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Comment Re:The two I talked to apparently couldn't hang up (Score 1) 212

by Introspective (#37475546) Attached to: Microsoft Dumps Partner For Fake Support Call Scam

Then again, it's possible that the minimum wage staff in their call centre honestly believe that the script they're following is legit.
From the calls I've got myself and the ones reported by others, it really sounds like the callers truly believe what they're saying and don't know much better.
Image

Lies, Damned Lies and Cat Statistics 175

Posted by samzenpus from the nine-lies dept.
spopepro writes "While un-captioned cats might be of limited interest to the /. community, I found this column on how a fabricated statistic takes on a life of its own interesting. Starting with the Humane Society of the United States' (HSUS) claim that the unsterilized offspring of a cat will '...result in 420,000 cats in 5 years,' the author looks at other erroneous numbers, where they came from and why they won't go away."
Image

Girl Quits On Dry Erase Board a Hoax 147

Posted by samzenpus from the take-this-job-and-shove-it dept.
suraj.sun writes "It's the same old story: young woman quits, uses dry erase board and series of pictures to let entire office know the boss is a sexist pig, exposes his love of playing FarmVille during work hours." Story seem too good to be true? It probably is, at least according to writer Peter Kafka. Even so, Jay Leno and Good Morning America have already reached out to "Jenny."
NASA

The Sun Unleashes Coronal Mass Ejection At Earth 220

Posted by Soulskill from the return-fire dept.
astroengine writes "Yesterday morning, at 08:55 UT, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory detected a C3-class flare erupt inside a sunspot cluster. 100,000 kilometers away, deep within the solar atmosphere (the corona), an extended magnetic field filled with cool plasma forming a dark ribbon across the face of the sun (a feature known as a 'filament') erupted at the exact same time. It seems very likely that both eruptions were connected after a powerful shock wave produced by the flare destabilized the filament, causing the eruption. A second solar observatory, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, then spotted a huge coronal mass ejection blast into space, straight in the direction of Earth. Solar physicists have calculated that this magnetic bubble filled with energetic particles should hit Earth on August 3, so look out for some intense aurorae — a solar storm is coming."
Space

Submission + - Japanese H-IIA launches with Ikaros and Akatsuki (examiner.com)

Submitted by JoshuaInNippon
JoshuaInNippon writes: At 6:58 in the morning of May 21, 2010 (JST), a JAXA H-IIA rocket was successfully launched from southern Japan. After about 27 minutes of flight, the rocket reached space and sent off its cargo, including a Venus probe named Akatsuki, an experimental solar sail spacecraft named Ikaros, and several small satellites. The success of both Akatsuki and Ikaros could help bring important information on Earth's mysterious sister planet and on near future, cost effective space travel.
Security

Submission + - School Spy Program Used on Students Hackable (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A controversial remote administration program that a Pennsylvania school district installed on student-issued laptops contains a security hole that put the students at risk of being spied on by people outside the school, according to a security firm that examined the software.

The LANrev program contains a vulnerability that would allow someone using the same network as one of the students to install malware on the laptop that could remotely control the computer. An intruder would be able to steal data from the computer or control the laptop webcam to snap surreptitious pictures.

The vulnerability in the LANrev system lies in the symmetric-key encryption it uses for authentication between the client and the server, and isn’t related to the optional Theft Track feature. Therefore, even computers that are not using the theft feature are vulnerable.

The authentication key is stored in the client-side software and is fairly easy to decipher, says Frank Heidt, president and CEO of Leviathan. It took Leviathan just a few hours to determine that it’s a stanza from a German poem. The key is the same for every computer using LANrev.

The LANrev client software on a computer is configured to contact a server every minute or so to check in and see if the server has any commands for it. Knowing what the key is would let an attacker who has installed a sniffer on the network intercept that ping and masquerade as the server in communication back to the laptop. It requires the attacker to be on the same network as the target machine — for example, on a wireless network at the school or anywhere else that offers free Wi-Fi the student might use.
Australia

Submission + - Scientists claim systems cooling breakthrough (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by schliz
schliz writes: Australian researchers have developed an electronics cooling system that uses a 'synthetic jet' to increase the heat transfer in the channel by up to four and a half times. They claim the technique is more efficient at removing heat and does not require additional fluid circuits to create the jet, enabling the development of faster computer processors and more powerful electronic devices.
Google

Submission + - Google shows major improvements with Android 2.2 (pcauthority.com.au) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google has used the I/O developers conference to launch the latest version of its mobile operating system, Android 2.2, codenamed Froyo. Google claims the operating system will be from two to five times faster thanks to advances made in the compilers and the Dalvik virtual machine it uses, and how it is ported to new processors and platforms. On the enterprise front the new operating system comes with full support for Microsoft Exchange, including access to the global address book and the ability to translate native security features to mobile handsets. APIs have also been added to allow controls such as the automatic wiping of missing handsets and other remote management features. Google is also making its voice translation and search APIs open to developers, and showed off an application developed for the handset that allowed real time translation from English to French.

Submission + - AG Corbett Subpoenas Twitter to Name Bloggers (whtm.com)

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes: The state attorney general's office has issued a subpoena threatening officials of the social networking service Twitter with arrest unless they reveal the names of two bloggers who have been critical of Attorney General Tom Corbett and his public corruption investigation. ...
Vic Walczak of the American Civil Liberties Union told Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV that the court action "raises grave concerns about abuse of the grand jury process to retaliate against political critics and opponents." He said Americans "have a right to criticize government officials and to do so anonymously."
NASA

Submission + - Study find Oceans Significantly Warming

Submitted by shmG
shmG writes: The upper layer of Earth's ocean has warmed since 1993, indicating a strong climate change signal, according to a new study. The study, co-authored by an international team of scientists, said that the energy stored is enough to power nearly 500 100-watt light bulbs for each of the roughly 6.7 billion people on the planet.

"The ocean is the biggest reservoir for heat in the climate system," said Willis. "So as the planet warms, we're finding that 80 to 90 percent of the increased heat ends up in the ocean."

Submission + - Updated from previous submissionBenchmark Software

Submitted by tdisalvo
tdisalvo writes: I am wondering what is the best type of benchmark software out there. We are doing a Windows 7 roll-out and I will have to compare major PC vendors and I am looking for vendor neutral tests that will give me the data I need to present an educated opinion to my CIO. Clear pretty charts are nice since it is for C level execs and we need to make it understandable for nontechnical as well as technical people. More specifically I am looking for something that will clearly show how the same processor performs better or worse with a particular build, motherboard, RAM Power Supply, ect. My plan is to try and get very similar machines from major vendors and see which ones build has the highest independent bench marks. Something that would be able to roll up test on multiple computers and report on the differences in score would be idea. Also free is better :-)

Submission + - Artificial life created as a synthetic organism (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by vigmeister
vigmeister writes:

Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first synthetic living cell. The researchers constructed a bacterium's "genetic software" and transplanted it into a host cell. The resulting microbe then looked and behaved like the species "dictated" by the synthetic DNA. The advance, published in Science, has been hailed as a scientific landmark, but critics say there are dangers posed by synthetic organisms. The researchers hope eventually to design bacterial cells that will produce medicines and fuels and even absorb greenhouse gases.

The 'synthetic' aspect and the rest of the article makes it seems like they can control the properties of the cell. Since the dangers mentioned in the article are easy to enumerate, I wonder what the scientific community can do to escape paranoid legislation. In addition to the ethical dilemma associated with this development, the philosophical ramifications are just as significant. Also, which existing religious frameworks accommodate something approaching 'creation of life'? Or is this to religion what synthesis of urea did for chemistry? P.S. Is it just a coincidence that this came about as soon as Jack took the job? *cough*God complex*cough*

Submission + - Einstein was wrong: Brownian speed can be measured (cosmosmagazine.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Over a century ago, Albert Einstein predicted that the random motion of tiny particles depended only on temperature, and not their size or mass. He also doubted that scientists would ever be able to prove this experimentally.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Benchmark Testing

Submitted by tdisalvo
tdisalvo writes: I am wondering what is the best type of benchmark software out there. We are doing a Windows 7 rollout and I will have to compare major PC vendors and I am looking for vendor neutral tests that will give me the data I need to present an educated opinion to my CIO. Clear pretty charts are nice since it is for C level execs and we need to make it understandable for nontechnical as well as technical people. Also free is better :-)
Security

Submission + - Q&A with Metasploit's HD Moore (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Threatpost has a new Q&A with HD Moore, the guy behind the Metasploit Project. He talks about the new commercial version of the pen-testing framework, as well as his plans for keeping the open source version going. Moore is a hero in the open source community for his work on Metasploit, and the way he's handle the transition to corporate work. He also reveals exactly what HD stands for.

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