Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

+ - Gladiator Training Prison Discovered->

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes "Gladiators had it rough. In addition to living a life of combat and bloodshed, archaeologists are finding that they were imprisoned in training schools, too. A study published online yesterday in Antiquity describes the discovery of a fortress near Vienna, with a practice arena, small cells to sleep in, and an infirmary. The facility was mapped with noninvasive earth-sensing technologies and had only one exit. There’s also a video overview of the facility."
Link to Original Source

+ - Texas Appeals Court Rules Phone Search After Arrest Violates 4th Amendment->

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes ""... we reject the State Prosecuting Attorney’s argument that a modern-day cell phone is like a pair of pants or a bag of groceries, for which a person loses all privacy protection once it is checked into a jail property room."

The Fourth Amendment states that “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated.” The term “papers and effects” obviously carried a different connotation in the late eighteenth century than it does today. No longer are they stored only in desks, cabinets, satchels, and folders. Our most private information is now frequently stored in electronic devices such as computers, laptops, iPads, and cell phones, or in “the cloud” and accessible by those electronic devices. But the “central concern underlying the Fourth Amendment” has remained the same throughout the centuries; it is “the concern about giving police officers unbridled discretion to rummage at will among a person’s private effects. ” This is a case about rummaging through a citizen’s electronic private effects–a cell phone–without warrant."
Link to Original Source

+ - I need an anti-camera device for use in a small bus. 5

Submitted by Paul server guy
Paul server guy writes "I am building a limousine bus, and the owners want to prevent occupants from using cameras on board. (but would like the cameras mounted on the bus to continue to operate. I think they would consider this optional.) They would also like to do it without having to wear any "Anti-paparazzi" clothing. (because they also want to protect the other guests on board.)
They would like to do this without destroying the cameras. (So no EMP generators please)
We've done some testing with high power IR, but that proved ineffective. Several active emitters would be fine.
Does anyone have any ideas that they are willing to share? We will pay for a functional device."

+ - Windows 8 Has Surpassed 200 Million Licenses Sold 2

Submitted by SmartAboutThings
SmartAboutThings writes "Back in March, 2013, we knew that the number of Windows 8 sold copies was somewhere near sixty millions, nearing almost 100 in the middle of last year. Now, Microsoft has confirmed that there are now more than 200 million Windows 8 sold licenses. The information was first made available by Tami Reller, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Marketing during Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference. The number includes Windows licenses that ship on a new tablet or PC, as well as upgrades to Windows 8 but does not include volume license sales to enterprise."

+ - Critics Reassess 'Starship Troopers' as a Misunderstood Masterpiece 2

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Calum Marsh writes in The Atlantic that when Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers hit theaters 16 years ago today, American critics slammed it as a “crazed, lurid spectacle” featuring “raunchiness tailor-made for teen-age boys" and “a nonstop splatterfest so devoid of taste and logic that it makes even the most brainless summer blockbuster look intelligent.” But now the reputation of the movie based on Robert Heinlein's Hugo award winning novel is beginning to improve as critics begin to recognize the film as a critique of the military-industrial complex, the jingoism of American foreign policy, and a culture that privileges reactionary violence over sensitivity and reason. "Starship Troopers is satire, a ruthlessly funny and keenly self-aware sendup of right-wing militarism," writes Marsh. "The fact that it was and continues to be taken at face value speaks to the very vapidity the movie skewers." The movie has rightfully come to be appreciated by some as an unsung masterpiece. Coming in at number 20 on Slant Magazine’s list of the 100 best films of the 1990s last year, the site’s Phil Coldiron described it as “one of the greatest of all anti-imperialist films,” a parody of Hollywood form whose superficial “badness” is central to its critique. "That concept is stiob, which I'll crudely define as a form of parody requiring such a degree of over-identification with the subject being parodied that it becomes impossible to tell where the love for that subject ends and the parody begins," writes Coldiron. "If you’re prepared for the rigor and intensity of Verhoeven’s approach—you’ll get the joke Starship Troopers is telling," says Marsh. "And you’ll laugh.""

+ - Withhold Passwords From Your Employer, Go to Jail?->

Submitted by ericgoldman
ericgoldman writes "Terry Childs was a network engineer in San Francisco, and he was the only employee with passwords to the network. After he was fired, he withheld the passwords from his former employer, preventing his employer from controlling its own network. Recently, a California appeals court upheld his conviction for violating California's computer crime law, including a 4 year jail sentence and $1.5 million of restitution. The ruling provides a good cautionary tale for anyone who thinks they can gain leverage over their employer or increase job security by controlling key passwords."
Link to Original Source

+ - Owners report that new Dell laptops 'have cat urine smell'->

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes "A number of Dell users have complained that their Latitude 6430u Ultrabooks "smell of cat urine".


Dell engineers have ruled out biological contamination, and said the smell was not a health hazard. The problem lay in the manufacturing process, which has now been changed, the company said.


"A few weeks ago I got a new Lattitude 6430u for work," one user called Three West complained on Dell's hardware support forum. "The machine is great, but it smells as if it was assembled near a tomcat's litter box. It is truly awful!"


Another customer, Hoteca, said: "I thought for sure one of my cats sprayed it, but there was something faulty with it so I had it replaced. The next one had the same exact issue. It's embarrassing taking it to clients because it smells so bad.""
Link to Original Source

+ - Toyota's Killer Firmware-> 1

Submitted by Smerta
Smerta writes "On Thursday, a jury verdict found Toyota's ECU firmware defective, holding it responsible for a crash in which a passenger was killed and the driver injured. What's significant about this is that this is the first time a jury heard about software defects uncovered by plaintiff's expert witnesses. An interesting summary of the defects discussed at trial is interesting reading, as well the transcript of court testimony. Wonder what the impact will be on self-driving cars?"
Link to Original Source

+ - How I compiled TrueCrypt for Windows and matched the official binaries-> 1

Submitted by xavier2dc
xavier2dc writes "TrueCrypt is a popular software enabling data protection by means of encryption for all categories of users. It is getting even more attention lately following the revelations of the NSA as the authors remain anonymous and no thorough security audit have yet been conducted to prove it is not backdoored in any way. This has led several concerns raised in different places, such as this blog post (http://www.privacylover.com/encryption/analysis-is-there-a-backdoor-in-truecrypt-is-truecrypt-a-cia-honeypot/), this one (http://brianpuccio.net/excerpts/is_truecrypt_really_safe_to_use), this security analysis (https://www.privacy-cd.org/downloads/truecrypt_7.0a-analysis-en.pdf) also related on that blog post (http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2013/10/lets-audit-truecrypt.html) from which the IsTrueCryptAuditedYet? (http://istruecryptauditedyet.com/) was born.

One of the recurring questions is: What if the binaries provided on the website were different than the source code and they included hidden features? To address this issue, I built the software from the official sources in a careful way and was able to match the officials binaries. According to my findings, all three recent major versions (v7.1a, v7.0a, v6.3a) exactly match the sources."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:404 on link (Score 1) 5

by damacus (#45224285) Attached to: HealthCare.gov Developers Run Into Hostile Legacy Systems

"Don't say anything until we can form a CYA Committee - not that those proles would understand it anyway!"

No, really though, I think some of the efforts would be heroic in nature. I would be interested in knowing how many agencies / companies / systems they have to integrate with, and how much push-back the people developing the system have had to deal with. Pretty sure there's a story there.

Unrelated, I'm not sure with rjmarvin's fascination with Cones of Shame is all about.

+ - ownCloud Documents 6 will contain collaborative web office->

Submitted by ingwa
ingwa writes "Frank Karlitschek, the founder of the ownCloud project, blogged today about how the next release of ownCloud will contain a collaborative web office. This means that ownCloud will start to rival Google apps for real from now on. ownCloud Documents uses WebODF for the underlying technology, which means that we may finally have a free alternative to Google apps that will not upload all the data to the American authorities."
Link to Original Source

+ - Tesla Underground: Model S Owners Jump Through Hoops to Skirt Wacky Texas Rules-> 1

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes "Texas is known for having the nation's most draconian anti-Tesla rules, based on intense and cash-rich lobbying and political donations by Texas car dealers. What's amazing is what would-be Tesla owners still have to do to get their hands on--and maintain--a Tesla Model S. How do you buy a car the laws try to stop you from owning? By jumping through wacky hoops, it turns out. Tesla store staff, for example, can't tell visitors how much a Model S costs. They can't give test drives, and they can't discuss financing options. Tesla service centers are banned from showing the company logo--or advertising that they do Tesla warranty work or service at all. So how have 1,000 Model S cars been sold? That would be sheer persistence."
Link to Original Source

+ - Call Yourself A Hacker, Lose Your 4th Amendment Rights->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "As described on the DigitalBond blog, a security researcher was subjected to a court ordered search in which a lack of pre-notification was premised on his self description as a "hacker". From the court order, "The tipping point for the Court comes from evidence that the defendants – in their own words – are hackers. By labeling themselves this way, they have essentially announced that they have the necessary computer skills and intent to simultaneously release the code publicly and conceal their role in that act. ""
Link to Original Source

+ - Experian sold social security numbers to ID Theft Service

Submitted by realized
realized writes "Experian — one of the three national US credit bureaus — reportedly sold SSNs through its subsidiary, Court Ventures, to the operators of SuperGet.info who then offered all of the information online for a price. The website would advertise having "99% to 100% of all USA" in their database on websites frequented by carders.

Hieu Minh Ngo, the website owner, has recently been charged with 15-count indictment filed under seal in November 2012, charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, substantive wire fraud, conspiracy to commit identity fraud, substantive identity fraud, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit access device fraud, and substantive access device fraud."

Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it. -- Perlis's Programming Proverb #58, SIGPLAN Notices, Sept. 1982

Close