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Submission + - What site would you recommend to replace Slashdot? 1

koreanbabykilla writes: Now that it looks like I'm no longer going to be able to use Slashdot due to beta.slashdot.org, I need somewhere to kill a few hours a day at work. Any suggestions?

Submission + - Kim Jong Un, Ghost of Hitler, Announce Approval of Slashdot Beta

An anonymous reader writes: The Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the ghost of the former leader of National Socialist German Workers' Party have approved of the new Slashdot Beta site in a rare instance of agreement amongst the two. The two strong personalities have a history strong disagreement of the most mundane of things but united today outside the Great Pyongyang Unicorn Lair with Slashdot Editor Samzenpus to show support. "Morale at Dice [Slashdot's parent company] is at an all time low, but the show of support from such great world leaders is an encouragement to the entire team", said Samzenpus.

Submission + - Private pain: Dell layoff bloodbath to hit over 15,000 staffers (channelregister.co.uk)

schwit1 writes: Curious why Michael Dell was so eager to take the company he founded private? So he could do stuff like this without attracting too much attention. According to the Channel Register, the recently LBOed company is "starting the expected huge layoff program this week, claiming numbers will be north of 15,000." Of course, with a private sponsor in charge of the recently public company, the only thing that matters now is maximizing cash flows in an environment of falling PC sales, a commoditisation of the server market and a perceived need to better serve enterprises with their ever-increasing mobile and cloud-focused IT requirements — things that do not bode well for Dell's EBITDA — and the result is perhaps the largest axing round in the company's history. But at least the shareholders cashed out while they could.

Submission + - Sniffmap : 80% of the Internet is captured by NSA and allies

An anonymous reader writes: Sniffmap is a project to map the potential Internet mass interception performed by NSA and its allies. As stated in the fateful NSA document, many telecommunication links go through USA and its allies to connect to other countries. To create the dataset, it was detected each time an internet route between two IP addresses passes by an NSA controlled country and therefore can be considered as intercepted. Around 80% of the Internet is captured by NSA and allies.

Comment Re:Water=life (Score 2) 66

I think all too often people forget that water is just the medium that life uses. Without energy of some kind to get life going and sustaining itself, water is going to be just that - water. Water plumes or not, I suspect Ceres is just a dirty, dead snowball.

Comment Re:So the hell what? (Score 5, Insightful) 359

I don't see any of the "changes" they've made or have talked about making as protecting American freedom from a surveillance state. All I see is Washington trying to sweep things under the rug and bury things deeper.

We made a change, won't you please forget it ever happened now? OOooooh look over there!!! Shiny!!!
Privacy

Former CIA/NSA Head: NSA Is "Infinitely" Weaker As a Result of Snowden's Leaks 572

An anonymous reader writes "The Huffington Post reports, 'Michael Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency, said Sunday that he used to describe leaker Edward Snowden as a "defector," ... "I think there's an English word that describes selling American secrets to another government, and I do think it's treason," Hayden said ... Some members of Congress have also ... accused him of an act of treason. Hayden said his view of Snowden has grown harsher in recent weeks after reports that Snowden is seeking asylum in Germany and Brazil in exchange for assisting their investigations into NSA programs. Hayden said the NSA is "infinitely" weaker as a result of Snowden's leaks. "This is the most serious hemorrhaging of American secrets in the history of American espionage," he said. "What Snowden is revealing ... is the plumbing," he added later. "He's revealing how we acquire this information. It will take years, if not decades, for us to return to the position that we had prior to his disclosures."' — More in the Face the Nation video and transcript, including discussion of the recent legal decisions, and segments with whistleblower Thomas Drake, Snowden legal adviser Jesselyn Radack, and Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman who recently interviewed Snowden."

Comment Re:Yea but nothing happened (Score 1) 345

Nothing was going to happen anyways since this guy's verdict is restricted to only his court's jurisdiction. Unless the SCOTUS wants to weigh in and give the (correct) answer, and have the attorney general prosecute the law breakers, if everyone doesn't get automatically pardoned anyway, nothing will happen regardless.

Comment Re:Yeah (Score 4, Informative) 293

Of course they care about profits! In this instance though, it might just work to our advantage. These are companies with a LOT of money, and in politics money is far more important than than anything else. These companies actually have the money and clout to make anything at all change.

You really think the voters have a chance to make their voices heard?

Comment Re:Activism (Score 5, Interesting) 225

The difference being that meatspace activism is almost pointless these days. It might get a 30 second mention on the news on a slow day, but otherwise you're just shunted into a "free speech zone", traffic gets routed around the protest and is flat out ignored.

Hacktivism on the other hand, has relatively immediate, noticeable (sometimes very much so) consequences that can either cost an organization money or if nothing else cause embarrassment.

Meatspace protests make you feel good, and are probably amusing to the powers that be. Online, a few people can a real nuisance, which is what activism is trying to do: be a nuisance until a change happens. [sarcasm] We can't have things like that happening in this country. Obviously we have to set an example for these 14 people. [/sarcasm]

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