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Submission + - Researchers show how easy it is to manipulate online opinions (ieee.org)

Submitted by jcatcw
jcatcw writes: A recent study shows that a single random up-vote, randomly chosen, created a herding behavior in ratings that resulted in a 25% increase in the ratings but the negative manipulation had no effect. An intuitive explanation for this asymmetry is that we tend to go along with the positive opinions of others, but we tend to be skeptical of the negative opinions of others, and so we go in and correct what we think is an injustice. The third major result was that these effects varied by topic. So in business and society, culture, politics, we found substantial susceptibility to positive herding, whereas in general news, economics, IT, we found no such herding effects in the positive or negative direction.

Submission + - White Shark RFID/Sattellite Tracking Shows Long Journeys, Many Beach Visits (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Marine biologists from OCEARCH, a non-profit shark research project, have been tagging scores of great whites and other shark species with an array of wireless technologies, gathering granular data on the sharks over the past year or more. For example, Mary Lee, a great white shark that's the same weight and nearly the same length as a Buick, was tagged off of Cape Cod and has made beach visits up and down the U.S. East Coast and Bermuda. She came so close to beaches that the research team alerted local authorities. The team attaches an array of acoustic and satellite tags as well as accelerometers to the sharks, which collect more than 100 data points every second — 8.5 million data points per day. The data has provided a detailed, three-dimensional view of the shark's behavior, which the team has been sharing in real time on its website. OCEARCH plans to expand that data sharing over the next few weeks to social networks and classrooms.

Submission + - Russia follows in footsteps of SOPA with unsettling new anti-piracy laws (computerworld.com)

Submitted by jcatcw
jcatcw writes: In a controversial move by the Kremlin, Russia has followed in the footsteps of SOPA by hurriedly passing two new anti-piracy bills. The first bill is an extrajudicial blacklist for websites, meaning that any website containing content deemed to be 'unsuitable' or harmful can be shut down without the need for court judgment or investigation. The main problem with the blacklisting method is that IP addresses are targeted instead of specific URLs. The second is a radical anti-piracy law but it is targeting the middlemen as opposed to the pirates themselves. The wider implication of these laws is that they can be used to effectively limit and in some cases even remove altogether the opportunity for alternative viewpoints through the censorship of independent media

Submission + - Feminism explained to computer scientists (Video)

Submitted by jcatcw
jcatcw writes: Gender inequality is a bug, not a feature, according to Beth Andres-Beck — a full-stack software engineer at TripAdvisor, working in Java, JavaScript, HTML5, and Objective-C. Using the analytical tools from her feminist education, Andres-Beck provides some very practical advice to women in technology who are tired of being belittled, hit on at conferences, and otherwise treated poorly in an industry that should be embracing all who are good at generating new technological solutions.
Windows

Submission + - 10 Windows 8 Tips, Tricks -- And, of Course, Hacks (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "Faced with an unfamiliar operating system that at first glance seems more difficult to customize than earlier versions of Windows? What to do — give up and simply use it as it came out of the box? Nope. There are plenty of ways to tweak, hack and make Windows 8 do things you wouldn't think were possible. Windows expert Preston Gralla shows you how to cobble together your own quick-and-dirty Start menu as well as customize the hidden Power User menu. Looking for 'God Mode,' want to hack the lock screen and Start screen, or to master File Explorer? Fire up Windows 8 and get ready to hear it cry 'Uncle.'"
Government

Submission + - Should smartphone chips be used to deactivate guns? (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Putting smartphone tech/GPS into guns to deactivate them in certain zones — say public places where they're not supposed to be carried — may be one way to address mass shootings in the future. Is there anyone who doesn't believe that in twenty years GPS and databases will drive our cars and coordinate the safe flow of traffic? Technology moves forward. Innovation doesn't stop. Without a doubt, gun manufacturers already recognize that innovation is faster and cheaper in software than hardware. How long until a digital interface will allow the recreational shooter to change the rate of fire, burst patterns and even tactile and audible characteristics of the gun to increase enjoyment and personalize preferences? To be sure there are issues associated with smart gun technology. Some gun owners would rightly say that their gun activities could be monitored and their guns could be shut down by government in violation of their constitutional rights.
There was also concern about trusting complex technology. There was a concern that if the technology was not flawless the gun could fail at a time when the gun was needed for protection. I understand the right and want of individuals to have guns for protection or sport. I also believe that it is a fundamental right of all individuals to be kept safe from the devastation guns can bring.
Cloud

Submission + - What It's Like to Work for a Cloud Service Provider (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: As enterprises increasingly consider moving their computing infrastructure to the cloud, IT professionals wonder whether they should follow the migration. Jake Robinson said he remembers the day he really understood what it means to work on "the other side of the cloud." It was Thanksgiving, a couple of years ago. A customer posted an iPhone app designed to give users access to coupons and discounts the following day, Black Friday. The retailer had vastly underestimated demand for the app, and the ASP's database crashed. A solutions architect, Robinson was called in and spent most of the holiday tuning the client's database server to handle the traffic. Computerworld spoke to a half-dozen IT professionals who worked for cloud service providers to get their their experiences.
Java

Submission + - 1 Billion at Risk from Java Vulnerability (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
jcatcw
jcatcw writes: "Just as Oracle is ramping up for the September 30 start of JavaOne 2012 in San Francisco, researchers from the Polish firm Security Explorations disclosed yet another critical Java vulnerability that might "spoil the taste of Larry Ellison's morning ... Java." According to Security Explorations researcher Adam Gowdiak, who sent the email to the Full Disclosure Seclist, this Java exploit affects one billion users of Oracle Java SE software, Java 5, 6 and 7. It could be exploited by apps on Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari. Wow, thanks a lot Oracle."
Security

Submission + - ToorCamp: Adventures in an American hacker camp (computerworld.com)

Submitted by jcatcw
jcatcw writes: While a tech camping event might sound like an oxymoron, hackers, makers, breakers and shakers assembled at the northwestern tip of the USA for ToorCamp and dispelled the notion that all hackers avoid sunshine and the great outdoors. As you would expect from a hacker conference, there were workshops like the one for lock picking and a plethora of presentations from “hacking computers to brain hacking, from brewing soda to fighting robots, from civil rights to lightning guns.” Then unique aspects of this cool hacker camp get more bizarre . . like the laser that was so bright it required FAA clearance to deploy it, the ShadyTel community 'payphone,' the Temple of Robotron, an RFID implantation station, bike jousting, dancing robots and of course campfires. Need an even stranger adventure that's also in the ToorCon family of hacking conferences? There's the upcoming WorldToor, the first ever hacker conference in Antarctica.

Submission + - Booted from airplane for wearing anti-TSA T-shirt (rt.com)

Submitted by Cigarra
Cigarra writes: PhD student Arijit learned the hard way that in Brave New America you can't mock TSA's Security Theater and go on about your business. According to a recolection in RT.com:

After being vigorously screened and questioned multiple times, Arijit says he was finally given permission, once more, to board his plane. The pilot of the aircraft, however, had had enough of the whole ordeal and asked the Delta supervisor to relay the message that, due to the discomfort the shirt had caused, neither Arijit nor his wife would be allowed to board the aircraft.

Just how much humiliation is the general American public willing to tolerate in the name of 'security'?
Security

Submission + - FEMA trains for zero day attack on US infrastructure by 'The Void' hacktivists (computerworld.com)

Submitted by jcatcw
jcatcw writes: “A network of hacktivists known as The Void today threatened to unleash, and I’m quoting here, ‘a global day of extreme action against U.S. interests and organizations, both private and government-related’.” From here, the cybersecurity nightmare begins because fictitious hacktivists from The Void have a zero day and have threatened to attack America’s critical infrastructure. Don’t panic. This is a test. This is only a test in a FEMA cybersecurity exercise. The scenario in the National Level Exercise (NLE) comes along with three videos where Jeanne Meserve, a previous real-life CNN Homeland Security reporter, plays a fictional reporter for VNN News Network who starts off with, “Our lead story in business today is a cybersecurity scare of potentially global proportions.”
Privacy

Submission + - Newt Gingrich loves spam (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by
richi
richi writes: "Newt Gingrich's Newt 2012 organization is aiding and abetting spammers. Hard to believe, I know, but it turns out his organization is offering targeted email addresses to spammers.

Now that Newt Gingrich has conceded defeat... ahem, sorry, suspended his campaign, Newt 2012 is thought to be at least $4,300,000 in the hole. So, in a bizarre twist of moral logic, it's selling its email lists to spammers."

Submission + - Why Tech Vendors Fund Patent 'Trolls' (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Major tech vendors are funding patent trolls, companies that derive the bulk of their income, if not all of it, from licensing huge libraries of patents they hold as well as by suing companies that use their patents without permission, according to an investigation by Computerworld. Tech companies — including Apple and Micron — have railed against patent 'nuisance' lawsuits, only to fund or otherwise support some of the patent trolls. Because of patent trolls, more politely called mass patent aggregators, patent litigation has in part increased by more than 230% over the past 20 years. 'Most of the major tech companies are backing a troll in some way, probably financially,' says Thomas Ewing, an attorney who has authored reports on what he calls 'patent privateering'.

Submission + - User Poll Shows Tablets, eReaders Top Tech Gift Gu (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Every year, Computerworld polls its readers on what types of tech gear they want to give and/or receive for the holidays. While the top five categories they chose are pretty much the same as in 2010 — tablets, e-readers, smartphones, laptops and HDTVs — the products themselves have changed significantly. For example, Android powerhouses such as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime tablet are strong contenders this year while in years past Apple's iPhone 4S and iPad 2 topped the lists.
Android

Submission + - Researchers Say Carrier IQ Not Logging Data, Texts (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Security researchers who have investigated the inner workings of the Carrier IQ software and its capabilities say that the application has some powerful, and potentially worrisome capabilities, but that as it's currently deployed by carriers it doesn't have the ability to record SMS messages, phone calls or keystrokes. However, the researchers note that there is still potential for abuse of the information that's being gathered, whether by the carriers themselves or third parties who can access the data legitimately or through a compromise of a device.

Jon Oberheide, a security researcher who has done a lot of work on Android devices, also analyzed several versions of the Carrier IQ software and found that the software has the ability to record some information, but that doesn't mean that it's actually doing so. That part is up to each individual carrier. However, he says that the ability to collect that data is a dangerous thing.

"There is a lot of capability to collect sensitive data, which is dangerous in any scenario," Oberheide said in an interview. "It's up to the carriers to use the software as they choose, but you could sort of put some blame on Carrier IQ. But they put it on the carriers."

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