


Forgot your password?

Comment So what do I want? Secure payments! (Score 1) 254

This whole fraud detection stuff is nonsense. It's just been cheaper for the banks to build this hack instead of actually implementing a secure payments system. Come on, credit card number + name + expiration date + security code? All information that doesn't change?

We're at the point where we can make a smart card that does everything with strong crypto. It could even have a USB connection or, possibly, Bluetooth, to let you make secure transactions from your computer.

Comment move to an MVNO, root, trash their apps (Score 1) 123

I need access to Verizon towers because it is the only signal that I can get at work.

I first signed up with Page Plus Cellular, then moved to Tracfone after the America Movil buyout. I finally upgraded to a 4g device six months ago.

I can't run cyanogenmod because of Verizon's fascist bootloader locking. I do run an alternate touchwiz rom, and I have purged everything from it that mentioned Verizon.

And when Verzion shows up in my Facebook feed, I ask them why they lock their bootloaders and FORCE their users to run exploitable software, reminding them that Cyanogenmod nightlies has fixes, but Verizon doesn't and never will. It's also useful to speculate on a class action lawsuit after their userbase is owned.

Comment Re:On the fly/road measurements (Score 3, Interesting) 203

because most people can't afford to keep cars of that age on the road at all

If we assume the average new car is $20,000 today, it works out to close to $450/month over four years. I don't know too many people with older cars that are having to spend anywhere near that much on maintenance.

Comment Re:Doctor what's wrong with me? (Score 1) 111

Those genes are not expressed, and we don't have copies of those viruses floating around our bloodstream.

Probably, and for the most part. But we used to think the genome was mostly "junk DNA" before we understood that much of it was homeotic in function. It seems to me that virus copies would not be conserved over time unless they were serving some function.

Comment Re:Not an exclusive lock (Score 1) 372

There's no such thing as "exclusive rights" on a drug that's off patent.

Yeah, there is, in the U.S. at least. The FDA's Unapproved Drug Initiative, among other things, grants pharmaceutical manufacturers the exclusive right to sell the drugs they test under the program. It's the reason that colchicine, which had been around for hundreds of years and was cheap and common prior to the program, is no longer available as a generic. Another screwed-up situation is that of albuterol, which was also cheap and widely available. In that case, mandated changes to the drug's delivery system to remove CFCs (even though using CFCs was otherwise legal in this application) allowed manufacturers to patent new delivery systems, and albuterol is no longer available as a generic even though the drug itself is not patented.

In both cases, it was administrative action by the FDA that was solely responsible for forcing drastically increased drug prices on people.

In space, no one can hear you fart.