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The Military

Submission + - $26 of software defeats American military. (wsj.com) 2

Submitted by reporter
reporter writes: According to a report just published by the "Wall Street Journal", SkyGrabber — a computer program that can be easily purchased for $25.95 off the Internet — can read and store the data transmitted on an unsecure channel by an unmanned drone. Drones are crucial to American military operations, for these aerial vehicles enable Washington to conduct war with a reduced number of soldiers.

The Iranians have taught Islamic thugs in Iraq how to read the intercepted data. " ... the intercepts could give America's enemies battlefield advantages by removing the element of surprise from certain missions and making it easier for insurgents to determine which roads and buildings are under U.S. surveillance. ... Some of the most detailed evidence of intercepted feeds has been discovered in Iraq, but adversaries have also intercepted drone video feeds in Afghanistan, according to people briefed on the matter. These intercept techniques could be employed in other locations where the U.S. is using pilotless planes, such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, they said."

Comment Discretionary Power of court to serve by email (Score 2, Interesting) 205

by chicane (#29614371) Attached to: UK Court Order Served Over Twitter, To Anonymous User Posing As Another

Disclaimer : IANAL , But I'm smarter than some so called legal professionals who put disclaimers at the end of the text NOT the beginning - duh!

I believe its a discretionary power of the court and as such is done by application typically with supporting evidence that normal methods have been tried without success or that they are less applicable due to the location of party.
(I had occasion to help provide the supporting evidence which led to such a succesful application)
Software

Submission + - Company uses DMCA to take down second-hand softwar (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by
dreemteem
dreemteem writes: "A judge Tuesday heard arguments in a dispute over software sales that could potentially have repercussions on the secondhand sale of virtually any copyright material.
The suit was filed by Timothy Vernor, a seller on eBay, after Autodesk, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, asked eBay to remove some of its software products that Vernor had listed for sale there, and later to ban him from the site.
Vernor had not illegally copied the software but was selling legitimate CDs of the products secondhand. For that reason, he argued, he was not infringing Autodesk's copyright.
Autodesk countered that because it licences the software, rather than selling it outright, a licensee does not have the right to resell its products."

Comment Re:...only in America (Score 1) 536

by chicane (#29546217) Attached to: Why Games Cost $60

It doesnt need to if the ratings model is similar to films.
Demographics dictate that the product is cut to meet a wider available certificate rather than exclude potential sales

BD E1 D1 , BD E1 AC - My Fave opcodes, What are yours?
Wireless Networking

Submission + - (Near) Constant internet while RV'ing?

Submitted by
Neilio
Neilio writes: "What systems would Slashdotters recommend for staying connected while RV'ing across the US and Canada? While a 3G data plan seems obvious, the intrepid RV'er wants to get remote and into those parts of the coverage map that are usually gray (no coverage). But satellite can be expensive, includes high latency for VOIP and gaming, and requires a clear view of the southern sky. I've come across some intriguing products that use and amplified 2G/3G signal and bridge to WiFi, like www.wifiinmotion.com, and CradlePoint's MBR1000 (http://www.cradlepoint.com/products/mbr1000-mobile-broadband-039n039-router (I have no affiliation to either). Do folks have any experience with these, or can you recommend another approach (even homebrew)? While I am an electrical engineer by degree, you have to go back a few decades since I last expertly sported a soldering iron, so the less DIY the better. My wife and I now run a web-based business, so nearly daily connectivity is a must, no matter where we are."
Microsoft

Submission + - The Real-World State of Windows Use (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "Performance and metrics researcher Devil Mountain Software has released an array of real-world Windows use data as compiled by its exo.performance.network, a community-based monitoring tool that receives real-time data from about 10,000 PCs throughout the world. Tracking users specific configurations, as well as the applications they actually use, the tool provides insights into real-world Windows use, including browser share, multicore adoption, service pack adoption, and which anti-virus, productivity, and media software users are most prevalent among Windows users. Of note is the fact that, two years after Vista's release, not even 30 percent of PCs actually run it, that OpenOffice.org is making inroads into the Microsoft Office user base, and that, despite the rise of Firefox, Internet Explorer remains the standard option for inside-the-firewall apps."
Privacy

Submission + - Bush's Search Policy For Travelers Is Kept (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by mytrip
mytrip writes: The Obama administration will largely preserve Bush-era procedures allowing the government to search — without suspicion of wrongdoing — the contents of a traveler's laptop computer, cellphone or other electronic device, although officials said new policies would expand oversight of such inspections.
Announcements

Submission + - Wikipedia Launches A New Mobile Interface (wikipedia.org)

Submitted by
hampton2600
hampton2600 writes: "The Wikimedia Foundation is proud to present our new Mobile site optimized for modern high-end phones. The interface is focused on being clean and easy to read on your mobile device. We currently officially support reading on the iPhone and Android phones. The new gateway is written entirely in Ruby (using the Merb framework) and the Git repository can be found here: http://github.com/hcatlin/wikimedia-mobile/tree/master . We are looking for open source help with supporting other phone types and translations into new languages. Currently 8 languages are supported, but we'd like to support all languages Wikipedia supports. This is an active project and we are looking for new features and etc from the community."

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