Comment Re:wrong premise? (Score 1) 281
Yes! Mod parent up!
Comment Re:Queue it up (Score 1) 133
Respectfully disagreeing. I doubt it was a sysadmin who thought a single fiber was a good idea -- you know it's going to be the sysadmins who have to clean up the mess. More likely, some bean counter vetoed the redundancy to save a few bucks.
Submission + - Winston Churchill's Scientists
HughPickens.com writes: Nicola Davis writes at The Guardian that a new exhibition at London’s Science Museum tiitled Churchill’s Scientists aims to explore how a climate that mingled necessity with ambition spurred British scientists to forge ahead in fields as diverse as drug-discovery and operational research, paving the way for a further flurry of postwar progress in disciplines from neurology to radio astronomy. Churchill "was very unusual in that he was a politician from a grand Victorian family who was also interested in new technology and science,” says Andrew Nahum. “That was quite remarkable at the time.” An avid reader of Charles Darwin and HG Wells, Churchill also wrote science-inspired articles himself and fostered an environment where the brightest scientists could build ground-breaking machines, such as the Bernard Lovell telescope, and make world-changing discoveries, in molecular genetics, radio astronomy, nuclear power, nerve and brain function and robotics. “During the war the question was never, 'How much will it cost?’ It was, 'Can we do it and how soon can we have it?’ This left a heritage of extreme ambition and a lot of talented people who were keen to see what it could provide."
According to Cambridge Historian Richard Toye, Churchill was a “closet science-fiction fan” who borrowed the lines for one of his most famous speeches from H. G. Wells — to depict the rise of Hitler's Germany. "It's a bit like Tony Blair borrowing phrases from Star Trek or Doctor Who," says Toye. A close friend of Wells, Churchill said that The Time Machine was “one of the books I would like to take with me to Purgatory”. Wells and Churchill met in 1902 and several times thereafter, and kept in touch in person and by letter until Wells' death in 1946. "We need to remember that there was a time when Churchill was a radical liberal who believed these things," Toye adds. "Wells is often seen as a socialist, but he also saw himself as a liberal, and he saw Churchill as someone whose views were moving in the right direction."
According to Cambridge Historian Richard Toye, Churchill was a “closet science-fiction fan” who borrowed the lines for one of his most famous speeches from H. G. Wells — to depict the rise of Hitler's Germany. "It's a bit like Tony Blair borrowing phrases from Star Trek or Doctor Who," says Toye. A close friend of Wells, Churchill said that The Time Machine was “one of the books I would like to take with me to Purgatory”. Wells and Churchill met in 1902 and several times thereafter, and kept in touch in person and by letter until Wells' death in 1946. "We need to remember that there was a time when Churchill was a radical liberal who believed these things," Toye adds. "Wells is often seen as a socialist, but he also saw himself as a liberal, and he saw Churchill as someone whose views were moving in the right direction."
Submission + - Snowden Says His Mission Is Accomplished 5
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Edward Snowden met with reporters from the Washington Post for fourteen hours and in his first interview since June reflected at length about surveillance, democracy and the meaning of the documents he exposed. “For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission’s already accomplished. I already won,” says Snowden. ““All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed. That is a milestone we left a long time ago. Right now, all we are looking at are stretch goals.” Snowden says that the NSA’s business is “information dominance,” the use of other people’s secrets to shape events. But Snowden upended the agency on its own turf. “You recognize that you’re going in blind, that there’s no model,” says Snowden, acknowledging that he had no way to know whether the public would share his views. “But when you weigh that against the alternative, which is not to act, you realize that some analysis is better than no analysis. Because even if your analysis proves to be wrong, the marketplace of ideas will bear that out." Snowden succeeded because the NSA, accustomed to watching without being watched, faces scrutiny it has not endured since the 1970s, or perhaps ever and says people who accuse him of disloyalty mistake his purpose. “I am not trying to bring down the NSA, I am working to improve the NSA. I am still working for the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don’t realize it.” Snowden also said he is confident he did not expose secret documents to Chinese intelligence in Hong Kong and he did not bring them to Russia. “There’s nothing on it,” Snowden said, turning his laptop screen toward his visitor. “My hard drive is completely blank.” Snowden says " there is no evidence at all for the claim that I have loyalties to Russia or China or any country other than the United States." “If I defected at all,” says Snowden, “I defected from the government to the public.”
Assembling Your Own 3D Printer 129
adeelarshad82 writes "Following a tour of a 3D printer factory, analysts at PCMag wanted to explore the option of building a 3D printer themselves. With the help of a 3D printer manufacturer, Buildatron, they were able to compile a step-by-step guide on how to build a 3D printer."
Submission + - NASA: SpaceX 2nd demonstration flight on 2-7-2012 (nasa.gov)
TheNextCorner writes: "Space Exploration Technologies' (SpaceX) second Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration flight will be Feb. 7, 2012.
Pending completion of final safety reviews, testing and verification, NASA also has agreed to allow SpaceX to send its Dragon spacecraft to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) in a single flight."
Pending completion of final safety reviews, testing and verification, NASA also has agreed to allow SpaceX to send its Dragon spacecraft to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) in a single flight."
Are Power Users Too Cool For Ubuntu Unity? 798
darthcamaro writes "There are a lot of us that really don't like Unity. Ubuntu Founder Mark Shuttleworth defended Unity today, arguing that even 'cool' power users should like usability and ease of use. Then again he admitted that some of us are just too cool even for Unity. 'There is going to be a crowd that is just too cool to use something that looks really slick and there is nothing we can do for them,' Shuttleworth said. 'Fortunately in Ubuntu there are tons of options and lots of choice and ways to skin the cat.'"
Submission + - Trust is for Suckers: Lessons from the RSA Breach (securityweek.com)
wiredmikey writes: Andrew Jaquith has written a great analysis of lessons learned from the recent RSA Cyber Attack, from a customer’s perspective.
According to Jaquith, in the security industry, “trust” is a somewhat slippery term defined in terms ranging from the cryptographic to the contractual. Bob Blakley, a Gartner analyst and former chief scientist of Tivoli, once infamously wrote that “Trust is for Suckers.” What he meant by that is that trust is an emotional thing, a fragile bond whose value transcends prime number multiplication, tokens, drug tests or signatures — and that it is foolish to rely too much on it.
Jaquith observed three things about the RSA incident: (1) even the most trusted technologies fail; (2) the incident illustrates what “risk management” is all about; and (3) customers should always come first. Here Jaquith reviews each of these in detail.
According to Jaquith, in the security industry, “trust” is a somewhat slippery term defined in terms ranging from the cryptographic to the contractual. Bob Blakley, a Gartner analyst and former chief scientist of Tivoli, once infamously wrote that “Trust is for Suckers.” What he meant by that is that trust is an emotional thing, a fragile bond whose value transcends prime number multiplication, tokens, drug tests or signatures — and that it is foolish to rely too much on it.
Jaquith observed three things about the RSA incident: (1) even the most trusted technologies fail; (2) the incident illustrates what “risk management” is all about; and (3) customers should always come first. Here Jaquith reviews each of these in detail.
Submission + - Why Apple's DUI Checkpoint App Ban is Stupid (Vid) (reason.com)
hookskat writes: "Reason.tv Editor in Chief Nick Gillespie reacts to Apple’s decision to ban DUI Checkpoint Apps from the App Store, writing,
“Let me add something even more damning of this latest development in corporate cave-ins to legally protected free speech and I'm gonna bold it for emphasis: *Some police departments actually supply the data used in such apps because they reduce the number of drunk drivers on the roads!* Somehow, I’m thinking that Steve Jobs circa 1984...would have told U.S. senators sending threatening letters about computer-based info sharing to take a hike. Or at least to spend time on, I don’t know, creating a freaking budget for the country rather than worrying about regulating something that helps reduce impaired driving.”
More here: http://reason.com/blog/2011/06/09/apple-to-ban-apps-that-include
Last month, after RIM caved on the same question, Reason.tv released this video on the subject of banning DUI checkpoint apps. Check it out: http://youtu.be/kuDz-Dm09pE"
“Let me add something even more damning of this latest development in corporate cave-ins to legally protected free speech and I'm gonna bold it for emphasis: *Some police departments actually supply the data used in such apps because they reduce the number of drunk drivers on the roads!* Somehow, I’m thinking that Steve Jobs circa 1984...would have told U.S. senators sending threatening letters about computer-based info sharing to take a hike. Or at least to spend time on, I don’t know, creating a freaking budget for the country rather than worrying about regulating something that helps reduce impaired driving.”
More here: http://reason.com/blog/2011/06/09/apple-to-ban-apps-that-include
Last month, after RIM caved on the same question, Reason.tv released this video on the subject of banning DUI checkpoint apps. Check it out: http://youtu.be/kuDz-Dm09pE"
Comment Re:Ineligible (Score 1) 528
Where in the US do they have speed limits in km/h?
On I-19 in Arizona. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_19
Submission + - A Nude Awakening — TSA and privacy (oudaily.com)
DIplomatic writes: The Oklahoma Daily has a terrific, well-written editorial about the current state of airport security. Though the subject has overly-commented on, this article is well worth the read.
The risk of a terrorist attack is so infinitesimal and its impact so relatively insignificant that it doesn’t make rational sense to accept the suspension of liberty for the sake of avoiding a statistical anomaly.
There's no purpose in security if it debases the very life it intends to protect, yet the forced choice one has to make between privacy and travel does just that. If you want to travel, you have a choice between low-tech fondling or high-tech pornography; the choice, therefore, to relegate your fundamental rights in exchange for a plane ticket. Not only does this paradigm presume that one'(TM)s right to privacy is variable contingent on the government's discretion and only respected in places that the government doesn't care to look — but it also ignores that the fundamental right to travel has consistently been upheld by the Supreme Court.
If we have both the right to privacy and the right to travel, then TSA's newest procedures cannot conceivably be considered legal. The TSAâ½Â's regulations blatantly compromise the former at the expense of the latter, and as time goes on we will soon forget what it meant to have those rights.
The risk of a terrorist attack is so infinitesimal and its impact so relatively insignificant that it doesn’t make rational sense to accept the suspension of liberty for the sake of avoiding a statistical anomaly.
There's no purpose in security if it debases the very life it intends to protect, yet the forced choice one has to make between privacy and travel does just that. If you want to travel, you have a choice between low-tech fondling or high-tech pornography; the choice, therefore, to relegate your fundamental rights in exchange for a plane ticket. Not only does this paradigm presume that one'(TM)s right to privacy is variable contingent on the government's discretion and only respected in places that the government doesn't care to look — but it also ignores that the fundamental right to travel has consistently been upheld by the Supreme Court.
If we have both the right to privacy and the right to travel, then TSA's newest procedures cannot conceivably be considered legal. The TSAâ½Â's regulations blatantly compromise the former at the expense of the latter, and as time goes on we will soon forget what it meant to have those rights.
8-Year-Old Receives Patent 142
Knile writes "While not the youngest patent recipient ever (that would be a four year old in Texas), Bryce Gunderman has received a patent at age 8 for a space-saver that combines an outlet cover plate with a shelf. From the article: '"I thought how I was going to make a lot of money," Bryce said about what raced through his brain when he received the patent.'"
Bacteria Used To Fix Cracked Concrete 177
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at the UK's University of Newcastle have created a new type of bacteria that generates glue to hold together cracks in concrete structures — that means everything from concrete sidewalks to buildings that have been damaged by earthquakes. When the cells have been germinated, they burrow deep into the concrete until they reach the bottom. At this point, the concrete repair process is activated, and the cells split into three types that produce calcium carbonate crystals, act as reinforcing fibers, and produce glue which acts as a binding agent to fill concrete gaps."
TSA Pats Down 3-Year-Old 1135
3-year-old Mandy Simon started crying when her teddy bear had to go through the X-ray machine at airport security in Chattanooga, Tenn. She was so upset that she refused to go calmly through the metal detector, setting it off twice. Agents then informed her parents that she "must be hand-searched." The subsequent TSA employee pat down of the screaming child was captured by her father, who happens to be a reporter, on his cell phone. The video have left some questioning why better procedures for children aren't in place. I, for one, feel much safer knowing the TSA is protecting us from impressionable minds warped by too much Dora the Explorer.
Badgers Digging Up Ancient Human Remains 172
One of England's oldest graveyards is under siege by badgers. Rev Simon Shouler now regularly patrols the grounds of St. Remigius Church looking for bones that the badgers have dug up. The badger is a protected species in England so they can not be killed, and attempts to have them relocated have been blocked by English Nature. From the article: "At least four graves have been disturbed so far; in one instance a child found a leg bone and took it home to his parents. ... Rev. Simon Shouler has been forced to carry out regular patrols to pick up stray bones, store them and re-inter them all in a new grave."
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Some of my readers ask me what a "Serial Port" is. The answer is: I don't know. Is it some kind of wine you have with breakfast?
