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Submission + - man arrested for refusing to stop filming police (cnet.com)

Submitted by the simurgh
the simurgh writes: A man who claims to be an independent journalist films has been arrested by New Jersey police officers for his refusal to give in to their demands for his video camera. In most cases such as this, the authorities immediately jump to defend the outrageous behavior of the officer. In this case, however, it is different. the citizen and his camera were released. Moreover, Ocean County prosecutor told the local NBC affiliate: "It would be my opinion that we'll probably be dismissing the charge."

Submission + - Writers Say They Feel Censored by Surveillance (nytimes.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: A survey of writers around the world by the PEN American Center has found that a significant majority said they were deeply concerned with government surveillance, with many reporting that they have avoided, or have considered avoiding, controversial topics in their work or in personal communications as a result.

The findings show that writers consider freedom of expression to be under significant threat around the world in democratic and nondemocratic countries. Some 75 percent of respondents in countries classified as “free,” 84 percent in “partly free” countries, and 80 percent in countries that were “not free” said that they were “very” or “somewhat” worried about government surveillance in their countries.

The survey, which will be released Monday, was conducted anonymously online in fall 2014 and yielded 772 responses from fiction and nonfiction writers and related professionals, including translators and editors, in 50 countries.

Comment Re:A wish from an American (Score 1) 114

by RoknrolZombie (#48726843) Attached to: The 5 Cases That Could Pit the Supreme Court Against the NSA

The Authors did the majority of their initial political work under pseudonyms, because anonymity was the only way that they could protect themselves. Pretty sure they'd disagree with you.

http://www.law.ou.edu/ushistor...

The Freedom to speak without fear of persecution is the cornerstone of our Bill of Rights and was absolutely necessary for the Founding of our Nation.

Submission + - Sony Sends DMCA Notices Against Users Spreading Leaked e-Mails (freezenet.ca)

Submitted by Dangerous_Minds
Dangerous_Minds writes: Last week, Sony threatened legal action against users spreading leaked information obtained through the e-mails that were leaked as a result of the Sony hack. Freezenet is now pointing to an Arstechnica article saying that Sony has begun carrying through with those threats. Twitter, after resisting demands that a user account be suspended for publishing leaked e-mails, has received a DMCA notice saying that the e-mails are, weirdly enough, copyrighted. Freezenet notes that other media outlets have been publishing the leaked information and wonders if Sony would begin targeting other outlets for similarly publishing leaked information online. Citing Wikileaks as an example of previously leaked information, if Sony were to target others, it is unlikely that the information will ever be fully removed, but it won't likely be without casualties that the information remains online.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Good Money Management Software with Phone Component?

Submitted by hejman08
hejman08 writes: I am looking for a money-manager software that I can use to track my credit card, a joint checking account with my wife, and a few other accounts. Currently this is accomplished by a rudimentary spreadsheet I pulled out of an unmentioned orifice a few weeks ago that has frankensteined itself into a somewhat manageable workbook. It works for what I need it to, and with my Dropbox account, I can edit it both at work and at home. The thing is, I'd really like something that's a) a little more professional than an Excel file and b) able to be edited with my Android. For example, if I go to Chipotle right now, I have to take a receipt home and enter in the spreadsheet when I remember I have a backlog of 10+ receipts, but I'd like something that I can just pull out my phone, enter it in, and have it synced to software (be it browser or installation based) that I use at work and home. It would also be extremely helpful if it can categorize purchases, but in a way that if I don't like its category or want to change it, or to not "count" a transaction such as bank transfers, I have the control to customize that aspect of it. Bonus points if it can create pretty charts a la Excel. My question is, does the almighty Slashdot know of such a software, preferably no more than say, 30 bucks US?

Comment Re:The Pirate Bay (Score 1) 302

by RoknrolZombie (#48606943) Attached to: The Pirate Bay Responds To Raid

Anyone who is creative enough to make something worth reading is creative enough to do it without wholesale copying. Plagiarism is stigmatized even beyond what is protected by copyright.

Plagiarism is only stigmatized when people recognize it as plagiarism. Plenty of times someone will come up with an original idea - maybe it was bad timing or bad marketing or whatever - and the idea doesn't do shit. A couple of years later someone else takes that exact same idea - sometimes downright copying it - and because of luck or better marketing hits it big. Now, we all know that the world isn't fair - but don't you think the originator should have some protection in place?

Now, I'm not in love with the current incarnation, but it's a damned sight better than "nothing".

Submission + - Stealthy Linux trojan may have infected victims for years (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers from Moscow-based Kaspersky Labs have uncovered an extremely stealthy trojan for Linux systems that attackers have been using to siphon sensitive data from governments and pharmaceutical companies around the world.

The malware may have sat unnoticed on at least one victim computer for years, although Kaspersky Lab researchers still have not confirmed that suspicion. The trojan is able to run arbitrary commands even though it requires no elevated system privileges.

Submission + - A paper by Maggie Simpson and Edna Krabappel was accepted by two journals (vox.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A scientific study by Maggie Simpson, Edna Krabappel, and Kim Jong Fun has been accepted by two journals. Of course, none of these fictional characters actually wrote the paper, titled "Fuzzy, Homogeneous Configurations." Rather, it's a nonsensical text, submitted by engineer Alex Smolyanitsky in an effort to expose a pair of scientific journals — the Journal of Computational Intelligence and Electronic Systems and the comic sans-loving Aperito Journal of NanoScience Technology.

Submission + - Myth busted: Pufferfish don't hold their breath while inflated (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: To fend off predators, the black-saddled pufferfish famously inflates its body with water, much like a person puffing up his cheeks and holding his breath. But unlike the blue-faced human—and in contrast with scientists' expectations—the pufferfish does not actually stop breathing, researchers report. In fact, compared with resting rates, the fish’s respiration increased close to fivefold during the inflation process. Even if they don’t stop breathing, the defense strategy is energetically taxing for the pufferfish; after the test, most took hours to return to resting respiration rates.

Submission + - Another community gets split by systemd: Devuan is "forking" Debian (devuan.org)

Submitted by jaromil
jaromil writes: The so called "Veteran Unix Admin" collective announces that the "fork" of Debian will proceed as a result of the recent systemd debacle. The reasons put forward are not just technical, included is a letter of endorsement by Debian Developer Roger Leigh mentioning that "people rely on Debian for their jobs and businesses, their research and their hobbies. It's not a playground for such radical experimentation."
The fork is called "Devuan", pronounced "DevOne". A website is up on https://devuan.org/ with more information.

Submission + - New facebook terms starting Jan 1st. (facebook.com)

Submitted by schneidafunk
schneidafunk writes: I just saw this pop up on facebook: "By using our services after January 1, 2015, you agree to our updated terms, data policy, and cookies policy and to seeing improved ads based on apps and sites you use. Learn more below about these updates and how to control the ads you see. "

and on clicking to read more there's this scary sounding sentence:
" And we're introducing improvements to ads based on the apps and sites you use off Facebook (online behavioral advertising) and giving you control. "

Submission + - How the world's agricultural boom has changed CO2 cycles

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Every year levels of carbon dioxide drop in the summer as plants "inhale," and climb again as they exhale after the growing season in the Northern Hemisphere. However, the last 50 years has seen the size of this swing has increase by as 50%, for reasons that aren't fully understood. A team of researchers may have the answer. They have shown that agricultural production, corn in particular, may generate up to 25% of the increase in this seasonal carbon cycle. "This study shows the power of modeling and data mining in addressing potential sources contributing to seasonal changes in carbon dioxide" program director for the National Science Foundation's Macro Systems Biology Program, who supported the research, Liz Blood says. "It points to the role of basic research in finding answers to complex problems."

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