In a properly run secure computing facility, classified materials are NEVER, EVER allowed to exist on computers connected to insecure networks. That's not a suggestion, that's a formal requirement, at least for the programs I used to work on. OS updates, antivirus software, everything was air-gapped from the Internet. No exceptions. For the exfiltration to happen as described, the NSA must be routinely violating basic infosec procedures in ways that would get any contractor fired, fined, and possibly imprisoned.

And it's ALWAYS a bad idea to piss off the judge, especially one as sharp as Judge Alsup. From the Ars Technica article:

"Well, you only need three of the lawyers over there to try this case," Alsup said, gesturing to Uber's table full of attorneys. "We will miss you greatly. I was looking forward to seeing you perform in this case. But next time, maybe you ought to produce the documents."

If you haven't read the article on the due diligence report Uber was forced to cough up, it's worthwhile. "Bombshell" doesn't cover it by half. That report is probably enough by itself to convict Uber, and probably send Levandowski to Club Fed for obstruction of justice by destroying evidence after being informed it was wanted in an investigation.

I rather think that disallowing future revisions to paying customers contingent on their "exercise of the rights granted herein" IS a further restriction on their exercise of those rights. It certainly violates the spirit of the license, and it would not surprise me at all for a court to find that it also violates the letter.

I'm not familiar with the contributory-infringement issue, but it seems clear that GRSecurity has indeed violated the GPL in this way.

If your boss isn't communicating with you, try to communicate with him/her as to what you need and why. Be respectful and open, but direct; you're trying to improve your working relationship. If that doesn't work, move to a department that has a more communicative manager, and failing that, just bail as gracefully as posible. That workplace isn't going to be a good place for you to work in the long run, and life's too short if you have any other choice.

To be clear, most "transform" or "modernize" efforts, regardless of the political faction that launched them, and regardless of their innate merit, seem to run aground somewhere around halfway through when they start impinging on the interests of powerful political or institutional constituencies. Those that get through to the point of concrete proposals or final reports tend to be sent off to die of neglect in a legislative subcommittee.

In the case of Trump's proposals, I think this will be a good thing, as the guiding principle of this administration (inasmuch as there can be said to be ANY principles at work there) seems to be to turn everything upside down, regardless of its actual merit, and break it all into the smallest bits imaginable, doing as much damage as humanly possible along the way. There's no other reasonable way (aside from simple corruption and self-serving pillaging) to interpret such actions as putting a climate-change denier in charge of the EPA and an enemy of public education in charge of the Department of Education.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Trump and his friends will do enormous damage to the country while failing to bring back the promised Golden Age.

Yes, I do find the juxtaposition humorous; in dark times, we look for humor where we can find it.

The story immediately preceding this one is titled "There's No Good Way To Kill a Bad Idea." I see a theme emerging here, and feel like running for cover. Very fast.

The article is informative, but alas, hardly surprising. I read Facebook's TOS recently when considering an account to connect with friends, and was extremely put off by their insistence on knowing *everything* about me, to the point where, if news reports are to be believed, they will buy data on subscribers from private aggregators to fill in their dossier. It is explicitly clear from their TOS that they reserve the right to snoop all the files on my PC and portable devices. "Fuggeddabouddit."

Dear Rural America,

OK, we heard you loud and clear; you're hurting. You feel left out, left behind, and disenfranchised. You're drowning in the rising tide that didn't lift all boats after all, but swamped yours instead. Manufacturing, gone away across the border. Mining, gone away entirely. Farming, just a mega-conglomerate's game.

So in your anger and your pain, you followed a voice that promised to bring it all back, promised to break the system, and it appears that you didn't much care what happened after that. You sure showed them all! Now you've gotten your wish, and elected someone who will truly break the system. Congratulations.

Only, be careful what you wish for. The genie you've summoned out of that lamp doesn't really care what you need or want, and never did care about anything but Number One. There's no point in expecting him to act any differently now than he always has. When he breaks every promise, and the only interest he serves is self-interest, do not be surprised; it's only what he's been doing all along, and it hasn't exactly been a secret. There were certainly voices to warn you.

So, when the budget deficit explodes and that golden age doesn't come back; and trade wars raise prices, start another recession, and even more of your jobs are lost; and the rich just keep on getting richer from those tax cuts instead of creating jobs for you, while you keep on getting poorer; and the allies we've abandoned leave us in time of crisis in return for deserting them; and Russia and China take advantage of our international isolation to snatch territory and power; and ISIS turns out not to be such a pushover after all; and that wall in front of Mexico turns out to be a pointless waste of money; and your schools, Social Security, Medicare, food assistance, and social programs are all slashed to ribbons because we need all the money we have left just to buy more guns; and you can no longer afford even what little health care you once had; and you discover that in the end you're even worse off than before; then, my dear, foolish, gullible fellow citizens, you will no longer be able to blame "the system" and "Washington insiders" for the terrible mess that you helped create. It will be on you, who could have chosen more wisely but instead chose to be easily led to act against your own interests.

But on reflection, no; you'll probably go on blaming all of the usual scapegoats just like before. Perhaps we really do get the government we deserve; it's a terrible shame for us to deserve this one.

Every time I read an article to the effect that researchers have discovered that some non-human creature has a capability previously believed to be unique to humans, I ask myself (and usually those around me) if these researchers have ever had a dog or cat, or closely watched squirrels, crows, goats, or any of a hundred other animal species. There is so much evidence of nonhuman sentience right there in front of us that it very nearly takes a conscious effort not to see it.

I wouldn't call squirrels intellectual giants, but if you assume sentience in, say, every vertebrate unless there's evidence to the contrary, you'll be right more often than not. Of course, this raises an interesting ethical dilemma for those of us who are omnivores, but pretending it isn't there doesn't make it go away. (For my part, I consider this is an argument for humane livestock practices.)

One place where I worked uses a center-punch or hand drill to perforate the disk platters, then bends them with pliers; laptop disk platters tend to be made of glass, and shatter in a most gratifying manner. Physical destruction of the platter is definitely the most effective way to permanently delete its data.

Solar power in orbit actually isn't as bad an option as you may think; you simply have to go about it a bit differently. True, PV cells degrade form radiation exposure (as will any electronics used), but you can easily deploy several acres of really cheap mirrors made of aluminized Mylar film to concentrate sunlight on, say, a bimetallic thermopile (generates DC power from junctions of dissimilar metals at different temperatures, simple to make and totally radiation-hard) or a Stirling-cycle or steam-driven generator (yes, steam in space sounds utterly wacky, but it gives you a robust, radiation-hard electric generator using low-tech means).

While I am generally in favor of establishing an orbital industrial base, the mention of orbiting "heavy industry" seems a bit strange. The high cost of lifting material into orbit, even with reduced-cost reusable boosters, would seem to rule out any industry where the term "heavy" equates to "raw materials that weigh a lot."

Don't expect to see, say, metals refining or glassmaking in orbit until we can access the asteroid belt's raw materials; we're far more likely to see industries with a high value-to-mass ratio, like semiconductor fabrication (which the article does mention), that can take best advantage of really hard vacuum, near-total lack of particulate contamination, and the ability to create extremely vibration-free environments. For my money, semiconductor fabrication is probably the killer app for space-based industrialization.

From Forbes: (warning: they are annoying about adblockers,...) http://www.forbes.com/sites/jo...

The FAA's authority over UAS is not as cut-and-dried as all that.
I'm a model aircraft flier and a member of the Academy of Model Aeronautics, and the AMA is of the opinion that the FAA has overreached with its new registration rule. Specifically, they believe that Congress prevents the FAA from regulating model aircraft due to an exemption in the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012. The AMA's official blog has a recent article (link is below, just cut'n'paste it) which includes the following statement: "AMA has also argued that the new registration rule runs counter to Congress' intent in Section 336 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, otherwise known as the Special Rule for Model Aircraft." There is a court challenge in progress on this issue as well.

http://amablog.modelaircraft.o...

Now, this exemption won't cover commercial UAS, but the hobbyist model flier is very likely exempt (with the possible exception of some FPV models (controlled using onboard video downlinks rather than direct line-of-sight to the model). It should not need to be pointed out that essentially all of the "drone" troubles being encountered now are due to improper behavior that violates common sense, ordinary caution, the AMA code of conduct, and a variety of state and federal laws relating to full-scale aviation and public safety.

Moreover, the people doing these dumb things aren't likely to properly register their toys in any case, so all of these regulations are worthless in any practical sense to begin with. (I find it useful to think of this type of behavior as comparable to shining lasers at airliners: It's a stupid and potentially dangerous activity practiced by fools who won't behave themselves, and no amount of legislation will change that.)

I think that a space elevator is entirely impractical for a planet with an atmosphere (and air traffic); aside from the material science challenges, there is just too high a risk of one errant aircraft or piece of orbital junk taking the whole thing down.

The Lofstrom loop cited by the parent poster is interesting, but seems to suffer from some of the same material science and fragility issues. Its energy consumption when idle is also an enormous cost factor (the power required to overcome atmospheric drag would be staggering all by itself). From a practical standpoint, I cannot imagine any organization building either one of these on Earth; the costs and risk are too formidable.

For practical space launches, the best alternative would appear to be a hybrid air/space approach similar to Scaled Composites' SpaceShip One (also used by Orbital Sciences' Pegasus satellite launch system). Your first stage is essentially a cargo aircraft, which gets your space vehicle up past the first 10 KM of altitude and the first 600 KPH of velocity without the massive inefficiency of a first-stage rocket booster. The winged second stage is either a pure rocket vehicle or a hybrid air-breathing / rocket vehicle. This system uses atmospheric lift and rocket power where each is most effective; the big airfoils and air-breathing jet turbines stay in-atmosphere for immediate reuse (this is much more cost-effective in the long term than a reusable first-stage rocket booster, as it can be reused literally thousands of times between major overhauls).

IMO, this is what the future of space launch will look like.