Posts by dssf

Google Glassholes, GET OFF our ROADS, thunder lawmakers in seven US states

Re: Hmm, Heist Edition...

Then, as in Caprica, there will be hacked/modded versions to facilate perverted entertainment or illegally enhance an ability to commit and get away with crimes.

Imagine a Heisst Edition of wearbable computers and glasses. And, now, considering talk of "bullet proof clipboards and backpacks" for students, imagine a robber knowing at all times the positions of bang guards, key holders, tellers, and more by clandestinely scanning the interior a few minutes and adding that to earlier, pre-rehearsal exercises.

Of course, google glass tech might help some surgeons, mechanics, and others who need to fall back into an "instruction" mode to avert mishaps or breakages during complex procedures.

Maybe there'll be a "Bifocal/Trifocal" edition? How long before we see GGO -- Google Global Optical as a ticker symbol?

Re: HUD? - modern satnavs Unttil some cracker breaks in

And draws lanes heading into the sky, with the car's annunciator commanding, "Pull UP! Pull UP! Pull UPPPP!" to the background sound of "ngonk-ngonk-ngonk-ngonk.... Maybe some cars will start to get haptic feeback? (Especially useful to get the attention of sleeping or distracted motorists.)

People have been steered into the woods, onto railroad tracks, off of piers, and off road edges. Haven't yet heard of Apache Longbow Virus hitting motorists yet, though...

Reminds me of that Tayuxuz ayukssent in traynin mohd. "Nha, luuk intu the Eye-Hadds, and follow the payuth.... Pool ohn the kullektive and clymb to fhivv thasand feet..." Zoom up to 10,000 andd he then admonishes "Yoo gohn too fahrrr!" hahahaha. Best part, EVER, on Longbow... "Yoo gohn too fahrrr!"

BTW, I grew up in Texas fer 10 years, and I think I have some lahteetood to cunvay this anekdoat...

Has Cisco made a $415 MILLION mistake with the Whiptail buyout?

Chess, Stratego games here?

Maybe Cisco decided, or some entity decided for Cisco, that the buy would be made to preempt other parties from getting the tech. If for its own motives, Cisco could just write down the costs over time, somehow, including padding pricing of other products and services. It's what most businesses would do to bolster profits/revenues/income. If, say, an "interested government body", however, were involved, then this might be a strategit/tactical move to keep Lenovo or others outside of the USA (including the UK) from getting their hands on the tech. It's how governments work, using companies to be non-combatant players in the intel/tech sphere.

Might not even impinge on NatSec. So, I could be completely wrong on either count. Stress, or ChessStigo?

Just my $0.02...

Gene boffins: Yes, you. Staring at the screen. You're a NEANDERTHAL

Acid bathing of human cells?

Wow, talk about "Of Mice and Men" as far as words go:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/01/29/268171016/a-little-acid-turns-mouse-blood-into-brain-heart-and-stem-cells

Maybe in all those 10s of thousands of intervening years, acidity in the environment also played a role. We were taught in biology class that the right acid/pH balance played a role in our development as a species, IIRC.

But, this could be a lot more important than how we look. As for skin and hair, I don't think we got our "looks" from the Neanderthal unless there is structure in there, too. After all, skin fairness is in some cases a result of latitude and weather. Bone structure, I would venture to say, impacts a lot, especially facial and cranial, and that renders us looking acceptable or non-acceptable in modern/dating terms. OTOH, I'll defer to the more knowledgable.

Re: Soooo.... Wickers.... District 9...

That would be "interspecies prostitution"...

A real life Romulan-Klingon alliance: Google, Samsung sign global patent pact

Re: Bonus points to el Reg for the Star Trek: TOS reference! KAPLAH!

KAPLAH!

Cho-lon-tru

Funny... This reminds me of a friend I had in 2004. He is from Japan. Back in 04/05/06 timeframe, lots of baseball players or teen/early 20's youth were into shaving off their eyebrows, royally perturbing one of the majors, who rooted around trying to get a law passed or something to curtail that brow-shaving.

My friend, of whom I shot a photo in Tokyo in Dec of that year, had on some grey-ish coat. Retroactively, like years later, when I looked at the coat, his hair, and his long, Vulcan-like brows, I could not help but chuckle that he looked as if he beamed down from a ship operated by the Tal Shiar, or maybe like he stepped from the chambers of the Romulan Senate.

No, sorry, I cannot share the photo. Wouldn't want it going viral and having him feel mocked in some weird, murky, 'merkun way. He might curse me...

Cham-che-chami-chek! (Gowron: You swear WELL in Klingon, Picard...)

This tool demands access to YOUR ENTIRE DIGITAL LIFE. Is it from GCHQ? No - it's by IKEA

Well if THAT'S the Case, then ...

Why do these damned apps not say, "Access to the app-specific folder created to store contents related to this app. NO OTHER FOLDERw will be looked at..."

Either their language/wording sucks, or they are being very generous to themselves.

Facebook app now reads your smartphone's text messages? THE TRUTH

Re: One does not have to be on Zuck-book, Say WHAT?!

Just yesterday, on my Android-based phone, I saw "update facebook", but i ignored the shit. Due to another app not refreshing, I decided to reboot my phone, which works for that given app when the screen stays black and it takes 10 seconds for a long press on the home button to exit the app or present me a task list.

I task-kill the app, root around (myself, no root capabilities) looking in vain to kill anything else, and then shut off the antenna, turn on airplane mode, and then...

After I rebooted, mysteriously (or, why should I have been surprised), no more nag/listing "update facebook".

I have for YEARS suspected that fuckking android and/or some other apps in the phone bypass the antenna setting, leave the icon dimmed, and call home.

After this reeboot, I saw somethinakin to "binary installed". WHAT THE FUCK!!! The antenna was OFF, or so I commanded.

And, at SFPL, where various versions of Android would die or lock up, when connected to the lib's wifi... But, falling back to an older version was OK? That was around early-to-mid 2013, and seems to have stabilized. But, personally, given SF's leftness, and SFPLs steadfast anti-surveillance compliance, and refusal to hand over patron borrowing history, I strongly suspect the library's payroll involuntarily has IT staff who work for another entity. Wifi, for free, in a major library, in a left-town that acts like a nation-state? Not being surveilled? Yeh, right. Maybe the potentially-present sniffing gear had issues with my tablet being the Korea-locale variety? I dunno. My older, android phone was seemingly ok, but not my recent, 2012 Tab.

Anyway, only with some proper RF gear might I determine whether my phone blurps/beeps/sends or takes in any code.

Hell, I insinuated that zuckerberg may be on the nat-sec payroll. I suspect google is and has been all along, and possibly even apple. After all, if Apple's warez needed FEWER nat-sec letters to monitor, then it's possible either Apple was cored or just gave up the stuff. All the foot dragging is just for show, for public consumption.

I guess one way to find out if our phones talk surreptitiously is to plant vile stuff on them and wait to be contacted. Just plant vile shit on them, but never, directly log on to anything, never surf, never, allow it to turn on the antenna, not by one's own hand. Then, justt wait for it to violate the users' commands and then get "discovered".

Oh, wait, that's my outraged mind speaking. I prefer to not be cuffed, and don't recommend embarking on a cuf-worthy path. But, goddammit, it is the GOVERNMENTS' jobs to do their OWN fucking dirty work, not drag companies into it and facilitate wholesale slurping, or take things to the point that our devices by default LIE to us and by default report on or pass up the line any and every thing they see or are fed.

Sigh...

Back to Spooks (er, umm, MI-5, since the USA's history clashes with the term "spooks" being used in a broadcast program.... Sigh ) a quite brilliant, even if entertaining, show.

Yet another reason to suspect MZ is on the NSA/CIA payroll?

Yet another reason to also SLAM google for not creating any sort of content vault system.

BY DEFAULT, google, damn you, every piece of information on a user's devices should be subject to granular access controls/permissions.

-- Kakao, talk, line, whatever apps are there in the store or other sources should not have cart blanche access to contact lists!!!! Create in the contact list a check box to deprive access by/reads by apps listed on the install list or at the users' whims.

-- apps that access or attempt to access contacts, logs, text, memos, art, jpgs, whatever, should be logged and reported to google, AUTOMATICALLY, so that in real-time, google can push down code to users' devices to thwart in a heuristic manner any subversive, invasive, or other surgical attacks on our devices

If google cannot participate in this kind of discussion and facilitate better protection, first-party, then why do we put up with shit shitty state of affairs. How can be bludgeon or chest-punch google into getting off the sidelines?

I'm surprise the ACLU and EFF do not seem to be weighing in on this issue on a regular basis.

Reg snaps moment when Facebook turned air Blu: 1PB box for unloved pics

Fortunately, and gratifyingly

It was "than use chopsticks", not "then use chopsticks", hehehehe..

Got a TorMail account to avoid Uncle Sam's web snoops? About that...

Government Honeypot?

Hah, and just a few days ago, on some tenuous thread related to facebook, I was going to tie in Bill Gates as a way to posit that MZ must have been a very, very naughty boy, and then bought back his freedom with genious: creating the most massive government honeypot ever seen in this quadrant, or sector at least.

If Tor is a hidden honeypot, exposed only recently, one must wonder which multi-government (domestic and international) honeypots are right in our noses.

Of course, probably only the PhDs and most senior board members would know that. And, if they are only after bad guys and smart, potential payroll subjects, then, really, really, those who are not breaking laws of interest for punishment really, really don't have much to worry about even if snooped in.

I kinda say this because:

A. I always suspected monitoring and honeypotting of any sizable social online gathering platforms (fb, yahoo, google, half life, and more, any place where crims, spies, and others used to be able to hide themselves)

B. Just looking around and observing the wackiness on the streets, and which we put up with because as long as WE, individually are safe, we could care less as long as the spies, police, and courts keep enforcement to either a dull roar, or an entertaining show

C. It is just plain folly to expect governments of any significant power to allow their most talented intrusion artists just sit on the sidelines and be blindsited or blindsided

I have never used encryption because I have feard locking myself out of my own stuff, and if I kept clear copies, it would not be of much use to encrypt anything. I have locked myself out, permanently, of a few password-protected files only because after a two-week vacation, I could not remember my password to a set of files. Also, as others regularly point out, use of very notable crypto just puts crypto users on the radar. Why join a party that has so many looking to scan deeper than is needed and than I could care for? Don't be an outlier, and if one must be an outlier, don't be an outlier worthy of or incurring being framed, killed, or abusively exploited.

One can only imagine how many thousands upon thousands of industrial spies, pedophiles, arms dealers, kidnappers, gang-rapists, corporate embezzlerrs, priests, adulters, and myriad other categories of people are at some designated prosecution level according to severity of their self-admissions in purportedly uncrackable messages. Imagine the collective sigh of relief by those who avoid doing stuff that would make it tempting and addictive to use Tor-like services.

The tore through Tor, and on what, Slashdot, many non-tor-adherants got belittled, down-scored, abused, and dismissed for daring to suggest Tor was nowhere near safe as its users claimed it to be.

Amazing? Scarry? Impressive? Stay tuned: The show is not over -- the fat lady (or your fav character) has not sung yet. And her falsetto is endless... Glasses are still shattering in the distance, unseen.

Prince sues 22 music file-sharers for ONE MEEELLION dollars each

Not a Princely Sum to Obtrieve

Per celebrity.com, Prince Rogers Nelson is valued at (has net worth at) USD $300m. This $22 suit will probably bankrupt the pirates, enrich (but not "enwealthen", to richly "coin" a word) the lawyer to some small amount -- but if there are zero assets of monetary value, there probably is very little to be "obtrieved".

Just my $0.0073 (yes, I shifted the decimal to devalue my comment quite a bit). Cha-ching!

Apple declares war on PAYPAL: Pay-by-bonk + iTunes = profit, right?

What's in you wall...

Umm, Finger?

One way to pre-empt Apple, or any new start-ups in this field would be some sort of biometric readeer of fingerprints, with two-factor auth, such a a password. Even if someone steals/observes the passwor, there'd be a need for the. Three-factor auth might call for an eyeball scan, and maybe a spit test.

But, if Apple really is serious about entering this market, AND is reticent to be everywhere and yet be botique, then it will probably align itself in some special "strategic partnerships" with Tiffinay-level (is that high enough?) stores. But, that would re-lock out minorities who in general, at first, could not even afford an iPhone (recall back to June 2007).

So, while I don't expect the AppleBonk or iBonk whatever it will be called (there abound "ibonk" handles/accounts from twitter, to fb, to photo sites, and elsewhere, so, if Apple will be calling it iBonk, then a few people are either going to be well-paid off to give up their handles, or they will bet time-machine-retroactive cease-and-desist-be-unborn/undone/unwound letters), the "iBonk/whatever" will probably pop up in Macy*s, Starbucks, certain shopping malls' kiosks, movie theaters, and other places where Apple can influence music purchases.

Maybe even Apple will read the phone states and correlate with the users' iTunes music prefs, run an algorithm, and make the pre-movie experience play up music skewed to drive up moods and music downloads before a movie starts, or to steer mall shoppers to buy music blasting from a physical store. Only thing is, is the phy store might not make a sale, but the iBonkMusicMachine will probably boost iTunes sales.

Probably there is already an iBonk patent being examined, and no reference at all to the youtube, twitter, facebook, and other photo-related profiles....

China's Jade Rabbit moon rover might have DIED in the NIGHT after 'abnormality'

Next time, to prove there are aliens up there....

Send TWO vehicles:

-- one lunar, roving around

-- one orbital, to keep an eye on the eclipsed rover

Even if the rover cannot communicate, at least the orbiter can watch it. But, if the orbiter goes dark, too.. One's a mistake. Two, probably suspicious...

If these rovers someday are on short treks, maybe a pre-lander array of tethers-and-reels could be set up.

-- Sprinkle semi-self mobile reel machines that beacon along the rover's PIM (Path of Intended Movement)

-- Rover operates in a mission box

-- If failures in the rover seem repetitive, sent the recovery-reels to "snag-and-drag" the rover back to a lit area, or to at least provide it power and heat.

These snag-and-drag device, though, might need to be nuclear, and would be expensive, possibly prohibitively. But, I'm just throwing darts, on the assumption the rover may be valuable, and might have onboard some data it collecgted but was unable to transmit.

If aliens or hostile powers are involved, then all bets are off for certain.

Re: This calls for a conspiracy theory! Calls for a Spoonerism...

Did it go to sleep because it is on the dark side of the Moon,

Or was it damaged/destroyed because it is on the marked side of the dune?

Prof Stephen Hawking: 'There are NO black holes' – they're GREY!

Re: "I know absolutely nothing about the black holes...

Rather than a stupefyingly powerful gravity well, suppose "black holes" are more akin to "galactic sewer pipes". Instead of all the violent, inward crushing that has been postulated, imagine if it is less violent, but a sucking (and, sucky) experience wherein it is akin to a combination of tsunami, rogue waves, and beam seas. You might not BE killed by the gravitational and other forces at work, but all through it you might wish you WERE killed as an act of cosmic mercy.

What I mean is, similar to worm holes or space folds, could it be possible that there is some "cosmic ductwork" (obscured pipes, ducts, culverts, or canals, metaphorically) into which thing "fall" or get sucked into, but we just don't have the tech, tracking, or speed to observe things randomly popping up (out of a pipe end or over the wall's edge/bank, metaphorically) elsewhere with their original or recognizable signatures intact?

I'm just winging it, know virtually nothing about cosmology, and have not concocted this from reading any sources. (Of course, I've seen plenty of Trek and all the "oh my gods we are trapped and cannot get out episodes of the week... But I'm talking about stuff less dramatic than a movie or tv show using dramatic plot devices to keep rapt audiences from changing the channel...)

Re: What happens if you throw spaghetti into a black hole? Err, umm, well...

It would get pulled in like spaghetti....Or, maybe, pulled in like a human?

They should patent that because they've just...

Created a better mouse trap.

Best to avoid that event, apparently, hehehehe...

Patent-holding firm's lawsuit against Googorola kicks off

Re: Pot calling the kettle black?

Mossibly lore pike the cot palling the bettle klack...

Re: "Intellectual Ventures"? Really?!?

"MIS-adventures" more appropos?

There needs to be for PAEs ae "Gilligan's Island", consigned to a "Devil's Triangle/Delta Triangle", wrapped in a wormhole, doing elliptical orbits at the quasi-event horizons of a Grey Hole... Interphasing through a time machine stuck on "Snooze"...

The world would be better off without PAEs.

Lol.. "bullshit-fu is weak"

Lol.. "bullshit-fu is weak"

Definitely makes haiku look easy...

This whole story points to sordid, confusing deals:

-- Samsung is looking to ditch Android

http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/phone/news/view.jsp?req_newsidx=150217

-- IV holds patents, IV is started by a former MS exec, and IV is probably helping MS cozy up to Samsung

-- Google cannot afford to lose Samsung, yet, Samsung is losing profits to paying MS for royalties to avoid being savaged by MS' "protection money" over MS' beef with Android

-- TiZen could make MS and Google less nettlesome, ms less meddlesome, and put sordid, convoluted patent trolls back into hot, roiling boiling kettles some...

Facebook debunks Princeton's STUDY OF DOOM in epic comeback

Damn you, Eddy... I've got cramps, from my most intense laughter of the day... "twin half-sister".... You just surpassed my laugher-response to ie-vs murder rate correlations laughter...

Damn, my head is pulsing.... I gotta get back to drawing before I stumble up something that keeps me from being able to breath steadily...

Twin half-siste......

Whoaa... If it IS tongue-in-cheek

Then is shows that some PhDs at companies either let that (joke) fly right over their heads, and went into reactionary mode, or FB's PR/marketing/Spin Doctor Offices felt an urge to keep the investors at bay...

Re: Of great didactic value.

But, even if FB dies by 2016, there may not be a factual causal relation corresponding to or supporting Princeton's work. For example, if an earthquake destroys SanMaAlto, and concurrently FB's underground servers overheat in agony at the whoosh sound of MZ and company vanishing, those events would have nothing to do with bored, defecting, or overloaded users checking in less on their accounts and friends' walls. Princeton will have just taken a SWAG, and coincidentlally a prediction.

Awesome comment on the correlation between IE market share and corresponding rate of murders. So preposterous, it was one of my best laughs of the day....

Sony pumps cash into gene-wrangling joint venture

Secret Project Code Name..

Walking Walkman....

French drug dealers regretfully announce 'temporary closure'

And who says criminals don't have a ...

... Code of Ethics....?

Chrome lets websites secretly record you?! Google says no, but...

Re: Turn the mic off Huh??

Cannot the speakers be reversed as crude mics? Even if an icon says "Off", it could be falsely displaying the current status.

All computer circuts themselves might to some extent be manipulable to act as crude beacons if not audio slurp sinks.

When not actively using the machine, drop it in a roady's foil-and-foam-lined speaker transport box.

We ordinary people have no real means of knowing nor thwarting this stuff. We are just probably going to have to accept "renormalization" of our expectations.

Don't let human or electronic "tails" tell-tail on the tail you tail. Don't do Oingo-Boing-Syle "Nasty Habits" around elegtronics. ("Take the phone off, lock the door, shut the curtains... Make sure that the neighbors are without suspicion -- NO one will KNOW, NO ONE WILL KNOWWWW...... Nasty Secrets, I must condone... No one knows what I do when I'm ALL ALONE.... " hahaha) ... If you're worried about "perve mics"....

If THAT'S all you're wondering about, then ponder this:

The mic possibly could continue to record even when you "turn it off". Even if you turn off the antenna, turn on airplane mode, and Faraday-cage it when not in use, it might work in concert with the accels/gyros and report what was audible at what lat/long or near what cell tower, or in what coffee shop or library said audio was captured. Then, when reconnected to a net, micro-bursted in small, non-lag/latency-affecting snippets neither you nor any sleuting tools you install could find. It doesn't even have to be the NSA doing this -- it could be slightly-advanced script kiddes, employers, suspicous spouses, police, data thieves, nosey neighbors, anyone who can find or employ the services of the kit or a person verse in its use.

The notepads with all their rights-grabs... You type what you think is personal stuff not discoverable to anyone. But, you browse all sorts of sites, and gradually, multiple hackers are infesting your device(s), one or more competing for access to your stuff, your inner digital sanctum. You might begin to wonder why so much lag/latency/stuttery pages despite it being mostly text. Could be your photos and notes are being lifted with you unawares, or aware of the possibility, but, as long as you use devices you load with software from unvetted (not by reviews, but by a valid security team paied to help you keep your secrets protected beyong google's semi-empty gestures) sources.

Just wait til you use a bonk/tap/rub-together device, or hug someone who is wearing a micrro-filament-antenna garment that can either access or short out electronics carried by unsuspecting targets.

Application Permissions Required for Use:

-- access to antenna

-- access to contact lists

-- access to keyboard

-- ability to create, modify, and tear down ad hoc networks (without your knowledge, awareness, or consent)

-- ability to blurp your location (without you knowledge, awareness, or consent)

-- abiltiy to access sensitive logs

-- abiity to modify (read, edit, delete) contents of the above

-- ability to start services that cost you money

-- ability to prevent the device from sleeping

-- abillity to control the screen

-- ability to operate the microphone

-- ability to prevent the disruption of active transmissions or reception

-- ability to read password-protected files

-- ability to back up your files to one or more sites

-- ability to incriminate, implicate, extort, blackmail, harass, intimidate, or frame you, if the need arises

......

Digital Age Phase 3.5.2.5.33(1)a....

Re: All that chrome

Oh, come on, people! IIRC, even well before Chrome came into existence, surreptitious voice collection against the computer mic has been reported, IIRC, before 1997. It just wasn't talked about much in the public. Besides, the computer is just a big, fancy relfector and collector, and can be manipulated as an antenna -- transceiver, if you will -- by anyone with the proper tools and skills.

All this means nowo is that when anyone is concered about privacy, wrap up the devices in matter what will disrupt smooth, useful capture of pulses. I dunno whether is sound mounting, or mounting on rocks or semi-wadded aluminium wrap, or hanging reflectors and white noise balls in a room while a fan randomly nutates/rotates to inject weird perturbations. I dunno. But, I bet wapping the phone and leaving it in the pocket still allow bone-retransmission to some extent, even if only 7 or 10 feet. Line enough public restrooms and transit vehicles and keep a current inventory, iti might be possible to hot-track anyone whatever state. (status) a phone is in.

Don't forget lasers and keystrokes.... Every tool in the kit ensures some amount of collection and overlap...

So, if you're into kinky sex, cheating, or just selling proprietary information, and can be identified to be in one or more of those categories, and frequent hotels, you better not take your phone into the room. Better yet, change up your meeting sites, and spend 4 hours trying to ditch tails and avoid f/r cams, hahahah. All this release is doing is "normalizing" most people. Artists in the trade of info dealing probably have skills and tools to thwart most "gotcha" Kodak moments that might otherwise land them in jail.

Might make for an interesting movie, or better yet, a 19-episode serial production...

Re: Dodgy? I have an idea...

If you can afford to (and are willing to help the sagging, flagging, lagging hardware industry sales), buy a second, dedicated conferencing device. Why should we allow unmonitored access to the internal private contents of our devices?

Even if it is a valid reason to keep the mic running while the user flips through tabs looking for content, the user should NEVER be deprived of knowing factually the status of the mic. It should not be masked, obscured, hidden, or otherwise removed from the user's immediate awareness ability.

Part of me wonders whether google got influenced via a national security letter, or got pressured by a committee to "enable" other, side industry players a way to make legit products. But, since it DOES appear fishy, I for now will presume various security agencies or wanton recklessness within google allowed this to happen.

It is insulting, repugnant, and immoral to do or to allow something to depreive the user of the awareness that he or she is being or is capable of being monitored so easily.

And, people anywhere I go wonder why I have electrical tape covering my tablet, phone, and laptop cameras. Plug up the mic with wax, and if anyone demands you conference with them when you cannot afford extra hardware devoid of private contents, tell them to toss off. Rationally make them understand that while you cannot prevent being physically mugged, you have NO obligation to facilitate electronic, remote ransacking by ANYone. If they scoff, they despise or disrespect you and your convictions/sensibilities. Why work with or facilitate or enable such people?

Skype also can be hot-mic'd, I think, on conference room machines. My previous employer thought I was paranoid when I would bring up such things when setting up the dedicated Skype-enabled computer. I would suggest "doming" the machine, and that just pulling out the extended mic cable was not nearly enough to prevent the risk of confidential meetings in the Board Room being picked up by a wired-in remote observer. To be a little ominous, I mentioned laser-capture of voice, too. I guess such information stymies and cripples some companies. Honest ones, though, only have to worry about the risk of competitive information getting out, but at least not worry about non-existent corrruption or malfeasance.

Users should have the right to an electronic "Face Toward Enemy" capability, "Enemy" being ANYone who surreptitiously penetrates the firewall -- poke them hard and finger them to hell and grep their asses to the trade rags. If you are a bona fide crim under investigation, and legit, verifiable warrants are properly executed, you're SOL. But, those who are not known to be in criminal or uncouth activities should have the right and means to thwart unwarranted, warrantless, and criminal observation. Why no analogy to good ole 'Merkun football? Screw one-sidedness. Fair's fair. Again, as long as you're not protecting crims or corrupt officials against non-crims.

It was inevitable: Lenovo stumps up $2.3bn for IBM System x server biz

Re: Time to shine :).... I wish that that would happen with SmartSuite

Since IBM is ditching support for Lotus SmartSuite in Sept of 2014, I hope a "white night" shows up and strips S/S from IBM, eviscerates the problemmatic stuff (tied to non-forthcoming patent owners), and replaces those bits with modern code not envisaged by the patents that purportedly deterred IBM from making any meaningful, heartful improvements to SmartSuite.

I wish Lenovo threw in an extra $100m and acquired it and then would bring in some kewl Open Source devs to bring SmartSuite into year 2014, instead of languishing in 1998/1999.

Bored with patent trolls? Small fry - prepare for the Design Trolls

Re: Competitive Advantage and Operational Efficiencies? My MBA Didn't Cover Those!

Very well put.

I worry about things I've designed, which I have publicly released. My thoughts for protection my ideas include licensing rather than selling, poison pills rather than carelessly-accepted money.

An alternative to banking, for those who have time, would be to endlessly (not to infinity, really) permutate a design, and present them as sibblings in stages of evolution. It would increase the size of the filed document, but might show that the designer DID indeed consider alternatives, and is quasi-permitting some exposure in exchange for increased protection on the main Claim. However, this quasi-exposure of lineage of parts or designs should not grant broad, blanket coverage. OTOH, some will opt out of showing lineage -- after all, who wants to "enable" a previously non-existent, peripheral competitor who might end up proving far more nimble than can be coped with? Well, invite sub-licensing at really cheap entry cost, but not to one party, but to many, so risidual income can be steady or flatter but constant, not subject to the whims of a potential single-point-of-failure domineering licensee.

This is just going to fuel the fire that there should not be either "First to Invent" or "First to File", but rather "Merit Protection Based on Market Response", but blended with FTI/FTF to some extent.

The current patent systems are horrid, abominable, and only protect idea scalpers, patent trolls, patent hoarders, and the like. If small, independent, low-income inventors/designers/creators cannot even afford reduced filing costs, and cannot have built-in counsel provided cheaply to ensure they are not steamrolled, then the two dominant patent methods will generally screw small players and not "reward" but "empower" larger, more more shrewd, cunning , and ruthless players.

Talk about stifling innovation and curtailing public benefit.

Facebook will LOSE 80% of its users by 2017 – epidemiological study

Now Trending...

"Fb user log-ins today, vs yesterday; actuals vs our daily predictions, vs external predictions..."

I bet THAT won't be on fb's fb home page...

German frau reports for liver transplant clutching bottle of vodka

With that habit, the hospital could have arranged for her a special

DE-livery.

I may be mistaken, but I would presume that as a condition of receiving the organ, the planned recipient would be tested a day or a week prior to the procedure, then, if failing, be de-prioritized and the organ given to the next-up matching recipient on the waiting list. The threat of not being allowed to have the organ, and hence, the increased likelihood of mortality coming sooner, might act as a "STE" Sudden Traumatic Event to wake up boozers who want to live and honor the organ specially found or tweaked for them.

Judge sighs at 'whack-a-mole' lawsuits as Apple deals blow to Samsung

Once again, the USPTO invites keel-hauling of itself

Predictive text existed in dictionaries, databases, and other devices even prior to the 90s.

Increasingly, the USPTO seems to deserve the most uncouth of uncouth assault and battery upon itself. If they were paid too arrive at the decision to issue the patent, then keelhaul that party, too.

Better yet, somebody spray lube and sand on the floor so these two combatants can gore each other in the slips and jerks, and hopefully limp away in a mutual truce. This IS wearing thin on the courts and the consumer, too.

Amateurs find the 'HOLY GRAIL' supernova – right on our doorstep

All of this

Has pahhened before, and all of this will happen again. I can feel it in my bone.

However, in the near term, let us hope that that list of things being ticked off does not include ETs on their way to hijack us... Especiallly if any include Cavil's forces.

Windows 8.1 update 'screenshots' leak: Metro apps popped into classic desktop taskbar

Optional Thrash

"Thrash", per:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/thresh

Probably IS appropos, too, as in "Thrashold", hahaha

TOSFKATT: The Operating System Formerly Known As Thresh-holed/Thrashold"

Serial...

Why did i think "killer" when I was Serial? Sigh...

Anyway, Threshold probably will get changed when/if enough people associate "threshold" as "limit of pain tolerance", or as "Thrash-hold", which is an undesirable thing to envision being done to oneself, especially by a company unto its bread-and-butter users.

Why cannot these companies operate in the mode/mood of "Let's bake bread together"? It is as if instead it is the user face down or bent over, to the grunting of "Let us BREAK BED together".... Except there's no "together" about it when it's one-sided... the user can feel "thrashed" and "holed"...

Not even 1.4m users can save 4Chan founder Chris Poole's startup

Speaking of "Worth", 100,000 downloads bring in $250,000 for 3D-gun printer maker

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2014/01/22/3d-printed-gun-creator-cody-wilson-lands-quarter-million-dollar-book-deal/

I will need to re-read it to figure out how much venture money went into HIS "product".

Imagine if someone sells the 3D plans of the gun. Might bring in another half million. Well, until the Law steps in and seizes it and attaches all sorts of penalties to make an author wish to be un-born...

What was the biz model?

I am still trying to figure out whether his biz plan had a fall back to be available to non-Apple platforms. I read his blog and looked at the iTunes store.

It seems tragic, possibly wasteful, that his app, as good as it appears, may have suffered from a bit of elitism. Granted, one dev may not have the resources to singly develop and port to multiple platforms, agnostically. But, some devs DO, and apps do indeed exist to help developeers.

If investor money went into this to something greater than $100,000, then those investors should have demanded cross-platform compiler use to ensure maximum ROI. There are IDEs that will port to Mac, Linux, and, of course, Windows, so, maybe some can do it for mobiles, too. If mobiles are catered to from some of the European dev tools makers, agnostically, then maybe his memoir will (should? Better?) include in it a section about the perils of allowing elitism (no matter the source) limit the audience.

Also, is there not the risk that Apple may severely crimp income potential, and even worse, influence whether non-powerful developers may have permission to put up their app if they dare to also support Windows and Android devices? If that risk is real, and if it impacted him, he might (should? BETTER?) bemoan that, too, as a possible source of failure.

Any team with more than 5 developers probably has room to hire/include a multi-platform-skilled developer to help build ports/port builds as a fallback/ejection seat mode. No mobiles developer should be crimped or boot-to-the-neck constrained by any one company. Not saying Apple did that to him, but I seem to recall some developers prior to 2012 being disgruntled about it while others/readers viewed it as necessary and Apple's right to stranglehold the market against competition it didn't want. Of course Microsoft could/probably did play this game. Linux is not likely to wield such power, and Android seems to get that power by the sheer dint of various phone/tablet makers churning out more powerful apps.

BTW, anyone notice that DrawQuest required 17MB of storage space? I don't know if it really is the total, non-data size, or the download size, or the combination of the two after the payload is unpacked and compiled against the iDevice targets.

Finally, Apple and Android devices REALLY need some sort of up-front micropayments option so that wary punters can try with minimal risk, and if they like it, agree to around 5 or 10 cents a day until they want to stop (at a whim, or at a pre-set date, or upon reaching a certain contribution). Unfortunately, the costs of transactions probably nullify this as wishful thinking on my part.

What needs to happen, too, is after vetting and downloading from an inexpensive source/repo, another party should handle the monetary rewards side. Apple and Google probably need to be eviscerated from the primary income stream so devs can charge what they need, and if they get lucky and take in wildly more than anticipated, "give something back" and SHOW their supporting users how that "excess" money is being used. Users probably would rather see it going to noble/civic causes than just lining the coffers of Apple or Google or Microsoft. Cut out all that extra "overhead" and maybe, just maybe, small devs might make some meaningful income if end users latch on to some social/civic/dev-rewarding cause the USERS care about.

Just my $0.99

Korean credit card bosses offer to RESIGN over huge data breach

A little bit about culture

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2014/01/22/2014012200837.html

http://www.inc.com/magazine/201112/the-returnees.html

Over there, if you are from a wealthy family (at least as of 2011), and you run a start-up, you're regarded with suspicion. Read about Daniel Shin, from the USA, who started Ticket Monster in Korea in a room in his grandmother's home, and is (in 2011) doing better than most Koreans born and raised in Korea, who struggle their butts off to stay at the top of the boiling kettle.

People with lots of money probably wonder what'll happen to them if these banks keep suffering data breaches. SK's been hit multiple times in the past few years.

How can it NOT be a risk?

That is an incredible leap in logic, that just because the CVC and password do not appear to have been obtained, there is no likely fraud to take place.

It is no secret that unlike the USA and other countries, where voluntary tax reporting is considered "compliant", and in SK, "non-compliant", some number of SK's (IIUC, those older than 35 or so) have two to five alter egos/alternate IDs, just for evading taxes, among other things.

Anyone with this info now can target those victims and use enough existing facts to create alternate IDs and possibly obtain credit or loans in those people's names if collateral is not required. With so many people having the same surname, it only will take a crafty con a few days with an analytics program to match up stolen IDs to prospective buyers to minimize the risk of fraud alert detection going off.

This is just one more incident that will likely lead to biometrics at point of sale becoming the norm.

But, if these kind of snafus will probably make more people resort to carrying around wads of extra cash for a few months. It can be pretty scary for those who use love motels for purposes outside of their relationships if the data buyers/users can figure out how to access transaction histories. Blackmail could really put people into a tailspin, too.

It is just totally improper to state that the lack of the CVC and password diminishes the risk of harm to the victims. Downplaying these events is likely to lead to complacency.

US can't get its hands on Navy hacker Victor Faur, aka SirVic

Did he steal or damage anything, or just find holes and admonish them to fix them?

Man, sometimes people just are ungrateful.

If he didn't damage, destroy, diminish, or publish the security flaws, then good on him, and bad on them for looking a gift horse in the mouth and crying foul. One'd think that agencies striving for constantly-improved security would say, "Thanks! But, next time, get a Test Requisition Chit" instead of globally hunting down someone who could be converted into an asset more smoothly.

I admit I did not follow the matter and so my shoot-from-the-hip bit may need some re-tuning (coerced or ham-fisted retuning roundly rejected...).

Pay-by-bonk? YEP, it's an Apple patent now...

Network redundancy and protocols, etc...

How is this any different from exploiting various networkmtopologies to connect devices to various networks to achieve data transfer?

Our Milky Way galaxy is INSIDE OUT. Just as we suspected, mutter boffins

Re: Not had Hersheys, then? (Cover your keyboard first...) Fortunately, the Galaxy was not...

Fortunately, the Galaxy was not named "Hershey's"

Otherwise, everything would be derived from Hershey Squirts, hahahaha...

Lenovo Yoga 10: Mediocre tech, yes, but beautifully fondleable

Re: Apple keyboard

My first hearty laugh of the day "Go and takl to Egypt..."! Thanks! Gave you a +1 for that. Note, not laughing at the commenter who was down-scored. It is disappointing that scoring systems don't compel justification and don't allow for openly re-boosting those knocked down -- again, with justification. (I say that because while one person can say something and get pummeled for it, another person can come along and comment in a way that bolsters or buttresses what the knocked-down person said, yet the knocked-down person still gets no liferaft in the process....)

Anyway, I didn't think "Apple" when I saw the round/tubular bit. I though Sony/HP/Samsung, and thought, "Yeesh, I don't like that part.", but that is just me. Surface has a nice kickstand, but I'm not given to Surface, old or new. If given to me for free, I might use it, and ONLY if I can run CAD and do not have to take a win-8 interface. (OK, I veered off topic and am risking negatory scoring....)

Again, thanks for the bit about the papyrus, the Egyptions, and IP lawsuits all in one, hahahaha. Nice conflatioon/combination/laughter generation.

Cheers!

Pregnant? Celebrate your proudest moment ... by 3D-printing a copy of the foetus

Re: More peace on earth

Fat Bastard would be THRILLED to eat an endless stream of "printer-back printer-back-printer-back ribs"...

It can even be infused with 5,000x density fat and marbly grissel and cartilage, supplements, and vitamins, minus the antibiotics and growth boosters

Re: Re 4D

4D means it would also be producing its own diarrhea, burpage, and other activity. Such as growing hair..., without a crank-in-the-back...

Might be articulated, too. So, it would probably face a lawsuit or cease and desist from the owners of "Rub-a-Dub Dolly", hahahaha...

Now, will that baby be "transported" out as a facsimilie, or printed out as a Printsarian Section...., or extruded from the mother?

The 5-D version probably has Soul Release .05, hahahha

Devs write 'film my shag' sex app for Google Glass

Re: Why? How about a low-tech accessory for that Glass, hahahaha....?

http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pad/news/view.jsp?req_newsidx=150046

En(d) joy!

From any angle?

Not ass long as the neck and connection points in the nethers have limited dimensions/extensibility?

From any angle? I guess the angle of the dongle and dangle make all the difference.

"... Completely new perspective"? How about "C*mpletely newd purr spec tive"? Surely it comes with haptic and forced feed back and feed front?

Well, these vids would be a way to speed up the commute in the tube, hahahaha.

How long before we see Graystone Industries spackled all over this? Will there be any digital eyedrops en(d)hancement as add-ons?

Wait.. Zoe and Lacy are calling for me... I seen an Endfinity cymbal, and hear some digital whips cracking the digital air.....