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Submission + - Anonymous demand to Lizard Squad to stop attacking Xbox Live and PSN (newsxbox.com) 1

Submitted by xboxfosale2
xboxfosale2 writes: Infamous hacking group Anonymous has launched a YouTube video directed at Lizard Squad, the group claiming to be behind a series of DDoS attacks on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live.

Both Sony’s and Microsoft’s on-line services were disrupted once more last night, with Lizard Squad claiming to be behind the attacks.

In the video, Anonymous demands that Lizard Squad stops attacking gaming communities otherwise they're going to come back come them.

"You have made countless threats against Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. You have taken down their servers with relentless Distributed-Denial-of-Service attacks," says Anonymous.
"If you continue to attempt to attack the gaming communities we will take action against you. What you are doing is wrong. You are taking away the fun and enjoyment of children as well as adults. You have no real reason for taking down their servers. Your only goal is to see how far you get without getting caught. Quit while you’re ahead because the FBI is watching you and they will find you and Anonymous will help and support them. You said your next attack on Christmas Day. We will stop at nothing to ensure that you never attack the gaming communities again. You have been warned. We are anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Lizard Squad expect us."

Submission + - Is there really a tech worker shortage? (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Gamoid
Gamoid writes: Silicon Valley says that we need more H-1B visas because there aren't enough developers and software engineers in the United States. But there's an increasing body of evidence to suggest that the real issue is that Silicon Valley companies aren't hiring the many, many talented people here in the US.

Submission + - Every weapon, armored truck, and plane the Pentagon gave to local police (muckrock.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: You may have heard that the image-conscious Los Angeles Unified School District chose to return the grenade launchers it received from the Defense Department’s surplus equipment program. You probably have not heard about some of the more obscure beneficiaries of the Pentagon giveaway, but now you can after MuckRock got the Department of Defense to release the full database, letting anyone browse what gear their local department has received.

Submission + - Fast camera: 100 billion fps (wustl.edu)

Submitted by Scryer
Scryer writes: Boffins at Washington University / St. Louis (WUSTL) led by Prof. Lihong Wang have developed a camera that can record up to 100 billion frames per second. They say previous best speeds were around 10 million frames per second. They call the technique "compressed ultrafast photography (CUP)". Hard-copy article: Gao L, Liang J, Li C, Wang, LV. Single-shot compressed ultrafast photography at one hundred billion frames per second. Nature. Dec. 4, 2014.

Submission + - A Cheap, Durable Robot Hand With An Adaptable Grip

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Building robot hands that mimic human ones may not be doing robotic grasping any favors. Authors from iRobot, Harvard and Yale describe the success they've had with an underactuated, three fingered hand. It doesn't look human, but thanks to a design that prioritizes flexibility and adaptability, it can do a lot of the same jobs with a lot less programming than previous models. http://spectrum.ieee.org/robot...

Submission + - Has Microsoft admitted that it's thrown in the towel in the server space?

Submitted by greglaw99
greglaw99 writes: Microsoft recently announcement that it is to port the .Net stack to Linux. This makes it really easy for lots of Windows Server users to swap to Linux and so puts at risk billions of dollars of Windows Server revenue. Why would they do this? I can see only two plausible explanations for this: it's good old fashioned FUD, or Microsoft has decided that the server war is lost and they are retrenching to defend against the Linux adoption wave spreading out to the desktop http://t.co/yvgqUsSdV9

Submission + - Consumer-grade SSDs survive two petabytes of writes

Submitted by crookedvulture
crookedvulture writes: The SSD Endurance Experiment previously covered on Slashdot has reached another big milestone: two freaking petabytes of writes. That's an astounding total for consumer-grade drives rated to survive no more than a few hundred terabytes. Only two of the initial six subjects made it to 2PB. The Kingston HyperX 3K, Intel 335 Series, and Samsung 840 Series expired on the road to 1PB, while the Corsair Neutron GTX faltered at 1.2PB. The Samsung 840 Pro continues despite logging thousands of reallocated sectors. It has remained completely error-free throughout the experiment, unlike a second HyperX, which has suffered a couple of uncorrectable errors. The second HyperX is mostly intact otherwise, though its built-in compression tech has reduced the 2PB of host writes to just 1.4PB of flash writes. Even accounting for compression, the flash in the second HyperX has proven to be far more robust than in the first. That difference highlights the impact normal manufacturing variances can have on flash wear. It also illustrates why the experiment's sample size is too small to draw definitive conclusions about the durability of specific models. However, the fact that all the drives far exceeded their endurance specifications bodes well for the endurance of consumer-grade SSDs in general.

Submission + - My Computer Language is Better Than Yours! (medium.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: If you are a very large, rich technology company today, it seems it is no longer enough to have your own humongous data centers, luxurious buses, and organic lunch bars. You need your very own programming language, too.

Submission + - The cost of HTTPS

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers from CMU, Telefonica, and Politecnico di Torino have presented a paper at ACM CoNEXT that quantifies the cost of the “S” in HTTPS. The study shows that today major players are embracing end-to-end encryption, so that about 50% of web traffic is carried by HTTPS. This is a nice testament to the feasibility of having a fully encrypted web.
The paper pinpoints also the cost of encryption, that manifests itself through increases in the page loading time that go above 50%, and possible increase in battery usage.
However, the major loss due to the “S” is the inability to offer any in-network value added services, that are offered by middle-boxes, such as caching, proxying, firewalling, parental control, etc.
Are we ready to accept it?
Presentation can be downloaded from here

Submission + - Are you a robot? Introducing "No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA" (blogspot.ca)

Submitted by Hamsterdan
Hamsterdan writes: While the new reCAPTCHA API may sound simple, there is a high degree of sophistication behind that modest checkbox. CAPTCHAs have long relied on the inability of robots to solve distorted text. However, our research recently showed that today’s Artificial Intelligence technology can solve even the most difficult variant of distorted text at 99.8% accuracy. Thus distorted text, on its own, is no longer a dependable test.

Submission + - Google confirms that it's designing kid-friendly versions of its services

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: USA Today reports that rumors about Google working on specific services catering to young kids are true. From the article: "With Google processing 40,000 search queries a second — or 1.2 trillion a year — it's a safe bet that many of those doing the Googling are kids. Little surprise then that beginning next year the tech giant plans to create specific versions of its most popular products for those 12 and younger. The most likely candidates are those that are already popular with a broad age group, such as search, YouTube and Chrome. 'The big motivator inside the company is everyone is having kids, so there's a push to change our products to be fun and safe for children,' Pavni Diwanji, the vice president of engineering charged with leading the new initiative, told USA TODAY. 'We expect this to be controversial, but the simple truth is kids already have the technology in schools and at home,' says the mother of two daughters, ages 8 and 13. 'So the better approach is to simply see to it that the tech is used in a better way.'"

Submission + - Why Pluto Still Matters

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: Nearly a century ago, Pluto was discovered, and for 48 years it remained the only known object whose orbit takes it beyond the gravitational pull of Neptune. In a single generation, we've now discovered more than 1,000 additional objects in the Kuiper Belt, but does that make Pluto any less special? A strong argument for why Pluto might matter now more than ever.

Submission + - Is a "Wikipedia for news" feasible? (larrysanger.org) 5

Submitted by Larry Sanger
Larry Sanger writes: Online news has become ridiculously confusing. Interesting bits are scattered among repetitive articles, clickbait, and other noise. Besides, there's so much interesting news, but we just don't have time for it all. Automated tools help a little, but give us only an unreliable selection; we still feel like we're missing out. Y'know, back in the 1990s, we used to have a similar problem about general knowledge. Locating answers to basic questions through the noise of the Internet was hit-and-miss and took time. So we organized knowledge with Wikipedia ("the encyclopedia that Slashdot built"). Hey, why don't we do something similar for the news? Is it possible to make a Wikipedia for news, pooling the efforts of newshounds everywhere? Could such a community cut through the noise and help get us caught up more quickly and efficiently? As co-founder of Wikipedia, I'm coming down on the "yes" side. I have recently announced an open content, collaborative news project, Infobitt (be gentle, Slashdot! We are still in early stages!), and my argument for the affirmative position is made both briefly and at length.

Submission + - The ZX Spectrum is back (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by techfilz
techfilz writes: The Daily Mail reports that Sir Clive Sinclair has announced he is launching a modernised version of his 80's 8 bit computer, the ZX Spectrum.

The new Sinclair Spectrum Vega has less buttons than the original retro favourite, but should be able to run all the old games and accept SD cards as input. The product is ready and is currently undergoing funding via an Indiegogo campaign.

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