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Comment Re:Typing (Score 1) 302

Very nicely put!

I would add that we now have the ability to just talk to the mic and have some parsing software write the words and punctuation for us, but that won't work in our lame open office space at work, nor do I want to wear out (or hear) my voice while I'm trying to think of things to type. Really, what's the one physical thing in a smart phone that cannot be bargained out; the on-screen keyboard. Mice? No need, keyboard? Hell yes!!1!

Comment Re:None. (Score 2) 302

Luxury, sheer luxury! When I went to school we had to use shitty TRS-80s with fucking micro tape drives that were not much better than a cassette tape drive. You had to get kicked out of that school to get to the public school that at least had Apple IIs and a nice PDP11 to get anything done!

Next guy: Oh YEA?! We had to program our own logins in COBOL on a CDC6600 and we LIKED it like that!

Older guy: Fucking kids, I had to carry my own boxes of CRTubes uphill 5 miles to get time on my EDSAC2 to write code in machine binary to make the heat and lights work in the lab!

Oldest guy: Fuck you! *drops abacus* and walks off stage...

Submission + - Jason Scott of textfiles.com Wants Your AOL & Shovelware CDs (textfiles.com) 1

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: You've probably got a spindle in your close tor a drawer full of CD-ROM media mailed to you or delivered with some hardware that you put away "just in case" and now (ten years later) the case for actually using them is laughable. Well, a certain mentally ill individual named Jason Scott has a fever and the only cure is more AOL CDs. But his sickness doesn't stop there, "I also want all the CD-ROMs made by Walnut Creek CD-ROM. I want every shovelware disc that came out in the entire breadth of the CD-ROM era. I want every shareware floppy, while we’re talking. I want it all. The CD-ROM era is basically finite at this point. It’s over. The time when we’re going to use physical media as the primary transport for most data is done done done. Sure, there’s going to be distributions and use of CD-ROMs for some time to come, but the time when it all came that way and when it was in most cases the only method of distribution in the history books, now. And there were a specific amount of CD-ROMs made. There are directories and listings of many that were manufactured. I want to find those. I want to image them, and I want to put them up. I’m looking for stacks of CD-ROMs now. Stacks and stacks. AOL CDs and driver CDs and Shareware CDs and even hand-burned CDs of stuff you downloaded way back when. This is the time to strike." Who knows? His madness may end up being appreciated by younger generations!

Comment Re:Pretty durable in my real-world use. (Score 1) 88

by countSudoku() (#49727769) Attached to: Yubikey Neo Teardown and Durability Review

Sound advice, but why not just put a cap on the usb port to cover the sheer "undestructibleness" of the key of crap?

I'm sure this key-chain security dongle (heavy on the DONG) is as secure as it is indestructible. Like the RSA token is super secure, except from every three-letter asswipe with a badge, a gun, and a laptop running G-nessus

Submission + - Former KGB Spy in high role in NY State Critical Infrastructure (timesunion.com)

Submitted by schklerg
schklerg writes: The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), which is responsible for New York State’s electric grid, recently learned that their “Director of Software Development" was a former KGB spy. The organization only discovered this when 60 minutes interviewed him on his life as a Cold War spy. Apparently the background checks were not as thorough as they’d like. They have stated that there are “no instances of our systems or security having been affected in any way”. Should a former enemy state spy have a key role in your country’s critical infrastructure?

Submission + - Marvel's female superheros are gradually becoming more super (societyforscience.org)

Submitted by RhubarbPye
RhubarbPye writes: A new study shows an increasing trend in the power and significance of female superhero characters in the Marvel comic book universe. Several criteria were used to examine the trend, including cover art, dialog, and the actual superpowers. Over 200 individual comic books from Marvel's 50+ year history were compared for the study. What's of particular interest is the study's author is a 17-year old high school student from Ohio.

Submission + - Should I get an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi? (opensource.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I spend a lot of time at conferences and events like Maker Faires, and having co-authored a book on the Raspberry Pi, I spend a lot of time talking to people about things like small electronics and open hardware. Probably the most frequent question I hear is, "Should I get a Raspberry Pi or an Arduino?" They're both inexpensive boards, but if you want to reuse it in the future, you'll need to think about multiple projects as you're planning.

Submission + - International Space Station may get laser cannon to vaporize orbital debris (extremetech.com)

Submitted by mpicpp
mpicpp writes: The International Space Station (ISS) has been forced to alter trajectory numerous times over the years, but not for any scientific of logistical reason — it was necessary to avoid collisions with space junk. The day of simply stepping out of the way could be coming to an end, though. Researchers from Japan’s Riken Computational Astrophysics Laboratory have proposed a system that could blast dangerous space debris out of the sky before it comes close to the ISS.

The business end of the proposed laser system would be a Coherent Amplification Network (CAN) laser that can focus a single powerful beam on a piece of debris. The laser would vaporize the surface of the target, causing a plume of plasma to push the object away from the station and toward the atmosphere. The full-scale version of this system would use a 100,000-watt ultraviolet CAN laser capable of firing 10,000 pulses per second. That would give it a range of about 60 miles, which should be more than enough distance to keep the station safe.

Submission + - Chris Roberts is the least important part of the airplane hacking story (csmonitor.com) 1

Submitted by chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: Now that the news media is in full freak-out mode (http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/17/us/fbi-hacker-flight-computer-systems/index.html) about whether or not security researcher Chris Roberts did or did not hack into the engine of a plane, in flight and cause it to "fly sideways," security experts say its time to take a step back from the crazy and ask what is the real import of the plane hacking. The answer: definitely not Chris Roberts.

The real story that media outlets should be chasing isn't what Roberts did or didn't do on board a United flight in April, but whether there is any truth to longtime assurances from airplane makers like Boeing and Airbus that critical avionics systems aboard their aircraft are unreachable from systems accessible to passengers, the Christian Science Monitor writes. (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Passcode/2015/0518/Did-a-hacker-really-make-a-plane-go-sideways)

And, on that issue, Roberts' statements and the FBI's actions raise as many questions as they answer. For one: why is the FBI suddenly focused on years-old research that has long been part of the public record.

“This has been a known issue for four or five years, where a bunch of us have been stood up and pounding our chest and saying, 'This has to be fixed,' " Roberts noted. “Is there a credible threat? Is something happening? If so, they’re not going to tell us,” he said.

Roberts isn’t the only one confused by the series of events surrounding his detention in April and the revelations about his interviews with federal agents.

“I would like to see a transcript (of the interviews),” said one former federal computer crimes prosecutor, speaking on condition of anonymity. “If he did what he said he did, why is he not in jail? And if he didn’t do it, why is the FBI saying he did?”

Josh Corman, the chief technology officer at the firm Sonatype, said the media and security industry's focus on Roberts' actions is a distraction. Mr. Corman, who is the founder of IAmTheCavalry.org, (https://www.iamthecavalry.org/) a grassroots group focused on issues where computer security intersects public safety and human life, said that the real question was about the safety and reliability of airplane avionics systems.

"The message has been that nothing the customer can do in the passenger cabin can affect the avionics," said Corman. However, the FBI affidavit (http://aptn.ca/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/05/warrant-for-Roberts-electronics.pdf) suggests otherwise, citing interviews with Roberts going back to Februrary.

"So we're getting a mixed message about what can and can't be done," Corman said. "Either planes are not hackable, or they might be...irrespective or regardless of the veracity of [Roberts] claim."

Submission + - FBI and Homeland Security Respond to Hacked Digital Billboards (gawker.com)

Submitted by SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: Multiple billboards in downtown Atlanta were hacked and began to display the infamous Goatse meme from the Internet.

Thousands of YESCO digital billboards are installed across the country. Naturally, it comes with an internet connection. The setup is exactly as insecure as you’d imagine: many of these electronic billboards are completely unprotected, dangling on the public internet without a password or any kind of firewall. This means it’s pretty simple to change the image displayed from a new AT&T offer to, say, Goatse.

The appearance of this unexpected mammoth image alarmed residents so much that at least one called 911.

“There’s an electronic billboard that is flashing a naked man,” one woman said in the 911 call. “It’s not actually an emergency; it’s just totally disgusting.” Police say the billboard’s owner temporarily cut power to the billboard.

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