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Security

Submission + - Stuxnet's Earliest Known Version Discovered and Analyzed (net-security.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Symantec researchers have discovered an older version of the infamous Stuxnet worm that caused the disruption at Iran's nuclear facility in Natanz: Stuxnet 0.5. According to a whitepaper released by the researchers at RSA Conference 2013, Stuxnet 0.5 has first been detected in the wild in 2007 when someone submitted it to the VirusTotal malware scanning service, but has been in development as early as November 2005. Unlike Stuxnet versions 1.x that disrupted the functioning of the uranium enrichment plant by making centrifuges spin too fast or too slow, this one was meant to do so by closing valves.
The Internet

Submission + - Six strick warning from internet providers for illegal downloads begins (ap.org) 1

Submitted by mynameiskhan
mynameiskhan writes: Major internet service providers will monitor the internet traffic 'to' the customer's computer and will warn them if they download copyrighted materials using peer to peer network. The article says "A person will be given up to six opportunities to stop before the Internet provider will take more drastic steps, such as temporarily slowing their connection, or redirecting Internet traffic until they acknowledge they received a notice or review educational materials about copyright law.". Furthermore, if you appeal the warning you will be required to pay $35 to stake your claim. Have the ISPs have had enough of RIAA pestering or are they siding with RIAA?
Security

Submission + - Cryptography Becoming 'Less and Less Important', Adi Shamir Says (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: In the current climate of continuous attacks and intrusions by APT crews, government-sponsored groups and others organizations, cryptography is becoming less and less important and defenders need to start thinking about new ways to protect data on systems that they assume are compromised, one of the fathers of public-key cryptography said Tuesday. Adi Shamir, who helped design the original RSA algorithm, said that security experts should be preparing for a "post-cryptography" world.

"I definitely believe that cryptography is becoming less important. In effect, even the most secure computer systems in the most isolated locations have been penetrated over the last couple of years by a series of APTs and other advanced attacks," Shamir, of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, said during the Cryptographers' Panel session at the RSA Conference here today.

"We should rethink how we protect ourselves. Traditionally we have thought about two lines of defense. The first was to prevent the insertion of the APT with antivirus and other defenses. The second was to detect the activity of the APT once it's there. But recent history has shown us that the APT can survive both of these defenses and operate for several years."
Patents

Submission + - Developers key to managing patent risk (outercurve.org)

Submitted by dp619
dp619 writes: Penn State law professor Clark Asay has written an editorial on FOSS patent risk, saying: "...under the current patent system, it’s entirely possible to obtain a patent that reads on software that FOSS communities independently create. Consequently, FOSS communities and their users are vulnerable to third party patent claims, even absent any sort of wrongdoing or copying on their part." He suggests that developers collaborate to prevent bad or frivolous patents from being issued in the first place. The ongoing work of Linux Defenders and Peer-to-Patent are cited as good examples of how the FOSS community's collaborative spirit can help it counteract potential legal threats.

Submission + - Former Obama "digital strategist" accused of Twitter fraud (dailycaller.com)

Submitted by Zondar
Zondar writes: Former Obama "digital strategist" Brad Schenck has been accused of creating multiple fake Twitter accounts to send pro gun control tweets to members of Congress. One recipient of these tweets, Rep Steve Stockman (R-TX) said his staff noticed identical tweets coming in from multiple Twitter accounts. Of those, a disturbing trend was discovered:

"Stockman said that in response to Obama’s call for people to tweet their congressman in support of gun control legislation, he received just 16 tweets. But he said all of these messages were identical, and that a closer look at them revealed that only six were from real people."

Brad Schenck, Obama's former digital strategist, somehow managed to follow these some or all of the 10 allegedly fake Twitter profiles before they ever sent a tweet or interacted with anyone.

Is this Twitter sockpuppeting? You decide.
Intel

Submission + - Intel Launches Its Own Apache Hadoop Distribution (slashdot.org)

Submitted by
Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: "The Apache Hadoop open-source framework specializes in running data applications on large hardware clusters, making it a particular favorite among firms such as Facebook and IBM with a lot of backend infrastructure (and a whole ton of data) to manage. So it’d be hard to blame Intel for jumping into this particular arena. The chipmaker has produced its own distribution for Apache Hadoop, apparently built “from the silicon up” to efficiently access and crunch massive datasets. The distribution takes advantage of Intel’s work in hardware, backed by the Intel Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Instructions (Intel AES-NI) in the Intel Xeon processor. Intel also claims that a specialized Hadoop distribution riding on its hardware can analyze data at superior speeds—namely, one terabyte of data can be processed in seven minutes, versus hours for some other systems. The company faces a lot of competition in an arena crowded with other Hadoop players, but that won't stop it from trying to throw its muscle around."
Wireless Networking

Submission + - ARM says its smartphone battery-saving technology has wide support (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Seven companies are expected to release chips this year based on ARM's Big.Little processor technology, ARM said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week. Samsung, Fujitsu Semiconductor, MediaTek, Renesas Mobile and CSR were named by ARM, which did not announce the other two companies. Big.Little design mixes low-power and high-power cores to provide balanced computing power in smartphones and tablets. For example, ARM's latest Cortex-A15 processor handles high-performance processing while the Cortex-A7 design handles low-power tasks like phone calls. Chips based on the ARM technology usually have an asynchronous design with each separate core handling tasks like application processing, networking and graphics. Big.Little design lets the application processor handle more tasks while saving power.
Space

Submission + - Russian Meteor Likely An Apollo Asteroid Chunk (discovery.com)

Submitted by
astroengine
astroengine writes: "Helped by the extensive coverage of eyewitness cameras, CCTV footage and a fortuitous observation made by the Meteosat-9 weather satellite, Jorge Zuluaga and Ignacio Ferrin of the University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia, have been able to reconstruct the most likely orbit of the meteoroid that slammed into the atmosphere over the Russian Urals region on Feb. 15. What’s more, they know what type of space rock it was — the Chelyabinsk-bound meteoroid originated from an Apollo-class asteroid. Apollo asteroids are well-known near-Earth asteroids that cross the orbit of Earth. Around 5,200 Apollo asteroids are currently known, the largest being 1866 Sisyphus — a 10 kilometer-wide monster that was discovered in 1972."

Submission + - Supreme Court Disallows FISA Challenges (newser.com) 1

Submitted by ThatsNotPudding
ThatsNotPudding writes: In a not too suprising example of judicial abdication in favor of the surveillance state, the US Supreme court rejected pleas to allow any challenges to the wiretapping law *unless* someone can prove they've been tapped by the Federales.
Microsoft

Submission + - When did you learn how to code? (networkworld.com) 3

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: ""I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer — because it teaches you how to think." --Steve Jobs

That's the introduction to a new video and a new organization, Code.org which describes itself as being a is a non-profit organization "devoted to the vision that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn how to code. We believe computer programming should be part of the core curriculum in education, alongside other science and math courses such as biology, chemistry and algebra.""
Education

Submission + - IT Leaders explains the need for teaching "Coding" in Schools. (rtoz.org)

Submitted by
rtoz
rtoz writes: "Code.org has released video and infographics to explain the need for teaching "Coding" in Schools.

Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg has said that “Everyone should have the chance to learn to code in school” as part of this efforts to support code.org.

And he says,

        “Our policy at Facebook is literally to hire as many talented engineers as we can find. There just aren’t enough people who are trained and have these skills today.“

At a time when people are saying “I want a good job – I got out of college and I couldnt find one,” every single year in America there is a standing demand for 120,000 people who are training in computer science.“ says Former U.S President Bill Clinton.

Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft says,
“Learning to write programs stretches your mind, and helps you think better, creates a way of thinking about things that I think is helpful in all domains.“

Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google says,

        “For most people on Earth, the digital revolution hasn’t even started yet. Within the next 10 years, all that will change. Let’s get the whole world coding!“"
Businesses

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Time for Optional Pay Business Models? 1

Submitted by eegad
eegad writes: I've been thinking a lot about how much information I give to technology companies like Google and Facebook and how I'm not super comfortable with what I even dimly know about how they're handling and selling it. Is it time for major companies like this that offer arguably utility-like services for free in exchange for info to start giving customers a choice about how to "pay" for their service? I'd much rather pony up a monthly fee to access all the Google services I use, for example, and be assured that no tracking or selling of my information is going on. I'm not aware of how much money these companies might make from selling data about a particular individual, but could it possibly be more than the $20 or $30 a month I'd happily fork over to know that my privacy is a little more secure? Is this a pipe dream or are there other people who would happily pay for their private use of these services? What kinds of costs or problems could be involved with companies implementing this type of dual business model?
Businesses

Submission + - Amazon's Merchandising of Its Search Results Doesn't Violate Trademark Law (forbes.com)

Submitted by
concealment
concealment writes: "Many of us have had the experience of going to Amazon to buy one thing but checking out with a huge shopping cart of items that we didn’t initially seek—or even know were available. Amazon’s merchandising often benefits Amazon’s customers, but trademark owners who lose sales to their competition due to it aren’t as thrilled. Fortunately for Amazon, a California federal court recently upheld Amazon’s merchandising practices in its internal search results."
Earth

Submission + - Global Warming Will Make the World Too Hot to Get Any Work Done (vice.com)

Submitted by
pigrabbitbear
pigrabbitbear writes: "It’s a good thing that robots are stealing our jobs, because in about thirty-five years, nobody in their right mind is going to want to do them.

Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just published a report in Nature Climate Change that details how a warming climate impacts the way we work, and the results are pretty clear—we do less of it. NOAA discovered that over the last 60 years, the hotter, wetter climate has decreased human labor capacity by 10%. And it projects that by 2050, that number will double."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 is out. Windows 8 may suck but now you can at least enjoy (most of) that version's Internet Explorer. IE10 for Win7, originally not planned, has seen the light of day after all â" four months after it debuted in Windows 8. It is available via Windows Update as an optional update, however if you've already installed a pre-release version, it will be updated automatically as an 'important' update. IE7 on Win7 requires a platform update to bring some Windows 8 APIs to the more mature Windows, and it will not feature embedded Adobe Flash as the Windows 8 version does (use the plug-in version from Adobe, as usual, instead).
GUI

Submission + - Minority Report's Legacy Of Terrible Interfaces (theawl.com)

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "More than a decade ago, the special effects artists working the Steven Speilberg film "Minority Report" synthesized experimental thinking about GUIs to produce a floating interface that Tom Cruise manipulated with his hands in one of the film's "wow" moments. In 2013, surrounded by iOS and Android and Windows 8 devices, we use stripped down versions of this interface every day — and commercial artist Christian Brown thinks that's a bad thing. Such devices may look cinematic, he argues, but they completely ignore the kinds of haptic and textured feedback that have defined how we interact with devices for centuries."

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Projects for a heap of junk? 2

Submitted by yenrabbit
yenrabbit writes: A friend has just told me that he has 80 CRT TVs, a stach of DVD players and hundereds of VCR machines, all broken and all mine free of charge. I can already think of a few awesome components i can extract (flyback transformers for high voltage contraptions and so on) and have a few ideas such as DVD lasers etc that i can build, but what else can be made from such a treasure-trove of components, and how would one go about processing such a large volume of stuff with the least amount of effort? Also, i don't have access to online shopping so i'd also like a pain free way of salvaging many simpler parts such as resistors as well.

Submission + - Trekkies detect Spock's Vulcan homeworld ORBITING PLUTO (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by
iComp
iComp writes: "Trekkies have seized a poll in which the public voted on names for two of Pluto's moons — ensuring a winning moniker is Vulcan.

With William Shatner on the case, it was perhaps a foregone conclusion that Vulcan would be the clear winner in the contest, with 174,062 votes. Runner-up mythical hound Cerberus (aka Fluffy in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone), which got 99,432 nods, will be the name of the second moon.

Captain Kirk was pleased with the results, which he orchestrated by suggesting Vulcan and Romulus as possible names to his 1.3 million Twitter followers"
Media

Submission + - Xiph Episode 2: Digital Show & Tell (xiph.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Continuing a firehose tradition of maximum information density, Xiph.Org's second video on digital media explores multiple facets of digital audio signals and how they really behave in the real world. Demonstrations of sampling, quantization, bit-depth, and dither explore digital audio behavior on real audio equipment using both modern digital analysis and vintage analog bench equipment... just in case we can't trust those newfangled digital gizmos. You can also download the source code for each demo and try it all for yourself!
Science

Submission + - For Sale - Nobel Prize for Discovery of DNA

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "UPI reports that for the first time in the history of Nobel Prize, one of the Nobel Prize medals along with the diploma presented by the Nobel committee is on auction with an opening bid of $250,000. Awarded to Francis Crick, who along with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1962 "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material," the medal will be auctioned off in New York City, by Heritage Auctions. The medal has been kept in a safe deposit box in California since Crick's widow passed away in 2007 and a portion of the proceeds will go to the Francis Crick Institute of disease research scheduled to open in London in 2015. ""By auctioning his Nobel it will finally be made available for public display and be well looked after. Our hope is that, by having it available for display, it can be an inspiration to the next generation of scientists," says Crick's granddaughter, Kindra Check. ""My granddad was honored to have received the Nobel Prize, but he was not the type to display his awards; his office walls contained a large chalkboard, artwork and a portrait of Charles Darwin.""

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