Y2HH

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jun 25, 2013 -> 01:00 PM) I will never get the 5 minutes back I spent on that article. Aaron Hernandez is was a millionaire, Im not sure how you blame this one on the "evil corporate white men running the gun industry." Fixed. If he's still a millionaire, he won't be soon. And that's a big IF. People as stupid as he is usually end up with nothing sooner than later. Odds are, he's already swimming in red ink because of all the money he had coming. Had being the key word, because he no longer has it coming. But I agree on the rest of your point, article was stupid.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 27, 2013 -> 11:15 AM) Up to 13 years for drawings in water-soluble chalk. Zero years for destroying the world economy, rigging international interest rates, massive foreclosure fraud, drug money laundering and who knows how many other crimes. It doesn't matter if it was BoA's property or not. That's not anything close to justice. While a valid point, how is this the bank's problem? The bank wasn't the administration that decided to not prosecute these criminal bankers.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 24, 2013 -> 10:07 AM) Stocks going down down down. Relatively minor correction, IMO. Stocks have been a big "too high" as far as I'm concerned. But, like always, nothing to worry about.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 09:31 AM) What do y'all think of this? USAA has a First Invest Fund targeted for younger investers. It doesn't set the word on fire but offers a very low opening investment of $50 when you autodraft monthly deposits into the account. I was thinking of opening accounts for each of my kids (24 and 22) with joint ownership. Later I would bow out when they turn 30, get married, etc. I need to understand the tax implications doing it that way. For accounts such as this, the money you're putting in is already taxed, so they don't owe taxes on the initial investments, ONLY the profits those investments create (minus trading costs). So if you buy a stock/fund, and it goes up, those gains aren't realized, so they're not taxable. If they sold that stock at a profit, they'd then owe taxes on the PROFIT of that sale upon selling. It doesn't matter who on the account pays the taxes on the profit, so long as it's paid. Look into fees, how much are they charging you for these funds (cost basis), etc...

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 21, 2013 -> 09:39 PM) Does anyone have any tips on any good mutual funds for an 84 year old woman who doesn't necessarily need the money to be invested hyper-conservatively (like a CD or VTIP, treasury inflation protected bonds)... I have her in American Century (KC fund), Vanguard (500 Index, Value, Growth&Income, yeah, I realize there's a lot of duplication and repetition), Oakmark (Select and Oakmark Fund) as well as Legg Mason Value Index/(LMOPX) Opportunity (my biggest disaster, as Bill Miller's status as a guru has ended up a mirage, a lesson learned about chasing the one manager who beat the market 13 years in a row...although it's recovered somewhat after massive redemptions the last five years or so). I put her in some Vodafone because of the high yield about a year ago. Basically, she has too much money in cash/checking/savings getting zero interest, CD's are pointless....so looking at different options to present and don't want to get sold something by Edward Jones so prefer to make decisions independently. VTIP would be a decent hedge against inflation, but obviously hasn't done as well as most equities in the last year. And yes, normally, she should be mostly in fixed income/bonds/CD's/TIP's, etc. And only 10-15% in equities, got it. I think you already have her invested exactly as you're looking to do here...500 index funds, value funds, etc...unless you go off the wall risky and start buying proshares funds, I don't really see much more you can do with the index/mutual fund market. You could look at individual stocks that pay big dividends, like AT&T, Verizon, First Energy, etc...or perhaps a bit more conservative and buy something like Coke...they pay dividends that equate to 3+% gains...and they're probably pretty safe all things considered.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Jun 21, 2013 -> 02:05 PM) Please tell me you haven't defended Apple forever and now complaining about Microsoft forcing you to do something their way. They have to push Windows 8 on non touch to gain more market share as they try to expand 1 OS for all devices. I don't blame them for making Windows 8 and moving toward a touch interface...I do, however, blame them for prematurely trying to convert people that weren't using touch based devices. It was a terrible implementation for non touch, and all they had to do was give users the simple option of defaulting to a start bar to rectify it. There is nothing to defend here.

Quite fitting to the conversation...

QUOTE (Jake @ Jun 21, 2013 -> 11:43 AM) I agree. I think we're moving towards all desktops being touch screens, for better or for worse -- at least on the Microsoft side. Apple hasn't hinted at wanting these hybridized devices or making their desktop OS suitable for touch screens AFAIK. Apple did this hybrid OS mind meld before Microsoft did it, but Apple didn't force you to use their new interface called Launchpad (which is more suitable to touch/looks like an iOS launcher/desktop), where Microsoft did exactly that. I think a lot more people would have noticed if OSX suddenly defaulted to Launchpad instead of their standard UI. And it would have been equally annoying. Microsoft realizes they've messed up on older desktops/non-touch, which is why in Windows 8.1, the start bar returns.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 21, 2013 -> 09:15 AM) The reason I don't care about private companies "invading" my privacy is that they (generally) track my habits in order to provide me services in a better way. I'm fine with that. A grocery chain wants to track my spending habits? Fine. I get personalized coupons or I get beer next to the diapers instead of all the way across the store. Google wants to know my location and search history so it can offer me better search results? Fine. That's helping me as a consumer. Now if you have a situation like Google or Apple where they're just downloading data just to have it, then yes, I agree they should get fined a ton of money for it and the people at the top should be held accountable. But the government doing it is entirely different. The ONLY reason they should ever look into my private life is absolute necessity. Anything beyond that and it's just snooping or downright invasion of privacy. There is no end benefit to me for that lack of privacy. I don't get anything out of it. I didn't even consent to it. So yes, we should all be upset about this. I totally understand the national security need to perhaps tap a phone when it's imperative and getting a warrant from a court isn't feasible. Those things happen and i'm glad that they do. But again, grabbing up data on my 90 year old grandma serves no purpose other than the government invading privacy just for the sake of doing it. Some of this I agree with, but part of the problem with how private companies are tracking us, is they're taking everything, not just your spending habits, but where you are, where you've been, how much you've spent...you're contact list, etc. Often, they're caught collecting information and data that have nothing to do with their business model...after all, what they don't need today, they may need tomorrow. And while they themselves may not be intending to use this data for nefarious reasons, those that break into their databases (on a seemingly daily basis), may use your personal information for such things. Right now, private companies are so worried about missing the boat, they're collecting everything and anything they can, and storing it, with or without permission. Keep in mind, if private companies can mine/store your personal information, that means the government can get it from them, without having to get it from you. Which is exactly what they're doing in some cases here. So, you SHOULD care about what private companies are collecting on you, so should everyone. But like I said, nobody cares...because nobody thinks about it. You said it best, so long as you get that beer coupon, f*** it.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jun 21, 2013 -> 10:53 AM) Depending on price point and a few other things, I could see something like this being my next laptop/not laptop/thingy. That won't be for a while though, so it'll be neat to see what people come up with as things move along. I definitely think that this is where things are headed, though, and this is where you can see Windows 8 not being a horrible idea. Windows 8 is a fine idea on touch devices...the issue is they forced it onto non-touch devices, and it frustrated people. It's a horrible interface for a mouse/keyboard, while it's a great interface for touch.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 21, 2013 -> 12:15 AM) i7 in a keyboard? That's badass. Processors sure have continued to come a long way, haven't they? Some of this stuff is absolutely amazing.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 02:51 PM) No, you didn't. What I quoted was the summation of your thoughts on this...in generalities! "People were told X. People find out about X. People are now complaining. What idiots." That's essentially what you keep saying in different form despite the fact it's not true. In my previous post to the one above, I went over the irresponsibility of releasing information that he himself doesn't fully understand. But, I get your point. It's started a conversation, which I should be happy about since it's a conversation I've been trying to have with people for a long time, only to be dismissed as paranoid. After everything we've seen/done to ourselves over the past decade, I guess my disappointment in all of this stems from the question, "Is this what it takes to get people to notice what's been going on around them? And furthermore, will it stick, or just be the latest in a string of forgotten examples of personal security breaches?" The NSA is just one of many, as a society over the past ten years, we've come to allow companies who's products we buy to spy on us easier than we allow the federal government to do so. All they have to do is offer a free application, or worse, have us pay for it and data mine everything we do, even things that have nothing to do with their needs. And then when they come up with excuses, we dismiss it and say, "oh, ok, no big deal.", and a few weeks later it's long forgotten. We've had numerous examples of companies both large and small stealing our location data, our personal information, our address books, etc. And nobody cares. Just like when Google "accidentally" data-mined WiFi SSID's and data payloads with their street cars. Right, that was an accident. And you accidentally kept doing it until caught. And when they were caught, they were given less than a slap on the wrist...and in most countries were allowed to keep the f***ing data. And nobody cared. There is no way that was an accident, either, they would have noticed the massive difference in space the collectors were gathering as the difference in collecting an SSID name and a data payload isn't something you can overlook, unless you're doing it on purpose. Apple did it too, storing location and identifier information in an unencrypted text file on everyone's cellular phones for who knows how long until they were caught doing so...and whoopsie, our bad! And those were just two off the top of my head that we found out about...how many more are doing this right now? It seems disingenuous for most people to pretend they care about their privacy when it comes to the government or from the companies they freely hand it too, when everything they do flies in the face of that.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 02:31 PM) For the 1000 time, look at the f'n details of this, not the generalities. I've already gone over that in my previous post.

And to make my opinions absolutely clear on Snowden and the like, I think they're irresponsible with a job and information that demands extreme responsibility. Is what they're doing a good thing or a bad thing, and furthermore, why them? They're not part of some elected or chosen oversight committee that understands how to vet this information properly before releasing it. So, in the end, what we have is nothing more than a person intercepting documents or communications they don't fully understand, and releasing it to the public. It's potentially more damaging then any good it can do, especially considering that most people interpreting the leaked information don't fully understand it, or worse, the context of it. Even Snowden doesn't fully understand the information he's leaking, or the scope of that information.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 01:45 PM) That's amazon.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 01:40 PM) But they're not "Nothing of substance". If the Patriot Act didn't exist, I'd find it more substantive. But being that the Patriot Act exists, it bothers me that people are feigning surprise that their government would spy on them after passing a law that allows them to do exactly that. This is how this all went down to me: Government: Hey, we're passing a law for your own safety, it allows us to spy on potential terrorists, foreign and domestic. People: Oh, ok! *A few years pass* Government: Hey, we're going to expand the scope of that law that allows us to spy on potential terrorists anyone, foreign or domestic. People: Oh, ok! *A few more years pass* Whistleblower: Hey, they're spying on you! People: OMFG I CANT BELIEVE IT!

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 11:50 AM) Wait, what? The government builds a big complex and it needs to get reported? The federal gov't has thousands of building projects going on all the time. I'm not sure this would have raised any red flags just because it was being built. And who knows, was it classified or kept secret? Was it something that could have been discovered easily? And of course the President would refute what this guy is saying. He looks like s*** for it. Notice, however, that the major tech companies have not denied the existence of the program or the government's efforts to, behind closed doors, access a ton of personal information. Snowden opened the door to more investigation and I think that's a good thing. I just don't understand why you think this guy is so bad. I have gotten no indication whatsoever that he's just a pissed off employee that is dragging his ex-employer through the mud. He's not bad, but he's not good, either. As of now, he is a pissed off former employee and nothing more, until he can produce more than a few slides from who knows what presentation. And wait, what...yes, when the government builds a huge complex that's used to store data for the next 4 thousand years, it should probably be reported. If the government built a huge complex for warehouse storage, I'm sure people would want to know what the f*** they're storing in it. But again, nobody cares. And why should they. You obviously don't based on your comments. I mean, according to you, the government has thousands of buildings this size being built all the time, when they really don't. I'm sure if they were building some tiny buildings, nobody would care to have it reported, but when you build a complex of this magnitude, it's a bit different, regardless of you attempting to claim it's not.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 01:03 PM) He offered up selected slides from a classified powerpoint presentation as well. That were misinterpreted, and people thought the government had full access to "secret" servers within Google, Apple, etc...which they didn't. Evidence with no context is messy.

QUOTE (Big Hurtin @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 12:26 PM) Microsoft is offering $100k http://mobile.theverge.com/2013/6/19/44455...ty-100k-rewards Not for just any security flaw they're not...they're offering "up too" that for "truly novel exploitation techniques", whatever that means...which probably means, nobody's getting it. They usually offer like 1k to 20k or so depending on the size of the hole, how hard it was to find, etc.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 09:29 AM) The amazing thing is, the latter disclosure might well be the biggest one here, and Snowden had nothing to do with that. Anyone could have readily reported "the NSA is building the world's largest data complex out West and will basically store every bit of data created from now until it turns sentient and kills us all in this complex", but no one did. Exactly this. And the question is, why wasn't it reported? Hell, even to show that the Government is building something, which means jobs...which in this economy is kind of a big deal. Snowden has offered nothing of substance other than his "word", by the way, and "evidence" that the US and China are hacking each other. Yea, thanks. He has offered no actual evidence about these programs, other than, "Yea, I worked there, and they're doing this." Oh ok. He's also saying they're doing a lot of things that people are refuting...including the President. Snowden is the boy that cried wolf right now, nothing more. After a few more weeks of producing no evidence, and people dismiss him as a disgruntled former employee, they'll all move on...and then install Angry Birds and give Rovio all of their personal information.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 08:56 AM) Seems worth more than $12k to me. He doesn't work for them...so I guess that's their finders fee. Google has similar cash rewards for finding backdoors/bugs in their software, as do most...

QUOTE (Tex @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 07:56 AM) Earlier you made the case that everyone already knew what the government was doing. Now you seem to say no one knows or cares. In the simplest of ways we can either trust the government and attack Snowden or believe he did something good, question the government by continuing the discussion. I believe people did not know the extent and this is the opportunity to educate them. Maybe not to the level where they are as brilliant as yourself, but maybe they can come close. I made and continue to make BOTH of those cases. 1) They do know they're being spied on, even if they don't know they know (it's like breathing, you do it but you usually don't realize you're doing it), and 2) They don't care, or they wouldn't be so quick to hand all of this information off to Google, etc., without a care or worry in the world. If it's that easy for Google to get it, it's even easier for the Government to get it since they can just issue court orders and demand it from the companies we hand it too -- for free -- on a daily basis. ...and I maintain, this will be forgotten about in a few months. You didn't need this story to know the government was spying on you. The second they passed the patriot act you should have known that, and again, if you and others didn't know it, maybe it's time you start paying attention to the laws the people we elect pass, expand upon, and re-pass. And lol @ your educate them statement. Yea. Good luck with that. This will be important to them until the next big story breaks...or until Angry Birds is a free download, and all you have to do is give them access to some of your personal information to install it. ----- A few things you CAN do for yourself, if you actually care to be educated on the issues of privacy: Check your Google, Facebook, and other such accounts for historical information. Often, these data collections are opt-out (default opt-in), and old data can be removed, or the logging of such data can be disabled. For example, for my Google account, I have information gathering disabled, so my history is not logged anymore. I believe this will take you there: https://www.google.com/settings/account?hl=en Check your Facebook privacy settings, opt out of unnecessary opt-ins. Check your cell phone for advertising identifiers, or other anonymous usage data, disable it. If you use Apple or Google maps, you can disable sending them "anonymous" data. Check your free credit reports once a year -- it's free -- and it WILL help you prevent identity theft or the leaking of personal information. Don't give out your SSN, very few actually need it. Use a messaging application like iMessage or Google's equivalent vs text messages, when possible. Use two-factor authentication wherever and whenever possible. Use encrypted websites (https) whenever possible, often these are disabled by default but can be turned on. Don't send private information over email, unless it's an encrypted email, which it probably isn't. Don't offer extra information to programs/websites that don't need it. For example, if you have your phone numbers listed on Facebook, ask yourself why you're doing that, and now go erase it. That same goes for your address, etc. NEVER -- ever -- use the same password twice on anything of importance. Such as bank accounts, email accounts, etc...no password should be replicated. While there is a ton of information out there on most of us, especially those who work on the Internet, you can still do your best to stem the flow of it, so try to keep a few of those things in mind next time you run across a website that wants your phone number or address for no reason.

Friend of mine just found a HUGE security flaw in Facebook, and got paid 12,000$ for it, they're issuing a press release this weekend. Apparently, there was a hidden feature somewhere within the depth of options for importing/exporting VCF files, which are vCards, and if you took anybody's information, including people you didn't know or have access too, it would accept that information, and spit out everything it had on that person, from business names, phone numbers, email addresses, including emails or phones you may have removed. So, for example, if I knew one of your email addresses, and uploaded it via that method, it would accept it and spit back everything you had on your acct, alternate emails, names, phone numbers, etc.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 19, 2013 -> 11:33 AM) I got 3 and a half hours of screen time yesterday and the phone died at around 12:30 while I was watching Netflix. Overall, it lasted around 21 hours. Some of that was on standby (since I'm not up 24/7), but it was technically running for that long. And I have serious OCD when it comes to my homescreen. I've made custom clocks in UCCW that are far more useful (shows weather, battery percentage, etc.). But I didn't see them as good enough, so I don't use them. Nothing really wrong with the clock, but just takes up too much space for my liking. Even on my iPhone, I cannot stand people who have more than a single screen of icons, and if you couldn't guess, I have a single screen, along with a few folders. I hate clutter. I don't like installing or keeping apps I don't use. Anything I "like" but never use...deleted. I like everything being easy to launch/read, find, etc, without having to search for it, or page through endless screens of icons. So, your serious OCD is probably on par with mine.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 19, 2013 -> 11:29 AM) After 18 hours of use. I do like your minimalist looking screen, aside from the waste of space of that clock widget, anyway. ...and I'm not buying your 18 hours of use bulls***, either...no phone lasts that long under actual "use", especially the one you have, it doesn't have that kind of battery life.