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Submission + - Math and Science Popular with College Students Until They Realize They're Hard

Submitted by HonorPoncaCityDotCom
HonorPoncaCityDotCom writes: Khadeeja Safdar reports in the WSJ that researchers who surveyed 655 incoming college students found that while math and science majors drew the most interest initially, not many students finished with degrees in those subjects. Students who dropped out didn’t do so because they discovered an unexpected amount of the work and because they were dissatisfied with their grades. “Students knew science was hard to begin with, but for a lot of them it turned out to be much worse than what they expected,” says Todd R. Stinebrickner, one of the paper’s authors. “What they didn’t expect is that even if they work hard, they still won’t do well.” The authors add that the substantial overoptimism about completing a degree in science can be attributed largely to students beginning school with misperceptions about their ability to perform well academically in science. "“If more science graduates are desired, the findings suggest the importance of policies at younger ages that lead students to enter college better prepared (PDF) to study science."

Submission + - The Pope criminalizes leaks (usatoday.com) 1

Submitted by PolygamousRanchKid
PolygamousRanchKid writes: Pope Francis overhauled the laws that govern the Vatican City State on Thursday, criminalizing leaks of Vatican information and specifically listing sexual violence, prostitution and possession of child pornography as crimes against children that can be punished by up to 12 years in prison.

But without the leaks, how would we find out about those crimes against children?

Many of the new provisions were necessary to bring the city state's legal system up to date after the Holy See signed international treaties, such as the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Others were necessary to comply with international norms to fight money-laundering, part of the Vatican's push toward financial transparency.

One new crime stands out, though, as an obvious response to the leaks of papal documents last year that represented one of the gravest Vatican security breaches in recent times. Paolo Gabriele, the butler for then-Pope Benedict XVI, was tried and convicted by a Vatican court of stealing Benedict's personal papers and giving them to an Italian journalist, Gianluigi Nuzzi. Using the documents, Nuzzi published a blockbuster book on the petty turf wars, bureaucratic dysfunction and allegations of corruption and homosexual liaisons that afflict the highest levels of Catholic Church governance. Gabriele, who said he wanted to expose the "evil and corruption" that plagued the Holy See, was convicted of aggravated theft and sentenced to 18 months in the Vatican's police barracks.

Oh, well. I guess plugging leaks won't stop all those shenanigans, but we just won't hear about it any more. This actually makes me feel like leaking something. If the Pope says it is dirty, and a sin, it must be a whole lot of fun doing it . . .

Submission + - What the government pays to snoop on you (usatoday.com) 1

Submitted by transporter_ii
transporter_ii writes: So what does it cost the government to snoop on us? Paid for by U.S. tax dollars, and with little scrutiny, surveillance fees charged by phone companies can vary wildly.

For example, AT&T, imposes a $325 "activation fee" for each wiretap and $10 a day to maintain it. Smaller carriers Cricket and U.S. Cellular charge only about $250 per wiretap. But snoop on a Verizon customer? That costs the government $775 for the first month and $500 each month after that, according to industry disclosures made last year to Congressman Edward Markey.

Submission + - E-voting source code made public in Estonia 1

Submitted by paavo512
paavo512 writes: Server-side source code used for electronic voting was made fully public by Estonian officials on July 11. The aim is to encourage more specialists to get involved in the technical analysis of the software. It is hoped that public overview will help to ensure the security of the system.

E-voting has been successfully used 5 times in Estonia since 2007. It facilitates national ID cards which are obligatory for all citizens. In the next municipal elections later this year it is planned to test an experimental feature where the voter can check via a physically separate channel (smart phone) if his or her vote has been registered correctly.

The original in Estonian: http://www.postimees.ee/1297368/e-haaletamise-tarkvara-lahtekood-sai-avalikuks

The publicized source code: https://github.com/vvk-ehk/evalimine

Submission + - Dragon's Tale: A Bitcoin-based Gambling MMORPG (dragons.tl)

Submitted by Teppy
Teppy writes: Since founding eGenesis in 1998 I've been the lead designer of A Tale in the Desert. Though ATITD never attracted a huge playerbase, it still has fiercely loyal fans, and proved that MMORPGs could be about things other than combat. About 3 years ago I decided to create another MMORPG, again without combat, and this time focusing on real-money gambling. In Dragon's Tale you level your character by completing gambling quests; as your level increases, new areas of the game can be explored, and new types of wagers become possible.

As you gain levels you can mentor new players, capturing a percentage of their gambling. You can create gambling events for others to play, putting up prizes and even charging entrance fees. You can gamble your way to political office, becoming governor of an island, and exercising the powers that go with the office.

I've made every game in Dragon's Tale unique: There is not a single slot machine or blackjack table to be found. But you can tip cows for money, run monkeys through mazes, feed ducks, go fishing, drink, smoke, 60+ different games in all, and new ones are being added all the time. Sort of a Disneyland for gamblers.

We're going to Beta on Friday, 12:00 Noon EDT with native clients for Linux, Windows and OSX.

Submission + - Open Source Alternatives For Google Services

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As it becomes more and more obvious that any reasonable user should stay away from Google's (or any other company's) free services, be it because of selling user data, or examining it, or PRISM, or lack of support, or any of the hundred reasons we can think of, one may start to wonder, why the open source community, given it power and widespread support, hasn't produced anything that could rival Gmail's (or gCal's, for example) usability and simplicity? Are we doomed to use mutt, or is it still possible to break away from the luring comfort this advertising giant provides us with?

Submission + - 3D TV May Be Out Before It Was Ever In (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: While there was never a lot of 3D television programming, what little there was appears to be fading fast. The BBC just announced it is suspending all of its 3D programming for an indefinite period of time after finding a lack of appetite among its viewers. The network said among its final 3D trial programs this November will be a Doctor Who anniversary special. While almost all new HD TVs today contain processors that support 3D imagery, viewers are finding the technology didn't add a lot to the overall television experience, according to Mike McGuire, a Gartner research vice president. "I just don't think the 3D TV experience ever managed to blow the minds of enough people," McGuire said.

Submission + - App to avoid the Dangerous Gun Free Zones (ammoland.com)

Submitted by bricko
bricko writes: This is a new app to be used so you can avoid being in a dangerous Gun Free zone. These areas are notorious for mass shootings since the perpetrators gravitate to areas where they are the only person with a gun. Schools, theaters, churches are extremely dangerous places since they ban any defensive weapons.

This app helps avoid these places.

Cell Phone App Helps Families Avoid Dangerous Gun Free Zones

http://www.ammoland.com/2013/07/cell-phone-app-helps-families-avoid-dangerous-gun-free-zones/#ixzz2YZzFDFnQ

Submission + - Fighting street gangs with military counter-insurgency software (bbc.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After every major war, technology developed for a conflict gets applied to civilian life. The BBC recently reported that Army researchers have adapted advanced social network analysis software used for counter-insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan to help law enforcement analyze the behavior of street gangs. With the growing problem of gang violence in major US cities, this may provide a fresh perspective. The question is, will it work?

Submission + - The Air Force's Love for Fighter Pilots Is Too Big to Fail (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: Just look at what's been going on throughout the Air Force. It's as if drones pose such a threat to traditional means of aerial warfare that the flying service's historically kneejerk resistance to anything too closely aligned with sweeping technological change finds it bristling today at prospective gamechangers of the unmanned sort. Nevermind that the AF's active remotely-piloted combat aircraft outnumber its active manned bomber inventory by about 2-to-1. For perspective, as Lt. Col. Lawrence Spinetta writes in the July issue of the Air & Space Power Journal, an official USAF publication, consider that "RPA [remotely-piloted aircraft] personnel enjoy one wing command" (at Creeeh Air Base — Nevada) while fighter pilots control 26.

In other words, "the ratio of wing-command opportunities for RPA pilots versus those who fly manned combat aircraft is a staggering 1-to-26."

Such personnel policies that seemingly favor manned standbys are part and parcel of deep-rooted, institutional stigmas. In a 2008 speech, General Norton Schwarz, who served as AF chief from 2008 to 2012, did not mince words when he said that this systemic obsession with all-things manned has turned the Air Force's swelling drone ranks into a "leper colony".

Submission + - Xen 4.3 Released With New XSM-Flash Security (serverwatch.com)

Submitted by darthcamaro
darthcamaro writes: The Xen project is out with its first release as Linux Foundation Collaboration Project. Xen 4.3 can now scale up to 750 virtual CPUs and can support up to 5 TB in physical memory. The release also includes a tech preview of ARM and Open vSwitch support. On the security front, the new XSM-Flash capabilities could be a real game changer providing real granular level security controls (a la SELinux) to virtual machines.

"XSM allows administrators or developers to exert fine-grained control over a Xen domain and its capabilities, whereas SELinux provides that control over the kernels capabilities," Lars Kurth, community manager, Xen Project. "Specifically, XSM makes it possible to define permissible interactions between domains (VMs), the hypervisor itself, and related resources such as memory and devices. "

Submission + - Exposed Root SSH Key Shipping With Emergency Alert System Devices 1

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Firmware images for the application servers that distribute messages for the Emergency Alert System in the United States are shipping with a private root SSH key that has been disclosed. Hackers who have this key can access one of these servers and interrupt or manipulate an EAS message.

The EAS is a system that enables, in a worst-case scenario, the president to speak to the nation within 10 minutes of a disaster over radio and television. In February, ENDEC machines at a Montana television station were accessed by hackers and broadcast a phony emergency alert warning of a zombie apocalypse.

DHS’ ICS-CERT issued an alert last week warning that Digital Alert Systems’ DASDEC and Monroe Electronics One-Net E189 EAS devices were shipping a compromised shared private root SSH key in publicly available firmware images. The vulnerabilities in the DASDEC application servers were reported by IOActive principal research scientist Mike Davis. The servers authenticate EAS messages and interrupt broadcasts with the familiar alert tone that accompanies emergency messages.

Submission + - US Emergency Alerting System Can Be Hacked Remotely (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: Recently discovered security flaws in the Emergency Alerting System (EAS) which is widely used by TV and radio stations across the United States, has made the systems vulnerable to remote attack.

The vulnerability stems from an SSH key that is hard-coded into DASDEC-I and DASDEC-II devices made by Monroe Electronics. Unless the default settings were altered during deployment, impacted systems are using a known key that could enable an attacker with full access if the systems are publicly faced or if they’ve already compromised the network. By exploiting the vulnerability, an attacker could disrupt a station’s ability to transmit and/or could send out false emergency information.

“Earlier this year we were shown an example of an intrusion on the EAS when the Montana Television Network’s regular programming was interrupted by news of a zombie apocalypse. Although there was no zombie apocalypse, it did highlight just how vulnerable the system is,” said Mike Davis, a principal research scientist at IOActive.

The DHS issued an alert on the vulnerability, and IOActive, the firm that discovered the flaw, has published additional technical details (PDF) on the security issue.

Submission + - UCSD Lecturer Releases Gun Owner Geotagging Application 10

Submitted by __aajfby9338
__aajfby9338 writes: UCSD Lecturer Brett Stallbaum has released an Android app called Gun Geo Marker to allow people to "Geolocate Dangerous Guns and Owners". The app description states:

"The Gun Geo Marker operates very simply, letting parents and community members mark, or geolocate, sites associated with potentially unsafe guns and gun owners. These locations are typically the homes or businesses of suspected unsafe gun owners, but might also be public lands or other locations where guns are not handled safely, or situations where proper rights to own or use any particular type of firearm may not exist."

I question how the motivation behind developing this app differs from, say, developing an app to allow others to publicly geotag homes of people believed to belong to a particular religion or political party.

Submission + - IRS exposed thousands of Social Security numbers relating to 527 groups (nationaljournal.com)

Submitted by Charliemopps
Charliemopps writes: Here's an unusually detailed story of how the IRS mistakenly released a large amount of sensitive information to the internet recently. Several thousand social security numbers that were somehow related to 527 group donations were posted to the internet for several days and at least one download was made of the bulk data.

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