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Submission + - Man gets past airport security with invalid pass (msn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi cleared security at John F. Kennedy International Airport on June 24 and successfully boarded Virgin America flight 415 — even though his boarding pass was not issued in his name and was for a flight the day before...But neither Virgin America nor the Transportation Security Administration noticed that Noibi's identification — a University of Michigan student card — did not match the name on his boarding pass." — Can we PLEASE get rid of the TSA and the over the top security checks now? Please?

Submission + - Hacker hacks into XBOX and calls the SWAT team (wesh.com)

Submitted by madhatter256
madhatter256 writes: From the This-can't-be-true department... Local swat team is called to respond to a possible hostage situation at a suburban home in Collier County, Florida. When the SWAT arrived, no one was in any danger of any sort. The police believe the kid's XBOX was hacked by someone in Canada (of all places) and used it to call in the SWAT team.... is this even possible?
Books

Submission + - Learn Python the Hard Way, 2nd Edition is Out

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: You or your kid intrigued by Python, but not quite ready to purchase an in-depth O'Reilly book? Well, Bunky, then Zed A. Shaw's 2nd edition of Learn Python The Hard Way may be just what the Doctor ordered. Shaw's path to Python programming is as easy as 1-2-3: 1. Go through each exercise, 2. Type in each sample exactly, 3. Make it run. So, would $60 for hardcover be too much to ask? Thought so. How about $15.99 for paperback? A measly buck for a PDF/ePub download? Still too steep? OK, even Richard Stallman wouldn't quibble with a FREE online HTML edition. Complete the 52 exercises, read Shaw's concluding Advice From An Old Programmer, and the next thing you know you'll be enjoying free food in a Google cafeteria with Guido.
Security

Submission + - Trust is for Suckers: Lessons from the RSA Breach (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: Andrew Jaquith has written a great analysis of lessons learned from the recent RSA Cyber Attack, from a customer’s perspective.

According to Jaquith, in the security industry, “trust” is a somewhat slippery term defined in terms ranging from the cryptographic to the contractual. Bob Blakley, a Gartner analyst and former chief scientist of Tivoli, once infamously wrote that “Trust is for Suckers.” What he meant by that is that trust is an emotional thing, a fragile bond whose value transcends prime number multiplication, tokens, drug tests or signatures — and that it is foolish to rely too much on it.
Jaquith observed three things about the RSA incident: (1) even the most trusted technologies fail; (2) the incident illustrates what “risk management” is all about; and (3) customers should always come first. Here Jaquith reviews each of these in detail.
Idle

Submission + - What Happens in the Lab, Stays in the Lab (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Possibly not quite as hysterical as the last Experimental Error column @ Science, but still very funny and well-crafted. Upset by the human elements he finds in laboratories, Adam Ruben takes a pledge, committing himself proudly to being "science's bitch".
Apple

Submission + - Does Apple Own html5.com? Redirects To Apple.com (digitizor.com)

Submitted by dkd903
dkd903 writes: So with all the hype around HTML5, wouldn't the domain name html5.com be a prized possession? Yes, Indeed. And the news is that html5.com is probably owned by none other than Apple Computers. We are not very sure about this but when you visit html5.com in a browser, you will notice that you are redirected to the HTML5 page on Apple's website.

Comment Anonymity: an old solution to a new problem (Score 1) 172

by phatphoton (#36526924) Attached to: How the Web's Relationship With Anonymity Has Changed
Anonymity only has it's appeal (to me) because the information that is available to groups/people (the information that identifies who I really am, not just what I tell them) is wholly incomplete. If I could deal with internet interfaces as I dealt with friends or coworkers i.e. have an established, complete record of history, I would be fine with the amount of information I present. Since I am a curious person, and that search query for the anarchists cookbook five years ago was just to find out what the heck it was. It doesn't mean I'm building bombs. So don't judge me on an errant fluke of history. If the CIA walked in my door, or Google, or my ISP, and would like to discuss my shopping patterns, web browsing patterns, or anything, I WOULD LOVE THAT. THAT COULD HELP BOTH OF US. But instead they rely on collecting malformed traces and bits of information here and there. That's not me. So don't keep records of it.
Cloud

Submission + - How do I scrub pirated music from my collection? 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I tried out Google Music, and I liked it. Google made me swear that I won't uploading any "illegal" tracks, and apparently people fear Apple's iCloud turning into a honeypot for the RIAA. My music collection comprises about 90% "legal" tracks now--legal meaning tracks that I paid for--but I still have some old MP3s kicking around from the original Napster. Moreover, I have a lot of MP3s that I downloaded because I was too lazy to rip the CD version that I own.

I wanted to find a tool to scan my music to identify files that may be flagged as having been pirated by these cloud services; I thought such a tool would be free and easy to find. After all, my intent is to search my own computer for pirated music and to delete it--something that the RIAA wants the government to force you to do. But endless re-phrasing on Google leads to nothing but instructions for how to obtain pirated music.

Does such a tool exist or does the RIAA seriously expect me to sift through 60 GB of music, remember which are pirated, and delete them by hand?
The Military

Submission + - Boeing Building an Enormous Laser for the US Navy (discovermagazine.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Boeing is working to build a huge, incredibly powerful, soon-to-be-seafaring laser for the US Navy. This free electron laser can produce light of any wavelength (ie, color) directly from an electron beam, and gets an energy boost from a superconducting particle accelerator. Once it's onboard ships, the laser could be used to shoot down cruise missiles and artillery shells.

Submission + - New Theory Claims We Innovate by Memory Error (benlindquist.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Why do inventors seem to be "not quite right"? Because we innovate by mistakes in memory, which get accumulated over time by our superior memory capabilities, and handed down through culture — not because of evolutionary cognition.
Space

Submission + - SpaceX sues Valador for Defamation (tumblr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Looks like aerospace consulting firm Valador tried to bite of more than it can chew. After already having bagged lucrative 'safety review' contracts with SpaceX' competitors, it tried to sell its services to SpaceX as well. However, according to SpaceX' claims in a recent court filing, Valador tried to juice up their sales pitch by first spreading rumors at key NASA offices that SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is 'unsafe', and then generously offering its services to SpaceX to aid them with adressing any undeserved bias against them among NASA officials. In true California fashion (being the most litigious state of the nation), SpaceX is having none of that and is taking Valador to court for defamation, seeking damages identical to the value of the consulting contract Valador tried to sell to them.
Bitcoin

Submission + - Bitcoin user gets robbed of his 1/2 million wallet (bitcoin.org)

Submitted by
anomnomnomymous
anomnomnomymous writes: "One user claims that an unknown thief has stolen his virtual wallet with Bitcoins, worth the equivalent of half a million dollars. In a posting on the Bitcoin forum, a user with the nickname Allinvain claims 25,000 Bitcoins have been captured; An amount with a rough value of 467.500 dollar.
So are we going to see more of these robberies in the future? This clearly shows one of the downsides of the semi-anonymous currency, as a recourse or refund (or legal protection) is nearly absent."
Idle

Submission + - Japanese Scientist Creates Fake Meat From Feces (inhabitat.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Hold on to your hamburgers — Japanese scientist Mitsyuki Ikeda at the Environmental Assessment Center in Okayama has invented an artificial meat substitute made from human feces. The unseemly meal is made by extracting protein and lipids from “sewage mud”. The lipids are then combined with a reaction enhancer and whipped into “meat” in an exploder. You can see a video of the process at work here — just don't lose your lunch; it would make a great steak.

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