Comment China would be so proud! (Score 4, Insightful) 152
China would be so proud!
Submission + - How to know if Iran breaks its word: Financial monitoring (thebulletin.org)
Lasrick writes: This is a fascinating read from Aaron Arnold of the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard's Kennedy School. Arnold points out that the Iran Nuclear Framework Agreement specifies not only that international inspectors will have access to all of Iran’s nuclear facilities, but will also gain access to Iran’s nuclear supply chain, in order to verify that components and materials are not diverted to a covert facility. 'To insure additional transparency, the preliminary framework calls for a dedicated procurement channel to approve the supply, sale, and transfer of certain nuclear-related and dual-use parts, technologies, and materials on a case-by-case basis.' Arnold points out that this is a tricky area, because Iran has shown extraordinary skill at getting around financial sanctions, and it's unclear what international body will monitor Iran's financial transactions. The article then details steps that could be taken to ensure that Iran's financial transactions are transparent and cannot be used to obtain dual-use materials, including the requirement that Iran join the international Financial Action Task Force. Great read..
Submission + - Insurer denies healthcare breach claim citing lack of minimum required practices (securityledger.com)
chicksdaddy writes: In what may become a trend, an insurance company is denying a claim from a California healthcare provider following the leak of data on more than 32,000 patients. The insurer, Columbia Casualty, charges that Cottage Health System did an inadequate job of protecting patient data.
In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in California, Columbia alleges that the breach occurred because Cottage and a third party vendor, INSYNC Computer Solution, Inc. failed to follow “minimum required practices,” as spelled out in the policy. Among other things, Cottage “stored medical records on a system that was fully accessible to the internet but failed to install encryption or take other security measures to protect patient information from becoming available to anyone who ‘surfed’ the Internet,” the complaint alleges.
Disputes like this may become more common, as insurers anxious to get into a cyber insurance market that's growing by about 40% annually use liberally written exclusions to hedge against 'known unknowns' like lax IT practices, pre-existing conditions (like compromises) and so on. (http://www.itworld.com/article/2839393/cyber-insurance-only-fools-rush-in.html)
In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in California, Columbia alleges that the breach occurred because Cottage and a third party vendor, INSYNC Computer Solution, Inc. failed to follow “minimum required practices,” as spelled out in the policy. Among other things, Cottage “stored medical records on a system that was fully accessible to the internet but failed to install encryption or take other security measures to protect patient information from becoming available to anyone who ‘surfed’ the Internet,” the complaint alleges.
Disputes like this may become more common, as insurers anxious to get into a cyber insurance market that's growing by about 40% annually use liberally written exclusions to hedge against 'known unknowns' like lax IT practices, pre-existing conditions (like compromises) and so on. (http://www.itworld.com/article/2839393/cyber-insurance-only-fools-rush-in.html)
Submission + - Ways to travel faster than light without violating relativity
StartsWithABang writes: It’s one of the cardinal laws of physics and the underlying principle of Einstein’s relativity itself: the fact that there’s a universal speed limit to the motion of anything through space and time, the speed of light, or c. Light itself will always move at this speed (as well as certain other phenomena, like the force of gravity), while anything with mass — like all known particles of matter and antimatter — will always move slower than that. But if you want something to travel faster-than-light, you aren’t, as you might think, relegated to the realm of science fiction. There are real, physical phenomena that do exactly this, and yet are perfectly consistent with relativity.
Submission + - Audi Claims First Synthetic Gasoline Made From Plants (gizmag.com)
Comment Re:Similar bill in many states (Score 3, Insightful) 193
Looks like I missed North Dakota, Hawaii, Arizona, New Mexico, Connecticut and one from Minnesota, that's just mentioned in their journal.
Comment Similar bill in many states (Score 4, Interesting) 193
A quick web search shows that similarly worded legislation is being considered in Arkansas, Kansas, Utah, South Carolia, and New York.
While I didn't do an item-by-item comparison, a quick glance suggests that most or all these were crafted by a common hand. Anyone want to guess who that might be?
Comment Re:And yet (Score -1, Flamebait) 268
BS. It's not like people are turning down Jobs at Google and Apple because they don't pay enough or wont negotiate on salary. These companies are hiring everyone that's qualified and passes the interview. The advanced tech worker shortage is real and is completely orthogonal to salary shenanigans.
Comment Build stuff (Score 2) 637
Yes, the concern is real and common. The antidote is building stuff. A bunch of stuff. The more stuff you build, the more likely it is you'll have to get "dirty" with the underlying guts of it, the more you'll know, and the more valuable you'll be.
For instance:
Of the many garbage collectors Java offers, have you ever used anything but the default? Do you have any idea what the trade-offs are and when you might want to use another one?
Have you ever profiled any Java code?
What do you know about Java byte code?
Ever SWIG wrap anything into Java?
Ever used Java serialization? Do you know what's wrong with it and why you wouldn't want to use it?
Custom class loaders?
My adivce: go learn everything there is to know about "something", it doesn't really matter what (maybe you want be the worlds foremost expert on malloc). In the process of gaining a very, very deep understanding of that 1 specific sliver; you're going to also learn about a ton of other stuff on the way.
Submission + - Amazing Lego Mechanical Loom Weaves Actual Fabric (Video) (ecouterre.com)
fangmcgee writes: An expert Lego Technic builder, Nicolas Lespour has turned what many consider child’s play into a full-fledged career. Latest among his toys? An automated mechanical loom that weaves fabric from multiple bobbins of colored yarn. Presented on Monday at Fana’Briques 2012, a convention Lego enthusiasts organize annually in Rosheim, France, Lespour’s invention comprises 20,000 individual Lego components, including a fly-shuttle mechanism that delivers the weft into the warp with little human intervention.
Submission + - Historian: Mass violence to erupt in 2020, mathematical pattern suggests (networkworld.com)
colinneagle writes: Historian Peter Turchin, who studies population dynamics at the University of Connecticut, has assumed the role of the world's biggest bummer with his recent prediction that widespread violence will erupt worldwide sometime around the year 2020, as profiled in this recent feature in Nature. What has many people worried is that he's backing up this premonition with a mathematical formula, known as cliodynamics.
Turchin is credited with coining the term cliodynamics, which is the study of historical mathematical data like population figures and global economic performance to identify patterns of similar behavior. Turchin's studies point to a cycle in which society at large becomes engulfed in widespread violence every 50 years.
The current pattern dates back at least to 1870, when economic disparity in the U.S. led to urban violence, and follows the 50-year cycle to the anti-Communist fervor and race riots around 1920, followed by the political assassinations, terrorist attacks and domestic violence in 1970, Turchin told Nature. By that logic, Turchin believes we should circle the year 2020 on our calendars as the year when we start locking our doors.
Turchin is credited with coining the term cliodynamics, which is the study of historical mathematical data like population figures and global economic performance to identify patterns of similar behavior. Turchin's studies point to a cycle in which society at large becomes engulfed in widespread violence every 50 years.
The current pattern dates back at least to 1870, when economic disparity in the U.S. led to urban violence, and follows the 50-year cycle to the anti-Communist fervor and race riots around 1920, followed by the political assassinations, terrorist attacks and domestic violence in 1970, Turchin told Nature. By that logic, Turchin believes we should circle the year 2020 on our calendars as the year when we start locking our doors.
Comment Re:No deflection? (Score 1) 169
Too small to see.
Submission + - How the new 'Protecting Children' bill puts you at (zdnet.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. House of Representatives is currently considering H.R. 1981, a bill that would order all of our online service providers to keep new logs about our online activities, logs to help the government identify the web sites we visit and the content we post online. This sweeping new "mandatory data retention" proposal treats every Internet user like a potential criminal and represents a clear and present danger to the online free speech and privacy rights of millions of innocent Americans.
Submission + - High-fashion dress displays text via embedded PC (windowsfordevices.com)
jangel writes: Microsoft Research announced a high-fashion dress that includes an embedded computer and displays text on its skirt via an integral projector. The Printing Dress lets the user share Tweets or other messages as public art, the company says.
Submission + - Murdoch's Drone at The Daily Might Be Illegal (forbes.com)
nonprofiteer writes: The News Corp iPad newspaper has a drone they've been using for news gathering — mainly flying it over disaster zones in N. Dakota and Alabama. However, FAA regulations on drones are mighty restrictive at the moment, and they're not to be used for commercial purposes (tho law enforcement is free to let them fly). FAA now examining Daily's use of its drone. Could set a precedent for how private businesses can use them.
