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Submission + - Drones On Demand (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: Now this really is an interesting iOS app. Gofor is a new company that is promoting the idea of drones on demand. All you have to do is use the app to request a drone and it shows you were they are and how long before one reaches your location.
You want to take the ultimate selfie? Scout ahead to see if the road is clear or just find a parking space? No problem just task a drone to do the job. For the photo you simply flash your phone camera at it and it pinpoints your location for an aerial selfie. If it is scouting ahead then it shows you what awaits you via a video link. See the promo video to see how it might work.
Flight of fancy? Possibly but the company claims to be operational in five US cities.

Submission + - MIT Designs Tsunami Proof Floating Nuclear Reactor (mit.edu)

Submitted by Amtrak
Amtrak writes: MIT has created designs for a nuclear plant that would avoid the downfall of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The new design calls for the nuclear plant to be placed on a floating platform modeled after the platforms used for offshore oil drilling.

A floating platform several miles offshore, moored in about 100 meters of water, would be unaffected by the motions of a tsunami; earthquakes would have no direct effect at all. Meanwhile, the biggest issue that faces most nuclear plants under emergency conditions — overheating and potential meltdown, as happened at Fukushima, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island — would be virtually impossible at sea.

Submission + - Why Can't I Turn Off the Adverts?

Submitted by d'baba
d'baba writes: I've got excellent karma (thank you very much) and, always before, I could turn off the adverts. Now, not only can't I turn them off I have them in the Header and Right Column and they are creeping up from the bottom of the page.

Submission + - Bidding at FCC TV Spectrum Auction May Be Restricted for Large Carriers

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Rumors have surfaced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will restrict bidding at their TV spectrum auction in 2015 to effectively favor smaller carriers. Specifically, when 'auction bidding hits an as-of-yet unknown threshold in a given market, the FCC would set aside up to 30MHz of spectrum in that market. Companies that hold at least one-third of the low-band spectrum in that market then wouldn't be allowed to bid on the 30MHz of spectrum that has been set aside.' Therefore, 'in all band plans less than 70MHz, restricted bidders—specifically AT&T and Verizon (and in a small number of markets, potentially US Cellular or CSpire)—would be limited to bidding for only three blocks.' The rumors may be true since AT&T on Wednesday threatened to not participate in the auction at all as a protest against what it sees as unfair treatment.

Submission + - Bullied Student Records Bullies, Gets Hit With Felony Charges For Violation (techdirt.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Here comes another story highlighting the danger of schools "outsourcing" their disciplinary problems to law enforcement. As we've stated before, this does nothing more than turn routine misconduct into criminal behavior, which is a great way to derail a student's future.

A Pennsylvania teen, who claimed to have been bullied constantly (and ignored by school administration), made an audio recording of his tormentors using a school-supplied iPad. He brought this to the school's attention, which duly responded by calling the cops to have him arrested for violating Pennsylvania's wiretapping law. (h/t to Techdirt reader btr1701)

Maybe the future holds better outcomes, but for right now, everyone involved had a chance to stop this from reaching this illogical conclusion, but no one — from the administrators to their legal team to local law enforcement to the presiding judge — was interested in reining this in. In the end, it looks as though an innate desire to punish someone was satisfied every step of the way.

Submission + - Study Finds U.S. is an Oligarchy, Not a Democracy

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers from Princeton University and Northwestern University have concluded, after extensive analysis of 1,779 policy issues, that the U.S. is in fact an oligarchy and not a democracy. What this means is that, although 'Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance', 'majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts.' Their study (PDF), to be published in Perspectives on Politics, found that 'When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.'

Submission + - Scientists Use Women's Own Cells to Create Lab-Grown Vaginas (newsweek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Per the English medical journal, Lancet, researchers are implanting lab-grown vaginas in female patients. Four women received the treatment between 2005-2008. The procedure is different from past vagina-replacement techniques because it uses a new mixture of cells to make a more 'real' vaginal tissue.

Submission + - 1Password (Agilebits) was affected by Heartbleed

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: They claim on their blog that they were not affected by Heartbleed unlike their competitor (LastPass) but in fact they were.

Going to https://agilebits.com/onepassw... and looking at the certificate issue date (4/10/2014) indicates they reissued it recently.

Additionally their own discussion forum admin admits they had to patch their OpenSSL on their website. http://discussions.agilebits.c...

So a malicious attacker could have stolen their main websites wild-card key and certificate to impersonate their website and trick people into downloading software with malware instead.

They were the same as LastPass in that user password data wasn't compromised, but LastPass was more transparent about it.

http://discussions.agilebits.c...

Hi @Quantumpanda,

Our website (agilebits.com) has been fixed with the patched version of OpenSSL, and is using a newly issued SSL certificate.

The forum (discussions.agilebits.com) does not use SSL (as you can see by looking at the URL, it's http), thus is not affected. With that said, we should be using SSL on the forum as well, and we're looking into it.

http://blog.agilebits.com/2014...

Submission + - Bloomberg News: NSA has been using HeartBleed for years (bloomberg.com)

Submitted by jasonla
jasonla writes: We all knew this was coming, right? From the article:

"The U.S. National Security Agency knew for at least two years about a flaw in the way that many websites send sensitive information, now dubbed the Heartbleed bug, and regularly used it to gather critical intelligence, two people familiar with the matter said."

Submission + - Can You Buy A License to Speed in California?

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Alex Mayyasi writes that in the parking lots of Silicon Valley’s venture capital firms, expensive cars gleam in the California sun and a closer look reveals that the cars share a mysterious detail: they nearly all have a custom license plate frame that reads, “Member. 11-99 Foundation.” Are the Bay Area’s wealthy all part of some sort of illuminati group that identifies each other by license plate instead of secret handshakes? The answer is the state highway patrol — the men and women that most people interact with only when getting ticketed for speeding. A number of the frames read “CHP 11-99 Foundation,” which is the full name of a charitable organization that supports California Highway Patrol officers and their families in times of crisis. Donors receive one license plate as part of a $2,500 “Classic” level donation, or two as part of a bronze, silver, or gold level donation of $5,000, $10,000, or $25,000. Rumor has it, according to Mayyasi, that the license plate frames come with a lucrative return on investment. As one member of a Mercedes-Benz owners community wrote online back in 2002: “I have the ultimate speeding ticket solution. I paid $1800 for a lifetime membership into the 11-99 foundation. My only goal was to get the infamous ‘get out of jail’ free license plate frame.”

The 11-99 Foundation has sold license plate frames for most of its 32 year existence, and drivers have been aware of the potential benefits since at least the late 1990s. But attention to the issue in 2006-2008 led the foundation to stop giving out the frames. An article in the LA Times asked “Can Drivers Buy CHP Leniency?” and began by describing a young man zipping around traffic — including a police cruiser — and telling the Times that he believed his 11-99 frames kept him from receiving a ticket. But the decision was almost irrelevant to another thriving market: the production and sale of fake 11-99 license plate frames. But wait — the CHP 11-99 Foundation also gives out membership cards to big donors. “Unless you have the I.D. in hand when (not if) I stop you," says one cop, "no love will be shown.”

Submission + - Celebrating 50 years of BASIC

Submitted by Andy R
Andy R writes: The mainframe isn't the only technology turning 50. So is the BASIC programming language, at least on May 1. That's when a Dartmouth College professor and a student ran the first BASIC program on a time-share system and both got back their results at the same time, a breakthrough then. Network World has a story on Dartmouth's plans to celebrate 50 years of the language.

Submission + - James Lovelock reflects on Gaia's legacy (nature.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "A lot of investment in green technology has been a giant scam, if well intentioned."

The quote, and entire interview, are significant for two reasons. First, the interview is seeped with many skeptical opinions about human caused global warming, is very critical of that movement's effort to politicize science, and the person being interviewed is James Lovelock, the founder of of the concept of Gaia, a former strong advocate of global warming but now a skeptic.

Most significant however is where the interview is published. It is in Nature, one of the most important and influential science journals, which previously has been aggressively pushing global warming politics for years. That they allowed these politically incorrect opinions within their walls and then broadcast them to their readers signals a major cultural shift within the science community. It is beginning to be acceptable to be a skeptic again!

Submission + - Coming Soon to a Restaurant Near You...Things You'd Rather Not See (nypost.com)

Submitted by TchrBabe
TchrBabe writes: So NYC is now considering equipping it's Health Department inspectors with Google Glass to provide a record of restaurant inspections. Will we now have FOIL access to these behind the scenes videos of our favorite restaurants? Do we even want to see what goes on behind the scenes? "Oh look Mabel, isn't that your cat that went missing?"

Submission + - Theo De Raadt's Small Rant on OpenSSL (gmane.org) 1

Submitted by raides
raides writes: Theo De Raadt has been on a better roll as of late. Since his rant about FreeBSD plating catch up (here), he has something to say about OpenSSL. It is worth the 5 second read because it is how a few thousand of us feel about the whole thing and the stupidity that caused this panic. Enjoy

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