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The "Rickmote Controller" Can Hijack Any Google Chromecast 131

redletterdave writes Dan Petro, a security analyst for the Bishop Fox IT consulting firm, built a proof of concept device that's able to hack into any Google Chromecasts nearby to project Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," or any other video a prankster might choose. The "Rickmote," which is built on top of the $35 Raspberry Pi single board computer, finds a local Chromecast device, boots it off the network, and then takes over the screen with multimedia of one's choosing. But it gets worse for the victims: If the hacker leaves the range of the device, there's no way to regain control of the Chromecast. Unfortunately for Google, this is a rather serious issue with the Chromecast device that's not too easy to fix, as the configuration process is an essential part of the Chromecast experience.

Comment Re:I hope this surprises no one,.. (Score 1) 68

Restaurant fails to pay the lease.

Landlord slaps a new lock on the door.

Equipment is sold to a restaurant supply reclamation company, of which any city of any size has.

Supply company puts their crap on eBay.

This tells me that the point of sale equipment is flawed to a
degree that risks civil action. As bad as they are modern
routers must be reset if the password is lost and as a minimum

Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards need to
address this. Please call your IEEE favorite standard person....

Comment The primary witness is software... (Score 1) 229

The primary witness in all this is software.
As such the software needs to be available for cross examination the same as
any other software. Perhaps not open source but clearly open and testable
interfaces.

Further any revision and change must be subject to audit. The obvious issue
is bogus citations because code did not operate as per specifications in the
law. All citations issued while the bogus code was "live" would then need
to be reviewed.

A contract service should not be able to adjust anything not specified in
the law.

With a robot the notion of enforcement priority makes no sense. i.e. allocation
of staff and resources can justify priorities but a machine should simply
operate against a specification and within tolerances that make sense.
Anything else would be a legislative action and not allowed or empowered by law.

Tolerances that make sense would include normal reaction time expectations (not average).
Tolerances need to include sane and honest error parameter stackups.
Tolerances need to be population sensitive.... some are kids some have gray hair.

Consider any regulation that uses the word average is a regulation that
begins with an assumption that 50% would fail. Further average is not
a sufficient statistical metric to do anything with.

Contractors and contracts that share revenue need to be open to audit and
need to have a legal presence and legal liability in the same venue that the citations
are to be issued. Fraud and abuse should incur greater penalty than those cited.
i.e. it is not OK to simply say "my bad, here is your ten bucks back" when abuse and
fraud are involved.

Comment Re:Wish I could say I was surprised (Score 1) 178

Wrong. [...] It should be publish or die.

I belive the phrase you're looking for is "publish or perish."

Either gets the point across.

I would like to see some data that outlines the potential
number of authors and the potential number of papers
as limited by page count.

It seems to me that this is a rigged game with rules
drawn from childhood agony playing musical chairs only
to the extreme.

With the modern internet page count is no longer the issue
but it is because that is how the game rules are written.

Qualified reviewers are few and far between as science,
literature, history and all of the academic world have carved
thing up into such fine narrow specialized fields that only
one researcher in the universe has any knowledge of the
topic.

Compound that by the rampant insertion of tenured staff names
in the author list of all papers coming out of institutions that
new science is all done by Mr Et Al.

The only process in the US that comes close to this foolishness is the process
in place for US patents where the contents of a whiteboard can be edited never
implemented and turned into a process patent. There is however overlap
where the whiteboard might be a class project or lecture note taken off line
and refactored into something apparently new but stolen outright.

Consider that if you are in a design meeting, and make a suggestion and
are not later credited as an inventor you are the victim of intellectual and
professional theft. Keep a notebook....

Comment Re:The Good News? (Score 1) 178

It's just the new strategy ........ It's called the self-peer-review.

Amazingly articles can get released on the same day as submission with this method.

Not unheard of here on /. as well.

Multiple accounts on multiple virtual machines at multiple coffee shops
perhaps gatewayed via VPN thanks to co conspirators to present
a global view.

Watch how quickly someone, not I, mods this up and down...

Submission + - A Polygraph is not private, OH MY.... (wiat.com) 1

niftymitch writes:

"TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WIAT) – WIAT 42 News has obtained a copy of Justin “Ross” Harris’ personnel file from the time that he was employed as a dispatcher with the Tuscaloosa Police Department. The documents detail Harris’ employment history, some drug use, and the results of a polygraph test that was conducted before his hire. Harris was hired as a tele communicator basic with the police department in June of 2006. He was promoted in his second year with the department, and then in May 2009, he resigned."

This is a tangle of astounding reach. A polygraph is a process to coerce "honesty" from individuals... But there is no US constitutional protection and no privacy as this release demonstrates.

Submission + - Rocket Scientist Designs 'Flare' Pot That Cooks Food 40% Faster (inhabitat.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Oxford University engineering professor Dr Thomas Povey just invented a new cooking pot that heats food 40% faster. The pot is made from cast aluminum, and it features fins that direct flames across the bottom and up the sides, capturing energy that would otherwise be wasted. The pot is set to hit the market next month in the UK.

Comment Re:A company saved on its health insurance plan (Score 1) 353

by distributing FitBits to employees.
Did they also provide FitBit winders?

No but a FitBit worn 7x24x356.25 smells a lot like
a lot of overtime to me.

If they want to monitor you 7x24 it seems like they
need to compensate you 7x24.

And more importantly the employee pool profile as
well as the FitBit data reflects on age and sex which
are "parameters" that enable discrimination against
groups based on sex and age.

Someone mentioned Stephen Hawking in jest but
again a FitBit program monitored by the company directly
or indirectly by rate changes is very much in violation
of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

It is one thing to give and encourage... it is another
to monitor, track and make financial decisions that
negatively affect any of these protected groups which is
clearly the intent.

Sad, sad, sad....

Comment Re:Postal Dump (Score 1) 60

The US Postal Service already does this... ...snip...

Meta-data is not secret, not private, not protected. .....snip...

False military meta-data is classified secret or higher.
Its classification is a study in why meta data is interesting
and I suspect shows why it is both an invasion of privacy and a powerful tool.

The document that contains the COLLECTED set of meta data that
maps units, individuals, locations and postal delivery information is classified.

Anyone with family in the service knows that they can sent to
PFC Joe Soldier APO/FPO/DPO and it gets delivered.

See: https://www.usps.com/ship/apo-...
Also see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
And see: http://www.dtic.mil/whs/direct...

The classified document is classified not because of the the individual line entry
it is "the collection of meta data entries" that gets stamped. Apparently some of
the locations of some of the units are classified a little or a lot. Layers of routing contain layers
of security management for each of the associated documents.

Unlike SMTP mail there are no progress stamps.... for good reasons.

The analysis of the security risks associated with these documents predates
modern large data analysis tools. And may need to be reconsidered in light
of modern statistical analysis. i.e. Local agencies that have the tools to collect
meta data could use that equipment under the guise of training to spy on family
of active duty service and pose a national security risk. This risk IMO is inherent
in both phone and other digital connection data.

To speculate further is foolish for me....

Submission + - Python Bumps Off Java As Top Learning Language (itworld.com)

itwbennett writes: Python has surpassed Java as the top language used to introduce U.S. students to programming and computer science, according to a recent survey posted by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Eight of the top 10 computer science departments now use Python to teach coding, as well as 27 of the top 39 schools, indicating that it is the most popular language for teaching introductory computer science courses, according to Philip Guo, a computer science researcher who compiled the survey for ACM.

Comment Re:Non-compete agreements are BS. (Score 1) 272

Just scrawl 'I don't agree' on the signature line. Let them enforce that.

Better to scrawl -- "non compete and other limitations on employment post separation or termination must be compensated."
i.e. If they enjoin you from working at a $500,000.00/year job they must compensate at that level.

Or scrawl "below signature is without the advice of legal counsel".

It is interesting that in a divorce it important to pay for legal advice for both sides.

Comment Re:alternative already exists (Score 1) 142

.....

The advantage of the cars in this model is that they speed up unloading. Go and watch a freight train being unloaded some time, it's a massive endeavour. Now imagine if each of the trucks could just drive off along the roads on its own as soon as the train arrived at its destination.

Consider extensive automation of the loading and contrast with the extensive automation and risks of
automated trucking.

Scheduling driver pickup and routing is the nut none have cracked yet.

Comment Re:Okay, so this has what to do with fracking then (Score 2) 154

A majority of them are too small to be felt, but we have had 5.9's and 4.0's before. .....
The big deal is that it's starting to damage buildings. ......

Historic building codes in OK are not seismic risk aware.
Only recently have the codes in the hot spot around New Madrid
been partly addressed. In Calif there is a major industry
retrofitting buildings. It is costly and it is being driven by
an industry that profits from it. It is a good thing to reinforce
buildings, it is less good when the invoice arrives.

The cost of seismic retrofit in the Midwest could bankrupt
many states... and for the same reason tornado shelters
are not part of all schools, offices, shopping malls and homes
are not going to happen over night.

First building codes for new construction need to
be considered. Trailer houses like many single
story wood frame houses have less risk from quakes
than they do from tornadoes.... I hope regulators do
not bankrupt the Midwest....

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