Posts by zen1

Boffins make graphene micro-distillery

Party at the LOHAN

with extra potent vodka. Order has been restored to the force. On a serious note, these guys are SO getting a thank you note from me!

MPAA threat sparks White House petition for bribery probe

@ Eduard Coli

I humbly disagree, as oligarchy subtectually implies that there is at least one or two "grown ups" in charge, over here, that have a general clue. In all honesty, I highly doubt that the executive, judicial or legislative branchs could actually fine their own respective asses, without someone else pointing it out. However, for the sake of argument, I will concur.

@ Framitz

I bow to your wisdom and thoroughly agree.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

Lawyers are the reason we can't have anything nice in seemingly "democratic" countries. Once they've landed in a seat of political power, they don't seem to be forced to follow the same laws that the rest of us do, in terms of little things like racketeering, collusion, bribery.

Dodd has a number of strikes against him:

1) He's a former politician

2) he's a lawyer

3) He's the big cheese of the MPAA

Add em all up and it spells DOUCHE BAG!

I seriously wonder how much he took in "campaign contributions" he took from the entertainment industry, while he was in office.

Personally, I think it should be open season on any politician who takes money from a lobbist. period.

Kiwis collar Megaupload kingpin, Anonymous exacts revenge

wow

someone simply gets charged with breaking the law, mind you, not convicted and "Anonymous" takes it out on RIAA and MPAA? Based on actions like that, I honestly don't know who's the bigger scumbag in this whole equasion: RIAA and MPAA for missing the boat on pretty much everything, dot-knuckle head for being stupid enough to get busted for alegedly breaking the law or Anonymous for being a bunch of self-righteous douchebags, who feel they are the judge and jury?

As the author reaffirms, most people simply don't respect others intellectual property or copyrights. Piss and moan about net neutrality all you want but if people continue to pirate (and I mean profit illegally from others work by distributing it without permission or paying royalities) then there's virtually no reason to invest in product development.

Everybody who has a job, has it because they need shelter, food and other basic necessities to survive, not simply because of the sheer love of it all. And maybe if there's enough after covering living expenses, one can splurge on materialistic things.

This includes the selfish bastards who had the foresight to copyright their products, with the intent of selling it over the web.

Once again, I agree with the writers assertion that SOPA was just shoddily written, we actually do something need in place to protect those who, god forbid, want to profit from their labors. But there still needs to be a mechanism in place to allow people who wish to distribute material they own, should they wish to make it available as a preview... Like the recording artist who doesn't have a contract with a label...

Here's an idea... if people actually stuck to their words and agreed to pay for material they previewed and kept, then maybe there wouldn't be a need for dickheads like the RIAA, MPAA or the pricks who attempted to pass SOPA.

Flame away.

Groupon: IPO rumble mutated us into Wolverine

I don't know about the rest of you

but I will be much happier when they file for bankruptcy and this moron is out of the news. I'm tired of hearing about him, is PoS company and the fact that he's just a hair's width away from behing the next Enron. It's shitheads like him that make me embarassed to admit I'm in IT.

Child labour, lost wages uncloaked by Apple factories audit

@ Drew V

Even though I'm getting thumbs down for just expressing one of a thousand possible solutions, I agree with a lot of your assertions and gave you a thumb up. However, to play the opposing advocate for just a moment (and let me preface this with I, in no way shape or form, do NOT support anything that could even remotely be classified as slavery or the exploitation of children in the labor force), you raised a very important point: "privatization of the penal system". It's becoming cost prohibitive for a country, state or region, to adaquately house prisoners, with the intent to reform. There are several "if's" to consider here:

1) If the corporations were able to make use of low cost labor in our respective countries, they could be charged a modest fee to keep the prisons under government oversite, without burdening the public with the expense. The companies could also write off any capital improvements to a prison. This could be a considerable benefit to those incarcerated in ancient or tremendously over crowded prisons.

2) If the judges, guards and prison officials understood the fact that they are being held to a much higher standard than the people being placed into the prison. If there is even an accusation, that can be corroborated, they are abusing the public or the prisoners working in a "factory environment", they lose immediately lose their jobs and any pensions and face criminal and civil charges.

3) If there's irrefutable proof that there's any judicial or prison official abuse, then the guilty parties get thrown into the maximum security portion of their own prisons.

Believe me, I have no sympathy for people who are repeat offenders for serious crimes, however, I do believe that if there's a way that the prison system can be made as close to self sufficient as possible, that would take a considerable burden off of the public.

Not to belabor the point, but all of this is contingent upon the people in power being ethical or prepared to face the wrath of hell, if they aren't. Otherwise, I completely agree with you.

@ AC

While I see the point you're trying to make, the PRC has more than enough people it could empower to ensure that labor laws are being followed, if it doesn't then more than likely the labor abuses illuminate a corrupt government, as you stated.. However, if the corruption is corporate, it's probably Chinese (with moderate influence on western corporations) most likely the cause and not necessarily and exclusively foreign as they're simply under cutting other manufacturing bases (US, EU, etc), by charging pennies on the dollar to produce a given product. This is why you've seen a huge migration of manufacturing jobs from western nations, to the PRC.

All that being said, I still applaud Apple (even though I can't stand their products) for stepping up and assuming some of the responsibility. I sincerely hope that other companies (EU, American or SE Asian) that make use of chinese labor do the same.

If not, about all we can do is either not purchase the products (slim to no chance) or lobby our respective governments.

ahem... what about prison labor?

In the US, federal and state prisons pay inmates approximately .20 cents an hour for whatever, making license plates, jeans, blah blah... instead of farming out to the chinese, why not insource the work back to us and european prisons? It gives them something productive to do and the tech companies can foot the bill for prisoner accomidations, instead of us tax payers. Who knows, maybe they'd improve prison conditions enough to ensure people are actually rehabilitated and can be put back into society as reformed citizens WITH A VIABLE trade?

Just saying... flame away...

But on the other hand

Proportionately, the iStuff is pretty much outselling everything else, correct? While I certainly concur that Apple is stepping up to this, they probably have much higher prercentage of product being focused on by these companies. Sufficed to say, it certainly shines an interesting light on Chinese labor laws (or lack thereof). ANY company, not just Apple, really needs to seriously look at their relationships with these firms. While the consumer may have to eat a little bit of a higher cost in the end product, it's a small price to pay for a little human decency.

Cupertino lawyers mull 'driPhone' name ban

eye protest!

am eye to assume that apple excluseyevely owns all references to anytheyeng that contaeyens a lower case "eye" (i) (* TM, SM, Copyreyeght, R and PDQ of Apple). Personally eye am appalled at theeyr behaveyeor and they should be chasteyezed for assumeyeng excluseyeve ownersheyep of a lower case eye, that prefaces a seyemple noun.

Angry iPhone users bring antitrust class action against Apple

Sadly...

I can't vote more thumbs up. Genius. Pure genius!

1TB USB stick shoved into Swiss Army knife

meh

I'll wait for the Leatherman version. Cool idea, but until it's mass produced and the price comes down to 1/100th of what MSRP is, it probably won't move real fast.

Apple said to threaten legal action over Steve Jobs doll

lol

all I can think of is a commercial that aired in the US a couple years ago, for Nissan. It involved, Barbie, Ken and G.I. Joe. Ken, complete with pink sweatter wrapped around his neck, heads over to Barbie's house, however he shows up just in time to see her hopping in a Z car with GI Joe.

Sorry, I think Apple has stepped a little too far over the line this time.

However, I do wonder who would win a hypothetical fight between a Ken doll or a Jobs doll? While I think Ken may have the physical edge, Jobs' razor sharp tongue and explosive temper might be enough to take Ken down. All he needs is a Kung fu grip and he could be an icon like Chuck Norris.

Apple’s Siri gets sweary with British child

oh the humor of it all.

I would LOVE to have a phone like that!

Boycott forces Go Daddy U-turn on anti-piracy law backing

@ Mr. Roper

Wow, I've read some sanctimonious tripe in here before, but your reply takes the cake. First of all, you know absolutely nothing about my business, the product I sell or how much it costs me to produce a salable product. Since I deal in a very small niche market, that has a low but predictable volume of sales, when something happens and I see my sales dip, I know something is amiss. So, in my case, your generalizations are completely wrong.

But, I can't help but ponder what civilization would be like if we all followed your sense of entitlement. If you were an auto mechanic, I could take your tools and then demand that you fixed my car, with little or no fear of retribution. Better yet, say you owned a specialized retail store, I could simply walk in, take one of everything, make exact duplicates and then turn around and sell them at a substantially reduced cost, thereby running your ass out of business.

Don't get me wrong, you and I are in complete agreement over how the entertainment industry simply screwed the pooch, by not embracing the internet as a distribution mechanism. However, I completely reject your assertion that software and digital content piracy isn't a substantially more serious crime than you (and others) care to admit. This is completely your prerogative, but it's because of attitudes like yours that software publishers continually jack the price of their products up, and charge those of us who respect little things like, oh, THE LAW, in anticipation of a certain percentage of lost revenue due to piracy.

So, on behalf of those of us who pay through the nose for commodity products, while suck holes like you copy, dupe and blatantly steal, you're welcome.

@ Roger

"I'd rather see murderers, child molesters, rapists, thieves, muggers, robbers and burglars"... Unless I'm mistaken, piracy IS thievery. Furthermore, the douche-bags who write scare-ware and randsome-ware can be classified in the same light as muggers, robbers and burglers.

Just because nobody is physically injured doesn't make it any less wrong. It's still theft, illegal and unethical. While I haven't read through the proposed SOPA legislation, maybe its time for something/somebody to sack up and do something to discourage people from stealing content, software and material from others.

I'm sure I'm going to get flamed for this, and while the data maybe nothing more than a series of 1's and 0's, when they are arranged in such a way that takes money out of your pocket, drains your bank account or puts your employer out of business, then I'm thinking it's time to do something.

I have had digital property stolen and even though it's not the billions that most of the software publishing and recording industries have lost, I felt the impact financially. But not being able to justify the cost of all the legal fees against the total amount of revenue lost, I'm screwed.

Hidden Dragon: The Chinese cyber menace

maybe a little too late?

In theory, it could be done, however there are a number of logistical issues that may be a problem.

1) The number of western businesses doing business with the PRC.

2) The number of stratigic alliances that the PRC has with other nation/states that are hostile to the west.

3) While the PRC does run a lot of attacks out of the mainland, think about the number of compromised machines in each western country, that could communicate back to the PRC through indirect channels.

I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but it would require a lot of people to remove their heads from the sand and really look at the situation for what it is. Given that most western comm gear firms (Cisco, Blue Coat, Juniper, et. al) have moved manufacturing to hong kong and the PRC OR large ISP/Telcom firms have been purchasing chinese gear hand over fist, we've basically handed the keys of the kingdoms over to them.

Steve Jobs gets posthumous Grammy AND a bronze statue

But...

Does this mean every time I use an iAnything, I must turn towards Cupertino, hail St. Steve, sacrafice a $10.00 bill and then flip off any Wintel device that's within visual distance?

Facebook shoves your face into creepy 'sponsored stories' in 2012

What if...

I happen to be in a picture that was taken of someone else? I don't have a FB account, the person who uploaded the picture wasn't my representative and I sure has hell didn't agree to anything in FB's ToS. While I can probably get even with the moron who uploaded the picture, what I can't do is get that material removed from fb. As we all know, once it's on the net it, it's pretty much there forever. That is, unless google, fb and just about every analytics firm's systems all suffer catastrophic hard drive failures AND backup failures at the same time.

Zuckerberg is proof positive that someone can be conceived through anal sex.

Adobe startles Wall St with Q4 sales climb

something smells fishy

maybe adobe decided to join the "adobe exploit" club and write malicious code that funnels money into their bank accounts?

Fanbois locked out of iTunes store, iCloud in Apple outage

Given all the pomp and circumstance surrounding all of the iCrap, I still think it's funny. Absolute control and power lead to absolute chaos when one tiny thing runs afoul.

'Self-aware' bank account robbing code unleashed by hacker

@ AC

Or did he offer any suggestions as to how his exploits could be defeated? If he didn't give them a chance to recitify this or provide him with any of that data before going public his ass needs to be thrown in jail.

Visa probes reported security breach of card processor

Two words: Heartland Processing

Really? Like this could actually come as a surprise to anybody? Given that there are a significant number of hops between each time a credit card is used and the issuing bank (most of which are outsourced to heaven knows where), I'm actually surprised that there's not more identity theft and transaction fraud.

A friend and business associate of mine lost one of her businesses because of the crap that went on inside of Heartland. But the truly sad thing is that Visa/MC automatically assumed that her business was to blame and required her to spend close to $100,000 on audits and security remediation, none of which was credited back to her, when it was Heartland. But that's water under the bridge.

Maybe the Credit Card industry should take a good hard look at PCI, as well as the number of third party transaction processors they have, handling our information. And instead of jacking up interest rates, usage fees and other such hidden surcharges (used to cover their losses) maybe they should start penalizing the people in the middle, the processors.

Feds propose 50-state ban on mobile use while driving

Legislating COMMON sense

This will not end well for "freedom" as we know it. While the roots of this action are based in good intentions, the sad fact that due to the overt stupidity of a few. Given the fact that the majority of all new phones have some type of GPS device built into it, here's a free idea to anybody who's willing to develop it: Design an applet that simply disables SMS (or even email for all I care) if a device registers a ground speed greater than 5 MPH. Sure, it will screw the commuters who are PASSENGERS (i.e. not in control of the vehicle) in buses, trains and cars, but at least it will a protect a significant number of would be victims from people who don't have enough sense to keep their fingers out of their rectums before eating.

It saddens me to hear of some innocent soul, whose life is snuffed out prematurely because some idiot simply wasn't paying attention. However, the fools who were the cause of said tragedy, I write them off as proof that Natural Selection is doing its job. Harsh, I know, but no matter what, you can't force people to comply with a law that regulates common sense, nor can you completely cure stupidity.

Android malware victims offered free WinPhones by MS

I blame it on official platform store

for not thoroughly vetting an application and FORCING vendors to disclose everything. I also blame the freetards, because they are the main reason we can't have anything nice.

Flame away... don't care.

FCC (finally) cracks down on BLARING! TV! ADS!

Open letter to the "honorable" Representative from Texas

Sir, while I share a number of core values with you, shut the hell up. This will be about the only intelligent legislation to come out of D.C. in decades. Given the fact that the political whores are starting their campaigning, I for one don't want to be subjected crap pulled by the advertising industry, ESPECIALLY when it comes to the impending onslaught of political advertisements.

Steve Jobs' last design: New Apple HQ pics

Uhhh

No he's not...

Why are Android anti-virus firms so slow to react on Carrier IQ?

meh

While I use utilities like that work, they are NEVER run without giving the user adaquate notice. Even though the company is legally within their bounds to run diagnostics on equipment they own, we are courtious to the end user.

I own my phone; I paid for it and if I want to dance around it naked, while I throw it on a bon fire, it's my perrogative. My carrier did NOT bother to inform me that there was software capable of collecting any kind of information, preinstalled on my phone. Had I known that ahead of time I would have selected either a different phone or a different carrier.

Point #2: Who pays for the bandwidth when it sends said collected metrics back home? Sure as hell better not be me, as I didn't ask for it, I didn't download it and I sure as hell didn't authorize it to capture anything about me, my location, how I use the phone or not.

Point #3: Security - Now that the entire world knows of CIQ and the level of detail its products collects, who's to say that: A: CIQ won't get hacked and all that data winds up being used against some or most of us?; b) Someone writes malware to exploit the carrier IQ product? Talk about identity and privacy fraud on a scale that the world has never seen.

The spooks are probably drooling at the prospects of all this.. Besides, just because you can, doesn't mean you always should. epic fail on the carriers and ciq for not fully disclosing this ahead of time

Bill Gates discusses nuclear development deal with China

yeah but...

First BSoD and the entireity of SE Asia is fucked.

Facebook security hole exposes Zuckerberg's privates

Oh, and for the record...

Zuckerburg is still a tool

irony

developing and building a the premier social network that could possibly set new records for network: dozens upon dozens of billions.

Settling with the FTC on repeated privacy concerns and questionable ethics: estimated cost for the next 30 years: probably a net loss of 100 million or more.

Seeing pictures of yourself holding your latest conquest, after countless reassurances that FB is secure: Priceless.

Carrier IQ VP: App on millions of phones not a privacy risk

Maybe I'm wrong

but I thought CIQ was installed on the 4s

Is it just me?

Or is this guy so full of shit that it's spewing out of his ears?

'I'm the first to admit that we've made a bunch of mistakes'

'I'm the first to admit that we've made a bunch of mistakes' - Bitch Boy...

OK I nominate this for the quote of the year, just because it shows just how dillusional he is. I mean when I think of a "mistake" I think of little things like I forgot to tie my shoes, fell and broke an arm. Or, I accidently under paid on my income taxes... Or I mistakenly flushed flushed my wifes cartier tennis bracelet down the drain..

What Face Book did was NO mistake.

US Senator demands answers from Carrier IQ

Wow...

With the exception of privacy concerns, I disagree with Sen. Franken on, well, damn near everything. Al, I'm impressed!

PROVEN: Violent video games mess with your head

Maybe...

If he ran a similar study on people who watch hours of violent television programming I might be inclined to take him somewhat seriously. I'd further guess that subjecting any human, either old enough to not need or young enough to not need diapers to the likes of the 'politically correct' touchy feely, let's all be best friends, share group hugs, teletubby crap might produce the same results.

I have no doubt that general desensitization plays a huge role in this. I mean it's no secret that the human brain has (d)evolved since the advent of television. So I think his basic assertion may have a little merit, but I really think he needs to step back and take a good long look at all of the environmental contributors, to what makes someone become consistently more violent.

Grooveshark bunged staff bonuses 'for pirating music'

after reading...

A fair portion of the complaint AND (the best part in my opinion) some of the comments, from where the story broke, Escape, it's officers and majority investors better pray that someone in their "crack legal team" manages to settle out of court. If not, they're screwed.

bloody hell

This is not going to end well for somebody.

Facebook, FTC settle over privacy ‘deception’

Yeah... Right...

Any fool knows that technology moves about 300 MPH faster than the law, any legislation and certainly faster than any civil suits (depending on which side FB is on). I'll bet that within 6 months Bitch Boy figures out a technicality that allows FB to keep right on doing what it's doing. Furthermore, what's to keep one of the many members of the facebook overlay network from doing the same damn thing, or just hiring a lobbying firm and work to overturn that decision, legislatively? FFS, the lobbists for Visa basically wrote the latest bankruptcy rules, and have stacked just about everything against the consumer.

FB, like Google, makes money by eliminating/eroding privacy. And while I certainly don't sympathize a whole lot FB users who continue to feed into "the machine", I'm extraordinarily pissed that I am finding cookies files that point back to facebook. I do not, never have and most definitely never will have a facebook account.

Phobos-Grunt 'crippled by US aurora station', 'is a bio-weapon'

Don't ya mean

ApocarypsoBomb?

Groupon shares plunge: Drain in sight

I totally called this one!!!

It was only a matter of time before this ponzi scheme imploded under its own lack of internal support. Sadly, the people who are going to get burned by this are the consumers, the retailers (some of which foolishly went into this with eyes wide open) and small investment firms. Sadly, the moron who started this mess as well as his executive officers will obviously make out like bandits, while claiming their idea was simply ahead of its time.

I still call bullshit on Groupon and it's CEO & founder should be stripped of all financial gains made during his tenure there and have his ass thrown in jail.

Facebook IPO said to set value at $100bn

ahem

Remember when they said "AOL is the internet"? Look at them now. Anybody who honestly believes FB is worth 100B, please come see me as I have some beautiful waterfront property I can sell you, dirt cheep.

Black Friday: Bargain-hunting mobs on the rampage

I pitty the...

Occupy-whatever protestor who was stupid enough to get in the way of a mace wielding, penny pinching mother, with a chip on her shoulder, a plan and a really bad attitude. The freedom of speech and right to assemble arguments fall on deaf ears,

Bless us one and all </sarcasm>

While I truly do love the real benefits of Christmas, bringing together of families, celebration, sense of community, I can honestly say I loathe the commercialism. Since I'm not 100% familiar with all of the holiday schedules in the EU and beyond, some marketing dumbass, here in the states, decided that it was a good idea to start promoting Christmas about 2 weeks prior to halloween. That means, in some locales, pulling out the christmas decorations, the playing, nay, the droning of jingle bells 7/24 until 12/25.

While I do believe that the true spirit of Christmas does bring out the absolute good in the majority of people, the holiday sales and preditorial behavior of "shoppers" certainly demonstrate the absolute worst, albeit confined to the civilian world and not the military.

I hadn't planned on going out on Black Friday for anything, just because people can be such bastards, especially when there's a deal to be had, but my blushing bride had some chores for me to do and I was forced to gorilla my way through the zoo, at a local home improvement store. As luck would have it, after finding the parts I needed a clerk brought out a pallet of heavily marked down cordless drills and screw drivers. I'm talking several hundred dollars USD, marked down by at least 60%. The mob swarmed and circled like a pack of great white sharks and as soon as he cut the straps that secured everything, the feeding frenzy was on. I was trying to get out of the way and some old lady apparently misinterpreted my hands up in the air (almost universally recognized as "I surrender") as a form of aggression or an attempt to steal 'her drill' and took the opportunity to stomp on my foot and then elbow me in the kidney.

Granted, it wasn't a hard stomp, nor was it a hard kidney punch, but peace on earth and good will to mankind my ass.

Once I got clear of the crowd I looked back and every one had the same glazed over expression: coal black, lifeless eyes, much like afore mentioned shark. Once I got to the checkout, I just handed the clerk a 5 (my part was just under a buck) , told her to keep it, she deserved it and got the hell out of there.

While I truly believe in the benefits of a free market based society, the idiots who promote conditions that send normal, rational and non-violent people into a hysterical rage, should be held responsible, along with the morons who see fit to mace, shoot, hit, kick, bite and knee, just to save a few bucks.

What assholes!

MIT boffin's 'truth goggles' probe print and pols

not to sound cynical but...

what's the life expectancy on the hardware that this stuff runs on? My guess the first time it's placed under load, just at the national level, it will probably implode.

US quakes before MENACING TURKEYS, snow globes

My country...

A nanny state/social engineering experiment failure.

Every year I read about people who burn down their house, because they didn't take the time to read/understand the instructions, while frying a turkey (it's actually quite good when properly done).

Other seasonal favorites are the folks who have preferred their toaster pastries a little extra crispy, so they jam the handle, and leave the damn thing unattended. And then have the gall to sue the manufacturer.

Countless quite neighborhoods rudely interrupted by the sound of police tacticle teams, responding to holiday hostage situations. Or my personal favorites that involve the people who either get arrested for assaulting, intimidating, stampeding or committing other acts of domestic terrorism, on the Friday following our "Thanks Giving".

Tomorrow, the newspapers and their websites will be all a buzz with headlines and full public dockets with reports of exloding turkeys and other feast related tragidies.

It's called Natural Selection for a reason, America!

Erotica 2011 stands firm against rise of the sex machines

wtf

I'm curious, is the thing for the guys also fed by AC or is it all USB powered? If not, wtf, why the double standard? And $250 for that? How the hell are you supposed to clean the damn thing? What happens if your laptop is hacked and "the device" winds up assaulting someone? While I won't go into the gory details of how, but what if the laptop shorts out during an arrival, and catches fire? Who's going to explain that one to the next of kin, the police, fire dept or the insurance company?

Engineers seek funds for world’s largest Tesla coil

sigh

God I envy those folks!

Inside the mysterious US satellite hacking case

I hate to burst your bubble, but...

Didn't the Iranian Nuclear program have similar safeguards? What about the US's Reaper & Predator drone CnC networks?