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+ - The National Surveillance State, founded 1917

Submitted by guanxi
guanxi writes "The NSA programs may be new, but in the United States government surveillance of its citizens is not. The Surveillance State's origins are in 1917, as Woodrow Wilson looked to rally support (and suppress dissent) for World War I: "Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson read mail and revoked publications’ mailable status that was then used by prosecutors as proof that those publishers were seditious in court cases. ... Soldiers went undercover, such as one who broke into the National Civil Liberties Bureau’s offices ... Prosecutors convicted Eugene V. Debs for seditious speech when he offered praise to three socialists recently convicted under the Espionage Act. ... some 20,000 civilian volunteers of the vigilante American Protective League ... detained about 60,000 men for possible draft dodging, even though they had no legal authority to do so. This same organization investigated their fellow Americans for most of the major intelligence agencies, barging into peoples’ homes and offices. ..." With modern networks, data collection and analysis, we won't need as many vigilantes or to physically break into offices and homes."

Comment: Re:NIST definition - Cloud computing (Score 1) 114

by FreeUser (#44031953) Attached to: Can Red Hat Do For OpenStack What It Did For Linux?

The fact that "cloud computing" needs 1.5 pages for definition alone is proof that the concept was created by the Marketing Department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.

And here I thought it was Tyrell Corp, developing it as a ploy to use up the limited lifespan of any Android foolish enough to escape their servitude.

Comment: Break things that used to work? Sure (Score 1, Interesting) 114

by FreeUser (#44031871) Attached to: Can Red Hat Do For OpenStack What It Did For Linux?

Can Red Hat do for Open Stack what it did for Linux?

If by that, do you mean can Red Hat break things that have worked perfectly for years (clustering in FC13-16 vs 17+, and the godawful mess that is systemd replacing perfectly servicable and reliable UNIX mainstays such as sysv init, etc.), then the answer is most definitely:

YES

On a recent conference call with Red Hat, they dismissed Open Stack and touted their own proprietary products for "cloudy" type infrastructure. Bringing fuel into the fold won't be any different...they'll downplay open source fuel and tout their own version, with layers of proprietary, opaque add-ons of questionable value. The RH version will lag a version or two behind the upstream free version, and probably suffer some breakage due to RH addons. Same song as before, different day.

+ - NSA leaker Snowden is lying, say leaders of House Intelligence Committee-> 2

Submitted by cold fjord
cold fjord writes "New developments in the ongoing controversy engulfing the NSA as a result of the Snowden leaks. From The Hill: ""Emerging from a hearing with NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander, Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and Dutch Ruppersberger (Md.), the senior Democrat on the panel, said Edward Snowden simply wasn't in the position to access the content of the communications gathered under National Security Agency programs, as he's claimed. "He was lying," Rogers said. "He clearly has over-inflated his position, he has over-inflated his access and he's even over-inflated what the actually technology of the programs would allow one to do. It's impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do." "He's done tremendous damage to the country where he was born and raised and educated," Ruppersberger said." ... "It was clear that he attempted to go places that he was not authorized to go, which should raise questions for everyone," Rogers added.""
Link to Original Source

Comment: It's NOT just us. EVERYONE dislikes Monkey Boy. (Score 1) 213

by Futurepower(R) (#44005509) Attached to: Best Buy To Carve Out Space For Microsoft Stores
I think you are out of touch with what everyone is saying, not just Slashdot commenters. For example, from Forbes Magazine, about Steve Ballmer: "The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value -- and jobs."

It's NOT just us. EVERYONE dislikes Monkey Boy. (Scroll down in that article.)

Comment: Abusers belong together! It's a marriage! (Score 1) 213

by Futurepower(R) (#44005453) Attached to: Best Buy To Carve Out Space For Microsoft Stores
Best Buy's former CEO, Brian Dunn, was named Worst CEO of 2012.

Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, "Should Have Already Been Fired." Quote from the article: "Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today."

More about Steve Ballmer from that article: "The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value -- and jobs."

Scroll down in this article to see Businessweek's January 16 cover that called Steve Ballmer "Monkey Boy". The cover says "No More", but that doesn't take away from the fact that the magazine called him Monkey Boy -- on its cover.

+ - Is Whitelisting Coming of Age?->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Kaspersky recently announced their Whitelist Security Approach. It is a whole new concept to make the functioning of the antivirus program much faster and better. Whitelist is basically a database that stores information about different programs and files. You can check whether a file is safe or not by just simply entering its checksum or uploading the file itself.

Once the information is stored on the global database, you don’t need to scan the files again and again, the antivirus program would automatically retrieve information from Whitelist database. You can be sure about your files before installing or taking the risk of running them.

If you are a developer, then you may want to submit your apps to Kaspersky Whitelist, so that your users can assure themselves about the security of your application and it would also give you the program usage data.

Does this alleviate the need for signatures?
Does this stop 0-day exploits quicker?"
Link to Original Source

+ - NSA, Obama Sued Over Domestic Surveillance Program 4

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes "A group of people, including a former federal prosecutor and the parents of a Navy SEAL sniper killed in action, have filed a class-action law suit against the National Security Agency, Verizon and President Obama over the NSA’s collection of cell phone data. The suit says the order that enabled the surveillance program is “the broadest surveillance order to ever have been issued” and enables indiscriminate collection of data.

The suit, filed this week in federal court in Washington, D.C., also names Roger Vinson, the judge who signed the Verizon order, as a defendant, along with Attorney General Eric Holder and NSA Director Keith Alexander. The plaintiffs say that the NSA’s surveillance program violates the Constitution and unfairly and unnecessarily infringes on citizens’ privacy. The classified order directs Verizon to hand over all of the so-called metadata for calls on its network to the NSA. The metadata includes the originating and terminating phone numbers along with details of the call, but not the contents of the call.

“The order, issued and signed by Judge Roger Vinson, violates the U.S. Constitution and also federal laws, including, but not limited to, the outrageous breach of privacy, freedom of speech, freedom of association, and the due process rights of American citizens.”"

Comment: Re:Doesn't he also have (Score 1) 766

by matfud (#43940459) Attached to: Seeking Fifth Amendment Defenders

This partly derives from the 5th. If the prosecutor were to call you to testify the first thing you would do is take the 5th and they could not ask you any more questions. So it becomes a moot point that if you refuse to testify on your own behalf (as a defence witness) the prosecution can not force you too (so it has been formalised to simplify court proceedings and avoid mistakes by the defendant)

+ - Another Story on the State of Microsoft - Microsoft to Reorganize->

Submitted by puddingebola
puddingebola writes "This story from Forbes touches on Steve Ballmer's announcement that Microsoft will reorganize. From the article, "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer appears to be planning a major reorganization. His apparent objective is to help the company move toward becoming a “devices and services company,” as presented in the company’s annual shareholder letter last October." What follows is an analysis of the current state of Microsoft's current ventures: shrinking PC sales, Nokia management calling for a change of course, Office 360 lagging, a $1 Billion investment in Nook, the losses on Xbox. Once again, if Microsoft starts to lose the revenue of Windows and Office, how long does the boat float? And what of the suggestion, on the verge of another update in the Xbox console, that Microsoft should sell the Xbox division?"
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:Recruiter Commision (Score 1) 189

by FreeUser (#43924603) Attached to: $30,000 For a Developer Referral?

Obviously I've worked for some far shabbier employers than you :D

But now you know, and armed with new knowledge you can avoid such in the future. I wouldn't have known the first time I used a recruiter either...I just had better luck than you. This is a real case where knowledge (in this case, of empoyer and recruiter codes of conduct and norms) is power.

+ - Proof of sweeping domestic phone surveillance by the NSA->

Submitted by Trashcan Romeo
Trashcan Romeo writes "The Guardian has obtained a court order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) requiring Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to provide the National Security Agency (NSA) , for all domestic and international calls, the numbers of both parties, location data, call duration, time of day, and other unique identifiers."
Link to Original Source

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