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Science

Submission + - The Mathematics of Basketball (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: To shoot, or not to shoot, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler to try to score right away or wait for a better chance. Professional basketball players face that quandary multiple times in every game. And in a new study a researcher and hoops fan provides some mathematical guidance for the best time to take aim.
Security

Submission + - British Police Arrest LulzSec Spokesman ... Maybe (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "As governments try to crack down on the LulzSec hacking collective, the Brits have claimed a success, arresting a 19-year-old on a remote Scottish island whom they claim is the LulzSec spokesman called "Topiary." The only problem is that there's increasing evidence they were duped. Since the UK's last big success in this war was the arrest of a teenage Aspergers sufferer who was at best a hanger-on in the group, we might have reason to doubt their current claims."

Comment Re:Good! (Score 5, Informative) 507

by Ruke (#36903064) Attached to: Climate Unit Releases Virtually All Remaining Data
I'm in agreement here; waiting until we have perfect information before making decisions just means that you'll never make any decisions. You take the information available, and weigh all of the options available now with their costs and benefits.
I'm of the opinion that the cost of doing nothing and being wrong far outweighs the cost of acting and being wrong. Worst case in one case is deepening the recession, where worst case in the other is unreversable catastrophic climate change.
The Internet

Submission + - Better Copyright Through Fair Use And Ponies (variety.com)

Submitted by Balinares
Balinares writes: With even harmless parody sites like Peanutweeter now getting shut down by twitchy lawyers in the name of brand dilution concerns, the situation with fair use has become bleak. Yet some companies are learning at last. Variery reports that when parodies of their latest production started popping up online, Hasbro not only allowed it to happen, but started contributing some of their own. Now their My Little Pony reboot has gained a huge following and reached cult status. Fair use does make everything better. That, or it's the ponies.
Security

Submission + - Aaron Barr Bows Out of DEFCON After Legal Threat (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Former HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr says he will withdraw from a planned appearance at the DEFCON conference in the face of threatened legal action over his plans to take part in a panel discussion there.

Barr notified DEFCON organizers on Wednesday that he was withdrawing from the Aug. 6 panel discussion after attorneys representing HBGary Federal threatened to file an injunction against him if he did not withdraw from the panel immediately. The incident is just the latest in a series of conflicts between Barr and HBGary Federal following attacks by the anarchic hacking group Anonymous on February 5.
IT

Submission + - Making Sense Of The NoSQL Standouts (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "InfoWorld's Peter Wayner provides an overview of the more compelling NoSQL data stores on offer today in hopes of helping IT pros get started experimenting with these powerful tools. From Cassandra, to MongoDB, to Neo4J, each appears geared for a particular set of application types, providing DBAs with a wealth of opportunity for experimentation, and a measure of confusion in finding the right tool for their environment. 'There are great advantages to this Babelization if the needs of your project fit the abilities of one of the new databases. If they line up well, the performance boosts can be incredible because the project developers aren't striving to build one Dreadnought to solve every problem,' Wayner writes. 'The experimentation is also fun because the designers don't feel compelled to make sure their data store is a drop-in replacement that speaks SQL like a native. They're coming up with new query languages and making different decisions about storing things like binary data. It has all the buzz of innovation.'"
Canada

Submission + - Peter Adekeye Freed, Judge Outraged at Cisco's (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by puppetman
puppetman writes: Ars Technica has an article relating the recent release of Peter Adekeye, a former Cisco employee who was arrested in Canada on trumped-up charges that appear to have been fabricated by Cisco. Slashdot covered the story back in April, 2011, during which time Mr Adekeye was still being detained.
In the ruling, the judge squashed the US extradition request, rebuked both the Canadian and American authorities for "an appalling abuse of process", and goes as far as to say that the criminal proceeding was launched on behalf of Cisco, to mirror the civil proceedings that Mr Adekeye had launched against the powerful Cisco. The full judgement, which is quite readable and damning, can be found here.
Technology

Submission + - Predictions of the Future...From The 1960s (singularityhub.com)

Submitted by
kkleiner
kkleiner writes: "Jetpacks, flying cars, death rays — the future isn’t quite what the past hoped it would be. Of course, when predictions do come true it can be really shocking. Check out some of the more entertaining and eye-opening videos that show classic predictions from the 1960s. The Jet Age couldn’t imagine the Age of Social Media clearly, but they got a few things right. And many more hilariously wrong."

Comment Re:Google+ (Score 1) 666

by Ruke (#36819306) Attached to: NH Man Arrested For Videotaping Police.. Again

But the police need to recognize that you've got a G+ account, and figure out how to bullshit their way through the bureaucracy. I mean, maybe Google would do it, but they're not going to automate the process. All you've got to do is tell your lawyer, "My username is 'countertrolling', and my password is 'trustno1'. Get those files for me and put them somewhere safe."

And at this point we've devolved into an elaborate fuck-the-man revenge fantasy, with no actual bearing on reality. =(

Comment Re:Google+ (Score 1) 666

by Ruke (#36818102) Attached to: NH Man Arrested For Videotaping Police.. Again
Yeah, I realize that the feature isn't for everyone. It's tempered by the fact that I had to enable this functionality specifically, in addition to installing the Google+ app, and the fact that the uploads default to "private to me" when they're uploaded - I have to mark each one with whatever circles I want to share it with. Absolutely, there are risks and concerns, but, in my case, and for the time being, they're outweighed by the benefits.

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