Posts by dssf

Hey Intel, Microsoft: Share those profits with your PC pals, eh? - analyst

A small article about the investors dumping ms stock...

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/investors-dump-microsoft-pc-stocks-bleak-news-18934120

Gaming/PC Bang Analogy?

In Korea, Nexon, a gaming company of significant note, is reducing the royalties owed by gaming shops. The high royalties were killing some of the PC Bangs (pronounced pee-shee-ppohng, in Korean). Some, in good locattions are very busy, daily. In in Itaewon, observed a dying gaming parlor being transformed into a pool hall. Took a few weeks to make the conversion. It had to -- it was devoid of significant gamer counts for months on end. Others just faded away.

If the computer maker do not see a reason for improvement, and consumers don't buy in decent quantities, then some of these companies will wither or adapt in ways not necessarily good for ms, Intel, et al.

For me, most of the hardware available looks uninspiring and some of it ugly. HP's envy looks almost as nice as MacBook Pros, but both are wayyyyy out of my pricing band. I am so sick of idiotic designs where the USB ports are where one's hand and mouse would be on a desk, especially on a tight desk. I am sick and tired of the idiotic company behind making all power plugs straight out instead of 90-degrees. This is a problem on planes (where AC outlets now exist on 2 out of 3 abreast headrests (I had an AC outlet on Air Canada, in economy!). It is also stupid that so many laptops are so THICK. They are competing for space inside backpacks that look stupid when approaching camping size but are not actually on a camping ground.

Attractive laptops are not made by shifting keys around and repurposing the Function keys to be subservient to media keys. Stupid keyboard rearrangement just forces me to have a second reason to buy a thin external keyboard.

Anyway, I digress. If PC makers want to boost sales, maybe they should try selling systems that can dual boot Linux and Windows. But, make sure that stuff ms wants to be windows-only is not the only hardware in the chassis/laptop. IF a different NIC works better for Linux, then install that one, too, but just wire it up such that Linux sees and uses it first, so the user need not futz around looking for placating, useless drivers or non-existent drivers that won't work with PCLinux OS -- at the release I'm using, from 2012 -- (Belkin, I'm looking at you and your Model: F9L1101v2. Luckily, the retailer selling it mistakenly marked it at $15 vs the $45 or $60 it was supposed to be. Luckily for them, I did not get greedy and buy their remaining 3 and wiped them out of $90 - $155 potential sales/profit.

There are ways to sell more laptops, but it will take creativity, some losses, and risks. Well, aside from existing laptops just dying out.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2013/04/134_132570.html

Malware-flinging Winnti crew has been RIPPING OFF gaming firms for YEARS

One way to boost computer sales...

One way to boost computer sales...

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2013/04/11/gartner_microsoft_intel_profits

Scaring the shit out of gamers, and admonishing them to buy a "dedicated machine for gaming" would be ONE truthful way to do it. I've for years suspected that games were hacked/cracked. I posited that the longer you are online, the more you'll experience crashes, and some of those crashes will be related to malicious activity of SOME sort -- either to steal data or to steal resources, or both. Now, if the hardware and gaming companies want to live, they might end up doing a combination of subsidized phones and gaming parlor royalties combos to move hardware and renew licensing.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2013/04/134_132570.html

But, we'll see. It'll all depend on the depth of the pockets of gamers, their abiity to value isolation of games from other software, and the ability to carry multiple laptops or have multiple machines in their rooms if they do not already do so.

ACLU documents shows free access to emails for IRS tax police

Singaporeans canlog in and file or update in...

FIVE MINUTES.

The US IRS needs to get with the times. Intuit and hr block are outdated as the newspapers. The IRS rules can be set up such that ADP or other payroll companies can matche by line the income types and distributions at the employee and single/married level. Every payroll period, those so concerned could review their adjustments and cashflows so that by year's end, all filings could be complete, awaiting only pre-late February amendments or adjustments. There is no valid reason that this stuff could not be near-real-time.

If a taxpayer vanishes or neglects filing for 2 or 4 years, but owes nothing, and probably has money waiting, the IRS could and should be able to process it without belching about skipped years. As long as the taxpayer appears to be alive and collecting payroll and paying pay period taxes, the taxe return/filing season could be, as a cultural institution, could and should be drawn, quartered, and removed from the list of annual chores.

Oh, and yes, it should be integrated with states. Voluntary payers could get discounts or forgiveness if owing less than $200. Stallwarts could make up for the shortfall for insistence on privilege to game the system.

Researcher hacks aircraft controls with Android smartphone

Well, to be fair to the researcher...

Well, to be fair to the researcher, the article did state that authorities were apprised before the conference.

This is just yet another example of the airlines and the FAA to some extent putting profit or budgets above safety and security. Until and unless researchers do what that one did, the flying public is safe only as long as the security holes are not exploited.

As for the pilot being able to manually regain control, that all depends on whether the in-flight or on-ground manipulator did not in advance figure out how to command the circuits to short out or overrun equipment into an overheat and shutdown mode just prior to commanding a fatal dive or stall-inducing climb.

NASA-backed fusion engine could cut Mars trip down to 30 days

Astonishing and nice!

Astonishing, and a great time saver. Since it is claimed to be scalable, imagine what it might do for other mission types.

Imagine it as a way to grab a sled of exotic asteroid belt minerals, etc, and slingshotting them to earth. The rv could be designed to survive by shielding and parachutes. The engine part could be set up to enter a semi orbit and then shove the rv into a proper descent, and the engin returns to the asteroid belt. If profits and mining are successful and steady, a chain of automated sleds and engines could be synchronized.

We might become a rep-Warp civilization in under 200 years, maybe even 100...

Star Trek phaser sells for a STUNNING $231,000

On the contrary...

Logic suggests it works on hearts and minds....

Tax man to take a bite of tech employees' free meals?

Re: Misleading Headline?

This missive is long, so please, if you like 'em short, don't read it and downvote me on that basis. Please?

Maybe Google can band with larger companies to buy raw food in a HUGE bulk discount, then make the employees "club members", a la Costco, and then charge the employees just one penney above or one penny below the lowest price that be demonstrated as the final "price" of the food.

That might be cheaper than just paying for all the employee's provided/subsidized, current-price meal costs.

As for restaurants providing free (or, low-cost in some cases) meals to employees, for convenience, and exempted because the meals are a matter of convenience to the employee and are eaten on premises, well, those meals are a convenience for the employer, too. If employees go eat off premises, they may return late, and mess up meal and rest break cycles. I once worked in a restaurant in SF, and on my first day, I was EXHAUSTED. So, on my 1-hour lunch, I took a 45-minute nap in the car I borrowed from a housemate. When I returned, the manager and asst manager told me I could NEVER take my lunch or take a nap away from the diner. I was like "WTF", that ought to be grounds for lawsuit and termination of their operating permit.

As for the cost of the food, it doesn't kill the restaurants. It's cheaper because it is a cost differential to lure and retain employees who often take shitty wages in return. Some restaurants DO charge employees, however.

But, in the case of hi-tech, why cannot the IRS just give it a rest? It is bad enough that "subjec...", umm, tax-duty-bound citizens and residents of the USA are subject to income and other taxes WORLDWIDE. I hate that, because not only does it "legally" affirm/confirm/demant that we have to accept being "subjects" of a country, we cannot just be "stateless" and pay taxes to where ever we happen to reside. To be intellectually honest, I do know that in the case of a country having reciprocal reporting proceduress with the USA, a USA (and vice versa) citizen who pays local taxes up to a certain wage/salary level can or usually is exempted from simultaneously being taxed in the USA, in effect, the subjec... Umm, citizen is spared from being speared by double-taxation.

If the IRS wants to do the public and itself a favor, CLEAN UP the FUCKING TAX CODE!!! Look at Singapore. One of my friends residing in the US and paying taxes in the US on his US-based income had to report to Singapore. He logged in, reported, and was finished in about 5 MINUTES! I've read online in other cases, that even for domestic Singaporeans, filing taxes is a 5-minute event. Maybe it is due to the tax authorities having a more sane level of knowledge and stiffer repercussions for tax cheats. But, the current USA tax system is shitty, broken, and is mostly nowadays a cottage/chattel industry-maker for tax preparers who really for the most part should not be needed.

I want to have my return be something like:

-- Log in with my credentials, whether from home, a bank, a library, the DMV, wherever my identiy is verifiable.

-- Authenticate with my thumb print

-- Verify that I 1, 2, or whatever number of joobs

-- Verify that I agree with the tax levied based on the allowed exemptions/claims/deductions/etc

-- Confirm agreement and accept perjury warnings

-- Verify my bank or Pay-Pal-like non-bank debit card (why cannot such a card exist for verified individuals?)

-- Sign off

-- Two hours later, find my tax returns or tax debt deposited or removed (or levied against me to be deducted from future income or payroll)

SOOOO goddamned easy. At least for people who have zero or some small number of simple investments that effectively produced no large differential in base income to investment income.

Oh, and when the government miscalculates and over-refunds people or fails to properly collect on taxes due, too bad. Take the good with the bad.

I want it to get to the point where I do not even have to THINK about filling. But, see, along with mandatory filing (even if no tax is owed), just as with global taxation, such policies make it possible for:

-- governments to control their "subjects"

-- keep a quasi census of at least employed or income-generating people

-- mounting expeditions to "rescue" "taxpayers/citizens" who voluntarily CHOSE/CHOOSE to work abroad

I know there are easy tax forms (1040 EZ, 540 EZ, etc), but to force people to go through this when many may not want to audit the IRS' work just makes them "feel as if" the government is not "watching too closely". I don't dodge owed taxes, and though I'm deep in debt, I don't dodge or seek dodgy tax havens. My picture should be siimple enought thumbprint in, say yes or no to the numbers and fact/assumptions, and be done in FIVE minutes if no glaring mistakes are present.

Now, if only 272 million taxpayers all in unison DEMANDED what I just wrote, then the fat, lazy, corrupt obstructionists in office would have to listen. As long as people don't, then many will buy and play with tax preparation software to feel good or to monitor their portfolios and status.

Ahoy! Google asks US gov't to help sink patent 'privateers'

Re: outsourcing or off-loading

AC 0944

As for your last question/scenario, I sometimes pondered it heavily. My solution, which I suspect is in play in many places, is to set up the license sales agreement that in exchange for not only a price for the sale, you as the patent/idea owner get a perpetual, fully-paid-up, usable-throughout-the-universe license and right to use the patent you are selling. Further, you get to improve upon it and own the improvements, without having to offer first right of refusal to the patent buyer.

Of course, if you let on that you DO know of an improvement, the buyer might walk if s/he thinks s/he can figure out the improvements. OTOH, for fear of losing the chance to own the product/patent/idea, s/he may just make a counter offer, or just shut up and buy the rights while the offer still is available.

I think we need to see a heavier shift into idea owners refusing to sell out 100%, and that they need to retain SOME significant rights. Look at how authors -- veteran and new -- are brazenly/bravely standing up to the publishing industry and demanding more royalties, or they retain worldwide e-publishing rights as a hedge against the publisher just "shelving" the book as a way to avoid paying royalties to an author, or as a hedge against a sloppy/lazy publisher not mazimizing the availability of the physical materials. Interestingly, some paper publishers indicate, grudgingly, sometimes positively, that the e-sales did not adversely impact the sales of their physical books.

Inventors need to think about that and stop selling out at 100% unlesss the offer is EXTRAordinarilay too good to quibble over. There is a risk, though, in that if there is a flaw in the patent or the basis of the patent, any and all co-owners might be severally and jointly liable for litigation or damages.

Well, we'll see!

Microsoft Xbox gaffe reveals cloudy arrogance

Always-On Risk to Inventiveness

So, for those Sim City players, forget about master plans of privately-developed cities, right?

Imagine if you're using Sim City to scheme up real development plans for, say, a New Palm Springs. You cannot have the risk that some outside wanker gets early, unprivileged, but otherwise full access to your designs. What happens when, say, crackers break into the Sim City servers and disclose some hot, cool designs that might be competitive designs not to be released to the public in advance of being seen by judging panels.

Is this a legit concern?

Publishing ANYTHING on .uk? From now, Big Library gets copies

Re: practicalities... Smackticalities

Re: practicalities... Smackticalities

Such a demand could spark a mild insurrection. If my .com blogs that already -- thanks to google -- have other countries' .country domain extensions end up with .uk domains, and the GL/GL demands access to my screenplays, databases, scripts, manuscripts, drawings, doodlings, and more, it can KISS my ASS. This is the same rights-violating bullshit foisted on desperate authors by shysters/crooks who claimed to be verifying the true lineage of works presented for publication in the early 2000s. Such companies demanded this info so they could "protect themselves and be indemnified" from law suits in the event the material was in fact stolen or plagiarized.

But, for a government to demand the same, that deserves a smackdown. Thieves are EVERYWHERE, and once a government employee misappropriates content that is then re-misappropriated to his or her business buddies or creditors, you can bet your ass that the employee's government, YOUR government, would whip out a clause or codicil saying it is indemnified from the damages you suffer/suffered.

Not, the government should only demand the author signs or attests that he/she is the true, correct, creator or owner or authorized distributor.

I suppose I'd have a HELLUVA frackin' hard time living in the UK if I started encountering laws and precepts and proclamations that laid non-worked-for claim over *my* inventions or ideas. How long before people say, "Theft of my work by ANYONE or ANY AGENCY will result in unpredictable behaivor on my part"?

OK, maybe I'm overreacting. But, it sure is nice to be under the current copright system where I am -- wait -- that is changing, too... Ohhh nohsssss...

Re: UK-created websites in the non-.uk domain-- or blogpot.uk?

Re: UK-created websites in the non-.uk domain-- or blogpot.uk?

If your audience is in a certain country, and you use Blogger/Blogspot, and people in that country start accessing your content, even if it starts out as .com (say, in the USA), then that country's domain will be on a blogger/blogspot page of your audience. Google says this is to speed up access to the content. I don't completely buy it. If the site has a very small amount of dynamic content, and if most of it is text and small images, then probably javascript crap and browser settings conflicts will slow the page loading down more than it being. 6,780 miles from the reader.

However, IIRC, you an ask Google/Blogger/Blogspot to disallow per-country domain appending or whatever it is they call it.

Also, you can set the page to be readable only by invited or white-listed people or email addresses. So, even if you ARE in the UK, if you publish content under TOCs that state the readers are special, private, invited, non-public guests, then that might legally be enough to disallow a grab-bagging/copyright-vacuuming library system from scarfing up content its author intents to keep in limited, private circulation. Of course, it would get nasty if a TOCs-violating subscriber/invitee just screen scrapes and then republishes the content on a legit .uk page that is harveste-- umm, archived before a takedown notice could be issued.

Also, if an author laces his or her content with ungainly working making it offensive to the public and not satisfactory to introduce to schools, then would the government redact/black out such words if the remaining content is somehow worthy of archiving and representation to the public? How non-sensical would an author need to become to virtually guarantee the UK copyright czars back off? (IIRC, UK parody, libel, and freedom of speech concepts are different than in the USA and some other countries...)

Re: Thoughts THEREin lies the problem

Well, for some people. OK, so I'm trying to "deconstruct" , this to understand it...

Does a government think that it "created the concept of copyright"? Why cannot this be just a mere recognition that inventiveness deserves some protection?

If a author writes a story, publishes it, and people pay for it (assuming it is that good), then, if government wants a copy, does it then get in line and PAY for a copy just like anyone else paying for a legit copy? (Doesn't the author have to pay just to obtain recognition of the copyright?) Otherwise, TAKING a copy could be seen as tantamount to theft. (If I just said "arrrestable words", then, kindly remind me not to dare step foot in the UK or on soil from where I can be extradicted to the UK...) I could see huge problems in the future if the UK library law were allowed to perpetuate on distant human colonies. Colonists might throw an insurrection unless it is the PEOPLE who collectively say that it is an okay thing. I am not saying *hide* or deny the preservation of published materials of worth or note, but that each published work preserved by a library should first be done so with the permission of the author or rightful rights holder. Government doesn't publish fiction, cooking guides, comics, porn, or love stories. So, it doesn't deserve to "own" the copyright in those works. Fortunately, it seems, things are different in the states. Well, to an extent. Here, it's getting to the point where the public may end up paying to access court documents and "public records".

Would it be unreasonable to hear someone say "The real fact behind such a proclamation is that it allows powerful men to shut down and jail/imprison those it deams a threat"? If government "grants" rather than "recognizes" copyright of an other's works, then it means government can shut down a voice it doesn't want heard. Copyright may be a "human construct", but it should not be a right for any damned government to think it can just take and shut down works.

Yes, I get it, the story is not about copyright and government profiting financially.

BTW, do I understand that in the UK, if a person in the UK publishes a work, and makes only ONE physical copy, and the government library system wants a copy, it can *demand* a copy? What if the author says, "You must pay me for time, materials, and labor", and marks it up above street price? Would that be legal? Can the English/UK library system demand the author provide a free copy? I am assuming that an author or publisher or copyright owner must pay at the government toll gate to initially get that piece of paper stating "you're the proud owner of this government-issued/authorizied/revokable copyright"...

Judge: Facebook must see Timelines Inc in court over trademark

Timelines

Are an integral component of screenplay applications.

Now, if, TimeLinesInc and fb and others want to drag it into the software realm, they'd better prepare to pay for exit strategies or profit increasing to screenplay application developers, as well as Time Magazine, and others.

A timeline is as basic as a bar chart, or a pie chart, a line chart, or a series of flags, notes, and connecting lines. NO company should be able to trademark the generic term to the exclusion of others including it in their own products. I am not favoring fb, nor denying them the use, but if their usage is too close to and trampling on the look and feel of TimelinesInc or any other app, they should be curtailed. However, to critique my own position, at some point, as more people use "timelines" by name or by visual representation, there are only so many ways it can be done without obscuring the very information being presented. Glowing orbs, slide in/out, fade in/out, and other materialization/dematerialization effects are only limited by imagination and ability of the authors/designers and the app makers.

I wonder what the Judge will say...

Smartphone running 'Facebook OS' said to debut this week

Gives a whole new meaning to "Insta(nt)Gram"...

Gives a whole new meaning to "Insta(nt)Gram"...

FaceGram? InstaBook, anyone?

A new world of "telegram" activity. Imagine the looks on the faces of Bell, Edison, and others from way back when if they could be reanimated to face today's world. Imagine now rich they'd be if they were alive to reap patents that might have flowed -- assuming US Patent laws were different.

FB will probably have a real-time, live-streaming camera server running with the messenger/chat feature embedded, enabling almost-live global image-feeding. Now, the news papers might be able to make money getting right-of-first-refusal access to fb users' photos. Wouldn't be too bad a deal as long as the photo authors get nice compensation, and maybe royalties, too, if the papers want to own the photo and all rights to the photo.

The papers probably won't even have to increase staff too much, either, since FB and other companies have object recognition, meaning news papers and even intel agencies might want to remote-command snapping of locales by random cameras since they can access or tease out the location of the phone. If so, expect some countries to REALLY clamp down on FB if they are paranoid...

Sprint, Softbank to swear off Huawei kit as condition of merger

Playing Political Games?

Playing Political Games?

Not all that different from Honda, Toyota, and various European companies opening plants in the USA...

It would be interesting to see what kind of games China could play.

-- Open a Jobs Development center in SF, DC, SeaTac, Portland, etc and collect resumes info

-- Open an Unemployment Compensation program for laid-off people, and then build shelters for them, even help them set up their tax returns and clean off their debts

-- Hire them as employees of a locally-started, Chinese-run entity

-- Create an incubator for entrepreneurs, but actually FUND them, instead of the entrepreneur (especially those with bad credit) having to grovel to the SBA, which then says "we don't (or rarely EVER do we) directly fund start-ups; you must contact a bank that works with the SBA...."

-- Now, the Chinese Jobs Assistance/Entrepreneur Incubator OWNS any IP, or has a great level of ownership in it. They can export it, reimport it, re-export it, or even create a factory here, in a low-cost state, and finger their noses at protectionism by must making sure that the domestic plants are open to "backdoor existence" inspection. Then, they can even brand it "Made In the USA", and export it.

Not sure of the economic costs. But, the political costs could be staggering.

Protectionism IS costly. It should be painful to be excessively protectionist. If Europe and other countries are not going to purge their PRC-based electronics, how well can the US isolate itself against infrastructure attack?

MI5 undercover spies: People are falsely claiming to be us

Re: Bad English?

Lol...

I, too, was going to comment. I was going to suggest:

"Please do not respond to it. However, report it to the police."

That unassailably removes all doubt.

But, in the name of economy, Western Haiku, and authoritarian language, all too many directives or instructions hurt my brain when I parse them as I I were a lawyer looking to help a client weasle out a corner though crafty exploitation of misplaced commas, missing commas/comma splices, faulty sentence structure.... Usually written by the brightest in society, hehehe...

A shcool... Umm, school I walk by every few days has posted on one of its doors a similarly grammatically confusing message to parents, something about not parking in the street and somesuch. I'll have to photograph the note. It would have been handy had I done so just 3 days ago... Sigh...

Watchdog warns UK.gov not to create 'them and us' digital divide

Speaking of Luxuries and Disallowances and Haves/Have-Nots...

Speaking of Luxuries and Disallowances and Haves/Have-Nots...

http://sfbay.ca/2013/03/27/santa-clara-free-wi-fi-piggybacks-smart-meters/

Santa Clara Calif is a city of 118,000 or so, sitting surrounded by Alviso, San Jose, Cupertino, & Sunnyvale, in the middle of the South Bay.

ANYbody now walking in Santa Clara has access to FREE WIFI. Granted, it may not be suitable for watching YouTube, Hulu, etc, but for those who pay out the ass to download news, texts, and low-content (the content being dwarfed by the adverts in the pages), this is something to slam-dunk your cities, burroughs, towns, and hamlets with. MAKE them justify all the huge expenses. Ask them why there is not (other than politics) something such as what Santa Clara has.

Wait for their response. Wait for the lobbyists to start hiring hit-men... Or the legal equivalent... Fillibusters, obstructions, stall jobs, rate hikes, and so on.

Imagine the day when automobile owners volunter to be wifi mesh nodes, as long as the device doesn't drain the vehicle's battery.

Yes, privacy will have to be maintained on these meters, and some hacks will probably start tinkering and poking to see what fun can be had. But, so long as they don't crash the party, people might end up cancelling their xfinity and comcast accounts in droves....

Google Translate for Android adds offline translation option

Re: Just downloaded it.

"Why does it matter?"

I wasn't being snarky or posting "meee to". I think it is good thatt Google is doing this. What I forgot to or neglected to include was that I dowloaded it from a popular coffee shop, and it took around 30 minutes. Had I tried it in SF Public Library, the way things are here, in this wannab-world-class-city, it would likely have taken 1.5 hours due to spotty, iffy, unstable connectivity. My lappy does not drop every 2 minutes at other places like it does at SFPL, and I get full bars and sit near the wifi node.

Anyway, Translate is useful as an app. But, that should not entitle google to gain globla access to the inner workings or silliness (could be profitable or very harmful to any individual who wants to restrict his or her thoughts from being exploited). The reason many people buy physical off-line translators without wi-fi in them is to avoid private translations being stored on somebody's server. It's the reason I bought a translator, in Korea, that HAD no wi-fi, even tho my purchase is old-school and one-of-a-kind in the display case.

As for the -1 someone slammed up my ass, my question about whether or not it phones home the off-line translations IS a valid question. After all, how many times here and in other forums have we seen, read, and complained about surreptitious call-home "bugs" and "features" in code. How many times have we read about earlier versions of ms world embarrasing companies when "previous time-saved versions" were preserving content that was damaging because the recipient of a document only needed open the document's version history? How many times have we heard about call-home features that companies denied?

Can/may I have my -1 reversed now?

Just downloaded it.

But,

Does anyone with a rooted system, or has it connected to a monitored network, know whether this app "calls home" with a compressed or stealthily-submitted report of what the user translated?

Vietnamese high school kids can pass Google interview

Re: Asian language support in XP is superb?

I'm using:

Linux 3.2.18-pclos2.pae.bfs (i686)

#1 SMP PREEMPT Thur May 24 05:33:57 CES 2012

But, I've updated apps and libraries along the way, even as recently as a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, some apps, basic ones, don't recognize or play well with Korean. Libre Office and Calligra a so KDE-dependent they demand that I fully upgrade KDE to 2013. I'm not ready to do that, since occasionally, and invariably, I end up doing 2-3 reinstalls to restabilize things. I can only afford to do that in absoute emergencies and when I have time and money so I can do a new-disk install and have an emergency fall-back disk.

Even Libre Office won't correctly get started to download, and I have the repos updated. So, I've never seen what LO can do. Given all the spare hard drive space I have, I'm gettting pretty sick of "one-file-to-do-one-thing-well" when that mantra demans updating the entire systems for one frickin' app or suite. I want apps sequestered, sandbagged, isolated, even if I have to pay 1 GB in library files space. If I were better, I could probably link the libs, trick out my system, but that is too much for me to do and then remember months later what I did.

Asian fonts in OO.o work, but then when my systems goes wonky, I have to turn off Korean. Wonky how? Well, the space between English letters doubles in consoles. Some shortcuts I use in English go misbehaving, and rather than play detective for more than 10-20 minutes, I just uninstall or do some limited reversion.

Re: why xp is ubiquitous

Tell me about it! Just trying to make Korean work and work CORRECTLY in PCLOS is a royal PITA. Just when I think it is about to work, something, some dep is missing, or it works - -a while, then the system bogs down. But, within W7 in VBox it it "just works". It works fine on an android tablet, which has years younger than Linux distros...

It sorta works, IIRC, in Abi Word. I cannot get the latest KDE-based office suites in unless I upgrade my entire base install, and past experience has told me to not do that unless I buy a new disk and do a fresh install (I don't do system clones; I preserve the last working disk, then start afresh with a new drive -- WHEN I have money...).

Linux, though, advertises that you an install now or later a number of other languages. I do understand that some distros work flawlessly. Unfortunately, I'm hung up on Mandrake/Mandriva's impression upon me, and PCLOS won me over in 2007. Just some nigglling litte text file complication I read about in 2011 being the culprit for PCLOS' Korean language hang-ups.

Anyway, maybe there should be H-1V (Vietnam-originating Developer Instructors) visas in the USA, with the instructors taking shcool.... Umm, school admin and teaching posts. hehehehe....

Re: That's OK...

As for the "guns" think, Hudson didn't mention "guns", hehehe. But, then, I botched it by throwing in "That's ok... the USA is still #1...", good catch!

And, how right you are about that. I was in Yongsan last year, at the Korea War Memorial. I was somewhat shocked and humored at how efficient, crafty, "devious", and cunning the VC were with their tunnels. Sure, I've seen of them in movies, but the dioramas and plexiglas display models in the Memorial really hit home. My first thoughts were "SO, THIS is how the USA got its ass handed to it on a plate in Vietnam...." It was sobering. Result: napalm, tunnel bombs, and carpet bombing. And, STILL the USA had to retreat.

Fast Forward decades later, and we see that for all the freedoms and freedom of choice we have here, Vietnam is probably producing more QUALITY programmers than many countries.

It would be interesting, though to compare Chinese programmers or teens to the Vietnamese of the same schooling and age ranges. Then, compare Indian programmers. I understand that Indian programmers have HUGE egos. A female dev exposing bugs and flaws in Indian male coders' work can touch off a mild hemispherical war. I wonder how Vietnamese male and female devs in the work place (in any country where male and female Vietnamese devs predominate) play out in offices.

Now, juxtapose that to the US H-1B Visa thing. Decades, ago, the USA was trying to liberate Vietnamese. Nowa, the USA may need Vietnamese to liberate or "survivarate" the USA. Interesting....

That's OK...

The USA is still #1 in:

Nukes

Knives

Sharp Sticks

(Homage to Aliens, hehehehe)

Movie, TV ads annoying? You ain't seen nothin' yet

Re: Clever people make. Clever people break!

Do that and the headend's ad insertion team will just lag-out or introduce jitter, artefacts, and ghosting to your show at algorithm-calculated intervals. They'll just Pavlov you. Good behavior gets you a doggie treat. Bad behavior punishes you doggie style.

As for targetted, embeded advertising, I actually thought this story was about the viewer's name being inserted in a portion of the screen, serving the dual purpose of deterring copying and distributing of the show, although there could be watermarking and IP addressing and content subscriber's names for court case purposes...

As for advert-free DVDs, they'll probably someday require a minimum monthly connection to a live server, so that push-adverts can change the disc's unlock code, which won't unlock until the user's cam and mic are on, demanding interactive feedback before the featured program is allowed to play. Ah, but you only watch your DVDs on a plane? Well, your media-playing device will have to be equipped with a barometer, pitot tube, and sextant to prove it, 2 of which most passengers will not be allowed to carry onboard into the seating area...

National Security Letters ruled unconstitutional

MS now releasing info...

This might interest some:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2416905,00.asp

"Microsoft Reveals Law Enforcement Data Requests"

"Like Google and Twitter, Microsoft is releasing the total number of requests for information it received and the number of accounts those requests covered.

But the company is also releasing data about how many disclosures included customer content, "such as the subject line and body of an email exchanged through Outlook.com; or a picture stored on SkyDrive," Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith wrote in a blog post. "We similarly are reporting on the number of law enforcement requests that result in disclosure only of 'non-content' data, which includes account information such as an email address, a person's name, country of residence, or gender, or system-generated data such as IP addresses and traffic data."

So what does the data say? Of the 75,378 law enforcement requests for customer information, about 2.1 percent, or 1,558 requests, resulted in the disclosure of that content, Smith said. More than 99 percent of those disclosures were made in response to warrants from U.S. courts. Fourteen disclosures were to governments in Brazil, Ireland, Canada, and New Zealand.

About 56,388 cases resulted in the disclosure of non-customer content, not including Skype, and more than 66 percent of those were to agencies in the U.S., the U.K., Turkey, Germany, and France.

Eleven law enforcement requests focused on Microsoft enterprise customers. "In general, we believe that law enforcement requests for information from an enterprise customer are best directed to that customer rather than a tech company that happens to host that customer's data," Smith said.

On Skype alone, there were 4,713 requests from law enforcement covering 15,409 accounts or other identifiers, such as a PSTN number.

"Skype produced no content in response to these requests, but did provide non-content data, such as a SkypeID, name, email account, billing information and call detail records if a user subscribed to the Skype In/Online service, which connects to a telephone number," Smith wrote.

Microsoft separated Skype because Skype collected data differently than Microsoft in accordance with Luxembourg law prior to its 2011 acquisition. "Skype reporting policies and practices have now been brought in line with Microsoft reporting policies and going forward all data will be provided in a consistent format," Microsoft said."

More is at the URL.

Re: NSL's Hells's Bells?

Well, in the case of speeders, they do the speeding willfully, wantonly, and wholly deserving of losing their vehicles when caught. Enabling them to speed and avoid speed traps is tantamount to letting them have open season to commit reckless manslaughter.

OTOH, most businesses that are caught up in these NSL probably are not front operations for AQ or other terror organizations. Issuing an NSL to a company, and then threatening the hell out of it could rightly make some subjected business owners extraordinarily peeved and make them challenge the legality of such letters. Theoretically, any company hit with an NSL might go into paranoia mode, unnecessarily do its own investigations, and then fire people, or it might just fire people and say it is related to an investigation into the company and they cannot talk about it. Assuming, that is, "performance" or "downsizing" are not used as excuses (which, really, would be the safer cover stories).

Now, I'll grant you the benefit of the doubt that 70% of NSL went to scam/illegit import/export operations, marriage arrangements and visa fraud operations, and so on, and that maybe 30$ went to firms that unwittinly hired undetected terror agents.

Now, I would dare say, again, it is time to biometricallly identify every last man, woman, and child in the USA (South Korea is a "democratic nation", and it does so) to verify nationality, to verify work eligibility, and to verify tax-payment or compliance. Those who cannot establish validity to be in the US could enter an appeals process, and various options toward provisional residency might be political, religious, or sexual, or health persecution reasons. However, I suspect that a lot of people not validly here in the USA might have such illegal connections as to complicate things for a LOT of polical party leaders who are on the take. Hence, all the judicial and legislative ass-covering decisions over legality and constitutionality of various rulings and letters. Just my take on things...

NSL's Hells's Bells?

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2013/03/05/google_national_security_letters/

Maybe someone showed the Judge my solution, which I had posited around 2001 or 2002, when writing a business plan for a coffee shop:

“ Here is how to find out the numbers, some day...

Get on the board of a company. BEFORE the company is formed, and therefor, theoreticallly has had no known reason to be sent an NSL:

First, ensure that prospective and new hires are squeaky clean and can pass a TWIC or at least get a passport, pass a bonding insurance background check, and has no criminal record that would trigger an NSL. It's discrimminatory, but, oh whelllll.

Demand that everyday, when factual, the web site counter shows:

-- Number of NSLs received today/yesterday: 0/0

When there is a day one is received, just don't put a number. Skip that day.

-- Number of NSLs received applying to citizens/non-citizens: 0/0

When there is a day one is received, just don't put a number. Skip that day.

-- Number of NSLs received applying to exec types/non-exec types: 0/0

When there is a day one is received, just don't put a number. Skip that day. Could be trouble, tho, if there are only a few in that category, they vanish, and people start talking and confirming theories....

-- Number of NSLs received today/yesterday/in advance of business formation, telling us to take down this site counter: >1/1/1”

I am not suggesting divulve the specifics of an NSL, but, nobody can expect the existence to remain secret.

Next task: find out how many people were economically harmed or bankrupted, and how many violated potentially harmless portions of an NSL, but ended up in prison.

Feds cuff ex-NASA boffin at airport amid state-secret leak scare

Laptop vs Laptops....

What is his proficiency with English? Maybe he said, "I have laptop....", which in some languages COULD be plural or singular. Now, if the questioning agent asked "HOW many laptops?" and the man replied "ONE", then he's lying.

Do we know whether they identified themselves properly? If on an ordinary city street well-dressed thugs chose to question a target/mark about his or her bag and types of electronics, most sane people would and SHOULD lie in response. Even if someone wears boots, a belted badge, has a holstered gun, and wears a polo shirt and a jacket saying "FBI" and hops out of a car with flashing lights, one STILL should say nothing unless hearing "FEDERAL AGENT". Flashing a damned badges means nothing, and seeing papers that are purportedly a warrant mean nothing. These days, people can pretend to be federal agents, and then get arrested, and be walking the streets the next few hours!

Doubt me? See:

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2013/03/warrant-issued-san-francisco-man-accused-posing-fbi-agent

Chameleon botnet grabbed $6m A MONTH from online ad-slingers

Deviant...

Lol: "to identify deviant consumption of display advertising media."

Deviant as skewed, but not as "having bothered to entertain the advert"....

As Spock would say, "Sophisticated in their methods..."

Now, i am sure that the botnet writers will just make sure their bots crash more gracefully and more virtually, not taking down whole machines and causing them to re-request an IP, which by time lag, would be easy to pick if an investigative team had permission to dig into target domains and subnetss....

Phone, internet corps SNUB US government's cybersecurity ABCs

Astonishing, that the list of 20 controls was FOUO/Classified!

Just astonishing!

(This is long, and not really catering to the "sound-bite-minded"...)

I read the first 16 pages, and when I looked at the list 2-3 times, it increasingly seemed reminiscent of what any sysadmin taking Netware System Administration from 1996 might conjure up.

When I was a temp assigned to a Lockheed office in Sunnyvale, I was assigned to work in a "cage" (more of an inventory control room, not a sensitive area like other DOD contractors' "cages"). When not roaming doing installs of Win95, updaing .dot files, or removing the "I love you" crap, or installing or tweaking Resumex, etc., I was in my cage playing with Lotus Approach. I was teaching myself databases, and decided to enhance my inventory of what I was told to inventory. I thus included EVERYTHING that contained an ID, serial number, MAC hardware address, or other form of info that would help my various managers not only monitor costs, but monitor how much junk or obsolete hardware was sitting around, what types the hardware were, to whom they were assigned, how old they were, how many times they'd been looked at or suspected as trouble hardware, what OS version and so on were on what machines, in which rooms, on what tables, and more. All the NICs, hard drives, mice, keyboards, CRTs, modems (only a very few people in that building of around 80 people had a modem, hehehe), and sos on were in my database.

Theoretically, this would form the basis for implementing a secure and robust IT filter system to monitor traffic, employees, entry and exit of information, and more, not just relying on the then-available MS server and domain related monitoring tools. Netware and other tools of the day were in place, too. But, I only did that to maximize my non-programming use of Lotus Approach, learning to create forms, views, charts, reports, and master-detail views to get at relationships between hardware and assignment.

Later, when seting up an Internet Cafe business plan, I did something similar, starting out with the intent to create a receipts tracker in the event I were ever audited, I ended up creating a prototype fraud-sleuthing database. That's just playing around.

I don't see how that list of 20 items would be so useful to obscure. Security through obscurity at the highest of levels - in a security-conscious working group! Those individual items are everything any due-diligence IT manager of even 1999 would pursue, and it would have been casual conversation in those IT trainers we were sent to for something like $99 to $400 per day.

Am I overreacting?

It seems to me that the top users among the commercial entitiess are just trying to avoid spending money. If they all follow the typical topology, layers, protocols, filtering, and other standards, and implement dynamic access controls that tie in with customers and customer's plans, a boatload of attacks could have been prevented over the last 15 years -- or would have spurred the attackers of the time frame to innovate around the 20 measusres/controls. To their credit, though, the ATTBIs and Comcasts of the early 2000 inadvertently helped with security in some limited way: via the use of their "branded" IE browser CDs, they could keystroke or otherwise monitor their customers and detect early signs of malicious or hijack activity, and by manipulating the routers they provided, could deprive the customer of exceeding the 3-count limit of devices.

But, when I figured out their game, and figure they just wanted to extract more money for no work, or to limit me, I my own routers and switches and attached all my test machines on my side of the demarc and defied them to do a damned thing about it. I wasn't increasing bandwith, since I only had two hands and was not using automated process on all 8 or 9 machines, and what happened on my side of the demarc that was not a disruption to the network outside was NONE of THEIR damned business. They also hated that I used Linux, and no IE disk they customized was going to run on my LAN. So, I regularly was on their shitlist and regulary had connectivity issues, invariably being blamed on some drunk driver slamming into a green service box off the freeway. Liars. Or so I think they were being.

But, though that list was "secret" or FOUO for around 2 years doesn't mean that most companies lacked any of their own intelligence to implement the same effects. They probably just didn't want to spend the money.

Samsung's new co-CEO: 'Windows isn't selling very well'

Re: It's not that Windows is not selling well

At this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia

See (about 1/3 way down) "Financial Difficulties and Restructuring"

There is a graph showing ms' declining presence....

Lots of interesting tidbits about this Samsung competitor. I didn't know that Nokia's official language was English.

They were into rubber, TVs, and computers...

Samsung Group:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung

Is an interesting story, too. Started out as delivering groceries and selling own-made noodles.

Beijing IT biz taunts Microsoft: Show us your licence for Office 365

How different is cloud from download?

I'm curious, Snake, as I sort of feel the same as you on this.

But, suppose I sell e-books and the customers are in China, and my servers are outside of China. Technically, every person (at least in the USA) who purchases or sells something is supposed to report it for taxation purposes. Generally, the seller collects the tax, escrows it, and forwards it to the various cognizant tax bodies. The buyer usually doesn't get involved after the sale. But, if the seller were discovered to be not collecting the taxes, and were not paying or forwarding the taxes, a government might pursue any identifiable, related consumer for any due taxes, say, in the event the seller/company went bust and had no assets.

So, theoretically, China could leave ms alone, but then squeeze the consumers of 365, the offices and any support companies linked to training and so on.

News Corp challenges iPad with $299 education tablet

As in the cartoon Gulliver's Travels, with that Lilliputian who murmured

As in the cartoon Gulliver's Travels, with that Lilliputian who murmured

"It'll nhevurh wwwerkkk, nhevhuuurrrr"

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/07/facebook_unicorn_helps_graph_search/

Fb will let people build their news and edu-feeds and the kids will just use tablets subsided by mommy and daddy, another party, or some corporations that want to name the high school after their company name, supplying tablets freely or at half price, for the extra benefit of gaining access to student grades.

Not a new model. I suspect it is done in Korea, where many big corps' names are on high schools and/or vocational schools they own or fund.

Facebook rides Unicorn to graph search nirvana

What would happen if 80% of users "like" EVERY feed that came their way...

What would happen if 80% of users "like" EVERY feed that came their way...

AND, spent 2 hours a day "liking" every page they landed on as fast as they could?

That would force fb to set up its own "China Army" to filter wheat from chaff, just to keep marketing types committed to paying for ad space despite impossible, UNpossible unobtainum sales...

In frustration, some untraceable code might deploy some code that behaves like:

if user "likes" every 10 seconds

For

Two hours a day

and

If user "like" themes vary with little intersection,

Then

Display

"Ä$$hØle, tÆkÉ a fÜùkïÑ BRÈÃKKKKKKKK"

Holy crap! EMC gives Vatican Library 2.8PB to store manuscripts

What letter is that, Father John?

"It looks like 'Our Father, who aren't in Heaven...' to me"

"Is that an 'o' or a 'u'?"...

"It looks like 'Blessed is he who...' "WHAT, in the NAME of the LORD"?

Oh, such blasphemers... They've stained our archives....

Look here, "Hell, Mary IS full of grace...."

"Glory be to the Father, the Sun, and the WHOLE 'V' Spirit..."

"No, I don't WANT Anna's Bliss. Tell the Visitors to LEAVE the EARTH in GOD'S hands...."

What a choice of size units...

"Petabytes"? Pet-ahhh-bites?

Why not in decimals of exabytes? Would "sound" more appropriate.

LIVE BLOG: Facebook News Feed revamp press conference

Why don't I chat?

" 10:27am Around 35 per cent of users don't use chat because their screens aren't big enough, so that's moved to a tray at the bottom of the page. Cox says this might lead to more chatting from people with older PCs. "

I don't chat, on fb especially, because the UI in android SUCKS. If I hit the wrong key, the cursor/pointer jumps out of the box, and midstream of typing, obeys a command corresponding to the letter the cursor landed on.

Sometimes, crappy implementation, intrpretation, or execution of javascript or crappy javascript prevent/s pasting, and i sometimes have to turn of javascript, which sometimes aborts the logged-in session credentials, etc.

Years ago, there was one social site i was in, and if i did not get my message sent within a minute or two, even midstream in typing, the damned server side would disconnect me, and if i did not periodically copy my own text, i'd find the ui bombed and no way to go into the phone's memory to paste into a new logged-in-sesson. It was so stressful i became good at keeping up, but then just gave up.

It's shitty implementation, not just fb, but many sites. When I'm in fb, i feel fb wants to steer me to their own UI, not the browser I WANT to use. When I'm in firefox, it feels like google wants me to be in Chrome. When in forums, their admins force the use of javascript, and then use it as a crutch of security process.

So, it is just easier to read, grab a url, and walk away. It is really exasperating. All those brains and payrolls out there, and the experience sometimes just goes to shit because of politics and branding and rushed code.

Google offers limited data on National Security Letters

Here is how to find out the numbers, some day...

Get on the board of a company. BEFORE the company is formed, and therefor, theoreticallly has had no known reason to be sent an NSL:

First, ensure that prospective and new hires are squeaky clean and can pass a TWIC or at least get a passport, pass a bonding insurance background check, and has no criminal record that would trigger an NSL. It's discrimminatory, but, oh whelllll.

Demand that everyday, when factual, the web site counter shows:

-- Number of NSLs received today/yesterday: 0/0

When there is a day one is received, just don't put a number. Skip that day.

-- Number of NSLs received applying to citizens/non-citizens: 0/0

When there is a day one is received, just don't put a number. Skip that day.

-- Number of NSLs received applying to exec types/non-exec types: 0/0

When there is a day one is received, just don't put a number. Skip that day. Could be trouble, tho, if there are only a few in that category, they vanish, and people start talking and confirming theories....

-- Number of NSLs received today/yesterday/in advance of business formation, telling us to take down this site counter: >1/1/1

When the day comes....

Is there any preemptive law that bans this?

Yeh, I know, don't give them any ideas. But, I already said as much around 2004, and I, have never been visited. Doesn't mean anyone read what I wrote, but just that I never got a visit. Doesn't mean that I've never been investigate, but so far, I've never been detained, cuffec, incarcerated.... Besides, all sorts of lawyers have been a bigger PITA than I ever have or ikely ever would be, and lawyer victories just make gov agencies refine their own tactics. Or, people might just end up in mysterious car crashes or falls or victims of rabid or vicioius animal attacks out the blue, hehehe...

If you're going to open a coffee shop, better get legal papers that are on equal footing with an NSL: you want to take one of my machines to investigate one person? Bring a replacment of equal value and capability, or bring your own forensics gear, clone it, and go away. The machines would be wiped (a la Fedex style) clean after each and every customer has logged out. So, whoever your target is, you better hit him or her when s/he is ON the machine and hasn't yet logged off. DO all your work at the demarc, not inside the premises, if it is all 1s and 0s related. Business continuity and disruption insurance kicks in and you'll get a bill if you maliciouslly disrupt the business.

This approach would also work for those who just want to tell companies like MS to F.O. -- especially when they try to telll a company it cannott disclose that it was issued a letter demanding as part of restitution a multi-year, perpetual through time on-time and regular upgrade/update to MS' OS, office suites, accounting, development, web, and other business tools, to avoid a $900,000 fine.

Europe tickles Microsoft with €561m fine for browser choice gaffe

Re: What a joke!

"Technical mistake"... Right They're damned right, they take full responsibility for it! I wonder which exec/s signed off on telling the EU screw off. This just shows that MS are not "eating their own dog food", considering all the cloud, VM, CRM, and nightly build checkin tools they have.

With all the frickin' databases and servers and control systems they have over nightly builds, and CRM tools at their disposal, they are surely being disingenous at the least, because it was SOOOO simple for them if they wanted to to roll such a thing across all their divisions. I am pretty sure they must be offering such strategies to their JIT and fortune 500 clients, especially the tier in the Fortune 20/100/whatever.

All they needed to do was to build into their executive daily dashboard was "Items that if overlooked would cost us over $100m dollars spread across a period of X months".

If a software or legal requirement is one of those triggers, then an event trigger would flag up the CEO, even if the division or department manager tries to suppress it.

It would be very easy for the EU to just say, "Look, MS is LYING. Just fire a 650 million pounds cruise missile INTO their bow."

It is just wanton disregard. With 20,000-40,000 employees and contractors, SOMEbody there must have though of what I am thinking, and proposed it. That means, somebody shot down the idea and said "Fuck the EU High Courts. We're an AMERICAN Company!"

So, then, the EU courts or ministers probably determined, "The fine SHOULD be levied at 10%, or the $7.4 BILLION. No reductions, no argument, no appeal. Just as Apple is losing what it asked for. These big companies need to LEARN!" But, they reduced it to even 10$ of THAT.

MS is lucky. They'll probably push a button and roll out the changes in the Patch Tuesday for next week and argue for mitigation and reduction of the fine down to $70 million, maybe even just $7million to spare the courts of expensisvely chasing the money over the next 5 years. (Or, the EU could just embargo ms, freeze their accounts, or summons and then arrest the cognizant exects....)

Tito's Mars mission to use HUMAN WASTE as radiation shield

Feeding, Disposal, and Shielding

I admit these ideas are likely not new, but here we go:

Feeding: pre-deploy stores and supply modules with, say, an SPS (Spatial Positioning System) so the modules are on their predicted flight plan. Design them with "spacedar" so that when the ship is about a million miles away, mutual intercept, mating, and transfer occurs. The emptied module can be designed to be a rescue shelter in the event something goes wrong on the way. Then, rescue and recovery would be much shorter than going ALL the way to Mars.

Disposal: Can not a special autoclave be designed with an input/output to direct the waste to the fuel exhaust? Of course, if that is designed in, it negates the opportunity to capitalize on using waste as a shield on the way over. But, it could be used to burn up the solids on the way back. Also, burning a little or dumping a little here and there might make for an interesting "cookie/bread crumbs trail" in the event comms are lost and someone thinks it's possible to pick up the scent of their nascent iron (not ion) trail....

Shielding: Similar to Feeding. Can not a hull liner be parked in orbit a year before the launch? It could be designed to be mated witth the space ship, like a docking collar, except the ship "en-sheathes" (well, you know, like... Putting on a, well, you know...) itself. Of course, a lot of momentum would be lost if the ship launch was more from orbit rather than from Terrra Firma.

If enough inertia can be otained from pre-Earth departure, then the vessel could make up for the time lost ensheathing the hull. The liner would only need to shiled the hab sections, meaning the ship could be designed with engines that attach after the hab hull is parked awaiting the engines and sensors body parts.

I'm not any engineer, but I would think that if the hull is going up in modules, then shields could be modules, too, just wrapped around or slipped on around the hull. They could contain the insulation or shielding that may be more efficient to sent up to pre-assembly orbit. Room could be left to capture waste for recycling, and the shield itself could be jettisoned on Mars approach, or after some period of time after fly-by. During that possible 7 or 8 months on the return, another speed-matching supply module could be pre-positioned.

Ultimately, the size and weighth of the vessel could be reduced and lightened -- well, assuming non-compressable labs will be inside the modules.

For fun/recreation, in the event some electronics are damaged by space radiation, they people should have some games to play: cards, dice, Toss Across, Connect Four, Battleship, Etch-a-Sketch, Slinky, knitting, and other things that can be fun to play in low or zero gravity.

Married Couple: Why married? Compatible unmarried couples of either genger could go up. In any case, if safe sex is expected, then other "consummables" will have to be packed, unpacked, used, then discarded -- discarded to SOMEwhere. If the need for a married couple is very important, it must be that there is an agenda to intentionally time and cause during-deep-space-impregnation of the present female. Is the Vatican funding part of this mission? If no woman goes, I guess it would be Mrs/Miss-Shun-to-Mars. Or, is it that policy makers do not want to have students learn about deep space "ass-sto-naught-tics" of some sort, which either gender could engage in.

Anyway, if there is a real 2018 launch, the ship needs to be designed by 2014, I'd guess, and construction finished by 2017, which might leave 12-to-2 months of pre-departure bug hunting and systems checks. 5 years is a VERY litttle amount of time.

Captain's Log...

Supplemental.... For further reports...

And Supplimental, if they eat it...

So, the longer they eat their logs, the more logarithmic and log-a-rhyth-mic things will become.

(IF they eat it...)

SHIELD Act proposed to make patent trolls pay

How about SHAFT

"Save Hightechers Against Frackin' Trolls"?

Outsourcing your own job much more common than first thought

Re: Isn't that the definition of freelance? Of and For

And, obviouslyt, those working in retail, fast food, or car wash sites cannot outsource, hehehehe. Even if money for the presumed hired person is diverted to a presumed jobless person, and even if the original hire is just helping peole get jobs, there will be the lack of official, company training, ID verification, acceptance by the other employees, and even immediate rejection and ejection of both the original and the stand-in workers.

So, by extension, why cannot an employer say "If you elect to regard this as a contract OF labor, your hires must be able to do the work we are contracting YOU to do. They must be able to at random demonstrate sufficient to greater than minimal knowledge, skills, expertise, and capabilities improvement for YOU to retain this contract OF labor..."?

You've made an app for Android, iOS, Windows - what about the user interface?

What about wxWidgets and QT?

These both supposedly are cross-platform, allowing for development on one OS platform and deployment to multiple others, with minimal rejiggering after compile time (maybe even before compile time)...

Check out some samples of just wxWidgets:

http://www.wxwidgets.org/about/users.htm

http://www.wxwidgets.org/about/screensh.htm

http://www.wxwidgets.org/about/feature2.htm

There are some really kewl apps out there in wxWidgets. Makes me wish I could understand the tools so I could at LEAST prototype some things, namely build my own database app that mimics or lets me recreate Lotus Approach (while trying to dodge patent litigation....). Actually, I wish somebody ELSE would mimic Approach, and stop mimicing Access. Not saying kill Access. Just saying I wish SOMEbody would help of Approach users have a modern, Open Source version of Approach but one that can handle italics, unicode, and give it horizontal sliders on detail tables that are wide with data, and enable embedding chart elements on repeating panels/detail tables, and endow the cross tabs with more features. So far, all the other open source database efforts do nothing to unseat me from Approach. Now that WINE hit 1.4x, Approach, WordPro, and 1-2-3 seem (so far) to be working find. Even Flywheel works, and that enables me to make the SmartSuite apps respond to the mouse scrolling.

And, yes, I did try to run wxWidgets and QT, to try to make a database app. I could not find the components for database connectivity. They used to exist back yarens.. Umm, years ago. I must not have installed them. So little time, so much frustration when clueless like me cannot even make our own apps

Look at StoryLines. That's a brilliant piece of software for writers and screenplay authors. Other apps are out there, too, and wxWidgets works on/targets more than just PCs... (Disclaimer: I do not have any dealings nor relations with the developers or maintainers of wxWidgets, other than that I twice bought/upgraded StoryLines. It's so kewl I just had to have it, though, sadly I have not produced anything storywise yet...)

Brit robot programmers banged up for £500,000 tax evasion

Re: The only difference..

No, doesnt' the UK give itself the power to tax its subje... Umm, citizens worldwide? The USA does, and so, if I were to do what was suggested, send the money out, but do not bring it back to the USA until or unless Congress lowers or eradicates the repatriated income tax or whatever it is is called, then the US IRS could nail my ass if I returned "home" or to the USA for more than the number of days or instances allowed. So, effectively, the only way one can avoid such problems might include some or all of the following:

-- renounce citizenship (not free, and costs a US citizen at LEAST $400 to file the papers)

-- move ALL of one's personal possessions or controlled assets OUT of the USA

-- empty banking accounts, gym memberships, storage facility contents, home assosications, charter clubs memberships, etc

-- divesst oneself of board member status of a USA-based company

-- never spend more than 3 months total days (consecutive or broken up) in the USA

-- give up the drivers license, technical or engineering or similar society memberships, and other things if they have perks that have value in them to the IRS

-- probaby 5-10 other things.

Now, it may be possible to set up the offshore, license-controlling entity abroad, but if it pays for expenses to fly to and shelter in and entertain throughout that abroad locale, the IRS STILL might take a position that "you could not have lived there for free, and as a US citizen, you benefitted materially, emotionally and financially, in a way that was instrumented by you and was greater than $100 per year.

It's hard to win. And, it definitely IS verry goddamned appropriate to ask at what point do we withold our income from taxation when venality and corruption abound, and public servants earn 2-4 times the average college grad, depending on the field, and enjoy benefits the non-public citizen cannot, and are essentially non-fireable in many case in which a non-public servant would be sacked in a millisecond, legally and cleanly provided the firing company followed all the proper legal steps.

I think that at some point, it will become a crime against society and the tax authorities for one to willfully, defiantly, wantonly, and in braggard fashion withhold exploiting one's talents and skills if that failure to exploit oneself deprives the country of a startup company that could hire people or deprives an employer or venture capitalist of exploiting to the maximum with returning the least back when one possesses skills and talents.

I be the Twilight Zone or some Brazillian movies have already topically or in-depth explored such ideas.

Twitter opens ad API... awaits cash TSUNAMI from ad-slingers

Ad Blockers Facing a New Threat?

Well, it looks as if Google won't be the only source of reinvigorated anti-adblocker sentiment.

OTOH, setting up accounts and using key words to describe oneself might be a lucrative profit avenue. Just make all the companies pursuing you show what they can do that their competitor won't do or is wont to do. Sort of like 15 or 20 years ago when there began TV adverts where dentists would be forced to competed with other dentists for business more than ever before. Lawyers, ditto.

How to work it? Well, make a list of the companies chasing you . Then, figure out which can an cannot be of use to you. Go with an LCD approach or even MCD and make them all compete on that level. Then, when one or two bid, squeeze them again. Almost like some defense contractors.

Alternatively, the malevolent responders might be inclined to engage them in time-wasting non-pursuit that drain them and kill them off slowlllllly. Not sure what effect it would have on twitter or adobe, but the churn will keep their databases piping hot....

Samsung under fire over copy-paste bricking

Galaxy Tab, Korean version might be susceptible, too

With my Galaxy Tab, which I bought in Busan in July 12, the contents of my clipboard vanish if i inadvertently hit the screen shot icon. It is EXTRAORINARILY irritating, considefing this hardware has hundreds of megs of available RAM?

Ad-titan Google blocks Adblock Plus in Android security tweak

Re: Security - a good excuse for governments and Google

It is HIGHLY possible and probably VERY likely that a large number of governments and well-funded state projects use ads as vectors to keep tabs on people. What better way than overt covert app install? Just use the 1-pixel thingies, the self-spawning and reanimating from the dead cookies do the work. But, since some government projects probablly user the same TOR and other ratsnest havens of spamware, malware, and other bots, they must be getting ensared with the non-government criminal and government criminal detritus. Hence, their effectiveness at penetrating and peripherally ensnaring their targets is being hampered.

Just a half-baked idea/thought...