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Privacy

Submission + - One in 10 Used Hard Drives Contains Old Personal Data (threatpost.com) 1

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: A U.K. organization today released independent study results that show one in 10 secondhand hard drives sold online may contain "residential personal information," such as bank statements, passports and medical details.

In an effort to underscore the need to throughly scrub machines, mobile phones and memory sticks before passing them on, the Information Commissioner's Office contracted with the NCC Group to secret shop some 200 hard drives, 20 memory sticks and 10 mobile phones from primarily online auction sites in December 2010. Some also came from computer trade shows.

Using widely available freeware forensic tools, a team found more than half (52 percent) of the hard drives were unreadable or had been wiped of data. The remaining 48 percent still contained information, 11 percent of which held personal or corporate data.

In all, 34,000 files holding personal or corporate information were recovered, according to the study report.
Ubuntu

Submission + - Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) released! (linuxstall.com)

Submitted by
Chankey Pathak
Chankey Pathak writes: "The Ubuntu team is very pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) for Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products.

Codenamed “Precise Pangolin”, 12.04 continues Ubuntu’s proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. The team has been hard at work through this cycle, introducing a few new features and improving quality control."
Cloud

Submission + - Privacy advocates slam Google Drive's privacy policies (macworld.com)

Submitted by DJRumpy
DJRumpy writes: Privacy advocates voiced strong concerns this week over how data stored on Google Drive may be used during and after customers are actively engaged in using the cloud service. While the TOS for Dropbox and Microsoft both state they will use your data only as far as is necessary to provide the service you have requested, Google goes a bit farther:

Google’s terms of use say: “You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours. When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes that we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content.”
Space

Submission + - Under 'Dark Halo' Old Galaxies Have Many More Stars (scienceworldreport.com)

Submitted by
fishmike
fishmike writes: "Some of the oldest galaxies in the Universe have three times more stellar mass, and so many more stars, than all current models of galaxy evolution predict.

The finding comes from the Atlas3D international team, led by an Oxford University scientist, who found a way to remove the 'halo' of dark matter that has clouded previous calculations."
DRM

Submission + - Sci-Fi publisher Tor ditches DRM. A positive step towards the removal of DRM? (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by FBeans
FBeans writes: "Science fiction publisher Tor UK is dropping digital rights management from its e-books alongside a similar move by its US partners."

"Tor UK, Tor Books and Forge are divisions of Pan Macmillan, which said it viewed the move as an "experiment"." s

With experiments, come results. Now users can finally read their books across multiple devices such as Amazon's Kindle, Sony Reader, Kobo eReader and Apple's iBooks. Perhaps we will see the *increase* of sales, because of the new unrestricted format, outweighs the decrease caused by piracy!? Time will tell...
Ubuntu

Submission + - Canonical releases Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin (extremetech.com)

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "No one can accuse Canonical of sitting around during the first quarter of 2012. With no less than six different release announcements since January, it seems that everything that Mark Shuttleworth’s company has been working on for the past few years is crystallizing all at once. With the release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS today, Canonical is looking to end the quarter on a high note by providing a stable release that is aimed directly at enterprise deployments. Precise Pangolin doesn’t offer any new functionality that fans of the Ubuntu platform haven’t already seen — but it will be the first time that enterprise users get to use the controversial Unity UI..."
Science

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What are the most dangerous lines of scientific enquiry? (nature.com)

Submitted by
gbrumfiel
gbrumfiel writes: "The battle over whether to publish research into mutant bird flu got editors over at Nature News thinking about other potentially dangerous lines of scientific enquiry. They came up with a non-definitive list of four technologies with the potential to do great good or great harm: Laser isotope enrichment: great for making medical isotopes or nuclear weapons. Brain scanning: can help locked-in patients to communicate or a police state to read minds. Geoengineering: could lessen the effects of climate change or undermine the political will to fight it. Genetic screening of embryos: could spot genetic disorders in the womb or lead to a brave new world of baby selection. What would Slashdotters add to the list?"

Submission + - University of Florida Announces Plan to Save Computer Science Department (forbes.com)

Submitted by
WIGFIELD7458
WIGFIELD7458 writes: "This appears to be a major change in plans that will save the Computer Science Department. Thanks to everyone in the Gator Nation and beyond for speaking out! The battle isn’t over yet, but this is very encouraging news. I would urge the students, faculty, and alumni of UF to continue to express your support for the essential academic mission of your university."

Submission + - Terminal Mixup Implicates TSA Agents in LAX Smuggling Plot (cbsnews.com)

Submitted by ian_po
ian_po writes: The U.S. Attorney's office has filed indictments against 7 people, including two Transportation Security Administration Screeners and two former TSA employees, after federal agents set up several smuggling sting operations. The alleged smuggling scheme was revealed after a suspected drug courier went to Terminal 5, where his flight was departing, instead of going through the Terminal 6 checkpoint his written instructions directed him to. Court documents indicate the plan was to return to Terminal 5 through a secure tunnel after being allowed through security by the accused Screener. The courier was caught with 10 pounds of cocaine at the other checkpoint by a different TSA agent. If convicted, the four TSA employees face a minimum of 10 years in Federal prison.
Government

Submission + - White House issues veto threat against CISPA (politico.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Just as the House Rules Committee convened to weigh amendments to the measure, spearheaded by Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), the administration released a formal policy statement that raised the stakes: It said President Barack Obama’s advisers would recommend that the president veto the bill unless there are significant changes to boost privacy protections, add new protections on users' personal information and alter its liability protection language. "This is just, I think, them kicking up some dust," said Rogers, who is backing a number of amendments that would try to address many of the issues raised by the administration.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it agreed with the Obama administration. “The White House is right: CISPA threatens fundamental notions of privacy and without a substantial rewrite should be voted down,” Michelle Richardson, the ACLU’s legislative counsel, said in an e-mail. “The Obama administration has endorsed the Patriot Act and other wiretapping laws. It speaks volumes that even they oppose this bill as a bridge too far.” Asked about Obama’s veto threat, House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told reporters today that the president wants to put “the government in charge of the Internet.”
Piracy

Submission + - NSW Police taken to court for massive software piracy (abc.net.au)

Submitted by LordLucless
LordLucless writes: The New South Wales police have been sued by Micro Focus for around 15 years of copyright infringement. Allegedly, they have been using Micro Focus' mainframe software throughout the entire force, while paying for only a fraction of the required licenses. More, they supplied other departments — NSW Police Integrity Commission, NSW Department of Corrective Services and the NSW Ombudsman's Office — with the software.

The other departments have already settled out of court, but the police are still stalling.
Books

Submission + - 'Mein Kampf' to be Republished in Germany 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Jacob Heilbrunn reports in The Atlantic that Germany is taking a new step toward what is often called "normalization" as the state of Bavaria has announced that in 2015 it will publish Hitler's Mein Kampf, banned in Germany since World War II. In announcing the publication of the book, Bavarian finance minister Markus Soeder says that he wants to contribute to the "demystification" of it. In 2015, the Bavarian state's copyright to the book will expire and the idea is to publish a scholarly version that will help stem its appeal for commercial publishers. The book is not banned by law in Germany, but Bavaria has used ownership of the copyright to prevent publication of German editions since 1945. Copyright restrictions stop at the end of 2015, 70 years after Hitler's death. By publishing in 2015 before the expiry of the copyright, Bavaria hopes to make future German editions as "commercially unattractive" as possible. "We want to make clear what nonsense is in there," says Soeder and to show "what a worldwide catastrophe this dangerous body of thought led to"."

Submission + - Nokia's bankrupcy possible in one phone contract's time. (businessinsider.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Nokia's current burn rate may leave it without cash in 2013 less than a standard contract or phone warranty. At the same time Nokia's credit rating has been cut to Junk level making borrowing difficult to impossible. These burn rate figures include Microsoft's temporary subsidies to Nokia so the underlying number will be worse. Analysts are placing hope on a change of strategy, but with Steven Eliop in place that seems unlikely to happen. Nokia's margins are now negative and continuing to fall, especially with Lumia 900 prices having to be reducer to $0 so Nokia looks unlikely to recover.

In the case of a bankruptcy, likely only European customers will be covered by their retailers limited responsibility for the product. Other consumers would have to buy replacement phones at full, off contract, price. If Nokia does reach bankruptcy, this will be the fastest and largest destruction of the value of a company ever, so big that some analysts have even started using a new term for it, the Eliop Effect.
Databases

Submission + - Cryptic Studios User Database Hacked (crypticstudios.com)

Submitted by rgagnon
rgagnon writes: I just received notice from Cryptic Studios about an illegal access to their database(s) that occurred in December 2010. Others that play Star Trek Online, or Champions Online may want to see if they've been affected. So far Cryptic is reporting that only usernames and partial encrypted passwords were obtained in the leak, however they have not yet 100% ruled out the chance that other information was stolen.

Cryptic's official notice is posted here: http://www.crypticstudios.com/securitynotice

Submission + - 'Crystal' simulator designed to model quantum behaviours (abc.net.au)

Submitted by
Waltre
Waltre writes: "Dr Michael Biercuk and then team from The Quantum Science Research Group from the University of Sydney today published the details of their quantum computer/simulator which the author is claiming has " the potential to perform calculations that would require a supercomputer larger than the size of the known universe" — all in a machine the size of just 300 charged beryllium atoms."
United States

Submission + - TSA Defends Pat Down of 4 Year Old Girl (google.com)

Submitted by
cosm
cosm writes: "With public outcry against the TSA continuing to spread, the TSA is defending a recent episode in which a four-year-old was patted down while kicking and screaming at Wichita Airport in Kansas. Was this a rational decision by the protocol-following security screeners, or another overreach by what some perceive as a tyrannical, gestapo-like organization? From the AP article: "The grandmother of a 4-year-old girl who became hysterical during a security screening at a Kansas airport said Wednesday that the child was forced to undergo a pat-down after hugging her, with security agents yelling and calling the crying girl an uncooperative suspect.""

Submission + - Researchers claim quantum computer breakthrough (abc.net.au)

Submitted by sortius_nod
sortius_nod writes: "Australian and international researchers say they have designed a tiny crystal able to run a quantum computer so powerful it would take a computer the size of the known universe to match it.

Details of the ion crystal, which is made up of just 300 atoms, are published in the journal Nature today by a team from Australia, South Africa and the United States."
Security

Submission + - White House Threatens To Veto CISPA (forbes.com)

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: Looks like CISPA may be headed the way of SOPA. Despite some proposed amendments to the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, the White House issued a statement Wednesday threatening to veto the bill if it's passed by Congress. The president’s advisors now say they fear the bill’s vague language would allow too much of users’ private information to be leaked to the government while still not going far enough to offer real defenses against digital attacks. "Cybersecurity and privacy are not mutually exclusive," the statement says.
Math

Submission + - The number line is learned not inuitive (eurekalert.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Yupno of Papua New Guinea provide clues to the concept's origins – and suggest familiar notion of time may not be straightforward, either.

Tape measures. Rulers. Graphs. The gas gauge in your car, and the icon on your favorite digital device showing battery power. The number line and its cousins – notations that map numbers onto space and often represent magnitude – are everywhere. Most adults in industrialized societies are so fluent at using the concept, we hardly think about it. We don't stop to wonder: Is it "natural"? Is it cultural?
Google

Submission + - Is Siri Smarter than Google? (cioupdate.com)

Submitted by
storagedude
storagedude writes: "Google could go the way of the dodo if ultra intelligent electronic agents (UIEA) make their way into the mainstream, according to technology prognosticator Daniel Burrus. Siri is just the first example of how a UIEA could end search as we know it. By leveraging the cloud and supercomputing capabilities, Siri uses natural language search to circumvent the entire Google process. If Burrus is right, we'll no longer have to wade through "30,000,000 returns in .0013 milliseconds" of irrelevant search results."

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