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Submission + - Teachers Get 1 Week to Test Tech Giants' Hour of Code

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In a move straight out of Healthcare.gov's playbook, teachers won't get to preview the final lessons they're being asked to roll out to 10 million U.S. students until a week before the Dec. 9th launch of the Hour of Code nation-wide learn-to-code initiative, according to a video explaining the project, which is backed by the nation's tech giants, including Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Amazon. The Hour of Code tutorial page showcased to the press sports Lorem Ipsum pseudo-Latin text instead of real content, promised tutorial software is still being developed by Microsoft and Google, and celebrity tutorials by Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are still a work-in-progress. With their vast resources and deep pockets, the companies involved can still probably pull something off, but why risk disaster for such a high-stakes effort with a last-minute rush? One possible explanation is that CS Education Week, a heretofore little-recognized event, is coming up soon. Then again, tech immigration reform is back on the front burner, an initiative that's also near-and-dear to many of same players behind Hour of Code, including Microsoft Chief Counsel Brad Smith who, during the Hour of Code kickoff press conference, boasted that Microsoft's more-high-tech-visas-for-US-kids-computer-science-education deal (video) found its way into the Senate Immigration Bill, but minutes later joined his fellow FWD.us panelists to dismiss a questioner's suggestion that Hour of Code might somehow be part of a larger self-serving tech industry interest.

Submission + - CryptoLocker seizes files with remote cryptography (kingofgng.com) 1

Submitted by KingofGnG
KingofGnG writes: A new ransomware for Windows PCs is roaming on-line, it’s called CryptoLocker and brings a very dangerous destructive potential. Security researchers warn users and system admins about the new threat, its features and the fact that the “prevention is better than a cure” rule is true now more than ever. Curing the damages of a CryptoLocker infection, the reserchers warn, is impossible for the time being.

Submission + - Scientology's fraud conviction upheld in France (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: France's top appeals court has upheld a fraud conviction and fines totaling hundreds of thousands of euros against the Church of Scientology, for taking advantage of vulnerable followers.

France regards Scientology as a cult, not a religion, and had prosecuted individual Scientologists before, but the 2009 trial marked the first time the organisation as a whole had been convicted.

Submission + - Hadoop 2.0 is here, and it comes bearing YARN

Submitted by rjmarvin
rjmarvin writes: At Big Data TechCon in San Francisco today http://sdt.bz/64220, the Apache Software Foundation unveiled Hadoop 2.0, delving into new YARN cluster resource manager and other new features. While the official press release http://sdt.bz/64218 also went up today, Apache went into detail for conference attendees about the upgraded Hadoop File System (HDFS) and a number of other next-generation Hadoop projects in the works at Hortonworks and inside the Apache Incubator. One of these is Apache Tez, a framework for near-real-time data processing in Hadoop.

Submission + - Hundreds Gather in NYC for Anti-NSA Guerilla Video Premier

Submitted by skaterperson
skaterperson writes: Nearly three hundred people gathered around 9PM, stopping traffic and packing a street corner to watch a crowdfunded video on the NSA spying programs, projected high on the side of a building from a bike-mounted projector & sound system. Now the video's live and we can all watch it. One impression was just impossible to avoid: tons of people care about this issue, perhaps more than any issue in the Internet freedom space. The mission is to reach reach them all and build a movement, and no doubt they can take apart the NSA’s mass spying operation piece by piece.

Submission + - Gamers solve decade old HIV puzzle in ten days (zmescience.com) 2

Submitted by twocows
twocows writes: From the article: "Scientists from Washington University have been struggling for the past decade to decipher the complex structure of a enzyme that exhibits AIDS-like behavior, and which might hold a critical role in building a cure for the disease. Gamers playing spatial game Foldit have managed to collectively determine the enzyme’s structure in ten days."

Submission + - Shouldn't we have decentralized social media so it can't be shut down? 2

Submitted by KSeghetti
KSeghetti writes: A rumor is going around the interwebs that twitter shut down a feed being used by a movement to organize a trucker protest in DC.
Regardless of whether it is true, all of our popular social media sites have centralized control, so it is possible that it could have. I think our civil liberties (including the right to organize at a grass roots level) are too important to leave in the hands of any corporation or government entity.
Is there a modern decentralized message board system people could use instead?
If not, seems like such a system could be built on top of the trackerless bittorrent protocols.
I think the biggest challenge would be to get everyone to use it for daily communication, so that it would already be in place when people needed to use it to organize civil unrest.

Submission + - Report: Indonesia Now Top IP Source for Security Attacks

Submitted by curtwoodward
curtwoodward writes: China has long been the top source of IP addresses used in security attacks, as monitored by Internet traffic firm Akamai's "State of the Internet" report. But earlier this year, malicious hackers found a new favorite country: Indonesia. Attacks originating from Indonesian IP addresses topped the list in the second quarter, representing 38 percent of all global attacks seen by Akamai, which handles about a third of Web traffic. Akamai also says that reports of DDoS attacks on its customers are growing very quickly, with a more than 50 percent rise in one quarter. The question now is whether that jump in DDoS activity is tied to periodic global unrest, or is the beginning of a new trend.

Submission + - Uneven Enforcement Suspected at Nuclear Plants (go.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: The number of safety violations at U.S. nuclear power plants varies dramatically from region to region, pointing to inconsistent enforcement in an industry now operating mostly beyond its original 40-year licenses, according to a congressional study awaiting release.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission figures cited in the Government Accountability Office report show that while the West has the fewest reactors, it had the most lower-level violations from 2000 to 2012 — more than 2½ times the Southeast's rate per reactor.

The Southeast, with the most reactors of the NRC's four regions, had the fewest such violations, according to the report, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

The striking variations do not appear to reflect real differences in reactor performance. Instead, the report says, the differences suggest that regulators interpret rules and guidelines differently among regions, perhaps because lower-level violations get limited review.

Submission + - Secret free game reward for Kickstarter backers gets out of hand (indiestatik.com)

Submitted by rkww
rkww writes: Following a wildly successful Kickstarter launch, London-based independent developer Nichol Hunt faced a problem — he had promised a free copy of his new game to each of his backers — and there were more than 700 of them. The bigger problem ? Apple will only issue fifty promo codes, and Apple Store gift cards have to be issued in the redeeming country. His solution ? Offer the game for free, in secret, for two days. You can predict what happened next...

Submission + - Scientists Say Oreo Cookies As Addictive as Cocaine 1

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: VOA News reports that lab rats formed an equally strong association between the pleasurable effects of eating Oreos and a specific environment as they did between cocaine or morphine and a specific environment. They also found that eating cookies activated more neurons in the brain’s “pleasure center” than exposure to drugs of abuse. “Our research supports the theory that high-fat/ high-sugar foods stimulate the brain in the same way that drugs do,” says Professor Joseph Schroeder. “It may explain why some people can’t resist these foods despite the fact that they know they are bad for them.” To test the cookie’s addictiveness, researchers placed rats in a maze. On one side of the maze, they would give hungry rats Oreos, and on the other side, rice cakes. They would then give the rats the option of spending time on either side of the maze. Those results were compared to rats who were placed in a maze that offered an injection of cocaine or morphine versus an injection of saline solution. The research showed the rats conditioned with Oreos spent as much time on the Oreo side of the maze as the rats conditioned with cocaine or morphine. While it may not be scientifically relevant, Jamie Honohan says it was surprising to watch the rats eat the famous cookie. “They would break it open and eat the middle first."

Submission + - Microsoft allowing WP8 users to get updates directly

Submitted by cbhacking
cbhacking writes: In June of 2012, Microsoft announced that they would be providing a system whereby "registered [Windows Phone] enthusiasts get early access to updates" without waiting for carrier approval and broad distribution. For more than a year, that has been an unfulfilled promise, and for many users, updates have been delayed or may even still be unavailable. Today, coinciding with the release of WP8 Update 3 (a.k.a. GDR3), Microsoft is allowing "developers" (anybody who has enabled app sideloading on their phone) to opt into a "Windows Phone Preview" program to allow updating immediately.

Like the update itself, this is likely a move in response to consumer demand and comparisons to iOS and Android, as there is little in the update which specifically interests developers. However, the program does warn that participation may invalidate your device's warranty; this may have been required by the carriers to relieve concerns of high support costs in the event of a botched update. While only the Microsoft portion of the updates (as opposed to driver firmware or OEM customizations) are available through this program, participating phones will also continue to receive public updates as they are rolled out.

Submission + - Apples Appstore - zero reviews on 4.5 million downloads

Submitted by mattlamb
mattlamb writes: I see many apps in the store that have zero reviews, yet they are top of the list as displayed by Apple.

One caught my eye as there website claims 4.5 million unique downloads. Yet the same app has no reviews?
What gives I may not be one to do reviews but after 4.5 million surely a few would have?
No link to software as I do not want to be accused of promoting it.

So whats the point of a review system if you don't publish them? could they all be that bad..

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