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Submission + - US sides with Oracle in Java copyright dispute with Google (cio.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: Nothing about the API (application programming interface) code at issue in the case materially distinguishes it from other computer code, which is copyrightable, wrote Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli in a filing in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Submission + - Secret Service tries to steal $115K from a business couple

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Secret Service seized a business couple's bank account with no warning merely because they had withdrawn just under $10,000 several times.

After months of litigation against the United States government, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen West moved to dismiss the case earlier this month, meaning the Bednars will get their money back. However, the government refused to cover the Bednar's $25,000 in legal fees, which the couple is entitled to under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act. Though the fight to get their $115,000 back is now over, the family is continuing to push to have their expenses covered.

First the government tries to steal their money. Now, it is trying to ignore the law by not paying their legal fees, even though the law requires it to.

Submission + - Criminal charges against Russian workers who caused Proton failure 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The three Russian technicians and their supervisor whose sloppy work caused the spectacular 2013 crash of a Proton rocket immediately after launch have now been indicted on criminal charges and will face trial.

According to investigators, Grishin, Nikolayev and Gudkova in 2011 were tasked with installing the angular rate sensors on the Proton rocket that are responsible for yaw control. "As a result of their violation of technical discipline envisaged by engineering and technological documentation, these sensors were installed incorrectly / at 180 degrees from their correct position/," Markin said.

The installation error accounted for the vehicle's wild trajectory, causing its crash and destruction. During the investigation, Grishin and Nikolayev partly admitted their guilt in committing the crime, he said.

In his turn, Nasibulin guided by the fact that over a long time no violations had been found during the installation process and also amid the job cuts withdrew the control operation from a respective list. He did not monitor the process and the sensors were installed without the due control.

Note that they didn't sabotage anything intentionally. They only did bad work. In the U.S. such incompetence would certainly get them fired, but no one would dream of prosecuting them under these circumstances. It appears that Putin's government has decided to make them scapegoats and an example to everyone else: Do your work right or else!

Along these lines, Russian government officials have also indicated they are considering imposing fines on manufacturers for any future failures or delays.

Both the criminal indictments and the fines would surely work to prevent further disasters. They will also work very effectively in preventing any risk-taking or innovation from anyone. Who wants to build something new and untested if there is a strong possibility its failure will get you in prison?

Do not expect much creativity from the Russian aerospace industry in the coming years.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: When we perfect age reversing, how do we decide who gets to live? 4

Submitted by ourlovecanlastforeve
ourlovecanlastforeve writes: With biologists getting closer and closer to reversing the aging process in human cells, the reality of greatly extended life draws closer. This brings up a very important conundrum: You can't tell people not to reproduce and you can't kill people to preserve resources and space. Even at our current growth rate there's not enough for everyone. Not enough food, not enough space, not enough medical care. If — no, when — age reversal becomes a reality, who gets to live? And if everyone gets to live, how will we provide for them?

Submission + - Researchers Comment on Proposed Wassenaar Rules (threatpost.com)

Submitted by msm1267
msm1267 writes: Influential security researchers, including Halvar Flake and Jonathan Zdziarski, have begun publishing their comments, objections and concerns regarding the proposed U.S. export control rules under the Wassenaar Arrangement. The bug-hunters are worried that the rules' definition of intrusion software is too broad and would curtail vulnerability research, proof-of-concept exploit development, the use of certain scanners, pen-testing software, and other potential dual-use tools.

Submission + - How Much C++ Should You Know for an Entry-Level C++ Job? (dice.com)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: How much C++ do you need to know to land an entry-level job that's heavy in C++? That's a question Dice posed to several developers. While the exact topic was C++, the broader question of "How much X do you actually need to know to make money off it?" could also apply to any number of programming languages. In the case of C++, basics to know include virtual methods, virtual destructors, operator overloading, how templates work, correct syntax, the standard library, and more. Anything less, and a senior developer will likely get furious; they have a job to do, and that job isn't teaching the ins and outs of programming. With all that in mind, what's a minimum level of knowledge for a programming language for entry-level developers?

Submission + - Global business leaders say they don't know enough about technology to succeed

Submitted by Lemeowski
Lemeowski writes: New Harvard Business Review research finds that only 45% of business leaders surveyed say they personally have the technology knowledge they need to succeed in their jobs. What's more, the survey of 436 global business leaders finds that only 23% are confident their organizations have the knowledge and skills to succeed in the digital aspects of their business. The report says that given the low levels of digital knowledge and skills outside of IT "it's troubling that close to half of all respondents (49%) said their department occasionally or frequently initiaties IT projects with little or no direct involvement of IT."

Submission + - Insurer denies healthcare breach claim citing lack of minimum required practices (securityledger.com)

Submitted by chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: In what may become a trend, an insurance company is denying a claim from a California healthcare provider following the leak of data on more than 32,000 patients. The insurer, Columbia Casualty, charges that Cottage Health System did an inadequate job of protecting patient data.

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in California, Columbia alleges that the breach occurred because Cottage and a third party vendor, INSYNC Computer Solution, Inc. failed to follow “minimum required practices,” as spelled out in the policy. Among other things, Cottage “stored medical records on a system that was fully accessible to the internet but failed to install encryption or take other security measures to protect patient information from becoming available to anyone who ‘surfed’ the Internet,” the complaint alleges.

Disputes like this may become more common, as insurers anxious to get into a cyber insurance market that's growing by about 40% annually use liberally written exclusions to hedge against 'known unknowns' like lax IT practices, pre-existing conditions (like compromises) and so on. (http://www.itworld.com/article/2839393/cyber-insurance-only-fools-rush-in.html)

Submission + - Exploit Kit Delivers Pharming Attacks Against SOHO Routers (threatpost.com)

Submitted by msm1267
msm1267 writes: For the first time, DNS redirection attacks against small office and home office routers are being delivered via exploit kits. French security researcher Kafeine said an offshoot of the Sweet Orange kit has been finding success in driving traffic from compromised routers to the attackers' infrastructure.The risk to users is substantial he said, ranging from financial loss, to click-fraud, man-in-the-middle attacks and phishing.

Submission + - Hot Topic Buys Geeknet (scnow.com)

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: The clothing and music retailer Hot Topic is buying Geeknet for $117.3 million. Geeknet, the firm behind the legendary establishments SourceForge and VA Linux, is currently the parent company for ThinkGeek and ThinkGeek Solutions. ThinkGeek sells clothing, toys, gadgets and other products mostly based on popular movies, television shows and brands with geek appeal. ThinkGeek Solutions is a distributor of video-game themed merchandise through licensed web stores. Hot Topic Inc. will pay $17.50 per Geeknet share. Privately held Hot Topic, based in Los Angeles, has more than 650 stores in the U.S. and Canada. Geeknet will become a Hot Topic subsidiary.

Submission + - Smartphones Put Medical Diagnostics In Your Hands (acs.org)

Submitted by MTorrice
MTorrice writes: Medical diagnostic devices that can be used in conjunction with a smartphone could allow health care workers to diagnose diseases or monitor a patient’s health on the spot, without the need to send off a sample to some remote laboratory. This, researchers say, could change the way people attend to their own health, putting a tool to monitor disease literally in their hands.

Such devices could also prove useful in the developing world, where smartphones are becoming common yet hospitals can be few and far between. In these regions, opportunities to diagnose easily treated disease are often missed. And for infectious diseases, such as influenza or Ebola virus, a point-of-care system combined with a smartphone’s ability to provide a geographical location could track a disease’s movement in real time and even identify and isolate patients to slow the spread of the disease.

Submission + - Elon Musk Creates Ad Astra, An Exclusive, Private School

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Jessica Hannan writes at I4U that Elon Musk pulled his children out of an established school after discovering they weren't receiving the quality of education that catered to their abilities and built his own school with only 14 students whose parents are primarily SpaceX employees. Musk wants to eliminate grades so there's no distinction between students in 1st grade and 3rd and students focus on the important elements of each subject. By integrating the thinking process to include a progressive step-by-step approach, children will be challenged and able to understand result through a systemic pattern. "Let's say you're trying to teach people about how engines work. A more traditional approach would be saying, 'we're going to teach all about screwdrivers and wrenches.' This is a very difficult way to do it." Instead, Musk says it makes more sense to give students an engine and then work to disassemble it. "How are we going to take it apart? You need a screwdriver." When you show "what the screwdriver is for," Musk explains "a very important thing happens" because students then witness the relevancy of task, tool, and solution in a long term application."

According to Hannah, Musk’s approach to delete grade level numbers and focus on aptitude may take the pressure off non-linear students and creates a more balanced assessment of ingenuity. Admitting books were "comforting" to him as a child and to reading everything from science fiction to the encyclopedia and philosophers from “morning to night," Musk points out that not everyone will be strong in every subject, or be able to retain regurgitated standardized aptitude facts beyond the test. "It makes more sense to cater the education to match their aptitudes and abilities." So far, Ad Astra "seems to be going pretty well," according to Musk. "The kids really love going to school."

Submission + - Bogus FBI 'porn warning' scares Android users into ransomware trap (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Cybercriminals have been targeting Android users in a new ransomware campaign which poses as an email from the FBI warning against viewing porn online. Romanian security software firm Bitdefender suggests that as many as 15,000 spam emails including zipped attachment files were sent to Android customers over the past few days. The attack is thought to have originated in Ukraine. If the files were opened, users were faced with a ransom note demanding $500 to restore full access to their system. It continued to threaten that users who try to unlock their devices would be charged up to $1,500. Payments were requested to be transferred via PayPal My Cash or Money Pak. The ransomware was disguised as an Adobe Flash Player update – a frequent façade used in hacking attacks.

Submission + - Audi Claims First Synthetic Gasoline Made From Plants (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Just weeks after producing its first batch of synthetic diesel fuel made from carbon dioxide and water, Audi has laid claim to another synthetic, clean-burning and petroleum-free fuel called "e-benzin." The fuel was created by Audi's project partner Global Bioenergies, in France.

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