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Submission + - Virginia Court: LEOs can force you to provide fingerprint to unlock your phone (macrumors.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: A Circuit Court judge in Virginia has ruled that fingerprints are not protected by the Fifth Amendment, a decision that has clear privacy implications for fingerprint-protected devices like newer iPhones and iPads.

According to Judge Steven C. Fucci, while a criminal defendant can't be compelled to hand over a passcode to police officers for the purpose of unlocking a cellular device, law enforcement officials can compel a defendant to give up a fingerprint.

The Fifth Amendment states that "no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself," which protects memorized information like passwords and passcodes, but it does not extend to fingerprints in the eyes of the law, as speculated by Wired last year.

Judge Steven C. Frucci ruled this week that giving police a fingerprint is akin to providing a DNA or handwriting sample or an actual key, which the law permits. A pass code, though, requires the defendant to divulge knowledge, which the law protects against, according to Frucci's written opinion.

Comment Re:OK, that's counted people. And the other stats? (Score 1) 57

by Atrox Canis (#48249573) Attached to: Taking the Census, With Cellphones

I agree, but I think they may be taking this into account. For one, having a detailed mapping of somewhat technically engaged populace gives them just a little more information in regards to determining what segments of the population to randomly select for enhanced census. I know they are supposed to try to hit everyone but with just the right emphasis on how hard to try in certain areas, the results can be skewed enough to matter.

Comment Re:Kickstarter! (Score 1) 215

by Atrox Canis (#48243257) Attached to: "Police Detector" Monitors Emergency Radio Transmissions

Take the extreme positions out of the argument and both of you start making sense.

No, not all speed zone decisions are made based entirely or even in part on revenue generation possibilities.

No, not all speed zone decisions are made based entirely or even in part on traffic safety considerations.

The problem then becomes, as a driver, which are which? How do I know? How can I find out?

So, I use a radar detector in my daily drive to and from work. Ordinarily, I drive the same speed as everyone else but if I'm the only one on the road, I drive the speed limit. I believe this type of behavior is both civil and safe. And if you don't like the way I drive, you are free to slow the fuck down or speed the fuck up.

Submission + - As Prison Population Sinks, Jails Are a Steal

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: After rising rapidly for decades, the number of people behind bars peaked at 1.62 Million in 2009, has been mostly falling ever since down, and many justice experts believe the incarceration rate will continue on a downward trajectory for many years. New York, for example, saw an 8.8% decline in federal and state inmates, and California, saw a 20.6% drop. Now the WSJ reports on an awkward byproduct of the declining U.S. inmate population: empty or under-utilized prisons and jails that must be cared for but can’t be easily sold or repurposed. New York state has closed 17 prisons and juvenile-justice facilities since 2011, following the rollback of the 1970s-era Rockefeller drug laws, which mandated lengthy sentences for low-level offenders. So far, the state has found buyers for 10 of them, at prices that range from less than $250,000 to about $8 million for a facility in Staten Island, often a fraction of what they cost to build. “There’s a prisoner shortage,” says Mike Arismendez, city manager for Littlefield, Texas, home of an empty five-building complex that sleeps 383 inmates and comes with a gym, maintenence shed, armory, and parking lot . “Everybody finds it hard to believe.”

The incarceration rate is declining largely because crime has fallen significantly in the past generation. In addition, many states have relaxed harsh sentencing laws passed during the tough-on-crime 1980s and 1990s, and have backed rehabilitation programs, resulting in fewer low-level offenders being locked up. States from Michigan to New Jersey have changed parole processes, leading more prisoners to leave earlier. On a federal level, the Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder has pushed to reduce sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. Before 2010, the U.S. prison population increased every year for 30 years, from 307,276 in 1978 to a high of 1,615,487 in 2009. “This is the beginning of the end of mass incarceration,” says Natasha Frost. "People don’t care so much about crime, and it’s less of a political focus."

Submission + - Journalists Route Around White House Press Office

Submitted by Tailhook
Tailhook writes: Pool reports written by White House correspondents are distributed to news organizations via the White House Press Office. Reporters have alleged that the Obama White House exploits its role as distributor to `demand changes in pool reports' and has used this power to `steer coverage in a more favorable direction.' Now a group of 90 print journalists has begun privately distributing their work through Google Groups, independent of the Press Office. Their intent is to `create an independent pool-reporting system for print and online recipients.'

Submission + - Chemical weapons found in Iraq were covered up by the US

Submitted by mr_mischief
mr_mischief writes: Multiple sources report that the US found remnants of WMD programs, namely chemical weapons, in Iraq after all. Many US soldiers were injured by them, in fact.

Why the cover-up, when so many people were making it a point to say there were no WMD? Was it to keep morale up? Was it out of embarrassment that many of these weapons were developed with Western help? Was it because these were older weapons not actively being produced? Maybe it's because the US troops did not follow international protocols to secure and properly dispose of the weapons.

Well, whatever the reason, it's a bad thing. If there are any of these caches under ISIL control it could be a very bad thing.

Submission + - Ebola Test Is Positive in Second Texas Health Worker (nytimes.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: The authorities in Texas reported on Wednesday that a second health care worker involved in the treatment of a patient who died of the Ebola virus had tested positive for the disease after developing a fever.

The worker, who was not identified by name, had been “among those who took care of Thomas Eric Duncan after he was diagnosed with Ebola,” a statement from the Texas Department of State Health Services said.

Comment Re: Apples and Oranges (Score 1) 427

1. Apple has a less than 15% market share... they may be very influential, but I hardly doubt that anything that they do could be construed to be abuse of market share.

15% market share of mobile phones? Really? I guess I expected their penetration in phones was much greater than that of their computer (desktop/laptop/tablet) market.

Submission + - How Techies Should Pick A City To Live In (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: You've just graduated from college with a technical degree, and you're more mobile than you've ever been in your life or ever will be again. How do you decide where to settle? If you're trying to advance your technical career, you might want to try working through the checklist offered by Fred Shilmover. Shilmover is the CEO of a cloud-based company but his guidelines could apply to anyone in a technical field. (He picked Boston, by the way.)

Submission + - New Brunswick election in question after Voting Machine Fiasco (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by Dr Caleb
Dr Caleb writes:

"The New Brunswick Progressive Conservatives say they won't accept Monday's election result until all ballots are counted by hand."

Elections New Brunswick used 713 vote tabulation machines in the election, which had been expected to speed up the process of counting the ballots. This was the first provincial election to use them. However, problems emerged within two hours of polls closing, as manual counts were not matching up with electronic counts. For at least 90 minutes, Elections New Brunswick stopped transmitting updated results. "Michael Quinn, the chief electoral officer, said in a statement Monday night that some of his staff noted some of the results being entered manually were not getting replaced properly with results being uploaded from the tabulators."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

There have also been reports on TV and Radio that some of the memory cards from the machines are missing and unaccounted for. They had been removed from some machines that were not transmitting the data to the central servers, so the memory cards were to be physically taken there and entered into the records. Reports also say some machines were not certified properly.

Comment Re:No, no. Let's not go there. Please. (Score 1) 937

by Atrox Canis (#47901595) Attached to: Why Atheists Need Captain Kirk

I reached the conclusion there is no god some 20 years ago. Until reading your post, I was unaware of the existence of atheist websites or atheist discussion forums. I've not actually engaged in a discussion with another atheist in all these years. I saw no reason to seek these things. I'm not trying to make fun of you or denigrate your comments. I guess the point I'm driving to is that of course, there will be groups of atheists that meet in various ways to discuss whatever they feel a need to discuss. I just never had that need.

I've never really felt like there is anything missing from my life. I'm married with 5 kids and 6 grand kids. My wife and I both still work and we do things in the community to help out when we can. We both vote and hold strong opinions regarding society. I'm pro-life because I am bothered by the idea of so much lost potential and I'm anti-illegal immigration because I am bothered by the knowledge that the immigrants are being turned into indentured servants. Well over 20% of our income goes to help others. Some of those people we help are family, some are friends and a few are strangers.

My wife recently told me that she too has come to the point where she no longer believes in a god. I've never tried to convince her that my lack of belief was superior because that always felt too much like proselytizing. Anyway, tl;dr kicks in here I suppose and again, I'm not trying to pick nits. It just seems somewhat incongruous that atheists would feel the need to get together in any way other than the normal social interaction that comes from being part of a larger community.

In any case, good wishes for success with whatever you choose to believe of not believe.

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