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Submission + - NY Magistrate: Legal Papers Can Be Server Via Facebook (nypost.com)

Submitted by Wylde Stile
Wylde Stile writes: A Staten Island, NY family court support magistrate allowed a man to serve his ex-wife via Facebook. The man tried to serve the woman in person and via mail, but the woman moved with no forwarding address. The children would not return his calls so he has no way to get the address. The magistrate decided that in-person and mail would not work

The ex-wife maintains an active Facebook account. She even liked some photos on the current wife Facebook page days before the ruling. The magistrate conclude that the ex-wife could be served through Facebook.

Submission + - What's the earliest signal from the Universe?

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: When we look out into the Universe, we can see fainter and farther than ever before simply by building larger telescopes and having them take longer exposures: in other words, by gathering more light. But even in principle, there's a limit to what we can see, thanks to the fact that, beyond a certain point, the Universe was an ionized plasma, randomizing whatever information was contained in the light passing through it. But that doesn't mean we can't see beyond that point, it just means we can't use light to do it! Gravitational waves are the future of astronomy, and can even tell us how the Universe got its start!

Submission + - Cloud Connected Drones Provide Rapid Agricultural Imagery

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: DroneDeploy, a startup that makes it possible for just about anyone to fly small drones and analyze the images they capture using a tablet or smartphone, now helps businesses get started using small drones within the fields of farming, construction, and environmental or land surveillance. A small device called the CoPilot connects drones to the internet, and makes it possible for the startup’s cloud software to control and stay in communication with these drones. One team is currently using the technology to operate fleets of drones that monitor areas where poachers target and kill endangered species.

Submission + - TrueCrypt gets a new life, new name (esecurityplanet.com)

Submitted by storagedude
storagedude writes: Amid ongoing security concerns, the popular open source encryption program TrueCrypt may have found new life under a new name, reports eSecurity Planet. Under the terms of the TrueCrypt license — which was a homemade open source license written by the authors themselves rather than a standard one — a forking of the code is allowed if references to TrueCrypt are removed from the code and the resulting application is not called TrueCrypt. Thus, CipherShed will be released under a standard open source license, with long-term ambitions to become a completely new product.

Submission + - Microsoft lays off 2,100, axes Silicon Valley research (reuters.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: Microsoft Corp will close its Silicon Valley research-and-development operation as part of 2,100 layoffs announced on Thursday, as it moves toward its new CEO's goal of cutting 18,000 staff, or about 14 percent of its workforce.

Submission + - What's in your Home Datacenter?

Submitted by jvschwarz
jvschwarz writes: There was a time when I had rack-mount systems at home, preferring old Unix boxes, Sun-3 and early SPARC machines, but have moved to low-power machines, Raspberry Pi systems, small NAS boxes, etc. Looks like some are taking it to another level. What do other slashdotters have in their Home Datacenter?

Submission + - Apple and U2 work on secret new music format to get fans buying music again 1

Submitted by mrspoonsi
mrspoonsi writes: Bono's already inserted himself into everyone's iPhones this week, but now he wants even more control over the way you enjoy music. The Irish singer says that he's been working with Apple on a new audio format that'll get people paying for music once again. In an interview with Time magazine, it's said that the band has been working on a secret project that's "so terribly exciting to music fans that it will tempt them again into buying music."

Submission + - Apple's 'Warrant Canary' Has Died

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: When Apple published its first Transparency Report on government activity in late 2013, the document contained an important footnote that stated: “Apple has never received an order under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. We would expect to challenge such an order if served on us.” Now Jeff John Roberts writes at Gigaom that Apple’s warrant canary has disappeared. A review of the company’s last two Transparency Reports, covering the second half of 2013 and the first six months of 2014, shows that the “canary” language is no longer there suggesting that Apple is now part of FISA or PRISM proceedings.

Warrant canaries are a tool used by companies and publishers to signify to their users that, so far, they have not been subject to a given type of law enforcement request such as a secret subpoena. If the canary disappears, then it is likely the situation has changed — and the company has been subject to such request. This may also give some insight into Apple's recent decision to rework its latest encryption in a way that makes it almost impossible for the company to turn over data from most iPhones or iPads to police.

Submission + - Google Funds New Group to Improve Usability of Open Source Security Tools

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: The dramatic revelations of large-scale government surveillance and deep penetration of the Internet by intelligence services and other adversaries have increased the interest of the general public in tools such as encryption software, anonymity services and others that previously were mainly of interest to technophiles and activists. But many of those tools are difficult to use and present major challenges for users, so to help improve the usability of these applications, Google, Dropbox and others are supporting a new project called Simply Secure.

The project is focused on making open-source security and privacy tools easier to use and to remove some of the pain of using crypto packages, off-the-record messaging and other tools that protect users online. The organization’s activities will center on bringing developers of open source security tools together with usability researchers and experts to help solve the difficult problems the developers face. Many open source projects are run by volunteers who don’t have the time or resources to tackle these issues on their own.

Submission + - Mystery Signal Could be Dark Matter Hint in ISS Detector (discovery.com)

Submitted by astroengine
astroengine writes: Analysis of 41 billion cosmic rays striking the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle detector aboard the International Space Station shows an unknown phenomena that is “consistent with a dark matter particle” known as a neutralino, researchers announced Thursday. Key to the hunt is the ratio of positrons to electrons and so far the evidence from AMS points in the direction of dark matter. The smoking gun scientists look for is a rise in the ratio of positrons to electrons, followed by a dramatic fall — the telltale sign of dark matter annihilating the Milky Way’s halo, which lies beyond its central disk of stars and dust. However, “we have not found the definitive proof of dark matter,” AMS lead researcher Samuel Ting, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and CERN in Switzerland, wrote in an email to Discovery News. “Whereas all the AMS results point in the right direction, we still need to measure how quickly the positron fraction falls off at the highest energies in order to rule out astrophysical sources such as pulsars.” But still, this new finding is a tantalizing step in the dark matter direction.

Submission + - Snowden's Leaks Didn't Help Terrorists 1

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: The Interecept reports that contrary to lurid claims made by U.S. officials, a new independent analysis of Edward Snowden’s revelations on NSA surveillance that examined the frequency of releases and updates of encryption software by jihadi groups has found no correlation in either measure to Snowden’s leaks about the NSA’s surveillance techniques. According to the report "well prior to Edward Snowden, online jihadists were already aware that law enforcement and intelligence agencies were attempting to monitor them (PDF).” In fact, concerns about terrorists' use of sophisticated encryption technology predates even 9/11.

Earlier this month former NSA head Michael Hayden stated, “The changed communications practices and patterns of terrorist groups following the Snowden revelations have impacted our ability to track and monitor these groups”, while Matthew Olsen of the National Counterterrorism Centre would add “Following the disclosure of the stolen NSA documents, terrorists are changing how they communicate to avoid surveillance.” Snowden’s critics have previously accused his actions of contributing from everything from the rise of ISIS to Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. "This most recent study is the most comprehensive repudiation of these charges to date," says Murtaza Hussain. "Contrary to lurid claims to the contrary, the facts demonstrate that terrorist organizations have not benefited from the NSA revelations, nor have they substantially altered their behavior in response to them."

Submission + - FCC May Raise Broadband Speed Requirements for Subsidies to ISPs 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On Wednesday at a hearing in front of the US House Committee on Small Business, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler stated that for ISPs to be eligible for government broadband subsidies, they would have to deliver speeds of at least 10 Mbps. Said Wheeler: "What we are saying is we can't make the mistake of spending the people's money, which is what Universal Service is, to continue to subsidize something that's subpar." He further indicated that he would remedy the situation by the end of 2014. The broadband subsidies are collected through bill surcharges paid for by phone customers.

Submission + - Apple Glosses Over Vulnerabilities Patched in iOS 8, Snubs Security Researcher (zdziarski.com) 1

Submitted by PainMeds
PainMeds writes: At this year's HOPE conference, security researcher Jonathan Zdziarski discussed his findings (slides) of a number of iOS vulnerabilities which made national news. Apple quickly addressed the issues in iOS 8 Beta 5, and Zdziarski explained the fixes in detail. Now that iOS 8 has been officially released, the security release notes appear to avoid mentioning the vulnerabilities that were addressed altogether, except for an out-of-place mention of some "diagnostics changes" in a note at the very bottom, and fail to give any credit to the researcher for finding the problems. Zdziarski has published an open letter to Tim Cook and Apple's Security Team highlighting this:
"I am very glad to see that Apple has taken security seriously enough lately to address vulnerabilities quickly, and – from what I’ve seen – elegantly. I’ve even written up a paper praising Apple for their quick and thorough response to these issues. ... What I’m not glad about at all is that Apple has seemingly swept these issues under the rug, to the degree that they’re not even acknowledged in your security notes. Apple’s code fixes can be clearly observed right in the iOS 8 firmware, and yet there is not a single mention of them in the release notes, nor any acknowledgments for the researcher. If there is any ethical practice to be expected in information security – or science of any kind for that matter – it is to properly acknowledge those who’s research you’ve consumed. In many settings, failure to do so is considered plagiarism." ... "there has been no mention of the more serious issues being fixed, or ever existing." ... "Not one mention of file relay, wireless lockdown vulnerabilities, packet sniffer access control vulnerabilities, or backup encryption bypass vulnerabilities."

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Alternate software for use on smartboards?

Submitted by SmarterThanMe
SmarterThanMe writes: Teacher here, you can call me Mr. SmarterThanMe. I have a fancy smartboard installed in my room. Smartboards allow me to show students a whole range of other stuff other than just whatever I'm writing. I can prepare instructions and activities before the lesson and just move through the boards. I can pull up some students' work and display it through the projector. I can bring up some stimulus for use in a writing task. So much better than blackboards.

Except the software that comes bundled with this particular brand of smartboard is ridiculously clunky. Without naming this particular piece of software, and highlighting it's shortfalls, has anyone got any suggestions on alternatives (open source or otherwise)?

The main features that I'd like are:
  • Handwriting recognition
  • The ability to make and use templates
  • Grids or guides or *something* to be able to teach measurement

I have gold star stickers for any good suggestions. Thanks in advance.

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