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Submission + - Snapchats Don't Disappear (forbes.com)

Submitted by nefus
nefus writes: Forensics Firm Has Pulled Dozens of Supposedly-Deleted Photos From Android Phones. A 24-year-old forensics examiner from Utah has made a discovery that may make some Snapchat users think twice before sending a photo that they think is going to quickly disappear. Richard Hickman of Decipher Forensics found that it’s possible to pull Snapchat photos from Android phones simply by downloading data from the phone using forensics software and removing a “.NoMedia” file extension that was keeping the photos from being viewed on the device. He published his findings online and local TV station KSL has a video showing how it’s done.

Submission + - Tax Authorities launch largest TAX Investigations in history (icij.org)

Submitted by lxrocks
lxrocks writes: Tax authorities in the U.S., Britain, and Australia today announced they are working with a gigantic cache of leaked data that may be the beginnings of one of the largest tax investigations in history.

The secret records are believed to include those obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that lay bare the individuals behind covert companies and private trusts in the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands, Singapore and other offshore hideaways.

Submission + - Demonoid Resurrection Dismissed As Malware Was Legitimate (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by wo1verin3
wo1verin3 writes: Previously reported on Slashdot was a story about a malware attempt masquerading itself as a Demonoid resurrection. It turns out this really was Demonoid making a comeback. With the site now back online with a new host, TorrentFreak caught up with its admins who tell us they have no malicious intent and simply want to bring a community back to together. While there is still uncertainty, one thing is absolutely clear – they do have the old Demonoid database.

Submission + - The days of the $200 Phone may be numbered... (cnn.com)

Submitted by Apptopia
Apptopia writes: After T Mobile mostly did away with subsidized phone plans, the other major carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint) are paying attention. Carriers lose money with phone subsidies for high-end smartphones (particularly Apple's iPhone). If they do away with the subsidy, you will have to pay full retail price for phones, but your monthly bill will be lower.

Submission + - Why is Science Behind a Paywall? (priceonomics.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Priceonomics blog has a post that looks into how so much of our scientific knowledge came to be gated by current publishing models. 'The most famous of these providers is Elsevier. It is a behemoth. Every year it publishes 250,000 articles in 2,000 journals. Its 2012 revenues reached $2.7 billion. Its profits of over $1 billion account for 45% of the Reed Elsevier Group — its parent company which is the 495th largest company in the world in terms of market capitalization. Companies like Elsevier developed in the 1960s and 1970s. They bought academic journals from the non-profits and academic societies that ran them, successfully betting that they could raise prices without losing customers. Today just three publishers, Elsevier, Springer and Wiley, account for roughly 42% of all articles published in the $19 billion plus academic publishing market for science, technology, engineering, and medical topics. University libraries account for 80% of their customers.' The article also explain how moving to open access journals would help, but says it's just one step in more significant transformation scientific research needs to undergo. It points to the open source software community as a place from which researchers should take their cues.

Submission + - IRS Apologizes for Targeting Conservative Groups During 2012 Election (ap.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A recurring theme in comments on Slashdot since the 9/11 attacks has been concern about the use of government power to monitor or suppress political activity unassociated with terrorism but rather based on ideology. It has just been revealed that the IRS has in fact done that. From the story: “ The Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election . . . Organizations were singled out because they included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups. In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said. "That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That's not how we go about selecting cases for further review," Lerner said . . . "The IRS would like to apologize for that," she added. . . . Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. . . . she told The AP that no high level IRS officials knew about the practice. Tea Party groups were livid on Friday. "I don't think there's any question we were unfairly targeted," said Tom Zawistowski, . . .Zawistowski's group was among many conservative organizations that battled the IRS over what they saw as its discriminatory treatment of their effort to gain non-profit status. The group first applied for non-profit status in June 2009, and it was finally granted on Dec. 7, 2012, he said — one month after Election Day. . .In all, about 300 groups were singled out for additional review. . . Tea Party groups weren't buying the idea that the decision to target them was solely the responsibility of low-level IRS workers. "It is suspicious that the activity of these 'low-level workers' was unknown to IRS leadership at the time it occurred,"” During the conference call it was stated that no disciplinary action had been taken by those who engaged in this activity. President Obama has previously joked about using the IRS to target people.

Submission + - Europol: "Chrome is determinedly prohibited"

Submitted by mazevedo
mazevedo writes: In a security tech event, Vítor Agostinho, from the Portuguese unit of Europol said that Chrome was "determinedly prohibited in the institution". Failing to cite the reasons, he says that browser preference in Europol goes for Internet Explorer first and Firefox as a second line option.

Additional insight into Europol standards, are things like machines with on-line access and different machines for internal network access, or that the iPad was considered a non secure tool for taking notes in meetings.

Mr. Agostinho failed to mention what parameters the bi-yearly assessment study has shown to consider IE safer than Chrome, but understanding that both Chrome and Firefox have their source code open and freely available on the Internet, and IE is still the most hacked browser, this conclusion by one of the European Union's law enforcement agencies comes as a surprise.

The original article is here in Portuguese
Google translation is barely readable.

Submission + - How Should the Law Think About Robots? (ssrn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: With the personal robotics revolution imminent, a law professor and a roboticist (called Professor Smart!) argue that the law needs to think about robots properly. In particular, they argue that we should avoid "the Android Fallacy" — the idea that robots are just like us, only synthetic. Direct link for download: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2263363_code400644.pdf?abstractid=2263363&mirid=1.

Submission + - Spoiler Alert: Smart Kids Become Successful Adults (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Researchers from the University of Edinburgh set out to test the long-held assumption that kids who performed well in school at a young age carried that early success through to adulthood. And prove it they did! Specifically, 'Math and reading ability at age 7 may be linked with socioeconomic status several decades later.'

Submission + - Space Station Crew Prepare for Emergency Spacewalk (discovery.com)

Submitted by astroengine
astroengine writes: After the discovery of an ammonia coolant leak supplying one of the solar arrays on Thursday, International Space Station managers have decided to plan for an unscheduled spacewalk on Saturday to repair the problem. The final decision about whether to go ahead with the extravehicular activity will be made late on Friday. “Good Morning, Earth! Big change in plans, spacewalk tomorrow, Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn are getting suits and airlock ready. Cool!” Tweeted the Space Station's Expedition 35 Commander Chris Hadfield on hearing the news an emergency EVA may be required of his crew. “The whole team is ticking like clockwork, readying for tomorrow. I am so proud to be Commander of this crew. Such great, capable, fun people.”

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What is the Best Email Encryption Gateway for a Small Business?

Submitted by Attila Dimedici
Attila Dimedici writes: I am in the process of implementing a Email Encryption Gateway for my company. I checked with my various contacts in the industry and came away with Voltage as the best solution. However, as I have been working with them to implement a solution, I have been sadly disappointed by their lack of professionalism. Every time I think I am one question away from being ready to pull the trigger, I discover something that my contact with them had not mentioned before that has to be ironed out by the various stakeholders on my end. So, my question for Slashdot Users is this, what is your experience with implementing an Email Encryption Gateway for your company and who what solution would you recommend?

Submission + - Boston replacing Microsoft Exchange with Google Apps (networkworld.com)

Submitted by netbuzz
netbuzz writes: The city of Boston, which employs 20,000 people, has become the latest large organization to switch from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps. The city estimates that the move will save it $280,000 a year. Microsoft’s reaction? “We believe the citizens of Boston deserve cloud productivity tools that protect their security and privacy. Google’s investments in these areas are inadequate, and they lack the proper protections most organizations require.” More and more customers aren’t buying that FUD.

Submission + - John McCain Working On Legislation For 'a la carte' TV Channel Packages (thehill.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: John McCain, Republican Senator for Arizona and former U.S. presidential candidate, is drafting a new bill that would pressure TV providers to allow customers to select and pay for only the channels they want to watch. The bill will also 'bar TV networks from bundling their broadcast stations with cable channels they own during negotiations with the cable companies, according to industry sources. So for example, the Disney Company, which owns both ABC and ESPN, could not force a cable provider to pay for ESPN in order to carry ABC.' Perhaps most importantly, the bill could 'end the sports blackout rule, which prohibits cable companies from carrying a sports event if the game is blacked out on local broadcast television stations.' This would hamstring the ludicrous practice of blacking out TV broadcasts in order to drive fans to buy actual tickets to a game. The cable and satellite TV industry is expected to push back very strongly against the bill.

Submission + - Realtime GPU Audio (acm.org)

Submitted by CowboyRobot
CowboyRobot writes: Two researchers at San Francisco State University has successfully implemented hardware acceleration for realtime audio using graphics processing units (GPUs). "Suppose you are simulating a metallic plate to generate gong or cymbal-like sounds. By changing the surface area for the same object, you can generate sound corresponding to cymbals or gongs of different sizes. Using the same model, you may also vary the way in which you excite the metallic plate--to generate sounds that result from hitting the plate with a soft mallet, a hard drumstick, or from bowing. By changing these parameters, you may even simulate nonexistent materials or physically impossible geometries or excitation methods. There are various approaches to physical modeling sound synthesis. One such approach, studied extensively by Stefan Bilbao, uses the finite difference approximation to simulate the vibrations of plates and membranes. The finite difference simulation produces realistic and dynamic sounds (examples can be found at http://unixlab.sfsu.edu/~whsu/FDGPU). Realtime finite difference-based simulations of large models are typically too computationally-intensive to run on CPUs. In our work, we have implemented finite difference simulations in realtime on GPUs."

Submission + - Japan Planning Exascale Computer for 2020 (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: Japan has thrown its hat into the ring for exascale computing, reported that country’s newspapers. The goal: achieve one exaflop of performance by 2020. Japan’s finance ministry has agreed to begin work next fiscal year on a supercomputer with a performance capability 100 times that of the K computer, a 10 petaflop computer that debuted as the most powerful supercomputer in the world in 2011. The midterm report for the new supercomputer was concluded Thursday, the Asahi Shimbun business daily reported. The Japan Times was slightly more conservative, reporting that the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry will seek funding to design the new machine in its fiscal 2014 budget request—implying that the project has not necessarily been approved. The science ministry is hoping to keep the cost of the new supercomputer below the ¥110 billion mark ($1.08 billion) that was required to develop the K computer, the paper reported. (Slashdot couldn’t find any evidence that the project had been approved on the ministry Webpage, although the K computer was mentioned several times in a discussion of public-private partnerships.)

Submission + - We're your government, and we know who you are. (wired.com) 3

Submitted by Doug Otto
Doug Otto writes: Buried deep in the bowels of a bi-partisan immigration reform bill is a "photo tool." The goal is to create a photo database consisting of every citizen. Of course the database would be used only for good, and never evil.

Submission + - Researchers are developing ad hoc networks for car-to-car data exchange (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Researchers are developing machine-to-machine (M2M) communication technology that allows cars to exchange data with each other, enabling vehicles to know what the cars all around them are doing, and perhaps, where they're going. Intel is working with National Taiwan University on M2M connectivity, an idea came from caravanning — an available, but-not-yet-deployed technology that uses direct line of site infrared (IR) and a range finder in order to automatically adjust the speed of cars so they can travel at a measured distance from each other. In other words, they're electronically tethered to one another. Now, imagine a group of cars traveling down the road together as an ad hoc network, each one aware of the location, any sudden actions or even the travel route of other vehicles as uploaded to the cloud from a GPS device. "We're even imagining in the future cars would be able to ask other cars, 'Hey, can I cut into your lane?' Then the other car would let you in," said Jennifer Healey, a research scientist with Intel.

Submission + - Hand-held "Sound Camera" Shows You the Source of Noises (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: If you work with machinery, engines or appliances of any type, then you’ve likely experienced the frustration of hearing a troublesome noise coming from somewhere, but not being able to pinpoint where. If only you could just grab a camera, and take a picture that showed you the noise’s location. Well, soon you should be able to do so, as that’s just what the SeeSV-S205 sound camera does.

Submission + - State Department Demands Takedown of Printable Gun Schematics. (forbes.com)

Submitted by moeinvt
moeinvt writes: In the latest episode of the 3D-printed gun saga, Forbes reports that the U.S. Department of State has demanded that the plans and blueprints for the 3D-printed gun components be immediately "removed from public access". In a letter sent to Cody Wilson, the feds claim that the plans must be reviewed and approved by the "Directorate of Defense Trade Controls" (DDTC) to ensure that making them publicly available does not violate the "International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)" rules. Full text of the letter published in the Forbes article.

Submission + - Microsoft Youtube App strips adds; adds download

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "Microsoft appears to be sticking a finger in Google's eye with the launch of its new YouTube app for Windows Phone. The app, ReadWrite has confirmed, strips out YouTube ads when it plays back videos and allows users to easily download video by way of a prominent "download" button."

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