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Security

Submission + - TSA Interested In Purchasing Dosimeters (gsnmagazine.com) 1

Submitted by OverTheGeicoE
OverTheGeicoE writes: TSA recently announced that it is looking for vendors of 'radiation measurement devices'. According to the agency's Request for Information, these devices 'will assist the TSA in determining if the Transportation Security Officers (TSO) at selected federalized airports are exposed to ionizing radiation above minimum detectable levels, and whether any measured radiation doses approach or exceed the threshold where personnel dosimetry monitoring is required by DHS/TSA policy.' A TSA spokeman claims that their RFI 'did not reflect any heightened concern by the agency about radiation levels that might be excessive or pose a risk to either TSA screeners or members of the traveling public.' Concern outside the agency, however, has always been high. TSA has long been criticized for its apparent lack of understanding of radiological safety, even for its own employees. There has been speculation of a cancer cluster, possibly caused by poor safety practices in baggage screening.
The Courts

Submission + - Lost In BYOD's Uncharted Legal Waters (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "As companies increasingly enable employees to bring their own devices into business environments, significant legal questions remain regarding the data consumed and created on these employee-owned technologies. 'Strictly speaking, employees have no privacy rights for what's transmitted on company equipment, but employers don't necessarily have access rights to what's transmitted on employees' own devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and home PCs. Also unclear are the rights for information that moves between personal and corporate devices, such as between one employee who uses her own Android and an employee who uses the corporate-issued iPhone. ... This confusion extends to trade secrets and other confidential data, as well as to e-discovery. When employees store company data on their personal devices, that could invalidate the trade secrets, as they've left the employer's control. Given that email clients such as Outlook and Apple Mail store local copies (again, on smartphones, tablets, and home PCs) of server-based email, theoretically many companies' trade secrets are no longer secret.'"
NASA

Submission + - NASA set for Mars spacecraft's big thruster blast (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "NASA today said all systems were go for the Jan. 11 firing of its Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft's thrusters — a move that will more precisely set the ship's trajectory toward the Red Planet. NASA said the blast is actually a choreographed sequence of firings of eight thruster engines during a period of about 175 minutes beginning at 3 p.m. PST. The maneuver has been planned to use the spacecraft's inertial measurement unit to measure the spacecraft's orientation and acceleration"

Submission + - What to do with hack attempts?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I manage a server for a high profile open-source project, and the server has been under attack for hundreds of times. Latelly it has been targeted by brute-force ssh attacks (using IPs from China & Russia).
What can I do? Is there a way to report these attacks?
Facebook

Submission + - Worm steals more than 45,000 Facebook logins (cnet.com)

Submitted by expo53d
expo53d writes: A nasty bit of malware making the rounds on Facebook has reportedly made off with the usernames and passwords of more than 45,000 users. Most of those affected by the worm --called Ramnit-- are from France and the United Kingdom, according to a bulletin issued by security researchers at Securlet. It is capable of infecting Windows executables, Microsoft Office, and HTML files, according to McAfee.
Crime

Submission + - You can't run from the cop car of the future (msn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Police cars of the very near future will be scary smart. Equipped with eight cameras, voice commands, incredibly intelligent software, and LTE radios, perps won't get away with anything.

Motorola Solutions isn't working on building the latest and greatest Droid — that's Motorola Mobility. These guys have their fingers more in corporate and governmental pots. Engineers have done hundreds of ride-alongs, surveys, and simulations, and have applied all of their wireless knowledge into designing a police car that is so advanced it's actually very unsettling.
Privacy

Submission + - Carrier IQ claims are FUD (galexander.org) 2

Submitted by galexand
galexand writes: I'm tired of hearing about Carrier IQ as if it invented the capability for telcos, device manufacturers, and Google to snoop on your activity. In fact, Carrier IQ is probably the most innocent piece of software on your phone, and the truly dangerous software you wouldn't have any other way. So I wrote an article about it. This FUD about Carrier IQ is simply not factually accurate!
Privacy

Submission + - US congressman asks for FTC Carrier IQ investigati (techworld.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "US Congressman Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, has sent a letter to the FTC asking it to investigate Carrier IQ. "I have serious concerns about the Carrier IQ software and whether it is secretly collecting users' personal information, such as the content of text messages," he said in a statement. Consumer Watchdog has called for a US government investigation of Carrier IQ, the maker of tracking software for mobile phones, and its users."

Submission + - Grassley Stands by Threat to Hold Up FCC Nominees (foxnews.com)

Submitted by
K7DAN
K7DAN writes: "Sen. Charles Grassley is standing by his threat to place a hold on two nominees to the Federal Communications Commission over concerns about a controversial new wireless network the agency has allowed to move forward.
The Iowa Republican this week accused the FCC of refusing to comply with his requests for information on its discussions with Virginia company LightSquared regarding its next-generation national wireless network.
Some fear the network would hinder the effectiveness of high-precision GPS systems — used by the military, farmers and others. Grassley also raised questions about the involvement of Harbinger, the hedge fund behind the project and founded by Democratic donor Philip Falcone.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/03/grassley-stands-by-threat-to-hold-up-fcc-nominees-over-wireless-network/?test=latestnews#ixzz1fbUYpuJi"

Feed Google News Sci Tech: Google Tests Ice Cream Sandwich Update on Employees - PC Magazine (google.com)

From feed by feedfeeder

SlashGear
Google Tests Ice Cream Sandwich Update on Employees
PC Magazine
Ready for a little Ice Cream Sandwich – that's Android 4.0 – for your smartphone? Keep waiting, although you can now complement your patience with a little bit of hope. New reports from company employees indicate that Google has started ...
Google tests Android update on employees' Nexus SCNET
Google Said to be Testing Android 4.O on Samsung Nexus SPCWorld (blog)
Galaxy Nexus volume update: Are you fixed?SlashGear
Android Police-InformationWeek-msnbc.com
all 134 news articles

Cellphones

Submission + - Hedy Lamarr: Inventor of Cellphones, Wi-Fi and GPS

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Hedy Lamarr, a siren of the silver screen and legend of Hollywood's Golden Age, had a penchant for invention and in 1942, came to be co-holder of a patent on spread spectrum radio, a technology that underlies mobile and cordless telephones, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS. "Here was someone of intellect in Hollywood who didn't like to go to parties," says Richard Rhodes author of "Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World". "[Hedy] didn't drink and she didn't like loud parties and drunken parties — and she had to find some way to spend her time. It was her hobby." Lamarr had an inventor's corner set up in the drawing room of her Hollywood home complete with a drafting table and tools, and in the course of her life tinkered with a range of inventions including a fluorescent dog collar, a skin-tautening technique, modifications to the Concorde airliner and a bouillon-like cube that would create a carbonated beverage when mixed with water. But Lamarr's most important invention was a torpedo guidance system (PDF) for the U.S. Navy she co-developed with composer George Antheil that used a method of coordinated switching (or "hopping") between radio frequencies to prevent communications from being detected and jammed, a technology that underlies today's mobile communications. “Any girl can be glamorous,” Lamarr was famous for saying. “All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.” But it’s not every girl who can be glamorous, stand still, and take the future in a new direction."
China

Submission + - China Telecom Pledged to Stop Monopolistic Practic (xinhuanet.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: Within a few weeks after the anti-monopoly probe initiated by the National Development and Reform Commission, China's two telecommunications giants, China Telecom and China Unicom, announced Friday they will substantially raise their broadband speeds while further lowering broadband costs by 35% over the next five years. They also acknowledge the existence of monopolistic practices in reply to this investigation which is the first of its kind against major Chinese state-owned enterprises. Being state-owned companies, their profits are supposedly belonging to the nation, but they also become the "golden rice bowls" for their management, employees, and their supervising departments and officials. Luckily, inter-department politics can bring in some level of check and balance in a strange way.
Education

Submission + - Raspberry Pi or Programming - What shall we teach (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: Programming is a skill for which demand currently outstrips supply by a huge margin. Is the solution to go back to the sort of hardware that inspired the self-taught programmers of the 80s?
The well known and much talked about Raspberry Pi is a small ARM/GNU Linx box for $25 and it is supposed to bring programming back to the masses.
First let me say that I think that Raspberry Pi is wonderful and I want one, as I'm sure you do, but it isn't going to bring programming back to the masses.
If you read any review of this wonder you will find that all that is talked about is the hardware. Somewhere towards the end you might see a reference to what software it might run, but never more than a short paragraph.
The point is that we don't really need more hardware to get kids interested in computers — we need the right software. Raspberry Pi is yummy but it isn't essential.
You can see classrooms full of computers in most schools. Homes have multiple machines. Portables, laptops and tablets they are all over the place and if you take into account the population of mobile phones then you can see that lack of hardware isn't really the problem. What ever it is, be it Scratch, Alice, Kodu or something really new, it is unlikely to be hardware like Raspberry Pi — desirable though it is.
The Military

Submission + - German City Evacuated for WWII Bomb Removal 2

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "In the largest bomb-related evacuation in Germany's post-war history, life has come to a standstill in the German city of Koblenz, where 45,000 people — nearly half of the citys population — have been evacuated after the discovery of three bombs that were dropped by American and British warplanes in the last years of World War II. "Its the largest German evacuation since the end of the war," says fire brigade spokesman Ronald Eppelsheim. The largest of the explosives is a 1.8-ton British air bomb that has the potential to destroy the citys center but the focus of attention isn't on the largest bomb — it's on the much smaller, 125-kilogram American high-explosive bomb. "This one has been transformed on impact of the earth. We might have some serious problems deactivating the detonator," says bomb-disposal squad member Jurgen Wagner. The deactivation of bombs is a common practice in Germany. Last year, a bomb exploded in the German town Gottingen — killing three members of a bomb-disposal squad."

Submission + - Superluminal Neutrinos? yes and no 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Question shout-out to my fellow Physicists out there. If you aren't familiar with the Scharnhorst effect, you may want to Google it first. In essence, the idea is that photons travelling through empty space interact with the virtual particles that arise from vacuum fluctuations. They occasionally are absorbed and then readmitted. Scharnhorst speculated that light travelling between two plates placed close enough that they experience the Casmir effect would encounter fewer virtual particles and thus wouldn't slow down as much. Effectively, the speed of light we normally measure is really the vacuum dampened speed. Now here comes the question: Would Neutrinos who interact substantially less with physical matter also be relatively immune to virtual particles? I would think yes. If this is so then the recent Neutrino superluminal results aren't really a problem. It's really just a measurement of the un-dampened speed of light.-Peter B.

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