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Submission + - Analog: The Last Defense Against DRM (eff.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: By switching from an analog signal to a digital one, Apple has potentially given itself more control than ever over what people can do with music or other audio content on an iPhone. We hope that Apple isn’t unwittingly opening the door to new pressures to take advantage of that power.

Submission + - Norwegian Oil Fund Asked to Consdier if Facebook is Unetical 2

Submitted by polemistes
polemistes writes: During the last few weeks there has been an uproar (this is in English) in Norwegian media about Facebook censorship. It started with writer Tom Egeland posting the iconic 1972 photo of Kim Phuc, running from a napalm bomb. Facebook decided that the nudity in the photo could be offensive, so they deleted it. When Egeland posted to criticise the censorship, the whole post was deleted. A major internet news site wrote about it, and the editor shared his article on Facebook, and was blocked for 24 hours. Now the Norwegian Press Association has asked the ethics committee of the Norwegain Oil Fund, who has invested about $1.6 billion in Facebook, to consider whether Facebook is acting unethically. If they are found to do so, the fund will have to withdraw their investments, because its strict ethical code. As a side-note:The google-translated article also censors the photo.

Submission + - Slashdots stops sucking effective immediately!!

Submitted by GrabbaTheButt
GrabbaTheButt writes: In a complete 180 degree turn of events, the overlords at Dice have decided to end all Slashvertisments, kill Beta and end all stories that have no place on this site.

When asked why such a radical change? Management said "we have decided to start listening to our user community and stop thinking straight out of our asses".

Submission + - Einstein and Schrödinger didn't believe in quantum indeterminism

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: When it comes to the very nature of quantum mechanics — about the inherent uncertainty and indeterminism to reality — it’s one of the most difficult things to accept. Perhaps, you imagine, there’s some underlying cause, some hidden reality beneath what’s visible that actually is deterministic. After all, a cat can’t simultaneously be dead and alive until someone looks can it? That’s one of the problems that both Einstein and Schrödinger wrestled with during their lives. An investigation of that story, their work on that front, and their friendship that ensued as both pursued that same end is thoroughly investigated here by physicist Paul Halpern.

Submission + - MP3 Backend of Firefox and Thunderbird Found Vulnerable (mozilla.org)

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: A critical vulnerability has been found in the MPEG-1 Layer III playback backend of Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird. Security researcher Aki Helin reported a use-after-free scenario when playing certain audio files on the web using the Fluendo MP3 plugin for GStreamer on Linux. This is due to a flaw in handling certain MP3 files by the plugin and its interaction with Mozilla code. A maliciously crafted MP3 file can lead to a potentially exploitable crash. Linux is the only affected platform, so Windows and OS X users are safe from this particular vulnerability.

Submission + - Net Neutrality at Stake in India

Submitted by Champaklal
Champaklal writes: The article mentions:

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued a 118-page long consultation paper [PDF] on the regulatory framework of over-the-top services (OTTS) like search engines, video platforms and social networks on March 27.
It says that OTTS rely on broadband and mobile service providers’ infrastructure to reach users, and compete not only with local online services, but brick-and-mortar businesses too. As in other countries, the debate is about how these services should be regulated, whether internet service providers should be allowed to prioritize traffic and charge for various kinds of content.

Submission + - Yes, Virginia, Black Holes Exist!

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: "And so what these three papers, in tandem, have done, is demonstrate that there is no firewall and that the resolution to the firewall paradox is that the first assumption, that Hawking radiation is in a pure state, is the one that’s flawed.

You won’t read about this in the popular write-ups because it doesn’t have a catchy headline, it’s complex, and it’s not work by someone that’s already very famous for other work. But it’s right. Hawking radiation is not in a pure state, and without that pure state, there’s no firewall, and no paradox.

There is still an incredible amount to learn and understand about black holes, event horizons, and the behavior of quantum systems in strongly curved spacetime, to be sure, and there’s lots of very interesting research ahead. These findings arguably raise more questions than they answer, although at least we know that black holes won’t fry you when you fall in; it will still be death by spaghettification, not by incineration!"

Listen to what the best science has to say, not just to the most prominent scientist who says things.

Submission + - World's First Geothermal Energy System Created By Drilling into Earth's Mantle (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: The Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) announced it broke through to the Mantle and created a superheated steam pipe capable of producing power at the nearby Krafla Power Plant in Northern Iceland. The system was operational for several months until a malfunctioning valve forced its closure. The IDDP, however, plans to either reopen its first magma-based geothermal bore hole — IDDP-1 — or drill another one at Reykjanes. While the IDDP-1 is not the first bore hole to reach the planet's magma, it is the first time an operation has been able to harness the mantle's heat to produce a steam pipe that could power a plant.

Submission + - Cooperation with GCHQ well beyond what is legally required .. (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: GCHQ lobbied furiously to keep secret the fact that telecoms firms had gone "well beyond" what they were legally required to do to help intelligence agencies' mass interception of communications, both in the UK and overseas.

  GCHQ feared a legal challenge under the right to privacy in the Human Rights Act if evidence of its surveillance methods became admissable in court.

  GCHQ assisted the Home Office in lining up sympathetic people to help with "press handling", including the Liberal Democrat peer and former intelligence services commissioner Lord Carlile, who this week criticised the Guardian for its coverage of mass surveillance by GCHQ and the US National Security Agency.

Submission + - Web users can track companies spying on them with new Mozilla app (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla have released an add-on for Firefox that breaks down all of the third party services that are tracking you on websites. The Lightbeam add-on is the next version of its Collusion tool, and allows users to watch services tracking them from site to site and block them if they wish. Mozilla's executive director says the tool is designed to make the public better informed about privacy online by revealing the extent to which web users are monitored by advertisers and other companies using tracking cookies.

Submission + - TSA Doesn't Think Terrorists Are Plotting To Attack Airplanes (techdirt.com) 2

Submitted by Mikkeles
Mikkeles writes: Jonathan Corbett has been engaged in a lawsuit against the government concerning the constitutionality of scanners in the course of which, the TSA gave him classified documents. Thus he needed to file two copies of his brief: a public one with classified stuff redacted, and the full brief under seal. Someone over at Infowars noticed that apparently a clerk at the 11th Circuit appeals court forgot to file the document under seal, allowing them to find out what was under the redacts, including: "As of mid-2011, terrorist threat groups present in the Homeland are not known to be actively plotting against civil aviation targets or airports; instead, their focus is on fundraising, recruiting, and propagandizing."

Submission + - NSA hacked Email Account of Mexican President

Submitted by rtoz
rtoz writes: The National Security Agency (NSA ) of United States hacked into the Mexican president’s public email account and gained deep insight into policymaking and the political system. The news is likely to hurt ties between the US and Mexico.

This operation, dubbed “Flatliquid,” is described in a document leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Meanwhile U.S President Barack Obama’s administration is urging the Supreme Court not to take up the first case it has received on controversial National Security Agency cybersnooping.

Submission + - The Goleden Age of Microsoft Windows Is Over (channelnomics.com)

Submitted by ChannelGonzo
ChannelGonzo writes: Larry Walsh at Channelnomics gives Redmond the rough treatment saying the once ubiquitous OS Windows "ain’t what it used to be" and not even the launch of Windows 8.1 will help get its mojo back. While Microsoft may not be entirely responsible for the decline of the PC market, the contention is that the commercial market really didn’t need another operating system. Businesses are reticent to change and consumers have too many choices to allow Windows to maintain its market leadership. The problem is exacerbated by Microsoft's late entry into the tablet wars and a host of not insignificant defections by major OEMs like HP, which recently inked a reseller partnership with Google.

Submission + - Germany :Remote-Control Model Plane Attack 'Foiled' (suasnews.com)

Submitted by garymortimer
garymortimer writes: Two aeronautics students planned to use remote-controlled model planes packed with explosives to carry out terrorist attacks in Germany, according to prosecutors.

German authorities are holding two men of Tunisian origin who they say are facing possible charges for the “preparation of a serious, state-threatening act of violence”.

Prosecutors say the men are suspected of “procuring information and objects to commit Islamic extremist explosive attacks with remote-controlled model airplanes,” prosecutors added.

Police investigating the terror plot on Tuesday launched a series of raids in Stuttgart and Munich in southern Germany and Saxony in the east. They also carried out one raid in Belgium. No-one was arrested.

The suspects had been under surveillance for more than a year and authorities had recently detected “an increased interest in explosives and model aircraft”, according to an unnamed security source quoted by a German news agency.

Submission + - Unlikely Planets Found in Violent Star Clusters (discovery.com)

Submitted by astroengine
astroengine writes: When it comes to forming planets, Mother Nature isn’t very picky. Despite horrific conditions inside densely packed open clusters, stars apparently have no problem forming and hanging on to an orbital brood. That’s the conclusion from a new study that used data collected by NASA’s now-dormant Kepler space telescope to hunt for planets in a one-billion-year old open cluster called NGC 6811, a collection of about 70 stars located about 3,400 light years away in the constellation Cygnus.

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