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Submission + - Attention all CryptoNerds (regonline.co.uk)

Submitted by MsAsti
MsAsti writes: If Bruce Schneier had been at Bletchley Park in 1939 the Nazis would have lost the second world war before it even started. Although 71 years late, if anyone can break Enigma before it was invented, Bruce Schneier can. The New Crypto League of Schenier, Diffie, Clark, and Khan will be speaking at a fundraiser for The Bletchley Park Trust and The National Museum of Computing on November 6th in the hallowed halls of Station X. Pray for a time vortex!

Comment Re:Did anyone ever actively use it? (Score 1) 327

by 68kmac (#33147794) Attached to: Google Kills Wave Development

I was invited into it, so I signed up. Looked around and couldn't find a way to make it useful to me

For me, the "now what?" moment was more of "now where are all the people I know and want to work with?" I think Wave is a rare case where the "by invitation only" technique worked against it. To make use of Wave, all the people you want to work with need to be able to sign up. The invitation was an additional hurdle to its adoption.
Desktops (Apple)

Building an Apple-1 From Scratch — Just Like Woz 99

Posted by Soulskill from the is-that-the-one-the-president-flies-on dept.
Lucas123 writes "This year at KansasFest, computer fans from around the world gathered to celebrate the Apple II — the computer that put Apple on the map. But the Apple-1 (a.k.a. the Apple I), the machine Steve Wozniak invented and first demonstrated at the Palo Alto Homebrew Computer Club in 1976, has always been near to my heart. In attendance at KansasFest was Vince Briel, who created an authorized reproduction the Apple-1 and showed others how to build their own. 'As a regular KansasFest attendee (and the conference's marketing director), I was one of his students. Follow along as I assemble a fully functional Apple-1 clone.'"
Sci-Fi

Battlestar Galactica Feature Film Confirmed 342

Posted by timothy from the more-grace-park-please dept.
Dave Knott writes "Entertainment Weekly reports that Universal Pictures has confirmed rumours of a Battlestar Galactica feature film. Directed by Bryan Singer, and co-produced by original series creator Glen Larson, the new movie will not be related to the recently concluded SyFy Network series. Rather, it will be a 'complete re-imagining of the sci-fi lore that was invented by Larson back in the '70s.'"
Education

US Colleges Say Hiring US Students a Bad Deal 490

Posted by CmdrTaco from the talking-to-you-cliff dept.
theodp writes "Many US colleges and universities have notices posted on their websites informing US companies that they're tax chumps if they hire students who are US citizens. 'In fact, a company may save money by hiring international students because the majority of them are exempt from Social Security (FICA) and Medicare tax requirements,' advises the taxpayer-supported University of Pittsburgh (pdf) as it makes the case against hiring its own US students. You'll find identical pitches made by the University of Delaware, the University of Cincinnati, Kansas State University, the University of Southern California, the University of Wisconsin, Iowa State University, and other public colleges and universities. The same message is also echoed by private schools, such as John Hopkins University, Brown University, Rollins College and Loyola University Chicago."
The Media

Murdoch Says, "We'll Charge For All Our Sites" 881

Posted by timothy from the subverting-the-dominant-paradigm dept.
Oracle Goddess writes "In what appears to be a carefully planned suicide, Rupert Murdoch announced that his media giant News Corporation Ltd intends to charge for all its news websites in a bid to lift revenues, as the transition towards online media permanently changes the advertising landscape. 'The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive methods of distribution, but it has not made content free. Accordingly we intend to charge for all our news websites,' Murdoch said."
Music

EMI Only Selling CDs To Mega-Chains From Now On 334

Posted by samzenpus from the another-brick-in-the-wall dept.
farrellj writes "According to Zeropaid, record company EMI has been notifying small music stores that they will no longer be able to buy EMI CDs from EMI, and will have to buy product from mega-chains like Walmart. Independent record store customers are some of the most loyal music buyers around. You are not going to find the back catalog, what used to be the staple of the music business, at your local Walmart. One wonders when the music business is going to run out of feet to shoot?"
Security

Could Cyber-Terrorists Provoke Nuclear Attacks? 183

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the telling-woprs dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The Guardian reports that according to a study commissioned by the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND), a joint initiative of the Australian and Japanese Governments, terrorists could use information warfare techniques to make a nuclear attack more likely — triggering a catastrophic chain of events that may be an easier alternative 'than building or acquiring a nuclear weapon or dirty bomb themselves.' While the possibility of a radical group gaining access to actual launch systems is remote, the study suggests that terrorists could focus on feeding in false information further down the chain — or spreading fake information to officials in a carefully orchestrated strike. According to the study 'Hacking Nuclear Command and Control' [PDF], cyber-terrorists could 'provoke a nuclear launch by spoofing early warning and identification systems or by degrading communications networks.' Since command and control systems are placed at a higher degree of exploitation due to the need for rapid decisions under high pressure with limited intelligence, cyber-terrorists 'would not need deception that could stand up over time; they would only need to be believable in the first 15 minutes or so.'"
The Internet

AT&T Blocks Part of 4chan 342

Posted by timothy from the do-you-hear-that-tremendous-whining-noise? dept.
holdenkarau writes "Several news sources (Mashable, The Inquistr, etc.) are reporting that AT&T is blocking img.4chan.org in the southern United States. That server is used for the infamous /b/ board (the home of anonymous). TechCrunch calls the decision to block 4chan 'stupid,' noting that they may have 'opened perhaps the most vindictive, messy can of worms.' The Inquisitr suggests that 'The global internet censorship debate landed in the home of the free.' moot (who runs 4chan) asks users to call AT&T, while some others suggest more drastic action (like cutting AT&T fiber)." Update: 07/27 09:23 GMT by T : Readers' comments below suggest that a) the purpose of the block was to curtail the effects of a serious DDoS attack and b) that the block has now been lifted, at least for some regions.
The Internet

EU Publishers Want a Law To Control Online News 168

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the protect-yourself-right-out-of-the-market dept.
suraj.sun writes with news that European publishers are also seeking ways to "protect" their content from the big bad intertubes. Their rant, termed the "Hamburg Declaration," asks the government to step in with a legislative fix. "Most of the statements in the relatively short declaration, which will surely take its place among thousands of other European declarations on intellectual property and other matters that have come out over the past few years, hinge on the idea that 'universal access to news' does not equal 'free.' In this respect, the publishers want to maintain the democratic ideal of a 'fourth estate' that provides news to an informed citizenry, while simultaneously restricting access to that news to those who can pay for it directly. What sets this declaration apart from the other Hamburg declarations out there, or from the various Geneva declarations or Berlin declarations, is that this one is intended to give the publishers' favorite solution to the news-stealing problem, the Automated Content Access Protocol, the force of law."

Comment Taxi Drivers (Score 1) 519

by 68kmac (#28634175) Attached to: Is Sat-Nav Destroying Local Knowledge?

Somewhat related: These days even the taxi drivers don't know the way any more. It used to be such that you could jump into a taxi, mention the address and off we'd go.

Last time I used a taxi, the driver asked me for directions. Then, when I couldn't provide them, I had to spell out the address for him (he hadn't heard of the street before) so that he could type it into his sat-nav.

Not sure if that's really a problem, but I somehow felt cheated. Isn't it his job to know these things?
Censorship

Submission + - German member of parliament joins Pirate PArty

Submitted by Political Observer
Political Observer writes: Jörg Tauss, member of the German Parliament, Bundestag, left the social democratic party SPD, which is part of a coalition government, and announced (German article on his site) to join the German Pirate Party. He left the SPD after most members of the party voted for a new censorship law which passed the parliament on Thursday. The law, which aims at blocking child pornography, introduces an infrastructure for DNS based content blocking and is subject of major critics from Internet users.

In March 2009 Tauss became subject of investigations by the German police for owning child pornographic material. He said he owned this material only due to research as part of his role as member of parliament. Investigations are still running.
Censorship

Submission + - German Member of Parliament supports Pirate Party 1

Submitted by
erlehmann
erlehmann writes: "On todays rally against internet censorship in Berlin, German long-term member of parliament Jörg Tauss announced he had quit the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and will support the Pirate Party in the upcoming elections (Twitter status, press statement, both in German). Tauss, Member of Parliament since 1994, is widely regarded as an internet expert and was one of only 4 politicians of the ruling coalition voting against the bill implementing secret lists of censored web content under the guise of fighting child porn, which has since become law.

Critics point to an ongoing investigation against Tauss regarding child porn, while he himself says he only purchased the pictures in question to prove that the internet is not a primary distribution channel and had hopes of blowing up a child porn ring. The Social Democratic Party has asked Tauss to resign from parliament after he quit the party."

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