seandhi

They may be trying to claim that, but they tried to use the policy to bully a guest into removing his review as recently as 11/21/2013: http://bit.ly/1nkV80v

Yeah, the fact that they insult guests who leave bad reviews (see their Trip Advisor reviews) shows that they have a level of contempt for their customers that is incompatible with a good hospitality business.

I'm actually considering starting a cleaning business, and I'd love to get your perspective. I'm a full time software consultant, and I'm looking for a way to get some semi-passive income flowing. Anyway, if you have time, please reach out to me at sean.d.hi at gmail dot com.

It is still very much the case that Houston has no zoning laws. That does not, however, mean that there are no neighborhoods with their own zoning rules, i.e. home/property owners association regulations and other land use restrictions. However, because there are no overall zoning laws, the restrictions only apply to the immediate neighborhoods that have the H/POA.

Unless I've had a stroke this morning, according to this chart, the value of the USD has strengthened compared to the CAD over the last few years.

I was approached by a recruiter with the same line for Patch about 6-8 months ago. Listening to this conference call, I am so glad that I did not take it seriously.

Doing a little research, it appears that you may be right, but, as you say, the requirements vary by jurisdiction. Some jurisdictions will allow you to expunge misdemeanor convictions but not felony convictions.

> I no longer have to legally disclose it

I could be wrong, but my understanding is that this is not a "luxury" that we enjoy in the U.S. Once you have a conviction, it is there forever. So much for doing your time and paying your debt to society. I really hope I am wrong about this, but I fear that I am not.

And if you live in a state with high property taxes, like Texas, then your taxes will likely dwarf any principal that you pay at the beginning of your loan.

CO2 does not damage the Ozone layer. CO2 is not soot. CO2 does not damage our lungs. Even though it has recently been added to the EPA's list of pollutants (because of the climate change debate), CO2 is not even what people would readily identify as "pollution" - like chemicals that irritate eyes, lungs or sinuses.

The debate is how much - if any - negative impact is being done to our climate by a chemical that is an inevitable byproduct of the combustion of carbon-based fuels (which, outside of nuclear and hydro, offer the cheapest source of energy), and is combatting the risk of negative impact worth the economic impact to our economy.

I am not making a statement about climate change. I am only saying, respectfully, that you deeply misunderstand the debate.

Chase requires two factor authentication.

Which higher-level encryption is illegal?

To be fair, this says "reach" not "capture", but I have no idea what any of the words mean nowadays.

http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/a/SB100014241278873241082045790...

We always knew that correlation attacks by an adversary that controlled a sufficiently large portion of the Internet were trivial to carry out. Now that we've learned that the NSA is capturing 75% of Internet traffic then we should assume that they are able to carry out correlation attacks fairly trivially, right?

You mean this? http://www.snopes.com/politics/conspiracy/monsanto.asp

I do not understand why it is so hard to support someone when you agree with them and fight them when you do not. That person X supports reprehensible policy Y does not mean that you cannot support him/her on Z.

Is it kidnapping when doors lock in robbers during bank robberies? I believe that it would be covered under citizen's arrest common law and statutes. Generally, a private citizen has the right to make a warrantless arrest during or after the commission of a felony or during the commission of a misdemeanor.

That is not what is being proposed by this paper at all.

Maybe we have a different understanding of how this would work. My understanding is that the malware would not be deployed to remote computers. Rather, the malware would be embedded in files that were never meant to be distributed outside of your network. You are either in possession of those files or not, and whether someone believes that you have them or that you owe them money is not really relevant.

The issue of IP theft is not simply moral panic. There are national security implications, as we saw in the Chinese attacks on defense contractors.

(Not that I believe that embedded rootkits would have been helpful or anything)

You are arguing a different point, but I do agree with you. I am not arguing that the ideas are necessarily effective. I am just pointing out that the BoingBoing article is wrong about many points.

Chapter 13 is about protecting against target cyber espionage, so within that context, it would seem that the malware would not be distributed.

Based on your comment, I can see that you have not read the paper. The section with rootkits is about thwarting active, targeted cyber espionage. Organizations should have the right to protect files on their own networks by any reasonable means. They are not proposing a mechanism by which organizations would be allowed to distribute rootkits.

I certainly have the right to disable my car remotely if it is stolen. I also have the right to lock the doors and take pictures of the assailant who stole it and send them to the police.

The headline is incredibly misleading. Please read chapter 13 of the paper.

Did you read the paper or just the BoingBoing article? The part about the rootkit and active network defense referenced by the BoingBoing article come from chapter 13 of the paper, which deal with targeted cyber espionage attacks. If Timmy is the target of that section, then Timmy has bigger issues to deal with.

Rootkits are a thing. They're neither good nor bad. That value is supplied subjectively within different contexts, no?

Would I want the RIAA/MPAA to install rootkits in media files that are distributed to customers? Absolutely not.

Would I want the ability to install rootkits in engineering schematics and documentation that are never intended to be distributed outside of my organization and are only activated in cases where data theft has occurred? Absolutely.

What gives you the impression that Hollywood is behind it? The BoingBoing article completely misrepresents what is in the paper, so I would not be surprised if they got that part wrong, too. Have you read it? It proposes protecting American companies from foreign entities stealing our technology and using it to develop products.

Here are the members of The Commission of the Theft of American Intellectual Property, the commission that authored the paper:

Dennis C. Blair (co-chair), former Director of National Intelligence and Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Command • Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. (co-chair), former Ambassador to China, Governor of the state of Utah, and Deputy U.S. Trade Representative

• Craig R. Barrett, former Chairman and CEO of Intel Corporation

• Slade Gorton, former U.S. Senator from the state of Washington, Washington Attorney General, and member of the 9-11 Commission

• William J. Lynn III, CEO of DRS Technologies and former Deputy Secretary of Defense

• Deborah Wince-Smith, President and CEO of the Council on Competitiveness

• Michael K. Young, President of the University of Washington and former Deputy Under Secretary of State

Which of those is from the MPAA?

This paper barely even mentions music or movies, and its proposals are for going after foreign entities who steal intellectual property, such as R&D, to develop counterfeit goods.

This is less about going after little Timmy for downloading a movie and more to do with a Chinese firm stealing biotechnology secrets from a U.S. company to produce its own products.

This has little to do with the entertainment industry. This is dealing with intellectual property such as research and development.

They are trying to protect U.S. companies from having their R&D stolen and used by foreign companies, calling for sanctions via the FTC and by amending the espionage act to go after those who steal trade secrets, for example. The whole paper is on protecting the innovations developed in this country from being copied by foreign entities without repercussions, and when viewed in this light, the proposals are not that crazy.

I recommend reading the paper directly, as the BoingBoing link completely misrepresents it.

http://ipcommission.org/report/IP_Commission_Report_052213.p...

By hosting the platform, are they trying to avoid licensing/regulation? After all, they are not providing money transfer services, but are providing a platform for others to do it.

I looked into legally building an exchange in Texas, but I would have to get licensed as a money transmission company or a currency exchange company. The fees were outrageous! $2,500 application fee, $300,000+ security deposit and requires the applicant to have over $500K net worth.

To add another anecdote, I usually do not have trouble sleeping through the night. Once I lay down, it takes awhile for me to fall asleep, but once I do, I sleep 8-9 hours without waking up. However, even when I awake, I still feel drowsy and not "rested".

Very recently, I started taking 3-6 mg of melatonin about thirty minutes before going to bed. I find that I fall asleep more more quickly, but I inevitably awake roughly four to five hours later, completely lucid. After a few minutes of being awake, I roll over and easily fall asleep again for another three to four hours. When the morning comes, I wake up feeling much more refreshed than I did when I slept continuously throughout the night.

I usually spend long nights in front of my computer, and from what I have read, melatonin production is reduced by the presence of blue light. I have started using Flux in addition to my melatonin intake. I can only guess that I am starting to enter a more "normal" sleep cycle.