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Submission + - How Quickly Will The Latest Arms Race Accelerate

Submitted by tranquilidad
tranquilidad writes: Russia was concerned enough about the U.S. development of a Prompt Global Strike (PGS) capability in 2010 that they included restrictions in the the new Start treaty (previously discussed on Slashdot). It now appears that China has entered the game with their "Ultra-High Speed Missile Vehicle." While some in the Russian press may question whether fears of the PGS are "rational" it appears that the race is on to develop the fastest weapons delivery system. The hypersonic arms race is focused on "precise targeting, very rapid delivery of weapons, and greater survivability against missile and space defenses" with delivery systems traveling between Mach 5 and Mach 10 after being launched from "near space".

Submission + - If I Had A Hammer

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Tom Friedman begins his latest op-ed in the NYT with an anecdote about Dutch chess grandmaster Jan Hein Donner who when asked how he’d prepare for a chess match against a computer like IBM.’s Deep Blue replied: “I would bring a hammer.” Donner isn’t alone in fantasizing that he’d like to smash some recent advances in software and automation like self-driving cars, robotic factories and artificially intelligent reservationists says Friedman because they are "not only replacing blue-collar jobs at a faster rate, but now also white-collar skills, even grandmasters!" In the First Machine Age (The Industrial Revolution) each successive invention delivered more and more power but they all required humans to make decisions about them. Therefore, the inventions of this era actually made human control and labor “more valuable and important.” Labor and machines were complementary. Friedman says that we are now entering the "Second Machine Age" where we are beginning to automate cognitive tasks because in many cases today artificially intelligent machines can make better decisions than humans. "We’re having the automation and the job destruction," says MIT’s Erik Brynjolfsson. "We’re not having the creation at the same pace. There’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to find these new jobs. It may be that machines are better than that." Put all the recent advances together says Friedman, and you can see that our generation will have more power to improve (or destroy) the world than any before, relying on fewer people and more technology. "But it also means that we need to rethink deeply our social contracts, because labor is so important to a person’s identity and dignity and to societal stability." "We’ve got a lot of rethinking to do," concludes Friedman, "because we’re not only in a recession-induced employment slump. We’re in technological hurricane reshaping the workplace."

Submission + - Windows 9 Already? Apparently, Yes. (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: A little over a year after Microsoft released Windows 8, and a mere three months after it pushed out a major update with Windows 8.1, rumors abound that Windows 9 is already on its way. According to Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows, Microsoft will begin discussing the next version of Windows (codenamed “Threshold,” at least for the moment) at April’s BUILD conference. “Threshold is more important than any specific updates,” he wrote. “Windows 8 is tanking harder than Microsoft is comfortable discussing in public, and the latest release, Windows 8.1, which is a substantial and free upgrade with major improvements over the original release, is in use on less than 25 million PCs at the moment.” Microsoft intends Threshold to clean up at least a portion of Windows 8’s mess. Development on the latest operating system will supposedly begin in late April, which means developers who attend BUILD won’t have access to an early alpha release—in fact, it could be quite some time before Microsoft locks down any new features, although it might double down on Windows 8’s controversial “Modern” (previously known as “Metro”) design interface. Yet if Thurrott’s reporting proves correct, Microsoft isn’t abandoning the new Windows interface that earned such a lackluster response—it’s betting that the format, once tweaked, will somehow revive the operating system’s fortunes. With Ballmer leaving the company and a major reorganization underway, it’ll be the next Microsoft CEO’s task to make sure that Windows 9 is a hit; in fact, considering that rumored 2015 release date, shepherding the OS could become that executive’s first major test.

Submission + - What was Edward Snowden doing in India (foreignpolicy.com)

Submitted by Frankie70
Frankie70 writes: Nearly three years before he revealed himself as the source of leaked documents about NSA surveillance, Edward Snowden traveled to New Delhi, India. There, he spent six days taking courses in computer hacking and programming at a local professional school, according to school officials and people familiar with Snowden's trip. Working with a private instructor, Snowden, who was then a contractor for the spy agency, took a course in "ethical hacking," where he learned advanced techniques for breaking into computer systems and exploiting flaws in software.

Submission + - Hubble Telescope Snaps Images of Tarantula Nebula

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope snapped a series new images inside the Tarantula Nebula, located within the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) – the third closest galaxy to the Milky Way. Hubble officials previously released images of the spidery nebula, however, this is the deepest view of the intriguing cosmic region full of star clusters yet.

Submission + - Adobe Compromised; All Your Codes Belong to Us (krebsonsecurity.com)

Submitted by sl4shd0rk
sl4shd0rk writes: Adobe Systems Inc. is expected to announce today that hackers broke into its network and stole source code for an as-yet undetermined number of software titles, including its ColdFusion Web application platform, and possibly its Acrobat family of products. The company said hackers also accessed nearly three million customer credit card records, and stole login data for an undetermined number of Adobe user accounts.

Comment airbnb experience (Score 1) 153

by SLot (#44354693) Attached to: Welcome To the 'Sharing Economy'

I loved it for Zagreb. Had the best flat & owners I'd ever met. Guy even got me a prepaid phone to use while I over there so I could txt/call friends and buy tram tickets. Was super clean, had washer and balcony with rack for drying. Very near to Upper City and main train station. 6 nights for 400 bucks for whole apartment. Will go back, will stay at same place.

London was ok, but far cheaper than hotel. And by far cheaper, I mean *FAR FAR* cheaper.

Anyways, if you do your homework, airbnb isn't a bad thing at all. Helps a lot to know the area and ask plenty of questions of your hosts before you go.

Submission + - DOJ admits Aaron's prosecution was political (tumblr.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The DOJ has told Congressional investigators that Aaron’s prosecution was motivated by his political views on copyright.
I was going to start that last paragraph with “In a stunning turn of events,” but I realized that would be inaccurate — because it’s really not that surprising. Many people speculated throughout the whole ordeal that this was a political prosecution, motivated by anything/everything from Aaron’s effective campaigning against SOPA to his run-ins with the FBI over the PACER database. But Aaron actually didn’t believe it was — he thought it was overreach by some local prosecutors who didn’t really understand the internet and just saw him as a high-profile scalp they could claim, facilitated by a criminal justice system and computer crime laws specifically designed to give prosecutors, however incompetent or malicious, all the wrong incentives and all the power they could ever want.

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