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Submission + - Iris Scanner Identifies a Person 40 Feet Away (discovery.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: For several years now, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab Biometrics Center have been testing an iris recognition system that can be used to identify subjects at a range of up to 40 feet.

In the realm of law enforcement, iris recognition could be used to identify suspects at long range in various lighting conditions. The system can even be used to capture images through reflections in a mirror.

Submission + - Hacked Sony emails reveal that Sony had pirated books about hacking (dailydot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Sony has done a lot of aggressive anti-piracy work in their time, which makes it that much funnier that pirated ebooks were found on their servers from the 2014 hacks that just went on to WikiLeaks. Better yet, the pirated books are educational books about hacking called "Inside Cyber Warfare" and "Hacking the Next Generation" from O'Reilly publishers.

Submission + - Twitter moves non-US accounts to Ireland away from the NSA (betanews.com) 1

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Twitter has updated its privacy policy, creating a two-lane service that treats US and non-US users differently. If you live in the US, your account is controlled by San Francisco-based Twitter Inc, but if you're elsewhere in the world (anywhere else) it's handled by Twitter International Company in Dublin, Ireland. The changes also affect Periscope.

What's the significance of this? Twitter Inc is governed by US law, it is obliged to comply with NSA-driven court requests for data. Data stored in Ireland is not subject to the same obligation. Twitter is not alone in using Dublin as a base for non-US operations; Facebook is another company that has adopted the same tactic. The move could also have implications for how advertising is handled in the future.

Comment Relevant results (Score 1) 3

by RoknrolZombie (#49495521) Attached to: What features would you like in a search engine?

In the early days of the neterwebz most of your search results were pretty relevant if you used the correct terms. The world moves really quickly though - and I have been encountering a particular problem where my returned results are relevant...if I'm asking the question 8 years ago. Technology is the worst, but I've even come across medical information that is "woefully" out of date only 3 years later, but because they're being hosted on a more popular site they "become" the popular source, even if they're wrong. Not sure how you could accomplish that part...the next suggestion should be easier.

How about being able to blacklist some sites from your search results? There are forum farms out there that are useless for answering questions, yet because of the way they game the system they are returned high on most searches - find a way to kill those fuckers and you're off to a decent start.

I don't care if you have to set a cookie as long as I can see it and know what it contains. You don't need to know anything about me to know that I don't like bullshit websites

Submission + - Leaked Sony Contract Reveals Hollywood's Netflix Geo-Blocking Requirements (michaelgeist.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Michael Geist has uncovered Hollywood's geo-blocking requirements that imposes on Netflix in its content licensing agreements. Included with the Sony documents posted by Wikileaks, the contractual provision requires Netflix to use geo-blocking technologies. However, it is only required to target VPNs and anonymizers that "have been created for the primary intent of bypassing geo-restrictions." Moreover, Sony was forced to admit that "geolocation and geofiltering technologies may in some cases be circumvented by highly proficient and determined individuals or organizations."

Submission + - The Hidden FM Radio Inside Your Pocket (npr.org)

Submitted by mr crypto
mr crypto writes: Data providers would probably prefer you not know that most smart phones contain an FM chip that lets you listen to broadcasts for free: "But the FM chip is not activated on two-thirds of devices. That's because mobile makers have the FM capability switched off." The National Association of Broadcasters, National Public Radio, and American Public Media — have launched a lobbying campaign to get those radios switched on.

Submission + - $10 billion wasted on military projects

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: In the past decade the Pentagon's Missile Defence Agency has wasted $10 billion on defense projects that were either impractical and impossible.

There's no single quote about the absurd stupidity of these projects because the article is filled with so many. Read it all and weep. However, here is one quote which indicates who we should blame:

President George W. Bush, in 2002, ordered an urgent effort to field a homeland missile defense system within two years. In their rush to make that deadline, Missile Defense Agency officials latched onto exotic, unproven concepts without doing a rigorous analysis of their cost and feasibility. Members of Congress whose states and districts benefited from the spending tenaciously defended the programs, even after their deficiencies became evident.

We get the government we deserve. Until we stop electing candidates (from either party) who promise pork, we will continue to get pork, and waste, and a society that is steadily going bankrupt.

Submission + - Peepless in Seattle, Fleeing My Breaking City (jeffreifman.com)

Submitted by reifman
reifman writes: Straight or gay, male or female, if Amazon offers you a job in Seattle, think twice. For me, aging, demographics, online dating and the Seattle Freeze have gotten the best of me after 20 years here. But Seattle is breaking under the weight of Amazon's growth, which has acquired enough real estate to double or triple its headcount. There are 51 cranes on the skyline and more on the way, but transportation investments are lagging — one tunneling machine's been stalled for a year. Dubbed "gridlockapocalypse", traffic is a complete mess. Rents are skyrocketing and the wealth gap's expanding. Tech's white male gentrification is driving a culture clash and a rash of hate crimes in the traditionally gay Capitol Hill neighborhood. There's even a boom in prostitution and sex trafficking. And, it could be a bubble.

Submission + - One Professional Russian Troll Tells All (rferl.mobi)

Submitted by SecState
SecState writes: Hundreds of full-time, well-paid trolls operate thousands of fake accounts to fill social media sites and comments threads with pro-Kremlin propaganda. A St. Petersburg blogger spent two months working 12-hour shifts in a "troll factory," targeting forums of Russian municipal websites. In an interview, he describes how he worked in teams with two other trolls to create false "debates" about Russian and international politics, with pro-Putin views always scoring the winning point. Of course, with the U.S. government invoking "state secrets" to dismiss a defamation case against the supposedly independent advocacy group United Against a Nuclear Iran, Americans also need to be asking how far is too far when it comes to masked government propaganda.

Submission + - Amazon Requires Non-Compete Agreements...For Warehouse Workers

Submitted by Rick Zeman
Rick Zeman writes: Amazon, perhaps historically only second to NewEgg in the IT nerdling's online shopping heart, not only has treated their warehouse workers to appalling working condtions, but they're also making them sign a non-compete agreement for the privilege. Excerpt from the agreement:
During employment and for 18 months after the Separation Date, Employee will not, directly or indirectly, whether on Employee’s own behalf or on behalf of any other entity (for example, as an employee, agent, partner, or consultant), engage in or support the development, manufacture, marketing, or sale of any product or service that competes or is intended to compete with any product or service sold, offered, or otherwise provided by Amazon (or intended to be sold, offered, or otherwise provided by Amazon in the future)....

Submission + - A drastic drop in complaints after San Diego outfitted its PD with body cameras

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Surprise, surprise! Immediately after San Diego outfitted its police force with 600 body camera the number of complaints plunged.

The report, which took one full year into account, found that complaints against police have fallen 40.5 percent and use of “personal body” force by officers has been reduced by 46.5 percent. Use of pepper spray has decreased by 30.5 percent.

Two benefits can be seen immediately. First, the police are being harassed less from false complaints. Second, and more important, the police are finding ways to settle most disputes without the use of force, which means they are abusing their authority less.

These statistics do confirm what many on both the right and the left have begun to believe in recent years, that the police have been almost certainly using force against citizens inappropriately too often. In San Diego at least the cameras are serving to stem this misuse of authority.

Submission + - NY Times: "All The News That Mark Zuckerberg Sees Fit To Print"?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Two years ago, Politico caught Mark Zuckerberg's soon-to-be launched FWD.us PAC boasting how its wealthy tech exec backers would use their companies to 'control the avenues of distribution' for a political message in support of their efforts. Now, the NY Times is reporting that Facebook has been quietly holding talks with at least half a dozen media companies about hosting their content inside Facebook, citing a source who said the Times and Facebook are moving closer to a firm deal. Facebook declined to comment on specific discussions with publishers, but noted it had provided features to help publishers get better traction on Facebook, including tools unveiled in December that let them target their articles to specific groups of Facebook users. The new plan, notes the Times, is championed by Chris Cox, the top lieutenant to Facebook CEO Zuckerberg and a "major supporter" of FWD.us. Exploring Facebook's wooing of the media giants, the Christian Science Monitor asks if social media will control the future of news, citing concerns expressed by Fusion's Felix Salmon, who warns that as news sites sacrifice their brands to reach a wider audience, their incentives for accuracy and editorial judgment will disappear. So, will the Gray Lady's iconic slogan be changed to "All The News That Mark Zuckerberg Sees Fit To Print"?

Submission + - Shape Shifting Frog Goes From Spiky to Smooth, Poses Problems for Taxonomists

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Carrie Arnold reports at National Geographic that on a nighttime walk through Reserva Las Gralarias in Ecuador in 2009, Katherine Krynak spotted a well-camouflaged, marble-size amphibian that was covered in spines. The next day, Krynak pulled the frog from the cup and set it on a smooth white sheet of plastic for Tim to photograph. It wasn't "punk "--it was smooth-skinned. She assumed that, much to her dismay, she must have picked up the wrong frog. "I then put the frog back in the cup and added some moss," says Krynak. "The spines came back... we simply couldn't believe our eyes, our frog changed skin texture! I put the frog back on the smooth white background. Its skin became smooth."

Krynak didn't find another punk rocker frog until 2009, three years after the first sighting. The second animal was covered in thorny spines, like the first, but they had disappeared when she took a closer look. The team then took photos of the shape-shifting frog every ten seconds for several minutes, watching the spines form and then slowly disappear. It's unclear how the frog forms these spines so quickly, or what they're actually made of. The discovery of a variable species poses challenges to amphibian taxonomists and field biologists, who have traditionally used skin texture and presence/absence of tubercles as important discrete traits in diagnosing and identifying species. The discovery illustrates the importance of describing the behavior of new species, and bolsters the argument for preserving amphibian habitats, says Krynak. "Amphibians are declining so rapidly that scientists are oftentimes describing new species from museum specimens because the animals have already gone extinct in the wild, and very recently."

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