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Submission + - AirAsia Flight Loses Contact With Air Traffic Control (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by iONiUM
iONiUM writes: As reported by many news sources, yet another plane has lost contact during a trip.

This comes on the heels of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 which is still missing, and Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 which was shot down.

The question has to be asked: is airline travel still safe, especially within Asia? And, why has the news completely forgot about flight 370?
Media

Behind the Scenes With the Star Trek Fan Reboot 106

Posted by Soulskill from the excellent-work dept.
A reader writes: The original Starship Enterprise was on a 5-year mission, but the original series was canceled after the third year. A continuation of Star Trek:TOS is being created by a dedicated cast and crew intent on keeping true to the spirit of Gene Roddenberry's television show. From recreating the original sets with incredible accuracy and attention to details, staying faithful to original storylines has been a true labor of love for all involved. Here are a series of videos showing the progress being made on recreating the iconic series. (And if you missed it last time, here's the first episode they produced.)
Science

Birds Fled Area Before Tornadoes Appeared 99

Posted by Soulskill from the didn't-tweet-about-it dept.
A reader sends a report from scientists who were tracking a group of birds — golden-winged warblers — in the Appalachian mountains. Just a few days after the birds completed their seasonal migration, they did something odd — they picked up and moved again. Shortly thereafter, a series of storms swept through that area of the U.S., which led to a destructive tornado outbreak (abstract). After the storm had blown over, the team recaptured five of the warblers and removed the geolocators. These are tiny devices weighing about half a gram, which measure light levels. Based on the timing and length of the days they record, these gadgets allow scientists to calculate and track the approximate location of migratory birds. In this case, all five indicated that the birds had taken unprecedented evasive action, beginning one to two days ahead of the storm's arrival. "The warblers in our study flew at least 1,500km (932 miles) in total," Dr. Streby said. They escaped just south of the tornadoes' path — and then went straight home again. By 2 May, all five were back in their nesting area."
Crime

Councilmen Introduce Bills Strongly Regulating UAV Use in NYC 68

Posted by timothy from the man-vs-the-state dept.
A reader passes on this excerpt from an Ars Technica article: On Wednesday Councilman Dan Garodnick introduced a bill to the New York City council seeking to ban all use of drones except those operated by police officers who obtain warrants. A second, parallel bill introduced by councilman Paul Vallone would place more stringent restrictions on drone use but stop short of banning drones for hobbyists and companies altogether. Both bills have been passed to the city's committee on public safety. An all-out ban on drones within the metropolis would be a quite wide-reaching step, especially as the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) seems poised to adopt more permissive rules, with respect to commercial interests in particular. Earlier this year, the FAA formally granted six Hollywood companies exemptions to drone ban rules. A couple of months later, the FAA granted similar exemptions for construction site monitoring and oil rig flare stack inspections. The article explains that Vallone's bill is less restrictive, and rather than propose an outright ban "lists 10 instances where operating a UAV would be illegal, including at night, out of the operator's eyesight, or above 400 ft high. Outside of those conditions, hobbyists and commercial interests would be free to fly drones."

Comment See what Google Ads you've clicked on (Score 1) 699

by iONiUM (#48548697) Attached to: French Publishers Prepare Lawsuit Against Adblock Plus

I run all my desktop browsers with ABP. I thought I never click on Google Ads, however recently I checked the history of my primary Google account and was very surprised to find that I had, and not just a few times, many times, and on things I had been interested in.

You can see your own history through Google's History site: Google History for Ads. It's pretty interesting. I don't know how they're getting me, but I assume it's on my phone. In any case, it's been so subtle (and useful) that I am in no way upset (I actually needed/wanted these things).

That's how advertising should be. Beyond that, all the un-targeted stuff deserves to be blocked.

Comment XBOX Live (Score 2) 170

by iONiUM (#48548539) Attached to: Sony Hacks Continue: PlayStation Hit By Lizard Squad Attack

Here is their twitter: Lizard Patrol.

They have been attacking XBOX Live randomly for the last 3 weeks which takes down everyone's (including mine) Netflix, games, etc. It's pretty annoying. They even re-tweeted the ankle bracelet on one of their members who is under house arrest after being released from jail. I don't know how they can get away with the blatant DDoS attacks.
Games

Ralph H. Baer, a Father of Video Gaming, Dies At 92 47

Posted by samzenpus from the rest-in-peace dept.
A reader writes with news that Ralph H Baer, the father of video games and the inventor of the Magnavox Odyssey, has passed away at 92. "At the dawn of the television age in 1951, a young engineer named Ralph Baer approached executives at an electronics firm and suggested the radical idea of offering games on the bulky TV boxes. 'And of course,' he said, 'I got the regular reaction: "Who needs this?" And nothing happened.' It took another 15 years before Mr. Baer, who died Dec. 6 at 92, developed a prototype that would make him the widely acknowledged father of video games. His design helped lay the groundwork for an industry that transformed the role of the television set and generated tens of billions of dollars last year. Mr. Baer 'saw that there was this interesting device sitting in millions of American homes — but it was a one-way instrument,' said Arthur P. Molella, director of the Smithsonian Institution's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. 'He said, "Maybe there's some way we can interact with this thing."'"
Handhelds

Apple Accused of Deleting Songs From iPods Without Users' Knowledge 250

Posted by timothy from the not-cricket dept.
A reader writes with this excerpt from a story at AppleInsider that says "During in-court proceedings of Apple's iPod/iTunes antitrust lawsuit on Wednesday, plaintiffs' lawyers claimed Apple surreptitiously deleted songs not purchased through the iTunes Music Store from users' iPods. Attorney Patrick Coughlin, representing a class of individuals and businesses, said Apple intentionally wiped songs downloaded from competing services when users performed a sync with their iTunes library, reports The Wall Street Journal. As explained by the publication, users attempting to sync an iPod with an iTunes library containing music from a rival service, such as RealNetworks, would see an ambiguous error message without prompting them to perform a factory reset. After restoring the device, users would find all non-iTunes music had disappeared. ... It is unclear if iTunes or iPod encountered a legitimate problem, though Coughlin seems to be intimating Apple manufactured the error message as part of a supposed gambit to stop customers from using their iPod to play back music from stores other than iTunes. For its part, Apple said the system was a safety measure installed to protect users."

Comment LTE? (Score 1) 216

by iONiUM (#48499485) Attached to: How the Rollout of 5G Will Change Everything

I'm with Rogers (Canada) and I'm usually on their LTE network (Rogers LTE). As per the wiki, the theoretical speed is 150Mbit/s, but similar to what the article notes, when I run speed test I typically get ~14Mbit/s depending on the time of day.

I'm not that excited about any "new generation" 4G or whatever, as this is more than fast enough for my daily needs when I'm not on WiFi.

Comment Accused? (Score 3, Insightful) 256

by iONiUM (#48499331) Attached to: UK Police To Publicly Shame Drunk Drivers On Twitter This Christmas

I'd be okay if they did this with convicted drunk drivers, but doing it with accused is not cool.

This is the exact same problem with the media (and police) talking about accused sexual predators, like the notorious Jian Ghomeshi case going on in Canada right now. The guy was crucified by the public social media lynch mob before he charged had even be levied. Is this what society has become? We demand justice before someone even has a chance in court?
Games

Long-term Study Finds No Link Between Video Game Violence and Real Violence 250

Posted by Soulskill from the but-don't-let-it-get-in-the-way-of-your-opinion dept.
A reader sends news that a study has been completed on the long-term effects of violence in movies and video games on violence in real life. A researcher at Stetson University found no link between the consumption of violent media and an increase in societal violence. The study was published in the Journal of Communication. From the article: "Entertainment Software Ratings Board ratings were used to estimate the violent content of the most popular video games for the years 1996-2011. These estimates of societal video game violence consumption were correlated against federal data on youth violence rates during the same years. Violent video game consumption was strongly correlated with declines in youth violence. However, it was concluded that such a correlation is most likely due to chance and does not indicate video games caused the decline in youth violence. ... Previous studies have focused on laboratory experiments and aggression as a response to movie and videogame violence, but this does not match well with real-life exposure.
Crime

Bounties vs. Extreme Internet Harassment 716

Posted by timothy from the incentives-work dept.
A user writes Brianna Wu, a game studio owner in Boston, found herself the target of numerous anonymous death threats last month, apparently the escalation of a campaign that started when she spoke up for women in gaming, and that intensified during the GamerGate train wreck. Rather than hide, she's offering an $11,000+ cash reward for anyone who helps put her attacker in jail, and she's reporting — albeit at a time many see GamerGate being in its death throes — that it's already having an effect. Wu is also setting up a legal fund to go after those promoting more extreme libels against her and others, with screenshots of a forged tweet purporting to be written by her still circulating around the Internet.

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