Submission Summary: 0 pending, 23 declined, 31 accepted (54 total, 57.41% accepted)
Submission + - Supercookies spying on user browsing histories (wsj.com)
dstates writes: A Berkeley professor, Chris Hoofnagle and The Wall Street Journal reports (sorry, paywalled content) that many popular websites including MSN and HuLu are using advanced tracking technology (supercookies) to track users even when the user deletes ordinary cookies. These supercookies hide in browser cache directories and Flash cookies. Jonathan Mayer, a Standford graduate student reports that these supercookies are able to steal user browsing histories and other data. Why have the browser vendors not implemented warning boxes ("XXX wants to access your browsing history. Allow or Block?")? How much else can these supercookies access?
Submission + - Slashdot launches a career (npr.org)
dstates writes: NPR reports that singer Jonathan Coulton, an internet rock star now grossing half a million dollars a year with out the aid of a record label or contract. He came to LA to be a musician, but to make ends meet he took up jobs in software. He attributes his big break to a posting of his song Code Monkey on Slashdot. For more Slashdot posting on Coulton, including the original Code Monkey post search slashdot.
Submission + - Where is the universal gesture navigation set?
dstates writes: As a mostly happy new iPad owner, I love having lots of apps, but I have got to ask, where is the universal set of gestures for navigation? Pinch and open mostly mean zoom out and in, but sometimes you tap to open, sometimes double tap. Sometimes right swipe is back, som times there is a back button, sometimes you just have to go to home and navigate back down. ... Reminds me of the early days of GUIs when every application had it's own menu set with differt top level menus and different placement of various functions. Made life chaos for users. We have been there, done that, and gestures are much worse. At least with a menu, you had a printed tag you could read. Gestures are all magic handshakes until you know them. Seems like the tablet community should not have to learn the value of consistency all over again.
Submission + - The polics of the root (politico.com)
dstates writes: "The good news is that the Internet has become a central enough part of global life that politicians are starting to pay attention to the details of Internet management. The bad news is that the politicians are paying attention to the Internet. Politico.com has an interesting note on the politics surrounding the annual meeting of the The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) which is opening its annual meeting in San Francisco today. While some people finding it frightening that a US corporation controls names usage on the Internet, the prospect of a UN body assuming control raises its own concerns."
Submission + - Texting and your sex life 1
statesman writes: The Associated Press reports that teens who text frequently are three and a half times more likely to have sex. A survey of 4,200 public high school students in the Cleveland area found that one in five students sent more than 120 text messages a day or spent more than 3 hours a day on Facebook. Students in this group were much more likely to have sex. Alcohol and drug use also correlate with frequent texting and heavy Facebook use.
Submission + - Rapist tries to copyright his own name
dstates writes: In the nice try but no such luck department, the Associated Press reports that a convicted rapist sent news organizations a notice to prevent the use of his name without his consent. Apparently former state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt is attempting to suppress the news of his own crimes. AP is having none of it. Their legal counsel says that names cannot be copyrighted and trademark applies only in the context of specific commercial goods and services. Mr. Klaudt found his fifteen minutes of fame.
Submission + - ATT accuses Google of hypocrisy on net neutrality
dstates writes: "The Washington Post reports that ATT has sent a letter to the FCC complaining that Google is unfairly blocking phone calls in high cost rural areas on the Google Voice service. If Google Voice is viewed as a traditional telephone service, this would be a violation of the FCC universal access rules. It also seems to be inconsistent with the principles of network neutrality that Google has been advocating. AT&T said that if there is no action on its letter, AT&Twill file a formal complaint with the FCC."
Submission + - Houston hacked
dstates writes: The municipal courts of Houston were shut down yesterday after a computer virus spread through the courts computer systems. The shutdown canceled hearings and suspended arrests for minor offenses and is expected to extend through Monday. The disruption affected many city departments, the Houston Emergency Center was briefly disconnected and police temporarily stopped making some arrests for minor offenses. The infection appeares to be contained to 475 of the city's more than 16,000 computers, but officials are still investigating. Gray Hat Research, a technology security company has been brought in on an emergency contract to eradicate the infection.
In 2006, the City spent $10M to install a new computer system and bring the Courts online, but the system has been beset by multiple problems. After threatening litigation, the city reached a $5 million settlement with the original vendor, Maximus and may seek another vendor.
In 2006, the City spent $10M to install a new computer system and bring the Courts online, but the system has been beset by multiple problems. After threatening litigation, the city reached a $5 million settlement with the original vendor, Maximus and may seek another vendor.
Submission + - Storm Causes AT&T Outage Across Midwest
dstates writes: AT&T left users across several Midwestern states without cellular phone service yesterday. The outage apparently resulted from a power failure at a Michigan switching center and spread to affect level3 Internet communications. The powerful windstorm also left 400,000 users without electricity. Interestingly, except for a few report in Chicago and Indianapolis papers AT&T has managed to keep this out of the mainstream media. Widespread communication failures also followed Hurricane Ike in Texas earlier this year. With the increasing trend for users to drop landlines and rely only on cell phones, this is becoming an emergency preparedness issue.
Submission + - Legal troubles continue to mount for Diebold
dstates writes: The State of Maryland has filed a $8.5M claim against Premier Election Systems (previously known as Diebold), joining Ohio in seeking damages from the company. The claim alleges that elections officials were forced to spend millions of dollars to address multiple security flaws in the machines. Previously, Diebold paid millions to settle a California lawsuit over security issues in their machines.
The dispute comes as Maryland and Virginia prepare to scrap the touch screen electronic voting systems they bought after the 2000 presidential election. California, Florida, New Mexico, and Iowa have already switched to optical scanners, and voters in Pennsylvania are suing to prevent use of paperless electronic voting systems in their state.
Meanwhile, Artifex Software is suing Diebold for violations of the GPL covering the Ghostscript software technology used in the proprietary voting machines.
The dispute comes as Maryland and Virginia prepare to scrap the touch screen electronic voting systems they bought after the 2000 presidential election. California, Florida, New Mexico, and Iowa have already switched to optical scanners, and voters in Pennsylvania are suing to prevent use of paperless electronic voting systems in their state.
Meanwhile, Artifex Software is suing Diebold for violations of the GPL covering the Ghostscript software technology used in the proprietary voting machines.
Submission + - iPhones, FStream and the death of satellite radio
Statesman writes: Only a little over a year ago, the
FCC approved the merger of XM and Sirius
satellite radio companies and the combined stock was trading at $4 a share. Despite, or perhaps because of, being a monopoly, the company is failing. They are losing subscribers, the stock is now trading
around 22 cents a share,
a 97% decline, and they have
written off $4.8 billion dollars in stock value.
So what happened? The CEO is blaming pretty much everyone except himself and his business model. But is pay for bandwidth even a viable business plan anymore? With millions of iPhone and gPhone users out there, free streaming audio applications like FStream, and thousands of Internet radio stations to access, the question is why would anyone want to pay for proprietary hardware and a limited selection of a few hundred stations all controlled by one company?
It seems like the pay for broadcast business model is fundamentally flawed. First, satellite radio is a misnomer; if you are listening inside a big building, chances are you are really using WiFi radio, not satellite which requires line of site to the sky. In this mode, XM/Sirius offers less selection and higher cost than an iPhone and streaming audio client. Second, a monopoly is a monopoly. Sure you can get dozens of ClearChannel stations in some markets, but after a while it does not matter whether they are country, top 40 or easy listening. They all have the same format of hypercharged "personallities" and lots of ads. By contrast, the iPhone and streaming client can access thousands of stations from thousands of providers worldwide. Finally, you may say that an iPhone and service agreement are expensive compared to a satellite radio subscription, but if you already have the iPhone, the cost of adding a stream audio application is zero. And the iPhone is cheap compared to a cell phone plus an MP3 player plus a laptop plus internet access.
Bottom line, a year after being granted monopoly status, Sirius is all but bankrupt and the satellite radio business model is dead. Time for the FCC to think seriously about making better use of this bandwidth.
So what happened? The CEO is blaming pretty much everyone except himself and his business model. But is pay for bandwidth even a viable business plan anymore? With millions of iPhone and gPhone users out there, free streaming audio applications like FStream, and thousands of Internet radio stations to access, the question is why would anyone want to pay for proprietary hardware and a limited selection of a few hundred stations all controlled by one company?
It seems like the pay for broadcast business model is fundamentally flawed. First, satellite radio is a misnomer; if you are listening inside a big building, chances are you are really using WiFi radio, not satellite which requires line of site to the sky. In this mode, XM/Sirius offers less selection and higher cost than an iPhone and streaming audio client. Second, a monopoly is a monopoly. Sure you can get dozens of ClearChannel stations in some markets, but after a while it does not matter whether they are country, top 40 or easy listening. They all have the same format of hypercharged "personallities" and lots of ads. By contrast, the iPhone and streaming client can access thousands of stations from thousands of providers worldwide. Finally, you may say that an iPhone and service agreement are expensive compared to a satellite radio subscription, but if you already have the iPhone, the cost of adding a stream audio application is zero. And the iPhone is cheap compared to a cell phone plus an MP3 player plus a laptop plus internet access.
Bottom line, a year after being granted monopoly status, Sirius is all but bankrupt and the satellite radio business model is dead. Time for the FCC to think seriously about making better use of this bandwidth.
Submission + - We Are What We Eat
dstates writes: The Center for Disease Control has released a frightening map of obesity in the US population. Over the last 20 years Americans have become dramatically more obese. What is to blame? The amount of physical activity and exercise has not changed much since 1980. An article in BusinessWeek argues cheap high fructose corn syrup is to blame. Thanks to $5 billion Federal Government subsidies for corn we are surrounded by gigantic servings of sugary soft drinks, supersized candy bars and loads and loads of junk food. Fat free does not mean calorie free, and the more we eat the more weight we gain. As a result, the USA spends $61 billion a year on the health-care costs of obesity.
Next time you feel that urge for a soda, think about a walk across the building to a drinking fountain.
Next time you feel that urge for a soda, think about a walk across the building to a drinking fountain.
Submission + - Google using DoubleClick tracking cookies
dstates writes: In letters to the House Energy and Commerce Committee Internet and broadband companies, including Google, have acknowledged using targeted-advertising technology without explicitly informing customers. The revelations came in response to a bipartisan inquiry of how more Internet companies have gathered data on customers. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) said "Increasingly, there are no limits technologically as to what a company can do in terms of collecting information . . . and then selling it as a commodity to other providers." Some companies like NebuAd have tested deep-packet inspection with some broadband providers Knology and Cable One. Google said that it had begun to use the DoubleClick ad-serving cookie that allow the tracking of Web surfing across different sites but said it was not using deep packet inspection. [Note: if the traffic is a Google search or email to or from your Gmail account, Google does not need deep packet inspection to see the contents of the message]. Google promotes the fact that its merger with DoubleClick provides advertisers "insight into the number of people who have seen an ad campaign," as well as "how many users visited their sites after seeing an ad." Microsoft and Yahoo acknowledge the use of behavioral targeting. Yahoo says it allows users to turn off targeted advertising on its Web sites; Microsoft has not yet responded to the committee.
The Committee is considering legislation to require explicitly informing the consumer of the type of information that is being gathered and any intent to use it for a different purpose, and a right to say 'no' to the collection or use.
The Committee is considering legislation to require explicitly informing the consumer of the type of information that is being gathered and any intent to use it for a different purpose, and a right to say 'no' to the collection or use.
Submission + - DNS Patch Flawed 1
Statesman writes: The New York Times reports that a Russian physicist has found flaws in the DNS patch that is currently being circulated. On his blog, the physicist, Evgeniy Polyakov, wrote that he had fooled the software that serves as the Internet's telephone book into returning an incorrect address in just 10 hours, using two standard desktop computers and a high-speed network link. The basic vulnerability of the network was identified by Dan Kaminsky, a Seattle-based researcher at the security firm IOActive earlier this year. The root of the problem is that the DNS system was developed in 1983 and was not designed for services like electronic banking that require strict verification of identity. Some experts are proposing an encryption-based solution known as DNSSEC to insure that the Internet addresses are correct. "DNSSEC is not an overnight solution for the Kaminsky problem, but it's the right solution in the long run," said Richard Lamb, a technical expert at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
