jakewalker

Why do you presume that debit card PIN numbers are stored on the card? (They aren't, as far as I know - how else could you change your PIN over the phone or on the card issuer's website?)

Use of devices in airplane mode is okay. No data/4G connections allowed during flight (though that's hard to enforce, it is also damn hard to get a worthwhile signal and will quickly drain your battery as your phone searches for service).

Because it is not (yet) reflected on the SCOTUSblog page, here is the Order granting certiorari:

http://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/120613.zr_4g1...

The actual link above links to a number of amicus briefs urging the court to grant (or not grant) review, and would be good reading to understand the issues in the case.

Links to Coverage:

http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/12/court-to-rule-on-patent-ri...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/06/us-usa-court-softw...

The New York Times ran a series of stories last year by Errol Morris that suggested that the use of certain fonts resulted in the reader being more likely to believe what was written. The articles reference other similar research; I found the whole thing fascinating.

Part One: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/hear-all-ye-...

Part Two: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/09/hear-all-ye-...

[EDIT: And of course, now that I dig into the article, I see that it references these Errol Morris articles, too.]

In 2012, the DOJ had to send a letter to the Supreme Court to admit misstatements made in its briefing in an immigration case:

http://www.justice.gov/osg/briefs/2008/3mer/2mer/2008-0681.m...

Additional details: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/justice-depart...

Mountain out of a mole hill. These doors simply ensure that people can only exit, and not enter, a secure area.

There are dozens of civil liberty violations to complaint about w/r/t airports and TSA. This isn't one of them.

Who knows how many thousands of pages they need to read and understand? Also, don't underestimate the difficulty of a reporter understanding these thousands of documents sufficiently to recognize when one is really important.

If that graphic - that taunting smiley face, drawn when it was assumed that no one was watching - isn't enough to outrage the general public, I don't know what it will take. This is not super technical - it's easily explained and should be easily understood by the masses. And it should cause outrage.

How is that a "fail"? The probability is listed as 93%.

Excerpt from a book by Radley Balko, The Rise of the Warrior Cop (link: http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Warrior-Cop-Militarization-Americ...)

A video introduction to the excellent book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwsLAqjqnxo

Excerpts: http://www.scribd.com/doc/20864115/Champion-TFDexcerpt-Sept-... http://www.scribd.com/doc/34289636/ThreeFelonies-ZeheExcerpt...

Looks fantastic. One thing that is confusing is how to add additional social accounts. The startup process lets you link one (e.g., Facebook), but it is not evident how to add another (e.g., Twitter).

I highly recommend Orin Kerr's article, The Case For The Third Party Doctrine, on this issue (available here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1138128).

A much different constitutional analysis when the data is requested from a cellular service provider, versus when it is gathered directly by state actors (police).

Kerr is simply fantastic on these issues. Worth reading more of his Fourth Amendment writing if you are interested.

It's funny because the way I play Sudoku is often through sheer brute force as well.

Why not buy a few high quality microphones and have kits and instructions that you send out to interviewees with return shipping (or direct shipping to the next interviewee)?

It's obvious that Dan puts a ton of care and time into the quality of his broadcasts, and it shows. The 5by5 shows, both in sound quality and in content, make you feel like you are sitting in a room with Dan and Host, and could join the conversation if only you too had a microphone.

It's a hard dynamic to pull off, but Dan's pulled it off.

More:

"I can no longer post comments that are visible to anyone else from my account. This happened silently and without explanation"

https://twitter.com/pinboard/status/111336923422928896

Honored as I am to be mentioned in the same breath as Marco, I'm pretty sure you meant idlewords, who runs pinboard, and not me. I haven't leased a private server since about 2004! I just posted the story.

I particularly like this nugget:

> Quick quiz: can your entire sales staff be replaced by a nicely formatted HTML table? If the answer is 'yes', then you are subtracting value and wasting my time.

Apple has also said that they operate close to breakeven on iTunes / the App store. See http://allthingsd.com/20100225/apple-billions-of-songs-billi...

This times 1,000. Mom's don't use alt+tab. The thing people aren't appreciating is that when you reopen the app (which is available via Mission Control, via Spotlight, via the Finder or perhaps via the Dock), it restores to the place it was when it was left (if there were windows open).

Sorry about that, I missed it.

Insightful read:

"Even though today’s opinion is about regulations prohibiting speech rather than regulations requiring speech, it’s likely that the carriers will be able to frame the debate their way: We’d like to speak, to use all of our pipes the way we want to, without restriction. By forcing us to fairly carry speech with which we don’t want to be associated, you’re restricting our free use of our private communications medium."

. . .

"Today’s news is that the absolutist approach of the current Supreme Court to protection of speakers of all kinds – including distributors of speech – signals that the carriers will be likely to find a sympathetic ear there."

I posted a link a PDF of the opinion, but I wanted to highlight this quote from Scalia, writing for the majority:

"Reading Dante is unquestionably more cultured and intellectually edifying than playing Mortal Kombat. But these cultural and intellectual differences are not constitutional ones."

Opinion (direct link): http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/08-1448.pdf [PDF]

Opinion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2701385

Scalia: "Reading Dante is unquestionably more cultured and intellectually edifying than playing Mortal Kombat. But these cultural and intellectual differences are not constitutional ones."

I think the [very sic] referred to the fact that it should be "my boyfriend and me." That's all.

Off topic, but reminded me of a great joke from Judge Kozinski in the Roomates.com case, viz.:

". . . Some subscribers are just looking for someone who will get along with their significant other[34] or with their most significant Other.[35]"

[34] "The female we are looking for hopefully wont [sic] mind having a little sexual incounter [sic] with my boyfriend and I [very sic]."

http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?q=521+F.3d+1157&h...

Damn. Already went through my allotment of 20 NY Times stories.

Works fine until it doesn't. Therein lies the rub.