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Submission + - 50 years later, MIT looks back at AI and networking pioneer Project MAC

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: Fifty years ago, a major project that ultimately seeded much of today’s computer technology was created at MIT: Project MAC, and the Multics operating system initiative within the project. Daniel Dern interviews some of the key figures involved in the pioneering project, looking at how one laboratory helped spawn Ethernet, AI, and dozens of tech companies and other innovations that took ideas from the lab to the personal computer.

Submission + - The Exploitative Economics of Academic Publishing (betaboston.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: Taxpayers in the United States spend $139 billion a year on scientific research, yet much of this research is inaccessible not only to the public, but also to other scientists. This is the consequence of an exploitative scientific journal system that rewards academic publishers while punishing taxpayers, scientists, and universities. Fortunately, cheap open-access alternatives are not only possible, but already beginning to take root, as this article explores in-depth.

Submission + - Aereo has its (first) day before Supreme Court

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: Aereo, which streams broadcast TV over the Internet, devised a somewhat extreme hack to get around public performance and copyright law: Give each user their own antenna, creating thousands of individual "remote DVRs" for the masses. Predictably, broadcaster have freaked out, and now the Supreme Court has heard initial arguments to determine whether Aereo's model has any legal weight. Here's the full transcript (Warning: Big PDF). The court is expected to rule by the end of June.

Submission + - FBI says Russians out to steal technology from Boston firms, posing as VCs (betaboston.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: It sounds like a scare from 1970s Cold War propaganda or a subplot from the popular TV series “The Americans,” but the FBI says the threat is real: Russian investment firms may be looking to steal high-tech intelligence from Boston-area companies to give to their country’s military. Many of the firms under scrutiny are in the Boston area, including those partnered with a number of area biotech companies and with ties to MIT.

Submission + - New service lets you hitch a ride with private planes for cost of tank of gas (betaboston.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: A new service, Airpooler, matches pilots with passengers looking to head the same way. Since it's not an officially licensed charter service, prices are limited to roughly the passengers share of the gas, giving pilots a way to share the expense of enjoying the open blue and flyers a taste of their personal pilot.

Submission + - Drupal's Dries Buytaert: It's open-source software that'll eat the world (betaboston.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: Drupal creator and Acquia co-founder Dries Buytaert said it's open source software that will "eat the world," pointing to Cloudera, MongoDB, and, yes, Acquia, but saying it's not the price point but the quality that's making the difference. “Our customers care about the fact that they can use the best technology, and that’s what we try to emphasize," he said. "The fact that open source is free is not really the main reason it gets adopted."

Submission + - Founders open up on dealing with impression through pus and downs of a startup (betaboston.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: Founders at a number of Boston startups shared their stories of building and growing a company while battling depression. One founder didn't even realize he was depressed until glucose and blood tests came back normal, while another said it was worse than her life struggles growing up in the projects.

All shared different coping mechanisms. Any advice from /. on dealing with the same?

Submission + - After FOIA, Homeland Security releases social media monitoring guides

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: With a Freedom of Information Act request, MuckRock has received copies of two of the guides Homeland Security uses to monitor social media, one on standard procedures and a desktop binder for analysts.

Now we're asking for help to go through it: See something worth digging into? Say something, and share it with others so we know what to FOIA next.

Submission + - This gadget is a bacon-scented alarm clock for your iPhone (betaboston.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: If you’ve given up bacon for Lent, stop reading now. The same goes for people who don’t own a smartphone made by Apple Inc. But if you’ve got an iPhone and a love for “the candy of meat,” you might want to check out a new high-tech promotional gimmick from old-school meatpacker Oscar Meyer. The company, which is owned by Kraft Foods Group Inc., is giving away 4,700 gadgets that convert an iPhone into a bacon-scented alarm clock.

Submission + - A vast surveillance network runs across America, powered by repo men (betaboston.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: Even as some police departments curtail their sue of license plate scanning technology over privacy concerns, private companies have been amassing a much larger, almost completely unregulated database that pulls in billions of scans a year, marking the exact time and location of millions of vehicles across America. The database, which is often offered to law enforcement for free, is collected by repo and towing companies eager to tap easy revenue, while the database companies than resell that data, often for as little as $25 for a plate's complete recorded history.

Submission + - Feds now oppose Aereo, rejecting cloud apocalypse argument

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: TV streaming service Aereo expected broadcasters would put up a fight. The startup may not have seen the Justice Department as a threat, however. The Justice Department has now weighed in, saying in a filing that it’s siding with major broadcasters who accuse Aereo of stealing TV content. In its filing, the Justice Department noted it doesn’t believe a win for broadcasters would dismantle the precedent that created the cloud computing industry, as Aereo has previously claimed.

The case is expected to go before the Supreme Court in late April.

Submission + - White House "privacy tour" a flop on its first leg at MIT (betaboston.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: After the Snowden revelations, President Obama promised greater transparency on how the federal government collects and uses data on its citizens, including a three-leg "privacy tour" to discuss the balance between security and privacy. Well, the first leg of the tour is up and — surprise, surprise — it's not much of a conversation, with official dodging questions or, in one case, simply walking out of the conference.

Submission + - This method is so acceptable, the DEA won't even release its name (muckrock.com) 1

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: In a slideshow released as part of a FOIA request to MuckRock, the DEA released slides outlining four legal methods of intelligence gathering "acceptable to the public." One of those methods, however, was so acceptable that the agency felt the need to redact what it was, calling it a confidential law enforcement technique. The other three methods which were released include the controversial FISA courts, the technique of parallel reconstruction, and the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), which bars the release of confidential information in court.

Submission + - DEA PowerPoint shows how agency hides investigative methods from trial review (muckrock.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: CJ Ciaramella stumbled upon some recently interesting documents with a recent FOIA request: The DEA's training materials regarding parallel construction, the practice of reverse engineering the evidence chain to keep how the government actually knows something happened away from prosecutors, the defense, and the public.

  “Americans don’t like it," the materials note, when the government relies heavily on classified sources, so agents are encouraged to find ways to get the same information through tactics like "routine" traffic stops that coincidentally find the information agents are after.

Public blowback, along with greater criminal awareness, are cited among the reasons for keeping the actual methodologies beyond the reach of even the prosecutors working with the DEA on the cases.

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