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Communications

Tox, a Skype Replacement Built On 'Privacy First' 174

Posted by Soulskill from the pet-rock-also-built-on-privacy-first dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Rumors of back door access to Skype have plagued the communication software for the better part of a decade. Even if it's not true, Skype is owned by Microsoft, which is beholden to data requests from law enforcement. Because of these issues, a group of developers started work on Tox, which aims to rebuild the functionality of Skype with an emphasis on privacy. "The main thing the Tox team is trying to do, besides provide encryption, is create a tool that requires no central servers whatsoever—not even ones that you would host yourself. It relies on the same technology that BitTorrent uses to provide direct connections between users, so there's no central hub to snoop on or take down."
The Courts

Deputy Who Fatally Struck Cyclist While Answering Email Will Face No Charges 463

Posted by samzenpus from the off-the-hook dept.
Frosty P writes The LA County District Attorney's Office declined to press charges against a sheriff's deputy who was apparently distracted by his mobile digital computer when he fatally struck cyclist and former Napster COO Milton Olin Jr. in Calabasas last December. The deputy was responding to routine work email when he drifted into the bike lane and struck and killed Mr. Olin. An official with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department said it is launching its own probe into the deputy’s behavior.
The Internet

Grand Ayatollah Says High Speed Internet Is "Against Moral Standards" 542

Posted by samzenpus from the slow-it-down dept.
An anonymous reader writes A Grand Ayatollah in Iran has determined that access to high-speed and 3G Internet is "against Sharia" and "against moral standards." However, Iran's President, Hassan Rouhani, plans to renew licenses and expand the country’s 3G cellular phone network. A radical MP associated with the conservative Resistance Front, warned: “If the minister continues to go ahead with increasing bandwidth and Internet speed, then we will push for his impeachment and removal from the cabinet.” “We will vigorously prevent all attempts by the [communication] minister to expand 3G technology, and if our warnings are not heeded, then the necessary course of action will be taken,” he added.
Privacy

Judge Allows L.A. Cops To Keep License Plate Reader Data Secret 108

Posted by Soulskill from the you-can-trust-us dept.
An anonymous reader writes: A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has ruled that the Los Angeles Police Department is not required to hand over a week's worth of license plate reader data to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). He cited the potential of compromising criminal investigations and giving (un-charged) criminals the ability to determine whether or not they were being targeted by law enforcement (PDF). The ACLU and the EFF sought the data under the California Public Records Act, but the judge invoked Section 6254(f), "which protects investigatory files." ACLU attorney Peter Bibring notes, "New surveillance techniques may function better if people don't know about them, but that kind of secrecy is inconsistent with democratic policing."
Microsoft

Microsoft Releases Replacement Patch With Two Known Bugs 140

Posted by samzenpus from the second-time-is-usually-a-charm dept.
snydeq writes Microsoft has re-released its botched MS14-045/KB 2982791 'Blue Screen 0x50' patch, only to introduce more problems, InfoWorld's Woody Leonhard reports. "Even by Microsoft standards, this month's botched Black Tuesday Windows 7/8/8.1 MS14-045 patch hit a new low. The original patch (KB 2982791) is now officially 'expired' and a completely different patch (KB 2993651) offered in its stead; there are barely documented revelations of new problems with old patches; patches that have disappeared; a 'strong' recommendation to manually uninstall a patch that went out via Automatic Update for several days; and an infuriating official explanation that raises serious doubts about Microsoft's ability to support Windows 9's expected rapid update pace."
Censorship

A Horrifying Interactive Map of Global Internet Censorship 158

Posted by timothy from the coming-soon-to-a-security-theater-near-you dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Imagine a world where the book burners had won. A world where information is filtered and must be approved by governments before it can be accessed by their citizens. A world where people are held down and kept in line by oppressive regimes that restrict the free flow of information and bombard citizens with government-approved messages. Now stop imagining, because this horrifying world already exists..."

Comment Re:Better ways to track users (Score 1) 76

Because 90% of the time the bad guy knows it takes 20 seconds, and has a stopwatch by the phone, and hangs up at like 19 seconds, just to toy with the good guy.

I'm pretty sure that the U.S. Government doesn't need a stopwatch to know when 20 seconds are up. I'm also pretty sure that toying with Edward Snowden isn't as much fun as it may seem. But then again, the U.S. Government is rather psychotic nowadays.

Comment Re:Language VS The Virtual Machine VS Client (Score 3, Interesting) 511

by StormReaver (#47743945) Attached to: If Java Wasn't Cool 10 Years Ago, What About Now?

Sure, you can do it, but it realistically people who do Java Swing apps are writing some sort of thick client that could almost always could run inside a contemporary browser without any plugins.

Swing is where I do all of my Java GUI programming, and I find it to be an excellent fit for that purpose (and so do my customers). I find running Java inside a browser to be, to put it politely, fucking retarded.
The Internet

FCC Warned Not To Take Actions a Republican-Led FCC Would Dislike 338

Posted by samzenpus from the you-wouldn't-like-me-whn-I'm-angry dept.
tlhIngan writes Municipal broadband is in the news again — this time Chief of Staff Matthew Berry, speaking at the National Conference of State Legislatures, has endorsed states' right to ban municipal broadband networks and warned the (Democrat-led) FCC to not do anything that a future Republican led FCC would dislike. The argument is that municipal broadband discourages private investment in broadband communications, that taxpayer-funded projects are barriers to future infrastructure investment.
Microsoft

Microsoft Lobby Denies the State of Chile Access To Free Software 159

Posted by Soulskill from the lockin-leverage-legislate dept.
walterbyrd writes: Fresh on the heels of the entire Munich and Linux debacle, another story involving Microsoft and free software has popped up across the world, in Chile. A prolific magazine from the South American country says that the powerful Microsoft lobby managed to turn around a law that would allow the authorities to use free software. "An independent member of the Chilean Parliament, Vlado Mirosevic, pushed a bill that would allow the state to consider free software when the authorities needed to purchase or renew licenses. ... A while later, the same member of the Parliament, Daniel Farcas, proposed another bill that actually nullified the effects of the previous one that had just been adopted. To make things even more interesting, some of the people who voted in favor of the first law also voted in favor of the second one. ... The new bill is even more egregious, because it aggressively pushes for the adoption of proprietary software. Companies that choose to use proprietary software will receive certain tax breaks, which makes it very hard for free software to get adopted."

Comment Re:Step #1 Find a Geek (Score 1) 179

by StormReaver (#47721517) Attached to: Professor Steve Ballmer Will Teach At Two Universities This Year

Your posting mirrors my own thoughts. Ballmer has absolutely no business teaching anything even remotely related to business, as he has failed at it horribly. He could potentially be a one-class guest speaker on how to pitch a product by parodying others, but that's his only business qualification outside of, "would you like fries with that?"

The only reason Ballmer got any time at Microsoft is because of his friendship with Bill Gates. Microsoft's janitors probably have more business qualifications than Ballmer.

Comment Re:A quick couple of things wrong with the study.. (Score 1) 611

by StormReaver (#47721445) Attached to: Study: Ad-Free Internet Would Cost Everyone $230-a-Year

1) it was conducted by a company that is in the business of providing internet ads

.
2) it did not take into account the costs associated with the malware distributed by the various ad platforms.

3) The World Wide Web is not the Internet.

All of the highly modded postings up to now have missed this crucial point entirely. The Web has nothing to do with the Internet, aside from being the mechanism by which the bytes are transferred.

The Web has very little to do with the cost of an Internet connection, except as a selling point for most people to subscribe to an ISP.
Advertising

Study: Ad-Free Internet Would Cost Everyone $230-a-Year 611

Posted by Soulskill from the monopoly-money dept.
Several readers sent word of research into the cost of internet content without ads. They looked at the amount of money spent on internet advertising last year in the U.K., and compared it to the number of U.K. internet users. On average, each user would have to pay about £140 ($230) to make up for the lost revenue of an ad-free internet. In a survey, 98% of consumers said they wouldn't be willing to pay that much for the ability to browse without advertisements. However, while most consumers regard ads as a necessary trade-off to keep the internet free, they will go to great lengths to avoid advertising they do not wish to see. Of those surveyed, 63 per cent said they skip online video ads 'as quickly as possible' – a figure that rises to 75 per cent for 16-24 year olds. Over a quarter of all respondents said they mute their sound and one in five scroll away from the video. 16 per cent use ad blocking software and 16 per cent open a new browser window or tab.

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