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Submission + - Google Offers $2.7M in Pwnium Hacking Contest

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Building on the success of the last couple of years, Google plans to offer more than $2.7 million in potential rewards in the next iteration of its Pwnium hacking competition at this year’s CanSecWest conference in Vancouver. The company has run the contest in parallel with the older Pwn2Own competition at the conference, with somewhat different rules, and this year plans to allow researchers to go after Chrome OS running on both ARM- and Intel-based Chromebooks,

Pwnium began as Google’s answer to Pwn2Own, the well-known hacking contest that has attracted some of the top researchers in the industry over the course of the last few years, including Dino Dai Zovi, Charlie Miller, Chaouki Bekrar and the Vupen team and many others. Pwn2Own has traditionally not required contestants to submit complete exploit information, but rather the details of the vulnerability and the crash data. Pwnium requires researchers to submit full exploits, something that has kept some of the potential contestants away, notably the Vupen team.

But the money that Google is putting up for new compromises of Chrome OS is far beyond what’s available at Pwn2Own or any of the other major contests and has attracted a small, but elite, group of contestants in past years. The company is promising rewards of as much as $150,000 plus some bonuses, paid at Google’s discretion, for especially innovative or serious exploits.

Submission + - NASA extends ISS missions to 2024, but is the science worth it? (orlandosentinel.com) 4

Submitted by spineas
spineas writes: The Orlando Sentinel reports that even though the crew aborad the International Space Station has 1,008 man-hours per week available to them, only 50 man-hours per week is actually used on scientific research, the main purpose of the ISS. The recent decision to extend the life of the ISS to 2024 may not be the best use of funds, especially when the money can be put into future projects, such as manned missions to Mars.

Submission + - Lead by Steve Jobs, Silicon Valley CEOs conspired to surpress engineers' wages

Submitted by Oneflower
Oneflower writes: In a widespread conspiracy, the CEOs of Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe, Intuit, and Pixar secretly agreed to surpress the wages of their tech staff reports Mark Ames at Pando. The DoJ accuses that

Between approximately 2005 and 2009, Defendants Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm, and Pixar allegedly engaged in an “overarching conspiracy” to eliminate competition among Defendants for skilled labor. The conspiracy consisted of an interconnected web of express bilateral agreements among Defendants to abstain from actively soliciting each other’s employees.Plaintiffs allege that each agreement involved a company under the control of Steve Jobs (Co-Founder, Former Chairman, and Former CEO of Apple) and/or a company that shared at least one director with Apple’s Board of Directors.

Submission + - Mars One Project looking for funding on Indiegogo

Submitted by Kenseilon
Kenseilon writes: The Mars One project(http://www.mars-one.com/) is looking for funds through the crowd-funding platform Indiegogo(http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mars-one-first-private-mars-mission-in-2018). From the campaign:

"In this Indiegogo campaign, we give you the opportunity to contribute to the first ever private mission to Mars. It will be the the first step in establishing a human outpost on the Red Planet. The earnings from this Indiegogo campaign will go to the Mission Concept Studies by Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satellite Technology LTD (SSTL) for our first unmanned mission in 2018, which will demonstrate hardware for the human mission in 2025. "

As of today, and with 18 days left to go, they've raised 143K $ out of the 400K needed.

Submission + - Google platforms will invade the enterprise this year (citeworld.com)

Submitted by Copy that 2
Copy that 2 writes: Writer Chris Nerney says Google will not unseat Apple but will make some inroads. While Android's dominant market share in the consumer sector has yet to translate into real success in the enterprise, the sheer number of Androids in the hands of BYOD employees makes it highly unlikely that this disparity can continue. Once KitKat is installed on the majority of Android devices — and, granted, that could take months — enterprise workers will discover they own an impressive productivity tool. It may not be a perfect storm for Google in the enterprise, it certainly is shaping up to be a great opportunity.

Submission + - How LucasArts Fell Apart (kotaku.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "Over the last five months, I’ve talked to a dozen people connected to LucasArts, including ex-employees at the company’s highest levels, in an attempt to figure out just how the studio collapsed. Some spoke off the record; others spoke under condition of anonymity. They told me about the failed deals, the drastic shifts in direction, the cancelled projects with codenames like Smuggler and Outpost. They told me the stories behind the fantastic-looking Star Wars 1313 and the multi-tiered plans for a new Battlefront starting with the multiplayer game known as Star Wars: First Assault.

All of these people helped paint a single picture: Even before Disney purchased LucasFilm, the parent company of LucasArts, in November of 2012, the studio faced serious issues. LucasArts was a company paralyzed by dysfunction, apathy, and indecision from executives at the highest levels."

Submission + - Nokia's Elop to Get $25 Million if Microsoft Deal Done

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: Stephen Elop, the former Nokia Oyj chief executive officer who is rejoining Microsoft, is set to get more than $25 million if the Finnish company completes the sale of its handset business to the software maker. Microsoft will pay 70 percent of the projected total amount of about 18.8 million euros ($25.5 million), and Nokia the remainder, according to a proxy filing by Nokia today. The value of Elop’s reward is estimated using Nokia’s Sept. 6 closing share price and may still change. Nokia shares have dropped by more than a third since Elop was hired on Sept. 10, 2010, even with the stock’s gain since the sale to Microsoft was announced. Nokia shareholders are set to vote on the transaction Nov. 19. Elop will move back to Microsoft as part of the $7.2 billion takeover. He is also a candidate to succeed Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

Submission + - Did Apple Make a Mistake by Releasing Two New iPhones? (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: As noted by CNET, Apple hasn’t released data on the number of iPhone 5C units it presold in the device’s first 24 hours of availability—a first for the iPhone since 2009. Why is that? Reporter Josh Lowensohn speculates that iPhone 5C sales “may not be as impressive when stacked up against tallies from previous years,” with one outside analyst suggesting that Apple racked up 1 million iPhone 5C preorders last Friday, or roughly half the 2 million presales scored by the iPhone 5 on its first day of ordering availability last year. However well the iPhone 5C ends up performing on the open market, Apple’s decision to launch two iPhones this year—rather than a single “hero” device—could result in self-cannibalism, as users who would’ve bought the iPhone 5S instead gravitate toward the cheaper option. Cannibalism is a topic that Apple knows well, as it’s been dealing with the iPhone cannibalizing the iPod for the past several years; but a new iPhone eating away at another new iPhone is fresh territory for the company. During earnings calls, Apple CEO Tim Cook likes to argue that cannibalization—whether iPhones feeding off the iPod, or the iPad taking the place of MacBooks—is a good thing, so long as it’s Apple products eating other Apple products. But it’s far more questionable whether he would welcome the iPhone 5C—almost certainly a low-margin device, despite its current-generation components and plastic body—taking a bite out of the more expensive, and presumably higher-margin iPhone 5S. Margin erosion remains a prime concern of investors and Apple watchers; anything that contributes to that erosion is bound to be viewed unfavorably.

Submission + - Molecule in Corked Wine Plugs Up Your Nose (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Ever send a bottle of wine back at a restaurant? If you weren't just being a pretentious snob, then it was probably because the wine seemed “corked”—had a musty odor and didn’t taste quite right. Most likely, the wine was contaminated with a molecule called 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA), the main cause of cork taint. But a new study by Japanese researchers concludes that you do not smell TCA directly; rather, TCA blocks up your sense of smell and distorts your ability to detect odors. The findings could help the food and beverage industry improve its products and lead to less embarrassment for both you and your waiter.

Submission + - Artificial Muscles Could Allow Robots to Lift 80 Times Their Own Weight (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: It's a classic science fiction scene: an android is injured and its human-like exterior is laid bare to reveal the metallic gears and cables of its true mechanical nature. The future is, unsurprisingly, not likely to match this scenario as our ability to mimic biology with innovations like artificial muscles improves. The latest breakthrough in this field comes from the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Engineering where researchers have developed a “robotic” muscle that extends like real muscle tissue to five times its original length, has the potential to lift 80 times its own weight and holds out the promise of smaller, stronger robots capable of more refined movements.

Submission + - Smaller Testicles correlated with Better Parenting Behavior (nature.com)

Submitted by Guppy
Guppy writes: A recent paper appearing in PNAS (Paywalled) measured Testicular volume and Testosterone levels in fathers of children aged 1-2 years. This information was compared against parenting surveys reported by the children's mothers, as well as MRI imaging of brain activity in the men's Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA), taken while the men were viewing photographs of their children.

The results appeared consistent with past studies hinting of correlation — both Smaller Testicles and lower testosterone levels were found to correlated with both greater reported Nuturing-type behavior, as well as greater stimulated VTA activity. The authors commented that further research was required, given the limited scope of past investigations into the subject, saying "Testicular imaging is sort of a unique niche right now."

Free Summary appearing in Nature here.

Submission + - Apple's New TouchID - Breakthrough or Disaster? 2

Submitted by necro81
necro81 writes: Apple isn't the first company to integrate a fingerprint reader into a cellphone. But with the introduction of TouchID into the home button of the new iPhone 5S, Apple has thrust the technology front and center, and made a big gamble in the process. Will users accept it? Will other companies follow? What happens if the false positive/false negative rates are too high? Without an open and inspectable protocol, we have to take Apple at its word that the fingerprint data exist only in the sensor and the (local) processor; no APIs for third-party access have been announced. Is this an acceptable security model? If it's an awful model, is it at least better than the alternative (passcodes, or nothing at all)?

Submission + - Coffee delays brain maturation in adolescent rats (plosone.org)

Submitted by golden age villain
golden age villain writes: Slashdot readers are probably well aware of the stimulating effects of our favourite psychoactive beverage. Now, scientists at the Children's Hospital in Zurich show in rodents that consumption of coffee during the period corresponding to adolescence has profound effects on the maturation of the developing brain. From the paper: "Adolescence is a critical period for brain maturation during which a massive reorganization of cortical connectivity takes place. In humans, slow wave activity (less than 4.5 Hz) during NREM sleep was proposed to reflect cortical maturation which relies on use-dependent processes. [...] Caffeine treatment exerted short-term stimulating effects and altered the trajectory of slow wave activity. Moreover, caffeine affected behavioral and structural markers of maturation, delaying all three assessed markers of brain maturation. Thus, caffeine consumption during a critical developmental period shows long lasting effects on sleep and brain maturation."

Submission + - The real problem blocking Linux support for apps and games (networkworld.com)

Submitted by colinneagle
colinneagle writes: GOG.com recently announced that it will not add Linux support for the games it offers, citing profitability issues with keeping their games up-to-date. The company has, however, remained open to suggestions from the Linux community.

And what do they receive? Negativity, criticism, and cussed at in forums and comment sections. Companies can't figure out how to effectively and profitably support Linux. They turn to the community to discuss that issue. The community shoots them in the face for talking about the issue, thus making other companies afraid to even try.

GOG is not the problem here. Neither is Valve, Desura, Canonical or any other company that would seek to sell digital goods to those of us running Linux. The problem is us. Our reaction. Our ability to recognize that our operating system, desktop environments and software ecosystems of choice may not (brace yourselves) be 100% perfect in every way.

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