4chan Has Been DDOSed 710
An anonymous reader writes "According to the 4chan status page all of the 4chan boards have been DDOSed and are down."
Mozilla Posts File Containing Registered User Data 154
wiredmikey writes "Mozilla yesterday sent an email to registered users of its addons.mozilla.org site, letting them know that it had mistakenly posted a file to a publicly available Web server which contained data from its user database including email addresses, first and last names, and an md5 hash representation of user passwords."
Comment Re:Start with a good hosts file (Score 1) 742
Unless you are going to do a whitelist approach I would use the hosts file to address adware/crapware issues and then use a content filter to address porn/mature content. If you want to go the whitelist route I'd use OpenDNS or DansGuardian since they both have that capability and then you don't need to worry about the hosts file.
Comment Re:Huh? (Score 1) 742
Because it's worth the time to have them start learning what is possible. All my kids, except the youngest ( 2 y/o) work on the computer for school and recreation. They all also go outside and engage with the bright orb of the sky. It is possible to do both and not be any poorer for it. I spent some time at the kids track that was organized for RubyConf a couple of weeks ago and while much of the stuff was too much for my six year old, she still really liked hanging around and doing what her dad does as best she could. She even went home and played "geek conference" with her siblings afterwards, keynote presentation and all. Not to mention all my kids love seeing what can be done with an Arduino. I got started programming not much older than my oldest daughter is now and I was in Boy Scouts, so I spent plenty of time going back and forth between equally fulfilling activities that exposed me to a broader range of what is out there to do and enjoy.
Comment Start with a good hosts file (Score 2, Informative) 742
Whether you keep him using Windows or load up a flavor of Linux I'd put a good hosts file on there to block adware and other known sources of crapware. Beyond that, you could setup something like Dans Guardian or set the machine to use filtered DNS services, such as OpenDNS. If you are gonna keep Windows on there then there are tons of commercial filtering products out there, all the stuff I mentioned is free.
Comment My Test Suite (Score 1) 200
I use the output of my test suite. Between the unit, functional and integration tests this provides a great specification of what my software is suppose to do and what the various internal APIs are. And the great thing about the test suite is that I can prove to a certain degree that the software conforms to the spec because the spec itself is executable and actually exercises the software. Specs that you can't prove are accurate are useless anyways, write a good test suite and use testing tools that output human readable results. Since I work in Ruby predominantly those tools would be mini-test, test-unit, rspec and cucumber.
Comment It depends...on a lot (Score 2, Interesting) 897
I'm a Ruby developer in New Orleans, LA and I wouldn't want it any other way here in this city. My skills are in high demand, but that is the state of things here in New Orleans. There is demand for other language developers, mostly PHP, but not nearly the quality of jobs as what is available for a Ruby developer. I suspect that the right answer to this question is highly contingent on the place where one wants to live and work. In San Francisco I know the situation is even more exaggerated than it is in New Orleans with Ruby developers being even more highly in demand.
The answer to this question is always to look around and see what is needed where you are. If you want to move then look at what is in demand where you'd like to move to. In either case, answer the market by adapting your skills. And why choose one language when you could choose multiple. Be a polyglot and pick up Python, Ruby and Erlang. Paired with a knowledge of C/C++ and Java those five languages should keep you in demand in most major markets. PHP developers are a dime a dozen, and the pay reflects that. Only the best PHP developers make good money, and even then I've found it more lucrative to know Perl, than PHP.
But that is just what I know.
Submission + - Videos of a TSA Encounter at SAN (blogspot.com)
Concerned Citizen writes: You now must choose between being groped by a stranger or going through an electronic strip search, as evidenced by this encounter one person had with the TSA at San Diego International Airport, which he managed to videotape. And despite claims to the contrary, they have already been caught saving the scanner's images to humiliate people. If you really want to be creeped out, though, just imagine how many pedophiles have tried to get a job there, hoping to get a peep at your kids.
Submission + - The Reason Why Netflix isn't on Android (tekgoblin.com)
tekgoblin writes: Users have been waiting for Netflix to arrive on Android devices since it has appeared on Apple's iOS devices. Well they may have to wait quite a bit longer for a native app. What has been holding them back is the lack of security on Android devices more importantly DRM.
Submission + - Ears Could Make Better Unique IDs (wired.com)
An anonymous reader writes: On a planet hosting 6.7 billion human beings, having proof you’re unique is of tantamount importance. The ear, it turns out, may be the best identification yet.
Through a new shape-finding algorithm called “image ray transform,” which boasts 99.6 percent accuracy, according to a study presented at the IEEE Fourth International Conference on Biometrics Sept. 29, the outer ear may prove to be one of the most accurate and least intrusive ways to identify people.
Fingerprint databases of U.S. government agencies alone store the records of more than 100 million people, but prints can rub off or callous over during hard or repetitive labor. With the advent of computer vision, researchers and identification industries are seeking easier and more robust biometrics to get their hands on.
The technology can identify an ear time after time with 99.6 percent accuracy. It works by unleashing a ray-producing algorithm on an image to seek out curved features. When a ray finds one, the software draws over the part and repeats the analysis. In a few hundred or thousand cycles, it cleanly paints the ear more than any other face structure.
Nixon and Cummings acknowledged some limitations of the system, including hair covering the ears, less-than-ideal lighting conditions, and different IDs generated from different angles. And using the ear as a biometric isn’t without critics.
“I have seen no scientific proof that the ear doesn’t change significantly over time. People tend to believe notions like these, and they are repeated over time,” said Anil Jain, a computer scientist at Michigan State University who was not involved in the study. “Fingerprinting has a history of 100 years showing that it works, unless you destroy your fingerprints or work in an industry that gives you calluses.”
Through a new shape-finding algorithm called “image ray transform,” which boasts 99.6 percent accuracy, according to a study presented at the IEEE Fourth International Conference on Biometrics Sept. 29, the outer ear may prove to be one of the most accurate and least intrusive ways to identify people.
Fingerprint databases of U.S. government agencies alone store the records of more than 100 million people, but prints can rub off or callous over during hard or repetitive labor. With the advent of computer vision, researchers and identification industries are seeking easier and more robust biometrics to get their hands on.
The technology can identify an ear time after time with 99.6 percent accuracy. It works by unleashing a ray-producing algorithm on an image to seek out curved features. When a ray finds one, the software draws over the part and repeats the analysis. In a few hundred or thousand cycles, it cleanly paints the ear more than any other face structure.
Nixon and Cummings acknowledged some limitations of the system, including hair covering the ears, less-than-ideal lighting conditions, and different IDs generated from different angles. And using the ear as a biometric isn’t without critics.
“I have seen no scientific proof that the ear doesn’t change significantly over time. People tend to believe notions like these, and they are repeated over time,” said Anil Jain, a computer scientist at Michigan State University who was not involved in the study. “Fingerprinting has a history of 100 years showing that it works, unless you destroy your fingerprints or work in an industry that gives you calluses.”
Submission + - National Opt-Out Day Called Against Body Scanners (wired.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Air travelers, mark your calendar. An activist opposed to the new invasive body scanners in use at airports around the country just designated Wednesday, Nov. 24 as a National Opt-Out Day. He’s encouraging airline passengers to decline the TSA’s technological strip searches en masse on that day as a protest against the scanners, as well as the new “enhanced pat-downs” inflicted on refuseniks.
The goal of National Opt-Out Day is to send a message to our lawmakers that we demand change,” reads the call to action at OptOutDay.com, set up by Brian Sodegren. “No naked body scanners, no government-approved groping. We have a right to privacy, and buying a plane ticket should not mean that we’re guilty until proven innocent.”
The U.S. Airline Pilots Association and other pilot groups have urged their members to avoid the scanners and have also condemned the new pat-down policy as humiliating to pilots. They’ve advised pilots who don’t feel comfortable undergoing pat-downs in front of passengers to request they be conducted in a private room. Any pilots who don’t feel comfortable after undergoing a pat-down have been encouraged to “call in sick and remove themselves from the trip.”
The goal of National Opt-Out Day is to send a message to our lawmakers that we demand change,” reads the call to action at OptOutDay.com, set up by Brian Sodegren. “No naked body scanners, no government-approved groping. We have a right to privacy, and buying a plane ticket should not mean that we’re guilty until proven innocent.”
The U.S. Airline Pilots Association and other pilot groups have urged their members to avoid the scanners and have also condemned the new pat-down policy as humiliating to pilots. They’ve advised pilots who don’t feel comfortable undergoing pat-downs in front of passengers to request they be conducted in a private room. Any pilots who don’t feel comfortable after undergoing a pat-down have been encouraged to “call in sick and remove themselves from the trip.”
Submission + - Oracle and Apple to join forces in OpenJDK project
CheerfulMacFanboy writes: According to The H "Apple plans to contribute to the OpenJDK project and has joined forces with Oracle to create an open source Java implementation for Mac OS X. After IBM in October, Apple is the second Java protagonist to join Oracle's efforts to promote the OpenJDK. The decision also indicates a shift in Apple's Java strategy, as it means that the vendor has – with or without intention – complied with a petition by Java enthusiasts to hand over its Java components to the OpenJDK project." Unless of course that was Apple's plan all along.
Comment Sometimes you need real hardware (Score 5, Interesting) 114
They missed the fact that RackSpace offers hybrid cloud options that Amazon just can't match at this point. Got IO issues? So did GitHub when they were running on Amazon's infrastructure. Know how they solved it? They moved to Rackspace and married the cloud for front-end with physical hardware for their IO intense workloads. It seems to me these guys may just be naive. They've probably only sidestepped their problems for now.
Comment Re:Sorry, What?? (Score 1) 571
You think a massive influx of government spending is a good thing? That's where massive deficits come from since the government always spends beyond its income/revenues and "stimulus" spending is always borrowed money on top of the normal budget. The problem is that we've created a culture where we think we can spend our way out of problems. We do it at a personal level thinking: well I can always declare bankruptcy if I rack up too much debt and don't get that promotion/new job/whatever. And we've now done it on governmental levels from the municipality up to the national stage.
What we are facing is a debt crisis that needs to be dealt with soon. We need to stop new spending, stabilize taxes for the time being and then start taking a hard look at the numbers and figure out how to reduce the national debt load. That may mean increases in taxes for everybody (not just those making over $250k), but a faster way would be to cut spending and allocate the difference to paying the people we owe the money to.
Both Republicans and Democrats have been part of the problem. We need to run all the idiots out on a rail and elect replacements who are fiscally conservative first and foremost and are willing to lay any other issues aside until we fix the problem our government has with borrowing way more than it can sustain.
Submission + - KDE 4.5.0 Released
An anonymous reader writes: After 6 months of development concentraing on performance, polish, and bug-fixing, KDE 4.5.0 is ready for the general public. See the release announcement for more information.
