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Submission + - Microsoft To Teachers: Using Pens And Paper Not Fair To Students

Submitted by Freshly Exhumed
Freshly Exhumed writes: Pens and paper have no place in the modern classroom. And chalkboards? They should be banished from our schools too. That’s what Lia De Cicco Remu, director of Partners in Learning at Microsoft Canada, told the Georgia Straight ahead of the Microsoft Summit 2015 in Vancouver, which is set to be attended by around 200 teachers. “When was the last time you used a piece of chalk to express yourself?” De Cicco Remu, a former teacher, asked by phone from Toronto. “Kids don’t express themselves with chalk or in cursive. Kids text.” Given the Microsoft Study Finds Technology Hurting Attention Spans story posted to Slashdot in the last 2 days it would seem that Redmond's Marketing and R&D people are at cross-purposes.

Submission + - The Demographic Future of America's Political Parties

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Daniel McGraw writes that based on their demographic characteristics the Democratic and Republican parties face two very different futures. There’s been much written about how millennials are becoming a reliable voting bloc for Democrats, but there’s been much less attention paid to one of the biggest get-out-the-vote challenges for the Republican Party heading into the next presidential election: The Republican Party voter is old—and getting older and far more Republicans than Democrats have died since the 2012 elections. By combining presidential election exit polls with mortality rates per age group from the U.S. Census Bureau, McGraw calculated that, of the 61 million who voted for Mitt Romney in 2012, about 2.75 million will be dead by the 2016 election. About 2.3 million of President Barack Obama’s voters have died too but that leaves a big gap in between, a difference of roughly 453,000 in favor of the Democrats. “I’ve never seen anyone doing any studies on how many dead people can’t vote,” laughs William Frey, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who specializes in demographic studies. “I’ve seen studies on how many dead people do vote. The old Daley Administration in Chicago was very good at that.”

Frey points out that, since Republicans are getting whiter and older, replacing the voters that leave this earth with young ones is essential for them to be competitive in presidential elections. "Millennials (born 1981 to 1997) now are larger in numbers than baby boomers ([born] 1946 to 1964), and how they vote will make the big difference. And the data says that if Republicans focus on economic issues and stay away from social ones like gay marriage, they can make serious inroads with millennials.” Exit polling indicates that millennials have split about 65-35 in favor of the Dems in the past two elections. If that split holds true in 2016, Democrats will have picked up a two million vote advantage among first-time voters. These numbers combined with the voter death data puts Republicans at an almost 2.5 million voter disadvantage going into 2016.

Submission + - Google and Facebook hypocrisy concerning the Verizon-AOL merger (forbes.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Their friends in Washington want the FCC to start interfering in Internet privacy issues. Convincing the FCC to issue new rules prohibiting Internet service providers (ISPs) from tracking consumers online would keep Verizon out of their markets and could have the effect of killing the deal even if antitrust regulators approve it.

If these groups(Google and Facebook) were serious about protecting consumer privacy on the Internet, they wouldn't be running to the FCC for special rules aimed only at Verizon. They would take their complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC is the primary agency responsible for consumer privacy issues and has been dealing with online tracking issues for years. The FCC has comparatively little experience in the area and a poor track record of enforcing and complying with privacy laws.

It appears these groups are complaining about Verizon at the FCC rather than the FTC in order to help their friends at Google and Facebook maintain their competitive lead in mobile marketing. It is no coincidence that these same groups pushed for the FCC to assume jurisdiction over Internet privacy issues during the net neutrality fight. The FCC could have adopted net neutrality rules without impinging on the FTC's jurisdiction over online privacy.

Submission + - Newly Released Documents Indicate Key Hillary Clinton Claim on Emails Was False (theblaze.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Emails published by the New York Times Monday indicate that Hillary Clinton used more than one private email address during her time as secretary of state, contradicting previous claims from the Democratic presidential contender's office.

Multiple emails show Clinton used account "hrod17@clintonemail.com" while serving in the Obama administration as secretary of state.

Is hrod short for hotrod? I thought that was Bill's handle.

Submission + - UK Criminals use drones to case burglary prospects. (telegraph.co.uk) 1

Submitted by turkeydance
turkeydance writes: Unmanned drones are being piloted over private homes by burglars in a bid to identify potential targets, police have confirmed.
Detectives fear the mini-helicopters, which can be bought for as little as £30, are being deployed to take surveillance photographs from above, posing a brand new threat to home security.
Suffolk Constabulary confirmed it had received at least one report of drones being used by burglars to “case” properties.

Submission + - Could a computer predict the next pandemic? (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Using a computer to predict an infectious disease outbreak before it starts may sound like a bit of Philip K. Dick sci-fi, but scientists are coming close. In a new study, researchers have used machine learning — teaching computers to recognize patterns in large data sets—to make accurate forecasts about which animals might harbor dangerous viruses, bacteria, and fungi. Better predictions could help experts improve how they prevent and respond to disease outbreaks.

Submission + - Robotic Space Plane Launches in Mystery Mission This Week (discovery.com) 1

Submitted by mpicpp
mpicpp writes: he United States Air Force’s mysterious X-37B space plane will head to orbit this week for the fourth time.

The unmanned X-37B spacecraft is scheduled to launch Wednesday (May 20) at 10:45 a.m. EDT (1445 GMT) atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The liftoff will begin the reusable space plane’s fourth mission, which is known as OTV-4 (short for Orbital Test Vehicle-4).

Most of the X-37B’s payloads and specific activities are classified, so it’s not entirely clear what the space plane will be doing once it leaves Earth Wednesday. This secrecy has led to some speculation that the vehicle might be some sort of space weapon, but Air Force officials have repeatedly refuted that notion, saying X-37B flights simply test a variety of new space technologies

Submission + - Chris Roberts is the least important part of the airplane hacking story (csmonitor.com) 1

Submitted by chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: Now that the news media is in full freak-out mode (http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/17/us/fbi-hacker-flight-computer-systems/index.html) about whether or not security researcher Chris Roberts did or did not hack into the engine of a plane, in flight and cause it to "fly sideways," security experts say its time to take a step back from the crazy and ask what is the real import of the plane hacking. The answer: definitely not Chris Roberts.

The real story that media outlets should be chasing isn't what Roberts did or didn't do on board a United flight in April, but whether there is any truth to longtime assurances from airplane makers like Boeing and Airbus that critical avionics systems aboard their aircraft are unreachable from systems accessible to passengers, the Christian Science Monitor writes. (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Passcode/2015/0518/Did-a-hacker-really-make-a-plane-go-sideways)

And, on that issue, Roberts' statements and the FBI's actions raise as many questions as they answer. For one: why is the FBI suddenly focused on years-old research that has long been part of the public record.

“This has been a known issue for four or five years, where a bunch of us have been stood up and pounding our chest and saying, 'This has to be fixed,' " Roberts noted. “Is there a credible threat? Is something happening? If so, they’re not going to tell us,” he said.

Roberts isn’t the only one confused by the series of events surrounding his detention in April and the revelations about his interviews with federal agents.

“I would like to see a transcript (of the interviews),” said one former federal computer crimes prosecutor, speaking on condition of anonymity. “If he did what he said he did, why is he not in jail? And if he didn’t do it, why is the FBI saying he did?”

Josh Corman, the chief technology officer at the firm Sonatype, said the media and security industry's focus on Roberts' actions is a distraction. Mr. Corman, who is the founder of IAmTheCavalry.org, (https://www.iamthecavalry.org/) a grassroots group focused on issues where computer security intersects public safety and human life, said that the real question was about the safety and reliability of airplane avionics systems.

"The message has been that nothing the customer can do in the passenger cabin can affect the avionics," said Corman. However, the FBI affidavit (http://aptn.ca/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/05/warrant-for-Roberts-electronics.pdf) suggests otherwise, citing interviews with Roberts going back to Februrary.

"So we're getting a mixed message about what can and can't be done," Corman said. "Either planes are not hackable, or they might be...irrespective or regardless of the veracity of [Roberts] claim."

Submission + - Court of Appeals says Samsung's legal payments to Apple should be reduced (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Patent lawsuits in the world of technology are nothing new, and the case between Apple and Samsung resulted in one of the largest fines ever being handed down. Samsung was order to pay $930 million in damages after a court found that the company had violated Apple patents with its smartphone and tablet designs.

Today the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned part of the original ruling, saying that the jury was wrong to say that Samsung infringed on Apple's trade dress intellectual property. The exact details of what this will mean are yet to come out, but it should lead to a fairly hefty reduction in Samsung's legal costs.

Submission + - U.S. Navy abandons cloud and data center plans in favor of new strategy (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Navy is planning to reassign its cloud and data center strategies following disappointment in the progress of its consolidation initiative, according to a Federal News Radio report. [http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=412&sid=3857833&pid=0&page=1] According to acting CIO Zangardi, the move will “better align consolidation efforts with network efforts and more fully leverage the Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) contract.” The secretary added that over the past three years, the U.S. Department of the Navy had consolidated 290 IT systems and applications at 45 national sites. Despite this progress he emphasized that getting bases and command offices to move faster with the new technologies was not happening at a satisfactory pace. Zangardi also called for industry support in developing the Navy’s mobility and employee device management. The Navy has been finalizing policy and management frameworks around BYOD and will be conducting a number of trials over the coming months with smartphones and tablets.

Submission + - Silk Road's leader paid a doctor to help keep customers safe (dailydot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Two years after the fall of Silk Road, new facts about the saga are still emerging all the time. The latest revelation is that Dread Pirate Roberts, the leader of Silk Road, paid a doctor $500 per week to offer public and private counseling to customers of the site. DoctorX, also known as Dr. Fernando Caudevilla, became famous for his free work on the site. The fact that he was eventually paid a salary is being used by lawyers for Ross Ulbricht to argue that Silk Road emphasized harm reduction and was, on the whole, a huge improvement in safety for drug users.

Submission + - European Internet Users Urged To Protect Themselves Against Facebook Tracking 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In the wake of the revelations about Facebook's tracking of users who do not own a Facebook account, the Belgian Privacy Commission has issued a set of recommendations for both Facebook, website owners and end users. The recommendations are based on the results of an extensive analysis of Facebook’s revised policies and terms (rolled out on January 30, 2015) conducted by the inter-university research center EMSOC/SPION, which concluded that the company is acting in violation of European law. According to them Facebook places too much burden on its users to protect their privacy, and then doesn't offer simple tools and settings to do so, and sets up some problematic default settings. They also don't provide adequate information for users to make informed choices.

Submission + - Uber may join with car rental app Yidao Yongche to crack China (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: 40+ billion-dollar taxi-hailing firm Uber is joining forces with Chinese car rental service Yidao Yongche to ease its rollout into China – a tough market for the American company, which has faced a number of regulatory pressures in the region. In an official blog statement on the Chinese Weibo platform this weekend, Yidao Yongche, which also goes by the name of Easy Go, posted an image of its logo and that of Uber joined together in a heart, alongside the date ‘May 21, 2015’, and a message in Chinese reading “It’s best to be together.” Uber has rejected comment on the Yidao Yongche blog post and has not confirmed whether there will be an announcement regarding the partnership on May 21. A tie-up between the two mobile apps and backer Baidu could prove a wise decision in the face of a difficult Chinese car hire and hailing market and well-established domestic rivals such as smartphone-based transport service Didi Dache.

Submission + - 'A Day In The Life: Building of Medicii - 'The Caesar Video... Part I' (youtube.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Introducing the artist known as Champ with his new video, 'A Day In The Life: Building of Medicii — 'The Caesar Video... Part I'. Single produced by Nitro and Champ, video shot by Dorian the Producer and Sonny Duboise. Feature track off New LP "Caesar" available for free download now via http://www.audiomack.com/album... . Also features the single 'Crown Royal', out now!

Submission + - Ask Slashdot best way to solve a unique networking issue

Submitted by petro-tech
petro-tech writes: I work as a service technician, maintaining and repairing gas pumps and POS equipment.

In my day to day activities, one that consumes a ton of time and is relatively regular is the process of upgrading the software on pumps.
This is done by connecting to the pump via direct ethernet from my laptop, then running a manufacturer provided program that connects to the device and pushes the new software.

Some sites have 8+ pumps with 2 devices in each, and at 20-30 minutes apiece this can be quite time consuming.

Unfortunately the devices are not actually on a network, and as such cannot be updated remotely, also since they are not on a network, they are all configured with the same IP address. Additionally the software doesn't allow you to specify the adapter to use.

I would like to be able to get to a site, connect a cable to each pump, and load them all at the same time.

The only way I can figure to accomplish this with the software we've been provided is to do this:

Get a 16 port powered usb hub, with a usb-ethernet adaptor in each port. Set up 16 VM's with extremely stripped down XP running on each, with only one usb-ethernet adaptor assigned to each VM. Set xp to boot the application for loading software as its shell. and load each device that way at the same time.

Is there a better way to accomplish this?

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