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Submission + - The Problem of "Teaching the Controversy" in Infosec

MrBingoBoingo writes: Recently a group calling itself No Such lAbs created a service called the Phuctor and began digesting an sks keyserver dump and began finding weak keys, beginning with a subkey attached to Kernel developer hpa's key which was divisible by three. In the aftermath discussion of the issue was hijacked by social engineers who immediately set to growing a controversy and instead of discussing how to mitigate similar issues in the future or identify the problem tat created this scenario, insisted there was no problem at all.

Submission + - "Eco-friendly" Buffett Seeks to "Squash" Nevada Rooftop Solar (bloomberg.com)

schwit1 writes: Warren Buffett highlights how his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. utilities make massive investments in renewable energy. Meanwhile, in Nevada, the company is fighting a plan that would encourage more residents to use green power.

Berkshire's NV Energy, the state's dominant utility, opposes the proposal to increase a cap on the amount of energy that can be generated with solar panels by residents who sell power back to the grid in a practice known as net metering.

While the billionaire's famed holding company has reaped tax credits from investing in wind farms and solar arrays, net metering is often seen by utilities as a threat. Buffett wants his managers to protect competitive advantages, said Jeff Matthews, an investor and author of books about Berkshireâ¦

In an April presentation to investors, NV Energy laid out its strategy for addressing the growth of home solar. The utility said it would "lobby to hold the subsidized net-metering cap at current 3 percent of peak demand"...

Sellers of rooftop-solar panels are pushing Nevada legislators to raise the cap, and one plan called for the ceiling to be lifted to 10 percent. Nevada State Senator Patricia Farleysaid she is proposing that Nevada's utility regulator study the issue before lawmakers act.

"Across the country the utility industry is pressuring regulators and elected officials to limit solar energy's growth, and the same thing is happening in Nevada," said Gabe Elsner, executive director of the Energy & Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based clean energy think tank. "NV Energy is trying to protect their monopoly by squashing competitors."

The bottom line: it's all about the bottom line for Buffett.

Submission + - Satellites make a load of difference to bridge safety (esa.int)

__roo writes: In an effort to detect crumbling infrastructure before it causes damage and costs lives, the European Space Agency is working with the UK’s University of Nottingham to monitor the movements of large structures as they happen using satellite navigation sensors. The team uses highly sensitive satnav receivers that transmit real-time data to detect movements as small as 1 cm combined with historical Earth observation satellite data. By placing sensors at key locations on the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland, they detected stressed structural members and unexpected deformations.

Submission + - FTC Recommends Conditions for Sale of RadioShack Customer Data (itworld.com)

itwbennett writes: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has weighed in on the contentious issue of the proposed sale of consumer data by bankrupt retailer RadioShack, recommending that a model be adopted based on a settlement the agency reached with failed online toy retailer Toysmart.com. Jessica L. Rich, director of the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection, said in a letter to a court-appointed consumer privacy ombudsman that the agency’s concerns about the transfer of customer information inconsistent with RadioShack’s privacy promises 'would be greatly diminished' if certain conditions were met, including that the data was not sold standalone, and if the buyer is engaged in substantially the same lines of business as RadioShack, and expressly agrees to be bound by and adhere to the privacy policies.

Submission + - Genetically engineered yeast makes it possible to brew morphine (nytimes.com)

PvtVoid writes: The New York times reports that newly developed yeast strains will soon make it possible to create morphine from fermentation of sugar:

This rapid progress in synthetic biology has set off a debate about how — and whether — to regulate it. Dr. Oye and other experts said this week in a commentary in Nature Chemical Biology that drug-regulatory authorities are ill prepared to control a process that will benefit the heroin trade much more than the prescription painkiller industry. The world should take steps to head that off, they argue, by locking up the bioengineered yeast strains and restricting access to the DNA that would let drug cartels reproduce them.

Submission + - Swedish Supreme Court Upholds Warrant For Julian Assange (clickondetroit.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Sweden's Supreme Court recently granted a hearing for Julian Assange's appeal of the warrant issued to apprehend and deport him to Sweden for questioning. The court saw no valid reason to withdraw the warrant so it remains in force, and Julian Assange is still a wanted man. Assange's lawyer has stated that they now plan to appeal to international courts. Assange's lawyer stated that, "the Swedish court had not taken into account "unjustified" delays in the case and the "de facto" detention of Assange, who would be arrested if he ventured outside the embassy where he has been holed up for three years." The prospects for success of the "runaway defence" remains an open question.

Submission + - Linux Dev's Purported 4096 bit RSA Key Factored 1

An anonymous reader writes: A PGP subkey for Kernel developer Peter Anvin from a public Sks Keyserver was discovered to be divisible by 3. The weak key was discovered by a web service which calls itself the Phuctor which has since factored two other keys as a chews on an sks keyserver dump. Whether the key was generated weak or if it was strong before becoming corrupted on a keyserver it is extremely troubling that such a weak key representing such an important Linux developer could be served.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot best way to solve a unique networking issue

petro-tech writes: I work as a service technician, maintaining and repairing gas pumps and POS equipment.

In my day to day activities, one that consumes a ton of time and is relatively regular is the process of upgrading the software on pumps.
This is done by connecting to the pump via direct ethernet from my laptop, then running a manufacturer provided program that connects to the device and pushes the new software.

Some sites have 8+ pumps with 2 devices in each, and at 20-30 minutes apiece this can be quite time consuming.

Unfortunately the devices are not actually on a network, and as such cannot be updated remotely, also since they are not on a network, they are all configured with the same IP address. Additionally the software doesn't allow you to specify the adapter to use.

I would like to be able to get to a site, connect a cable to each pump, and load them all at the same time.

The only way I can figure to accomplish this with the software we've been provided is to do this:

Get a 16 port powered usb hub, with a usb-ethernet adaptor in each port. Set up 16 VM's with extremely stripped down XP running on each, with only one usb-ethernet adaptor assigned to each VM. Set xp to boot the application for loading software as its shell. and load each device that way at the same time.

Is there a better way to accomplish this?

Comment Re:Because of the action of a few ... (Score 1) 195

I wasn't aiming at the Bible specifically, nor at theologists, most of whom are capable of entertaining in their thoughts interpretations they don't believe in. Quite the opposite, I wish more people would care enough to study at least some theology, and I find an alarming number of secular agnostics and atheists are just as blind or lazy.

Comment Re:Because of the action of a few ... (Score 5, Insightful) 195

Yet more accurately: faith is the very essence of 'not being able to realize when you're wrong'. Faith is about stopping yourself from questionning your beliefs. Nothing could be more antethical to the pursuit of truth and good.

Good, bad, whatever you're doing, if you can pause and ask yourself whether what you're doing is good or bad then you're already far above the basic zealots who won't pause nor ask themselves. And by zealot, I also mean the ordinary everyday-man, the Eichmann-sort that have faith in public/democratic authority figures, be they secular or religious.

Being a cop doesn't turn someone into a bully

You might want to review the Stanford Prison experiment. Giving someone power over other people and little accountability DOES turn people into bullies.

Comment Re:Not law yet (Score 5, Informative) 195

In any case, the french hosting company altern.org has announced it is definitely moving to Norway.

Their CEO left this message on their main page, here it is translated:

Altern shuts its doors... again

Following the voting of the secret services law in the National Assembly yesterday #PJLRenseignement, the webhosting company Altern closes its services while moving abroad.

For twenty years Altern.org helped make free speech rights a reality for citizens and residents of this country. During these years political leaders, corporate representatives and assorted top brass of any kind never ceased their efforts at ending this happy period of liberty that the Internet had started.

We did get plenty of laughs as they scrambled around trying to roll back the sea with Maginot lines of the likes of the Hadopi.
But today they got the upper hand by forcing us, by law, to install at the heart of our infrastructures "black box" analysers under the sole control of secret services.
This grip on telecom services induces self-censorship of our public expression and annihilates our privacy on the Internet.

For us just one day under global surveillance is one day too many.
Altern.org refuses these secret services black boxes, shuts its doors immediately, and will reopen them in a few days from another country that is more respective of individual liberties.

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