Posts by Ian Michael Gumby

Big Tech files anti-Trump brief: Immigration ban illegal and damaging to business

@ACs

Not sure why you're posting AC...

So here's the skinny.

Its not about the 90 day ban from 7 countries that are currently exporting terrorism

Iran - state sponsor of terrorism

Libya - over 2000 fake passports and papers are estimated to have been created.

Syria - ISIS controls city where they had access to all sort of documents and can make fake docs at will.

The rest all have ISIS camps within their borders.

Obama cut these same 7 countries from the Visa Waiver Program.

90 days for BCP to get their act together? Sounds reasonable.

But main stream media, and others are fighting it. Why? Because Trump did it. Had Obama done it. Nobody would have said boo. In fact he shut down immigration from Iraq for 6 months after two refugees in KY were tied to terrorism. No major announcements in the press.

Its not about the order, but about something else. People protesting Trump.

Then there's the Silicone Valley nutters. Why are they jumping in ... (Oh and lets not forget the bald nutter in Seattle. ) They want the H1B numbers raised. Trump wants to lower them and force them to pay more for an H1B. That's why they are protesting Trump.

Also they want to score points with those protesting Trump.

Trump's immigration clampdown has Silicon Valley techies fearing for their house prices

Meh! Stupidity at its best.

"America's technology world is still trying to sort out the kerfuffle caused by President Trump's anti-refugee and seemingly anti-Muslim immigration crackdown."

Uhm... Ok, lets get back to reality.

The immigration thing was 90 days on seven countries which all have strong ties to terrorism.

Iran has been identified as a state sponsor of terrorism. In Syria and Libya, ISIS has gained the ability to make fake documents. Looking at the others, they all have ISIS factions within their borders.

These are also the 7 countries where Obama rescinded them from the Visa Waiver Program.

So... ask yourself why Trump rescinded immigration for 90 days.

From a legal perspective, what he did was legal and would withstand a court challenge. While several judges have issued TROs, Trump's lawyers at the DOJ could appeal and get rid of the TRO.

Now... having said that... it was poorly implemented and there was a lot of confusion over it.

Also it was a dumb idea.

If I were a Silicone Valley CEO I'd worry more about the H1B numbers getting cut along with a salary increase that they have to pay an H1B.

IMHO, those who are rioting and claiming that Trump is anti-immigration, think about the fact that his current wife is an immigrant. Also Obama banned immigration from Iraq for 6 months.

There's more, but if people would jack their shit down and calm down ... think rationally, this is just noise. Give Trump a chance to do something really stupid... then you would have every excuse to exercise your 1st amendment rights.

I'll bet that if Trump's DoJ and FBI were to prosecute Clinton under the Espionage Act (Which there is now conclusive proof she broke the law) a lot of the protesters will go away.

US tech giants take brave immigration stand that has nothing to do with profit whatsoever

@ Yank Re: "that tech companies are heavily reliant on to get skilled workers into the country"

As a software engineering professional, I will tell you that those who came early to computer science created the program and taught theory.

You need that book knowledge because without it, you're just a code monkey.

You learn the business needs on the job, sure. That's why they pay older, more experienced developers more money even though the code monkeys pound out more code.

I've got 30+ years in. I can tell you that we have a sad state of affairs when you have PhDs who don't understand the basics.

@BillG Re: That's a long article, let me condense it for you.

Absolutely.

I have a friend who has a green card and passed on giving up UK citizenship. He can work in the US, as well as in the UK and EU. Moi? I have to show that I had skills that couldn't be found in the UK or the EU. So yeah its not about attracting the best and brightest but cheaper labor.

IETF 'reviewing' US event plans in the face of Trump's travel ban

@ Ginger ... Re: "City University New York has more than 100 affected. That's just one university."

So it must be true then.

Gingers have some recessive and defective gene traits.

So your logic is that because a terrorist who attacked the US came from Country A, that there is no threat that a terrorist from Country B can't also attempt to attack the US?

Parroting the fallacy doesn't make it true.

The truth is that one country on the banned list (90 day ban) is known for state sponsored terrorism. (Iran)

Two countries on the list have ISIS (the terrorist baddies) in the countries and have had known access to government papers and can make fake documents. (Libya and Syria)

And of course I have to ask... of the terrorist attacks in Europe, what were the terrorists backgrounds?

I mean their countries of origin? Seems they too didn't come from the countries that attacked the US either. Were they not a threat either?

@Terrance ...Re: "City University New York has more than 100 affected. That's just one university."

"Seriously, are you as stupid as pumpkin puss? Or, simply as racist and insane as the clueless clown?

There has never been a terrorist from any of those countries in America. "

That would be A No Talent Ass Clown or a reference to Michael Bolton.

But I digress.

I suggest you actually do some research before going off on someone.

2015 Obama identified these 7 countries as a threat and removed them from the visa waiver program.

So Trump halts immigration for 90 days so that the US can plan and implement 'extreme vetting'? This per the WH.

Seems reasonable to me. And also its able to withstand any legal challenge.

Where Trump fscked up is in implementation and messaging.

So I'd say lighten up Francis.

Re: an anti-intellectual and racist presidency?

Trump has thin skin and the Aussie Prez reminded him of an obligation made by Obama to take 1,250 detainees who are from these 7 countries.

Think about this ...

The Aussies blocked the same set of immigrants who are trapped on a bunch of islands off the coast of Australia because they (Australia) recognized the threat posed by immigrants from these countries.

I don't see the world up in arms over it.

Trump bans access from these countries for 90 days so that they could formulate a plan... the world goes ballistic.

The irony seems to be lost.

And the call went poorly because Aussie Prez told Trump he had to honor the agreement.

Re: Only the second week

Wow.

Take away the anti-Trump vitriol and look at the facts.

In 2015, Obama identified 7 countries and halted their ability to be part of the visa waiver program. Why? Because these 7 countries represented a threat. Not a 90 day ban, but complete removal from the program.

Of two of these countries, ISIS has the ability to create fake documents. This is a widely known and reported facts. One of these countries is known for state sponsorship of terrorism.

Yet not a peep from anyone.

It so happens that these are the same 7 countries where Trump enacted his 90 day ban.

Why 90 days? The WH says its so that they can come up with a plan to enforce 'extreme vetting'.

Makes sense right?

In legal terms, the president has the ability to stop immigration from a country or countries if the immigration represents a national security threat.

Jimmy Carter suspended Immigration from Iran until the US Hostages were released.

Obama suspended immigration from Iraq for 6 months because two terrorists came thru the system.

And now Trump bans immigration for 90 days so that he can get a plan put in to place to counter a threat?

Take away all of the FUD. Consider the legal rights granted to the office of the President. Consider the news reports detailing the threat. And you call his actions "anti-intellectual and racist" ?

Really?

It seems to me, those protesting Trump are the ones acting in an emotional , anti-intellectual manner.

Also, its not racist. The claim is that its anti-Muslim. Muslim is a religion, not a race.

Oculus gift: VR biz to cough up half a billion dollars for ripping off software copyright

@Sampler Re: Bit Steep

"How do they calculate a half a billion value for Zenimax if total Oculus revs have been a quarter of a billion (taking the upper estimation of 400,000 @ $600 a piece = $240million)."

They use the same math that they do when they calculate the values of those Unicorns.

Facebook, Cumulus take on Cisco with 128 ports of open networking iron

@Thomn8r ...

Facebook like Google require a set of massive clusters to run their business. We're talking tens of thousands of machines across multiple data centers and they require massive amounts of bandwidth between them.

To Facebook the tech is a commodity so that they are not harmed by open sourcing both hardware and software. They have to open source this precisely so that they do not have orphaned hardware.

FB has no advantage by keeping their investment to themselves and also by open sourcing they share the risk and the costs of the tech with others.

'Treat your developers like creative workers – or watch them leave'

@AC Yes... but...

Oh I agree with you and the ideas behind this article.

However... we 're in an industry where anyone can say they know how to code.

You can give them 'coding tests' and of course they've crammed for those and can pass.

Yet when you try to give them real work... oooh boy. Time for either a couple of aspirin or a shot from the flask.

Look at it this way. Everyone wants a chef in their kitchen, yet they are paying low wages for classically trained chefs, and end up with line cooks who think that they are chefs and are willing to work for said salary.

If you don't like cooking ...

Think about walking in to a pharmacy where you need the pharmacist to mix a compound for you, and you end up talking to a pharmacy assistant who only knows how to open bottles and count pills. (Yes, there are some pills still made on site, and that's old school pharmacy. )

Doomsday Clock moves to 150 seconds before midnight. Thanks, Trump

@Tom ... Re: They've neglected Leap Seconds...

"Yeah, that number seems a little low. I feel at least 99.9% fucked."

Well then I'd ask the Prostitute for a prorated rate or your money back. :-P

The problem with the clock is that those who set the clock can't tell time.

Obama giving Iran the green light for their nuke program... that moved us ahead.

Then there's the Norks and their submarine and ballistic missile tests. All with China keeping mum.

Junior over there is more scary than Trump.

And then to top it all off, the lack of vetoing the UN sanctions against Israel... another negative blow.

@Lost all faith... Re: Bollocks ...since when did 'global [warm|cool|change]ing' get added?

Which Bush?

You may not be old enough to remember Desert Storm. That was my generation's war.

(Seems so weird in saying that.)

That was the only time Saddam proactively went in to another country under a Bush. But there was the Iran / Iraq war, but that was well before your time. (Maybe you were in nappies? )

And if you meant to say about Bush Jr., Bush didn't bluff. Saddam did and Bush called his bluff which ironically was meant to keep the Iranians at bay.

So please junior, learn your history. GWB shouldn't have gone in to Iraq, but hindsight is always 20/20. He gave the bad intel to Congress and they voted upon it.

Bollocks ...Re: since when did 'global [warm|cool|change]ing' get added?

The liberal idiots are in charge of the clock and they don't understand game theory.

They should have set the clock backwards due to Trump.

I know, it sounds contrarian, but all one has to do is to look at Obama's foreign policy and see what happens when you don't enforce a red line and someone calls your bluff. People die.

With Trump, is he bluffing and are you willing to call his bluff? I think not. Hence the deterrence holds.

President Trump tweets from insecure Android, security boffins roll eyes

@DavCrew

You do realize that they make boxes (cases) that will stop snoopers being able to use his phone as a listening device...

But yeah, he should get a more secure phone and stay away from Android. After all, you really don't know everything being sent back to Google, now do you?

AI eggheads: Our cancer-spotting code rivals dermatologists

@ fearless alien ... Re: Based on images alone

The idea of this is to let a person say "Hey, here's an interesting shaped brown patch on my skin. Could it be cancer? "

And if the AI says yes, the person goes to a doctor and says... "Hey, I think I have something you need to look at to see if its cancer..." Then the doctor looks at it, and if its something that warrants further investigation, they will biopsy it.

Most biopsies are benign and of course this is still hype and not real until it goes thru an FDA study.

Google: I know we promised not to mix our data silos buuuut...

So... how do you opt-out?

I may use Google Search, however what if I don't have a google account?

How do I tell Google I don't want to opt-in and let them co-mingle any private data?

What privacy settings do I have?

Time for Google to be declared a monopoly.

BTW, I wonder why Andrew or any of the El Reg reporters never talked about why they use Google Analytics when they could provide the same stats on their own. ;-)

After promising Donald Trump jobs will come home, IBM swings axe

@Big John... Re: The last trump?

IBM has been slashing jobs as they 're-balance' the work force.

What IBM is doing is slashing jobs and older workers who do not possess the skills that are required as IBM does a technology shift. So they are cutting the workforce. As they hire new workers, they are hiring 6K in the US, 19K elsewhere. When Rometty went to Trump, she promised to bring jobs to the US. The 6K jobs were baked in. So she's not really bringing jobs and when you net it out... IBM will reduce their US Jobs.

You get what you pay for...

When you offshore jobs... the quality of work goes down..

With respect to IBM... they are terminating staff that they can make redundant as they shift to the Cloud as their platform and Big Data / Open Source mantra because that's what their customers want.

So you're in Global Services and do Oracle / DB2 / whatever. You don't know Scala or Java? WHACK!

Its cheaper for IBM to whack them and hire recent college grads.

How Lexmark's patent fight to crush an ink reseller will affect us all

@John Brown ... Re: @Drew...

I think you missed the point that Lexmark is arguing about a patent violation.

They are trying to protect their product and patent.

In the end, the law is on their side.

Now show me an aftermarket product that violates a patent, and I'll show you a lawsuit.

And if you want to see an example of where aftermarket parts make a difference, take a look at Remington Rifles and Browning. Remington 700s are the most popular bolt action rifles around. Why? Because you can customize them. Browning? Not so much. (THere's also the Ruger 10/22 but that's a different beast.)

@Sleep Deprived ... Re: @Drew...

Again, you want to refill your own ink cartridges... nothing Lexmark can do to stop you.

This issue is about a business reselling used cartridges and Lexmark is suing them by arguing a patent violation. You can look at the K-Cup lawsuits as a pattern that Lexmark can use and probably argue in court because that's what Keurig did.

To your point, once the patent expired... Keurig couldn't stop other companies offering K-Cups and with their new product... sales were kind of flat. Consumers didn't buy in to it.

Personally I have a built in Miele coffee machine that makes the perfect cup of coffee and all I need to do is to add my own beans, milk and keep the damn thing clean. :-)

@Sven ... Re: @Drew...

"I don't recall anyone refilling used K-Cups, though. That spat was about compatible competing products."

The similarity is that both are using patent law to protect their IP and their profit streams. In both, the printer and the brewer are sold with minimal profit while the real revenue stream is in the coffee and ink. (See that similarity?)

In the case of Lexmark, its reusing their cartridges to make a competing product. In the case of Kreuig, its a compatible container. In both cases they used patent law to defend their position. Very similar.

Enough that a good lawyer for Lexmark will make a similar argument.

They can even make more arguments about protecting their brand and the consumer from dodgy products based on the refill cartridges.

The odds favor Lexmark.

@Drew...

I guess we'll have to modify Goodwin's law ... :-P

But seriously... Lexmark is going to win if they actually hired good lawyers.

Its one thing for you, joe consumer to buy the cartridge and then buy the ink to refill the cartridge. Its another for a company to buy your spent cartridges and refill them for resale. The amicus brief is garbage.

There's actually case law that supports Lexmark. You can see the future too.

Keurig Coffee had the K-Cups. While the patent was in force, only Keurig could make coffee pods for their coffee machines. When the patent ran out, others could make K-Cups, so Keurig's only option was to re-invent the wheel to freeze out the competition. (The profit was in the coffee not the brewer.) That was a complete failure.

So until Lexmark loses the patent, if you own a Lexmark, you have to buy their cartridges unless they license a third party to resell their products.

When consumers are offered a choice and they take the time to do their research like the TCO of the printer over the 3-5 year life of the printer... they may purchase a different product.

US govt can't stop Microsoft taking its Irish email seizure fight to the Supreme Court

@Oh Homer ... Re: So basically...

Actually it is. And its true for any other Western Government.

But in reality, I think that this case the US will fail. While Microsoft is a US based company, the data is on non-US citizens and the data is stored outside of the US. So there's no legal right for the US to gain access to this data as long as its never accessed from within the US.

And its a potential threat. There was at one time a practice where an account would be set up and bad actors would edit a draft document instead of actually sending it. (I intentionally forgot the specifics.) The point is that if the bad actors are sitting in France and Turkey and the data is sitting in Ireland, neither the French, US, or pretty much most of the western world would have a legal right to get the data. It may become gray in France, Turkey and Ireland, but you get the idea.

IANAL and I don't know the UK Laws or the EU's laws. But in this case... the US Government will have to get very creative and Microsoft will most likely prevail.

Oh, the things Vim could teach Silicon Valley's code slingers

Re: Vi and Vim are the spawn of Satan

Uhm... I guess you haven't had to work on things like wylbur. That was Satan's work!

When I was in high school, I borrowed my brother's copy of Stallman's paper on Emacs that he had on micro cards. (Not film but cards. Had to go to the public library in order to read it. Our school only had the film readers) [Again, I'm aging myself...]

Emacs is a bit interesting, and if not installed correctly could cause a security hole. (I guess you need to be a Unix admin from way back when to understand that. So we insisted on everyone using vi.

Vi isn't the spawn of satan. It was free and consistent across the universe. Emacs may or may not exist. So you ended up sticking vi.

And yes, I'm that old that I always type in vi and not vim. The devil face because I remember when BSD first came out. :-P

Kid hackers break XSS defences, find hack hole in 2 million websites

Re: Cross-site scripting bugs

The sad thing...

It shows just how lazy people are and how trusting they are of others. If you don't know who wrote the code, why do you trust it?

CIA boss: Make America (a) great (big database of surveillance on citizens, foreigners) again!

News Flash...

Its called Google.

College fires IT admin, loses access to Google email, successfully sues IT admin for $250,000

Article Headline a bit misleading...

They admin lost the case by default because he failed to show up to trial.

Its a default judgement which means the school can make his life hell going forward.

The guy shot himself in the foot. (IMHO) He should have helped them in good faith and then continued with his discrimination lawsuit.

That would have worked in his favor. Instead the tactic he chose to use was in fact blackmail.

Or rather could be seen negatively by the courts and described as blackmail.

Smart guns are a neat idea on paper. They'll never survive reality

Re: "I still don't understand why any sane adult would ever want or need to own a gun."

Zebo,

I pulled a gig in London.

Your so called unarmed police are now very well armed.

I saw one walking around with a nice HK MP5.

But to your point.

1) Hunting. Yes we do that. In some states Hunting / Fishing pull in a billion dollars of tourism.

2) Prevent crop damage. Do you know how much damage deer can do in a field of watermelon or other plants?

3) Protect the herd.

a) Poisonous Snakes.

b) Coyotes

c) Feral Dogs

d) Cow birds

e) armadillos

f) Crows

And we haven't even talked about the 2 legged type of individuals who know that you're 35 minutes away from the nearest police station.

That's why you own a gun.

Or you like to shoot.

Or you live in Chicago.

@Zebo

I guess you've never fired a gun.

Or lived in rural America.

On the farm, you will find a .22lr rifle, a 16 or 12 gauge shotgun and a hunting rifle.

(.22lr, .300WM, 7mmRemMag, 16gauge, 12 gauge for me. )

And yes, I've had to use a 12 gauge only once to stop an individual from doing something stupid.

Just the sound of it cycling at 5:00 am in the pitch black morning will scare a person in to following orders.

Re: Dissapointed

If you remember GRID Laptops, the one on the shuttle had to have a fan installed.

@AC ... Re: @DryBones... Doomed to failure

I am not sure if you were directing this to me...

A militia?

As in the same meaning that is in the 2nd Amendment?

Yes, I was of military age and population. Now I'm above that age.

@Gibberish Re: @DryBones... Doomed to failure

10mm? Yeah you probably dry fire because you can't afford the ammo. ;-)

And you also don't like the recoil. (Yes, I have a .40 and I've rented 10mm at the range so I do know what it feels like. And yes, I am not recoil sensitive.)

But to your point. You do have to spend time with the gun in both dry fire and doing skills and drills.

Unfortunately there are some drills that you can't do at the range.

Re: @AC ... A really smart gun...

Sorry, I am an old fart and I don't grok your 'cultural reference'.

Ballistic knives have been outlawed in many of the states.

@James Pond... Re: 'Smart guns' - an inherent failure

You have no clue.

1) Google CMP (Civilian Marksmanship Program) while founded in 1903 there's a reason why it exists.

2) Guns are a tool. Go spend time living / working in the rural US.

3) Owning guns did help when it came to training conscripts during the draft during WW II.

Hint. Research how they taught air crews to shoot.

@Gibberish Re: 'Smart guns' - an inherent failure

You must not buy the right kind of pistol that you find it unreliable. ;-)

Yes Revolvers are less likely to fail. However... 5-6 rounds vs 15. And reload times are faster,

As to Revolvers, I have big mitts and like a full sized frame. Conceal carry a pistol vs revolver.

And your revolver is DA or DAO. My pistol is DA first shot, SA the rest unless I decock it.

W.R.T Hunting... the revolvers are better for hunting unless you look at the pistols that shoot rifle rounds.

@DryBones... Re: Doomed to failure

Yes you are slow. ;-P

The trick is to focus on the front sight and the target. Usually this is at targets that are within 7 yards or less where you practice this drill. If you train yourself to have good posture and repeated posture, you can do this drill and you'll be 'on target' and shooting much faster. You may not be hitting 10X, but you'll be hitting center mass and depending on how good you are you can get this within the 8-9 ring every time.

Note: There are some people teaching advanced techniques that can shrink your groupings...

@Truckie ... Re: Doomed to failure

Dude, your ignorance of guns is amazing.

Clearly you've never hunted.

Depending on what you hunt... where you hunt... caliber, distance and shot placement... you may not kill the animal right off. You may have to put a second shot. And lets see. Do you spend $1.50 using a high powered rifle round or do you pull out your 9mm and spend ~.25-.30 cents or less (FMJ 115gr) YMMV, cheaper if you reload. (Or you could use a .22lr too)

There's more, and yes, hunters carry pistols.

Oh and some actually hunt with pistols too. ;-)

As to firing quickly and accurately.. yes you can do both. However that takes a lot of practice with a pistol.

Even with a rifle. One time I had to get out of a deer stand and stalk a coyote who was in the field with the cattle. I had a split second shot at 125yrds in a low light condition. So speaking from experience... yes, split second shots done accurately. (BTW, some shooting ranges have controlled targets that will expose themselves and hide (turn 90 degrees sideways) for periods of time.

I won't even get in to how silly you sound about NJ.

Again please... go get some education about guns and gun safety.

@AC ... Re: A really smart gun...

Its called a ballistic knife. And they are pretty much outlawed.

@Chris G ... Re: over engineered

Since you brought it up. Laquan ?sp? McDonald in Chicago was a teen who was shot 16 times by a CPD officer who is now up on charges. Why? Because he was high on drugs, resisted arrest and was approximately 20 feet holding a knife and refused to drop it.

You may have heard about this case. Lots of protest marches and the Chief of Police lost his job over the 'cover up'.

The officer will get tried and most likely will be found innocent. Then watch the riot/protests that ensue. Of course the family was already paid off by the city...

@Truckie ... Re: 'Smart guns' - an inherent failure

Wow. I can tell you don't own or know anything about guns.

Let's go point by point...

"1. Increased complexity and decreased reliability... leading to decreased safety for the user.

Yes, they said this about automatics when revolvers were in common use. It was a bad argument then and it is a bad argument now."

No, they didn't. In terms of guns, the revolver is the most reliable and least likely to fail. In terms of pistols, they are for the most part very reliable and safe if well maintained. The key thing about a firearm is that you want it to go bang when you pull the trigger. The 1911 and Luger pistol have been around for over 100 years. I'd say that the design is well proven.

"2. Delay in operation - as noted, this can increase risks to user, and reduce utility.

Ever hear of target identification? It takes time. People kill friends and relatives because they do not take that time. Might stop a few guys killing their daughters when they sneak home via the window,"

I don't know if you realize how dumb you sound. Anyone who's gone thru any gun safety or defensive handgun class will tell you that you don't shoot unless your life is clearly in danger. Where the delay in operation can kill you is if you are in a CCW situation and you have to clear leather. You don't have 1.5 seconds when you reach to get your gun. Even if the armed assailant has a 'safe gun' his is in his hand and he's ready to shoot. Bang, you're dead.

"3. Increased cost.

Will not be significant if produced in volume."

That's your guess. And the Epi-pen prices shouldn't have risen 500% in the past 2 years either.

"4. Will not work while wearing gloves.

Why is that a bad thing? How many people try to use short arms wearing gloves. Most cases where you would be wearing gloves you would be using long arms."

Again, you don't shoot. You have no clue about why anyone would wear gloves when shooting. Free clue. I wear gloves when I go to the gun range and work through my skills and drills. If you have to ask why, you've never seriously shot a pistol. And that's just at the range. If you're in a tactical situation you always have gloves on. Some LEOs wear kevlar gloves.

"5. Potential failure of locking / authentication system (may fire anyway), leading to a false sense of security and, likely, accidents.

This would be designed to fail safe i.e.. Not fire unless 'it' was sure it was being instructed to do so by an authorised user. There will be no false sense of security or accidents. It might not fire when you want (possible flaw, yes) but it will not fire when you do not want it to. Engineering can guarantee that as much as it can for any firearm."

Wow. more complete nonsense. Do you know what a hang fire is? There are a lot of bad things that can happen when a firearm malfunctions. Before you go talking you need to run a lot of rounds and different types of ammo. BTW, the kid's demo pistol is a .22. What happens when you start fire real guns. You know .40, 10mm , +Ps ... When the electronics fail ... what happens? The point is you don't know you're guessing.

I can go down the list and I can say that you clearly don't have a clue about guns, gun safety and defensive handgun techniques.

Please do us a favor and take an actual gun safety class and get some hands on experience.

Re: Left-wing American news organisation CBS

In the current Universe.

They aren't as bad as the CNN but they are left of center and are closer to the left than others.

Re: over engineered

For those who don't get it...

There are several types of safes.

And its here that biometrics makes sense.

There is a safe manufacturer that makes a small desktop / desk side safe that uses either a biometric, RFID or combination to let you get to your gun quickly. In this type of safe, you would keep the gun with a loaded mag, but not one in the chamber.

If you have kids around the house, you don't keep loaded guns out where they can get them.

@AC... Re: over engineered

Yup you are correct. Only problem is that you have people who don't know anything about guns who can't get it thru their thick heads that a fingerprint reader isn't going to make anything better.

@Jim Mitchel Re: 'Smart guns' - an inherent failure

Clearly you don't own firearms or know anything about them.

The author went on about some kid at MIT who was reinventing the fingerprint scanner on the gun.

You blather about the RFID tag in a ring or bracelet or something else used to unlock the gun.

Neither system will work in real life.

In terms of gun safety... there are gun safes that either use a combination lock, rfid card or rfid ring. Secures the gun in the home and its ready for use when needed.

Valley techies to protest outside Palantir – Trump adviser's creepy citizen database biz

Meh!

So, let me get this straight...

People are protesting about a system which has the potential to be used to find those who are living illegally in the US and deport them?

Does anyone else see how insane this is? You have people who are knowingly violating the law and you want to protest the Feds for doing their jobs?

As others have pointed out... Google also has the potential do the same thing. In fact they could probably do a better job of finding people since they pretty much track and own every web site out there.

Stanford boffins find 'correlation between caffeine consumption and longevity'

@ Fred F. Re: Still something missing for my lifestyle..

"

Any word about pizza ?

"

Pizza and coffee don't really go together.

Diet coke is a different matter.

Dovecot mailserver graded 'nearly impenetrable'

Cool!

Total Thumbs up.

Now lets see someone come up with a better GUI and front end for an open source mail/calendar/etc app to replace Exchange and other less secure systems.

If only Hillary had a competent tech who set up dovecot and postfix instead of an unsecured exchange server! :-P

(No, I still wouldn't vote for her. She's still as crooked as they come. )

Google reveals its servers all contain custom security silicon

@Tricker ... Re: Q

Yes, anything can be hacked. However, its possible to increase the barriers to a point where hacking becomes futile and obtaining the information thru other means is easier.

And there are other things that Google could do, but doesn't yet do...

Prepare for ReRAM speed! Crossbar samples SMIC chips

Still vapor...

I've been watching this company since it made noise a couple of years and they haven't really come out with a product.

So I am a bit skeptical with all of this hype and no product.

Please don't misunderstand, I'd love to see them succeed. 4+ TB on an M.2 form factor card would be incredible. (They talk about a 1 TB per cm^2 density) But please don't tease us with something that isn't close to being a product.