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Submission + - Buying Their Way Onto The NY Times Bestsellers List 4

Freshly Exhumed writes: An endorsement from Oprah Winfrey. A film deal from Steven Spielberg. A debut at the top of The New York Times bestsellers list. These are the things every author craves most, and while the first two require the favor of a benevolent God, the third can be had by anyone with the ability to write a check — a pretty big one to ResultSource, a San Diego-based marketing consultancy ...in what Forbes says is essentially a laundering operation aimed at deceiving the book-buying public into believing a title is more in-demand than it is. Soren Kaplan, a business consultant and speaker, hired ResultSource to promote his book “Leapfrogging.” Responding to the WSJ article on his website, Kaplan breaks out the economics of making the list.“It’s no wonder few people in the industry want to talk about bestseller campaigns,” he writes “Put bluntly, they allow people with enough money, contacts, and know-how to buy their way onto bestseller lists.”
Firefox

Submission + - Firefox Will Soon Block Third-Party Cookies (webpolicy.org)

An anonymous reader writes: Stanford researcher Jonathan Mayer has contributed a Firefox patch that will block third-party cookies by default. It's now on track to land in version 22. Kudos to Mozilla for protecting their users and being so open to community submissions. The initial response from the online advertising industry is unsurprisingly hostile and blustering, calling the move 'a nuclear first strike.'

Submission + - Curiosity killed the QRcode app, study finds curious men are most likely victims (cmu.edu)

An anonymous reader writes: It turns out that people scan QR codes simply because they are curious, not because the want information about a product. [Un]fortunately, curiosity is also a primary motivator for phishing campaigns used by scammers. In a recent study CMU researchers performed a QRishing (QR code phishing) experiment placing various types of QR codes around Pittsburgh. Besides finding that curiosity was the chief reason people scanned, it was also obvious that men are much more likely to fall victim to this scam.

In the real world, this attack would likely have been far more effective since these researchers were handcuffed by ethical research rules. Attackers could place QRcodes over existing ones or deface public property like parking meters. Heck, who wouldn't scan a QR code stick that had been placed on the neighborhood cat?

With the incredibly long and spurious patch cycle for today's Android devices, scanning a QR code could result in a bad guy having complete control of your mobile phone. Be wary next time you see one of these codes, certainly use a reader app that at least shows you the URL before launching your, probably old, browser!

Android

Submission + - Pimp my Android tablet! (pcworld.com)

capsfan100 writes: "At Christmas I got an $89 Android tablet by MID. The 7" tablet has sufficient RAM, etc. The battery, however, was rather pathetic out of the box. It's already fading, so we know where this is headed — decent tablet, but it constantly needs the plug.
How would you take this "old" tablet and turn it into a rockin' stereo component? Is there a ROM build out there titled Pimp My Tablet Into An MP3 Player? The current music app can lookup lyrics on-line. I'd like to keep that feature. Any ideas on a good app for syncing music videos with my *ahem* random music collection? Any fun, off-beat party apps this middle-aged suburban dad hasn't heard of?
Since the Android security nightmare is so well documented, I'd rather not use services that require passwords. I also need top-notch security and monitoring software so I can see what my kids and their friends are doing with it next year when I'm not home while keeping them anonymous and safe on-line.
As for my living room stereo system, how best to mount a sleek MP3 tablet? I was thinking velcro, but it would ruin the feel. Maybe a wall mount arm like my HDTV has? We want to be able to unplug it and move around the room, so I'll need to upgrade the speakers to wireless. Any thoughts there?
I'm not afraid of the command line — indeed, I insist on one — but no Gentoo-type projects, thank you. Just a good sleek and secure ROM for optimal tunage with all the top apps the kids are using today. Help me out Slashdot — Pimp my Android tablet!"

Government

Submission + - Hector Xavier Monsegur aka Sabu Dodges Sentencing, Again (paritynews.com)

hypnosec writes: Ex-LulzSec leader, Hector Xavier Monsegur aka Sabu, has been handed over another sentencing delay possibly because of his continued cooperation with the US government that let to arrest of several Lulzsec members. Sabu plead guilty to all counts of bank fraud and identity theft offences and was to receive 124 years of imprisonment but was granted a six-month breather back in August 2012 after the US Government requested District Attorney to consider adjournment of Monsegur's trial "in light of the defendant's ongoing cooperation with the Government." New reports indicate that Sabu has dodged the sentencing for the second time with no dates set for the next hearing. No further information has been provided stating the reason for the delay.

Submission + - Canon's Mixed Reality headset aims to change the way consumers shop (extremetech.com)

Press2ToContinue writes: With products like Google’s Glass, the Oculus Rift, and even certain features found on the Nintendo 3DS, augmented, mixed, and virtual reality are starting to make some headway in the consumer space. Canon, best known for its cameras, is looking to break into the mixed reality scene with its new head-mounted display.

The core of the setup is the Canon HMD (head-mounted display) which works in conjunction with various sensors — optical and magnetic, as well as visual markers — to help create the mixed reality environment. The HMD employs two cameras located in front of each eye that captures video and shoots it off to an off-board, tethered computer. The computer then combines the real-world visuals with computer-generated visuals, and beams that back to two monitors placed in front of the eyes within the HMD. The unit combines with a development platform, dubbed the MR Platform, which allows companies to create mixed reality images to display on the HMD.

News

Submission + - How close is Iran, really, to nuclear weapons (reuters.com) 1

Lasrick writes: Reuters blog post by Yousaf Butt explains the science, or lack thereof, behind recent claims that Iran is closer to building the bomb. Butt has been writing in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, most recently blasting the unsourced AP "Iranian graph" that claimed to show nuclear testing activity as well as the Washington Post story about Iran's alleged order of 100,000 magnets for their centrifuges. Important read.
Science

Submission + - Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) can detect flowers' electric fields (bbc.co.uk)

An anonymous reader writes: Results indicate floral electric fields improve the bees' ability to discriminate between different flowers. When used with visual signals, electrical cues can enhance the bee's memory of floral rewards. Researchers suggest this method of signalling provides rapid and dynamic communication between plants and pollinators..."What the pollen needs to 'know' is when to 'jump' onto the 'vehicle' — the bee — and when to get off it. So it's a selective adhesion type of question," Prof Robert told BBC Nature.
Unix

Submission + - Minix 3.2.1 Released (minix3.org)

kthreadd writes: Minix, originally designed as an example for teaching operating system theory which was both inspiration and cause for the creation of Linux has just been released as version 3.2.1. Major new features include full support for shared libraries and improved support for USB devices such as keyboards, mice and mass storage devices. The system has received many performance improvements and several userland tools have been imported from NetBSD.
Hardware

Submission + - Is it worth paying extra for fast SD cards? (pcpro.co.uk) 1

Barence writes: "Are faster grades of SD memory card worth the extra cash? PC Pro has conducted in-depth speed tests on different grades of SD card to find out if they're worth the premium. In camera tests, two top-end SD cards outshone the rest by far, while class 4 cards dawdled for more than a second between shots. However, with the buffer on modern DSLRs able to handle 20 full-res shots or more, it's unlikely an expensive card will make any difference to anyone other than professionals shooting bursts of fast-action shots.

What about for expanding tablet or laptop memory? A regular class 4 or 6 card that’s capable of recording HD video will also be fast enough to play it back on a tablet. The only advantage of a faster card for media is that syncing with your PC will be quicker. However, a faster card is recommended if you're using it to supplement the memory of an Ultrabook or MacBook Air."

Submission + - Free Open Source Emoji Project on KickStarter (kickstarter.com)

Kagetsuki writes: There's a project on KickStarter for a Free and Open set of emoji [the grapical emoticon glyph set which has a block reserved in Unicode]. Currently there are no full sets of Emoji that are completely free (as in beer and and freedom), so if this project gets funded it will be the first and only set of emoji that can, say, be distributed with FLOSS Linux/BSD/GNU systems. Not to mention anyone will be able to incorporate them into any project without any restrictive conditions. Check it out at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/374397522/phantom-open-emoji .
Cloud

Submission + - Microsoft Azure total outage for secured storage (sfgate.com) 2

rtfa-troll writes: There has been worldwide (all locations) total outage of storage in Microsoft's Azure cloud. Apparently "Microsoft unwittingly let an online security certificate expire Friday, triggering a worldwide outage in an online service that stores data for a wide range of business customers." according to the San Francisco Chronicle (also Yahoo and the Register). Perhaps too much time has been spent sucking up to storage vendros and not enough looking after the customers? This comes directly after a week long outage of one of Microsoft's SQL server components in Azure. This is not the first time that we have discussed major outages on Azure and probably won't be the last. It's certainly also not the first time that we have discussed Microsoft cloud systems making user's data unavailable.
Security

Submission + - The PunkSPIDER Project Controversy (theregister.co.uk) 1

punk2176 writes: "Recently I started a free and open source project known as the PunkSPIDER project and presented it at ShmooCon 2013. If you haven't heard of it, it's at heart, a project with the goal of pushing for improved global website security. In order to do this we built a Hadoop distributed computing cluster along with a website vulneraility scanner that can use the cluster. Once we finished that we open sourced the code to our scanner and unleashed it on the Internet. The results of our scans are provided to the public for free in an easy-to-use search engine. The results so far aren't pretty.

In short after having found tons of vulnerabilities, we've been blowing up. Social media users either love or hate us. Critics have been claiming that the results of our scans can be used for evil by script kiddies. We argue that these results will, more importantly, be used by website owners to check the security of their own websites or website users to check the security of sites to which they entrust their sensitive data. Due to the controversy around the project The Register asked us for our response and published an article about it. I'm curious to see what the Slashdot community thinks — do you think we are doing the right thing?"

Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Getting Cooler 1

jones_supa writes: Microsoft is getting hip again, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, but Google with Android still the coolest kid in school, Apple doing great as well. The polling organization asked the US's finest 18 and 29-year-olds what the coolest tech brands are, allowing them to give a 'thumb up' for brands they liked. Interestingly, for the first time in a long while around half answered Microsoft. The opinion was that Microsoft is cooler now than it was a year or two ago. 'It's more customizable, and not as rigid as an Apple phone, where you have to buy all the products from Apple. If you want a ringtone, you don't have to pay iTunes. I know Apple is the cool, hip brand right now, but if Microsoft keeps coming out with new tech I'm sure it'll be back soon.', Josh Johnson, a 24-year-old media arts student at the University of South Carolina commented. Although 'coolness' remains, at best, an amorphous concept, consumer perceptions are pivotal in determining the longevity of products, particularly in the fast-moving consumer electronics industry. The survey 'definitely shows that Microsoft's efforts are paying off, but we'll have to see how cool translates into customers,' said Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg.
Government

Submission + - Federally funded research to be publicly available within 1 year of publication (whitehouse.gov)

Z80xxc! writes: The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced a "policy memorandum" today requiring any federal agency with over $100 million in R&D expenditures each year to develop plans for making all research funded by that agency freely available to the public within one year of publication in any peer-reviewed scholarly journal. The full memorandum is available on the White House website. It appears that this policy would not only apply to federal agencies conducting research, but also to any university, private corporation, or other entity conducting research that arises from federal funding. For those in academia and the public at large, this is a huge step towards free open access to publicly funded research.
Yahoo!

Submission + - Mayer Terminates Yahoo's Remote Employee Policy

An anonymous reader writes: AllThingsD's Kara Swisher reported and tweeted that Marissa Mayer (CEO since July 2012) has just sent an all-hands email ending Yahoo's policy of allowing remote employees. Hundreds of workers have been given the choice: start showing up for work at HQ (which would require relocation in many cases), or resign. (They can forget about Yahoo advice pieces like this). Mayer has also been putting her stamp on Yahoo's new home page, which was rolled out Wednesday. She's also been fixing the customer service 'hold' music. Oh yeah, and she recently gave birth to a baby boy.
Politics

Submission + - Rep. Judy Chu Starts "Intellectual Property" Caucus with Rep. Howard Coble (pasadenasun.com)

cervesaebraciator writes: U.S. Representative Judy Chu (D-CA) will be starting a new caucus with the ostensible purpose of protecting the intellectual property rights of filmmakers, musicians and other artists. The new caucus, styled the Congressional Creative Rights Caucus, will be formed along with Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC). Chu's office released a statement, including the following:

American innovation hinges on creativity – it is what allows our kids to dream big and our artists to create works that inspire us all. The jobs that result are thanks entirely to our willingness to foster creative talent, and an environment where it can thrive and prosper." [...] The Congressional Creative Rights Caucus will serve to educate Members of Congress and the general public about the importance of preserving and protecting the rights of the creative community in the U.S. American creators of motion pictures, music, software and other creative works rely on Congress to protect their copyrights, human rights, First Amendment rights and property rights.


Submission + - Carmakers Oppose opening up 5GHZ Spectrum Space for unlicensed WiFi (dailytech.com)

s122604 writes: Automakers aren't too happy about a recent U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposal, which uses part of the wireless spectrum assigned to vehicle-to-vehicle technology for Wi-Fi instead.

The FCC announced that it plans to free up 195 MHz of spectrum in the 5 GHz band for unlicensed use in an effort to address the U.S.' spectrum crisis. This could potentially lead to Wi-Fi speeds faster than 1 gigabit per second.

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