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Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Switching careers from software engineering to networking? 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I am a software engineer with over 10 years of experience making approx 210k a year after bonus. I've seen countless of software engineering jobs off-shored or taken by H1Bs over the past 5 years. While I am pretty safe at my current job, software engineering as a profession is beginning to look bleak, and i am not even sure if I can ask for the same money if I decide to jump ship to another company (I live in an expensive area).

A friend of mine who works as a network architect with dual CCIEs have no problem finding/landing jobs with high salary. His profession doesn't seem to be affected by outsourcing or H1bs, so I am tempted to switch from my field to networking for better stability and greener pastures.

So the question is, should I do it? The reason why I am looking for the long-term stability is because I've a family of 3 to feed. I cannot afford to be jobless for more than 3 months if I do get laid-off, and software engineering doesn't seem to be the profession after years of observation to provide long-term stability.

Thank you!

Submission + - Ways to travel faster than light without violating relativity

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: It’s one of the cardinal laws of physics and the underlying principle of Einstein’s relativity itself: the fact that there’s a universal speed limit to the motion of anything through space and time, the speed of light, or c. Light itself will always move at this speed (as well as certain other phenomena, like the force of gravity), while anything with mass — like all known particles of matter and antimatter — will always move slower than that. But if you want something to travel faster-than-light, you aren’t, as you might think, relegated to the realm of science fiction. There are real, physical phenomena that do exactly this, and yet are perfectly consistent with relativity.

Submission + - Exploit Kit Delivers Pharming Attacks Against SOHO Routers (threatpost.com)

Submitted by msm1267
msm1267 writes: For the first time, DNS redirection attacks against small office and home office routers are being delivered via exploit kits. French security researcher Kafeine said an offshoot of the Sweet Orange kit has been finding success in driving traffic from compromised routers to the attackers' infrastructure.The risk to users is substantial he said, ranging from financial loss, to click-fraud, man-in-the-middle attacks and phishing.

Submission + - Hot Topic Buys Geeknet (scnow.com)

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: The clothing and music retailer Hot Topic is buying Geeknet for $117.3 million. Geeknet, the firm behind the legendary establishments SourceForge and VA Linux, is currently the parent company for ThinkGeek and ThinkGeek Solutions. ThinkGeek sells clothing, toys, gadgets and other products mostly based on popular movies, television shows and brands with geek appeal. ThinkGeek Solutions is a distributor of video-game themed merchandise through licensed web stores. Hot Topic Inc. will pay $17.50 per Geeknet share. Privately held Hot Topic, based in Los Angeles, has more than 650 stores in the U.S. and Canada. Geeknet will become a Hot Topic subsidiary.

Submission + - Elon Musk Creates Ad Astra, An Exclusive, Private School

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Jessica Hannan writes at I4U that Elon Musk pulled his children out of an established school after discovering they weren't receiving the quality of education that catered to their abilities and built his own school with only 14 students whose parents are primarily SpaceX employees. Musk wants to eliminate grades so there's no distinction between students in 1st grade and 3rd and students focus on the important elements of each subject. By integrating the thinking process to include a progressive step-by-step approach, children will be challenged and able to understand result through a systemic pattern. "Let's say you're trying to teach people about how engines work. A more traditional approach would be saying, 'we're going to teach all about screwdrivers and wrenches.' This is a very difficult way to do it." Instead, Musk says it makes more sense to give students an engine and then work to disassemble it. "How are we going to take it apart? You need a screwdriver." When you show "what the screwdriver is for," Musk explains "a very important thing happens" because students then witness the relevancy of task, tool, and solution in a long term application."

According to Hannah, Musk’s approach to delete grade level numbers and focus on aptitude may take the pressure off non-linear students and creates a more balanced assessment of ingenuity. Admitting books were "comforting" to him as a child and to reading everything from science fiction to the encyclopedia and philosophers from “morning to night," Musk points out that not everyone will be strong in every subject, or be able to retain regurgitated standardized aptitude facts beyond the test. "It makes more sense to cater the education to match their aptitudes and abilities." So far, Ad Astra "seems to be going pretty well," according to Musk. "The kids really love going to school."

Submission + - Bogus FBI 'porn warning' scares Android users into ransomware trap (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Cybercriminals have been targeting Android users in a new ransomware campaign which poses as an email from the FBI warning against viewing porn online. Romanian security software firm Bitdefender suggests that as many as 15,000 spam emails including zipped attachment files were sent to Android customers over the past few days. The attack is thought to have originated in Ukraine. If the files were opened, users were faced with a ransom note demanding $500 to restore full access to their system. It continued to threaten that users who try to unlock their devices would be charged up to $1,500. Payments were requested to be transferred via PayPal My Cash or Money Pak. The ransomware was disguised as an Adobe Flash Player update – a frequent façade used in hacking attacks.

Submission + - Audi Claims First Synthetic Gasoline Made From Plants (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Just weeks after producing its first batch of synthetic diesel fuel made from carbon dioxide and water, Audi has laid claim to another synthetic, clean-burning and petroleum-free fuel called "e-benzin." The fuel was created by Audi's project partner Global Bioenergies, in France.

Submission + - The Scientific Method and the Art of Troubleshooting

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Karl Popper came up with the idea in the 1930's that scientists should attempt to falsify their hypotheses rather than to verify them. The basic reasoning is that while you cannot prove a hypothesis to be true by finding a number of different confirming instances (though confirming instances do make you more confident in the truth), you can prove a hypothesis to be false by finding one valid counter-example. Now Orin Thomas writes at WindowsITPro that you’ve probably diagnosed hundreds, if not thousands, of technical problems in your career and Popper's insights can serve as a valuable guide to avoid a couple of hours chasing solutions that turn out to be an incorrect answer. According to Thomas when troubleshooting a technical problem many of us “race ahead” and use our intuition to reach a hypothesis as to a possible cause before we’ve had time to assess the available body of evidence. "When we use our intuition to solve a problem, we look for things that confirm the conclusion. If we find something that confirms that conclusion, we become even more certain of that conclusion. Most people also unconsciously ignore obvious data that would disprove their incorrect hypothesis because the first reaction to a conclusion reached at through intuition is to try and confirm it rather than refute it."

Thomas says that the idea behind using a falsificationist method is to treat your initial conclusions about a complex troubleshooting problem as untrustworthy and rather than look for something to confirm what you think might have happened, try to figure out what evidence would disprove that conclusion. "Trying to disprove your conclusions may not give you the correct answer right away, but at least you won’t spend a couple of hours chasing what turns out to be an incorrect answer."

Submission + - Court orders UberPop use to be banned in all of Italy (corriere.it)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A judicial court in Italy has ordered the UberPop app to cease offering its services, as it constitutes "unfair competition" again the taxi sector (taxi licenses in Italy are numbered, each can cost more than $ 100k to obtain). This sentence should be valid at national level and comes after an injunction from taxi drivers in Milan, where an Universal Exhibition is incidentally bringing in thousands visitors from all over the world on a daily basis. Sources (Google Translate) mention a judicial request to "block" the app, though there is no clue so far as on how this sentence has to be enforced and what the fines would be in case of violations.

Submission + - Indian Matrimony site uses unique gamification approach to tackle dowry deaths (dqindia.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In a country known for dowry deaths, Shaadi.com, a popular matrimony website in India shocked viewers by asking them to click a dowry calculator and find out how much dowry were they worth. This campaign is specifically relevant in India, as one woman dies every four hours due to dowry. Dowry accounts for 32.4% of crimes against women and 5 women commit suicide every day due to dowry disputes.

Submission + - Charter agrees to buy Time Warner Cable for $56 billion (reuters.com)

Submitted by mpicpp
mpicpp writes: Charter Communications Inc struck a $56 billion deal to buy Time Warner Cable Inc, seeking to combine the third and second largest U.S. cable operators to better compete against market leader Comcast Corp.

The Federal Communications Commission immediately served notice that it would closely scrutinize the deal, focusing not only on absence of harm but benefits to the public.

Charter, in which Malone-chaired Liberty Broadband Corp owns about 26 percent, is offering about $195.71 in cash-and-stock for each Time Warner Cable share, based on Charter's closing price on May 20.

Including debt, the deal values Time Warner Cable at $78.7 billion.

A key area of regulatory concern would be competition in broadband Internet.

A merger of Charter and Time Warner Cable, with other related deals, would create a company that controls more than 20 percent of the U.S. broadband market, according to research firm MoffettNathanson.

"Regulatory approval is no longer a given but we expect this is highly probable and greater than Comcast-Time Warner," Macquarie Research analyst Amy Yong wrote in a note.

Comcast walked away last month from a deal to buy Time Warner Cable for $45 billion, citing regulatory concerns.

Submission + - Amazon Germany pays 0.1% tax rate in 2014, funnels sales through low-tax haven (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: E-retail giant Amazon.com’s German branch paid just 11.9 million euros (approx. $16 million) in tax last year, equivalent to a 0.1% tax rate considering the company reported $11.9 billion in gross sales in Germany in 2014. German corporate income tax stood at 29.58% last year which would mean Amazon Germany would have been expected to pay $3.5 billion in tax in 2014. Amazon.de is the group’s largest and most successful market outside of the U.S., according to its annual sales records. However following investigation it has been revealed that almost all of the company’s German sales and profits were reported from businesses in Luxembourg, a low-tax haven. Amazon said last week that it had implemented a number of changes across Europe, including in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Italy from May 1st, in order to ensure that future sales would be managed in the countries themselves.

Submission + - British politicians delete negative Wikipedia descriptions before election (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by EwanPalmer
EwanPalmer writes: The Wikipedia pages of dozens of UK politicians had references to sex scandals, fraud and opposition to same sex marriage removed in the run up to the UK general election.
Dozens of MPs had negative aspects of their online biographies removed or altered prior to the election in a bid to make them more electable.
The changes include several instances of MPs' expense claim scandals being removed, as well as details of arrests and the use of "chauffeur-driven cars".
The edits were made using computers with IP addresses registered from inside parliament.

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