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Comment Re:Just the obvious - WRONG ORDER (Score 5, Insightful) 320

WHOA WHOA Wrong Order....

The blatant identity theft is a ticking time bomb that will not be easy or painless to redress (especially for someone who readily handed over an SSN for ANY reason)....

The computer can sit there (off) just fine while you stop the bleeding.

1. OBVIOUSLY keep computer not only offline but OFF & OFF-SITE (who knows what he might try to do with it).
2. HELP YOUR FATHER start protecting himself with his....
3. banks....
4. ....his insurance....
5. ...credit rating agencies...
6. ...defensive strategies... ....
30. THEN look into addressing the computer problems.

Car analogy:

"My father hit a tree at 50 miles an hour and appears to have a broken collarbone and a punctured lung.... I'm heading over to investigate... Does anyone know if I can use my own AAA membership to get the car towed or should I have my own mechanic work on repairing the vehicle's front end?"

Comment Re:You say fallacy, I say heuristic (Score 1) 549

<quote>

<quote><p>the slippery slope argument is a logical fallacy</p></quote>

<p>Logical fallacies work only in the case where all premises are known with certainty. Where premises are not knowable with such certainty, or where premises change over time with a change in culture, fallacies become heuristics.</p></quote>

M
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Android

Submission + - NoScript For Android Devices Released (threatpost.com)

Trailrunner7 writes: The new version of NoScript, the popular browser add-on that blocks JavaScript and other embedded objects from running on Web pages, is out in alpha form and it can now run on Android-based smartphones, giving users protection against script-based attacks on their mobile devices.

The release of NoScript Anywhere includes a variety of new features, but it's the support for Firefox Mobile that is the big attraction. The add-on for Android devices is meant to mimic the desktop version, giving users the ability to set permissions for each individual site and use a default policy for restricting content. NoScript also now includes an anti-clickjacking feature and an anti-XSS filter designed to protect users from cross-site scripting attacks. The new version also works on Maemo-based phones and tablets.

Privacy

Submission + - Mozilla Posts File Containing Registered User Data (securityweek.com)

wiredmikey writes: Mozilla Mistakenly Posts File Containing Registered User Data — Mozilla today sent an email to registered users of its addons.mozilla.org site, letting them know that it had mistakenly posted a file to a publicly available Web server which contained data from its user database including email addresses, first and last names, and an md5 hash representation of user passwords.
Youtube

Submission + - TSA Investigates Pilot who Exposed Security Flaws (go.com)

stewart_maximus writes: The TSA is investigating a TSA deputized pilot who posted videos to YouTube pointing out security flaws. Flaws exposed include ground crew clearing security with just a card swipe while pilots have to go through metal detectors, and a 'medieval-looking rescue ax' being available on the flight deck. Three days after posting the video, 6 government officials arrived at his door to question him and confiscated his federal firearm (and his concealed weapon permit).
Businesses

Submission + - Skype Outage Hits Users Worldwide

Hugh Pickens writes: "The LA Times reports that millions of Skype phone users worldwide couldn't make calls or were dropped in mid-conversation, because of a network connection failure that began about 9 a.m. Wednesday PST. "For a communications system this large to go down, it's almost unheard of," says Charles S. Golvin, a Forrester Research analyst. "Usually when phone lines are disrupted, the blackout is confined to a specific geographical area. This is worldwide." In theory, Skype, which is based on peer-to-peer networking technology shouldn't see an outage but that is not really the case — the company has a massive infrastructure that it uses for purposes such as authentication and linking to the traditional phone networks. "The outage comes at a time when Skype is starting to ask larger corporations for their business," writes Om Malik. "If I am a big business, I would be extremely cautious about adopting Skype for business, especially in the light of this current outage.""
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Kinect reverse engineered (adafruit.com)

MrClever writes: It was bound to happen eventually but within just hours of the European launch of the Microsoft Kinect, Hector Martin not only wrote a Linux driver for it, but released the source code too. In doing so he scooped the bounty from adafruit industries (link also has video of code in action) who also kicked some coin toward the EFF too. Congratulations Hector!

Submission + - iFixit tears down Microsoft's Kinect for Xbox 360 (networkworld.com)

alphadogg writes: Microsoft’s new hands-free Kinect game controller is packed with four microphones, three autofocus cameras and a motion detector chip that together make for one heck of a complex toy, according to iFixit’s initial teardown of the device.http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft-Kinect-Teardown/4066/1

"We haven't been this excited to get our hands on new hardware since the iPad," says Kyle Wiens, CEO of the company. "The way that we interact with computers is (finally) evolving, and Kinect is unlike any hardware we've ever taken apart. In fact, the only thing we've ever taken apart that has anywhere close to this many sensors is Pleo, the dinosaur robot."

iFixit describes Kinect as "a horizontal bar of sensors connected to a small, motorized pivoting base." The $150 device that Microsoft put hundreds of millions of dollars of research into can be purchased separately from the Xbox 360 or as part of a bundle.

A Prime Sense PS1080-A2 is at the heart of Kinect’s motion detection capabilities, as it connects to all of Kinect’s sensors and processes images of your game room’s color and scope before shooting them over to the Xbox.

iFixit couldn’t immediately identify all of the chips within the box, so plans to update its teardown.

Science

Submission + - Not transparent aluminum, but conductive plastic (bnl.gov)

michaelmalak writes: ""Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory have fabricated transparent thin films capable of absorbing light and generating electric charge over a relatively large area. The material, described in the journal Chemistry of Materials, could be used to develop transparent solar panels or even windows that absorb solar energy to generate electricity. The material consists of a semiconducting polymer doped with carbon-rich fullerenes.""
GNU is Not Unix

VLC Developer Takes a Stand Against DRM Enforcement 717

jamie writes "The GPL gives Apple permission to distribute this software through the App Store. All they would have to do is follow the license's conditions to help keep the software free. Instead, Apple has decided that they prefer to impose Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) and proprietary legal terms on all programs in the App Store, and they'd rather kick out GPLed software than change their own rules."

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