Comment backslide (Score 1) 1
from "we don't throttle bittorrent!" to "we won't throttle bittorrent anymore"
Submission + - Blogger Finds Y2K Bug in NASA Climate Data
WWMPCDD writes: As Steve McIntyre points out, a "strange discontinuity, or "jump" in many locations," in temperature data, "all occurring around the time of January, 2000" seems to have been caused by a Y2K bug. 1998 is no longer the warmest year on record, being replaced by the year 1934.
Submission + - Virgin Media kills UK Secret Bases site - UPDATE! (cryptome.org)
An anonymous reader writes: Virgin Media internet host company deletes hugely popular UK Secret Bases website for reasons as yet unknown.
Story updated at Cryptome link.
Story updated at Cryptome link.
Buffer Overflow Found in RFID Passport Readers 96
epee1221 writes "Wired ran a story describing Lukas Grunwald's Defcon talk on an attack on airport passport readers. After extracting data from the (read-only) chip in a legitimate passport, he placed a version of the data with an altered passport photo (JPEG2000 is used in these chips) into a writable chip. The altered photo created a buffer overflow in two RFID readers he tested, causing both to crash. Grunwald suggests that vendors are typically using off-the-shelf JPEG2000 libraries, which would make the vulnerability common."
Journal SPAM: "I'm thinking another 9/11 would help America" 4
"ONE MONTH from The Anniversary, I'm thinking another 9/11 would help America,
Remember the community of outrage and national resolve? America had not been so united since the first Day of Infamy - 12/7/41.
We knew who the enemy was then.
America's fabric is pulling apart like a cheap sweater.
What would sew us back together?
Another 9/11 attack.
Submission + - Y2K bug causes overestimation of global temps (blogspot.com)
NtroP writes: Canadian statistician Steven McIntyre noticed a problem with the temperature records he was reviewing. After digging deeper he discovered a Y2K-related error in the temperature adjustment calculations which caused temperatures to be incorrectly reported. When he pointed out the error to the Goddard Institute for Space Science, they concurred and quietly changed the data. The fact that the temperature changes appear to weaken the position of those who claim that global warming is due to man-made greenhouse gasses means that the media is not likely report this. FTA:
"What USA Today published about 1996 to 2006 being the warmest decade was widely accepted as factual. Yet three of the five warmest years were not in the last decade at all, they were 73, 86 and 76 years ago. And they were before man-made greenhouse gases could be blamed. And three of the next five hottest years also are a bit early to be blamed on man: 1953, 1938 and 1939."
Whatever your position is about man's impact on global warming, it should be based on data that is as accurate as possible.
Australia to Offer Widespread ISP-level Filtering 208
Phurge writes "According to a Sydney Morning Herald article, the Australia government has decided to take the controversial step of having internet service providers filter web content at the request of parents, in a crackdown on online bad language, pornography and child sex predators. 'The more efficient compulsory filtering of internet service providers (ISPs) was proposed in March last year by the then Labor leader, Kim Beazley. At the time, the Communications Minister, Helen Coonan, and ISPs criticised his idea as expensive. Three months later Senator Coonan announced the Government's Net Alert policy, which promised free filtering software for every home that wanted it. She also announced an ISP filtering trial to be conducted in Tasmania. That trial was scrapped. Today Mr Howard will hail the ISP filtering measure as a world first by any Government, and is expected to offer funding to help cover the cost. Parents will be able to request the ISP filter option when they sign up with an ISP. It will be compulsory to provide it. The measures will come into effect by the end of this month.'"
Chinese Pirates Copy iPhone, Make Improvements 716
An anonymous reader writes "Popular Science notes that manufacturers in China duplicate many well-know products. This includes the Apple iPhone, imitations of which are rolling off the assembly line already. That might actually be a good thing for some users, who might enjoy the user experience of China's own miniOne. 'It ran popular mobile software that the iPhone wouldn't. It worked with nearly every worldwide cellphone carrier, not just AT&T, and not only in the U.S. It promised to cost half as much as the iPhone and be available to 10 times as many consumers.' The cloned iPhone uses a Linux-based system. 'The cloners hire a team of between 20 and 40 engineers to begin decoding the circuit boards. At the same time, coders start to develop an operating system for the phone with a similar feature set. (The typical cloner either uses off-the-shelf code, writes something entirely new, or modifies a publicly available Linux-based system.)' Using the iPhone as an example, the PopSci site walks through the process of making imitation technology."
Submission + - AT&T Censors Webcast
iter8 writes: AT&T's "content monitor" muted part the lyrics of Pearl Jam's "Blue Room" during a live Lollapalooza Webcast sponsored by the telecom, censoring some anti-George Bush lyrics link. AT&T says it was a "a major mistake by a webcast vendor and completely contrary to our policy. We are working closely with the vendor and the band to post the song in its entirety on this site and ensure that this does not happen again." Pearl Jam says "But what if there is only one provider from which to choose? If a company that is controlling a webcast is cutting out bits of our performance — not based on laws, but on their own preferences and interpretations -fans have little choice but to watch the censored version. What happened to us this weekend was a wake up call, and it's about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band."
Submission + - UK Government 'must act on e-crime'
Martin Spamer writes: "The UK Government 'must act on e-crime' reports the BBC. The UK government must do more to protect internet users from the threat of e-crime, says a House of Lords report. The House of Lords report Science and Technology Committee said the internet was now "the playground of criminals". UK Government 'must act on e-crime'"
Submission + - 1934 the hottest year of the last 100 for the US?
An anonymous reader writes: It looks as if the GISS temperature analysis, one of the main temperature records for the US, has just been adjusted downwards close on 0.2C since 1998. Steve McIntyre, whose work detected the error, reckons that GISS data now makes 1934 the hottest year in the last hundred for the US.
Submission + - When IP Protection Incites Consumer Rage
An anonymous reader writes: How many industries of late have managed to generate such genuine consumer hatred over the last several years? says Richard Menta about the record industry. He was refering to that industry's aggressive activities to control its content in the digital age and he makes a solid argument that these efforts, including oppressive DRM tactics and legal actions, have alienated the consumer to the point where it is a key contributor to decreasing CD revenues. This quarter alone EMI saw a 20% drop in CD sales, while Warners 3rd quarter loss widened. The article lays out 17 events including the Sony rootkit scandal and the payola scandal that have tarnished the industry's public image and undermined its credibility with the average record buyer.
Submission + - Google Filters Torrents From Search Results (torrentfreak.com) 1
HiddenL writes: According to TorrentFreak.com:
Google has been filtering its search results for years. That's proven very useful for the Chinese government, and of course content owner representatives like the MPAA and RIAA. According to Google, the filtering of torrents from the search results is a response to the DMCA complaints they receive.
The owner of SumoTorrent told TorrentFreak that he discovered that A search on Google for sumotorrent now triggers the following message at the bottom of the results page:
Apparently "Do No Evil" includes mass filtering of legitimate content.In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org.
A search for other BitTorrent sites like Torrentspy and Torrentreactor comes up with the same message (note. the sites are still indexed but some results are removed).
Submission + - Wikipedia unmasks top US spy -- 15 months ago
sgml4kids writes: Yahoo News is reporting that Jose Rodriguez, head of the CIA's National Clandestine Service has unmasked himself in the months preceding his upcoming retirement. From TFA:
You probably never knew "Jose"'s real identity, unless, of course you've looked up "Director of National Clandestine Service" on Wikipedia anytime in the last 10 months or Rodriguez's own Wikipedia entry as early as 15 months ago.Rodriguez is the most important man in the U.S. spy game whose name you probably never knew. When he was mentioned publicly before now, he was referred to only as "Jose."
Submission + - Liberal Democracy Becomming Corporate Dictatorship (democracynow.org)
dhavleak writes: "John Pilger (a reputed investigative journalist and documentary film maker who acted as a war correspondent in conflicts in Vietnam, Cambodia, Egypt, India, Bangladesh and Bahrain) recently gave a stirring speech at the Socialism 2007 conference in Chicago. The speech is a startling reminder of how mainstream journalism is just an extension of government, and it encourages people to keep reading between the lines to see the concealed role of the media. From the transcript:
Real information, subversive information, remains the most potent power of all — and I believe that we must not fall into the trap of believing that the media speaks for the public. That wasn't true in Stalinist Czechoslovakia and it isn't true of the United States.
and..We now know that the BBC and other British media were used by the British secret intelligence service MI-6. In what they called Operation Mass Appeal, MI-6 agents planted stories about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, such as weapons hidden in his palaces and in secret underground bunkers. All of these stories were fake. But that's not the point. The point is that the work of MI-6 was unnecessary, because professional journalism on its own would have produced the same result.
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