FirstOne - Slashdot User

Submission + - Assange's Stay In Embassy Has Cost British Taxpayers $17 Million

Submitted by HughPickens.com on Friday June 19, 2015 @12:31PM

HughPickens.com writes: Harriet Alexander reports in The Telegraph that Julian Assange's three-year stay in the Ecuadorian embassy has cost British taxpayers more than $17 million for around the clock. police surveillance at the embassy. The Metropolitan Police refused to discuss how many policemen were deployed to the embassy, but they did confirm the cost. The Met said the figure included $10.3m of what they termed "opportunity costs" – police officer pay costs that would be incurred in normal duties – and $4.3m of additional costs such as police overtime. A further $1.7m was put down to "indirect costs" such as administration. Assange challenged his extradition order to Sweden through the courts, but when his appeals failed he absconded and sought refuge inside the embassy of Ecuador – a country whose president has spoken publicly of his support for the 43-year-old computer hacker. Ecuador granted him asylum in August 2012, but as soon as he sets foot outside the building Britain will deport him to Sweden. He has been indoors ever since.

The Swedish director of public prosecutions, Marianne Ny, has grown impatient. In March she said that she would consent, reluctantly, to interview Assange inside the embassy – because the statute of limitations for some of the alleged crimes runs out in August. "Now that time is of the essence, I have viewed it therefore necessary to accept such deficiencies to the investigation and likewise take the risk that the interview does not move the case forward, particularly as there are no other measures on offer without Assange being present in Sweden."

Submission + - Is Microsoft's .NET Ecosystem on the Decline? (dice.com)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster on Thursday June 18, 2015 @10:40AM

Nerval's Lobster writes: In a posting that recently attracted some buzz online, .NET developer Justin Angel (a former program manager for Silverlight) argued that the .NET ecosystem is headed for collapse—and that could take interest in C# along with it. “Sure, you’ll always be able to find a job working in C# (like you would with COBOL), but you’ll miss out on customer reach and risk falling behind the technology curve,” he wrote. But is C# really on the decline? According to Dice’s data, the popularity of C# has risen over the past several years; it ranks No. 26 on Dice’s ranking of most-searched terms. But Angel claims he pulled data from Indeed.com that shows job trends for C# on the decline. Data from the TIOBE developer interest index mirrors that trend, he said, with “C# developer interest down approximately 60% down back to 2006-2008 levels.” Is the .NET ecosystem really headed for long-term implosion, thanks in large part to developers devoting their energies to other platforms such as iOS and Android?

Submission + - Jeb Bush Skeptical Of Reports That The H-1B Program Affects US Workers 1

Submitted by theodp on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @12:29AM

theodp writes: ComputerWorld's Patrick Thibodeau reports that Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush does not exactly come across as supportive or sympathetic to displaced U.S. IT workers. Asked to respond to recent stories about companies using H-1B visas to displace American workers with foreign tech labor, Bush said, "I’ve actually seen it on Fox, three or four times, this subject. I’ve been curious to know what the full story is. ... Sometimes you see things in the news reports, you don’t get the full picture. Maybe that’s the case here." Perhaps Jeb has gotten too close to the reality distortion field of Mark Zuckerberg's FWD.us PAC, whose backers include Zuck Pal Joe Green (who nixed the idea of giving jobs to "just sort of okay" U.S. workers), Lars Dalgaard (whose message to laid-off IT workers was "you don't deserve the job"), and Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi (who informed journalists that "H-1Bs in CS rarely displace [American tech workers]").

Submission + - USAF Cuts Drone Flights as Stress Drives Off Operators

Submitted by HughPickens.com on Tuesday June 16, 2015 @10:18PM

HughPickens.com writes: The NYT reports that the US is being forced to cut back on drone flights as America’s drone operators are burning out and the Air Force is losing more drone pilots than they can train. “We’re at an inflection point right now,” says Col. James Cluff, the commander of the Air Force’s 432nd Wing. Drone missions increased tenfold in the past decade, relentlessly pushing the operators in an effort to meet the insatiable demand for streaming video of insurgent activities in Iraq, Afghanistan and other war zones, including Somalia, Libya and now Syria. The biggest problem is that a significant number of the 1,200 pilots are completing their obligation to the Air Force and are opting to leave. Colonel Cluff says that many feel “undermanned and overworked,” sapped by alternating day and night shifts with little chance for academic breaks or promotion.

What had seemed to be a benefit of the job, the novel way that the crews could fly Predator and Reaper drones via satellite links while living safely in the United States with their families, has created new types of stresses as they constantly shift back and forth between war and family activities and become, in effect, perpetually deployed. “Having our folks make that mental shift every day, driving into the gate and thinking, ‘All right, I’ve got my war face on, and I’m going to the fight,’ and then driving out of the gate and stopping at Walmart to pick up a carton of milk or going to the soccer game on the way home — and the fact that you can’t talk about most of what you do at home — all those stressors together are what is putting pressure on the family, putting pressure on the airman," says Cruff. The colonel says the stress on the operators belied a complaint by some critics that flying drones was like playing a video game or that pressing the missile fire button 7,000 miles from the battlefield made it psychologically easier for them to kill. “Everyone else thinks that the whole program or the people behind it are a joke," says Brandon Bryant, a former drone camera operator who worked at Nellis Air Force Base, "that we are video-game warriors, that we’re Nintendo warriors."

Submission + - World thinnest Light Bulb using Graphene

Submitted by jan_jes on Tuesday June 16, 2015 @02:47AM

jan_jes writes: Scientists have created the world’s thinnest light bulb using Graphene, as a filament. The ultrathin graphene was turned into a superheated filament – just like the thin wire of an incandescent light bulb – which glowed at a temperature of above 2500 degrees Celsius. The visible light from atomically thin graphene is so intense that it is visible even to the naked eye, without any additional magnification. This study is published in the Advance Online Publication (AOP). Earlier this year, "A dimmable LED bulb with a graphene-coated filament was designed at Manchester University (video) — is to go on sale later this year, said by its UK developers".

Comment With the Europeans Luck.. (Score 0) 419

by FirstOne on Monday June 15, 2015 @03:17PM (#49915973) Attached to: Philae's Lost Seven Months Were Completely Unnecessary

The radiator fins of the RTG would have probably got stuck into the surface of dust of the comet. (I.E. Heaviest portion of SAT, center of gravity, and all that sort of stuff). Net result, even worse, no contact at all, as the now insulated radiator fins reach same temperature as heat source, generating virtually no electricity. And without backup solar panels, not contact at all.

IMHO, I 'm really beginning to Hate these nuke advocates who claim that Nuclear power is god's gift to man, when in fact is it is a curse that will plague humanity for thousands of years to some.

Comment Re:Proof (Score 1) 546

by FirstOne on Sunday June 14, 2015 @02:44PM (#49909657) Attached to: Report: Russia and China Crack Encrypted Snowden Files

Why would the NSA hack US Government databases?
Tthe NSA supplied to our rivals (Russia, China), the method (network analyzer capturing the hack in action), and the means (sample code via core dump) to take over some very widely used Juniper routers. Once you have full control of the router, hacking any database traffic transiting through it is trivial.

As with all secrets, they are ephemeral (short lived), and one must be prepared for rivals to turn the tables.
Which the US did not prepare for.

Comment Re:Proof (Score 4, Insightful) 546

by FirstOne on Sunday June 14, 2015 @06:17AM (#49907929) Attached to: Report: Russia and China Crack Encrypted Snowden Files

More than likely the Russians or Chinese figured out how to use one of the backdoors the NSA was using to hack US databases. It sure looks like the backdoor the NSA found into JUNOS(Juniper routers) using SCHOOLMONTANA, SIERRAMONTANA, STUCCOMONTANA,, would be easy pickens once they retrieved a code sample from an infected routers.

After that it's just a matter of time before they turn the tables and use that same vulnerability to hack our networks.

Comment Re:Propaganda (Score 4, Interesting) 546

by FirstOne on Sunday June 14, 2015 @02:18AM (#49907365) Attached to: Report: Russia and China Crack Encrypted Snowden Files

It's more likely that "Chinese hack of federal personnel files included security-clearance database" was responsible for the recall.

Snowden didn't post any files on the net.. He met his contacts in person in Hong Kong and hand delivered them (USB?) to Greenwald(reporter) and Poitras(film maker) in person. He claimed that he did not take any of NSA files on his laptops with him to Russia./P

Submission + - Second OPM Hack Revealed: Even Worse Than The First (techdirt.com)

Submitted by nickweller on Sunday June 14, 2015 @01:15AM

nickweller writes: Oh great. So after we learned late yesterday that the hack of all sorts of data from the federal government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was likely much worse than originally believed — including leaking all Social Security numbers unencrypted — and that the so-called cybersecurity "experts" within the government weren't even the ones who discovered the hack, things are looking even worse.

'The forms authorities believed may have been stolen en masse, known as Standard Form 86, require applicants to fill out deeply personal information about mental illnesses, drug and alcohol use, past arrests and bankruptcies. They also require the listing of contacts and relatives, potentially exposing any foreign relatives of U.S. intelligence employees to coercion. Both the applicant's Social Security number and that of his or her cohabitant is required.'

Submission + - Russia and China crack encrypted Snowden files. Britain responds

Submitted by garyisabusyguy on Saturday June 13, 2015 @09:53PM

garyisabusyguy writes: According to Sunday Times:
RUSSIA and China have cracked the top-secret cache of files stolen by the fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden, forcing MI6 to pull agents out of live operations in hostile countries, according to senior officials in Downing Street, the Home Office and the security services.
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.u...

And this non-paywalled Reuters version:
http://www.reuters.com/article...

MI6 has decided that it is too dangerous to operate in Russia or China. This removes intelligence capabilities that have existed throughout the Cold War, and which may have helped to prevent a 'hot' nuclear war.

Have the actions of Snowden, and, apparently, the use of weak encryption, made the world less safe?

Submission + - Prenda Gets Hit Hard With Contempt Sanctions For Lying To Court (techdirt.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd on Monday June 08, 2015 @09:28PM

walterbyrd writes: Given all of this flat out deceit, it's actually a bit anti-climactic that the court then orders sanctions of just $65,263 against Steele and Hansmeier for contempt of court over the lies. As for the obstruction of discovery, the court orders Duffy and Steele to pay Booth Sweet's costs, which the lawyers are told to submit. Some people (including us...) are still reasonably wondering why none of this pattern of deceit, lying and abusing the court system still have not resulted in anything more serious. However, these court records are likely to be useful for those facing either Steele or Hansmeier in their new careers as ADA trolls...

Comment Re:Haggling for Rates (Score 1) 229

by FirstOne on Sunday June 07, 2015 @04:38AM (#49860331) Attached to: Why Americans Loathe Cable Companies

Their is plenty of evidence that GMO's are very harmful, like being deficient in trace minerals. The World Health Organization has declared Roundup to be a likely carcinogen

Worse yet our insanely stupid farmers/Monsanto have found an even more dangerous way to poison us by using roundup on NON-GMO crops as a preharvest drying agent

.

Submission + - Sourceforge no longer complete and total scumbags. (sourceforge.net)

Submitted by slashdice on Tuesday June 02, 2015 @10:19PM

slashdice writes: Thanks to us raising shit over their, well, shit, SourceForge is throwing in the towel on some of their malware installers:

In an effort to address a number of concerns we have been hearing from the media and community at large, we at SourceForge would like to note that we have stopped presenting third party offers for unmaintained SourceForge projects.

Of course, as Ars Technica reported, when SourceForge rolled out the (opt-in) malware installers in 2013, they promised "that we will never bundle offers with any project without the developers consent."

Submission + - AMD Launches Carrizo Mobile APU With Excavator CPU Cores, Integrated Southbridge (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid on Tuesday June 02, 2015 @09:32PM

MojoKid writes: AMD previously only teased bits of detail regarding their forthcoming 6th Generation A-Series APU, code named "Carrizo," as far back as CES 2015 in January and more recently with AMD's HSA (Heterogenous System Architecture) 1.0 spec roll-out in March. However, the company has officially launched the product today and has lifted the veil on all aspects of their new highly integrated notebook APU. Carrizo has been optimized for the 15 Watt TDP envelope that comprises the bulk of the thin and light notebook market currently and it brings a couple of first to integrated notebook chip designs. AMD's Carrizo APU is the first SoC architecture to fully support the HSA 1.0 specification, allowing full memory coherency of a shared memory space for both CPU and GPU up to 32GB. It's also the first integrated chip to include full support in hardware for H.265/HEVC HD video decoding and finally, Carizzo is also the first AMD APU to have a full integrated, in silicon, Southbridge controller block. So, with its CPU, GPU, memory controller, Northbridge, Southbridge, and PCIe 3.0 links, Carrizo is truly a fully integrated System On A Chip. The company is claiming a 39% CPU performance lift (combination clock speed and IPC) and up to a 65% in graphics, versus their previous generation Kaveri APU. AMD notes laptops from major vendors will begin shipping in the next few weeks.

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