Submission + - US Military Satellite Network hacked 600000 Documents Leaked
An anonymous reader writes: Anonymous claims US Military Satellite Network hacked: Over 600.000 records leaked. http://pastebin.com/jPECTN35
Comment Re:Blood glucose monitoring? (Score 1) 130
That app will most definitely be subject to regulation. I speak from personal knowledge
Comment Re:Can the FDA regulate free software? (Score 1) 130
You need to differentiate between apps distributed in the USA and those elsewhere in the world. FDA only has control over the US of A. They will claim control (and to the best of my knowledge they have control) over the distribution of free-software (described by this final guidance) within the USA.
Comment Re:Sorry, but where is the evidence? (Score 1) 478
Yes, indeed, brrrr. It is tough dealing with these aching joints and dizzy spells...
However, IMO Science has been perverted by the advent of Internet publishing. This desire to ask everybody to "show me your source" and then calling their opinions "anecdotal" if they deign to take your suggestion, is indeed a relatively recent phenomenon, just in the last couple of decades. Maybe it is due to the over-availability of citations via the Internet, maybe not.
However, Schneier has fully established his own credibility. He doesn't need any stinkin' sources before drawing a conclusion. And we need to pay him some stinkin' respect... I certainly do...
Comment Re:Their loss (Score 1) 410
Plus Thinkpads are still fully supported with Windoze XP drivers
Submission + - Why Silicon Valley will hate California's 'right to know' bill (zdnet.com)
An anonymous reader writes: California, home to many Silicon Valley firms like Facebook, Twitter and Google, has introduced a bill that goes above and beyond EU rights for citizens to request data held on them by companies. Trouble is, Silicon Valley will react — likely with full force — and attempt to squash any hopes of this bill being passed.
Comment Don't assume Apple and Samsung equally Guilty (Score 1) 1
As Apple said in its opening to the jury - something like "Samsung doesn't deserve to have its patent claims heard because it didn't sue us before we sued them." So who was the aggressor, the instigator? In Apples own words it was Apple. There are real patents to be weighed here, both Samsung and Apple have valid claims. But Apple can't claim the rectangle shape with rounded corners. I have a Compaq IPAQ sitting here in front of me, predating Apple by years. And an Apple Newton. There is no way I, as a designer, would ever have considered in 2007 that Apple would dare to patent such a shape. Innovation is being stifled here. I have the Newton, but I will never buy another Apple product. Does that make me biased. Well, that can be argued, as well
Comment Re:Like in Europe, except... (Score 1) 54
No, Kim DotCom is accused of criminal conduct in order to get around laws like this. Don't rely on civil law to protect you from big brother.
Comment Re:I don't get it... (Score 1) 195
I am very happy with my Logitech (at $99) and current GoogleTV software. I get free Amazon-Prime movies (end especially BBC comedies) as well as YouTube videos (recently watched all 3 hours of 'Triumph of the Nerds' with the whole family in the living room)...
Submission + - US Launches Largest Satellite in the World
Ponca City, We Love You writes: "Space.com reports that over the weekend a giant booster – a Delta 4 Heavy rocket — carrying a secret new spy satellite for the US National Reconnaissance Office roared into space to deliver what one reconnaissance official has touted as "the largest satellite in the world" into orbit. The Delta 4 Heavy rocket is the biggest unmanned rocket currently in service and has 2 million pounds of thrust, capable of launching payloads of up to 24 tons to low-Earth orbit and 11 tons toward the geosynchronous orbits used by communications satellites. The mammoth vehicle is created by taking three Common Booster Cores — the liquid hydrogen-fueled motor that forms a Delta 4-Medium's first stage — and strapping them together to form a triple-barrel rocket, and then adding an upper stage. The exact purpose of the new spy satellite NROL-32 is secret but is widely believed to be an essential eavesdropping spacecraft that requires the powerful lift provided by the Delta 4-Heavy to reach its listening post. "I believe the payload is the fifth in the series of what we call Mentor spacecraft, a.k.a. Advanced Orion, which gather signals intelligence from inclined geosynchronous orbits," says Ted Molczan, a respected sky-watcher who keeps tabs on orbiting spacecraft. Earlier models of the series included an unfurling dish structure about 255 feet in diameter with a total spacecraft mass of about 5,953.5 pounds costing about $750 million and designed to monitor specific points or objects of interest such as ballistic missile flight test telemetry."
Linux Wall Warts Small On Size, Big On Possibilities 316
davidmwilliams writes "Every geek and technology lover will undoubtedly have stumbled across online adverts for tiny headless Linux-powered devices that are barely larger than the power point they plug into. What can you actually do with them? Plenty, it seems!"
Open Source OCR That Makes Searchable PDFs 133
An anonymous reader writes "In my job all of our multifunction copiers scan to PDF but many of our users want and expect those PDFs to be text searchable. I looked around for software that would create text searchable pdfs but most are very expensive and I couldn't find any that were open source (free). I did find some open source packages like CuneiForm and Exactimage that could in theory do the job, but they were hard to install and difficult to set up and use over a network. Then I stumbled upon WatchOCR. This is a Live CD distro that can easily create a server on your network that provides an OCR service using watched folders. Now all my scanners scan to a watched folder, WatchOCR picks up those files and OCRs them, and then spits them out into another folder. It uses CuneiForm and ExactImage but it is all configured and ready to deploy. It can even be remotely managed via the Web interface. Hope this proves helpful to someone else who has this same situation."
Supreme Court Throws Out Bilski Patent 232
ciaran_o_riordan writes "The US Supreme Court has finally decided the Bilski case (PDF). We've known that Bilski's patent would get thrown out; that was clear from the open mockery from the judges during last November's hearing. The big question is, since rejecting a particular patent requires providing a general test and explaining why this patent fails that test, how broad will their test be? Will it try to kill the plague of software patents? And is their test designed well enough to stand up to the army of patent lawyers who'll be making a science (and a career) of minimizing and circumventing it? The judges have created a new test, so this will take some reading before any degree of victory can be declared. The important part is pages 5-16 of the PDF, which is the majority opinion. The End Software Patents campaign is already analyzing the decision, and collecting other analyses. Some background is available at Late-comers guide: What is Bilski anyway?"
More analysis of the decision is available at Patently-O.
What US Health Care Needs 584
Medical doctor and writer Atul Gawande gave the commencement address recently at Stanford's School of Medicine. In it he lays out very precisely and in a nonpartisan way what is wrong with the institution of medical care in the US — why it is both so expensive and so ineffective at delivering quality care uniformly across the board. "Half a century ago, medicine was neither costly nor effective. Since then, however, science has... enumerated and identified... more than 13,600 diagnoses — 13,600 different ways our bodies can fail. And for each one we've discovered beneficial remedies... But those remedies now include more than six thousand drugs and four thousand medical and surgical procedures. Our job in medicine is to make sure that all of this capability is deployed, town by town, in the right way at the right time, without harm or waste of resources, for every person alive. And we're struggling. There is no industry in the world with 13,600 different service lines to deliver. ... And then there is the frightening federal debt we will face. By 2025, we will owe more money than our economy produces. One side says war spending is the problem, the other says it's the economic bailout plan. But take both away and you've made almost no difference. Our deficit problem — far and away — is the soaring and seemingly unstoppable cost of health care. ... Like politics, all medicine is local. Medicine requires the successful function of systems — of people and of technologies. Among our most profound difficulties is making them work together. If I want to give my patients the best care possible, not only must I do a good job, but a whole collection of diverse components must somehow mesh effectively. ... This will take science. It will take art. It will take innovation. It will take ambition. And it will take humility. But the fantastic thing is: This is what you get to do."
Operation Titstorm Hits the Streets 458
schliz writes "Hacker group 'Anonymous' is organising international, real-life protests of the Australian mandatory internet filter this coming Saturday. Protests will take place in major Australian cities as well as at Australian embassies around the world. The protests are said to be the second stage of 'Operation Titstorm,' which unleashed a prolonged DDoS attack on Australian government websites last week. Organisers of the so-called Project Freeweb said: 'If passed, this legislation will set a disturbing precedent at an international level. The public, not the Government, should have the right to decide what is deemed appropriate for you or your family to be exposed to.'"
