Recent Comments

I miss the Friday distro review. Can we do antiX next?

It can be any distro you like, if you write it up and submit it to the pipe...

I miss the Friday distro review. Can we do antiX next?

Hey, the "Netac" one is only 9 bucks on Amazon. Now we're getting somewhere!

Thanks again Viper.

Thanks for the link. It had a referenced video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJmdfaz84ns - showing the "Super Powered Hoverboard" - a powered single wheeled skateboard device. I have not seen someone so happy to have a beefed up technology upgrade in years.

Hey, that is cool. A great idea, especially the recharge on braking.

Right, the article did say,
> Connected to a solar panel, a PocketFM transmitter can theoretically work autonomously for long periods of time.

In that case, and since it already has a cell radio (to get text messages), why does it have a screen? Wouldn't a smart phone be a better way to initialize it -- then take the phone with you after getting the transmitter running?

Seems like there must be more to the story. For example the autonomous operation is only "theoretical"?

FTFA:

"People have a day-to-day life despite conflict," said Abdulhaq. "Despite the sadness and the war, people like to listen to music and even comedy."

I remember reading about how movie ticket purchase rates were very closely linked to tragedy, economic downturn, etc. I imagine for most people listening to these radio broadcasts, the music and comedy are the often the highlights of their day; just like the movies, they offer an escape.

You're suffering from a severe lack of context... Syria is several years into a massive and brutal civil war.

didn't mention -- output power (probably illegal if over 100mW?)

Do you know anybody who has been executed for operating a transmitter over the legal power limit? Simple survival is the major pressing concern for everyone there, right now.

operating one of these in hostile territory is asking for trouble -- like a swat team through your door.

That's where the "work autonomously" bit comes in. You go set it up, turn it on, and leave. Someone tracking it down will find a few hundred dollars worth of equipment, and no way to trace it back to anybody.

Kudos to the developers, but really, it looks like a piece of military or ham gear with heat sink fins on three sides of the case. I'm assuming that operating one of these in hostile territory is asking for trouble -- like a swat team through your door. Couldn't they have made it look like a boom box or really almost anything else that looks less incriminating?.
Other points the article didn't mention -- output power (probably illegal if over 100mW?)
Also, isn't it easy to locate a transmitter with some minimal sleuthing gear, like a dipole antenna?

They still make a few USB flash thumb drives with write-protect switches:

http://amazon.com/Kanguru-SS3/dp/B008OGNM8E/

And you can mount the devices read-only, or otherwise disable writing in software:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/registry-hack-to-disable-writing-to-usb-drives/

Not perfect, like a write-blocker, but probably usable, and much better than nothing.

Agreed!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction

Well, updates on android are really done by a combination of the OEM and the carrier right now. OEM's share just as much blame. Apple somehow gets around this, but I'm not exactly sure how.

Thanks as always, EV. 200,bucks, eh? Man I miss Scotch tape over the floppy notch.

There's an $18 DIY version at http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-and-Effective-USB-Write-Blocker/

But now I wonder if just bringing a small external CD drive would be better/easier. Maybe there's a miniCD sized reader? Nope, apparently not. Safety and paranoia take the big bucks.

Hmm another approach is imaging more or less disposable 512MB-2GB sticks and just tossing or possibly refloormatting later....

you need to enable your root account in cent os or else try to install cent os in vmware

please take screen shot and to my email account i will solve the problem

I'm no fan of Google taking this action, but I wonder if this is a "shot across the bow" aimed not at users but at the carriers, a first step towards Google becoming the provider of system updates rather Verizon, T-Mobile, et al. Android is suffering because the carriers almost never update the OS for a phone. This results in an extremely fragmented platform, and one that is extremely vulnerable to security issues. Apple products do not suffer from this because Apple is the provider of the system updates: if your hardware supports the new OS, you can install it, regardless of your carrier. It may be that the action described in TFA is Google is attempting to put themselves in that same position.

I don't like Microsoft having that ability, because they screwed up the design of the operating system to allow crazy things to work that never should have worked, and are committed to maintaining that crazyness to keep old apps working on new versions of the OS. The problem with auto updates, is that Micrsoft isn't perfect in testing against all of the crazy workarounds they have in the OS, so each company really needs to be able to test and verify the updates first, to make sure it doesn't bork their computers.

Google doesn't have nearly as much craziness going on. Nothing on the scale of Microsoft. So, there is much less of a likely hood that they'll screw up my phone.

But conceptually, yes, giving a third party ( even the OS vendor) root access to update anything on the device is scary for security and privacy, I get that. I guess if you are already thinking you shouldn't trust google, you probably shouldn't be running Google Play Services in the first place, Stick to AOSP + Freedroid.

About these things being illegal in NYC, look at this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmad9etKHGE

One thing missing in this list: the boosted board.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_bond#

makes life possible!

That is just depressing. Relying on someone else to patch my device? No.

Welcome to the world where you don't own your device. Your device is merely a convenient way for companies to sell more products to you. If it needs updating, they will do that for you, as, after all, it is really their device.

There are options, they just aren't cheap...

http://www.cru-inc.com/products/wiebetech/usb_writeblocker/

Still no way to write-protect a USB drive at all, right?

Unless you use a finalized CDR (not rewriteable) and happen to find a device still equipped with a drive, it seems any pretense of inviobility of your portable boot medium is illusory. Yes?

Hey Viper. I miss your stuff, columns, and advice. It was all good food for thought and opinion.

As a perennially anonymous poster here I always thought the registered users, you and 1 or two others aside, were the weakest and most damaging part of this site. They contributed nothing and treated other people very poorly. The site was dealt a bad hand in the form of some very bad people. But thank you for trying.

Barely 2 weeks has passed...

After the AU government started logging all phone and internet "metadata" I started to always use a VPN. The net is slower.. but otherwise there is little difference other than that I pay an extra $5 per month.

"Bond" not "bomb"

I think this type of problem is one of the biggest reasons (after, of course, not knowing about VPNs or why to use them) people don't use them more frequently. Ironically, if everyone used VPNs the payment provider would have to stop as people would shop elsewhere and online stores that use them would be up in arms at the lost revenue.

Hydrogen bonds for the win!

Most of the stories from janjes are good tech news pointing to his youtube channel

1.8.1 is out

The Fun Police strike again!

Clicktrap! Oh, my eyes..

Quick search says NYC outlawed them, and most every other motorized non-car...

http://time.com/4123076/hoverboard-new-york-illegal/

The OS described in Little Brother come to life.. after "paranoid linux" died a while back

Every now and then I've checked in on this after seeing it on /. in 2004 and again in 2012.

Has there been any progress? The site doesn't seem to have a "news" section. The USC site does have a blog, but it was last updated in 2008. I don't think they ever built their first full house.

I have had a number of issues with online payments where the payment system has rejected the transaction without saying why. Only trial and error can be used to get a payment through. At least this company said why they refused.

|. was dying before... There were almost no community submissions, just my own, and I wasn't going to keep it up much longer. The flood of stories from Janjes can at least keep things going. If you want to keep |. alive, it's really all up to YOU.

Have you seen Slashdot lately? It's gone to hell, far worse than any slowness here. Advertorials, and on real articles the few comments have no wit or experience or authority or insight. Just a few dull wannabe nerd teens it seems. I think everyone really did leave. Too bad more didn't show up here, but it is not as if this place ever really got going strongly, which is too bad.

:(

I don't even see any of these things in NYC. Maybe a west coast / Japan / EU trend?

With today's quad and octocore smartphones what we need is more capacity, I mean who cares if it'll charge in say 10 minutes if I can blow through the entire charge of my phone in less than 45 minutes of gaming or a little over an hour of video streaming? I have yet to see a smartphone that can even compete with the 6 year old battery on my netbook with its 2 hours of gaming or 4 hours plus of streaming, what good is all this high tech in our portable devices if we are tied to an outlet?

i am far more interested in learning how much you get paid for linking to your youtube videos

|. Is dying... its a shame I liked the name. Its a couple of dots and a slash away frim saying something

.|. /.

Full article: http://robotglobe.org/a-mother-robot-that-can-design-build-and-test-its-own-children/