Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
DRM

$200 For a Bound Textbook That You Can't Keep? 252

Posted by Soulskill from the because-textbook-buyers-have-had-it-too-good-for-too-long dept.
netbuzz writes: "The worst of DRM is set to infest law school casebooks. One publisher, AspenLaw, wants students to pay $200 for a bound casebook, but at the end of class they have to give it back. Aspen is touting this arrangement as a great deal because the buyer will get an electronic version and assorted online goodies once they return the actual book. But they must return the book. Law professors and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are calling it nothing but a cynical attempt to undermine used book sales, as well as the first sale doctrine that protects used bookstores and libraries."

Submission + - Google Maps Now Integrates Uber: Are On-Demand Robotaxis Coming? (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: In a major update to its mobile app, Google Maps will now integrate Uber's on-demand car service. That means when you're looking up the route from point A to B in certain cities, the app will show you the best way to drive, bike, walk, or Uber there. Choose option four, and a single tap launches your Uber app and hails you a black car. That's an entire fourth mode of transport there folks, which speaks to what the Silicon Valley darlings may have in mind for the future—aside from being a smart and obvious PR move. Google Ventures is a major investor in Uber, so it's in the both companies' best interest to promote the app. It'll be interesting to see if the maps integration is a sweetheart deal for Uber, or if Google incorporates its competitor apps too: Lyft, Sidecar, and Hailo. The venture firm poured $258 million into the startup last summer, propelling the company to its $3.5 billion valuation. That's Google's largest deal ever, sparking a swirl of speculation about Google's future intentions with the transportation startup.
Programming

Programming Language Diversity On the Rise 177

Posted by Soulskill from the digital-melting-pot dept.
jfruh writes: "As GitHub becomes an increasingly common repository of project code, the metadata for projects saved there can tell us a lot about the state of the industry. In particular, a look at the programming languages used over the past half-decade shows an increasingly fragmented landscape, in which the overall share of most major languages is on a slight decline, while less-used languages are seeing modest growth in usage."

Submission + - Let Spouses of H-1B Visa Holders Work in US says White House

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Carolyn Lochhead reports in the SF Chronicle that the White House has announced a plan allowing spouses of H-1B visa holders to work in the United States, a coup for Silicon Valley companies that have been calling for more lenient rules for immigrants who come to the United States to work in technology. "The proposals announced today will encourage highly skilled, specially trained individuals to remain in the United States and continue to support U.S. businesses and the growth of the U.S. economy," says Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. "A concurrent goal is for the United States to maintain competitiveness with other countries that attract skilled foreign workers and offer employment authorization for spouses of skilled workers. American businesses continue to need skilled nonimmigrant and immigrant workers."

Currently, spouses of H-1B visa holders are not allowed to work unless they obtain their own visa but tech companies have been calling for more H-1B visas, and supporters of the rule change argue that it will bring in more talented workers. Critics say they believe expanding the H-1B visa program will allow lower-paid foreign workers to take American jobs. The plan immediately drew fire from Republicans. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, accused the administration of acting unilaterally to change immigration law and bring in tens of thousands of potential competitors with Americans for jobs. "Fifty million working-age Americans aren't working," Sessions said in a statement, adding that as many as "half of new technology jobs may be going to guest workers. This will help corporations by further flooding a slack labor market, pulling down wages."

Submission + - Glow-In-The-Dark Roads Experiencing Issues Already

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Back in April we read about the first glow-in-the-dark road debuting in the Netherlands. The concept is not only awesome, but it also has a real safety upside to it. Less than a month into the trial there's already a large stumbling block: the roads go dark when they get too wet. More specifically, moisture, such as that encountered during rainfall, can quickly reduce the effectiveness of the glowing paint's light output. The engineers at Heijmans, which is behind the pilot program, say a new version of the glowing road markings is already in development and will be ready later this summer. Maybe the second iteration of the glow-in-the-dark roads will work as expected. Which then leads to the question of whether the future will include glow-in-the-dark roads. Seriously, our roads might just start to look like something out of tron if you throw the new 2015 BMW i8 into the mix.

Submission + - Web cesspit 4chan touts '$20 bug bounty' after hackers ruin Moot's day (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by mask.of.sanity
mask.of.sanity writes: 4chan's Moot has launched a bug bounty for the site after it was hacked, but is offering a meagre $20 in "self-serve ad spend" for all bugs. The bounty programme was launched after the website and Moot's Amazon accounts were hacked. The intrusion spelled the end for DrawQuest which was closed after Moot decided it was not worth spending money to ensure the unprofitable but popular drawing platform was secure.

Submission + - The Hackers Who Recovered NASA's Lost Lunar Photos (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project has since 2007 brought some 2,000 pictures back from 1,500 analog data tapes. They contain the first high-resolution photographs ever taken from behind the lunar horizon, including the first photo of an earthrise (first slide above). Thanks to the technical savvy and DIY engineering of the team at LOIRP, it’s being seen at a higher resolution than was ever previously possible. ... The photos were stored with remarkably high fidelity on the tapes, but at the time had to be copied from projection screens onto paper, sometimes at sizes so large that warehouses and even old churches were rented out to hang them up. The results were pretty grainy, but clear enough to identify landing sites and potential hazards. After the low-fi printing, the tapes were shoved into boxes and forgotten. ... The drives had to be rebuilt and in some cases completely re-engineered using instruction manuals or the advice of people who used to service them. The data they recovered then had to be demodulated and digitized, which added more layers of technical difficulties.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Possible to follow the PMI code of ethics and keep a job? 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Read a Slashdot article re: ethics for programmers, and it made me think.... As a long-time project manager, I have seen all manner of tom-foolery; directors pillaging project budgets without sponsor authorization, managers and executives lying to customers about issues (that eventually tanked the project and our contract), PMI chapter presidents leveraging their power of position for self-enrichment, EPMO-executive-leaders looking the other way when asked to confront such problems.

But if you are a good soldier and keep quiet, you get to keep your job. So, my question to the PMI Ethics Committee is: "If a project manager follows the PMI Code of Ethics and is subsequently 'released' from their job, will PMI pay that project manager until he/she can find a new job?"

The answer is obviously "no, we won't." So, why does PMI continue to promulgate a strict code of ethics for PMP's, if code of ethics makes it nearly impossible to keep a job, in the real world?

Submission + - Facebook's Nearby Friends: Location-based Advertising is Next Frontier (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: Facebook has introduced Nearby Friends where users can choose whether they would like to pinpoint their location to mates in a move that could give the social network a lot more data on users that could then be used for targeted ads.

While some in the industry are calling the new feature "creepy", Nearby Friends potentially gives Facebook a chance to better monetise its mobile app, an area where the company has so far failed to profit.

Location-based advertising, whereby consumers are geo-located to receive messages about offers and discounts directly to their smartphones as they walk down a high street, could be the answer.

"The challenge of location-based advertising is that it has to be very targeted. Facebook is a general social platform so different age groups use it in different ways. Twitter is the same," Alys Woodward, IDC's research director for European big data and social business tells IBTimes UK.

"In the past, Facebook have pushed the boundaries of privacy and then turn around and say, 'Oh, you don't like it?', and then roll [it] back. Since Whatsapp will never give them users' data, Facebook is now getting users to opt in.

"Despite their vast revenue, they do have to evolve to survive [as] Facebook sponsored ads haven't been successful."

Submission + - Band Releases Album As Linux Kernel Module (networkworld.com)

Submitted by netbuzz
netbuzz writes: A band called netcat is generating buzz in software circles by releasing its debut album as a Linux kernel module (among other more typical formats.) Why? “Are you ever listening to an album, and thinking ‘man, this sounds good, but I wish it crossed from user-space to kernel-space more often!’ We got you covered,” the band says on its Facebook page. “Our album is now fully playable as a loadable Linux kernel module.”
Google

Google Opens Up Street View Archives From 2007 To Today 25

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the just-look-at-that-urban-decay dept.
mpicpp (3454017) writes with news that Google is publishing all Street View imagery back to 2007. Quoting Ars: "The feature hasn't rolled out to many accounts yet, but it looks like a small, draggable window will be added to the Street View interface. Just move the time slider around and you'll be able to jump through past images. Granted, Street View has only been around for a few years, so the archives only go back to 2007. A few of the events Google suggests browsing through are the building of One World Trade Center and the destruction and rebuilding of Onagawa, Japan after the 2011 earthquake. Besides being really cool, the move will save Google from having to choose a canonical Street View image for every location. If the current image is blacked-out or wrong in some way, you can just click back to the previous one."
The Internet

ARIN Is Down To the Last /8 of IPv4 Addresses 306

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the end-times dept.
An anonymous reader writes "On 3 February 2011, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) issued the remaining five /8 address blocks, each containing 16.7 million addresses, in the global free pool equally to the five RIRs, and as such ARIN is no longer able to receive additional IPv4 resources from the IANA. After yesterday's large allocation (104.64.0.0/10) to Akamai, the address pool remaining to be assigned by ARIN is now down to the last /8. This triggers stricter allocation rules and marks the end of general availability of new IPv4 addresses in North America. ARIN thus follows the RIRs of Asia, Europe and South America into the final phase of IPv4 depletion."

Submission + - OpenSSL: The New Face Of Technology Monoculture (securityledger.com)

Submitted by chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: In a now-famous 2003 essay, “Cyberinsecurity: The Cost of Monopoly” (http://cryptome.org/cyberinsecurity.htm) Dr. Dan Geer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Geer) argued, persuasively, that Microsoft’s operating system monopoly constituted a grave risk to the security of the United States and international security, as well. It was in the interest of the U.S. government and others to break Redmond’s monopoly, or at least to lessen Microsoft’s ability to ‘lock in’ customers and limit choice. “The prevalence of security flaw (sp) in Microsoft’s products is an effect of monopoly power; it must not be allowed to become a reinforcer,” Geer wrote.

The essay cost Geer his job at the security consulting firm AtStake, which then counted Microsoft as a major customer.(http://cryptome.org/cyberinsecurity.htm#Fired) (AtStake was later acquired by Symantec.)

These days Geer is the Chief Security Officer at In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm. But he’s no less vigilant of the dangers of software monocultures. Security Ledger notes that, in a post today for the blog Lawfare (http://www.lawfareblog.com/2014/04/heartbleed-as-metaphor/), Geer is again warning about the dangers that come from an over-reliance on common platforms and code. His concern this time isn’t proprietary software managed by Redmond, however, it’s common, oft-reused hardware and software packages like the OpenSSL software at the heart (pun intended) of Heartbleed.(https://securityledger.com/2014/04/the-heartbleed-openssl-flaw-what-you-need-to-know/)

“The critical infrastructure’s monoculture question was once centered on Microsoft Windows,” he writes. “No more. The critical infrastructure’s monoculture problem, and hence its exposure to common mode risk, is now small devices and the chips which run them," Geer writes.

What happens when a critical and vulnerable component becomes ubiquitous — far more ubiquitous than OpenSSL? Geer wonders if the stability of the Internet itself is at stake.

“The Internet, per se, was designed for resistance to random faults; it was not designed for resistance to targeted faults,” Geer warns. “As the monocultures build, they do so in ever more pervasive, ever smaller packages, in ever less noticeable roles. The avenues to common mode failure proliferate.”

Submission + - Parents' Privacy Concerns Kill Bill Gates' $100M inBloom Initiative

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: As things turn out, All Your Child's Data Are Not Belong To inBloom, the Bill Gates-bankrolled and News Corp. subsidiary-implemented data initiative that sought to personalize learning. GeekWire's Tricia Duryee reports that inBloom, which was backed by $100 million from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others, is closing up shop after parents worried that its database technology was violating their children's privacy. According to NY Times coverage (reg.), the inBloom database tracked 400 different data fields about students — including family relationships ("foster parent" or "father's significant other”") and reasons for enrollment changes ("withdrawn due to illness" or "leaving school as a victim of a serious violent incident") — that parents objected to, prompting some schools to recoil from the venture. In a statement, inBloom CEO Iwan Streichenberger said that personalized learning was still an emerging concept, and complained that the venture had been "the subject of mischaracterizations and a lightning rod for misdirected criticism." He added, "It is a shame that the progress of this important innovation has been stalled because of generalized public concerns about data misuse, even though inBloom has world-class security and privacy protections that have raised the bar for school districts and the industry as a whole [although it was still apparently vulnerable to Heartbleed]." As far as Gates goes, the world's richest man has a couple of irons left in the data-driven personalized learning fire via his ties to Code.org, which seeks 7 years of participating K-12 students' data, and Khan Academy, which recently attracted scrutiny over its data-privacy policies. Khan Academy — which counted the managing partner of Gates' bgC3 think-tank and Google CEO Eric Schmidt as Board members in a recent tax filing — just struck an exclusive partnership with CollegeBoard to prepare students for the redesigned SAT.

Slashdot Top Deals

He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him. -- Bion

Close