graylights

Often buying a physical CD on amazon (with included mp3) is significantly cheaper then buying just the mp3 album on amazon.

To me the shift away from purchasing music is because the constant availability of music. If I really want to hear that one old song, I can pull it up on youtube without having to build a library. My music tastes are easily satisfied with Creative Commons music or free streaming, even without subscribing. There is such a surplus of music available with how cheap it has gotten to produce. Music labels are in big trouble as they have to compete with hobbyists. They're being marginalized both in the production and distribution end.

But I don't see that same level of hobbyist quality TV. The business has changed a lot of TV, but only in distribution, not the production. Red vs Blue was a decade ago and little has built on that model since. Maybe Dr Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog could be considered a hobby project, but it was done by big name stars. The only real hobby video we have now is just game-streaming and sketch comedy skits.

Well the other part of weak passwords is for many websites the users care less about account security then the website operator.

There are many sites which contain none of my personal info but I have to setup an account just to view website content. If my account gets hijacked, it might be used for spamming. But still If I could make a throwaway account with a blank password I would because I don't care about that accounts security. So surely some restrictions need to be in place if you're going to require signups.

So the governments are responsible for every bug now? I'm not so quick to absolve guilt from shitty development. There are many developers that take a lot of shortcuts, with hardcoded passwords and the like.

If we were talking a handful of bugs, your argument would make sense. But we're talking about tens of thousands.

Thank you, that clarified the article a lot for me. I still stand by "Confidential Source" is a horrible justification because it's impossible to verify the validity of something confidential.

That impossible verification is what was being abused in this case.

So the problem is they claimed "Confidential Source" and the presumption was that it was an informant? To me secret surveillance fits the definition of "Confidential Source". I don't see any deception there. (EDIT: I've been corrected, apparently legal definition defines source as person)

The real question is why can the magic words "confidential source" be used as justification for a warrant without more clarification.

Well also the part about using the devices in the first place without warrant.

A lot of these default passwords on non-consumer devices aren't user admin accounts but tech support accounts. So #1 and #3 don't work, because the user doesn't get the password.

But there is also a 4th option, the user somehow enables the support account.

I hope that it always defaults to channel one. That way in an apartment complex all the xfinitywifi can conflict with eachother and at least leave some channels open for real wifi networks.

The problem with pricing by volume is that the average consumer can't really manage their volume.

Would the consumer be responsible for paying for: -DDOS (not only can you knock them offline, you can cost them big money) -Spam (Both received and botnet sent) -Retransmissions for traffic the ISP dropped due to congestion -Ads (adblockers could reduce bandwidth costs by a third)

I personally would love volume pricing. But I also would not want to provide tech support next time my parents get hit by malware and get hit with a $1000 isp bill.

Agreed. A lot of it has to do how government contracts for IT support. Contracts quickly get out of date. The contractors are also all trying to lock themselves in.

It's common for the contractor to own all the IT equipment and just lease it to the government. What happens when it's time to change contracts and every single computer, phone, printer has to be replaced. There is no possibility for competitive bidding in the wake of that.

In my experience with Federal work, we had 50MB of server storage for email in 2013. Then there were the PPTs attachments placing some emails at 10MB and getting forwarded/replied with attachments multiple times. In effect everyone used local pst files or they were deleting emails as they read them.

It's an awful system, but a lot of it has to do how government awards IT contracts and how quickly they are out of date.

Suppose the case of interview for a job where half the applicants are unqualified. This algorithm has an ~20% chance of hiring someone unqualified.

This algorithm seems optimized towards getting near-optimum rather then limiting risk. I think for real world problems it'd be much better to lower your standards as you near the end of the pool.

It's not an encompassing stereotype but US does have some evangelists and devout Christians that believe that the US is a "Christian Nation". To them Atheists are the ones that took prayer out of school and that want to take the 10 commandments monuments off court steps. So some people view Atheists as troublemakers. It's mostly a political issue.

Realize I'm talking about a small minority, but they're also vocal. I doubt you will encounter them in tourist areas. In tourist areas people are more interested in your money then your religion, it just won't come up.

But in casual conversation with strangers, I personally identify as "Not Religious" instead of "Atheist". For some reason the term Atheist carries extra baggage in US.

I'd be curious too but there is a big gap between no religious beliefs and Atheist. Many people just don't care about religion at all, some have mild beliefs, and some are devout, it's a broad spectrum. To some, their religious identification is more a statement of their lifestyle then their actual belief. For example my dad labels himself a Christian, despite admittedly having no actual belief because he adheres to Christian morality and it gives him a group to belong to. I've also known people identify as Buddhist because it fits closest to their lifestyle.

Unfortunately the label Atheist, has some pretty negative connotations to some people in the US.

The questions I'd really like to see: "Do your religious beliefs have an impact on your decision making" "Do you have full confidence in the core tenets of your religion" "How important is it to you to observe Religious rules?"

PS. Interesting stat, 40% of Americans claim to attend church regularly. But only 20% of Americans actually attend regularly. People often respond to polls with a more ideal version of reality. http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_rate.htm

They already have immunity for users' infringements via the Safe Harbor provisions of DMCA. The safe harbor provisions requirements are a lot less stringent then Common Carrier.

They must register as an ISP, can't modify data, and can't directly profit from infringement or promote it. Certain ISPs already have done things that should get them deregistered though, such as compressing images, replacing ads or injecting content. For example, comcast injects their copyright warnings into html pages transfered.

Without an agreement amazon has no right to sell digital copies and certainly no obligation. Comcast made an obligation to deliver content when they agreed to provide internet service to their customers.

The digital side of amazon story is not interesting in the slightest. The only real story is them leveraging their print marketplace to put pressure on a digital agreement. It's an abusive hardball tactic but one that large brick and mortar bookstores have done in past.

This story shows that publishers are really obsolete. The production doesn't matter anymore with Print-On-Demand and Digital. The main services they offer are distribution and promotion. Many of the publishers have offloaded their distribution to amazon (and the like) and unless you're a big author the promotion is virtually non-existent. One could also argue they provide editing but now there are editors for hire to support indie writers.

I'm not sure why he's focused on indies. Budgets for AAA titles are growing to the point that they can't survive even on moderate successes (e.g. Irrational Studios and Bioshock Infinite). I expect between the deep discounts offered now on PC sales and the glut of games, consumers are going to push back more on price. The kind of deals that exist on pc via steam sales and the like don't exist in the console market. I'm not sure the AAA will be able to demand the same price.

There have been a number of indie titles that were released while still in development and use continuing sales to fund development (e.g. Minecraft.) But I think the force behind steams early access will shortly come to an end. A couple titles recently cancelled development and I think in coming months more will quit. Consumers will be turned off to early access when some of their titles go dark while still riddled with bugs and half developed.

My two cents for how to be successful, make something fun to watch. With the growth of twitch streaming, more then ever, games are being judged by watching someone play, rather then reviews or trailers.

IANAL but it seems they could lose safe harbor protections provided by DMCA and be liable for ALL copyrighted material going over their system:

"Section 512(a) protects service providers who are passive conduits from liability for copyright infringement, even if infringing traffic passes through their networks. In other words, provided the infringing material is being transmitted at the request of a third party to a designated recipient, is handled by an automated process without human intervention, is NOT MODIFIED IN ANY WAY, and is only temporarily stored on the system, the service provider is not liable for the transmission."

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

Some sites have tried gimmicks to block adblock users. I wonder now if they'll make thousands of empty iframes.

The key point is the trial. You can't hold a trial in a hostage situation. They could have held a trial for Anwar al-awlaki. Once decided by trial that he committed treason, military action could be justified.

The problem is how that trial would be conducted in absentia would have been a farce. The government would also be concerned about its classified evidence. Worse, if the trial led to acquittal, it would have legitimized his cause.

An acquittal is a scary prospect of bringing out other copycats. But more scary is executing someone without trial that would have been acquitted. But we'll never know. They should have held a trial.

And how is the average user to manager their meter? There are no intuitive controls.

How do you stop that prankster on unmetered service from pingflooding you so you're charged hundreds of dollars?

Now that ads cost me money, I have good reason to do adblock.

Does it cost as much to download that file from a congested line as it does from my ISP's cache?

And when there's still congestion do I pay for all the retransmissions from dropped packets?

Yes, a lot of high school subjects focus on the results rather then the process. Community colleges are also guilty. It's not just contained to math and science but even the arts and philosophy.

It's a part of the prevailing attitude "Everyone should go to college." High schools focus on rote learning instead of critical thinking to improve their chances of admission to a good college. Then those same colleges frown on those mechanical methods. The worst part is we're training people to be spoonfed knowledge rather then seek it.

Or more directly add a Comcast fee to subscribers on comcast.

I actually thought the opposite.

A lot of these federal positions are military. So I assumed it was some enlisted guy out of high school that didn't want a desk job but wants to be firing guns. He's been doing it years and wants out. He's not invested in any of this analysis.

Compared to the guy that self-selected to sign up for an analysis website as a hobby. He finds it fun to think and analyze. He gets points for being right and has a score to improve.

The other factor is workloads. If a CIA analyst has to make X decisions in Y time, then they may be rushing.

I read this story as a failure of federal services to reward successful performers and remove failing performers.

"The very definition of news is something that hardly ever happens. If an incident is in the news, we shouldn't worry about it. It's when something is so common that its no longer news – car crashes, domestic violence – that we should worry."

    -Bruce Schneier

I don't even need a computer for that, just use leading zeroes: 0000000002

That is disabled in some distros, it can be toggled via /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq

Simple, "at fault" takes on a different meaning in driving. Often it's a cluster of mistakes that causes an accident, mistakes by either vehicle or even mistakes by someone not a part of the collision itself. If I'm 51% at fault should I go to jail?

But also everyone makes mistakes occasionally behind the wheel, most often nothing bad happens. And by everyone I mean every single driver without exception. That's why the law mostly operates with concept of Mens Rea, a guilty mind. Negligence only comes into play under a reasonable person standard and since we know those reasonable persons are also making same mistakes... it goes to civil court.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mens_rea#Criminal_negligence :

"There is credible subjective evidence that the particular accused neither foresaw nor desired the particular outcome, thus potentially excluding both intention and recklessness. But a reasonable person with the same abilities and skills as the accused would have foreseen and taken precautions to prevent the loss and damage being sustained"

That big comfy car that protects you from highway collisions accomplishes that by shifting the impact toward the smaller car. It doesn't increase overall highway safety, just steals it from others in your favor.

I agree public street is public info. But it sounds like they're scanning more then public street. At what point does it become private? 1. Parked on a public street in front of my home 2. Parked on private parking lot at my apartment 3. Parked in my driveway 4. Parked in my garage with door open. 5. Parked in my garage but visible through window if you angle the camera just right.

Trader Joes has low prices but they don't have the dirt cheap junk food that you might find at some stores. But you can eat cheaply at a Trader Joes. You can also eat very expensively if you go into some their specialty stuff.