I used to help run grandmaster-level tournaments, and there was this one European GM who always went for an early draw. The reason? So he could bugger off to the local casino and play poker.

Apparently he was really good at it. He made a fee for playing at the chess tournament, and even more at the poker tables. I found it quite amusing. Makes me wonder if he's involved with the chess.com people. He never finished in the high prize money in the chess tournament, but he had fun and still got to play and talk chess with his fellow GMs. As long as he kept his ELO rating up high enough, he'd continue to get invited to tournaments and he'd continue to offer draws.

A friend works for a manufacturer. AI memory is also made to a completely different form factor and will not work in contemporary PC motherboards.

Heh. Yep, that's true. Just not the code they were expecting.

They were wanting to investigate him in connection with the protests against Cop City in Atlanta. He was coming back into the country from an island vacation when they pulled him into a room for secondary questioning and started asking him about CSAM. They wouldn't let him call his lawyer and did not read him his Miranda rights. That's when he handed him the phone and gave them the wipe code.

Personally, the next time I leave the country, before the plane lands I'm signing out of my cloud accounts and email, turning off biometrics, then powering off my electronics.

Native Zonie, I lived there for four decades. THERE IS NO FUCKING WATER. The Colorado River is drying up. Fabs need a lot of water, and these are huge fucking facilities! And they're going to build SIX of them?!

But hey! Arizona is a growing state! Look at all the semiconductor manufacturing we have going on! Yay us! Let's build some more golf courses and resorts while we're at it.

Ron, Republicans, and shit like this are pretty much at the top of the list. The climate is right up there, too.

Worse than that Fantastic Four movie that Sony made that wasn't supposed to be released theatrically? The one with Galactus?

That's a pretty [high bar? || low bar?] to clear!

I was going to see Supergirl on Friday, but we closed late and the next showing was in 3D, which I refuse to see. Hopefully this week, I loved the trailers, which, granted, are carefully curated.

I saw a video where they took children, I believe average seven year-olds, and had them line up in front of a typical contemporary truck.

THERE WAS A ROW OF EIGHT OF THEM BEFORE THE LAST ONE WAS VISIBLE TO THE DRIVER.

When I was in Phoenix earlier this year, I noticed a truck next to me where the tire was taller than my hood! I don't have a tiny car, it's a 2015 Subaru Crosstrek. It's just utter insanity how big these trucks have gotten. The Big Three don't care because the profits on those things are as insane as the sizes. They claim it's what the public wants, but they don't offer a lot in the way of alternatives. The Lambo being driven over in the parking lot, while hilarious, is just the shape of things to come.

The only charge lodged thus far. Frequently on complicated prosecutions they'll file lesser charges and hold the big guns in reserve while they investigate more, making sure their evidence and logic for the trial will stand up. These charges at least got an indictment and arrest and evidence seized, which is what they need for an opener. It also opens up resources to make further investigation easier.

An excellent use of setting up that additional layer. Until the gov't tries to ban routers from having that functionality.

that you would have to pay Disney for three seasons to watch the TV series BEFORE seeing the movie. THEN you pay for the movie. They've already made their money back. This crap about having to watch TV series for multiple seasons (sometimes) BEFORE the movie comes out is absolute shit. Clearly I am no longer a True Fan.

Myself, I watched the first season and gave up on it, later cancelling my Disney subscription. My wife wants to see it, I'll see The Grey Men at the same time then sit around and read on my iPad while I wait for her to get out. Or maybe see Sheep Detectives again if the times are commodious - that movie was a blast!

Not only are the cameras spreading all over town here, I went to buy some stuff at Home Depot and found them at the entrances to their lot. So I turned around to go to Lowe's, and found the same thing there. Did a little digging and found that they have 'a problem with shoplifting' and this is their solution. So I guess I'm taking my business to Ace and Harbor Freight and some other locals.

I'm estimating that my plate is getting tagged at least a half-dozen times a day.

He was talking about why he never accepts USB drives from anyone. He had two security specialists on the video, and they demonstrated some interesting things. One of the USB drives they had they challenged people at a conference with it, offering a fabulous prize if they got into their "secure/defended" Windows system. Several took them up on it, and it always got in. The trick? The USB drive identified itself as a keyboard rather than a flash drive and it was always accepted by the system. It immediately installed a key logger and it was off to the races.

This Bitlocker exploit, coupled with a disguise as a keyboard, seems to me would bypass the pin requirement if the computer was booted.

You think it will all be carried by the nice shiny Amazon vans that you see in major cities? I live in a rural area, actually on the top of a mountain in a national forest. The only time I see an Amazon delivery van is when I drive to El Paso or another sizable city. Here, it's all sent out and delivered by local contractors. So I'm standing in my kitchen and see a strangers car pull into my driveway and left thinking 'whodafuk is that?' and then they drive away and I have to go on a package hunt because they never place it at my front door.

And then there's all the stories of these private contractor's cars being infested with bed bugs or roaches. No thanks!

But they don't cancel the bill that requires them to fully-fund their retirement plan. That's the thing that's killing the USPS. No one does that, especially no other government agency.