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Submission + - Tough guy 'Taliban Khan' (torontosun.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The story of Mr. Imran Khan's questioning by the USCIS was reported Slashdot with the tag line that he was questioned due to his opposition to drones. That seems to be fabrication by Mr. Imran Khan himself. I request you to run this story in the interest of fair play so that other side of the story is heard.

"An official who observed the interrogation process told me Khan sat timidly with his head lowered and hands clasped while he received a “dressing down” about potentially violating the limitations of his visitor’s visa to the U.S.

He said there was no talk about Khan’s opposition to U.S. attack drones, as the politician later claimed after the fact.

My source, tells me the real concern was that Khan had told passport control he was coming to the U.S. to visit family and friends, without specifying his planned fundraising and political activities."
Education

Submission + - Constant technology use may hamper kids' ability to learn (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
hessian
hessian writes: "Scholars who study the role of media in society say no long-term studies have been done that adequately show how and if student attention span has changed because of the use of digital technology. But there is mounting indirect evidence that constant use of technology can affect behavior, particularly in developing brains, because of heavy stimulation and rapid shifts in attention."
Programming

Submission + - A Bare Metal Raspberry Pi Course (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: This is a course designed to explain the real basics of computing — there is nothing between you and the hardware. You write an ARM assembly language program and a basic loader gets it running on the Raspberry Pi. It starts out flashing the LED and programming the GPIO directly. From here we move on to programming direct to the screen. This is more than just working with a memory-mapped graphics facility. The graphics chip is as powerful as the CPU and so working with it is a little more complicated. Several lessons work up from random dots to text.The final lessons deal with USB I/O and after two lessons you have a keyboard and screen program that can be used as a dumb terminal.Overall this looks like a good way to get back to basics, and a Raspberry Pi is cheap enough to buy one to just play with ARM assembler.
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/freshers/raspberrypi/tutorials/os/
Cellphones

Submission + - Verizon Worker Arrested For Copying Customer's Nude Pictures (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: El Reg reports that two employees at a Verizon store in Florida are facing charges after making copies of a customer's naked pictures while helping her transfer data from an old phone to a new one. The two employees later offered to show the pictures to another customer who happened to be the woman's friend. The woman and her friend filed a police report. The police quickly got a warrant to search the store and found copies of the pictures on multiple devices there. One of the employees, Gregory Lampert, was arrested charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor. The other employee, Joshua Stuart, is no longer in Florida, but will face charges if he comes back.
Bitcoin

Submission + - European Central Bank casts wary eye towards Bitcoin (bitinstant.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Erik Voorhees blogs for bitinstant.com:

On Oct 29, 2012, the European Central Bank (ECB) released an official (and very nicely prepared) report called “Virtual Currency Schemes.” The 55-page report looks at several facets of what virtual currencies are, how they’re being used, and what they can do.

As it happens, the term “Bitcoin” appears 183 times. In fact, roughly a quarter of the whole report is specifically dedicated to Bitcoin and it’s probably a safe assumption that Bitcoin’s growth over the past year was the catalyst for producing this study in the first place.

The report from the ECB concludes, in part:

+ Virtual currencies fall within central banks’ responsibility due to their characteristics

+ Virtual currencies could have a “negative impact on the reputation of central banks”

Could this be the first step towards regulation of the digital currency?
Microsoft

Submission + - Not One Microsoft Product On Kaspersky's Top 10 Vulnerabilities List 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Security firm Kaspersky has released its latest IT Threat Evolution report. There were some interesting findings in the report, as always, but the most interesting thing that stuck out was all the way at the bottom: "Microsoft products no longer feature among the Top 10 products with vulnerabilities. This is because the automatic updates mechanism has now been well developed in recent versions of Windows OS."
Supercomputing

Submission + - how we built a supercomputer in 24hrs (youtube.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Time lapse video of students and postdocs at the University of Zurich constructing the zBox4 supercomputer. The machine has a theoretical compute capacity of ~1% of the human brain and will be used for simulating the formation of stars, planets and galaxies.
KDE

Submission + - Linus Torvalds Tries KDE, Likes It So Far (muktware.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: Linus Torvalds has never been a big fan of Gnome owing its extreme simplicity. Even Gnome 3.x failed to impress the father of the Linux kernel. He has now given KDE a try after a long time. Linus using your software is double edged sword, it cuts both ways especially if Linus doesn't like it, get ready for the harshest, yet the most honest and useful criticism. Interestingly Linus has so far liked KDE and for one simple reason — But ah, the ability to configure things. And I have wobbly windows again. This should make KDE developers a bit happier.
Transportation

Submission + - Hyundai Overstated MPG on Over 1 Million Cars

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Reuters reports that Hyundai and its affiliate Kia Motors conceded that they overstated the fuel economy on more than 1 million recently sold vehicles, and agreed to compensate owners for the additional fuel costs after the EPA found the errors in 13 Kia and Hyundai models from the 2011 to 2013 model years. The findings were a blow to the two carmakers who have centered their marketing campaigns on superior fuel economy. "Given the importance of fuel efficiency for all us, we are extremely sorry for these errors," says John Krafcik, head of Hyundai Motor America. "When we say to Hyundai owners, 'We've got your back,' that's an assurance we don't take lightly." The mileage on most labels will be reduced by 1 to 2 miles per gallon, with the largest adjustment being a 6-mpg highway reduction for one version of the Kia Soul, the EPA said. Hyundai previously touted the fact that many of its models get 40 miles per gallon on the highway. Now three Hyundai models, the Elantra, Accent and Veloster, as well as the Kia Rio fall short of that mark as will the Hyundai Sonata and Kia Optima hybrids. "The fact that the companies' ballyhooed 40 mpg cars are no longer members of that august club...will be something that haunts the companies for a long time to come," says Edmunds car editor John O'Dell."
China

Submission + - China's stealth fighter flight test successful (wsj.com)

Submitted by vencs
vencs writes: China has successfully tested its second stealth fighter, a smaller, twin-engine jet that military analysts said could potentially allow it to one day fly missions from an aircraft carrier. Military analysts said the new jet's design suggested the People's Liberation Army might use it to arm and escort aircraft carriers like the Liaoning , which was officially deployed last month. Andrei Chang, editor-in-chief of Kanwa Asian Defense Monthly, said the new prototype appears to have borrowed features from the US Air Force's twin-engine F-22 and US Navy's single-engine F-35C.
Canada

Submission + - Island's Historic Hotsprings Dry Up After Earthquake

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: The National Post newspaper in Canada reports: "Days after the remote B.C. archipelago of Haida Gwaii emerged virtually unscathed from Canada’s second-strongest earthquake, locals discovered that the shifting earth had mysteriously switched off a centuries-old hot spring considered sacred by the Haida. ... A Parks Canada inspection party set out to investigate and stepped ashore to find that the island’s three main hot spring pools, which once bubbled with water as warm as 77 Celsius, were bone dry. “Not even a small puddle,” said Mr. Gladstone. Surrounding rocks, once warm to the touch, were cold." The earthquake measured 7.7 on the Richter scale.
Encryption

Submission + - Four years later, most U.S. Drones still Openly Broadcast Secret Video Feeds (coinurl.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Four years after discovering that militants were tapping into drone video feeds, the U.S. military still hasn’t secured the transmissions of more than half of its fleet of Predator and Reaper drones, Danger Room has learned. The majority of the aircraft still broadcast their classified video streams “in the clear” — without encryption. With a minimal amount of equipment and know-how, militants can see what America’s drones see.
Politics

Submission + - Why does a voting machine need calibration? (theblaze.com)

Submitted by Shotgun
Shotgun writes: I heard on the radio that there were some issues with voting machines in Greensboro, NC (my hometown), and the story said the machines just needed "recalibration". Which made me ask, "WTF? Why does a machine for choosing between one of a few choices need 'calibration'?" This story seems to explain the issue.
Unix

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Availability of Legacy UnixWare Installation Media?

Submitted by lukpac
lukpac writes: We have an old (ancient) Unisys server in production that hosts a legacy system and are attempting to virtualize it. Unfortunately we don't have a generic UnixWare (2.1.2) installation CD, just a Unisys specific one, and given the recent unpleasantness (see Groklaw for details), SCO isn’t much of an option. We’re not looking at pirating it (as above, we do still have the Unisys specific media), but do need a generic copy of UnixWare. What options, if any, are available?
Networking

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Is Samba4 a viable alternative to Active Directory?

Submitted by BluPhenix316
BluPhenix316 writes: I'm currently in school for Network Administration. I was discussing Linux with my instructor and he said the problem he has with Linux is he doesn't know of a good alternative to Active Directory. I did some research and from what I've read Samba 4 seems very promising. What are your thoughts?
Security

Submission + - Building the Ultimate Safe House

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Candace Jackson writes that an increasing number of home builders and buyers are looking for a new kind of security: homes equipped to handle everything from hurricanes, tornados and hybrid superstorms like this week's Sandy, to man-made threats ranging from home invasion to nuclear war and fueling the rise of these often-fortresslike homes are new technologies and building materials—which builders say will ultimately be used on a more widespread basis in storm- and earthquake-threatened areas. For example, Alys Beach, a 158-acre luxury seaside community on Florida's Gulf Coast, have earned the designation of Fortified...for safer living® homes and are designed to withstand strong winds. The roofs have two coats of limestone and exterior walls have 8 inches of concrete, reinforced every 32 inches for "bunkerlike" safety, according to marketing materials. Other builders are producing highly hurricane-proof residences that are circular in shape with "radial engineering" wherein roof and floor trusses link back to the home's center like spokes on a wheel, helping to dissipate gale forces around the structure with Deltec, a North Carolina–based builder, saying it has never lost a circular home to hurricanes in over 40 years of construction. But Doug Buck says some "extreme" building techniques don't make financial sense. "You get to a point of diminishing returns," says Buck. "You're going to spend so much that honestly, it would make more sense to let it blow down and rebuild it.""
Science

Submission + - Thousands of Lab Mice Lost in Sandy Flooding (slate.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: While New York University's Langone Medical Center in lower Manhattan was the site of heroism as 260 patients
were evacuated from flooded floors and nearly complete loss of power, similar floods at NYU's nearby Smilow Research Building killed thousands of laboratory mice, including genetically altered specimens in-bred over many generations as research subjects for melanoma and other diseases. Other laboratory animals, cells, and living tissue used in medical research were also lost; because of the gestation period involved, some projects were likely set back a number of years. Past experience with storms such as Allison in Houston and Katrina in New Orleans has shown that keeping laboratory animals in basements is not good practice, but research institutions keep doing it anyway.

Submission + - How should one dealing with a DDoS attack?

Submitted by TheUnFounded
TheUnFounded writes: A site that I administer was recently "held hostage" for the vast sum of $800. We were contacted by a guy (who was, it turns out, in Lebanon), who told us that he had been asked to perform a DDoS on our site by a competitor, and that they were paying him $600. He then said for $800, he would basically go away. Not a vast sum, but we weren't going to pay just because he said he "could" do something.

Within 5 minutes, our site was down.

The owner of the company negotiated with the guy, and he stopped his attack after receiving $400. A small price to pay to get the site online in our case. But obviously we want to come up with a solution that'll allow us to deal with these kinds of attacks in the future.

While the site was down, I contacted our hosting company, Rackspace. They proceeded to tell me that they have "DDoS mitigation services", but they cost $6,000 if your site is under attack at the time you use the service. Once the attack was over, the price dropped to $1500. (Nice touch there Rackspace, so much for Fanatical support; price gouging at its worst).

So, obviously, I'm looking for alternative solutions for DDoS mitigation. I'm considering CloudFlare (https://www.cloudflare.com/) as an option; does anyone have any other suggestions or thoughts on the matter?

Submission + - NYC Datacenters Should Get Power Saturday (slashdot.org)

Submitted by
Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: "The local utility serving most of the New York City area, Con Edison, reported that it should begin supplying utility power to midtown and lower Manhattan by Saturday evening, returning the island’s data centers and citizens to some semblance of normalcy.

In the past few days, data center managers have been forced to add fuel logistics to their list of responsibilities, as most Manhattan data centers have been subsisting on generator power. That should come to an end, for the most part, when utility power is restored. In a possibly worrying note, Verizon warned late on Nov. 1 that its services to business customers could be impacted due to lack of fuel.
Below is the Nov. 2 update from many of the data-center providers and some of the communications providers in the area, some of which remain unchanged from previous days."

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