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Submission + - TurboTax sells access to your data (wordpress.com)

Submitted by rcharbon
rcharbon writes: I had the apparently naive expectation that I’d retain some small scrap of privacy by using the TurboTax desktop app instead of the web version. However, their failure to keep a certificate revocation list up to date revealed that Intuit installs third-party cookies from Neustar, an ad service that “provides audience insights that increase online advertising relevancy through the power of verified offline consumer data.”

Comment Re:Why? (Score 1) 769

by multisync (#46397339) Attached to: The Next Keurig Will Make Your Coffee With a Dash of "DRM"

Downside : a normal coffee brew process generates 6-12 cups of Joe.

I guess we could all switch to a press ... but that's a bit messy and requires a stand alone heating method (I've not the space to keep a proper tea kettle on my office desk)

I've been using single cup coffee makers like this Black & Decker Brew 'n Go for years. No mess, no fuss, just pour a cup full of fresh water from your cup in to the reservoir, add a couple scoops of fresh ground coffee to the filter basket and hit the go button.

You get a fresh cup of coffee without the waste of those empty "pods," and no DRM to boot.

Submission + - Sniffing and decoding NRF24L01+ and Bluetooth LE packets for under $30 (cyberexplorer.me)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I was able to decode NRF24L01+ and Bluetooth Low Energy protocols using RTL-SDR.
As far as I can see, this is the first time the NRF24L01+ is being decoded, especially considering the low entry price for the hardware. Given the extreme popularity of this transceiver, we are likely to see a wave of hackers attacking the security of many wireless gadgets, and they are likely to succeed as security is usually the last priority for hardware designers of such cheap gadgets.

A lot of work have been done to decode bluetooth using dedicated hardware and I am sure this software can be adapted to output the right format as input to the existing Bluetooth decoders such as Wireshark.
As far as I can see, this is also the first time BTLE can be decoded using a very cheap generic device.

Submission + - Tweets And Threats: Gangs Find New Home On The Net (ap.org)

Submitted by cold fjord
cold fjord writes: Associated Press reports, "Social media has exploded among street gangs ... They're turning to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to flaunt guns and wads of cash, threaten rivals, intimidate informants ... sell weapons, drugs — even plot murder. "What's taking place online is what's taking place in the streets," says David Pyrooz, an assistant professor at Sam Houston State University ... "The Internet does more for a gang's brand or a gang member's identity than word-of-mouth could ever do. It really gives the gang a wide platform to promote their reputations. ... On the crime-fighting side ... this activity ... is transforming how police and prosecutors pursue gangs. Along with traditional investigative techniques, police monitor gangs online ... a Cincinnati police officer who trains other law enforcement about social media, says by the time gang members appear in court, authorities have a dossier of their words and videos online that challenge how they want to portray themselves. "If a guy goes in and says, `I'm a good person. I've never held a gun,' we can say, `Look at what he puts out about himself on social media. Here he is with a gun.' ..." ... police say monitoring social media is time-consuming and frustrating."

Submission + - How Chris Christie Could Use the NSA Playbook to Defend Himself over Bridgegate

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Conor Friedersdorf has written a tongue-in-cheek article in The Atlantic advising New Jersey Governor Chris Christie how he can use the NSA playbook to successfully defend himself of the charges that a senior member of his staff was involved in shutting down George Washington Bridge traffic, a stunt meant to punish the mayor of an affected town for opposing his reelection. Christie's NSA-inspired explanation would include the following points: There are almost 9 million people in New Jersey, and only one was targeted for retribution, an impressively tiny error rate lower than .001 percent; The bridge closure was vital to national security because [redacted]; Since the George Washington Bridge is a potential terrorist target, everything that may or may not have happened near it is a state secret; Going after a political rival is wrong but it's important to put this event in context; Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich was the only target of non-compliant behavior. No other Fort Lee resident was ever targeted for retribution, and any delays that any Fort Lee resident experienced were totally inadvertent and incidental; Finally a panel will be formed to figure out how to restore the public's faith in Chris Christie. "To some readers, these talking points may seem absurd or deliberately misleading," concludes Friedersdorf, "but there isn't any denying that so far they're working okay for the NSA."

Submission + - New class of "hypervelocity stars" discovered escaping the galaxy (vanderbilt.edu)

Submitted by Science_afficionado
Science_afficionado writes: Astronomers have discovered a surprising new class of “hypervelocity stars” that are moving at more than a million miles per hour, fast enough to escape the gravitational grasp of the Milky Way galaxy. The 20 hyper stars are about the same size as the sun and, other than their extreme speed, have the same composition as the stars in the galactic disk. The big surprise is that they don't seem to come from the galaxy's center. The generally accepted mechanism for producing hypervelocity stars relies on the extreme gravitational field of the supermassive black hole that resides in the galaxy's core. So the discovery means that astrophysicists must come up with an entirely new method for speeding stars to hypervelocities.

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