Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - The Secret Government Rulebook For Labeling You a Terrorist (firstlook.org) 1

Submitted by Advocatus Diaboli
Advocatus Diaboli writes: The Obama administration has quietly approved a substantial expansion of the terrorist watchlist system, authorizing a secret process that requires neither “concrete facts” nor “irrefutable evidence” to designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist, according to a key government document obtained by The Intercept. ...The heart of the document revolves around the rules for placing individuals on a watchlist. “All executive departments and agencies,” the document says, are responsible for collecting and sharing information on terrorist suspects with the National Counterterrorism Center. It sets a low standard—”reasonable suspicion“—for placing names on the watchlists, and offers a multitude of vague, confusing, or contradictory instructions for gauging it. In the chapter on “Minimum Substantive Derogatory Criteria”—even the title is hard to digest—the key sentence on reasonable suspicion offers little clarity...

Submission + - The post-iPhone era began yesterday at noon in India, GMT +5:30 hours (networkworld.com)

Submitted by Steve Patterson
Steve Patterson writes: Most of the future growth in smartphones will be outside the developed market economies of North America and Europe.

The lions share of smartphone growth will be in developing countries

In these markets where the iPhone 5s sells for more than $900, Apple is too expensive to reach a significant share of the market when 80% of the smartphones sell for less than $250 and the Android One for less than $100.

Paypal founder and the first investor in Facebook Peter Thiel's "zero to one" and "one to n" explains the the beginning of the post-iPhone era.

Submission + - 'Just Let Me Code!' (drdobbs.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Andrew Binstock has an article about the ever-increasing complexity required to write code. He says, "I got into programming because I like creating stuff. Not just any stuff, but stuff other people find useful. I like the constant problem solving, the use of abstractions that exist for long periods nowhere but in my imagination, and I like seeing the transformation into a living presence. ... The simple programs of a few hundred lines of C++ long ago disappeared from my experience. What was the experience of riding a bicycle has become the equivalent of traveling by jumbo jet; replete with the delays, inspections, limitations on personal choices, and sudden, unexplained cancellations — all at a significantly higher cost. ... Project overhead, even for simple projects, is so heavy that it's a wonder anyone can find the time to code, much less derive joy from it. Software development has become a mostly operational activity, rather than a creative one. The fundamental problem here is not the complexity of apps, but the complexity of tools. Tools have gone rather haywire during the last decade chasing shibboleths of scalability, comprehensiveness, performance. Everything except simplicity."

Submission + - How The Internet Of Things Could Aid Disaster Response (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: While the Internet has made communications easier, that ease had made us very dependent on the Internet for communications — and, when disaster strikes, power and infrastructure outages tend to shut down those communications networks when we need them most. But now researchers are examining how the so-called "Internet of Things" — the proliferating array of Internet-communicating devices in our lives — can transmit emergency messages via ad-hoc networks even when the Internet backbone in a region is inoperable.

Submission + - UK to use Open Document Format for government documents (themukt.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: UK has decided to use ‘open standards’ for sharing and viewing government documents. The announcement was made by the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude. One of the primary objectives of this move is to create a level playing field for suppliers of all sizes. The move must put some pressure on Google to offer full support for ODF in Chrome, Android and Google Docs.

Submission + - Firefox 31 Released (mozilla.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla has released version 31 of its Firefox web browser for desktops and Android devices. According to the release notes, major new features include malware blocking for file downloads, automatic handling of PDF and OGG files if no other software is available to do so, and a new certificate verification library. Smaller features include a new search field on the new tab page, better support for parental controls, and partial implementation of the OpenType MATH table. Mozilla also took the opportunity to note the launch of a new game, Dungeon Defenders Eternity, which will run at near-native speeds on the web using asm.js, WebGL, and Web Audio. "We’re pleased to see more developers using asm.js to distribute and now monetize their plug-in free games on the Web as it strengthens support for Mozilla’s vision of a high performance, plugin-free Web."

Submission + - Google Offers a Cool Million Bucks For a Better Inverter

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: With the Little Box Challenge, Google (and IEEE, and a few other sponsors like Cree and Rohm) is offering a $1 million prize to the team which can "design and build a kW-scale inverter with the highest power density (at least 50 Watts per cubic inch)." Going from cooler-sized to tablet sized, they say, would make whole lot of things better, and the prize is reserved for the best performing entrant.

"Our testing philosophy is to not look inside the box. You provide us with a box that has 5 wires coming out of it: two DC inputs, two AC outputs and grounding connection and we only monitor what goes into and comes out of those wires, along with the temperature of the outside of your box, over the course of 100 hours of testing. The inverter will be operating in an islanded more—that is, not tied or synced to an external grid. The loads will be dynamically changing throughout the course of the testing, similar to what you may expect to see in a residential setting." he application must be filled out in English, but any serious applicants can sign up, "regardless of approach suggested or team background, will be successful in registering." Registration runs though September.

#power #google #invertor #contest #ieee #technology

Comment Re:what environments allow USB boot? (Score 1) 132

by mspohr (#47508897) Attached to: Exodus Intelligence Details Zero-Day Vulnerabilities In Tails OS

I've used TAILS to do banking when I'm traveling and only have access to dodgy WiFi or hotel computers. I've found that it will boot and run on most any computer... sometimes you need to call up the boot menu and select the USB drive, other times "it just works".
It boots and runs from the USB stick and doesn't use the computers mass storage at all. It performs a wipe of the RAM on exit. It encrypts everything, uses HTTPS and TOR; has a minimal secure browser and a more full featured insecure browser. OpenPGP for email and documents.
However, it probably has some vulnerabilities. For instance, a hardware keylogger on the machine... however, they have a randomized on-screen keyboard to use to get around this.
That said, this "security" company which sent out this press release seems like your typical collection of greedy entitled bastards who aim to benefit financially from their FUD.

Comment Re:So (Score 1) 59

by mspohr (#47486977) Attached to: Tesla Model S Hacking Prize Claimed

I'll be so dangerous driving down the road with my headlights flashing, wipers on, sunroof open and doors locked!
Now, if they could do the turn signals, they would really have something there.

Comment Re:How many employees does Slashdot need? (Score 5, Insightful) 272

by mspohr (#47483681) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Many Employees Does Microsoft Really Need?

I am not a business expert but agree that MS probably has a lot of dead wood and poorly managed employees.
Mass layoffs are one way to deal with this problem and this is what most companies do periodically.
However, it seems to me that it is a sign of a poorly managed company if they need to do mass layoffs. A well managed company would be continuously evaluating employees and their work and making adjustments to personnel requirements every month. It seems supremely stupid for a company to suddenly wake up one day and discover that it has an extra xx thousands of employees.
If a company is continuously adjusting personnel, it is also much easier on the employees since there are more opportunities to move employees to more appropriate jobs, re-train them for new tasks, or, failing that, provide comprehensive out-placement service. This would define a company which values human resources.
Unfortunately, these MS employees are likely to be unceremoniously dumped with minimal chance of re-employment.

Slashdot Top Deals

If God had not given us sticky tape, it would have been necessary to invent it.

Close