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Comment Looks more like Promobot took a dive to me! (Score 2) 43

Pretty entertaining and feels like the physics is wrong for a 'collision' with a moving vehicle. The Promobot doesn't even start to fall until the car is almost past it. Seems like both Tesla and Promobot would exhibit some synchronized impulse, with the bot violently being pushed away instead of gently tipping over after the Tesla is half way past. My verdict: 100% fake.

Comment Wonder if Dick Cheney uses a MedTronic? (Score 1) 72

As the main cheerleader for US waterboarding, I've wondered how a motivated individual might subject him (Cheney) to a similarly terrifying and helplessness inducing experience.

Tweaking his pacemaker up & down through it's full range of speeds...with occasional stops & restarts might just do the trick! Just imagine how exciting it would be to discover your heart racing at 180 BPM for no apparent reason...then dropping off to an almost unconsious 20 BPM...now back up to 180 for a bit... Perhaps almost as terrifying as the repeated sensation of drowning.

Comment No, your logic doesn't hold (Score 3, Interesting) 188

Break down story paragraphs like so:

WebOS was a really cool OS, that had lots of neat features and ran JavaScript apps.

WebOS was built on Linux, and if you're knowledgeable, you can update it.

WebOS had a feature that permitted the user to switch apps by swiping up from the bottom of the screen to see the backgrounded apps. (Note: Android already has a similar feature, accessed by the square icon at screen bottom)

Apple is going to do something similar, so they must be copying from WebOS, and that validates how advanced WebOS was.

If Apple were going to start supporting js apps, you might have a case, otherwise not... There are only 4 sides to the screen too, top is notifications, sides for switching desktop screens, so that only leaves the bottom...which they picked... Coincidence?

Comment Controlling DNS is a surveillance dream (Score 0) 215

Just stating the obvious, but having control of the DNS servers is really helpful for surveillance.

While you might not know the details of the conversation, you would know who is looking for what. Like directory assistance, knowing which people are calling (or looking for) say John Gotti is a really big intelligence advantage. Being able to route that call through one of your network taps gives you the rest of the advantage of interception then. Having some US Corporation in control means automatic '3rd party rule' for all of that data. I think that the rest of the world just figured that gig out.

Glad to see it out of our hands, perhaps this is the 'start of the end' with respect to US hegemony over the world's private conversations.

Comment Only a fool would add libraries without knowing wh (Score 4, Insightful) 69

From the supposed CTO...."Trying to figure out what is in a binary is what security researchers do, not app developers, Graves said. After scratching their heads, they guessed that the problem was probably in a third-party framework.". Sorry, you're wrong, that's exactly what app developers are supposed to do.

Comment More line an advertisement than a factual story! (Score 2) 69

This should prob. have been an interstitial ad instead of a story!
What exactly is going on? Is it a problem with the installed certificates? Weakness in the tools? Which ones are effective and which are weak? How can I determine if my Android has this crapware installed?

How did the moderators decide to let this story through?

The links provide nothing more than a security scanner! There are no specifics other than 'Google is working with OEMs...'. So what? How about providing some information I can use....not ads that are designed to look like news stories.

Comment HP isn't a computer company. (Score 2) 474

HP doesn't have the tradition of a "Computer Company". They make computer hardware, but that doesn't put them in the same league as Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Intel and Oracle. Same goes for Dell and Lenovo.

Full disclosure, I've purchased 2 HP laptops in the last two years, so I'm not bashing on HP. They made/make the best calculators and they used to make electronic test equipment. Those were rugged (as much as test equipment can be outside Fluke), accurate and high performance. They also used to make the best laser printers you could buy ( at a reasonable cost). Moving into the commodity PC market and selling off their test equipment branch was a huge mistake. They've had some really bad leadership over the years and they seem to keep killing their best products just at the point when it could really make a positive difference for them.

They're not a computer company, they just happen make computer hardware...this month...next month may be something else.

Comment Maybe you misunderstand my point... (Score 2) 193

I don't think it's 'conspiracy' what the government's doing, they're behaving like every person and corp. Simply using legal and financial tools to get what they want.

1) Telecoms granted immunity.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/10/supreme-court-telecoms-win-immunity

2) Quest CEO claims retaliation by NSA for refusal (old)
http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/13/jailed-qwest-ceo-claimed-that-nsa-retaliated-because-he-wouldnt-participate-in-spy-program/

Here's my point in relation to Microsoft: That having won the case against MS, the DOJ had them 100% 'bent over the barrel' as it were. And in exchange for their continued assistance to the NSA, they were granted the 'consent decree' as a sort of 'released on probation', rather than breaking up the company at that time (or imposing other really draconian measures). As with all of the other secret FISC/DOJ agreements, just enter one for MS in relation to this case. MS would certainly have agreed to go along. Besides, monopoly is good for state control and Linux as an alternative would have looked bad to the NSA too. Method, motive, and opportunity.

Look what the facts of the case with the Quest CEO. The loss of the NSA contract (and the related mis-measure of income/profit as a result) directly created the situation he was charged with. I suspect that the government came to him looking for him to go along with the plan too. He didn't want to play ball, and when he tried to cash out and run away...they got him for insider trading. What's conspiracy about that? Method, motive, and opportunity.

Look at the ongoing investigation of Google now too. Not claiming that they're innocent, but DOJ gaining leverage with an 'ongoing investigation' of something or other is just their style. US Government wants into everyone's pants, any time they want too.

People did used to say I'm wearing a 'tin-foil' hat, but it's looking like the 'high fashion statement for 2013' these days.

Comment MS vs. DOJ settled immediately after 9/11.. Duh... (Score 2) 193

Haven't you people been paying attention?

Microsoft vs. DOJ was settled almost immediately after 9/11, from wikipedia "On November 2, 2001, the DOJ reached an agreement with Microsoft to settle the case". That's just enough time for the dust to settle, and for MS and the DOJ to wrangle a deal over permitting the government "backdoor access" to everything on your computer.

Why do you think the US government permitted a convicted monopolist to continue without any punishment?
The US DOJ had won the case, and like Aaron Schwartz, they were attempting to squeeze everything that's important to them from the convicted parth.

Sure, they were ordered to go along with the consent decree, but that's not a real punishment, like the rest of us were expecting.

Remember those NSA keys that were found in the release of Windows that included debugging symbols?...
They were there in MS Windows even BEFORE 9/11....Look it up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY

Don't you people pay attention?

Comment Otherwise they may stop using them... (Score 1) 103

This is really too rich for me. The government telling the Microsoft, Google and the mobile telecom providers to get their mobile privacy issues in order?
Pot, meet Kettle...

I think they're realizing that if consumers feel uncomfortable with carrying a GPS tracking device in their pockets, they may stop using them.
Why, consumers may just go back to pay-phones! Which would leave the feds, states and even Chief Wiggum without an unfettered way of getting location data on almost every American.

Too rich, you just can't make this stuff up.

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