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Submission + - Linux health given the reveletion of NSA crypto-subverting attacks? 4

Submitted by deepdive
deepdive writes: I have a basic question. What is the privacy/security health of the Linux kernel (and indeed other FOSS OS's) given all the recent stories about the NSA going in and deliberately subverting various parts of the privacy/security sub-systems. Basically, can one still sleep soundly thinking that the most recent latest/greatest ubuntu/opensuse/what-have-you distro she/he downloaded is still pretty safe. Or do people need to get a little worried and start burning some extra night oil over this?

Submission + - Why Not Replace SSL Certificates With PGP Keys? 9

Submitted by vik
vik writes: The whole SSL process has been infiltrated by the NSA, GCSB and other n'er-do-wells. If governments want a man-in-the-middle certificate they simply issue a secret gagging order to the CA to make them issue one. Consequently "certified" SSL certificates can no longer be trusted. Ironically self-issued certificates are more secure, but not easily verified.

However, PGP/GPG keys can be trusted and independently verified. They are as secure as we can get for now. Why not replace the broken SSL CA system with GPG/PGP encryption keys? Make the NSA-infiltrated stuff obsolete, and rely on a real-world web of trust?

Submission + - Top Factor In Successful IT Projects: Speed (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: There's a new trend in CIO circles: The need for speed. Whether they achieve that speed by adopting Agile development, cloud computing, or predictive analytics, the fact is that, increasingly, the only way for IT to deliver business advantage is to be faster than the competition. Or maybe it's just that IT is finally realizing that in business it's better to be fast than to be perfect. As my piano teacher used to say, 'if you can't play it right, play it loud.'

Submission + - Court Bars Apple From Making Industry-Wide E-book Deals (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: The federal judge presiding over the U.S. electronic books case against Apple has barred the company from striking deals that would ensure that it could undercut prices of other retailers in the e-book market and also prohibited Apple from letting any one publisher know what deals the company is striking up with other publishers. For its part, Apple said it plans to appeal the ruling, denying that it conspired to fix ebook pricing. Meanwhile, Amazon is alerting customers of their potential payout, which could be as much as $3.82 for every eligible Kindle book.

Submission + - Beijing Says That 400 Million Chinese Cannot Speak Mandarin (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: China's Education Ministry says that about 400 million people — or 30% of the population — cannot speak the country's national language. Of the 70% of the population who can speak Mandarin, many do not do it well enough, a ministry spokeswoman told Xinhua news agency on Thursday. The admission from officials came as the government launched another push for linguistic unity in China. China is home to thousands of dialects and several minority languages. These include Cantonese and Hokkien, which enjoy strong regional support. Mandarin — formally called Putonghua in China, meaning "common tongue" — is one of the most widely-spoken languages in the world. The Education Ministry spokeswoman said the push would be focusing on the countryside and areas with ethnic minorities. For decades, the ruling Communist Party has promoted Mandarin in an attempt to unite the most populous nation in the world. But government efforts have been hampered by the sheer size of the country and a lack of investment in education, particularly the rural areas, says the BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing.

Submission + - Genetic Evidence Found That Humans Choose Friends With Similar DNA (medium.com)

Submitted by KentuckyFC
KentuckyFC writes: The study of social networks has long shown that people tend to pick friends who are similar to them--birds of a feather stick together (pdf). Now a study of the genomes of almost 2000 Americans has found that those who are friends also share remarkable genetic similarities. “Pairs of friends are, on average, as genetically similar to one another as fourth cousins,” the study concludes. By contrast, strangers share few genetic similarities. The result seems to confirm a 30 year old theory that a person’s genes causes them to seek out circumstances that are compatible with their phenotype. If that’s the case, then people with similar genes should end up in similar environments and so be more likely to become friends.

Submission + - Would you tell people how to crack your software? (strategiccyber.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Fed up with piracy and the availability of cracked versions of his software, Cobalt Strike developer Raphael Mudge wrote a blog post telling people how to crack his software. Some gifts are poisoned and Raphael goes into deep detail about how to backdoor his software and use it to distribute malware. Will this increase piracy of his software or will it discourage would-be pirates from downloading cracked versions?

Submission + - 'Half' of Extreme Weather Impacted by Climate Change (sciencemag.org) 2

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: 2012 was a year of extreme weather: Superstorm Sandy, drought and heat waves in the United States; record rainfall in the United Kingdom; unusually heavy rains in Kenya, Somalia, Japan, and Australia; drought in Spain; floods in China. One of the first questions asked in the wake of such an extreme weather is: “Is this due to climate change?”

In a report published online today, NOAA scientists tackled this question head-on. The overall message of the report: It varies. “About half of the events reveal compelling evidence that human-caused change was a [contributing] factor,” said NOAA National Climatic Data Center Director Thomas Karl. In addition, climate scientist Peter Stott of the U.K. Met Office noted that these studies show that in many cases, human influence on climate has increased the risks associated with extreme events.

Submission + - New Ship Will Remain Stable by Creating its Own Inner Waves (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: When offshore oil drilling rigs are being installed, serviced or dismantled, the workers typically stay in cabins located on adjacent floating platforms. These semi-submersible platforms are towed into place (or travel under their own power) and then their hulls are partially filled with water, allowing them to remain somewhat stable in the pitching seas. Now, a ship is being built to serve the same purpose, but that will be a much more mobile alternative. It will keep from rolling with the waves by generating its own waves, inside its hull.

Submission + - TSA is officially allowed to lie to you in order to cover itself

Submitted by zoan2013
zoan2013 writes: Blogger Johnathan Corbett reports that the remaining claims of his lawsuit against the TSA were dismissed on Tuesday with US District Judge Joan A Lenard basically saying the TSA doesn't have to tell the truth in TSA-related FOIA requests. (Full dismissal order here) Judge Lenard also refused to allow the 19 previously dismissed charges to be appealed while the rest were being decided. Corbett is now appealing to the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, and is considering filing a complaint of judicial misconduct against Lenard.

Submission + - The 10 Best Ways Cities Are Combating Climate Change (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: In a city like New York, where convenience is king, it can be challenging to get individuals to take the initiative to addressing climate change—that is, until extreme weather events like Hurricane Sandy rip their lives apart. Thankfully, New York, and many other large cities have begun to combat global warming on a massive scale. To celebrate such efforts, the first City Climate Leadership Awards ceremony was held in London last night. The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group awarded ten cities for making the biggest and most innovative efforts to undertake green infrastructure projects and to fight the effects of climate change. Here are the winners from last night—and how 10 cities are fighting climate change in ten different ways.

Submission + - Facebook to include profile photos in its facial recognition database? (sophos.com)

Submitted by Em Adespoton
Em Adespoton writes: Facebook has published a summary of the updates it's proposing to make to its Data Use Policy and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities which shows a large volume of rewriting.

Most of the changes are minimal, but one area has caught people's attention — photo tagging.

Facebook has highlighted how it plans to use members' profile pictures as an identification tool to allow their friends to tag them in photos.

NakedSecurity's Lee Munson has more details, including comments from Facebook's chief privacy officer Erin Egan on why this is a "good thing".

Submission + - Extra life: The amazing fan-made game revivals (redbull.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Sometimes games don't get the sequels that they deserve — unless their fans have a say. In a new article published today, the author takes a look at some of the best homebrew sequels and open source clones, from the blockbuster Half Life reimagining Black Mesa to OpenTTD, the fan-made version of Transport Tycoon. StepMania might just be the most remarkable of them all: originally built as means to open Dance Dance Revolution files, it's evolved into a rhythm game engine in its own right, powering iPhone games and arcade cabinets alike. The creator, meanwhile, has landed a job as a software engineer at Pinterest. Not bad for an open source clone.

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