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Submission + - 2000+ UK NHS Websites Vulnerable to Attack (shkspr.mobi)

Daniel Appelquist writes: As reported in the Daily Mail, independent security researcher and frequent blogger Terence Eden has identified over 2000 UK National Health Service (NHS) websites that are vulnerable to cross-site scripting (XSS) and similar attacks, mostly due to out-dated versions of Wordpress. More worryingly, nobody is taking responsibility for many of these sites, which means there is a follow-on risk that they could be hijacked as vectors for malware or scams (a problem exacerbated since these sites sit under the nhs.uk domain name and people will therefore assume them to be trustworthy).
Android

Submission + - Smartphone companies are now entering a phase of Mutually Assured Destruction (shkspr.mobi)

Tryfen writes: As patent trials rage across the globe, it has become clear that smartphone companies are engaged in Mutually Assured Destruction. What's the endgame here? Do they all capitulate and cross-licence their patents? Are they forced to buy patents and pass the costs onto customers? Will companies withdraw — voluntarily or otherwise — from the smartphone space?
Censorship

Submission + - An HTTP Status Code for Censorship? (shkspr.mobi)

Tryfen writes: UK ISPs are being forced to block The Pirate Bay. One is using "HTTP 403 Forbidden" to tell users that they cannot access the site. So, should there be a specific HTTP status code to tell a user that they are being censored?

Submission + - 1000x Faster Spelling Correction algorithm (faroo.com)

An anonymous reader writes: A new edit distance based spelling correction algorithm is three orders of magnitudes faster then the one described by Peter Norvig of Google.
Possible application fields are spell checkers for word processors and search engines, correction systems for optical character recognition, natural language translation based on translation memory, record linkage, de-duplication, matching DNA sequences, fuzzy string searching and fraud detection.

Comment He broke the law IN THE UK! (Score 3, Informative) 409

According to the very well written judgement he can only be extradited if there is a proportional offence in the UK.

107(2A)
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988:
“A person who infringes copyright in a work by communicating the work in public
(a) in the course of business, or
(b) otherwise than in the course of business but to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright commits an offence if he knows or has reason to believe that, by doing so he is infringing copyright in that work.

I think this stinks, but it seems perfectly legal.

Comment Re:Okay, this is pretty simple IMO! (Score 3, Interesting) 435

You're looking at it wrongly. I recently had solar power installed because - long term - it pays off.

Let's say your numbers are correct. $30k to install. $150/month saved. That's similar to my situation in the UK.

Your payback period is about 17 years (although potentially longer if you had to take out a loan to pay for them).

Most solar panels are guaranteed for 25 years (or, rather, their operating performance won't drop by more than a certain percentage per year).

So, for the remaining 8 years, you're earning $150 per month - that's $14k. That's not a terrible ROI.

However! What if there's an energy crisis? All of a sudden, you're saving $300 per month. Or, depending on where you live, you can sell your excess electricity back into the grid for a profit.

Worse case scenario, the cost of electricity plummets and you're left with an overprices UPS on your roof.

I say go for it!

Comment Works in Linux - but still flawed (Score 1) 374

http://shkspr.mobi/blog/index.php/2010/08/ebook-libraries-and-drm/
I wrote about this a few weeks ago.

It works in Linux if you can get Adobe Digital Editions to run under WINE.

But the whole concept of "borrowing" a digital file is nonsense.

The system for borrowing music is run on Overdrive Media Console. Linux unfriendly - but works on Android.... Go figure.

Comment A better question would be... (Score 5, Funny) 582

... How many Post-It Notes can I steal before I'm fired?
One? A pack? A crate?

Working overtime and not being paid is the equivalent of the company stealing your time.

Now, I'm a reasonable guy. I'll go home half an our late and not put in for overtime / TOIL. But you better believe that I'm taking some Post-Its with me.

Comment Don't subsidise the hardware - subsidise the books (Score 3, Insightful) 156

The thing that stops me taking the Kindle is the huge upfront cost. I can buy 200 books for the price of one Kindle. Obviously, the Kindle has all sorts of advantages over regular books, but it's quite a steep cost.

I think Amazon should subsidise the books. Make the Kindle come with, say, $200 worth of vouchers redeemable in the Amazon store. Make it $100 worth of general vouchers and $100 worth of 2-for-1 deals. Anything to cut the apparent cost of the hardware.

Digital content has no intrinsic cost, so it's not much of a subsidy on their behalf.

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