Posts by solo

'There has never been a right to absolute privacy' – US Deputy AG slams 'warrant-proof' crypto

No fundamental right of privacy

Equifax and Yahoo must be pleased to hear that..."We leaked only as per the law of the country..."

Dear rioters: Hiding your face with scarves, hats can't fool this AI system

Trump masks

'He could shoot somebody and he wouldn’t lose any voters'

Microsoft slaps Apple Gatekeeper-like controls on Windows 10: Install only apps from store

Trusted Apps?

Like

Flappy Torch

InstaGrand

Goodle Maps

Microsoft chatbots: Sweet XiaoIce vs foul-mouthed Tay

Re: When a human grows up ... racist

I always thought that Ego and Escapism are the roots of racism and is found in every human being.

A bot that just copies text based on its previous usage doesn't prove that it had Ego or it was feeling Oppressed (by the other oppressed ones).

I'd rather compare Tay with Clippy.

Shadow Broker hacking group auctions off claimed NSA online spy tools

Github pages taken offline

Tools don't hack...people do.

Where is the National Rifle Association now. I want my RIGHTS back.

Facebook ‘glitch’ that deleted the Philando Castile shooting vid: It was the police – sources

Re: it is not the guns

Not being from US, I cannot say for sure. But I can feel the fear BOTH the men might have. NRA says everyone should have firearms but they don't let people know that firing the first bullet takes a lot of courage and confusion, especially if you have your loved ones on your side. The lady could also pull up the guns but instead chose to use his phone.

It is also important to understand the fear that cops feel everyday on road checkpoints where anybody could fire at him asking papers. Yes, it happens. A split-second decision is what we are forcing on him.

So, there are guns on both the sides, it is just how easy to get away with the killing.

Re: Evidence

..young lady who seemed more interested in documenting the wrong..

The young lady might have been more interested in keeping calm so that the cop doesn't shoot her or her daughter as well. I can't say for sure as I couldn't gather courage to see the video after reading about it.

Re: Social Apps

Agreed that social apps seems more important than carrying guns for your safety. But I'd add that only having FB and Twitter will limit the benefits. We need at least a dozen of successful apps with not so easy navigation for policemen.

'Acts of war in a combat zone are not covered by your laptop warranty'

Re: ..guys in the front line..

"There’s no front lines here (in Iraq). This is urban combat and we’re taking the war to children and women and innocents.": Ethan McCord, US Army

https://www.wired.com/2010/04/2007-iraq-apache-attack-as-seen-from-the-ground/

Just for the record.

India launches hypersonic space shuttle precursor

...children living on railway lines

Is it ironic to think that there is need for more SPACE? oh .. of course we can sterilize them!

+1 for the competition and democratization in science.

Shuttered Instagram holes opened 20 million accounts to hijack

Re: And the real issue is....

The real issue is, why even trivial products have been allowed to become so important in our life. Looking the world through other people's lenses is invaluable, I am actually talking about phone numbers.

Kids these days can't even write a decent virus

Kids these days do not need a virus for fun

They can just write a "Torch" app with all the permission 'requests' embedded.

US congresscritter's iPhone hacked (with, er, the cell networks' help)

Re: genuinely believe they are doing good

I always though that Frankenstein made the monster out of boredom..nothing about good or bad

Chrome add-ons just became less scary, security-wise

Re: for averge user

+1. Average user is earning them money and they click "OK, I got it!". The techno-aware handful lot can keep their circles out.

Andreessen stokes the Facebook Free Basics ‘colonialism’ row

Re: help very poor people reach a point where they can buy food

"Like a restaurant for your poor friend"

G-Cloud sellers hit out against cap on scaling services

Hard hitting reality

Cloud realizing it's shoe size.

W is for WTF: Google CEO quits, new biz Alphabet takes over

Re: how much money ... made on Android

Android is waste....Happiness (Glucose) Sensing Contacts will give more alpha.

Re: I missed it.

Everyone missed it...seeing it coming..the storm..

Facebook unleashes mighty data trove to learn how you laugh

detecting fake laughter

"science still has no formal method for detecting fake laughter and lols"

I think this goes true for the real ones (not on a computer screen). For typed ones, it's just arrogance attempting their truthfulness. haha (I thought thrice before writing this laughter).

India reveals plan to fix poverty by doing ANYTHING-as-a-service

Spot a problem?

I don't think so. Even the most developed economies depend on outsourcing their CEOs to the developing (read 3rd world). Selling milk (with longer expiry date) to Greece anyone?

Microsoft doubles down on productivity with Wunderlist buy

Another text / word processor with a specific purpose?

Why can't they just solve the problems of Office. Microsoft is just pretending to be a teenager when it already has a dozen of kids to feed. Let the startups earn on their own.

IT-savvy US congressmen to Feds: End your crypto-backdoor crusade

Re: There's a simple way to explain it to them...

Explaining amounts to supporting terrorists [sarcasm]. By the way, I wonder, how innocent those snoopers are that we need to explain to them.

Want a full-blown IDE for Node.js? You'll need a Windows machine...

Re: Node.js is still en vogue?

"..in locations where you certainly do NOT want to see it.."

did you mean locations like corporate sites? Do they have very high quality with .aspx pages?

Layla enjoys a Sanskrit makeover: Clapton set to become one of several Gods

Hehe

According to the ever-reliable Wikipedia:

"With more than 220000 (100000 shloka or couplets) verses and about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahābhārata is the longest epic poem in the world."

+

"The Mahabharata ... is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India,"

+

"About 1.8 million words in total, the Mahabharata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined,"

Comment: An individual's ability as a poet doesn't define capabilities of a language.

Google’s privacy policy: Italians probing a little deeper

Google is not my concern

Its innovation in market practices (instead of technologies) are. Once it adopts a trend and if regulators start monitoring it, it becomes legalized (for the time being at least). So, now if any new firm, irrespective of size and visibility, says that it can track whatever it wants given there is a tiny link on its site, it can get away with it in courts.

I'd have, in my dreams, welcomed some umbrella laws that restrict snooping for commercial purposes.

Snapchat wants $19 BEEELLION for your selfies

Valuation

I never, as a coder, understood the quantification. Did they show how vanishing their acts are?

Samsung's spying smart TVs don't encrypt voice recordings sent over the internet – new claim

Re: A pity

"Even if you are paying, you are a product now"

[sorry for being repetitive, but, I really want this phrase out in media]

WhatDaHell, WhatsApp? Student claims 'stalker' tool shows security flaws

Re: WhatsThat ?

+1 from me for being realistic. But I see it more like selling cars with breaks which don't.

Your hard drives were riddled with NSA spyware for years

Re: anything/one that is not NSA.

Including US senate

Uber: Sorry we're really awesome and all that (oh yeah, and for leaking your personal info)

False Pride

The real issue, I feel these days is, all the innovative start-ups based on IT infra think they are 'IT start-ups' and feel obliged to keep all their internal infrastructure on the edge (connected to the web).

I'd not be surprised if the person maintaining this sheet would also be the handler of the (lost & found) inventory.

Now Samsung's spying smart TVs insert ADS in YOUR OWN movies

Re: If I paid for my TV set

+100 if I could...

In India, Facebook and chums boil the internet down to 38 websites

Net neutrality

And what is their stand on this issue in US again?

WHERE'S WALLY? He's in this algorithm, says developer

"barring a situation where someone puts a gun to your head"

and what if someone with a gun is looking for your head through this algorithm...

Reddit: Don't worry, we didn't tell that foreign government about your /r/brony addiction

Just 50?

55 - 5 = 50 orders from US. They must have put a water hose there now I guess.

Wikileaks: We DO NOT approve of OUR secret stuff being LEAKED

Re: Dear Mr Assange

".. go face your rape charges .."

I smell some prejudice here. Are you really sure that the charges (read details) and its handling could not be a case of smear-campaign?

Re: How ridiculous

"..distributes secrets for a living.."

That is called free press...alas, one, from the land of the free, has no expectation of privacy and is confusing journalism with snooping.

'Super-secure' BlackPhone pwned by super-silly txt msg bug

Re: Yeah...

"..more secure than what multi-billion dollar companies are putting out and it's just not feasible..."

1. Those multi-billion dollar companies have to assume average consumers will prefer comfort over privacy, while this small group is selling to the mass that has just the opposite expectations

2. Feasibility of good design is never dependent on size of the team. Incremental improvements and fixes are what drives even those multi-billion dollar companies.

Buggy? Angry? LET IT ALL OUT says Linus Torvalds

Re: So he admits it

..that he is not working because he is thinking of saving humanity. He's just being humble at the most (not calling himself Superman).

You'll get sick of that iPad. And guess who'll be waiting? Big daddy Linux...

Been there, done that.

"..getting you search results, Facebook updates and simple ways to share photos.."

Will these 99.99% of guys still be doing only social updates 10 years from now? What then?

Mr President, is this a war on hackers – or a war on people stopping hackers?

Re: The case of Aaron Swartz

"..he's not a great example of the chilling use of overreaching laws.."

Really? Read how the victim of the case felt:

1. http://about.jstor.org/news/jstor-statement-misuse-incident-and-criminal-case

Quote: "..The criminal investigation and today’s indictment of Mr. Swartz has been directed by the United States Attorney’s Office. It was the government’s decision whether to prosecute, not JSTOR’s. As noted previously, our interest was in securing the content. Once this was achieved, we had no interest in this becoming an ongoing legal matter.."

2. http://about.jstor.org/statement-swartz

Quote: "..The case is one that we ourselves had regretted being drawn into from the outset.."

The case of Aaron Swartz

Thanks a ton for mentioning. His name still causes a chilling effect in me. Had this been Google, it'd have gotten the laws changed (as with scanning copyrighted books).

PROOF the undead STALK Verizon users: Admen caught using 'perma-cookie'

Re: I'm surprised that this doesn't fall under wire-tapping fraud or some such thing?

Unless you read the privacy policy of the host websites and rejected it by navigating away (that is impossible without visiting them at least once :)

GRENADE! Project Zero pops pin on ANOTHER WINDOWS 0-DAY

Re: Damn, crikey.. <fill in expletive of choice>

Hate it or love it. Google is more accustomed to the Open source community culture where everyone is free to find bugs through the source code. Remember HeartBleed? 2 groups (one being from Google) found it independently and was reported before a reliable patch. Who could argue against it.

Microsoft on the other hand have enjoyed unfair benefits from obscurity.

Also, if Google fails to honor its commitment to fixes for its own OS, it is taking calculated risk knowing that other forks of its OS may find favor. Not so urgency with MS.

iPhone addiction will RUIN YOUR LIFE – if only that were true

Re: validity of the study

"..doesn't seem to change the validity of the study.."

Trivial things are always valid. If your soccer pal is knocking on your door and your teacher is calling on your iPhone, I am sure that this will cause anxiety and you will throw the "iPhone" in the drawer.

Uber reveals fresh passenger data spaff – and city officials are OK with this

Re: CORRUPT ... regulations

Nothing in your post suggests even one of the "CORRUPT taxi regulations". Did you mean to say that regulations are not needed at all? If a taxi is not honoring your valid payment methods and it irritates you, it, ironically, invalidates your point of zero regulations.

Also, what is your take on Uber, which claims to be safe and doesn't perform any background check of drivers? So, a girl in India, who believes their promises, falls victim of rape.

GoPro feels COLD BREATH of APPLE on back of neck

Umbrella of patents

..don't mean they building houses out of them.

Google crashes supposedly secure Aviator browser

Re: DuckDuckGo .. it serves sponsored links

"sponsored links" don't imply snooping. It's Google which made this combination obvious.

Do you have any reference to show that DuckDuckGo tracks you beyond the search result page for its sponsored links?

India digs deep to bury neutrino-hunting chamber

Diversity of culture

..was the most badly affected aspect of science. Failure or success doesn't matter.

Sardine fishing in Kerala: Who benefits from mobile phones?

Re: mobile phones in poor countries

Although you might have been correct, I can safely say the risk period has passed.

By the standards of 1997, India (the country of Kerala) was not as big economy as it's today. See how it's encashed on the telecommunication technology. And unlike US (not sure about Europe), The mobile market here is all about contract-free phones where a new phone can be purchased for about $10 without any obligation and connection from a carrier can be kept active (for in-coming calls) by recharging for $1 in 6 months.

Ironically, India has seen all this because of multiple carriers and their greed.

PS: the $10 phone:

http://www.flipkart.com/k-a1300-lb-1300/p/itme3g5agttf8fdc?pid=MOBEFH68GCA5H7UR&srno=b_1&ref=2e239d51-e697-4b6d-b11b-44416b4eefdd