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Submission + - Restoring a 14 Year Old Website (re-cycledair.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Back in 1999 I created what some might say was the best Star Wars website ever. It had frames, a star field background, an entrance page, and even an auto-playing midi. Over time though it fell into disrepair and eventually out of existence completely... or so I thought.

The Internet Archive had a capture of it! It was incomplete but still usable. This is the story of restoring a piece of my childhood to its former glory.

Submission + - UK security chief joins world government objections to zero knowledge storage (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On the first day in his new posting as head of British Intelligence, new GCHQ chief Robert Hannigan has added his voice to the now-weekly stream of objections by US and UK government officials to the post-Snowden trend towards 'zero knowledge' storage, suggesting that online communities are actually demanding increased surveillance. He said that most internet users want "a better and more sustainable relationship between the [intelligence] agencies and the tech companies."

Hannigan added that British surveillance groups would not be able to tackle future terrorist threats without increased support from "the largest US tech companies which dominate the web".

"However much they may dislike it," he said. "they have become the command and control networks of choice for terrorists and criminals, who find their services as transformational as the rest of us."

The criticism is the latest in a string of government announcements in the wake of Edward Snowden's urging of consumers towards zero-knowledge storage such as SpiderOak, and also Apple's new policy of client-side encryption in iOs 6. On 26th September FBI director James Comey criticised zero-knowledge storage at a conference on child abuse, whilst similar criticisms followed in October from the departing Attorney General Eric Holder and UK National Crime Agency chief Keith Bristow. In the same period leaks from President Obama outlined a 'doomsday' scenario for cyber-terrorism.

Submission + - Shift Work Dulls Brain Performance

Submitted by davidshenba
davidshenba writes: Scientists warn that working in unusual shifts can prematurely age the brain and dull intellectual ability. Three thousand people in France were given tests of memory, speed of thought and wider cognitive ability. People with more than 10 years of shift work history had the same results as someone six and a half years older. The brain naturally dulls as we age, but the researchers said working antisocial shifts accelerated the process.

Submission + - Critical WordPress vulnerability discovered? (metropolitan.fi)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Following the recent Drupal SQL injection vulnerability the Finnish security company Klikki.fi is reporting that the system has a similar vulnerability — equally, if not worse than the Drupal vulnerability. According to the company the exploit is done using the commenting function, which is enabled by default. The versions affected are all 3.x and 4.0 versions of WordPress.

Submission + - Court Order: Butterfly Labs Bitcoins to be sold. (qntra.net)

Submitted by MrBingoBoingo
MrBingoBoingo writes: In a new development in the Case against Butterfly Labs, the Court overseeing the case has ordered bitcoins held by Butterfly Labs to be turned over to the Court appointed temporary receiver. The order also gives the receiver authorization to convert the bitcoins "to cash on a systematic and reasoned basis." The justification for this measure is at least to ostensibly create reserves with which refunds for Butterfly Labs customers may be paid from.

Submission + - Trisquel 7 Released

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Trisquel 7.0 Belenos has been released. Trisquel is a “free as in freedom” GNU/Linux distribution endorsed by the FSF. This latest release includes Linux-libre 3.13, GNOME 3.12, Abrowser 33 (based on Firefox), the Electrum Bitcoin client and many more new features and upgrades. Trisquel 7.0 will be supported until 2019.

Interested users can check out the screenshots and download the latest release. The project also accepts donations.

Submission + - Photon interaction has been created in the fiber (phys.org)

Submitted by Trachman
Trachman writes: Austrian scientists discovered a way to couple photon pairs. During the coupling for two identical photons, under analysis, a phase is changed in one and, using the magic of the world of quantum mechanics, the phase of other photon also changes. Scientists predict that this can advance quantum optics, quantum computations and, in the nearest future, secure fiber networks from NSA and other self appointed nosy rulers of the world.

The question to the community is following: Is there anyone who can explain in simple terms the essence of the discovery and associated potential practical applications.

Submission + - The Mythical Made Up 'Legend' Of Walter O'Brien Continues To Grow .. (techdirt.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A few weeks ago, we wrote about "Walter O'Brien," the guy who is supposed to be the basis of the CBS TV show Scorpion. The problem we had was that O'Brien made a ton of absolutely fantastical claims and, after doing a little fact checking, none of them seemed to check out ..

What concerns me about the bogus Walter O'Brien story is twofold: (1) Gullible reporters simply repeat his claims without even the slightest bit of skepticism, which is just shameful reporting and (2) O'Brien and his friends aren't just making a TV show: they're trying to spin the TV show .. into a way to promote O'Brien's "business" with claims that are wholly unbelievable ...

Submission + - Photographs of Sellafield (UK) nuclear plant prompt fears over radioactive risk (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: Previously unseen pictures of two storage ponds at Sellafield nuclear plant containing hundreds of highly radioactive fuel show cracked concrete, seagulls bathing in the water and weeds growing around derelict machinery. The two ponds were built in the 50s and used for short-term storage of spent fuel until the 70s. Stellafied Ltd says the images are dated, but but that they do indicate the scale of the clean up required.

Submission + - US Company Seeks to offer Regulator Approved Bitcoin Options Market 1

Submitted by MrBingoBoingo
MrBingoBoingo writes: Startup LedgerX has submitted applications to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commisions to begin offering options based on Bitcoin prices which will be bought and sold in US Dollars. This comes after last major options market in Bitcoin announced they were discontinuing Bitcoin/Dollar options sold and settled in Bitcoin back in February due to poor price signal and the daunting challenge of insuring Put options.

Comment Re:Am I paranoid? (Score 2) 87

by MrBingoBoingo (#48274223) Attached to: Vulnerabilities Found (and Sought) In More Command-Line Tools
Well the way this probably works is they submit patches to be helpful. They encourage work on certain things to distract from things they already know are vulnerable. Bash had that bad behavior at a time when some people may have lobbied for it as a feature. On the other hand you have outright turds like OpenSSL which are developed by people who jsut slap shit in and avoid starvation by consulting for the Feds. The only solution is more people reading old code.

Comment Re:tnftp (Score 4, Insightful) 87

by MrBingoBoingo (#48274161) Attached to: Vulnerabilities Found (and Sought) In More Command-Line Tools
Well the difference is... reading, and reading is nothing if not for rereading. A billion, thousand, or even three eyes mean nothing if they're aimed at cat videos. Instead of reineventing every API to keep it fresh a la the GNOME model, to get actual tools you have to instead make sure what you're already working with... works.

Submission + - Brazil Is Keeping Its Promise to Avoid the U.S. Internet - US to lose 35 Billion (gizmodo.com) 1

Submitted by bricko
bricko writes: Brazil Is Keeping Its Promise to Avoid the U.S. Internet

http://gizmodo.com/brazils-kee...

Brazil was not bluffing last year, when it said that it wanted to disconnect from the United States-controlled internet due to the NSA's obscenely invasive surveillance tactics. The country is about to stretch a cable from the northern city of Fortaleza all the way to Portugal, and they've vowed not to use a single U.S. vendor to do it.

Brazil made a bunch of bold promises, ranging in severity from forcing companies like Facebook and Google to move their servers inside Brazilian borders, to building a new all-Brazilian email system—which they've already done. But the first actionable opportunity the country was presented with is this transatlantic cable, which had been in the works since 2012 but is only just now seeing construction begin. And with news that the cable plan will not include American vendors, it looks like Brazil is serious; it's investing $185 million on the cable project alone. And not a penny of that sum will go to an American company.

The implications of Brazil distancing itself from the US internet are huge. It's not necessarily a big deal politically, but the economic consequences could be tremendously destructive. Brazil has the seventh largest economy in the world, and it continues to grow. So when Brazil finally does divorce Uncle Sam—assuming things continue at this rate—a huge number of contracts between American companies and Brazil will simply disappear.

On the whole, researchers estimate that the United States could lose about $35 billion due to security fears. That's a lot of money.

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