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Space

Epic Online Space Battle 296

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the get-the-hell-out-of-our-galaxy dept.
New submitter nusscom writes "On July 28th, as has been reported by BBC, a record number of EVE Online players participated in a record-breaking online battle between two alliances. This battle, which was essentially a turf-war was comprised of over 4,000 online players at one time. The load was so large that Crowd Control Productions (CCP) slowed down the game time to 10% of normal to accommodate the massive amount of activity." This is the largest battle to ever occur on EVE Online.
EU

Snowden: NSA Spying On EU Diplomats and Administrators 417

Posted by timothy from the open-line-sunday dept.
An anonymous reader writes "According to a report dated 2010 recently provided by [former NSA contractor Edward] Snowden to the German news magazine 'Der Spiegel', the NSA has systematically been spying on institutions of the EU in Washington DC, New York, and Brussels. Methods of spying include bugging, phone taps, and network intrusions and surveillance according to the documents." All part of a grand tradition.
Privacy

Snowden NSA Claims Partially Confirmed, Says Rep. Jerrold Nadler 337

Posted by timothy from the they-deeply-care-about-privacy-violation dept.
bill_mcgonigle writes with this news from from CNET: "Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D NY) disclosed that NSA analysts eavesdrop on Americans' domestic telephone calls without court orders during a House Judiciary hearing. After clearing with FBI director Robert Mueller that the information was not classified, Nadler revealed that during a closed-door briefing to Congress, the Legislature was informed that the spying organization had implemented and uses this capability. This appears to confirm Edward Snowden's claim that he could, in his position at the NSA, 'wiretap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president.' Declan McCullagh writes, 'Because the same legal standards that apply to phone calls also apply to e-mail messages, text messages, and instant messages, Nadler's disclosure indicates the NSA analysts could also access the contents of Internet communications without going before a court and seeking approval.' The executive branch has defended its general warrants, claiming that 'the president had the constitutional authority, no matter what the law actually says, to order domestic spying without [constitutional] warrants,' while Kurt Opsahl, senior staff attorney at EFF claims such government activity 'epitomizes the problem of secret laws.'" Note that "listening in" versus "collecting metadata" is a distinction that defenders of government phone spying have been emphasizing. Tracking whom you called and when, goes the story, doesn't impinge on expectations of privacy. Speaking of the metadata collection, though, reader Bruce66423 writes "According to the Washington Post, the Bush administration took 'bulk metadata' from the phone companies under voluntary agreements for more than four years after 9/11 until a court agreed they could have it compulsorily." Related: First time accepted submitter fsagx writes that Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive has calculated the cost to store every phone call made in the U.S. over the course of a year: "It's surprisingly inexpensive. It puts the recent NSA stories (and reports from the Boston bombings about the FBI's ability to listen to past phone conversions) into perspective."
Science

Dmitry Itskov Wants To Help You Live Forever Via an Android Avatar 383

Posted by samzenpus from the brand-new-body dept.
trendspotter writes in with the latest news about the 2045 Project. "If Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov has his way, the human lifespan will soon no longer depend on the limitations of the human body. Itskov, a Russian tycoon and former media mogul, is the founder of the 2045 Project — a venture that seeks to replace flesh-and-blood bodies with robotic avatars, each one uploaded with the contents of a human brain. The goal: to extend human lives by hundreds or thousands of years, if not indefinitely."

Comment When you're innocent. (Score 1) 768

by Punto (#43940645) Attached to: Seeking Fifth Amendment Defenders

>recisely defined scenario, where the Fifth Amendment makes a positive difference.

When you're innocent. In that case, you don't have to give your password to anyone, and you don't have to cooperate with the investigation, because you're innocent, and the burden of proof is not on you. It's an extension of the law principle of "presumption of innocence", one of the cornerstones of modern (western) law (there's probably a latin name for it, ask a lawyer). The "positive difference" it makes is that you don't have to have some idiot going through your mail, because you're innocent.

Comment Re:BBC cannot win (Score 1) 487

by Punto (#43926129) Attached to: BBC Clock Inaccurate - 100 Days To Fix?

You only get the server time once, then use the local clock to "advance" it. It'll only be off by a few milliseconds (however long it takes for the request to make it back). If you wanna get fancy, use their IP address to determine the timezone, everybody from porn sites to DNS servers are doing it nowadays.
Democrats

Activist Admits To Bugging US Senate Minority Leader 247

Posted by timothy from the figured-it-was-cool-with-mitch dept.
cold fjord writes "Curtis Morrison, co-founder of the Progress Kentucky PAC, which had previous issued an apology over a racially charged tweet about Senator McConnell's wife (former Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao), has admitted to bugging Senator McConnell. Morrison admitted he was behind the recording and said a grand jury is investigating the situation. "[Assistant] U.S. attorney, Bryan Calhoun, telephoned my attorney yesterday, asking to meet with him next Friday as charges against me are being presented to a grand jury," Morrison wrote on Salon. Morrison writes that after releasing the recording, his personal life took a negative turn. 'I've never doubted that making the recording was ethical.' He also says that he doesn't believe his actions were illegal, but admits he could be prosecuted for them."' Morrison has said that one of his inspirations was Julian Assange. Given the current direction of government activity, he may simply have been trying to build a suitable resume for future federal employment."
Biotech

GMO Wheat Found Growing Wild In Oregon, Japan Suspends Import From U.S. 679

Posted by Soulskill from the tired-of-putting-up-with-our-crop dept.
An anonymous reader writes "NPR reports that an Oregon wheat farmer found a patch of wheat growing where he did not plant. After RoundUp failed to kill the plants, he sent them to a lab for testing. Turns out the wheat in question is a GMO strain created by Monsanto but never sent to market. Oregon field trials for the wheat ended in 2001. 'Nobody knows how this wheat got to this farm. ... After all such trials, the genetically engineered crops are supposed to be completely removed. Also, nobody knows how widely this genetically engineered wheat has spread, and whether it's been in fields of wheat that were harvested for food.' The USDA is currently investigating and says there is no health-risk. Meanwhile, Monsanto has released a statement and Japan has suspended some wheat imports from the U.S. 'The mystery could have implications on wheat trade. Many countries around the world will not accept imports of genetically modified foods, and the United States exports about half of its wheat crop.'"

Comment Re:robots can't kill people (Score 1) 215

by Punto (#43869863) Attached to: UN Debates Rules Surrounding Killer Robots

Actually they are kinda doing that, which is pretty puzzling. If you can't send a robot to "destroy that bridge", you have to send a human, who could get killed. And if you start sending robots, then the other side will send their own robots, so the robots will kill each other. I don't know how the game theory works out in that case, but it seems like it's preferable to humans killing each other. I'm fine with advanced AIs having their own rights eventually, but what's up protecting these robots from combat now, which are just mindless hardware?
Cellphones

How the Smartphone Killed the Three-day Weekend 232

Posted by Soulskill from the now-suspected-in-radio-star-slaying-as-well dept.
An anonymous reader writes "As we in the U.S. settle in for Memorial Day weekend, this article points out how our cultural addiction to technology is making it less of a vacation than it used to be. 'The average smartphone user checks his or her device 150 times per day, or about once every six minutes. Meanwhile, government data from 2011 says 35 percent of us work on weekends, and those who do average five hours of labor, often without compensation — or even a thank you. The other 65 percent were probably too busy to answer surveyors' questions.' Even for those of us who don't have any work to do over the weekend, we'll probably end up reading all of our work-related emails as they roll in, and take time out of our day to think about what's going on — to the detriment of our weekend activities: 'A study at the University of California, San Francisco, found that new experiences fail to become long-term memories unless brains have downtime for review.' I imagine it's even worse for your average Slashdotter, who's likely plugged in to more technology at home and at work. How can we make our employers understand that downtime needs to remain downtime? 'It took labor unions 100 years to fight for nights and weekends off, some say, while smartphones took them away in about three years.'"

Comment What does currency exchange have to do with this? (Score 1) 169

by Punto (#43821727) Attached to: Google Unable To Keep Paying App Developers In Argentina

While I love bashing the govenment and their stupid monetary policy as much as the next guy (I honestly don't think the president understands how money works), currency exchange policies have nothing to do with this particular situation. Google pays the local developers in local currency, and there's no restrictions to exchange USD to Pesos, you can just walk into any bank with foreign currency, and they'll exchange it for you (at a shitty rate, but again, that's not Google's problem, they're just paying the developers in compliance with the local laws). Money is coming into the country, not going out, the govenment has no problem with that.

If I had to guess (which I do because there's no information about this so far) I'd say it's not worth it for them to keep offices here to deal with paying the local developers, since they're not allowed to take their profits from other services out of the country (due to the exchange restrictions), so there's no point in having local operations.
Social Networks

Ex-Marine Detained Under Operation Vigilant Eagle For His Political Views Sues 279

Posted by timothy from the within-his-rights dept.
stry_cat writes "You may remember the story of Brandon Raub, who was detained without due process over some Facebook posts he made. Now with the help of the Rutherford Institute, he is suing his captors. According to his complaint [PDF], his detention was part of a federal government program code-named 'Operation Vigilant Eagle,' which monitors military veterans with certain political views."
Cellphones

Jolla Announces First Meego Phone Available By End 2013 152

Posted by samzenpus from the free-calls dept.
x_IamSpartacus_x writes "Jolla, the Finnish company that continued Nokia's work on the MeeGo mobile platform, announced details of its first smartphone on Monday. Availability for the Jolla device is expected by year end and can be pre-ordered now; the phone will be priced at no more than €399 (US $512.26). The Jolla hardware looks similar to that of Nokia's Lumia, with a clean, button-less front face that houses the 4.5-inch touchcscreen. The phone will use a dual-core processor and support 4G LTE in some regions. Internal storage tops out at 16 GB, but can be expanded via microSD card. The phone also includes an 8 megapixel rear camera with auto focus. The phone is also 'Android app compliant' which, in a move similar to that of BlackBerry, can help with available apps at launch."
Piracy

New Prenda Law Shell Corp Threatening to Tell Your Neighbors You Pirated Porn 258

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the barely-legal dept.
It appears that Prenda Law, freshly defeated, has formed a new shell company named the "Anti-Piracy Law Group," and has resumed sending threatening letters to supposed porn pirates. But this time, they've expanded their threats (from a letter (PDF) sent to Fight Copyright Trolls): "The list of possible suspects includes you, members of your household, your neighbors (if you maintain an open wi-fi connection) and anyone who might have visited your house. In the coming days we will contact these individuals to investigate whether they have any knowledge of the acts described in my client’s prior letter" Naturally, the letter also notes that the recipient can avoid having the list of videos they supposedly copied sent to their neighbors and family if they settle for a few thousand bucks...

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