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Submission + - US researchers test new algorithm for clearing space debris

Submitted by stephendavion
stephendavion writes: Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US have come up with a new algorithm that could aid in analysing the rotation of objects in space, which will help in cleaning up debris in the geosynchronous orbit. The algorithm was tested using two small satellites deployed to the International Space Station (ISS) through MIT's SPHERES project. One of the SPHERES satellite rotated in place, while the other captured photographs of the spinning satellite.

Submission + - Tivoisation of linux (0pointer.net)

Submitted by jbernardo
jbernardo writes: One thing I have yet to see discussed about systemd and the "unified package manager" proposed by Poettering is the stated objective of tivoisation of linux:

"We want our images to be trustable (i.e. signed). In fact we want a fully trustable OS, with images that can be verified by a full trust chain from the firmware (EFI SecureBoot!), through the boot loader, through the kernel, and initrd. Cryptographically secure verification of the code we execute is relevant on the desktop (like ChromeOS does), but also for apps, for embedded devices and even on servers (in a post-Snowden world, in particular)."

Am I the only one who is scared of this "tivoisation" by design? If this ever makes it to arm devices, say goodbye to DD-WRT, OpenWRT, Tomato, etc. And that will be just the beginning. Be ready for all your devices becoming appliances, non-customizable and to be thrown out as soon as they become obsolete by design. Being allowed to only run signed code will probably be good for redhat, but will it be good for the user?

Strange that a few years ago "trusted computing" was stopped, and now it seems almost inevitable even in Linux.

Submission + - New Zealand Spied On Its Citizens Before Making It Legal, Says Snowden (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: A little over a year ago, the New Zealand government passed legislation that legally authorized its version of the NSA, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), to spy on its own citizens. Narrowly, the law passed after a heated debate between lawmakers, rights groups, and local internet tycoon Kim Dotcom. At the time, Prime Minister John Key commented the new law “is not, and never will be, about wholesale spying on New Zealanders.”

But a set of secret documents provided by Edward Snowden indicates that New Zealand officials had already begun to design mass surveillance programs before such a law had ever gone to parliament. According to the new documents, published by Glenn Greenwald Monday, the GCSB had already begun cooperating with the US National Security Agency as early as 2012. Even as it sought legal authorization before full implementation, as part of a spying program code-named “Speargun,” the bureau was planning to grant NSA access to its major undersea cable network that connects New Zealand to the rest of the world sometime in "mid-2013."

Submission + - Is Adobe dropping all Linux support? (adobe.com)

Submitted by NetAlien
NetAlien writes: QUESTION: Is Adobe dropping all Linux support? Flash. Now Reader...

Preparing for US naturalization, one is immediately hindered by the US Government's use of Adobe's PDF XFA format — the form loads only to recommend that the user download Adobe Reader "for Windows, Mac or Linux". Attempting to download Reader, the first option is to select the OS — SURPRISE! Linux is absent. OK... so download a Windows version (I selected 7) and install with Wine. Sigh... that fails.

Another case for free and open formats...

Submission + - Apple Outrages Users by "Automatically" Installing U2's Album on their Devices 3

Submitted by Zanadou
Zanadou writes: Apple may have succeeded at breaking two records at once with the free release of U2’s latest album, titled Songs of Innocence, via iTunes. But now, it looks like it’s also on track to become one of the worst music publicity stunts of all time.

Users who have opted to download new purchases to their iPhones automatically have found the new U2 album sitting on their phones. But even if iTunes users hadn’t chosen automatic downloads, Songs of Innocence will still be displayed as an “iTunes in the Cloud” purchase. That means it will still be shown as part of your music library, even if you delete all the tracks. The only way to make the U2 album go away is to go to your Mac or PC and hide all of your “iTunes in the Cloud” purchases, or to use iTunes to manually hide each track from your purchased items list.

Other reactions include rapper, Tyler, The Creator, saying that having the new U2 album automatically downloaded on his iPhone was 'like waking up with herpes', while Twitter user Mez pondered 'If Apple can forcefully download a U2 album onto everyone's phone, imagine what else they can do.. and see.'

Submission + - MOM or Mangalyaan has now done 95% of its journey without a hitch (nvonews.com)

Submitted by rinka
rinka writes: There's been progress since: http://science.slashdot.org/st...

The Indian Mars mission is on target has completed 95% of it's journey and will reach its destination before the month end. Indian scientists have successfully restarted the Mars orbiter. Meanwhile there are reasons to believe that NASA and ISRO, both space agencies that have sent Mars rovers, have decided to coordinate their mars missions: http://nvonews.com/india-mars-...

Submission + - The Future According to Stanislaw Lem (theparisreview.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Paris Review has an article about SF author Stanislaw Lem, explaining Lem's outlook on the future and his expectations for technological advancement. Lem tended toward a view that technology would infect and eventually supplant biological evolution. But he also suggested an interesting explanation for why we haven't detected alien civilizations: "Perhaps ... they are so taken up with perfecting their own organisms that they've abandoned space exploration entirely. According to a similar hypothesis, such beings are invisible because technological ease has resulted in a 'Second Stone Age' of 'universal illiteracy and idleness.' When everyone’s needs are perfectly met, it 'would be hard, indeed, to find one individual who would choose as his life’s work the signaling, on a cosmic scale, of how he was getting along.' Rather than constructing Dyson Spheres, Lem suggests, advanced civilizations are more likely to spend their time getting high."

Submission + - So You Want The Truth About Ukraine? (theangloamerican.com)

Submitted by theangloamerican
theangloamerican writes: This was a government manipulating its citizens with tools straight out of the pages of the Third Reich. “If you are not for us, you are against us” pretty much closes down rational argument.

Now we find US intelligence officers were closed down like the rest of us as the US Government politicised intelligence. But perhaps equally alarming is that this politicisation of intelligence continues today in government under a completely different administration.
http://theangloamerican.com/so...

Submission + - Smartphone study: religious and nonreligious people are same level of immoral (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Benjamin Franklin tracked his prideful, sloppy, and gluttonous acts in a daily journal, marking each moral failing with a black ink dot. Now, scientists have devised a modern update to Franklin’s little book, using smart phones to track the sins and good deeds of more than 1200 people. The new data—among the first to be gathered on moral behavior outside of the lab—confirm what psychologists have long suspected: Religious and nonreligious people are equally prone to immoral acts.

Submission + - Former Red Hat CTO now head of Google Cloud (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Brian Stevens, the former chief technology officer for Red Hat, is now managing Google Cloud. As Red Hat CTO, Stevens was instrumental in preparing the enterprise Linux software provider for the cloud, including its adoption of the OpenStack software for running cloud services. Stevens abruptly resigned from Red Hat last week. http://www.networkworld.com/ar...

Submission + - Scientists discover the only known swimming dinosaur (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: In 97-million-year-old freshwater sediments in eastern Morocco, researchers discovered new fossils of a dinosaur known as Spinosaurus, including parts of the skull, vertebral column, pelvis, and limb bones. The researchers were able to see signs of watery adaptation not seen in other dinosaurs: a small nostril located far back on the head, apparently to limit water intake; relatively long forelimbs; big flat feet suitable for paddling as well as walking on muddy ground; and very dense limb bones, which would have allowed Spinosaurus to submerge itself rather than float at the surface. The adaptations resemble those of early whales and today’s hippopotamus, and make Spinosaurus the only dinosaur known to swim, the researchers say.

Submission + - US Law Enforcement Officer money extortion program (www.cbc.ca) 3

Submitted by jfbilodeau
jfbilodeau writes: The CBC is warning Canadians about a US program where America law enforcement officers — from federal agents to state troopers right down to sheriffs in one-street backwaters — are operating a vast, co-ordinated scheme to grab as much of the public’s cash as they can

Submission + - Egypt's Oldest Pyramid is Being Destroyed by its Own Restoration Team (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by Taffykay
Taffykay writes: The oldest pyramid in Egypt, the Pyramid of Djoserat Saqqara, is being destroyed by the very company the Egyptian government has hired to restore it. The roughly 4,600-year-old structure has been in trouble since an earthquake hit the region in 1992, but in a difficult political and economic climate for the country, those now tasked with preserving the pyramid are said to be doing more harm than good.

Submission + - Steve Ballmer Authored Your Blue Screen of Death (dice.com) 1

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: Millions of people have shrieked in horror and dismay at Microsoft’s infamous 'Blue Screen of Death.' What fewer people know—at least until now—is that the text accompanying the BSoD was originally written by Steve 'Developers! Developers! Developers!' Ballmer, who recently stepped down as Microsoft's CEO. According to Microsoft developer Raymond Chen, Ballmer didn’t like the original text that accompanied the BSoD in Windows 3.1, so he wrote up a new version. If you used Windows at any point in the past two decades, you can thank him for that infuriatingly passive 'This Windows application has stopped responding to the system' message, accompanied by the offer to hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete to restart the PC (and lose all your unsaved data). At least Ballmer didn't try to write something like, 'RESTART! RESTART! RESTART!'

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