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Comment Spock is not dead. (Score 5, Insightful) 233

by Z00L00K (#49162415) Attached to: Spock and the Legacy of Star Trek

Only the vessel for him carried by Leonard Nimoy has passed on, but as long as he's remembered he's not truly dead.

The Original Series did a lot within the frame of that series to actually poke at contemporary issues about racism and other things. It was not so much about the science as it was about studies on humanitarian issues.

Submission + - Genetic Data Analysis Tools Reveal How US Pop Music Evolved

Submitted by KentuckyFC
KentuckyFC writes: The history of pop music is rich in anecdotes, folklore and controversy. But despite the keen interest, there is little in the form of hard evidence to back up most claims about the evolution of music. Now a group of researchers have used data analysis tools developed for genomic number crunching to study the evolution of US pop music. The team studied 30-second segments of more than 17,000 songs that appeared on the US Billboard Hot 100 between 1960 and 2010. Their tools categorised the songs according to harmonic features such as chord changes as well as the quality of timbre such as whether guitar-based, piano-based orchestra-based and so on. They then used a standard algorithm for discovering clusters within networks of data to group the songs into 13 different types, which turned out to correspond with well known genres such as rap, rock, country and so on. Finally, they plotted the change in popularity of these musical types over time. The results show a clear decline in the popularity of jazz and blues since 1960. During the same period, rock-related music has ebbed and flowed in popularity. By contrast, was rare before 1980 before becoming the dominant musical style for 30 years until declining in the late 2000s. The work answers several important question about the evolution of pop music, such as whether music industry practises have led to a decline in the cultural variety of new music and whether British bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones triggered the 1964 American music revolution [spoiler: no in both cases].

Comment Re:Semantic games (Score 1) 89

by Z00L00K (#49144687) Attached to: OPSEC For Activists, Because Encryption Is No Guarantee

Opsec is just a procedure you apply.

Invent one procedure that works only for your closed group, it shall only be known to all of you. What the procedures and patterns you have within your closed group will have to be seen as normal variations that to the casual observer don't look outside the ordinary.

A certain variation on how the clothing is worn might be your way of signaling to your group a certain message - or be part of the message when you casually meet.

Submission + - Invented here syndrome (mortoray.com)

Submitted by edA-qa
edA-qa writes: Are you afraid to write code? Does the thought linger in your brain that somewhere out there somebody has already done this? Do you find yourself trapped in an analysis cycle where nothing is getting done? Is your product mutating to accommodate third party components? If yes, then perhaps you are suffering from invented-here syndrome.

Most of use are aware of not-invented-here syndrome, but the opposite problem is perhaps equally troublesome. We can get stuck in the mindset that there must be a product, library, or code sample, that already does what we want. Instead of just writing the code we need a lot of effort is spent testing out modules and trying to accommodate our own code. At some point we need to just say, “stop!”, and write the code ourselves.

Submission + - What happens when Betelgeuse explodes? 1

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: One of the great, catastrophic truths of the Universe is that everything has an expiration date. And this includes every single point of light in the entire sky. The most massive stars will die in a spectacular supernova explosion when their final stage of core fuel runs out. At only an estimated 600 light years distant, Betelgeuse is one (along with Antares) of the closest red supergiants to us, and it’s estimated to have only perhaps 100,000 years until it reaches the end of its life. Here's the story on what we can expect to see (and feel) on Earth when Betelgeuse explodes!

Comment Living in Europe (Score 1) 2

I'd say that there's a lot of false claims in that article about slow broadband in Europe.

Do a Google Search for "internet speed by country" and you will see that it's not bad at all in Europe. Some countries are better off than others, but it's not related to population density.

So the linked article is full of hot air and is actually funny for me living in Europe how stupid the claims are.

Submission + - Obama's regs will make Internet slow as in Europe, warn FCC, FEC commissioners (washingtonexaminer.com) 2

Submitted by legoleg
legoleg writes: These Internet regulations will deter broadband deployment, depress network investment and slow broadband speeds. How do we know? Compare Europe, which has long had utility-style regulations, with the United States, which has embraced a light-touch regulatory model. Broadband speeds in the United States, both wired and wireless, are significantly faster than those in Europe. Broadband investment in the United States is several multiples that of Europe. And broadbandâ(TM)s reach is much wider in the United States, despite its much lower population density," the two wrote.

Submission + - Fake Komodia root SSL certs in use by over +100 companies (forbes.com)

Submitted by Billly Gates
Billly Gates writes: Lenovo and Superfish are not the only companies who used the fake root SSL certificates by Komodia to spy and decrypt network traffic. Komodia advertises its products including a SSL-digestor to rid the obtrusive thing we call encryption and security. So far game accelerators are mentioned as some have seen these certs installed with Asus lan accelerator drivers.

Submission + - Homeland Security Urges Lenovo Customers to Remove Superfish

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Reuters reports that the US Department of Homeland Security has advised Lenovo customers to remove "Superfish" software from their computers. According to an alert released through its National Cyber Awareness System the software makes users vulnerable to SSL spoofing and could allow a remote attacker to read encrypted web browser traffic, spoof websites and perform other attacks on Lenovo PCs with the software installed. Lenovo inititally said it stopped shipping the software because of complaints about features, not a security vulnerability. "We have thoroughly investigated this technology and do not find any evidence to substantiate security concerns," the company said in a statement to Reuters early on Thursday. On Friday, Lenovo spokesman Brion Tingler said the company's initial findings were flawed and that it was now advising customers to remove the software and providing instructions for uninstalling "Superfish". "We should have known about this sooner," Tingler said in an email. "And if we could go back, we never would have installed this software on our machines. But we can't, so we are dealing with this head on."

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