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Comment Re:Not sure why this hasn't been done all along... (Score 1) 150

by crazyvas (#63563223) Attached to: Air New Zealand To Weigh Passengers Before They Board the Airplane

Here's a fatal accident in the US from 2003 where all 21 people aboard died, that wouldn't have happened if the passenger weights had not been underestimated. Note that there was a second factor (elevator control cable), but if either factor had not occurred, the crash would have been averted.

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F...

Although the pilots had totaled up the ostensible take-off weight of the aircraft before the flight and determined it to be within limits, the plane was actually overloaded and out of balance due to the use of FAA-approved (but actually incorrect) passenger weight estimates. When checked, the NTSB found that the actual weight of an average passenger was more than 20 pounds (9 kg) greater than estimated.

After checking the actual weight of baggage retrieved from the crash site and passengers (based on information from next-of-kin and the medical examiner), the aircraft was found to be actually 580 lb (264 kg) above its maximum allowable take-off weight, with its center of gravity 5% to the rear of the allowable limit. Neither problem alone would have caused the loss of control, which explains why it had previously been flown without incident.

Submission + - FBI Bought Pegasus, the Most Powerful Phone Spyware (theguardian.com) 2

Submitted by crazyvas
crazyvas writes: From the Guardian: "The FBI has confirmed that it obtained NSO Groupâ(TM)s powerful Pegasus spyware, suggesting that it bought access to the Israeli surveillance tool to âoestay abreast of emerging technologies and tradecraftâ.

It was a stunning revelation in part because the Biden administration has recently placed NSO on a commerce department blacklist, saying it had evidence that the companyâ(TM)s hacking tools had enabled governments around the world to conduct âoetransnational repressionâ, targeting dissidents and journalists."

Once deployed, the user of Pegasus spyware can take complete control of a personâ(TM)s phone, accessing messages, intercepting phone calls and using the phone as a remote listening device."

Isn't it time Congress upgraded old wiretapping laws to the smartphone era, limiting what government agencies can and cannot do? Separately, do you know if your smartphone is vulnerable to Pegasus?

Comment Re:Just causes inflation (Score 2) 96

You say that like 3 people don’t own half the wealth in america.

Your reading of that statement is incorrect, even though your main point still holds. That article says:

the country’s three richest individuals—Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Jeff Bezos—collectively hold more wealth than the bottom 50% of the domestic population,

and

Bezos, Gates and Buffett held a combined fortune of $248.5 billion

Wikipedia shows total wealth is around $126,340 Billion. Meaning, those three together hold ~0.19% of the wealth in the US.

Doesn't affect your main point though.

Comment Re:WTF's an NFT? (Score 1) 189

by crazyvas (#61216418) Attached to: Why People's Expensive NFTs Keep Vanishing

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.erratasec.com%2F202...

Quote:
It makes you feel stupid that you haven't heard about it, when everyone is suddenly talking about it as if it's been a thing for a long time. But the reality, they didn't know what it was a month ago, either. Here is the Google Trends graph to prove this point -- interest has only exploded in the last couple months:

Comment WTF is the Stingray (Score 2) 39

Thanks editors, for explaining it.

http://www.mercurynews.com/cri...

From the link above:
The technology in question [...] is a suitcase-sized device that mimics a cellphone tower to connect with all phones in a specific area. [...] Sheriff's officials said it will be used purely to locate the subject of an investigation since it can find a phone through walls, even if the owner isn't making a call.

Comment Wrong question (Score 4, Insightful) 178

by crazyvas (#49000941) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: With Whom Do You Entrust Your Long Term Data?

Wrong question, if it's asking for a storage company that you can trust your data with.

Correct question: which open source encryption software would you trust to encrypt your data /before/ uploading it anywhere. You can upload whereever you want, and redundantly too. All you have to do is store locally is a private key. No different from storing a passport or home or auto title.

Comment Punctuality. (Score 5, Informative) 111

by crazyvas (#48044085) Attached to: Japan's Shinkansen Bullet Trains Celebrate 50th Anniversary

One thing that has always impressed me about the Shinkansen is its near obscene punctuality:

Quote from http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Shi... :
The Shinkansen is very reliable thanks to several factors, including its near-total separation from slower traffic. In 2012, JR Central reported that the Shinkansen's average delay from schedule per train was 36 seconds. This includes delays due to uncontrollable causes, such as natural disasters.[14] The record, in 1997, was 18 seconds.

Comment Re:Okay... and? (Score 2) 316

by crazyvas (#47739043) Attached to: For Microsoft, $93B Abroad Means Avoiding $30B Tax Hit

To add to that: generally, personal income is not double taxed either in this respect. Anything one hears to the contrary is usually political FUD.

Quote below from IRS. Heck, they even point out how to give them the least of your money. http://www.irs.gov/Individuals...
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If you paid or accrued foreign taxes to a foreign country on foreign source income and are subject to U.S. tax on the same income, you may be able to take either a credit or an itemized deduction for those taxes.

Taken as a deduction, foreign income taxes reduce your U.S. taxable income.

Taken as a credit, foreign income taxes reduce your U.S. tax liability. In most cases, it is to your advantage to take foreign income taxes as a tax credit.
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