concealment - Slashdot User

Submission + - Senate bill rewrite lets Feds read your e-mail without warrants (cnet.com) 1

Submitted by

concealment

on Tuesday November 20, 2012 @09:07AM

concealment writes: "A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans' e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.

Leahy's rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies — including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission — to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge."

Submission + - What makes us intelligent? (bbc.com)

Submitted by

concealment

on Tuesday November 20, 2012 @09:01AM

concealment writes: "Research shows that people don't tend to rely on their memories for things they can easily access. Things like the world in front of our eyes, for example, can be changed quite radically without people noticing. Experiments have shown that buildings can somehow disappear from pictures we're looking at, or the people we're talking to can be switched with someone else, and often we won't notice – a phenomenon called “change blindness”. This isn't as an example of human stupidity – far from it, in fact – this is an example of mental efficiency. The mind relies on the world as a better record than memory, and usually that's a good assumption.

As a result, philosophers have suggested that the mind is designed to spread itself out over the environment. So much so that, they suggest, the thinking is really happening in the environment as much as it is happening in our brains. The philosopher Andy Clark called humans "natural born cyborgs", beings with minds that naturally incorporate new tools, ideas and abilities. From Clark's perspective, the route to a solution is not the issue – having the right tools really does mean you know the answers, just as much as already knowing the answer."

Submission + - Jail Looms for Man Who Revealed AT&T Leaked iPad User E-Mails (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by

concealment

on Tuesday November 20, 2012 @08:57AM

concealment writes: "AT&T screwed up in 2010, serving up the e-mail addresses of over 110,000 of its iPad 3G customers online for anyone to find. But today Andrew Auernheimer, an online activist who pointed out AT&T’s blunder to Gawker Media, which went on to publicize the breach of private information, is the one in federal court this week.

Groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) worry that should that charge succeed it will become easy to criminalize many online activities, including work by well-intentioned activists looking for leaks of private information or other online security holes. Weev’s case hasn’t received much attention so far, but should he be found guilty this week it will likely become well known, fast."

Submission + - Shaming Racists On Social Media Continues With New Tumblr (readwrite.com)

Submitted by

concealment

on Monday November 19, 2012 @09:20AM

concealment writes: "Two years ago harassing someone online for something they did, when 4chan and Anonymous did it, was frowned upon by many media outlets. In my impromptu gchat with Hendren, I asked him why he thinks vigilantism is now not only mainstream, but suddenly cool to do.

“Ironically, I think it has to do with the portrayal of 'cyberbullies' in the last few years,” wrote Hendren. “It's become okay to go after people being mean on the Internet in the eyes of the law in some places, so why not go after people saying other horrible things?”

Media outlets have been unmasking trolls for more than a year now, the most recent and infamous being Violentacrez. I believe this type of coverage fosters a culture of social media justice where everyone feels empowered to be judge, jury and executioner."

Submission + - How the SEC Almost Shut Down Wall Street (go.com)

Submitted by

concealment

on Monday November 19, 2012 @09:15AM

concealment writes: "Computers owned by the Securities and Exchange Commission Trading and Markets division were brought by SEC staffers to a hacker convention. They contained unencrypted, step-by-step instructions to shut down our financial trading system. Essentially: A Hacker's Guide to our Financial Universe.

Sophisticated algorithms or complex malware were not required to crash the world's largest exchanges (and with them the world economy). No need for security clearance. A common thief could have hit the lottery with these babies."

Submission + - How RapidShare Plans To Avoid MegaUpload's Fate (readwrite.com)

Submitted by

concealment

on Monday November 19, 2012 @09:12AM

concealment writes: "On November 27, RapidShare will start putting a tight cap on outbound downloads for its free users. Paid members will still have 30 gigabytes in outbound downloads per day, but everybody else will be capped at one gigabyte. The change is expected to further deter pirates from using RapidShare to distribute copyright material on a large scale."

Submission + - Google after antitrust: The good, the bad, and the ugly (cnet.com)

Submitted by

concealment

on Monday November 19, 2012 @09:01AM

concealment writes: "Google has had regulatory run-ins before. It overpowered objections and acquired DoubleClick, AdMob, and ITA, but it knuckled under when the U.S. Justice Department threatened to sue over a Google-Yahoo search-ad deal.

But unlike the earlier antitrust fights, today's investigations are aimed at Google's heart: search and search advertising. After more than a year of investigation in both the EU and the United States, it appears regulators are ready to make a move, and most expect action by the end of the year. FTC Chairman Jonathan Leibowitz is pushing Google to make a settlement offer "in the next few days" or face a lawsuit, Bloomberg reported last week."

Submission + - Why Microsoft Says the Patent System Is Peachy Keen (wired.com)

Submitted by

concealment

on Thursday November 15, 2012 @09:17AM

concealment writes: "In some cases, Microsoft will take calls from outside outfits interested in licensing its patents. RIM or Apple, say, will phone and ask to license Microsoft’s ActiveSync technology, a means of synchronizing email, contacts, and calendar entries across phones and other devices. “That’s a pretty friendly set of discussions,” Kaefer says.

But as he puts it, Microsoft will also “pro-actively” drive licensing deals. “We will go out and look for areas where we see a lot people who are probably using our technology in one form or another,” he says, “and we kinda ask ourselves whether it has risen to a level that we care about and we want to have some conversations.” Basically, this involves a Microsoft lawyer like Kaefer trying to convince lawyers at other companies that their technology infringes on Microsoft patents — and that they should pay to license those patents. According to Kaefer, these discussions can spans months — or even years."

Submission + - In UK, Twitter, Facebook rants land some in jail (chron.com)

Submitted by

concealment

on Thursday November 15, 2012 @09:09AM

concealment writes: "In Britain, hundreds of people are prosecuted each year for posts, tweets, texts and emails deemed menacing, indecent, offensive or obscene, and the number is growing as our online lives expand. "Fifty years ago someone would have made a really offensive comment in a public space and it would have been heard by relatively few people," said Mike Harris of free-speech group Index on Censorship. People take it upon themselves to report this offensive material to police, and suddenly you've got the criminalization of offensive speech. Figures obtained by The Associated Press through a freedom of information request show a steadily rising tally of prosecutions in Britain for electronic communications — phone calls, emails and social media posts — that are grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character — from 1,263 in 2009 to 1,843 in 2011. Justice Igor Judge said in his judgment that the law should not prevent "satirical or iconoclastic or rude comment, the expression of unpopular or unfashionable opinion about serious or trivial matters, banter or humor, even if distasteful to some or painful to those subjected to it.""

Submission + - How animals vote (bbc.com)

Submitted by

concealment

on Wednesday November 14, 2012 @09:26AM

concealment writes: "Animals make collective decisions, too. While non-human species typically don't vote to choose their leaders, they do vote for other more routine decisions, like where to live or where to forage. But they don't have voting machines or ballots to determine the group's consensus, so how do they do it?

Some do it through the wisdom of crowds. Near the end of spring or the beginning of summer, honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies grow too large for their hives, so the group splits in two. The mother queen and half of the worker bees leave the hive to seek a new location, while the daughter queen and the remaining workers remain in place. Minutes later, the departed group identifies a temporary resting place on a nearby tree branch, and from there it surveys the local real estate. Several hundred scouts fan out in all directions in search of a suitable location for a new hive. On their return, each scout communicates the location of the space they found by performing a waggle dance in front of their hive mates."

Submission + - Security hole allows takeover of Skype account using only your email address (thenextweb.com)

Submitted by

concealment

on Wednesday November 14, 2012 @09:22AM

concealment writes: "A new security hole has been discovered in Microsoft’s Skype that allows anyone to change your password and thus take over your account. The issue was first posted on a Russian forum two months ago and has been confirmed by The Next Web (we have not linked to any of the blogs or posts detailing the exploit because it is very easy to reproduce).

Update: Skype appears to have pulled its password reset page, stopping this flaw in its tracks (Confirmed, read below for details).

We’ve been in touch with Skype over the past few hours to give them a chance to address this vulnerability. The company has informed us it is currently conducting an internal investigation."

Submission + - Google's server cooling plan produces 4-ft-alligator (postandcourier.com)

Submitted by

concealment

on Wednesday November 14, 2012 @09:14AM

concealment writes: "In addition to potentially keeping Google’s search and email programs from overheating, the pond also has become home to plenty of algae, which meant Google had to stock it with fish. And since this is the Lowcountry, the food chain didn’t stop there.

“So we now have a 4-foot alligator that has taken up residence in our pond as well,” Kava said, clearly amused. He added that government experts have said it’ll have to be removed once it grows to six feet long."

Submission + - The downfall of Facebook (readwrite.com) 1

Submitted by

concealment

on Wednesday November 14, 2012 @09:04AM

concealment writes: "I’ve heard anecdotally about a huge brand that was complaining recently because it has spent four years building a following of millions of people, promoting its Facebook presence (and, by implication, Facebook itself) on expensive television ads — and now Facebook has flipped a switch and, overnight, their reach dropped by 40%.

You might argue that Facebook has an integrity problem. What it has done here is a classic bait-and-switch maneuver, one where you change the rules after you get everybody into the tent. It’s the kind of thing you expect from a used-car dealer, not a big publicly traded company.

(Note to Editors: a prior article on this topic, by the same author, was posted yesterday. However, this is an interesting followup that suggests the downfall of Facebook is at hand.)"

Submission + - How Walmart is going all out with mobile (cnet.com)

Submitted by

concealment

on Tuesday November 13, 2012 @09:30AM

concealment writes: "Walmart will use you location to provide you with an app designed specifically for that store. Head to another Walmart and your app will work for that store. It has useful features: You can make a list by speaking into the phone. You can search a product by typing in a name — tissues, say, or light bulbs — and the app will show you what aisle to go to. It has an interactive map. It lets you scan items as you shop, so you can go quickly through self-checkout. And it shows you promotions specific to that store.

Perhaps most importantly, the app lets you easily buy an item online that you don't find in the store. So if you're shopping for a pink bike, and the store you're in only has it in blue, you can tap on the app and instantly order the pink bike.

The result: Two weeks after Walmart launched "in-store mode" with its app, roughly 60 percent of its shoppers opted to use it. Moreover, about 12 percent of Walmart's online sales are now coming from customers who are inside a store and using "in-store mode." All of Walmart's 4,000 U.S. stores have an "in-store app.""

Submission + - Can Hadoop Survive its Weird Beginning? (forbes.com)

Submitted by

concealment

on Tuesday November 13, 2012 @09:23AM

concealment writes: "Hadoop is not like other efforts to commercialize open source in some important ways. In addition, is arriving at a time in which some of the traditional advantages of open source-based business models have eroded because of cloud computing and other developments.

Most people think of Hadoop as pioneering technology that is being developed through an open source ecosystem. But if we take a closer look at Hadoop’s origins and the current structure of its community, it quickly becomes clear that Hadoop is not following the footsteps of other projects like Linux, Drupal, Alfresco, or JBoss. Hadoop started out differently and has evolved into a structure that is much different than any other project that is so prominent."

Slashdot Top Deals