Comment Quantative Success Metric Engineering (Score 1) 68
So prompt engineering is dead because quantitative success metric engineering is easier?
Comment Access to Technology (Score 1) 95
Requiring computer science is an excellent idea, if for no other reason than it will go a long way toward ensuring a minimum level of access to technology for all K-12 students.
Comment Dinner is Served (Score 1) 82
Very good news for anteaters.
Submission + - Internet as a Public Utility in the US? 2
An anonymous reader writes: Does this Covid-19 crisis and shelter-at-home directives prove the need for internet as a Public Utility? If you think so, what do you think can/should be done to accomplish this? And if you aren't convinced yet, why not?
Submission + - World's Most Destructive Botnet Returns With Stolen Passwords and Email In Tow (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: If you've noticed an uptick of spam that addresses you by name or quotes real emails you've sent or received in the past, you can probably blame Emotet. It's one of the world's most costly and destructive botnets—and it just returned from a four-month hiatus. A post published on Tuesday by researchers from Cisco's Talos security team helps explain how Emotet continues to threaten so many of its targets.
Spam sent by Emotet often appears to come from a person the target has corresponded with in the past and quotes the bodies of previous email threads the two have participated in. Emotet gets this information by raiding the contact lists and email inboxes of infected computers. The botnet then sends a follow-up email to one or more of the same participants and quotes the body of the previous email. It then adds a malicious attachment. The result: malicious messages that are hard for both humans and spam filters to detect. The use of previously sent emails isn't new, since Emotet did the same thing before it went silent in early June. But with its return this week, the botnet is relying on the trick much more. About 25% of spam messages Emotet sent this week include previously sent emails, compared with about 8% of spam messages sent in April.
Spam sent by Emotet often appears to come from a person the target has corresponded with in the past and quotes the bodies of previous email threads the two have participated in. Emotet gets this information by raiding the contact lists and email inboxes of infected computers. The botnet then sends a follow-up email to one or more of the same participants and quotes the body of the previous email. It then adds a malicious attachment. The result: malicious messages that are hard for both humans and spam filters to detect. The use of previously sent emails isn't new, since Emotet did the same thing before it went silent in early June. But with its return this week, the botnet is relying on the trick much more. About 25% of spam messages Emotet sent this week include previously sent emails, compared with about 8% of spam messages sent in April.
Submission + - Voting machines are still terrible (wired.com)
AmiMoJo writes: "This year, I bought two more machines to see if security had improved. To my dismay, I discovered that the newer model machines — those that were used in the 2016 election — are running Windows CE and have USB ports, along with other components, that make them even easier to exploit than the older ones. Our voting machines, billed as "next generation," and still in use today, are worse than they were before — dispersed, disorganized, and susceptible to manipulation."
Submission + - Google Won't Let You Sign In If You Disabled JavaScript In Your Browser (zdnet.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Google announced today four new security features for securing Google accounts. These four updates are meant to bolster protections before and after users sign into accounts, but also in the case of recovering after a hack. According to Google's Jonathan Skelker, the first of these protections that Google has rolled out today comes into effect even before users start typing their username and password. In the coming future, Skelker says that Google won't allow users to sign into accounts if they disabled JavaScript in their browser. The reason is that Google uses JavaScript to run risk assessment checks on the users accessing the login page, and if JavaScript is disabled, this allows crooks to pass through those checks undetected. This change is likely to impact only a very small number of users --around 0.01 percent according to Google's data-- but it will likely impact bots harder, as many of them run through headless browsers where this feature is turned off for performance reasons.
Submission + - Scientists Find Link Between Parkinson's Disease and the Appendix (gizmodo.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists have found further evidence that the gut, or more specifically the appendix, might play a role in the development of Parkinson’s disease. The international team of scientists reviewed two datasets, including a large registry from Sweden, and found that removal of the appendix was associated with a decreased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. They also found that the human appendix contains clumps of a protein called alpha-synuclein in a form associated with the disease. There’s more work to be done, and the authors are not advocating that people preemptively remove their appendixes, but they hope that the research could provide a pathway towards treatment.
The study found that of the 1,144,745 Swedes who did not have appendectomies, 1,608 had Parkinson’s, but of the 551,003 who had, only 644 had Parkinson’s. This is amounts to a 16.9% decrease in the odds of acquiring the disease—but in absolutes, that’s the difference between an 0.14 percent chance of acquiring the disease for those who hadn’t gotten their appendix removed versus an 0.11 percent chance for those who had. The effect was also stronger in those living in rural areas, according to the study published today in Science Translational Medicine. The researchers also found that for those who had appendectomies at least 30 years before developing Parkinson’s, the procedure was associated with a 3.6-year delay in disease onset.
The study found that of the 1,144,745 Swedes who did not have appendectomies, 1,608 had Parkinson’s, but of the 551,003 who had, only 644 had Parkinson’s. This is amounts to a 16.9% decrease in the odds of acquiring the disease—but in absolutes, that’s the difference between an 0.14 percent chance of acquiring the disease for those who hadn’t gotten their appendix removed versus an 0.11 percent chance for those who had. The effect was also stronger in those living in rural areas, according to the study published today in Science Translational Medicine. The researchers also found that for those who had appendectomies at least 30 years before developing Parkinson’s, the procedure was associated with a 3.6-year delay in disease onset.
Submission + - Experimental AI lie detector will help screen EU travelers (engadget.com)
SeriousSamy writes: In the future, you might talk to an AI to cross borders in the European Union. The EU and Hungary's National Police will run a six-month pilot project, iBorderCtrl, that will help screen travelers in Hungary, Greece and Latvia. The system will have you upload photos of your passport, visa and proof of funds, and then use a webcam to answer basic questions from a personalized AI border agent. The virtual officer will use AI to detect the facial microexpressions that can reveal when someone is lying. At the border, human agents will use that info to determine what to do next — if there are signs of lying or a photo mismatch, they'll perform a more stringent check.
Comment Re:Governors (Score 2) 302
I think he feels he isn't getting enough cooperation from "main companies" so he wants more control on who can use the internet. Want to use the internet? Get a license. Want to create a web page? Get a license. Want to buy something on the internet? Want to download something? Want to copy from a site? He wants more control to be sure only profitable uses are allowed.
FTFY.
Comment Wrong Sales Pitch (Score 1) 179
They're using the wrong sales pitch. It should be all about capabilities/adventure -- "the Lone Ranger can safely take you places other superyachts would not dream of going" -- not durability and "low key luxury". Yacht buyers are not usually seeking "low key" in their luxury, especially when it translates to "looks like a big fishing trawler".
Comment Verbs vs Nouns (Score -1, Offtopic) 454
It's set up — two words.
Setup is a noun. Set up is a verb.
(Sorry — my grammar-ness finally got the best of me.)
Submission + - US court sides with gene patents (nature.com) 2
ananyo writes: "Gene patents have been upheld in a landmark case over two genes associated with hereditary forms of breast and ovarian cancer.
The lawsuit against Myriad Genetics, a diagnostic company, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, that holds patents on the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, has bounced from court to court since 2010. In a 2-1 decision today, a federal appeals court reaffirmed their latest decision that genes represent patent-eligible matter. As noted before on slashdot, the case will have major implications for cancer researchers, patients and drug makers."
The lawsuit against Myriad Genetics, a diagnostic company, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, that holds patents on the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, has bounced from court to court since 2010. In a 2-1 decision today, a federal appeals court reaffirmed their latest decision that genes represent patent-eligible matter. As noted before on slashdot, the case will have major implications for cancer researchers, patients and drug makers."
Comment Re:More guns than they have (Score 1) 482
This is part of the reason that Anonymous is as important as they are -- they represent an (all-too-rare) new route through which the general populace may upon occasion stand up to the power of the authorities.
Comment Got IE? (Score 2) 43
The fact that aDesigner requires "Internet Explorer 6.0 or above", thereby making the tool itself inaccessible to a significant portion of the web development community, is almost too much to bear.
