Comment USB Dead Drop (Score 1) 119
Sounds like the perfect place to install some nearby dead drops.
Comment A great book for learing D3.js (Score 2) 50
I'm not affiliated with the author in any way, but I did buy the book (though you can get it for free).
This is an amazing resource for someone new to D3.js's declarative javascript and helps you put it all together: https://leanpub.com/D3-Tips-an...
After using D3.js, I've come to the conclusion Mike Bostock is awesome! But it doesn't stop there, people have expanded it like Crossfilter and dc.js.
Tech that allows a javascript n00b like myself to build a simple race results visualization.
Comment Re:Mechanism: check. Now policy (Score 1) 72
Working from the inside of a [virtual] sphere would be pretty sweet. Once you start sphere hopping though, you'll need a metaverse to navigate between them.
Comment Re:Not a surprise (Score 1) 62
I did have to re-add the slashbox... but as I was too lazy to setup an RSS feed or even manually load the page, the slashbox was my portal to freshmeat.
I used to frequent it much more often back in the day, when I had time to explore and experiment with software. Still, there's always something interesting there to someone.
I even have an old Freshmeat.net black tee shirt from back in the day, with a fun "nutrition facts" label. Can't find even a close pic online.
Here's a random snapshot from circa 2000: http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/.vhost/...
Comment Re:Not a surprise (Score 2) 62
Freshmeat / Freecode wasn't about downloads, it was about release announcements and new project announcements.
I still have a slashbox configured, which I've used a few times in the past several months to learn about new projects that I'd otherwise have never learned about.
Comment Re:The cloud (Score 2) 387
You should always have an offline backup (even if slightly out of date).
In this case, they could have used a separate "cloud" provider just for backups.
Cloud or not, everything under one umbrella was the problem.
Comment Re:we scrub at 5:30. (Score 1) 141
Scrub what, potatoes and carrots?
What could possibly need scrubbing at 5:30 AM...
Aliens and the Fermi Paradox 686
First time accepted submitter sayhem (1842674) writes Various explanations for why we don't see aliens have been proposed—perhaps interstellar travel is impossible or maybe civilizations are always self-destructive. But with every new discovery of a potentially habitable planet, the Fermi Paradox becomes increasingly mysterious. There could be hundreds of millions of potentially habitable worlds in the Milky Way alone. This impression is only reinforced by the recent discovery of a "Mega-Earth," a rocky planet 17 times more massive than the Earth but with only a thin atmosphere. Previously, it was thought that worlds this large would hold onto an atmosphere so thick that their surfaces would experience uninhabitable temperatures and pressures. But if this isn't true, there is a whole new category of potentially habitable real estate in the cosmos.
Submission + - GPS Fitness Data Sold to Oregon Transportation Dept
nullchar writes: The Oregon Department of Transportation has signed up for the Strava Metro GPS service for $20,000 USD. Strava is a mobile fitness app used by cyclists and runners to track their performance with GPS. Strava says the data set of over 300 billion GPS points it has collected worldwide are anonymized and aggregated to protect privacy. Oregon wishes to use the data to enhance it's bike lanes.
The active.com article poses some interesting questions (beware annoying "More:" links between every paragraph):
The active.com article poses some interesting questions (beware annoying "More:" links between every paragraph):
Strava pulls in position and speed data so accurately that it can often be used to identify what lane a cyclist is using on a particular road. With such accuracy, could the government use Strava data to figure out if a cyclist ran a stop sign or a stoplight? Could it be used in the event of an accident involving a vehicle to map a cyclist's behavior prior to a collision? This is just speculation, as the data is intended to be anonymous.
It would be easy for them to create a database of Strava's user-created "segments" to identify "hot spots" where cyclists may be riding in especially aggressive fashion. In his piece in Bicycling magazine on the Strava-related death of Kim Flint in 2010, David Darlington compared some of the site's "KOM" segments to illegal street racing. He even showed how easy it is to identify cyclists breaking the law by finding several KOM segment leaders who recorded speeds in excess of the posted speed limit.
Comment Re:Don't Worry! (Score 1) 100
Do I really need tin foil, or is aluminum foil good enough?
Protecting Our Brains From Datamining 100
Jason Koebler writes: 'Brainwave-tracking is becoming increasingly common in the consumer market, with the gaming industry at the forefront of the trend. "Neurogames" use brain-computer interfaces and electroencephalographic (EEG) gadgets like the Emotiv headset to read brain signals and map them to in-game actions. EEG data is "high-dimensional," meaning a single signal can reveal a lot of information about you: if you have a mental illness, are prone to addiction, your emotions, mood, and taste. If that data from gaming was collected and mined, it could theoretically be matched with other datasets culled from online data mining to create a complete profile of an individual that goes far beyond what they divulge through social media posts and emails alone. That's led some to develop privacy systems that protect your thoughts from hackers.'
Comment 1st audit OK, other audits failed? (Score 1) 7
The first truecrypt audit seemed OK. Was something found since then?
Are the authors waiting to release security information until after a time frame for migration?
Submission + - TrueCrypt is dead? What now? 7
Archeron writes: A colleague visited Truecrypt.org today and brought this to my attention. All the links are gone and the front page contains the message:
"The development of TrueCrypt was ended in 5/2014 after Microsoft terminated support of Windows XP." It goes on to list migration instructions. Is this the end for our beloved open source, multi-platform crypto solution? The question is what now? Planned forks? Any recommendations for freely available, open and multi-platform solutions that will allow for moving storage devices from Linux -> Windows -> Mac?
"The development of TrueCrypt was ended in 5/2014 after Microsoft terminated support of Windows XP." It goes on to list migration instructions. Is this the end for our beloved open source, multi-platform crypto solution? The question is what now? Planned forks? Any recommendations for freely available, open and multi-platform solutions that will allow for moving storage devices from Linux -> Windows -> Mac?
Submission + - Is the Pentagon's climate report slanted because of conflicts of interests? (washingtontimes.com) 1
KindMind writes: The Washington Times writes: Retired military officers deeply involved in the climate change movement — and some in companies positioned to profit from it — spearheaded an alarmist global warming report this month that calls on the Defense Department to ramp up spending on what it calls a man-made problem.
The report, which the Obama administration immediately hailed as a call to action, was issued not by a private advocacy group but by a Pentagon-financed think tank that trumpets “absolute objectivity.” The research was funded by a climate change group that is also one of the think tank’s main customers.
The report, which the Obama administration immediately hailed as a call to action, was issued not by a private advocacy group but by a Pentagon-financed think tank that trumpets “absolute objectivity.” The research was funded by a climate change group that is also one of the think tank’s main customers.
Submission + - Interview: Inventing the Linux 'sudo' command (hackaday.com)
szczys writes: We had a drink-up in San Mateo during Bay Are Maker Faire. Turns out one of the two inventors of the 'sudo' command turned up. Be careful what you mention in casual conversation because once we heard a tease of the story, we wanted to hear more. Robert Coggeshall shared the tale of why he and Cliff Spencer developed the now ubiquitous tool, and lets us know why he pronounces it differently than you do.
