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Submission + - Nichelle Nichols, Uhura from Star Trek, Hospitalized with Stroke (variety.com)

Submitted by fightinfilipino
fightinfilipino writes:

“Last night while at her home in L.A., Nichelle Nichols suffered from a mild stroke,” McGinnis wrote. “She is currently undergoing testing to determine how severe the stroke was. Please keep her in your thoughts.” Nichols, 82, appeared in the original “Star Trek” TV series, which ran from 1966-1969, as well as the “Star Trek” movies. She also played the role of Nana Dawson in the ABC show “Heroes,” and voiced characters in the TV series “Futurama,” “Gargoyles” and “Spider-Man.”
United States

US Office of Personnel Management Hacked Again 73

Posted by samzenpus from the protect-ya-neck dept.
tranquilidad writes: According to a story in the Washington Post, China hacked into the computer system of the United States' Office of Personnel Management last December. This was the second major intrusion in less than a year. Personally identifiable information of approximately 4 million individuals may have been compromised. The compromised information was related to security clearances and employee records. "The FBI is working with our interagency partners to investigate this matter. We take all potential threats to public and private sector systems seriously, and will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace," an FBI spokesman said.

Submission + - Google Diversity Report Straight Out of "How to Lie With Statistics" Playbook

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Among the books recommended by Bill Gates for beach reading this summer is How to Lie With Statistics, the published-in-1954-but-timely-as-ever introduction to the (mis)use of statistics. So, how can one lie with statistics? "Sometimes it is percentages that are given and raw figures that are missing," explains the book, "and this can be deceptive too." So, does this explain Google's just-released Diversity Report and the accompanying chock-full-o-percentages narrative (find-all-%-image), which boasts "the Black community in grew [sic] by 38 percent", while the less-impressive raw figures — e.g., the number of Google employees increased by 5,928, but the ranks of Black females only increased by 35 (less than 0.6% of the net increase) — are relegated to a PDF of its EEO-1 Report that's linked to in the fine-print footnotes? To be fair to Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Apple and Amazon didn't want people to see their EEO-1 numbers, either.

Submission + - Poll Question: Your preferred OS 1

Submitted by Whiteox
Whiteox writes: The hypothesis is that over the last 10 years there has been an apparent shift in the Slashdot community for preferred operating systems. Let's take a snapshot of the current user OS landscape out there for 2015

Questions
At home I use:
MS
Linux
Mac
All
Other
N/A

At Work I use:
MS
Linux
Mac
All
Other
N/A

Submission + - PayPal will robo-text/call you with no opt-out starting July 1 (yahoo.com)

Submitted by OutOnARock
OutOnARock writes: When eBay cuts PayPal loose this summer, users of the new digital money giant will find they've agreed to new terms of service that take effect July 1. Those terms include PayPal giving itself the right to robocall or robo-text members at any phone number the firm can find, for just about any reason — from debt collecting to advertisements to opinion polling.

The fine print also says PayPal can pass along the same rights to its affiliates. Here's the language, in black and white, from the company's website:

You consent to receive autodialed or prerecorded calls and text messages from PayPal at any telephone number that you have provided us or that we have otherwise obtained . . . . (PayPal) may share your phone numbers with our Affiliates or with our service providers, such as billing or collections companies, who we have contracted with to assist us in pursuing our rights.

If I can only use PayPal on eBay, it'll probably mean an end of eBay for me, what about you?

Submission + - Who's behind mysterious flights over US cities? FBI (csmonitor.com)

Submitted by kaizendojo
kaizendojo writes: The FBI is operating a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the country carrying video and, at times, cellphone surveillance technology — all hidden behind fictitious companies that are fronts for the government, The Associated Press has learned.

The planes' surveillance equipment is generally used without a judge's approval, and the FBI said the flights are used for specific, ongoing investigations. In a recent 30-day period, the agency flew above more than 30 cities in 11 states across the country, an AP review found.
Image

Indicted Ex-FIFA Executive Cites Onion Article In Rant Slamming US 194

Posted by samzenpus from the everything-is-true dept.
schwit1 writes with news that former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner has evidently not heard of The Onion. In a video on his Facebook page, Warner holds up a printout of an Onion story titled “FIFA Frantically Announces 2015 Summer World Cup In United States” and says: “Then I look to see that Fifa has frantically announced, 2015, this year [...] the World Cup, beginning May 27. If FIFA is so bad, why is it that the USA wants to keep the Fifa World Cup?” The next World Cup is not due to be held until 2018 and there have been no games in the U.S.. Warner is facing extradition to the U.S. on corruption charges. Time further reports: Even Sunday wasn't easy, when Warner needed two attempts to get his message across by telling followers that the latest accusations against him stem largely from the U.S. being upset that it did not win the rights to host the 2022 World Cup — which went to Qatar. In an eight-minute Facebook video, which was quickly deleted after numerous news reports picked up on the gaffe, Warner held up a printout of a fictitious story from The Onion bearing the headline: "FIFA Frantically Announces 2015 Summer World Cup In United States." The fake story was published on Wednesday, hours after Warner was indicted in the U.S. and arrested and briefly jailed in Trinidad. Warner asked why the story was "two days before the FIFA election" when Sepp Blatter was re-elected as president.
Businesses

Ask Slashdot: What Do You Wish You'd Known Starting Your First "Real" Job? 583

Posted by samzenpus from the when-I-was-younger dept.
itwbennett writes: ITworld's Josh Fruhlinger asked seasoned (and some not-so-seasoned) tech professionals what they wished they knew back when they were newly minted graduates entering the workforce. Perhaps not surprisingly, some of the best advice has more to do with soft skills than with tech skills. To wit: 'When [managers] say they are suggesting you do something, it's not really a suggestion — it is an order disguised as a suggestion. Plain-speaking is a lost art at big companies and corporate double talk is the name of the game.' What's your best piece of advice for the newest among you?

Submission + - How Little It Cost To Bribe Senators To FastTrack TPP Bill (zerohedge.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It took just a few days after the stunning defeat of Obama's attempt to fast-track the Trans Pacific Partnership bill in the Senate at the hands of his own Democratic party, before everything returned back to normal and the TPP fast-track was promptly passed. Why? The simple answer: money. Or rather, even more money.

Submission + - Population Control is a Taboo Subject - Should it Be?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "In the world of solutions to environmental problems," writes Adele Peters, "one topic rarely gets any discussion: Birth control. By 2050, the U.N. estimates that the human population will hit 9.6 billion, putting unprecedented pressure on the planet's energy and agriculture systems. But that estimate tends to be accepted as inevitable, rather than as a number that could (or should) change." Peters continues, "The subject of population control wasn't always taboo. "The bestselling environment-related book of the '60s and '70s was not Silent Spring, it was Paul Ehrlich's Population Bomb," says [Foundation for Deep Ecology's Tom] Butler. "So this was a huge and integrated topic of conversation decades ago, and then it fell off the radar screen." Part of the challenge is that the topic is now politically fraught both for the right and left. "On the right, if we're talking about the demographic trajectory of the human family, inevitably, this brings up questions of sexuality, abortion, immigration, women's rights, gender equity—all kinds of hot button issues," he says. "And then on the far ends of the left spectrum, there's a radical fringe that has tried to portray family planning as equal to coercion."" So, should we continue to ignore the 9.6 billion elephants in the room?

Submission + - Java API are protected by copyright (arstechnica.co.uk)

Submitted by nickweller
nickweller writes: The Justice Department is weighing in on the hot-button intellectual property dispute between Google and Oracle, telling the Supreme Court that APIs are protected by copyright. ..

A federal appeals court ruled that the "declaring code and the structure, sequence, and organization of the API packages are entitled to copyright protection."

Submission + - Wanted: Test case manager plugin (testlog.com)

Submitted by Bomarc
Bomarc writes: I’ve been working with software testing ... for a few years now. And there seems to be a serious lack of QA — Test Case Management (TCM) tools. The company that I’m working for needs a good test case manager. Currently JIRA is the tool of choice for other aspects of project management. I’m not asking to jump ship from JIRA, but the Atlassian TCM “Zephyr” has several problems, some of the key ones include: It does not have (any) matrix capabilities, no test case suite capabilities, if you change one test case (including assignments) the system changes all of the runs from that test case, the integration between the defect tracker and the TCM is archaic (at best), the number of actions to pass/fail a step (or test case) are annoying (way to many). Whoever designed it doesn’t use it. If you watch the “Introduction” for Zephyr – it is amusing to see how the person performing he demo skips over and fumbles when dealing with the flaws I’ve mentioned above.

I have use the product “TestLog” which is a well thought out product; has test matrix capabilities (and other good features) however it does not have any integration with JIRA. (Hint hint: Atlassian, this is what you need!).

In asking the /. community: Is there any company that makes a “plug-in” for JIRA with a similar features to TestLog – test case management that is well thought out, not just an afterthought?

Submission + - Silk Road founder begs judge to 'please leave me my old age' ahead of sentencing (bgr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: If federal prosecutors have their way, Ross Ulbricht, the mastermind behind Silk Road, will be sentenced to an extremely long prison term: we’re talking 20 years at the very minimum.

According to the New York Times, the prosecution handling the case has opted not to seek a life sentence for Ulbricht, but will instead try to convince the presiding judge that Ulbricht deserves a sentence that is “substantially above the mandatory minimum of 20 years.” Three months ago, a jury convicted the 30-year old Ulbricht on seven criminal counts, including narcotics trafficking and money laundering.

Ulbricht’s sentencing is scheduled for Friday.

Meanwhile, Ulbricht late last week begged the court for leniency in the form of a 1.5 page letter he sent to Judge Katherine Forrest.

The letter reads in part: "Even now I understand what a terrible mistake I made. I’ve had my youth, and I know you must take away my middle years, but please leave me my old age. Please leave a small light at the end of the tunnel, an excuse to stay healthy, an excuse to dream of better days ahead, and a chance to redeem myself in the free world before I meet my maker."

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