Comment Re:simple answer (Score 1) 570
Sure they do, vis-a-vis their incorporeal proxies
Submission + - Australian Gov't quiety passes New Internet Snooping laws (smh.com.au)
CuteSteveJobs writes: Yesterday Australian Attorney-General Nicola Roxon passed new laws allowing the authorities to "collect and keep Australians' internet records, including their web-browsing history, social media activity and emails." Roxon said the new powers will be used to find people "engaged in forgery, fraud, child pornography, and infringement of copyright and intellectual property". Greens Senator Scott Ludlam says the laws went further than necessary, and the government had failed to explain why the far-reaching powers were needed: ''The European treaty doesn't require ongoing collection and retention of communications, but the Australian bill does." Ludlam said the new laws are a "lite" version of the laws Roxon had only two weeks ago promised to delay until after the next election. Australian human rights lawyer Jen Robinson described it as a "A sad day for civil liberties."
Submission + - Apple Yanks 'Genius' Ads For Good (ibtimes.com)
redletterdave writes: "After an extremely brief run during this year's Olympics, Apple on Thursday pulled down all three of the controversial "Genius" ads from its website and YouTube channel after receiving an unprecedented amount of criticism from fans and former employees."
Submission + - AWS Glacier storage is around 90% cheaper than S3 (planforcloud.com)
Julesndiamonds writes: "PlanForCloud, a free cloud forecasting site, tested out Amazon Glacier vs S3 and found: "If you start with 100GB then add 10GB/month, it would cost $102.60 after 3 years on AWS Glacier vs $1,282.50 on AWS S3! That makes Glacier around 90% cheaper than S3 and a great long term data-archive option if the slow retrieval time is not an issue for you."
Jon Brodkin of ArsTechnia further differentiates the two services:
"Amazon said that S3 will in many cases be the more cost-effective option 'for data that you’ll need to retrieve in greater volume more frequently' Glacier is really for the data you can't delete (perhaps for legal and regulatory reasons) but will hardly ever need.""
Jon Brodkin of ArsTechnia further differentiates the two services:
"Amazon said that S3 will in many cases be the more cost-effective option 'for data that you’ll need to retrieve in greater volume more frequently' Glacier is really for the data you can't delete (perhaps for legal and regulatory reasons) but will hardly ever need.""
Submission + - Ubi Always On Voice-Activated Android Servant PC Breaks out on Kickstarter (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: "Kickstarter is proving to be the place to go if you have an Android concept in need of funding. Ouya, a $99 Android console that blew by its original goal of raising $950,000 in funds and ended up with nearly $8.6 million instead, and now we're seeing similar excitement for Ubi, a ubiquitous Android PC that is always on and responds to voice commands. Ubi's developers only sought to raise $36,000 to pay the bills, lower costs, and pay for safety certifications, and with 26 days still to go, the project has more than doubled its funding goal with over $81,000 in pledges from 500 backers. From a hardware standpoint, Ubi is an Android PC that plugs into the wall like a fixture and consists of an ARM Cortex A8 processor clocked at 800MHz, 1GB of RAM, 802.11n Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.0, various sensors (temperature, humidity, air pressure, ambient light) and a few other odds and ends."
Submission + - NASA Releases Fully Enhanced Video Of Curiosity's Descent (ibtimes.com)
redletterdave writes: "More than two weeks after the Curiosity rover successfully landed on Mars, NASA on Wednesday released a full-resolution video of Curiosity's descent to the red planet. The new video of Curiosity's descent was created from a composite of 1,054 1600 x 1200 images, which were captured by the Curiosity's onboard Mars Descent Imager (MARDI). The result features full color balance, sharpening and heavy noise reduction, and it can all be viewed in full 1080p HD."
Submission + - Private Key Found Embedded in Major SCADA Equipment (digitalbond.com)
sl4shd0rk writes: RuggedOS (A Siemens Subsidiary of Flame and Stuxnet fame), an Operating System used in mission-critical hardware such as routers and SCADA gear, has been found to contain an embedded private encryption key. Now that all affected RuggedCom devices are sharing the same key, a compromise on one device gets you the rest for free. If the claims are valid, systems in use which would be affected include US Navy, petroleum giant Chevron, and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. The SCADA gear which RuggedOS typically runs on are often connected to machinery controlling electrical substations, traffic control systems, and other critical infrastructure. This is the second security nightmare for RuggedCom this year, the first being the discovery of a backdoor containing a non-modifiable account.
Submission + - Google Building Privacy Red Team (threatpost.com)
Trailrunner7 writes: Google, which has come under fire for years for its privacy practices and recently settled a privacy related case with the Federal Trade Commission that resulted in a $22.5 million fine, is building out a privacy "red team", a group of people charged with finding and resolving privacy risks in the company's products.
The concept of a red team is one that's been used in security for decades, with small teams of experts trying to break a given software application, get into a network or circumvent a security system as part of a penetration test or a similar engagement. The idea is sometimes applied in the real world as well, in the form of people attempting to gain entry to a secure facility or other restricted area.
But Google's concept of building an internal team to look critically at engineering and other decisions in the company's products and services that could involve user privacy risks is perhaps a unique one. The company has been a frequent target for criticism from privacy advocates and government agencies regarding its privacy practices. The most recent incident was the settlement with the FTC earlier this month in a case that revolved around whether Google was circumventing the browser settings on Safari to place tracking cookies on users' machines. While not admitting any fault, Google agreed to pay the $22.5 million fine, the highest ever in such a case.
The concept of a red team is one that's been used in security for decades, with small teams of experts trying to break a given software application, get into a network or circumvent a security system as part of a penetration test or a similar engagement. The idea is sometimes applied in the real world as well, in the form of people attempting to gain entry to a secure facility or other restricted area.
But Google's concept of building an internal team to look critically at engineering and other decisions in the company's products and services that could involve user privacy risks is perhaps a unique one. The company has been a frequent target for criticism from privacy advocates and government agencies regarding its privacy practices. The most recent incident was the settlement with the FTC earlier this month in a case that revolved around whether Google was circumventing the browser settings on Safari to place tracking cookies on users' machines. While not admitting any fault, Google agreed to pay the $22.5 million fine, the highest ever in such a case.
Submission + - Review: Google Compute Engine (infoworld.com)
snydeq writes: "InfoWorld's Peter Wayner takes an in-depth look at Google Compute Engine, the search giant's response to Amazon Web Services and Rackspace. 'If you want to build your own collection of Linux boxes, Google Compute Engine offers a nice, generic way to buy servers at what — depending on the size of compute instance you need — can be a great price. The most attractive feature will probably be the proximity to the other parts of the Google infrastructure,' Wayner writes, adding that Google Compute Engine is just one part of the Google APIs portal, a grand collection of 46 services. 'I suspect many developers will be most interested in using Google Compute Engine when they want to poll these Google databases fairly often. While I don't think you're guaranteed to be in the same zone as the service you want, you're still closer than when traveling across the generic Web.'"
Submission + - Raven AirBot Teams with iRobot PackBot (blogspot.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Today the Air Force, Army and Navy all have robots for the air, land and sea, but none of them communicate with each other for coordinated missions. A new joint DoD development effort aims to change that by getting Raven UAVs cooperating with iRobot PackBots on the ground, for both military and civilian applications. For instance, in agriculture the Raven could spot invasive species from the air and spray them with herbicides, then alert ground-based PackBots to zero-in on difficult-to-spray locations where it could dig up the toughest hombres. The FAA still has to approve UAVs for domestic civilian applications, but by 2013 you should start hearing a weird new buzz overhead that is already familiar in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Submission + - Meet Elvis: The robot that interrogates people traveling across the border (networkworld.com)
colinneagle writes: Even though it's been 35 years, some folks have a specific King of Rock-n-Roll in mind when they hear the name "Elvis." However you might have a case of the Jailhouse Rock blues if the new Elvis catches you in a lie. That's because this Elvis is AI; an android behind a touchscreen who questions people on behalf of U.S. Customs and Border (CBP) Protection to analyze potentially suspicious behavior and to predict threats. He's an Automated Virtual Agent for Truth Assessments in Real-Time (AVATAR) kiosk.
Tucson News reported that there are not enough CBP agents to handle all of the Trusted Traveler Program applications that require face-to-face interviews. It works by using sensors "to screen passengers for unusual physiological responses to questioning — which can indicate a subject is lying," according to CNN.
It's not what you answer, but how you answer. Are you upset or fidgeting? CNN reported that it "uses three sensors to assess physiological responses: a microphone, which monitors vocal quality, pitch and frequency; an infrared camera, which looks at pupil dilation and where the eyes focus; and a high-definition camera recording facial expressions."
Tucson News reported that there are not enough CBP agents to handle all of the Trusted Traveler Program applications that require face-to-face interviews. It works by using sensors "to screen passengers for unusual physiological responses to questioning — which can indicate a subject is lying," according to CNN.
It's not what you answer, but how you answer. Are you upset or fidgeting? CNN reported that it "uses three sensors to assess physiological responses: a microphone, which monitors vocal quality, pitch and frequency; an infrared camera, which looks at pupil dilation and where the eyes focus; and a high-definition camera recording facial expressions."
Comment Re:"moving irresistibly"? (Score 1) 673
They don't need to actually have one, it would be bad press, so they do precisely the same thing by methods which won't get such bad press
Comment Re:Battery or Sexual Battery (Score -1, Flamebait) 1127
If God is just then you will end up on the sexual offenders list, forever a pariah, for some trivial thing like people peeping into your window while you are naked
Comment Re:What the hell is Wayland? (Score 1) 319
X is remote "any time it's needed," except for all the many many times when the app was specifically not written to support it, or was written in a way where the performance is unusably bad when run remotely.
Comment Re:What the hell is Wayland? (Score 3, Insightful) 319
you already generally have to use something like VNC or xpra (layered over X, not really using it) in order to get reasonable performance or to detach and reattach remotely.
X might seem like the answer until you try to use it... it isn't good enough because it's nowhere near usable as GNU screen.
