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Comment Alas, no useful information here. (Score 1) 939

by samuel4242 (#25029037) Attached to: Scott Adams's Political Survey of Economists
It's quite thorough and useful, but it reads as if the personal bias affected the results. This isn't surprising. I've found that my friends have a reaction to Sarah Palin that's 100% correlated with their politics. So I'm not surprised that the economists felt the same way. So I'm sticking with the independents who conclude that it's a toss up. The real problem here is that we're trying to guess "better" when the two paths are just different. Obama will certainly pour more money into infrastructure and rebuilding the industries that hire Americans to do things. McCain will probably pour more money into bolstering America's influence abroad, probably through military action. Is one better? It depends what you want. But we'll get one. That's for sure. I don't think the Libertarians are going to win.
Wireless Networking

Submission + - Ubiquitous computers are more ubiquitous 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Is there any end to this ubiquitous computing thing? Plants that send thank you notes, player pianos that follow the dancer's movements, and umbrellas that warn you of upcoming rain are just a few of the uses of embedded computers described in this article from the NY Times. Laptops seem so dull when it's easy to embed chips, install a Linux distro and sew them into your clothes . But do we really need to wear our computers? If they're cheap enough, why not? But why can't the world be happy with a good old desktop? It was good enough for the PC generation.
Security

Submission + - NSA's Museum is Bigger and Better

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The NSA's once small National Cryptologic Museum is bigger and better, with new more immersive exhibits like a reconstruction of a listening post from the Vietnam war. (See a new story ) The place seems to be caught between the urge to keep your mouth shut and the pleasure of telling war stories. In time, though, the story notes that the need to tell stories wins out. Has anyone visited lately?

Feed Schneier: The Strange Story of Dual_EC_DRBG (schneier.com)

From feed by bsfeed
Random numbers are critical for cryptography: for encryption keys, random authentication challenges, initialization vectors, nonces, key-agreement schemes, generating prime numbers and so on. Break the random-number generator, and most of the time you break the entire security system. Which is...
Privacy

Submission + - Fighting back against ghost calls

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: You're doing something interesting. The phone rings. You get up, pick up the phone, and hear only silence. It could be a slasher waiting outside your house, but it's probably an errant computer at a telemarketer. This article describes how some are fighting back by setting up websites to track the worst telemarketers by their caller ids. The article mentions whocalled.us (one of the funnier urls I've ever seen), 800notes.com and numberzoom.com . One intrepid guy is even writing a program to check these sites when the call comes in before ringing the phone.
Intel

Submission + - Historians Recreate Source Code of First 4004 App

Submitted by
mcpublic
mcpublic writes: "The team of 'digital archeologists' who developed the technology behind the Intel Museum's 4004 microprocessor exhibit have done it again. 36 years after Intel introduced their first microprocessor on November 15, 1971, these computer historians have turned the spotlight on the first application software ever written for a general-purpose microprocessor: the Busicom 141-PF calculator. At the team's web site you can download and play with an authentic calculator simulator that sports a cool animated flowchart. Want to find out how Busicom's Masatoshi Shima compressed an entire four-function, printing calculator into only 1,024 bytes of ROM? Check out the newly recreated assembly language "source code," extensively analyzed, documented, and commented by the team's newest member: Hungary's Lajos Kintli. 'He is an amazing reverse-engineer,' recounts team leader Tim McNerney, 'We understood the disassembled calculator code well enough to simulate it, but Lajos really turned it into "source code" of the highest standards.'"
Portables

Submission + - Fix that gadget or send it to the landfill? 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: There seems to be more attention being paid to fixing gadgets instead of sending them to the landfill. It may be because 10gb in your iPod is more than enough for any normal person, it may be a deep, abiding love for the environment or it may just be the price. The article mentions new sites like FixYa and old standbys like Macintouch . Practically every gadget has their own website devoted to helping owners help each other deal with problems that arise. I personally like AVS Forum for my living room needs.
Power

Submission + - Monitor draws zero power in standby

Submitted by
fifthace
fifthace writes: "A new range of Fujitsu Siemens monitors don't draw power during standby. The technology uses capacitors and relays to avoid drawing power when no video signal is present.

With political parties all over Europe calling for a ban on standby, this small development could end up as one of the most significant advances in recent times. The British Government estimates eight percent of all domestic electricity is consumed by devices in standby."

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The computer is to the information industry roughly what the central power station is to the electrical industry. -- Peter Drucker

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