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Submission + - The Royal Society Proposes First Framework for Climate Engineering Experiments

Submitted by Jason Koebler
Jason Koebler writes: The Royal Society of London, the world's oldest scientific publisher, has unveiled a proposal to create the first serious framework for future geoengineering experiments.
It's a sign that what are still considered drastic and risky measures to combat climate change are drifting further into the purview of mainstream science. The scientific body has issued a call to create "an open and transparent review process that ensures such experiments have the necessary social license to operate."

Submission + - Linux Kernel Git Repositories Add 2-Factor Authentication (linux.com)

Submitted by LibbyMC
LibbyMC writes: For a few years now Linux kernel developers have followed a fairly strict authentication policy for those who commit directly to the git repositories housing the Linux kernel. Each is issued their own ssh private key, which then becomes the sole way for them to push code changes to the git repositories hosted at kernel.org. While using ssh keys is much more secure than just passwords, there are still a number of ways for ssh private keys to fall into malicious hands. So they've further tightened access requirements with two-factor authentication using yubikeys.

Submission + - Research Unveils Improved Method To Let Computers Know You Are Human

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: CAPTCHA services that require users to recognize and type in static distorted characters may be a method of the past, according to studies published by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Researchers focused on a broad form of gamelike CAPTCHAs, called dynamic cognitive game, or DCG, CAPTCHAs, which challenge the user to perform a gamelike cognitive task interacting with a series of dynamic images. For example, in a “ship parking” DCG challenge, the user is required to identify the boat from a set of moving objects and drag-and-drop it to the available “dock” location. The puzzle is easy for the human user to solve, but may be difficult for a computer program to figure out. Also, its gamelike nature may make the process more engaging for the user compared to conventional text-based CAPTCHAs.

Comment Re:Where are those chips baked? (Score 3, Insightful) 47

by sixoh1 (#47682357) Attached to: Project Aims To Build a Fully Open SoC and Dev Board

From the article they are using TSMC, which is one of the largest silicon foundries (ASIC manufacturing) in the world.

As for the all out open-source, they also make clear on the project page that hardware patents on the chipset instruction is supposedly strangling innovation for processors. I'm not sure I buy that, ARM, Intel and IBM have moved their architectures along pretty well. Even poor little MIPS has made strides despite losing market share.

Feed Google News Sci Tech: IBM Gets US Approval for Sale of Server Business to Lenovo - Bloomberg (google.com)

From feed by feedfeeder

Reuters UK
IBM Gets US Approval for Sale of Server Business to Lenovo
Bloomberg
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) cleared a U.S. national-security review for the sale of its low-end server business to China's Lenovo Group Ltd. (992), letting the $2.3 billion transaction go forward even amid tensions between the two nations.
Partners: IBM x86 Sale Approval Could Set Off Security Questions For LenovoCRN
UPDATE 1-IBM says $2.3 bln server sale gets regulator approvalReuters
Lenovo's x86 server buyout from IBM clears last US hurdlePCWorld
ZDNet-Wall Street Journal (blog)-News & Observer
all 28 news articles

Submission + - 60,000 Oculus Rift DK2 Orders, 20,000+ Units Shipped, New Orders Ship in October (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The much lauded Oculus Rift DK2 is in high demand. Shipping began at the end of July and Oculus says they've already shipped more than 20,000 of their 60,000 orders. The company recently updated their order page to indicate that new units are expected to ship starting in October. The Oculus Rift DK2 is the company’s second development kit which offers a number of major improvements over the original kit, called the DK1, which was the result of a successful Kickstarter back in August, 2012. Although the DK2 is intended for developers, the company openly offers the VR headset up for sale to anyone interested for $350. The Oculus Rift DK2s most notable enhancements are a higher resolution display and positional tracking capability as well as a number of other under-the-hood enhancements make the DK2 a huge improvement over its predecessor.

Submission + - Project Aims to Build a Fully Open SoC and Dev Board (linuxgizmos.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: A non-profit company is developing an open source 64-bit system-on-chip that will enable fully open hardware, 'from the CPU core to the development board.' The 'lowRISC' SoC is the brainchild of a team of hardware and software hackers from the University of Cambridge, with the stated goal of implementing a 'fully open computing eco-system, including the instruction set architecture (ISA), processor silicon, and development boards.' The lowRISC's design is based on a new 64-bit RISC-V ISA, developed at UC Berkeley. The RISC-V core design has now advanced enough for the lowRISC project to begin designing an SoC around it. Prototype silicon of a 'RISC-V Rocket' core itself has already been benchmarked at UC Berkeley, with results results (on GitHub) suggesting that in comparison to a 32-bit ARM Cortex-A5 core, the RISC-V core is faster, smaller, and uses less power. And on top of that it's open source. Oh, and there's a nifty JavaScript-based RISC-V simulator that runs in your browser.

Submission + - Supervalu Becomes Another Hacking Victim (fierceretail.com)

Submitted by plover
plover writes: Supervalu (NYSE:SVU) is the latest retailer to experience a data breach, announcing today that cybercriminals had accessed payment card transactions at some of its stores.

The Minneapolis-based company said it had "experienced a criminal intrusion" into the portion of its computer network that processes payment card transactions for some of its stores. There was no confirmation that any cardholder data was in fact stolen and no evidence the data was misused, according to the company.

The event occurred between June 22 and July 17, 2014 at 180 Supervalu stores and stand-alone liquor stores. Affected banners include Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher's, Shop 'n Save and Shoppers Food & Pharmacy.

Submission + - Watch a Cat Video, Get Hacked: The Death of Clear-Text

Submitted by onproton
onproton writes: Citizen Lab released new research today on a targeted exploitation technique used by state actors involving "network injection appliances" installed at ISPs. These devices can target and intercept unencrypted YouTube traffic and replace it with malicious code that gives the operator control over the system or installs a surveillance backdoor. One of the researchers writes, "many otherwise well-informed people think they have to do something wrong, or stupid, or insecure to get hacked—like clicking on the wrong attachments, or browsing malicious websites...many of these commonly held beliefs are not necessarily true." This technique is largely designed for targeted attacks, so it's likely most of us will be safe for now — but just one more reminder to use https.

Submission + - Object Storage versus Block Storage: Understanding the Technology Differences 2

Submitted by Esther Schindler
Esther Schindler writes: Even very technical people scratch their heads over the business value of object storage. In other words, what problems does it solve? What are its drawbacks and limitations? Which types of applications run better, what breaks, and what do you need to completely redesign to take advantage of the storage technology?

Ultimately every IT admin wants to know if object storage is a good fit for certain workloads. This article defines object storage, compares it to alternatives, and gives an overview of where it can make a performance difference for enterprise computing.

Comment Re:Much as it pains the Slashdot editors.... (Score 1) 299

by sixoh1 (#47666097) Attached to: Writer: Internet Comments Belong On Personal Blogs, Not News Sites

No moderation system is perfect, but audience curation (whether intentional or not) does seem to channel the activity into a relatively benign community. While there are plenty of Trolls here, most often these are either bad nerd jokes, or Apple/Microsoft/Linux haters - notice the common theme? Even more importantly however, even our /. trolls are likeminded, and (mostly) tolerated.

The problem I see with Jackson's "solution" is that the Jezabel audience (not the trolls) will lose any voice they had, which in retrospect is probably EXACTLY what the trolls want.

Submission + - Eliminating comments on publication websites? (psmag.com) 1

Submitted by sixoh1
sixoh1 writes: Nicholas Jackson at Pacific Standard suggests that internet comments are permanently broken (in response to an issue Jezebel is having with violent misogynist GIFs and other inappropriate commentary). He argues that blogs are a good-enough solution to commentary and dialog across the internet.

This seems to hold true for most broad-interest sites like newspapers and magazines where comments can be downright awful, as opposed to sites like Slashdot with a self-selected and somewhat homogenous audience. It seems unlikely that using only blogs for responsive dialog with authors and peers could come close to matching the feedback and community feel of comments such as we see here.

Is there a technical solution, or is this a biological problem imposed on the internet...

Submission + - Murder suspect asked Siri where to hide a dead body (networkworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A Florida man currently on trial for murder reportedly attempted to use Siri to garner ideas about where to bury the body of his dead roomate. According to police allegations, a University of Florida student named Pedro Bravo murdered his roomate via strangulation in late September of 2012 over a dispute involving Bravo's ex- girlfriend.

According to a detective working the case, Bravo subsequently fired up Siri on his iPhone and asked it "I need to hide my roomate."

Submission + - The benefits of inequality

Submitted by MutualFun
MutualFun writes: Which would you prefer: egalitarianism or totalitarianism? When it comes down to it, the choice you make may not be as obvious as you think. New research suggests that in the distant past, groups of hunter-gatherers may have recognized and accepted the benefits of living in hierarchical societies, even if they themselves weren't counted among the well-off. This model could help explain why bands of humans moved from largely egalitarian groups to hierarchical cultures in which social inequality was rife.

Comment Re:Settle out of court (Score 1) 191

by sixoh1 (#47658715) Attached to: Larry Rosen: A Case Study In Understanding (and Enforcing) the GPL

Yes, people get very confused by the fact that nearly all of the headline grabbing GPL enforcement actions to date have "settled" for coming into compliance, with occasional "donations" to GPL enforcement bodies. Remember, a settlement is usually an out of court agreement between the parties to terminate or withdraw legal action, and never involves actually settling the law at hand, and a settlement generally doesn't need to comply the law.

The best way to understand this difference is to realize that if you run off the road and break my fence, and I sue you but settle for $20 instead of the $200 repair bill for whatever reason, you can still be sued by my neighbor for his part of the fence, and he is under no obligation to settle for $20 as I have done.

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