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Crime

WikiLeaks' Assange Hopes To Exit London Embassy "Soon" 299

An anonymous reader writes Julian Assange has hosted a press conference in which he indicated he is soon about to leave the embassy of Ecuador in London. From the article: "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has spent over two years in Ecuador's London embassy to avoid a sex crimes inquiry in Sweden, said on Monday he planned to leave the building 'soon', but Britain signaled it would still arrest him if he tried. Assange made the surprise assertion during a news conference alongside Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino. But his spokesman played down the chances of an imminent departure, saying the British government would first need to revise its position and let him leave without arrest, something it has repeatedly refused to do.
The Military

Snowden: NSA Working On Autonomous Cyberwarfare Bot 194

WIRED published a long piece on Edward Snowden today (worth a read on its own), and simultaneously broke news of "MonsterMind," an NSA program to monitor all network traffic and detect attacks, responding with a counterattack automatically. From the article: Although details of the program are scant, Snowden tells WIRED in an extensive interview with James Bamford that algorithms would scour massive repositories of metadata and analyze it to differentiate normal network traffic from anomalous or malicious traffic. Armed with this knowledge, the NSA could instantly and autonomously identify, and block, a foreign threat. More than this, though, Snowden suggests MonsterMind could one day be designed to return fire — automatically, without human intervention... Snowden raised two issues with the program: the source of an attack could be spoofed to trick the U.S. into attacking an innocent third party, and the violation of the fourth amendment since the NSA would effectively need to monitor all domestic network traffic for the program to work. Also in Bamford's interview are allegations that the NSA knocked Syria offline in 2012 after an attempt to install intercept software on an edge router ended with the router being bricked.

Comment Re:You don't say.... (Score 1) 393

Regardless of the exaggeration (I doubt a P47 would do the job), you hit the nail on the head. There's nothing like gaining air superiority with fighters/interceptor. That works only well in Hollywood blockbusters. For the current state of warfare (or at least what I get from it from afar), it seems that workhorses like the A-10 and AC-130 are much more appropriate. The only good thing about a fast multi role aircraft is that you can get of from a carrier and get somewhere fast for time critical precision strikes. But even that can be done through other, much cheaper means.

In the end, the F-35 has little more use than the flag poles and fanfares. It's a power demonstration that serves no purpose in modern warfare. But that shows also how off topic this subject is. I can't help myself frowning when I read about the F-35 in a discussion about NASA, launchers and SpaceX. While the F-35 is a purely ideological endeavor, the design and operation of space launchers plays a crucial role in our society. We are highly dependent on space systems and really need good and reliable launchers. I feel that comparing anything that has to do with space launchers with the F-35 is like comparing the building of new roads with a city (hypothetically) buying a few Ferrari for marketing purposes.

Comment Re:How much have they spent already? (Score 5, Insightful) 92

Still no clue whatsoever?

And this is exactly why we should keep searching for the wreckage and find it. Knowing what happened is the key to prevent it from happening again. More than in any other fields, aviation safety is build upon knowledge gained from past incidents and accidents. This is why it is worth investing both the time and the money to understand the events that lead to the crash.

Comment Re:Why the fuck is this on Slashdot? (Score 1) 582

Like any other site, this site is about that what the editors choose. Not the people consuming the information. It is the case for any type of media... why would you believe it is any different with this one?

You are always free to write your thoughts to the editors or to the editor who accepted the submission. Ranting about it is probably the least helpful thing one can do.

Comment Re:But it gives the driver the wrong impression (Score 1) 243

That's why the car is filled with other systems doing the feeling and adjusting for the driver, systems such as the ESP. it becomes essential in cars where de driving feeling disappears.

But its Mercedes... I drive regularly fully equipped E class Mercedes. It's awful. Its full of systems driving for you and taking decisions for you... It can go as far as breaking you on the highway. These cars are at 90 degrees of the "driving feeling" concept.

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