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Comment Re:Vice and Frodo 64 (Score 1) 165

by ChrisSlicks (#46750007) Attached to: Reviving a Commodore 64 Computer Using a Raspberry Pi
Vice is Linux compatible and written in straight C, so technically all this should take is a re-compile for ARM and you're up and running - barring any issues.

These guys seem determined to do it the hard way, and rather than have it run as an emulator under a host OS, they are running the emulator as the OS. Primary advantage is load time (much smaller kernel), performance improvement would be negligible.

Submission + - Google Buys Drone Maker Titan Aerospace (suasnews.com) 1

Submitted by garymortimer
garymortimer writes: Google has acquired drone maker Titan Aerospace, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Titan is a New Mexico-based company that makes high-flying solar powered drones.

There’s no word on the price Google paid, but Facebook had been in talks to acquire the company earlier this year for a reported $60 million. Presumably, Google paid more than that to keep it away from Facebook.

Submission + - New bill on illegal downloads in Canada let companies exchange personal info (nationalpost.com)

Submitted by grumpyman
grumpyman writes: New bill to crack down on illegal downloads in Canada allow private companies to exchange personal information with other companies if they believe there has been a breach of agreement, or a case of fraud. I copyright this message and therefore if you are reading it, you have broken the law. I demand that your ISP to provide me your name and address so I can launch a suit.

Submission + - IRS Can Now Seize Your Tax Refund To Pay A Relative's Debt

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Just in time for the April 15 IRS filing deadline comes news from the Washington Post that hundreds of thousands of taxpayers who are expecting refunds are instead getting letters informing them that because of a debt they never knew about — often a debt incurred by their parents — the government has confiscated their check — sometimes on debts 20 or 30 years old. For example, when Mary Grice was 4, back in 1960, her father died, leaving her mother with five children to raise. Until the kids turned 18, Sadie Grice got survivor benefits from Social Security to help feed and clothe them. Now, Social Security claims it overpaid someone in the Grice family — it’s not sure who — in 1977. After 37 years of silence, four years after Sadie Grice died, the government is coming after her daughter. “It was a shock,” says Grice, 58. “What incenses me is the way they went about this. They gave me no notice, they can’t prove that I received any overpayment, and they use intimidation tactics, threatening to report this to the credit bureaus.”

The Treasury Department has intercepted $1.9 billion in tax refunds already this year — $75 million of that on debts delinquent for more than 10 years, says Jeffrey Schramek, assistant commissioner of the department’s debt management service. The aggressive effort to collect old debts started three years ago — the result of a single sentence tucked into the farm bill lifting the 10-year statute of limitations on old debts to Uncle Sam. The Federal Trade Commission, on its Web site, advises Americans that “family members typically are not obligated to pay the debts of a deceased relative from their own assets.” But Social Security officials say that if children indirectly received assistance from public dollars paid to a parent, the children’s money can be taken, no matter how long ago any overpayment occurred. Many of the taxpayers whose refunds have been taken say they’ve been unable to contest the confiscations because of the cost, because Social Security cannot provide records detailing the original overpayment, and because the citizens, following advice from the IRS to keep financial documents for just three years, had long since trashed their own records. More than 1,200 appeals have been filed on the old cases but only about 10 percent of taxpayers have won those appeals. "The government took the money first and then they sent us the letter," says Brenda Samonds.." We could never get one sentence from them explaining why the money was taken.”

Submission + - Microsoft invites to dig E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial video game burial site (xbox.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft announced that the excavation of the long-rumored “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” video game burial site will occur on April 26, 2014 and will be open to the public. Spectators are invited to watch the team uncover the infamous Atari game cartridge grave.
The Atari Corporation – faced with overwhelmingly negative response to the “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” video game – allegedly disposed of millions of unsold game cartridges by burying them in the small town of Alamogordo, New Mexico in 1983.

Submission + - Heartbleed coder: bug in OpenSSL was an honest mistake (pcpro.co.uk) 1

Submitted by nk497
nk497 writes: The Heartbleed bug in OpenSSL wasn't placed there deliberately, according to the coder responsible for the mistake — despite suspicions from many that security services may have been behind it. OpenSSL logs show that German developer Robin Seggelmann introduced the bug into OpenSSL when working on the open-source project two and a half years ago, according to an Australian newspaper. The change was logged on New Year's Eve 2011.

"I was working on improving OpenSSL and submitted numerous bug fixes and added new features," Seggelmann told the Sydney Morning Herald. "In one of the new features, unfortunately, I missed validating a variable containing a length." His work was reviewed, but the reviewer also missed the error, and it was included in the released version of OpenSSL.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Linux in the workplace

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Recently my boss has asked me about the advantages of Linux as a desktop operating system and if it would be a good idea to install it instead of upgrading to Windows 7 or 8. About ten boxes here are still running Windows XP and would be too old to upgrade to any newer version of Windows. He knows that i am using Linux at work on quite outdated hardware (would have gotten a new PC but never requested new hardware — Linux Mint x64 runs quite well on it) and i always managed to get my stuff done with it. I explained to him that there are no licensing issues with Linux, there is no anti-virus software to deal with and that Linux is generally a bit more efficient on old hardware than operating systems from Microsoft. The boss seems interested. Since i am the only guy with Linux experience I would have to support the Linux installations. Now the problem is what works perfectly fine for me may be a horrible experience for some of my coworkers, and even if they would only be using Firefox, Thunderbird and LibreOffice I don't know if I could seriously recommend using Linux as a desktop OS in a business. Instead I want to set up one test machine for users to try it and ask THEM if they like it. The test machine should be as easy and painless to use as possible and not look too different compared to Windows. Which distro and what configuration should I choose for this demo box?

Submission + - The Smoke Detector for Meth Labs (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: Your smoke detector seems like it's on your side, right? And your carbon monoxide detector is looking out for you. But in New Zealand, that extra box on your ceiling is looking out for your landlord. I guess the others were too—since fires and dead bodies are probably bad for property values—but I can't really find the upside for residents who live with a MethMinder in their homes that is waiting to call the authorities on them should they tamper with the box or, you know, break bad and cook some meth.

Ken Hetherington, a software engineer from Pakuranga, Auckland, designed the device after a friend was forced to spend $28,500 (AUS) to repair a vacation home that had been converted into a lab. The MethMinder runs on a long battery life and is fitted with a Vodafone SIM card that sends out a warning to both the police and the landlord if it smells something meth-y in the aira.

Submission + - Facebook Is Ripping Chat Out Of Its Mobile App (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by Advocatus Diaboli
Advocatus Diaboli writes: Facebook is taking its standalone app strategy to a new extreme today. It’s starting to notify users they’ll no longer have the option to send and receive messages in Facebook for iOS and Android, and will instead have to download Facebook Messenger to chat on mobile. Facebook’s main apps have always included a full-featured messaging tab. Then a few months ago, users who also had Facebook’s standalone Messenger app installed had the chat tab of their main apps replaced with a hotlink button that would open Messenger. But this was optional. If you wanted to message inside Facebook for iOS or Android, you just didn’t download Messenger. That’s not going to be an option anymore.

Submission + - Amoeba Eat Human Intestines, Cell by Cell (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Entamoeba histolytica is a tiny pathogen that takes a terrible toll. The single-celled parasite—an amoeba about a tenth the size of a dust mite—infects 50 million people worldwide and kills as many as 100,000 each year. Now, a new report reveals how the microbe does its deadly damage: by eating cells alive, piece by piece. The finding offers a potential target for new drugs to treat E. histolytica infections, and it transforms researchers’ understanding of how the parasite works.

Submission + - California Just Slapped Tesla In The Face

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: California and Tesla have been in a relationship for some time now. The automaker has its headquarters there, its factory, and most of its engineering teams. But it seems the state just slapped Tesla in the face as the California Air Resources Board (CARB) ruled the ability to swap electric-car battery packs doesn't qualify for "fast fueling" incentives. The silicon valley start up loses because it previously had been earning extra "ZEV Gold" credits for this fast-fueling ability which increased its supply of credits that it could sell to other automakers for cash. CARB is accepting public comments on the revised rules through April 18, but don't expect a reversal on this decision. To date, Tesla hasn't reacted favorably when things don't go its way, so now the only question is how will it react to this situation?

Submission + - Study: People That Think Social Media Helps Their Work Are Probably Wrong (neoacademic.com)

Submitted by RichDiesal
RichDiesal writes: In an upcoming special issue of Social Science Computer Review, researchers set out to understand how people actually use social media while at work and how it affects their job performance. By polling workers across 17 industries, they identified 8 broad ways that people use social media that they believe help their work, and 9 broad ways that people use social media that they believe harm their work. Although the harmful social media behaviors were related to decreased job performance, the beneficial social media behaviors were unrelated to job performance. In short, wasting time on social media hurts you, but trying to use social media to improve your work probably doesn't actually help.

Submission + - Raspberry Pi's Eben Upton: How We're Turning Everyone Into DIY Hackers (readwrite.com)

Submitted by redletterdave
redletterdave writes: Eben Upton, cofounder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, is generally credited as the magician behind this incredible machine. While working on his doctorate in philosophy at the University of Cambridge's computer laboratory, Upton painstakingly put together Raspberry Pi prototypes by hand. Today, Upton is CEO of the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s trading company, where he oversees production and sales of the Raspberry Pi. In a lengthy interview with ReadWrite, Upton shares how he invented Raspberry Pi, and what's coming next for the $35 microcomputer.

Submission + - Uncontacted Tribes Die Instantly After We Meet Them (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: It’s a story we all know—Christopher Columbus discovers America, his European buddies follow him, they meet the indigenous people living there, they indigenous people die from smallpox and guns and other unknown diseases, and the Europeans get gold, land, and so on.

It’s still happening today in Brazil, where 238 indigenous tribes have been contacted in the last several decades, and where between 23 and 70 uncontacted tribes are still living. A just-published report that takes a look at what happens after the modern world comes into contact with indigenous peoples isn’t pretty: Of those contacted, three quarters went extinct. Those that survived saw mortality rates up over 80 percent. This is grim stuff.

Submission + - Tor: If You Want Privacy or Anonymity, Stay Off the Internet This Week (vice.com) 2

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: Security holes are par for the course on the web today, but a new, massive bug dubbed "Heartbleed” is particularly nasty, and widespread: Experts say that two-thirds of websites and nearly everyone that’s used the internet in the last two years could be affected to some extent.

The irony is, the those who have put the most effort into privacy and security are the most vulnerable.

The bug exposes the popular cryptographic software, OpenSSL, a mainstay web encryption. Heartbleed makes it possible for anyone to eavesdrop on encrypted sites and access the sensitive data they’re supposed to be protecting, all without leaving any trace on the site’s server. Even worse, attackers can also retrieve cryptographic keys and passwords and use that info to decrypt any past or future web traffic.

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