Comment Blame the IRS (Score 1) 174
While the poster blames Equifax they really should blame the IRS. CGP Grey explains this very well
Submission + - Amazing Trans-Atlantic Amateur Balloon Flight In P (aprs.fi)
cjsnell writes: "An amateur high altitude balloon was launched in San Jose, CA on Sunday by some ham radio enthusiasts. Their balloon achieved a rare "float": instead of bursting, it maintained an altitude of ~105Kft and headed east over the continental US. Amazingly, it crossed over Atlantic City, NJ at 2200 local time. The amateur ballooning community was going nuts because this may have been the first-ever transcontinental amateur balloon flight. The balloon continued out over the ocean until it disappeared ~500 miles off Nantucket. ...and then suddenly, at 1100 MST this morning, radio repeaters in the Azores islands off of Africa started hearing the balloon! Incredibly, it was still aloft and trucking towards Europe/Africa at ~150mph! If it makes it, this will be a new record for the first-ever transatlantic amateur flight. What's more amazing is that teams from engineering schools have been launching balloons from the east coast for years, trying to achieve an Atlantic transit. Out of nowhere, two guys who clean swimming pools for a living launch a balloon from Northern California and break every major record in amateur ballooning in a day. They launched three other balloons on Sunday, one of which set a new altitude record of 136,000 ft. Unbelievable.
Track it: http://aprs.fi/?call=K6RPT-11"
Track it: http://aprs.fi/?call=K6RPT-11"
The State of Ruby VMs — Ruby Renaissance 89
igrigorik writes "In the short span of just a couple of years, the Ruby VM space has evolved to more than just a handful of choices: MRI, JRuby, IronRuby, MacRuby, Rubinius, MagLev, REE and BlueRuby. Four of these VMs will hit 1.0 status in the upcoming year and will open up entirely new possibilities for the language — Mac apps via MacRuby, Ruby in the browser via Silverlight, object persistence via Smalltalk VM, and so forth. This article takes a detailed look at the past year, the progress of each project, and where the community is heading. It's an exciting time to be a Rubyist."
Justice Dept. Asked For Broad Swath of IndyMedia's Visitor Records 244
DesScorp writes "In a case that tests whether online and independent journalism has the same protections as mainstream journalism, the Justice Department sent Indymedia a grand jury subpoena. It requires a list of all visitors on a day, and further, a gag order to Indymedia 'not to disclose the existence of this request.' CBS reports that 'Kristina Clair, a 34-year-old Linux administrator living in Philadelphia who provides free server space for Indymedia.us, said she was shocked to receive the Justice Department's subpoena,' and that 'The subpoena from US Attorney Tim Morrison in Indianapolis demanded "all IP traffic to and from www.indymedia.us" on June 25, 2008. It instructed Clair to "include IP addresses, times, and any other identifying information," including e-mail addresses, physical addresses, registered accounts, and Indymedia readers' Social Security Numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and so on.' Clair is being defended by the Electronic Frontier Foundation."
Major Snow Leopard Bug Said To Delete User Data 353
inglishmayjer was one of several readers to send in the news of a major bug in Apple's new OS, 10.6 Snow Leopard, that can wipe out all user data for the administrator account. It is said to be triggered — not every time — by logging in to the Guest account and then back in to the admin account. Some users are reporting that all settings have been reset and most data is gone. The article links to a number of Apple forum threads up to a month old bemoaning the problem. MacFixIt suggests disabling login on the Guest account and, if you need that functionality, creating a non-administrative account named something like Visitor. (The Guest account is special in that its settings are wiped clean after logout.) CNet reports that Apple has acknowledged the bug and is working on a fix.
Facebook User Arrested For a Poke 394
nk497 writes "A woman in Tennessee has been arrested for poking someone over Facebook. Sharon Jackson had been banned by courts from 'telephoning, contacting or otherwise communicating' with the apparent poke recipient, but just couldn't hold back from clicking the 'poke' button. She now faces a sentence of up to a year in prison."
Comment Re:This System is mostly worthless (Score 1) 320
This system is worthless because there are no actions associated with the different levels. Strange that DHS has always been at yellow or orange but the military's FPCON has always been at Alpha+ or Bravo. What we really need to do is replace the system with DoDs FPCON and be done with it.
Comment Re:Didn't they make a movie or two about this (Score 1) 102
lower level soldiers can get there net access cut back or removed when needed to provide command guaranteed access to the network when they need it.
Ding Ding Ding. This is taking what we already have in the DSN military phone system and applying it to the tactical and strategic networks. This is more of an issue on the tactical Joint Network Node (JNN) networks as the military continues to expand with the entire BCS suite. CPOF alone demands priority networks to work well between sites. As everything gets digitized the network is getting saturated and it cant grow like this without some sort of traffic control. A JNN can take a good amount of load but the associated Command Post Nodes (CPN) max out real quick.
Comment Re:If you're downloading music at work... (Score 2, Informative) 451
In a DoD environment I Tunes, Amazon Downloader, and other legal forms of downloading music are prohibited from being on the systems as being outside the baseline. I can only speak for the Army but the regulation does not consider music in general stealing. Quoting from AR 25-2 page 27...
(7) Certain activities are never authorized on Army networks. AUPs will include the following minimums as
prohibited. These activities include any personal use of Government resources involving: pornography or obscene
material (adult or child); copyright infringement (such as the sharing of copyright material by means of peer-to-peer
software); gambling; the transmission of chain letters; unofficial advertising, soliciting, or selling except on authorized
bulletin boards established for such use; or the violation of any statute or regulation.
In short DISA wrote bad flash training on this one scenario. DoD 8500 series and agency specific regulations DO NOT refer to it as stealing.
Comment Re:Does anyone actually USE IE anymore? (Score 1) 280
Chrome does not install in
While is might be OK to say FU to MS, saying FU to IT departments ensures that it wont be installed per company policy. Anything that you want business to adopt on a serious scale has to be something they can manage across the company with ease. For Windows that means being able to mange settings and restrictions through group policy and having an MSI installer. Without that company policy will not really change because IE's management cost is already accepted as part of the enterprise while you have to have a separate process for Firefox. If your running MS on the desktop, the plan is built in for IE making any other cost extra. I realize that both are available for Firefox BUT they come from organizations other than Mozilla. While IT might be fine with getting it from an outside source, management defiantly balks on this.
Comment Re:Enforcing compliance... (Score 1) 194
3. Inspector then moves on to the server room, where Linux is installed. Inspector can't determine that "latest Microsoft patches are installed", so machines are marked as non-compliant.
The FederalGgovernment uses Linux as well and there are published security standards for it. The NSA and DISA both publish security guides and implementation guidelines for Linux. NSA Secure Configuration Guides DISA STIGS . This will require training for your typical enforcement droid but is not out of reach. To say that regulation would require Microsoft only is ignoring the fact that *nix is very much in use in the Federal Government
Comment Re:EFS? (Score 1) 121
The multiple computer problem in a domain is solved by setting up a PKI through certificate services. This combined with a logon script to encrypt the profile directory takes care of those problems. If you are doing EFS on a large scale in a domain you would be crazy not to use a PKI. Another advantage to this is should the certificate get lost you can set recovery keys that a admin can use to decrypt the data.
This can also in a windows domain be used to create bitlocker keys as well which encrypts the entire system.
Verizon Wants To Share Your Personal Information 236
hyades1 writes "Gizmodo reports that Verizon is sending out notification letters infested with virtually-indecipherable legalese. In their sneaky, underhanded way, they're informing you that you have 45 days to opt out of their plan to share your personal data with 'affiliates, agents and parent companies.' That data can include, but isn't limited to, 'services purchased (including specific calls you make and receive), billing info, technical info and location info.' If you view your statement on-line, you won't even get the letter. You'll have to access your account and view your messages. However, Read Write Web says the link provided there, called the 'Customer Proprietary Network Information Notice,' was listed as 'not available.' No doubt Verizon would like to reassure you that everyone they're going to hand your personal data over to will have your best interests at heart."
2009, Year of the Linux Delusion 696
gadgetopia writes "An article has come out claiming (yet again) that 2009 will be the year of Linux, and bases this prediction on the fact that low-power ARM processors will be in netbooks which won't have enough power to run Windows, but then says these new netbooks will be geared to 'web only' applications which suits Linux perfectly. And, oh yeah, Palm might save Linux, too." The article goes on to skewer the year of Linux thing that seems to show up on pretty much every tech news site throughout December and January as lazy editors round out their year with softball trolling stories and "Year End Lists." We should compile a year-end list about this :)
Researchers Test Whether Sharks Enjoy Christmas Songs 142
Scientists plan to test whether sharks enjoy listening to Christmas pop songs, after US research showed fish could recognize melody. Chris Brown, senior marine biologist at the Loch Lomond aquarium, said seasonal music would be played through walkthrough underwater tunnels where they can be heard by dozens of nurse sharks, black-tip reef sharks, and ray species. Experts will then monitor the sharks' reactions to different songs. We'll play everything from Kim Wilde and Mel Smith's Rocking Around the Christmas Tree and Merry Christmas Everybody by Slade to Wham's Last Christmas. We may find they prefer something softer like White Christmas by Bing Crosby," Brown said. Thank you for answering this question science.
