36425261
submission
fistfullast33l writes:
Buffalo News is reporting that the Justice Department, FCC, and New York State Attorney General approved portions of a deal between Verizon Wireless and Cable companies Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Cox to sell parts of the wireless spectrum to Verizon for $3.9bn. It rejected the agreement between the two groups to allow Verizon to market cable services in its stores in markets where it also offers FIOS service. The spectrum will be used to increase Verizon's 4G LTE network coverage. Verizon will also sell some spectrum to T-Mobile. Consumer groups were very concerned about the cross-marketing by Verizon:When it comes to home broadband, Verizon Communication Inc.'s FiOS provides the only significant competition to cable in many areas. Yet FiOS is costly to build out, and Verizon's commitment to the technology has faltered. Consumer groups and unions that opposed the deal between the cable companies and Verizon said it showed that Verizon was further giving up on FiOS and yielding the home broadband market to cable.
36415363
submission
Sparrowvsrevolution writes:
At the Usenix security conference in Seattle last week, a group of researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, Oxford University and the University of Geneva presented a study that hints at the darker side of a future where we control computers with our minds rather than a mouse. In a study of 28 subjects wearing brain-machine interface (BMI) headsets built by companies like Neurosky and Emotiv and marketed to consumers for gaming and attention exercises, the researchers found they were able to extract hints directly from the electrical signals of the test subjects’ brains that partially revealed private information like the location of their homes, faces they recognized and even their credit card PINs.
For the moment, the experimental theft of users' private information from brain signals is more science fiction than a real security vulnerability, since it requires tricking the victim into thinking about the target information at a certain time, and still doesn't work reliably. (Though much better than random.) But as BMI gets more sophisticated and mainstream, the researchers say their study should serve as a warning about privacy issues around the technology of mind-control.
36411165
submission
Virtucon writes:
The USA has suffered another rebuff in its attempts to extradite Kim Dotcom, with Judge Winkelmann of the High Court of New Zealand upholding a previous disclosure order made by Judge David Harvey.
The previous order had required the FBI to disclose an extensive amount of documentation to support its application for Dotcom’s extradition. As noted by NZ’s LawGeekNZ blog, the disclosure would cover communications between US authorities and the MPAA and RIAA on behalf of copyright owners.
This had been resisted by the US, which requested a judicial review. This has now been completed, and in a 51-page judgment (available at LawGeekNZ), Judge Winkelmann has dismissed the application.
36407519
submission
Taco Cowboy writes:
MIT researchers have developed RNA-delivering nanoparticles that allow for rapid screening of new drug targets in mice and showed that nanoparticles that target a protein known as ID4 can shrink ovarian tumors.
The nanoparticle system, described in the Aug. 15 online edition of Science Translational Medicine, could relieve a significant bottleneck in cancer-drug development. Among those potential targets are many considered to be “undruggable,” meaning that the proteins don’t have any pockets where a traditional drug could bind to them.
The new nanoparticles, which deliver short strands of RNA that can shut off a particular gene, may help scientists go after those undruggable proteins.
Within the nanoparticles, strands of RNA are mixed with a protein that further helps them along their journey: When the particles enter a cell, they are encapsulated in membranes known as endosomes. The protein-RNA mixture can cross the endosomal membrane, allowing the particles to get into the cell’s main compartment and start breaking down mRNA.
In a study of mice with ovarian tumors, the researchers found that treatment with the RNAi nanoparticles eliminated most of the tumors.The researchers are now using the particles to test other potential targets for ovarian cancer as well as other types of cancer, including pancreatic cancer.
36401839
submission
An anonymous reader writes:
The Debian community is pleased to celebrate its 19th birthday since
Ian Murdock's original founding announcement [1]. Quoting from the
official project history [2]: "The Debian Project was officially
founded by Ian Murdock on August 16th, 1993. At that time, the whole
concept of a 'distribution' of Linux was new. Ian intended Debian to be
a distribution which would be made openly, in the spirit of Linux and
GNU."
1 : http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.developme
nt/msg/a32d4e2ef3bcdcc6
2 : http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/ch-intro.en.html
Send an appreciation message: http://thanks.debian.net/
36399247
submission
infodragon writes:
Today in the ongoing Apple vs Samsung court case Judge Lucy Koh’s patience wore thin as Apple presented a 75-page document highlighting 22 witnesses it would like to call in for rebuttal testimony, provided the court had the time. As those following the case closely know quite well, the case has a set number of hours which are already wearing quite thin. As quoted by The Verge as they sat in the courtroom listening in, Koh wondered aloud why Apple would offer the list “when unless you’re smoking crack you know these witnesses aren’t going to be called!”
36397665
submission
sciencehabit writes:
When it comes to storing information, hard drives don't hold a candle to DNA. Our genetic code packs billions of gigabytes into a single gram. A mere milligram of the molecule could encode the complete text of every book in the Library of Congress and have plenty of room to spare. All of this has been mostly theoretical—until now. In a new study, researchers stored an entire genetics textbook in less than a picogram of DNA—one trillionth of a gram—an advance that could revolutionize our ability to save data.
36395501
submission
sciencehabit writes:
Although humans have long attributed musical qualities to birdsong, cold, hard statistics show that's all an illusion. Out of the 243 comparisons researchers made between nightingale wrens' songs and musical scales, only six matched harmonic intervals. Despite the beauty of birdsong, when we call it music we’re projecting our own biases.
36394817
submission
macbeth66 writes:
A Chinese handyman, after losing his hands in an explosion, builds himself new ones.
From the article, the builder quips, "The only drawback is that steel is quite heavy so they're tiring to wear and get hot or cold in the extremes of summer and winter"
36394497
submission
wiredmikey writes:
Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company and the largest oil company in the world, confirmed that is has been hit by a cyber attack that resulted in malware infecting user workstations and forcing IT to kill the company's connection to the outside world.
“..An official at Saudi Aramco confirmed that the company has isolated all its electronic systems from outside access as an early precautionary measure that was taken following a sudden disruption that affected some of the sectors of its electronic network,” the company wrote in a statement.
This incident follows an attack on systems at the National Iranian Oil Company back in April, when a virus was detected inside the control systems of Kharg Island oil terminal, which also resulted in the company taking its systems offline. In response to continued cyber attacks against its networks and facilities, Iran earlier this month said it plans to move key ministries and state bodies off the public Internet to protect them from such attacks.
“Attacks on critical infrastructure are more common than many think. Because of a lack of disclosure in these industries many incidents ranging from sabotage and intellectual property theft to extortion go unreported,” Brian Contos a security expert from McAfee said.
