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Ask Slashdot: How Would You Secure Your Parents' PC? 408

Posted by timothy from the what's-the-late-2013-version? dept.
New submitter StirlingArcher writes "I've always built/maintained my parents' PC's, but as Mum has got older her PC seems to develop problems more readily. I would love to switch her to Linux, but she struggles with change and wants to stay with Vista and MS Office. I've done the usual remove Admin rights, use a credible Internet Security package. Is there anything more dramatic that I could do, without changing the way she uses her PC or enforcing a new OS on her again? One idea was to use a Linux OS and then run Vista in a VM, which auto-boots and creates a backup image every so often. Thanks for any help!"

Submission + - How would you secure your Parents' PC?

Submitted by StirlingArcher
StirlingArcher writes: I've always built/maintained my Parents' PC's, but as Mum has got older her PC seems to develop problems more readily. I would love to switch her to Linux, but she struggles with change and wants to stay with Vista and MS Office.

I've done the usual remove Admin rights, use a credible Internet Security package. Is there anything more dramatic that I could do, without changing the way she uses her PC or enforcing a new OS on her again?

One idea was to use a Linux OS and then run Vista in a VM, which auto-boots and creates a backup image every so often.

Thanks for any help!

Submission + - Steam OS available for download, based on Debian 7.1 not Ubuntu (muktware.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: Valve Software has made available images for Steam OS, it’s GNU/Linux based gaming distribution. Valve has also released more information about the operating system. Unlike popular belief Steam OS is not based on Ubuntu; it’s based on Debian 7.1 Wheezy. Steam OS is using Gnome as it’s default desktop environment.

Submission + - Valve Releases SteamOS, Based On Debian Linux (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Valve has put out their first SteamOS Linux operating system beta. SteamOS 1.0 "Alchemist" Beta is forked from Debian Wheezy and features its own graphics compositor along with other changes. Right now SteamOS 1.0 is only compatible with NVIDIA graphics cards and uses NVIDIA's closed-source Linux driver. SteamOS can be downloaded from here, but the server seems to be offline under the pressure.
Censorship

North Korea Erases Executed Official From the Internet 276

Posted by Soulskill from the personhood-redacted dept.
itwbennett writes "The North Korean state propaganda machine has edited and deleted hundreds of news articles that mention Jang Song Thaek, the former top government and party official and uncle to leader Kim Jong Un, who was executed Thursday. Earlier this week, Jang was arrested in front of hundreds of senior members of the ruling Worker's Party of Korea and denounced for numerous alleged acts against the state and Kim Jong Un. From arrest to trial to death took only four days and the unprecedented fall from grace is widely being interpreted as an attempt by Kim Jong Un to keep officials loyal and scared."

Submission + - Google Is Building Password-Free Locking and Unlocking Into Chrome OS

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google has a vision for how Chrome OS users will one day be able to lock and unlock their devices, without requiring a password. The Chromium OS team is building support for unlocking and locking devices running the operating system with a new Chrome API called "chrome.screenlockPrivate." Google outlines some use cases: "A platform app may use the USB, NFC, and/or Bluetooth APIs to communicate with a secondary trusted device such as a phone, ring, watch, or badge, thereby allowing that trusted device to serve as an alternative form of authentication for the user."
Android

Video A 'Smart' Bathroom Mirror Powered by Android (Video) 71

Posted by Roblimo from the mirror-mirror-on-the-wall dept.
Gone are the days of boring bathroom mirrors that only reflect what's in front of them. What you really need is a bathroom mirror that gives stock quotes, displays the local weather, and tells you the temperature of the water you are about to use to wash your face. Seraku Corporation is now in the process of filling that burning need and has gotten a bunch of press attention by doing so. A cynic might wonder why people who absolutely, positively must have Internet access while they shave or perform other bathroom mirror duties don't just make a wall-mounted holder for their tablets next to their pre-Internet bathroom mirrors, but that would destroy the fun of having the display built directly into the mirror, along with sensors that detect hand gestures so you can control your mirror (no doubt by asking, "Who is the fairest of them all?") without touching it with your greasy fingers. Note that this is technically not a smart mirror but a smart washbasin with a mirror attached to it. Either way, it's not available for retail sale quite yet.

Submission + - Yearly FreeBSD Foundation Fundraising Campaign is On (freebsdfoundation.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The FreeBSD Foundation's annual year-end fundraising drive is currently running. Their goal this year is US$ 1M, and they're currently at US$ 427K. In 2013, the efforts that were funded were from the last drive were: Native iSCSI kernel stack, Updated Intel graphics chipset support, Integration of Newcons, UTF-8 console support, Superpages for ARM architecture, and Layer 2 networking updates. Also various conferences and summit sponsorships, as well as hardware purchases for the Project. The Foundation is a US 501(c)3 non-profit, so your donations (if in the US) are tax-deductible. Some of the larger 2013 (corporate?) sponsors so far are NetApp, LineRate, WhatsApp, and Tarsnap.

Comment Re:Forgot multiple platforms too. (Score 1) 196

by Curupira (#45334707) Attached to: Speed Test: Comparing Intel C++, GNU C++, and LLVM Clang Compilers

Yah, besides missing compiler flags, how does it perform on different intel processors, how about different AMDs?
Plus, the huge system times seems to indicate this more a kernel test than a compiler one.

Sorry, AC, I will have to let go my positive mod point to you so I can reinforce what you've said. Next time, please consider making an account so you can escape the Score: 0 limbo when you post on Slashdot :(

Since Intel has been caught red-handed crippling AMD processors on code produced by Intel C++ Compiler, I think that testing on Intel and AMD processors should the duty of every single compiler benchmark -- that is posted in Slashdot, at least.

Submission + - How Kentucky Built The Country's Best Obamacare Website

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Dylan Scott writes at TPM that Kentucky, with its deeply conservative congressional delegation, might seem like an unlikely place for Obamacare to find success but the state's online health insurance web sites has become one of the best marketplaces since its launch and shown that the marketplace concept can work in practice. Kentucky routinely ranks toward the bottom in overall health, and better health coverage is one step toward reversing that norm. Whatever the federal website seems to have failed to do to ensure its success on the Oct. 1 launch, Kentucky did. It started with the commitment to build the state's own website rather than default to the federal version. On July 17, 2012, a few weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear created the exchange via executive order, over the objections of a Republican-controlled state legislature, which sought other means — including an effort to prevent the exchange from finding office space — to block the site's creation. The recipe for success in Kentucky was: A pared-down website engineered to perform the basic functions well and a concerted effort to test it as frequently as possible to work out glitches before the Oct. 1 launch. Testing was undertaken throughout every step of the process, says Carrie Banahan, kynect's executive director, and it was crucial because it allowed state officials to identify problems early in the process. She laid out the timeline like this: From January 2013 to March, they developed the system; from April to June, they built it; from July to September, they tested it. From a design standpoint, Kentucky made the conscious choice to stick to the basics, rather than seeking to blow users away with a state-of-the-art consumer interface. It “doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that other states tried to incorporate,” like interactive features, says Jennifer Tolbert. “It’s very straightforward in allowing consumers to browse plans without first creating an account.” A big part of that was knowing their demographics: A simpler site would make it easer to access for people without broadband Internet access, and the content was written at a sixth-grade reading level so it would be as easy to understand as possible. "What we've found in Kentucky when we started talking with people was that there was a huge amount of misinformation and misunderstanding. People were very confused," says Beshear . "What I've been telling them is: Look, you don't have to like the president, and you don't have to like me. It's not about the president and it's not about me. It's about you, it's about your family, it's about your children."

Submission + - Online Retailers Are Cruising Tor to Hunt for Fraudsters (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: This week, the verification company Service Objects announced a new tool to help websites detect "suspicious" visitors using Tor and other anonymous proxies. Its updated DOTS IP Address Validation product identifies “suspicious” discrepancies between the user's home location and the location of the IP address the order’s coming from. It joins a handful of other tools on the market promising Tor-detection for retailers. It’s a logical strategy: If you're trying to buy something with stolen credit card, you're obviously going to want to block your real identity and location while doing it. But it also raises the question of whether targeting anonymity services to hunt out fraudsters could have chilling effects for harmless Tor users trying to protect their privacy online—particularly this year in light of the NSA-spying scandal.

Submission + - Growing Up Poor Is Bad for Your Brain (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: Poverty sucks so much that it may literally rewire the brains of those who have the misfortune to be born poor. This is a doubly important finding in our era of unchecked income inequality, where the poverty rate is actually rising in the US despite economic gains for the rich. “Our findings suggest that the stress-burden of growing up poor may be an underlying mechanism that accounts for the relationship between poverty as a child and how well your brain works as an adult,” said Dr. K Luan Phan, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Illinois, Chicago College of Medicine, who led a team of researchers that just published a paper revealing the poverty-brain dysfunction link.

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