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Submission + - Alan Turing Pardoned (cryptome.org)

Submitted by a.ferrier
a.ferrier writes: Today’s computing would be unthinkable without the contributions of the British mathematician Alan Turing, who laid down the foundations of computer science, broke Nazi codes that helped win World War II at the famous Bletchley Park, created a secure speech encryption system, made major contributions to logic and philosophy, and even invented the concept of Artificial Intelligence. But he was also an eccentric and troubled man who was persecuted (and prosecuted) for being gay, a tragedy that contributed to his suicide just short of the age of 42 when he died of cyanide poisoning, possibly from a half-eaten apple found by his side. He is hailed today as one of the great originators of our computing age. Today he received a Royal Pardon.

Submission + - BitTorrent Unveils Secure Chat to Counter 'NSA Dragnet Surveillance'

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Jacob Kastrenakes reports on The Verge that as part a response to the NSA's wide-reaching surveillance programs, BitTorrent is unveiling a secure messaging service that will use public key encryption, forward secrecy, and a distributed hash table so that chats will be individually encrypted and won't be stored on some company's server. "It’s become increasingly clear that we need to devote hackathons, hours and resources to developing a messaging app that protects user privacy," says Christian Averill, BitTorrent's director of communications. Because most current chat services rely on central servers to facilitate the exchange of messages, "they're vulnerable: to hackers, to NSA dragnet surveillance sweeps." BitTorrent chat aims to avoid those vulnerabilities through its encryption methods and decentralized infrastructure. Rather than checking in with one specific server, users of BitTorrent chat will collectively help each other figure out where to route messages to. In order to get started chatting, you'll just need to give someone else your public key — effectively your identifier. Exchanging public keys doesn't sound like the simplest way to begin a chat, but Averill says that BitTorrent hopes to make it easy enough for anyone interested. "What we're going to do is to make sure there are options for how this is set up," says Averill. "This way it will appeal to the more privacy conscious consumer as well as the less technically inclined." For now, it remains in a private testing phase that interested users can apply for access to. There's no word on when it'll be open to everyone, but with all of the recent surveillance revelations, it's easy to imagine that some people will be eager to get started.

Submission + - Ammo going unleaded. Regulations, bans force switch to 'green' ammo (foxnews.com) 3

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The last bullet-producing lead smelter in the US closes its doors on Dec. 31. This will mark a major victory for those who say lead-based ammunition pollutes the environment, but others warn 'green' bullets will cost more, drive up copper prices and do little to help conservation.

The bid to ban lead bullets, seen by some as harmful to the environment, started slowly more than a decade ago. But with two dozen states, including California, banning bullets made of the soft, heavy metal, the lead bullet's epitaph was already being written when the federal government finished it off.

First, the military announced plans to phase out lead bullets by 2018. Then the EPA, citing emissions, ordered the shutdown of the Doe Run company's lead smelter in Herculaneum, Mo., by year's end.

Maybe it's also time to discontinue the penny due to the cost of copper and its lack of usefulness.

Submission + - Steam OS available for download, based on Debian 7.1 not Ubuntu (muktware.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: Valve Software has made available images for Steam OS, it’s GNU/Linux based gaming distribution. Valve has also released more information about the operating system. Unlike popular belief Steam OS is not based on Ubuntu; it’s based on Debian 7.1 Wheezy. Steam OS is using Gnome as it’s default desktop environment.

Submission + - Scientists discover double meaning in genetic code (washington.edu) 1

Submitted by TaleSlinger
TaleSlinger writes: "Scientists have discovered a second code hiding within DNA. This second code contains information that changes how scientists read the instructions contained in DNA and interpret mutations to make sense of health and disease....Since the genetic code was deciphered in the 1960s, scientists have assumed that it was used exclusively to write information about proteins. UW scientists were stunned to discover that genomes use the genetic code to write two separate languages. One describes how proteins are made, and the other instructs the cell on how genes are controlled. One language is written on top of the other, which is why the second language remained hidden for so long....
The genetic code uses a 64-letter alphabet called codons. The UW team discovered that some codons, which they called duons, can have two meanings, one related to protein sequence, and one related to gene control. These two meanings seem to have evolved in concert with each other. The gene control instructions appear to help stabilize certain beneficial features of proteins and how they are made.

“The fact that the genetic code can simultaneously write two kinds of information means that many DNA changes that appear to alter protein sequences may actually cause disease by disrupting gene control programs or even both mechanisms simultaneously,” said Stamatoyannopoulos.

Submission + - Will it be coffee or beer ? (aftau.org)

Submitted by Thorfinn.au
Thorfinn.au writes: Coffee and beer are polar opposites in the beverage world. Coffee picks you up, and beer winds you down.
Telomeres, made of DNA and proteins, mark the ends of the strands of DNA in our chromosomes. They are essential to ensuring that the DNA strands are repaired and copied correctly. Every time a cell duplicates, the chromosomes are copied into the new cell with slightly shorter telomeres. Eventually, the telomeres become too short, and the cell dies. Only fetal and cancer cells have mechanisms to avoid this fate; they go on reproducing forever.
The researchers found that caffeine shortens and alcohol lengthens telomeres — the end points of chromosomal DNA, implicated in aging and cancer.

Submission + - Court: Open Source Project Liable For 3rd Party DRM-Busting Coding (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by Diamonddavej
Diamonddavej writes: TorrentFreak reports a potentially troubling court decision in Germany. The company Appwork has been threatened with a 250,000 Euro fine fine for functionality committed to its open-source downloader (JDownloader2) repository by a volunteer coder without Appwork's knowledge. The infringing code enables downloading of RTMPE video streams (an encrypted streaming video format developed by Adobe). Since the code decrypted the video streams, the Hamburg Regional Court decided it represented circumvention of an “effective technological measure” under Section 95a of Germany’s Copyright Act and it threatened Appwork with a fine for "production, distribution and possession" of an 'illegal' piece of software.

Submission + - The Rise and Fall of Australia's $44 Billion Broadband Project (ieee.org)

Submitted by Garabito
Garabito writes: "In April 2009, Australia’s then prime minister, Kevin Rudd, dropped a bombshell on the press and the global technology community: His social democrat Labor administration was going to deliver broadband Internet to every single resident of Australia. It was an audacious goal, not least of all because Australia is one of the most sparsely populated countries on Earth.
(..)
So now, after three years of planning and construction, during which workers connected some 210 000 premises (out of an anticipated 13.2 million), Australia’s visionary and trailblazing initiative is at a crossroads. The new government plans to deploy fiber only to the premises of new housing developments. For the remaining homes and businesses—about 71 percent—it will bring fiber only as far as curbside cabinets, called nodes. Existing copper-wire pairs will cover the so-called last mile to individual buildings."

Submission + - Linux Voice gets endorsed by Raspberry Pi

Submitted by super_rancid
super_rancid writes: The Raspberry Pi folks have given their support to Linux Voice, the dead tree and digital Linux/Free Software magazine from the editorial team previously behind Linux Format.

In a blog post, Liz Upton explained that this was in part because the team put the Pi on the cover of their previous magazine the day the Pi launched, as well as their commitment to giving away profts and releasing their content under the CC-BY-SA licence.

"We’re very excited about this project. We know the team, and they’ve got some great writers and editors on board with a huge breadth and depth of domain knowledge and experience. These are the people who first put an article about Raspberry Pi on newsstands." wrote Liz.

Comment Re:Big problem here... (Score 1) 151

by d'baba (#45580281) Attached to: Harvesting Power When Freshwater Meets Salty
Desal is a big thing here on the left coast. Propose projects up and down the coast because ground water and surface water are being oversubscribed. It won't run the desal process but it should at least be looked at to see if using the concentrated saline could give us a little in return. It's in the same category as regenerative braking in e-cars. Every little bit helps.

Submission + - GuessHub, an open source code game (guesshub.io)

Submitted by amasad
amasad writes: GuessHub is an entry for the GitHub Game off game competition. Given a patch taken from a GitHub commit, guess which repository it comes from.

Submission + - Harvesting Power When Freshwater Meets Salty (acs.org)

Submitted by ckwu
ckwu writes: As a way to generate renewable electricity, researchers have designed methods that harvest the energy released when fresh and saline water mix, such as when a river meets the sea. One such method is called pressure-retarded osmosis, where two streams of water, one saline and one fresh, meet in a cell divided by a semipermeable membrane. Osmosis drives the freshwater across the membrane to the saltier side, increasing the pressure in the saline solution. The system keeps this salty water pressurized and then releases the pressure to spin a turbine to generate electricity. Now a team at Yale University has created a prototype device that increases the power output of pressure-retarded osmosis by an order of magnitude. At a full-scale facility, the estimated cost of the electricity generated by such a system could be 20 to 30 cents per kWh, approaching the cost of other conventional renewable energy technologies.

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