Comment Re:Its not zero day ... (Score 1) 93
Only in the USA. Everywhere else (even Canada) it means real cheese sliced into
Comment Easy - no crap allowed (Score 1) 870
Just say no devices at all. It fair, even-handed and realistic. Make an exam that doesn't put such a premium on mindless calculations (for example allow them to submit an expression such as 112*121/11 instead of computing the result). More emphasis on brain and mind, less on fingers.
Oh, and the can use their mind as a dictionary too.
Sheesh.
Submission + - Canadian gets jail time for recording movies (dudek.org)
grouchyDude writes: A Canadian man was sentenced to serve hard time for recording a couple of movies with a video camera and uploading them to a free movie sharing site. He is supposed to be the first sentenced to jail in Canada for this kind of thing, and is being paraded as an example for North America. In fact, at least one government official has claimed he is one of the biggest pirates of this kind in the world. Apparently this official hasn't been to China recently (or Chile, or Brazil, of Greece, or any subway station outside the USA and Canada). It's sad to think this guy will be in jail beside actual violent criminals for uploading a few movies.
Submission + - ACLU sues re "targeted killing" by drones (myfoxdc.com) 2
MacAndrew writes: The ACLU has sued the United States Government to enforce a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for "the release of records relating to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles—commonly known as “drones”—for the purpose of targeting and killing individuals since September 11, 2001." (Complaint: http://www.aclu.org/national-security/aclu-v-doj-et-al-complaint .) The information sought includes the legal basis for use of the drones, how the program is managed, and the number of civilian deaths in areas of operation such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen. The ACLU further claims that "Recent reports, including public statements from the director of national intelligence, indicate that U.S. citizens have been placed on the list of targets who can be hunted and killed with drones."
Aside from one's view of the wisdom, effectiveness, and morality of these military operations, the inclusion of U.S. citizens suggests that summary remote-control executions are becoming routine. Especially given the difficulty in locating and targeting individuals from aircraft, risks of human and machine error are obvious, and these likely increase as the robots become increasingly autonomous (please no Skynet jokes). This must give pause to anyone who's ever spent time coding or debugging or even driving certain willful late model automobiles, and the US government evidently doesn't want to discuss it.
Aside from one's view of the wisdom, effectiveness, and morality of these military operations, the inclusion of U.S. citizens suggests that summary remote-control executions are becoming routine. Especially given the difficulty in locating and targeting individuals from aircraft, risks of human and machine error are obvious, and these likely increase as the robots become increasingly autonomous (please no Skynet jokes). This must give pause to anyone who's ever spent time coding or debugging or even driving certain willful late model automobiles, and the US government evidently doesn't want to discuss it.
Submission + - Complex life found under 600 feet of Antarctic ice (yahoo.com)
Chroniton writes: NASA ice scientists have found a shrimp-like creature and a possible jellyfish "frolicking" beneath 600 feet of solid Antarctic ice, where only microbes were expected to live. The odds of finding two complex lifeforms after drilling an only 8-inch-wide hole suggests there may be much more. And if such life is possible beneath Earth's oceans, why not elsewhere like Europa?
Submission + - Moon May Have Formed In Natural Nuclear Explosion (technologyreview.com)
KentuckyFC writes: The famous Oklo georeactor in Gabon is a natural nuclear fission reactor where some 1.5 billion years ago, the concentration of uranium was high enough to start a chain reaction which generated roughly 100 kW of power for several hundred thousand years. Now planetary geologists claim a similar nuclear chain reaction could have been responsible for the origin of the Moon. The thinking is that the Earth originally formed from a rapidly spinning blob of molten rock in which the force of gravity only just overcame the centrifugal forces at work. The spinning tended to concentrate heavy radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium near the surface near the equator. That led to a runaway chain reaction and a nuclear explosion that blasted a substantial chunk of material into orbit. The new theory explains why the isotopic content of the Moon and Earth rocks are almost identical. By contrast, the current leading theory of lunar formation is that the Moon formed after the young Earth was hit by another giant body, in which case the Moon's composition ought to be substantially different from Earth's. Interestingly, the idea that Earth and Moon originated from the same parent body was first put forward in 1879 by George Darwin, son of Charles.
Submission + - McGraw-Hill CEO lets slip Apple tablet info (macrumors.com)
grouchyDude writes: In a CNBC interview, the CEO of McGraw-Hill, the publishing conglomerate, let slip a bunch of details about the imminent Apple tablet. The mentions they have been working closely with Apple, and that is runs the iPhone OS (which is, of course, a UNIX variant not so different from OS X). The interview has been picked up by several sites and provoked some chatter.
Submission + - UK Parliament members demand end secrecy over ACTA (theregister.co.uk)
TheEvilOverlord writes: We may get to find out what's going on in the ACTA meetings after all. MPs from all parties in the UK parliament have signed an Early Day Motion demanding to know what is being debated and that they should be able to have some input.
Comment Re:Passwd is not the solution (Score 1) 135
OK smartie, here's what I was referring to:
"The supplied UNIX passwd command in BSD Subsystem is broken for firmware 1.1.3 and 1.1.4.
Attempting to change the password under firmware 1.1.3 or 1.1.4 will result in your device continuously rebooting.
(The reboot fix involves holding both the Power button and the 'Home' button down for at least 30 seconds, then [upon seeing a triangle icon], plugging the device into iTunes for restoration.)"
See: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080224231344798
For newer (current) firmwares it fixed, but some people still run the old stuff.
Comment Re:Spite? (Score 1) 217
MS has a lot of good developers (whatever you may think or their products or policies). Maybe he figures it will hurt them (aesthetically) to look at something lame?
Comment It's not the network, it's the keystrokes! (Score 1) 312
I think SLL encryption as used by most serious places will be sufficient. The Royal Bank of Canada had a bad certificate for their main investment site for a while, but barring such foolishness the SSL and attention to warnings will probably be fine in terms of the actual network traffic. I think the biggest risk, however, is that there could be a key logger at a public site and these are easy to find and install, and a pain to circumvent unless you have control of some key parts of the process.
Comment Re:Encrypt your netbook, park data in the cloud (Score 1) 312
If you are really hard core, as a backup in case of theft you can mail yourself an encrypted USB key at a hotel/hostel/post office you are willing to put on your itinerary, but getting the timing right will be tricky unless you have somebody stateside to send it.
Comment Re:dm-crypt (Score 2, Informative) 312
Great idea if you don't do much. If you have multiple banks or other equivalently-important accounts then it's very tricky. If you use long secure non-algorithmic passwords and won't be able to visit the bank to re-init them, the keeping them recorded in encrypted form would be my choice. That way if you can't recall them all, or briefly forget one, you can recover them so long as you remember at least the master password.
Comment Passwd is not the solution (Score 1) 135
One reason why people might still be using the original password, and why this is all a hassle, is that the normal UNIX passwd program cannot be used on the iPhone.
I believe one needs to manually edit a file called
Submission + - Apple goes down the Dr Who route (pcauthority.com.au) 1
An anonymous reader writes: Doctor Who fans will notice something chillingly familiar with a new patent that has come out from Apple. Patent number 20090268921 is for a wireless headset that sends music straight into your ear. It has additional functionality that allows it to be used during times that the external device with which it is wirelessly coupled is not being used, but when the headset is nevertheless being worn. Doctor Who fans will recognise some startling similarities between this Apple gadget and an episode of their favourite sci-fi drama. These are the same devices which were used by John Lumic, a terminally ill and insane genius boss of hi-tech outfit Cybus Industries. He created a new race of psychopathic, super smug robots called the Cybermen who were convinced of their own superiority.
