gchaix - Slashdot User

Submission + - Social media a threat to undercover cops (techworld.com.au)

Submitted by

angry tapir

on Thursday August 25, 2011 @08:22PM

angry tapir writes: "Facebook has proven to be one of the biggest dangers in keeping undercover police officers safe due to applications such as facial recognition and photo tagging, according to a adjunct professor at ANU and Charles Sturt University. Mick Keelty, a former Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner, told the audience at Security 2011 in Sydney that because of the convergence of a number of technologies undercover policing may be "impossible" in the future."

Submission + - AntiWar.com grapples with FBI surveillance FOIAs (podomatic.com)

Submitted by

BeatTheChip

on Thursday August 25, 2011 @08:19PM

BeatTheChip writes: "Antiwar.com an International war and opinion news coverage site recently discovered they were under surveillance by the FBI, after a blogger found a redacted 8 page document about their newsite from a FOIA reseach request. Jason Ditz, news editor, for the site followed up with more insights about the legal road ahead."

Submission + - CIA and NYPD Alliance (google.com) 1

Submitted by the eric conspiracy on Thursday August 25, 2011 @08:09PM

the eric conspiracy writes: The AP reports that post 9-11, the NYPD has been conducting intelligence operations covertly and independently from city government at the behest and with funding from the CIA.

The NYPD is able to conduct operations that would be illegal under civil liberties restrictions for the Federal Government to conduct, in particular targeting various ethnic communities.

The CIA, under US law is forbidden from spying on Americans.

Submission + - The EFF reflects on ICE seizing a Tor exit node (eff.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 25, 2011 @08:08PM

An anonymous reader writes: Senior staff attorney at the EFF, Marcia Hofmann gives more information on the first known seizure of equipment in the US, due to a warrant executed against a private individual running a Tor exit node. 'This spring, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) executed a search warrant at the home of Nolan King and seized six computer hard drives in connection with a criminal investigation. The warrant was issued on the basis of an Internet Protocol (IP) address that traced back to an account connected to Mr. King's home, where he was operating a Tor exit relay.' The EFF was able to get Mr King's equipment returned, and Marcia points out that 'While we think it's important to let the public know about this unfortunate event, it doesn't change our belief that running a Tor exit relay is legal.' She also links to the EFF's Tor Legal FAQ. This again brings up an interesting dichotomy in my mind, concerning protecting yourself from the Big digital Brother: Running an open Wi-Fi hotspot, or Tor exit node, would make you both more likely to be investigated but less likely to be convicted of any cyber crimes.

Submission + - Irene's Danger: How Do Experts Measure Catastrophe

Submitted by oxide7 on Thursday August 25, 2011 @05:30PM

oxide7 writes: As Hurricane Irene barrels her way up the Eastern Seaboard, supercomputers fortified by high-speed analysis software are preparing models of potential damage and its costs. While nobody can know ahead of time just how much destruction a Category 3 Hurricane like Irene will do, specialty companies that specialize in catastrophic risk analysis are armed with historical data as well as links to national computer centers that track the storm in real time. "There's a huge market for this kind of material," said a spokesman for the Cornell Theory Center, a national supercomputer center at Cornell University.

Submission + - Verizon skip GALAXY S II for better Samsung phone (bgr.com)

Submitted by zacharye on Thursday August 25, 2011 @02:30PM

zacharye writes: Verizon Wireless is passing on the Galaxy S II smartphone according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. BGR has confirmed with multiple trusted sources that this is accurate — Samsung will not unveil a Verizon-branded GALAXY S II smartphone next week at its New York City launch event on August 29th. Instead, Samsung will take the wraps off of GALAXY S II handsets that will soon launch on T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T. We’re told two of those carriers will maintain the “GALAXY S II” branding but one may offer a unique name for the handset. BGR has also confirmed, however, that Verizon Wireless will soon launch a Samsung device with very similar specifications — as in, nearly identical specifications — but it just won’t be a “GALAXY S II” phone...

Submission + - Alien Planet Made of Diamond Discovered (space.com)

Submitted by bs0d3 on Thursday August 25, 2011 @02:23PM

bs0d3 writes: A newly discovered alien planet that formed from a dead star maybe comprised of diamond. The planet probably formed into diamond from carbon which was under extreme pressure, it's 5x the size of earth and orbits a fast pulsing neutron star.

Submission + - What We Know For Sure on Linux's 20th Anniversary (linux.com)

Submitted by jennifercloer on Thursday August 25, 2011 @02:22PM

jennifercloer writes: Jim Zemlin writes: Linux continues to prevail and today is the largest collaborative development project in the history of computing. This is because of one fundamental principle: Freedom. Richard Stallman helped us understand long ago what freedom means as it relates to software: the freedom to use the software for any purpose, to change the software to suit your needs, to share the software with friends and neighbors, to share the changes you make to the software. These ideas today are the fundamental building blocks for making the world’s best software and enabling innovation across industries and around the globe.

So what do we know for sure today, on the 20th anniversary of Linux? That we are on the right side of history. That products and technologies come and go but freedom endures. And because of that, we know that Linux will be the fabric of computing for decades to come.

Submission + - Imaging the Molecular Orbitals of Pentacene (aps.org)

Submitted by eparker05 on Thursday August 25, 2011 @12:55PM

eparker05 writes: Researchers at University of Liverpool have used a scanning tunneling microscope to image the aromatic molecule pentacene. Not unexpectedly, the resulting images showed an astonishingly close correlation to the theoretically predicted molecular orbitals. This incredible set of images reminds me of the group that imaged a single carbon atom in 2009.

Submission + - More Schools Go to 4 Day Week to Cut Costs 1

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens writes

on Tuesday August 23, 2011 @08:54PM

Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Time Magazine reports that as schools return to session in South Dakota, more than one-fourth of students in the state will only be in class from Monday through Thursday as budget constraints lead school districts to hack off a day from the school week. Larry Johnke, superintendant of the Irene-Wakonda school district, says the change will save his schools more than $50,000 per year and in order to make up for the missing day, schools will add 30 minutes to each of the other four days and shorten the daily lunch break. “In this financial crisis, we wanted to maintain our core content and vocational program, so we were forced to do this,” says Johnke. Experts say research is scant on the effect of a four-day school week on student performance but many of the 120 districts that have the shortened schedule nationwide say they've seen students who are less tired and more focused, which has helped raise test scores and attendance while others say that not only did they not save a substantial amount of money by being off an extra day, they also saw students struggle because they weren't in class enough and didn't have enough contact with teachers. "Teachers tell me they are much more focused because they've had time to prepare. They don't have kids sleeping in class on Tuesday," says LaKeisha Johnson, a parent in Peach County Georgia, who sends her fourth-grade daughter to the Boys & Girls Club on Mondays. "Everything has taken on a laser-light focus.""

Submission + - What happens when Google+ cuts you off? (cnet.com)

Submitted by

n1ywb

on Tuesday August 23, 2011 @07:51PM

n1ywb writes: "On Friday, Google tangled with the wrong Google+ user with an unusual name: Violet Blue.

Blue is a high-profile writer--at least in sex and technology blogging circles--who's even given two talks at Google. And she detailed her weekend-long Google+ ordeal at our sister ZDNet site today. She kept her account once she proved she really is Violet Blue, but Google lost an ally for some of its services when she found she was "guilty until proven innocent.""

Submission + - Samsung cites Kubrick film in Apple patent case (cnet.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun on Tuesday August 23, 2011 @07:00PM

suraj.sun writes: In its ongoing legal battle with Apple, Samsung has returned fire against Apple's motion for a preliminary injunction that aims to bar some of its phones and Galaxy Tab in the US.

In a new filing, picked up by intellectual-property tracking blog Foss Patents, Samsung has opposed the preliminary injunction Apple filed for in early July. While the document is sealed at the moment, Foss points to one of the non-sealed exhibits Samsung is using to go up against Apple, which cites Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey" as clear evidence that tablets were an idea long before Apple's 2004 patent design filing:

Attached hereto as Exhibit D is a true and correct copy of a still image taken from Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey." In a clip from that film lasting about one minute, two astronauts are eating and at the same time using personal tablet computers. The clip can be downloaded online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ8pQVDyaLo. As with the design claimed by the D'889 Patent, the tablet disclosed in the clip has an overall rectangular shape with a dominant display screen, narrow borders, a predominately flat front surface, a flat back surface (which is evident because the tablets are lying flat on the table's surface), and a thin form factor.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ8pQVDyaLo

CNET News: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20096061-248/samsung-cites-kubrick-film-in-apple-patent-spat/

Submission + - Verizon Makes It Easy To Go Over Your Data Cap (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by

jfruhlinger

on Tuesday August 23, 2011 @06:21PM

jfruhlinger writes: "Verizon Wireless has revamped its video service; many Android phones can now stream a full episodes from a number of current TV shows. You can even choose to just buy access for a day if you don't see yourself using the service often. Sounds great, right? Well, except for the part where all of Verizon's current smartphone plans have data caps — and the new service makes it awfully easy to go over them and incur overage charges."

Submission + - Judge Nixes Warrantless Cell Phone Loc Data (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by poena.dare on Tuesday August 23, 2011 @04:50PM

poena.dare writes: The government sought warrantless access to 113 days of location data for a Verizon Wireless customer. On Monday, a judge refused the request, ruling that cell phone users have an expectation of privacy in location information. "There is no meaningful Fourth Amendment distinction between content and other forms of information, the disclosure of which to the Government would be equally intrusive and reveal information society values as private," said Judge Nicholas Garaufis. Privacy advocates in DC will be cheering as soon as they climb out from under their desks!

Submission + - Facebook Tweaks Site To Clarify Who Can See What (computerworld.com)

Submitted by

CWmike

on Tuesday August 23, 2011 @04:07PM

CWmike writes: "Facebook is making a series of design changes to the site to make it clearer to users who can see the content that they post, an issue Google has been criticizing Facebook about since it launched its own social network, Google+, in June. 'You have told us that 'who can see this?' could be clearer across Facebook, so we have made changes to make this more visual and straightforward," Facebook said in a blog post on Tuesday. The main change is that Facebook will now display the intended audience for a photo, a text post, a tag or any other piece of content right next to it, or 'inline.' Until now, those controls have been on a separate Settings section of the profile. 'Your profile should feel like your home on the web — you should never feel like stuff appears there that you don't want, and you should never wonder who sees what's there.' Another change Facebook is introducing is allowing users to modify the audience of a post after it's published, which they couldn't do before."

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