fekmist - Slashdot User

Submission + - Researchers hack Google Australia headquarters building (news.com.au)

Submitted by johnsnails on Monday May 06, 2013 @10:36PM

johnsnails writes: RESEARCHERS have managed to easily hack the building management system of Google's Sydney headquarters.

The researchers from security firm Cylance were able to obtain the password for the control system for the waterfront Pyrmont office, where it could access the system that controls alarms and other building services.

Submission + - Microsoft is killing Linux shops with Secure Boot

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 05, 2013 @08:41AM

An anonymous reader writes: Here are some examples (Dutch so I passed the links through Google Translate)

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mingos.nl%2F&act=url

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hettes.nl%2F

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Flinuxcomputers.nl%2F

It's now impossible to buy a Linux laptop in the Netherlands. You HAVE to pay for Windows, even though you don't want to use that OS at all.

Seems like we're back to square one. And the worst part is, nobody seems to care. No outcry from the developer community. It's really sad. We don't seem to give a shit about freedom and choice.

Submission + - Debian 7.0 ("Wheezy") released

Submitted by anarcat on Saturday May 04, 2013 @11:23PM

anarcat writes: After two years since the last Debian release (6.0, nicknamed "squeeze"), the Debian release team finally published Debian 7.0 (nicknamed "Wheezy"). A newly created blog has details on the release, which features multi-arch support (e.g. you can now install packages for both i386 and amd64 on the same install), improvements to multimedia support (no need for third party repositories!) and improved security through hardening flags.

Debian 7.0 also ships with the controversial Gnome 3 release, and the release notes explicitly mention how to revert to the more familiar "Gnome classic" interface. Finally, we can also mention the improved support for virtualization infrastructure with pre-built images available for Amazon EC2, Windows Azure and Google Compute Engine. Debian 7.0 also ships with the OpenStack suite and the Xen Cloud Platform.

More details on the improvements can be found in the release notes and the Debian wiki.

Submission + - Bizarre, Squishy Robots Evolve to Run: "Doom Us All" (dvice.com) 1

Submitted by semios on Thursday May 02, 2013 @11:13AM

semios writes: "A team of researchers has done something remarkable: they've demonstrated simulated evolution in a visible, simple way. Also, they've doomed us all." writes DVICE in response to a viral video of soft robots that have evolved to run. BuzzFeed calls it "the simplest demonstration of evolution you'll ever see." NBC News notes that "simulating creatures has been a staple of biological science for years, but this video shows advances in the field that are both interesting and a little creepy. These virtual 'soft robots' evolved bizarre but somehow natural-looking gaits over thousands of generations." Discover Magazine says "they look ridiculous, and may seem counterintuitive, but these squishy robots get the job done." Evolution was able to design robots with multiple materials akin to muscle, bone and soft tissue. DVICE concludes "So these robots are capable of evolution and could theoretically be printed in a lab, out of structures that could be identical in makeup to those of their human creators. The Cylons are coming, folks. Cute, galloping Cylons. It's just a matter of time. So say we all."

Submission + - 3D-Printed Bionic Ear Can Hear Radio Waves

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 02, 2013 @10:47AM

An anonymous reader writes: Fred and George Weasley may have met their match in a bionic ear created by Princeton scientists capable of “hearing” radio frequencies a normal, human ear cannot. The researchers’ primary purpose when undertaking the project was to explore an efficient and versatile means of merging electronics with tissue, according to a press release from the university.

Submission + - Intel Core i Haswell Microprocessors May Require New Power Supply Units for PCs (xbitlabs.com)

Submitted by dsinc on Wednesday May 01, 2013 @12:07PM

dsinc writes: Intel Corp.’s Haswell microprocessors due in early June are expected to bring a number of innovations designed to improve performance and cut power consumption, however, in many cases not all users will be able to enjoy all of them. As it appears, end-users will either have disable low-power states of Haswell or get a new power-supply units compatible with the new Intel chip.

As it appears, Haswell's C6/C7 states require a minimum load of 0.05A on the 12V2 rail, and many desktop power supply units (PSUs) just cannot provide that low current. Meanwhile, numerous older PSUs, which comply with ATX12V v2.3 design guidelines only called for a minimum load of 0.5A on the CPU power rail, hence a less sophisticated internal feedback loop/protection could be used. As a result, unless C6/C7 power states are disabled in the BIOS, PCs with older/cheap PSUs may become unstable when processors enter these states.

Comment Re:http://www.linuxadvocates.com/p/support.html (Score 1) 248

by fekmist on Tuesday April 30, 2013 @12:11PM (#43591615) Attached to: In Canada, a Government-Backed Electronic Currency

Wait do you guys have anything to do with the Mintchip or something? Or does it have something to do with Linux? I'm a bit confused as to what you're asking of us.

Comment Linux is not an OS (Score 1) 413

by fekmist on Saturday April 27, 2013 @03:41PM (#43569143) Attached to: My most frequent OS migration path?

Linux is a kernel used in the GNU + Linux system. I believe it would be best to write it out that way so as to not confuse people when they use GNU/Linux and are then told that is the system they're using. People get protective of the word Linux, I am not sure why. It's best to give credit to Richard Stallman and the system he has given to us all.

Submission + - Canada Rushes "Anti-Terrorism Bill" Through House of Commons (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by FuzzNugget on Thursday April 25, 2013 @01:09AM

FuzzNugget writes: After Canada's anti-terrorism provisions were "sunsetted" five years after their ammendment in 2001, Bill S-7, which seeks to reinstate them, was hastily passed through the House of Commons in a landslide 183-93 vote.

It includes extremely creepy provisions such as "preventative detention", where suspects can be detained, questioned and threatened with up to 12 months imprisonment if they fail to comply with arbitrary probational conditions — all without charge. In another, "investigative hearing", anyone suspected of having knowledge of terrorist activity can be threatened with the same penalty for refusing to supply information.

It's obvious that this is in direct response to the recent attack in Boston and, closer to home, the thwarted attempt on VIA Rail and it all begs the question: why does anyone think it's necessary?

The successful halting of the VIA Rail attempt was the result of vigilant Canadians and respectul carraige of RCMP duties without violating anyone's rights. Furthermore, if we accept the premise that "terrorists hate our freedom", why are we letting them win by dissolving those very freedoms?

Submission + - Play Tetris to Fix Your Lazy Eye (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by MightyMait on Tuesday April 23, 2013 @06:58PM

MightyMait writes: As someone born with crossed-eyes who underwent surgery as an infant and has lived with a lazy eye his whole life (without 3-D vision), the prospect of fixing my vision by playing Tetris is an enticing one.

Submission + - Canadians to pay to enter the USA? 3

Submitted by mark-t on Monday April 22, 2013 @11:53PM

mark-t writes: Today, in the Vancouver Province I read an article which suggests that in the USA, a Department of Homeland Security budget blueprint proposes to "conduct a study assessing the feasibility and cost relating to establishing and collecting a land border crossing fee for both land border pedestrians and passenger vehicles along the northern and southwest borders of the United States."

I myself am Canadian and live only a few minutes from the Canada-USA border, and hearing news of this bothers me greatly, but I am curious to what other people, and especially Americans think about the issue.

Submission + - Lenovo Denies Me Windows 7 SP1 Unless I Pay. (youtube.com) 1

Submitted by zoltandulac on Monday April 22, 2013 @11:33PM

zoltandulac writes: So, I tried to install Windows 7 SP1 on my Lenovo G560, but the update says I need to update my Graphics Driver. Tried to do that, but Intel's update says I need to go through the vendor. When I went to Lenovo's support site, it didn't have the latest driver, so I called Lenovo. They said they I had to pay $120-$179 to get the update (!) even though there is an update for the driver from Intel and it's Lenovo's fault I cannot upgrade. I include my conversation with the support rep below (if I sound angry, it's because I am). Anyone know if there is anything else I can do? Is this standard practice? Am I overreacting?

Submission + - Intel promoting Android devices (digitimes.com)

Submitted by ozmanjusri on Sunday April 21, 2013 @11:30PM

ozmanjusri writes: Vendors in China have revealed the Intel has begun to promote Android based convertible tablet/notebooks. Intel is concerned that Windows 8 has been unable to stimulate global demand for notebooks, and since global sales of Android tablets have been increasing, they are looking at reducing their reliance on the Microsoft OS.

China-based vendor Lenovo will be first to release Intel driven Android systems in May, while Hewlett-Packard (HP), Toshiba, Acer and Asustek Computer will launch theirs in the third quarter.

Submission + - Japanese Police Urge ISPs to Block Tor (paritynews.com) 2

Submitted by hypnosec on Sunday April 21, 2013 @04:07PM

hypnosec writes: Authorities in Japan are presumably worried about their inability to tackle cybercrime and, in a bid to stem one of the sources of anonymous traffic, the National Police Agency (NPA) is asking ISPs to block Tor. The recommendation comes from the special panel formed by the NPA after a hacker going by the name Demon Killer was found to regularly used Tor to anonymize his online activities like posting of death threats of public message boards.

Submission + - Tor calls for help as its supply of bridges falters (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 18, 2013 @05:43PM

An anonymous reader writes: From the article:
After campaigning successfully last year to get more volunteers to run obfuscated Tor bridges to support users in Iran trying to evade state monitoring, the network has lost most of those bridges, according to a message to the Tor relays mailing list by Tor volunteer George Kadiankakis.

"Most of those bridges are down, and fresh ones are needed more than ever," Kadiankakis wrote in an e-mail, "since obfuscated bridges are the only way for people to access Tor in some areas of the world (like China, Iran, and Syria)." ...

For those who want to donate bridges to the Tor network, the easiest route is to use Tor Cloud, an Amazon Web Service Elastic Compute Cloud image created by the Tor Project that allows people to leverage Amazon's free usage tier to deploy a bridge.

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