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Submission + - Verizon, AT&T tracking their users with 'supercookies' (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: Verizon and AT&T have been quietly tracking the Internet activity of more than 100 million cellular customers with what critics have dubbed “supercookies” — markers so powerful that it’s difficult for even savvy users to escape them.

The technology has allowed the companies to monitor which sites their customers visit, cataloging their tastes and interests. Consumers cannot erase these supercookies or evade them by using browser settings, such as the “private” or “incognito” modes that are popular among users wary of corporate or government surveillance.

Submission + - The worst things about working at Twitter (businessinsider.com)

Submitted by Julie188
Julie188 writes: Just because Twitter's IPO turned many of its employees into (paper) millionaires, doesn't mean they don't have gripes about working there. Employees are frustrated in a number of ways, mostly because the company grew so fast in its pre-IPO days. They complain of politics, new employees added to teams with no clear role and (if you can believe it), one even complained of "unfair" pay.

Comment NOT first to 100 km/hr (Score 1) 103

by 0WaitState (#42082861) Attached to: 100km/h Sailboat Sets Speed Record

Let's have a look at the Council's list that is linked in TFA and TFS. 100 km/hr is 53.996 knots. What do we see?

2010 Kite-board Alexandre Caizergues FRA Luderitz, NAM 54.10 kts
2010 Kite-board Sebastien Cattalan FRA Luderitz, NAM 55.49 kts
2010 Kite-board Rob Douglas USA Luderitz, NAM 55.65 kts

3 kiters in 2010 certified as going faster than 100 km/hr. Sailrocket's achievement of a new outright record is awesome, it doesn't need to be embellished (or damaged) with false claims to be first past a round-number threshold.

Comment Re:Sounds like Medicare in the US (Score 1) 230

by 0WaitState (#41712635) Attached to: China's Yearly Budget For High-Speed Rail: $100 Billion

The horrifically expensive part is the American approach to provisioning health care. It costs a third more per capita than other first-world countries and provides worse outcomes. But that does not mean the solution is to dismantle the only single-payer system in the US and replace it with vouchers, making the elderly go to insurance providers that would prefer to place them on an ice floe.

Medicare may suck but it is better than anything else the US is doing in health care.
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook Abstainers could be labeled Suspicious 2

Submitted by bs0d3
bs0d3 writes: According to this article printed in tagesspiegel.de, not having a facebook account should be the first sign that you are a mass murderer. As examples they use Norwegian shooter Anders Breivik, who used myspace instead of facebook and the newer Aurora shooter who used adultfriendfinder instead of facebook. They already consider those with facebook accounts, who lack friends to be suspicious, but now they are suggesting that anyone who abstains from facebook altogether may be even more suspicious. While it is already established that sites like facebook and google+ are no good for political activists, abuse survivors, and people in the witness protection program; abuse survivors will have to take a back seat while more and more insane articles like this come out. This line of thinking could sure help facebook's stock value.
Security

Submission + - 6.5 million unsalted LinkedIn passwords stolen (mashable.com)

Submitted by Clovert Agent
Clovert Agent writes: LinkedIn has confirmed a Russian hacker's claims of stealing 6.5m passwords from the social networking site. Many of the passwords have been posted online as SHA1 hashes including many with leading zeroes indicating cracked passwords.

Comment "Unlimited" data plan with a 500 MB cutoff (Score 1) 97

by 0WaitState (#40190609) Attached to: AT&T Expects Data-Only Phone Plans Within 2 Years

I have an "unlimited" data plan with AT&T. In the 20 months on the current phone I've used approximately 10 gig of data, total. Lately they've been throttling my data service to almost nothing if I cross 500 MB in one billing period. They claim they're still giving data service, but at a "lower" rate. This "lower" rate is so slow a web page cannot load before the browser times out (60 seconds). That is service denial, while I'm still under contract with a fat cancellation fee. Note that they're only blocking web traffic. Email still works, and maps still load.

Think carefully before signing up with AT&T, and if any AT&T people are reading this, yes I am researching what agencies regulate your asses, because you are a utility, and I'm documenting your behavior.
Japan

Submission + - Nuclear Disaster in Japan Was Avoidable

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Martin Fackler writes that Japan’s nuclear regulators say that the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and 45-foot tsunami that knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant were far larger than anything that scientists had predicted, but some insiders from Japan’s tightly knit nuclear industry have stepped forward to say that Tepco and regulators had for years ignored warnings of the possibility of a larger-than-expected tsunami in northeastern Japan, and thus failed to take adequate countermeasures, such as raising wave walls or placing backup generators on higher ground. “March 11 exposed the true nature of Japan’s postwar system, that it is led by bureaucrats who stand on the side of industry, not the people,” says Shigeaki Koga, a former director of industrial policy at the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry. Eight years ago, as a member of an influential cabinet office committee on offshore earthquakes in northeastern Japan, Kunihiko Shimazaki, professor emeritus of seismology at the University of Tokyo, warned that Fukushima’s coast was vulnerable to tsunamis more than twice as tall as the forecasts of up to 17 feet put forth by regulators and Tepco but government bureaucrats running the committee moved quickly to exclude his views from debate as too speculative and “pending further research.” Then in 2008, Tepco's own engineers made three separate sets of calculations that showed that Fukushima Daiichi could be hit by tsunamis as high as 50 feet. “They completely ignored me in order to save Tepco money," says Shimazaki."

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