's Linux-based Android operating system.

Comment Long-Term vs. Short-Term (Score 1) 273

by mreed911 (#46578123) Attached to: IRS: Bitcoin Is Property, Not Currency
How does one determine which specific Bitcoin (or fraction) was spent from one's owned pool to determine whether any appreciation is long-term or short-term? Is it a record-keeping thing only, much like tossing pennies in a jar every day and recording it in a ledger, then taking random pennies back out to pay and noting that they're the oldest, whether or not they are (or can be proven to be)? I foresee IRS challenges around long-term vs. short-term in audits, especially for folks with lots of transactions.

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