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Bitcoin Exchange Flexcoin Wiped Out By Theft 704

Posted by timothy
from the in-the-movie-version-it'll-be-the-feds dept.

MtGox Files For Bankruptcy Protection 465

Posted by Soulskill
from the all-about-the-bitjamins dept.

Stack Overflow Could Explain Toyota Vehicles' Unintended Acceleration 664

Posted by timothy
from the go-ahead-ask-your-car-a-question dept.
New submitter robertchin writes "Michael Barr recently testified in the Bookout v. Toyota Motor Corp lawsuit that the likely cause of unintentional acceleration in the Toyota Camry may have been caused by a stack overflow. Due to recursion overwriting critical data past the end of the stack and into the real time operating system memory area, the throttle was left in an open state and the process that controlled the throttle was terminated. How can users protect themselves from sometimes life endangering software bugs?"

Comment: Technical solution for a social problem (Score 4, Insightful) 478

by wired_parrot (#46277241) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Anti-Camera Device For Use In a Small Bus?

You're asking for a technical solution to a social/political problem. The only feasible solution is to make sure your policy is clearly explained and understood to all who board the limo-bus, and then strictly enforcing it by expelling anyone caught with a camera. Sure, you won't be able to monitor people 100% of the time, but if you're strict with enforcement people won't risk taking snapshots. It will probably be more effective than any technical solution which would be expensive and easily circumvented.

And if the owners of the limo-bus are really that worried about photos onboard, the simplest solution would be for everyone to deposit their electronic devices into a bag, and they can then recover their devices after leaving the limo-bus.

My guess though is that your policy is likely to lose your limo-bus company customers, so the owners better make sure whether enforcing it is worth the cost.

Comment: Re:Really good question (Score 1) 326

by wired_parrot (#46250201) Attached to: NSF Report Flawed; Americans Do Not Believe Astrology Is Scientific

I imagine most just don't know what "Astrology" means off the tops of their head, and they probably think it's some scientific term for astronomy

All pseudo-science tries to utilize scientific sounding jargon in an attempt to sound more credible.

Therefore, if we are to to better educate Americans to prevent them from falling prey to pseudo-science mambo-jumbo, it is equally important to sharpen their vocabulary skills. Those who push astrology deliberate try to capitalize on it's perceived confusion with astronomy. Astrologers would probably look at the fact that the majority of people confuse it with astronomy as a positive. We shouldn't take any consolation that this may be an explanation for the survey findings, and instead look at how to better educate young Americans.

Comment: Either conclusion is troubling (Score 2) 326

by wired_parrot (#46249157) Attached to: NSF Report Flawed; Americans Do Not Believe Astrology Is Scientific
So you're saying that it's not that Americans are prone to believe in pseudo-science, but that they lack basic English comprehension skills? Even if I were to believe that this unscientific internet study with a small sample size somehow trumps the observations of the National Science Foundation's wide ranging academic study, the conclusions derived are equally troubling. It's not that they're scientific illiterate - they're simply illiterate! Either conclusion indicates a serious deficit in US education standards, and rather than trying to justify the survey results away, we should be looking at ways to improving American education standards. If they can't distinguish between astronomy and astrology I'd be worried about their English vocabulary.


Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com

+ - Dead Reckoning For Your Car Eliminates GPS Dead Zones 3

Submitted by cartechboy

+ - CERN Wants a New Particle Collider Three Times Larger Than the LHC-> 1

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey



Link to Original Source

+ - Quarks Know Their Left From Their Right->

Submitted by sciencehabit
Link to Original Source

+ - Major Internet Censorship Bill Passes in Turkey -> 1

Submitted by maratumba

Link to Original Source

Comment: It's a civil rights issue, not a privacy one (Score 1) 510

by wired_parrot (#46015577) Attached to: Senator Dianne Feinstein: NSA Metadata Program Here To Stay


If it is to be done, it needs to be done in a way that respect's people's civil rights.

Supporters of the NSA spying program have been rephrasing the concerns with it as a privacy rights issue. The concerns with it go deeper than that: fundamentally it is a violation of the constitutional and civil rights afforded by law. Reframing it a privacy issue is a dishonest way of downplaying the serious constitutional violations that the NSA is infringing upon.

Comment: Re:Sensationalist headline is Sensational (Score 1) 292

by wired_parrot (#45986403) Attached to: Thousands of Gas Leaks Discovered Under Streets of Washington DC

Typically these leaks are very small and are no danger to the public, which is why they are allowed to persist.

It's not about the danger of explosion from these leaks; it's about the large volume of methane escaping from these small leaks around the country. Given that methane is a potent greenhouse gas (20x more than CO2), the volume of leaks so far detected would make natural gas a dirtier fuel than even coal! The implications to national energy policy should be of concern to the public.

Comment: Global warming, not explosions is the concern (Score 4, Informative) 292

by wired_parrot (#45985915) Attached to: Thousands of Gas Leaks Discovered Under Streets of Washington DC
It's not about the danger of gas explosions ; larger gas leaks that pose safety concerns are usually addressed if they are detected. It's about the thousands of small leaks, that the gas industry often ignores as being too small to pose any risk. In this the second link is very informative: not only are these small leaks killing trees and vegetation in the vicinity of where they occur, but collectively they are leaking a large amount of methane into the atmosphere that contributes to global warming. And given that methane is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas, it means if the estimates of the leaks were to be correct, natural gas would actually be worse for global warming than coal. This would have powerful implications for US energy policy, given that natural gas is being sold as a cleaner burning fossil fuel, when the leaks completely undermine it's "clean" premise.
