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Comment: hardware-beta.slashdot.org (Score 1) 93

by tepples (#46477691) Attached to: Amazon Hikes Prime Membership Fee

Via hosts & this single line -> 216.34.181.45 beta.slashdot.org

Until you get redirected to hostnames like hardware-beta.slashdot.org, games-beta.slashdot.org, etc. One limit of hosts files is that unlike zone files, hosts files can't match wildcards. I appreciate your work on DNS blacklist tools, but eventually there comes a time for a more flexible way of specifying overrides than hosts file syntax. Ever considered writing your own DNS resolver? (ObAmazon: You might even be able to provide it as a service using Amazon's cloud.)

a moronic troll like YOURSELF

Ad homs like this don't help your cause.

(Digression posted without bonus.)

Comment: Carriers are starting to itemize hardware (Score 1) 60

by tepples (#46477537) Attached to: Microsoft Dumping License Fees For Windows Phone?

Because of the discounts offered by the networks (in exchange for locking you into a contract), you are a very small minority.

These discounts for not bringing your own device are on their way out. Instead, the U.S. model has begun to shift toward the European model where the phone and plan are itemized as separate purchases. Instead of $20 per month subsidy spread over 24 months of a $70 per month contract, there's a $20 line item for the financed hardware and a $50 line item for the service. MVNOs were first to bring this model to the States, followed by T-Mobile, and three months ago even AT&T cut the price for BYOD and expired-contract customers to keep T-Mobile and the MVNOs from eating its proverbial lunch.

Government

What If the Next Presidential Limo Was a Tesla? 27

Posted by timothy
from the anything-that'll-turn-into-a-pumpkin-please dept.
cartechboy writes "The presidential limo is known as "The Beast," and it's getting to be about that time where it's replaced. Currently The Beast is a General Motors creation with a Cadillac badge, but what if the next presidential limo was a Tesla? Stick with me here. The Beast is a massive vehicle, which means there would be plenty of room in the structure to have a long battery pack a la Model S. Plus, it could use the upcoming Model X's all-wheel-drive system. Tesla's air suspension would keep it from encountering high-centering issues. There could even be a charging port on both the front and back so a battery truck could hook up while driving, like in-flight refueling. Obviously the battery pack would need to have extra protection so it wouldn't have any issues with road debris, but that's a minor issue. Tesla is an American company, and that's a requirement for The Beast. So is it that far fetched to think the next presidential limo could be a Tesla?"

+ - NSA's "QUANTUM" hack's IRC and HTTP-based criminal botnets.

Submitted by realized
realized writes "From the article:

“Today QUANTUM packs a suite of attack tools, including both DNS injection (upgrading the man-on-the-side to a man-in-the-middle, allowing bogus certificates and similar routines to break SSL) and HTTP injection. That reasonable enough. But it also includes gadgets like a plug-in to inject into MySQL connections, allowing the NSA to quietly mess with the contents of a third-party’s database. (This also surprisingly suggests that unencrypted MySQL on the internet is common enough to attract NSA attention.)”"
Communications

FISA Court Reverses Order To Destroy NSA Phone Data 23

Posted by timothy
from the rule-of-men-and-not-of-law dept.
itwbennett writes "The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has temporarily reversed its earlier order that call records collected by the National Security Agency should be destroyed after the current five-year limit. The court modified its stand after a District Court in California on Monday ordered the government to retain phone records it collects in bulk from telecommunications carriers, as the metadata could be required as evidence in two civil lawsuits that challenge the NSA's phone records program under section 215 of the Patriot Act."

+ - Google Flu Trends gets it wrong three years running->

Submitted by wabrandsma
wabrandsma writes "From NewScientist:

Google may be a master at data wrangling, but one of its products has been making bogus data-driven predictions. A study of Google's much-hyped flu tracker has consistently overestimated flu cases in the US for years. It's a failure that highlights the danger of relying on big data technologies.

Evan Selinger, a technology ethicist at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, says Google Flu's failures hint at a larger problem with the algorithmic approach taken by technology companies to deliver services we all want to use. The problem is with the assumption that either the data that is gathered about us, or the algorithms used to process it, are neutral.

Google Flu Trends has been discussed at slashdot before: When Google Got Flu Wrong."
Link to Original Source
Windows

Microsoft Dumping License Fees For Windows Phone? 60

Posted by timothy
from the as-price-approaches-zero dept.
Nerval's Lobster writes "For years, Microsoft remained adamant about its licensing fees for Windows Phone: if a smartphone manufacturer wanted to include the software on its devices, it would need to pay Microsoft a certain amount per unit. That was a logical strategy for Microsoft, which became a very big company thanks to licensing fees for Windows and other platforms. Unlike some of those other products, however, Windows Phone has struggled for adoption in its marketplace, which is dominated by Apple and Google. In response, suggests the Times of India, Microsoft may have dumped licensing fees for two Indian smartphone makers, Karbonn and Lava (Xolo). Microsoft's biggest rival, Google, gives its Android mobile operating system away for free, a maneuver that helped it gain spectacular market-share in a relatively short amount of time. If Microsoft pursues a similar strategy in different markets, it could encourage more smartphone manufacturers to produce Windows Phone devices, which could increase the platform's market-share—but there are no guarantees that scenario will actually play out. The smartphone market is increasingly saturated, and Microsoft's opponents have no intention of allowing Windows Phone to gain any ground."

+ - Most Private Way to Google/Search the Web?-> 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Fightforthefuture has a new video, Reset the Net https://www.youtube.com/watch?..., in the comments on Youtube I stumbled across a search option that seems good for an innocent person like myself who isn't searching for bad stuff but doesn't like being spied on by the NSA by default. Https://startpage.com/eng/ is the site, even though underneath it uses Google's search, they claim it is better because it strips out your info. The Youtube poster says that this is better than duckduckgo.com, which is powered by Bing. Can some Slashdotters help me figure out if it is likely this is worth doing, or is it just a false sense of security and not worth it?"
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:Now we have an answer to the 20TB backup questi (Score 4, Insightful) 211

by MightyMartian (#46476159) Attached to: 1GB of Google Drive Storage Now Costs Only $0.02 Per Month

But that NAS is likely sitting at your location, which means if it gets burned down by insane meth heads or swallowed by a sinkhole, you're good and screwed.

For my business, I use DFS that replicates our shared drives at all three locations, so I feel fairly confident that an almost up-to-date mirror of the data is being held at two other locations, all of which are separated by a lot of miles. Coupled with offsite backup, I feel the business data is secure.

At the moment my personal data is on Dropbox, with my absolutely confidential data in a Truecrypt container. Still, Dropbox is kind of expensive for the 7 or 8gb of data I'd like to store, so I will definitely be considering Google's offering. Since both work the same, at least for the PC versions, in that each computer has a full copy of the data, if Google goes offline or pulls the plug, I still have my multiple copies sitting around.

+ - Microsoft Dumping License Fees for Windows Phone?->

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes "For years, Microsoft remained adamant about its licensing fees for Windows Phone: if a smartphone manufacturer wanted to include the software on its devices, it would need to pay Microsoft a certain amount per unit. That was a logical strategy for Microsoft, which became a very big company thanks to licensing fees for Windows and other platforms. Unlike some of those other products, however, Windows Phone has struggled for adoption in its marketplace, which is dominated by Apple and Google. In response, suggests the Times of India, Microsoft may have dumped licensing fees for two Indian smartphone makers, Karbonn and Lava (Xolo). Microsoft’s biggest rival, Google, gives its Android mobile operating system away for free, a maneuver that helped it gain spectacular market-share in a relatively short amount of time. If Microsoft pursues a similar strategy in different markets, it could encourage more smartphone manufacturers to produce Windows Phone devices, which could increase the platform’s market-share—but there are no guarantees that scenario will actually play out. The smartphone market is increasingly saturated, and Microsoft’s opponents have no intention of allowing Windows Phone to gain any ground."
Link to Original Source

God doesn't play dice. -- Albert Einstein

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