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Submission + - NSA claims its systems are too complex to obey the law

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Just when you thought it couldn't get any more unlikely, the NSA throws a dozy. This of course implies that they have no backup system — or at least that the backup are not held for long. So that means that a successful virus, one that blanked without making obviously deleted, getting into their systems would destroy ALL their data. Interesting...

Submission + - Thought crime is terror in U.S. (wnd.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Justice Department is resurrecting a program designed to thwart domestic threats to the United States, and Attorney General Eric Holder says those threats include individuals the government deems anti-government or racially prejudiced.

The Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee was created in the wake of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing but was scrapped soon after the 2001 terrorist attacks as intelligence and law enforcement officials shifted their focus to threats from outside the country. The committee will be comprised of figures from the FBI, the National Security Division of the Justice Department and the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee.

In his statement announcing the return of the committee, Holder said he remains concerned about the specter of attacks prompted by Islamic extremists, but he said this committee will be tasked with identifying other threats.

“We must also concern ourselves with the continued danger we face from individuals within our own borders who may be motivated by a variety of other causes from anti-government animus to racial prejudice,” Holder said. According to reporting from Reuters, the ACLU is pushing back against the DOJ plan, fearing “it could be a sweeping mandate to monitor and collect controversial speech.”

Submission + - Sacked Google Worker Awarded $150,000 for Unfair Dismissal

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: When it comes to evaluating employee performance, perhaps Google isn't really that different from Microsoft after all. While Microsoft used stack ranking to kill employee morale, Google turned to bell curves that were "fine-tuned" by management to do their dirty HR work, according to Irish court documents. "Google, like other enlightened corporations," explains Valleywag, "makes its workers routinely rank each other and forces the scores to match a bell curve. The employees who are placed at the wrong end of the bell curve risk termination. That's stressful enough-now imagine your CEO personally meddling." The Irish Times reports former Google manager Rachel Berthold, who just won her suit against the company for unfair dismissal in 2011 and will receive around $150,000 in a court-mandated settlement, told her counsel that she was present when the ranking of a staff member was reduced electronically by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt. "It came from him," she said. "I saw it with my own eyes." She said Mr Schmidt could not have known anything about the employee. So, ask not for whom the fudged bell curve tolls, Googlers, it tolls for thee!

Submission + - ISEE-3 satellite is back in control

Submitted by brindafella
brindafella writes: In the last two days, the (Reboot Project for the International Sun/Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3) satellite has commanded ISEE-3 from the Earth, using signals transmitted from the Aricebo Observatory. Signals were also received by cooperating dishes: the 21-meter dish located at Kentucky's Morehead State University Space Science Center; the 20-meter dish antenna in Bochum Observatory, Germany, operated by AMSAT Germany; and, SETI's Allen Telescope Array (ATA), California. ISEE-3 was launched in 1978, and last commanded in 1999 by NASA. On May 15, 2014, the project reached its crowdfunding goal of US$125,000, which will cover the costs of writing the software to communicate with the probe, searching through the NASA archives for the information needed to control the spacecraft, and buying time on the dish antennas. The project then set a "stretch goal" of $150,000, which it also met with a final total of $159,502 raised. The goal is to be able to command the spacecraft to fire its engines to enter an Earth orbit, and then be usable for further space exploration. This satellite does not even have a computer; it is all "hard-wired".

Comment recently decided the same (Score 1) 321

by smylingsam (#47111201) Attached to: I Want a Kindle Killer

Hi,

I recently had to move from the kindle for reasons most folks do not share. I settled on the Kobo Aura HD (better font support, more detailed screen, built in support for dyslexie font). then I found I could load a android 2.3 os onto the card. Its not perfect. Its GoodEnough(tm)
Want kindle content? Kindle android loads right up! Its got a Infrared based touch input that is surprisingly good for pen use, but its cpu is rather slow.

Its got its faults of course but I cant afford a real android based tablet like the Tornio or Onyx. You want to look into those options but be ready for sticker shock - Amazon heavily subsidizes the kindle liek kobo subsidizes the Aura line.

Submission + - Which Tech Companies Help Protect You From Government Data Demands?

Submitted by Presto Vivace
Presto Vivace writes: EFF Survey Shows Improved Privacy and Transparency Policies of the Internet's Biggest Companies

San Francisco — Technology companies are privy to our most sensitive information: our conversations, photos, location data, and more. But which companies fight the hardest to protect your privacy from government data requests? Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) releases its fourth annual "Who Has Your Back" report, with comprehensive information on 26 companies' commitments to fighting unfair demands for customer data. The report examines the privacy policies, terms of service, public statements, and courtroom track records of major technology companies, including Internet service providers, email providers, social networking sites, and mobile services.

Submission + - Static Electricity Defies Simple Explanation (sciencemag.org) 3

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: If you’ve ever wiggled a balloon against your hair, you know that rubbing together two different materials can generate static electricity. But rubbing bits of the same material can create static, too. Now, researchers have shot down a decades-old idea of how that same-stuff static comes about.

Submission + - Is Evolution Predictable? (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: If the clock rewound, would organisms evolve the same way they did before? Humble stick insects may hold the answer to that long-running question in biology. Through studies of these bugs, whose bodies match the leaves the insects live on, researchers have found that although groups of the bug have evolved similar appearances, they achieved that mostly via different changes in their DNA. “I think it says that repeatability of evolution is very low,” says Andrew Hendry, an evolutionary biologist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, who was not involved with the work.

Submission + - H R Giger dead: Alien artist and designer died aged 74 (independent.co.uk) 2

Submitted by M3.14
M3.14 writes: H. R. Giger, the Swiss artist and designer of Ridley Scott's Alien, has died, aged 74. Hans Rudolf 'Ruedi' Giger sustained injuries caused by a fall, Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung has reported (German link. English summary here). The terrifying creature and sets he created for Ridley Scott’s film earned him an Oscar for special effects in 1980. In the art world, Giger is appreciated for his wide body of work in the fantastic realism and surrealistic genres. Film work was just one of his talents. Giger is also known for his sculptures, paintings and furniture. The H.R. Giger Museum, inaugurated in the summer of 1998 in the Château St. Germain, is a four-level building complex in the historic, medieval walled city of Gruyères. It is the permanent home to many of the artist’s most prominent works.

Submission + - TLS 1.3 Ready to Drop RSA Key Transport (threatpost.com)

Submitted by msm1267
msm1267 writes: The IETF working group responsible for the TLS 1.3 standard is closing in on a decision to remove RSA key transport cipher suites from the protocol.

Decades-old RSA-based handshakes don’t cut it anymore, according to experts, who are anxious to put a modern protocol in place, one that can fend off an intense commitment from cybercriminals and intelligence agencies to snoop and steal data. The consensus is to support Diffie-Hellman Exchange or Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Exchange, both of which support perfect forward secrecy, which experts are urging developers and standards-bearers to instill as a default encryption technology in new applications and build-outs.

Comment MS working on a fix (Score 1) 2

by smylingsam (#46926733) Attached to: The upcoming Windows 8.1 apocalypse

I had this issue, so I called MS who has always offered free support for failed security updates. After verifying the problem, The tech arranged to escalate my case to tier-3. The tier-3 tech called the next day, downloaded a small navigational registry patch to my system. The problem was rapidly fixed. So rather then freaking out, why not do the sensible thing and take advantage of the free support that comes with a paid product?

Submission + - Earthquake warning issued for central Oklahoma (livescience.com)

Submitted by bobbied
bobbied writes: A rare warning has been issued by the US Geological survey today, warning of an increased risk of a damaging earthquake (magnitude 5.0 or greater) in central Oklahoma. There have been more earthquakes in Oklahoma (per mile) than California this year, prompting the USGS to issue their warning today (May 5, 2014).

This warning is the FIRST such warning to be issued for a state east of the Rockies.

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