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Comment Another theory (Score 3, Interesting) 222

by sean_nestor (#34697902) Attached to: Wired Responds In Manning Chat Log Controversy
I was at The Next Hope over the summer, where they had Adrian Lamo on a panel along with Emmanuel Goldstein, Kevin Mitnick, BernieS, and Phiber Optik, discussing the ethical issues of becoming an informant. It was obviously a pretty tense panel; Julian Assange was originally supposed to be the keynote speaker the day prior, though obviously he couldn't because by that point he was a wanted man. A lot of people had really, really harsh words for Lamo, and you had to give the guy credit for knowing that and still being willing to show up.

Anyway, at one point during the panel I recall someone asking him how he came to know Manning; his response was that Manning found him after reading a little about him online, and then proceeded share a lot of "personal things" with him. The insinuation seemed to be that it wasn't anything as simple as moral opposition to the war or his role in it; the fact that Lamo left it so open and wouldn't go into details seemed to me that Manning may be gay, and was struggling to deal with being a closeted member of the military under DADT policy. If you check Lamo's Wikipedia page, it classified him as being an "LGBT person from the United States". Maybe Manning spoke at length to Lamo about being a closested homosexual, and the frustrations that came with it, especially being in the military?

I could be way off here, but maybe the reason they don't want to release the logs is more to protect Bradley Manning's right not to be outed, or to have other potentially "embarrassing" things revealed about his private life that are irrelevant to the rest of the case.

Submission + - How The Free Market Rocked The Grid (ieee.org)

Submitted by sean_nestor
sean_nestor writes: Most of us take for granted that the lights will work when we flip them on, without worrying too much about the staggeringly complex things needed to make that happen. Thank the engineers who designed and built the power grids for that—but don't thank them too much. Their main goal was reliability; keeping the cost of electricity down was less of a concern. That's in part why so many people in the United States complain about high electricity prices. Some armchair economists (and a quite a few real ones) have long argued that the solution is deregulation. After all, many other U.S. industries have been deregulated—take, for instance, oil, natural gas, or trucking—and greater competition in those sectors swiftly brought prices down. Why not electricity?
Space

Rogue Satellite Shuts Down US Weather Services 202

Posted by CmdrTaco from the ambush-backstab-vanish dept.
radioweather writes "On Sunday, the drifting rogue 'zombie' Galaxy 15 satellite with a stuck transmitter interfered with the satellite data distribution system used by NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS), effectively shutting down data sharing between NWS offices nationwide, as well as weather support groups for the US Air force. This left many forecasters without data, imagery, and maps. Interference from Galaxy 15 affected transmissions of the SES-1 Satellite, which not only serves NOAA with data relay services, but also is used to feed TV programming into virtually every cable network in the US. NOAA's Network Control Facility reports that the computer system affected was NOAA's Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) used to issue forecasts and weather bulletins which uses the weather data feed. They also state the problem is likely to recur again this month before the satellite drifts out of range and eventually dies due to battery depletion."
Security

Canon's Image Verification System Cracked 118

Posted by Soulskill from the picture-is-worth-a-thousand-lies dept.
TJNoffy writes "The H Security's H-online reports that 'Hacker Dmitry Sklyarov has succeeded in extracting the secret signing key from numerous digital SLR cameras and has used it to sign modified images which Canon's latest OSK-E3 security kit verifies as legitimate. Canon's Original Data Security System is intended to show whether changes have been made to photographs and to verify date and location information. The system is primarily used for ensuring the integrity of evidence, for reporting accidents and for construction records.'"
Networking

Internet Routing, Looming Disaster? 109

Posted by CmdrTaco from the fear-the-packets dept.
wiredmikey writes "The Internet's leading architects have considered the rapid growth and fragmentation of core routing tables one of the most significant threats to the long-term stability and scalability of the Internet. In April 2010, about 15% of the world's Internet traffic was hijacked by a set of servers owned by China Telecom. In the technical world, this is typically called a prefix hijack, and it happened due to a couple of wrong tweaks made at China Telecom. Whether this was intentional or not is unknown, but such routing accidents are all too common online. While BGP is the de-facto protocol for inter-domain routing on the Internet, actual routing occurs without checking whether the originator of the route is authorized to do so. The global routing system itself is made up of autonomous systems (AS) which are simply loosely interconnected routing domains. Each autonomous system decides, unilaterally, and even arbitrarily, to trust everything it hears from any other AS, to use that information without validation, and to further transmit that information to its other peers..."

Comment ©ontrol (Score 2, Interesting) 919

by sean_nestor (#34388870) Attached to: DDoS Attack On Wikileaks Increasing
Fight the power and the power will fight back!
You're only as good as the system you hack;
If you become a problem you will be replaced--
banned, shut down, erased!

The world has capsized, gone erratic
Constitutional rights have dissolved into static
The truth is based on misinformation--
reality is only a hallucination!

-MDFMK, ©ontrol
Privacy

Web-Users Fall For Fake Anti-Virus Scams 272

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i-use-magnum-xl-av dept.
jhernik writes "Fearing their computers may be prone to viruses, many web-users download fake anti-virus software, only to find later that their bank details have been hacked. According to the latest research by GetSafeOnline.org, the UK's national internet security initiative, a rising nunber of organised criminal gangs are tricking security-conscious intenet-users into purchasing anti-virus software to access their bank details. Posing as legitimate IT helpdesks, these fraudsters target internet users concerned about protecting their computers. By offering free virus checks, they normally tell consumers that their machines are infected and offer fake security software protection – usually costing around £30 – which is actually malicious software in disguise." The fact that there is such a thriving market for fake AV scams really says something about the present state of the legitimate AV market.
Businesses

What's the Oracle Trial Against SAP Really About? 160

Posted by CmdrTaco from the all-about-the-benjamins dept.
Ponca City writes "Chris O'Brien writes in the Merucry News that Larry Ellison's lawsuit against bitter rival SAP gives Ellison the opportunity to deliver the final humiliation to his company's greatest foe of the past decade while sending a blunt message to Oracle's next great enemy, Hewlett-Packard: 'This is who you are fighting. This is how determined we are to win. Get ready.' O'Brien writes that it's a crafty bit of psychological warfare that is already having the desired effect. When Oracle decided to subpoena former SAP CEO Léo Apotheker after he was appointed president and CEO of HP, Apotheker decided to stay out of the country to avoid testifying so now we have the bizarre spectacle of the new CEO of the largest technology company in the world unable to show his face in Silicon Valley. Ellison loves to fight. In gaining control of PeopleSoft, Ellison demonstrated the love of combat and confrontation that has made him one of the wealthiest men on the planet. He waged an 18-month hostile takeover bid to acquire the company, and fought off an effort by the US Department of Justice to torpedo the deal. 'Oracle probably could have settled this case [with SAP],' writes O'Brien. 'But why pass up a glorious chance to subpoena Apotheker and send your new opponent running in circles?'"
Lord of the Rings

Hobbit Film Finally Gets Green Light, To Be Shot in 3-D 261

Posted by timothy from the lighter-fare dept.
An anonymous reader writes with word that "after much kerfuffle and uncertainty, the Hobbit film has finally been greenlit," with Peter Jackson as director. Says the linked story: "The announcement did not state whether the two-part prequel to The Lord of the Rings would be shot in New Zealand. Matt Dravitzki, Jackson's assistant at Wingnut Films, said an annoucement on the place of filming would be 'probably a week or two away.'"
The Internet

Bookmark Synchronizer Xmarks Hangs Up Their Hats 225

Posted by CmdrTaco from the marked-for-death dept.
krulgar writes "On January 10, 2011, Xmarks will be closing their doors. A free service being replaced by free software. It would still be nice to have a single way to keep my bookmarks from my work machine in sync with my home machines and my mobile devices without exerting much effort. Xmarks seemed to be the only ones with that clear vision, maybe the replacement tools can grow into this space, but it's still a little sad to see a useful tool wave goodbye."

Submission + - Xmarks closing down (xmarks.com)

Submitted by JLangbridge
JLangbridge writes: After years of service, 2 million users and 5 million browsers synchronised, Xmarks will be closing down, unable to gain the money necessary to keep surviving, and being squeezed out of business by other synchronisation software. Automated emails have been sent out saying goodbye, giving a service termination date (Jan 10) and providing a few links to other synchronisation software.
Firefox

Submission + - Xmarks To Shut Down in January 2011 1

Submitted by
BarneyRabble
BarneyRabble writes: "The cross browser bookmark sync application Xmarks, is shutting down as of January 2011. The site is stating that even through advertising, they could no longer support their business model. Further information can be found here.(http://www.xmarks.com/about/shutdown) All data from sync, including bookmarks, passwords, etcetera, will be wiped from their servers, and they ask that you start now to use other applications."
Earth

Global Warming 'Undeniable,' Report Says 1657

Posted by CmdrTaco from the they-can't-fool-pudge dept.
BergZ writes "Scientists from around the world are providing even more evidence of global warming. 'A comprehensive review of key climate indicators confirms the world is warming and the past decade was the warmest on record,' the annual State of the Climate report declares. Compiled by more than 300 scientists from 48 countries, including Canada, the report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said its analysis of 10 indicators that are 'clearly and directly related to surface temperatures, all tell the same story: Global warming is undeniable.'"

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