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Comment Random, but related (Score 3, Interesting) 84

by sharp3 (#32750956) Attached to: Some Google Searches Now Blocked In China
On a sort of random, but related note...
A recent foray into the underworld of chatroulette led me to a conversation with two Chinese nationals, although admittedly I WAS looking for naked fat bald men... They asked me what I thought of Obama, and I told them I wasn't fond of socialist or communist policies that manage vast amounts of my paycheck for me. I asked them what they thought of their government. Their only response was a single word: "love".
It showed to me that the average Chinese citizen is keenly aware of the ability of the government to spy on them and monitor activities. It also seemed as though there was some degree of fear. Granted they weren't afraid of talking to me or asking about the United States, but talking about their own government was a big no no, and could bring reprisals.

Comment really? (Score 2, Insightful) 443

by sharp3 (#32745914) Attached to: The State of iPad Satisfaction
Why would the average iPad consumer care about the app approval process? The average iPad buyer is not a developer. If that's the best complaint that they can manufacture in this article, I'm inclined to say this is an anti-Apple article with questionable researching techniques. Although, I didn't RTFA, so maybe I missed something.
The Internet

Submission + - New Northern Arizona Univ. Internet policy 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I'm a student at NAU, and just today I told to use a software called SafeConnect that will monitor my computer for violations to the terms of Use (which follows)
"Internet Use Policy

All computers attached to the Campus Network must have appropriate software running on their machine to ensure a secure environment for all users. Campus Network will provide the monitoring software to ensure compliance with this policy. The software will assist students in maintaining their computer's in the manner prescribed by Campus Network . Software needed to ensure a secure environment will include:

                * Campus Network approved anti-virus software
                * The most current security patch software for your operating system(s).
                * Monitoring software to ensure that copyrighted files are not freely shared over the internet.
                *Other software as periodically deemed appropriate by Campus Network to ensure a safe and secure Internet and Intranet for all students and faculty.

In addition, bandwidth consumption is monitored to prevent inappropriate use of university resources (for example, setting up a public web site from a dormitory room). Students are asked not to exceed 1 GB of bandwidth use per week. No enforcement will occur at present, however we will be monitoring use and taking more affirmative action if there is wide violation of this policy.

The use of the Campus Internet Service is a privilege that may be revoked at any time for inappropriate behavior. Such behavior would include but not be limited to the use of obscene, abusive, or otherwise objectionable language and/or materials in either public or private messages.

The primary purpose of the Campus Network is to support students' educational goals. In support of these goals, the following activities are prohibited with express written consent of Campus Network . Participating in these activities may result in revocation of Campus Network without refund and possible University judicial action and/or criminal charges.

        * Setting up a router and building a private subnet.
        *Setting up any type of information server such as a web, gopher, e-mail, game, etc.
        *Propagating e-mail chain letters.
        *Forging mail.
        *Allowing unauthorized persons access to Campus Network .
        *Using Campus Network for personal financial gain.
        *Copying University-owned or licensed information to another computer without prior written approval.
        *Copyrighted files and software cannot be shared over the Campus Network .
        *Modifying or attempting to modify University-owned or licensed information including software and data.
        *Attempting to damage or disrupt networking services.
        *Using the Campus Network , the University'(TM)s campus-wide network, or related resources in the commission of a crime.
        *Using traffic intensive applications that may cause problems within the network or diluting the level of service to other users. No print servers, mail servers, FTP servers, etc. are allowed. The network sharing of any computer-related device or materials that may cause excessive network traffic is forbidden.

The user is not allowed to share her/his RJ45 Ethernet port with more than one computer/device at the same time. This prohibition includes any use of hubs and/or switches which would permit the user to connect more than one computer/device to the RJ45 Ethernet port and share the port with others or herself/himself.

The user will abide by all policies and statues included in the Computer Crimes Act. Crimes against this Act will result in University judicial action and/or investigation by the University Police Department for criminal offense. The Act includes offenses against intellectual property; offenses against computer equipment and supplies; and offenses against computer access. The Computer Crimes Act is available at each area office."

Want I wonder is this legal, and is there any way to fight this new policy, i understand some of it but what I don't like is this gives them access to all my private messages and accounts
Crime

Submission + - 178 Arrested in US/EU Credit Card Cloning Ops (krebsonsecurity.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: Authorities have moved in on 178 people accused of working in credit card cloning labs across the USA and Europe but with the bulk of the work apparently operating out of Spain. Original source states that "Police in fourteen countries participated a two-year investigation, initiated in Spain where police have discovered 120,000 stolen credit card numbers and 5,000 cloned cards, arrested 76 people and dismantled six cloning labs. The raids were made primarily in Romania, France, Italy, Germany, Ireland and the United States, with arrests also made in Australia, Sweden, Greece, Finland and Hungary. The detainees are also suspected of armed robbery, blackmail, sexual exploitation and money-laundering, the police said." Krebs notes a new credit card debuting at Turkish banks that appears to have a built in LCD that has a random six digit number associated with each transaction much like RSA SecurID keys used for computer logins.
Games

Design Contest Highlights Video Games With a Purpose 43

Posted by Soulskill from the other-than-saving-the-world-from-zombies dept.
drew30319 writes "Game developers' website Gamasutra discusses a video game design contest with socially redeeming qualities — is this a productive role video games can play? Quoting: 'A unique game design competition aimed at teen violence prevention has announced its winners, revealing that Grace's Diary is taking home the top prize. The annual contest is sponsored by Jennifer Ann's Group, a non-profit organization focused on teen violence education and prevention since its founding in 2006. The "Life. Love. Game Design Contest" challenges entrants to design a game about the issue — without using violence itself.' The winning games are available to play online now."

Comment Re:Same way you get your kids interested in gaming (Score 1) 704

by sharp3 (#32382800) Attached to: How To Get a Game-Obsessed Teenager Into Coding?
Omitting the brace, in my experience, leads to more errors and bugs down the road. Sure it might take an extra few hundred milliseconds to type (or have Visual Studio auto-complete it for even faster results), but when you want to add something to that while loop you don't run the risk of forgetting to add braces and having the added statement not actually be included in the loop block.
Government

New "Circuit Breaker" Imposed To Stop Market Crash 460

Posted by samzenpus from the financial-feather-fall dept.
Lucas123 writes "The SEC and national securities exchanges announced a new rule that would help curb market volatility and help to prevent 'flash crashes' like the one that took place on May 6, when the Dow dropped almost 1,000 points in a half hour. That crash was blamed in part on automated trading systems, which process buy and sell orders in milliseconds. The new rule would pause trading on individual stocks that fluctuate up or down 10% in a five-minute period. 'I believe that circuit breakers for individual securities across the exchanges would help to limit significant volatility,' the SEC's chairman said. 'They would also increase market transparency, bolster investor protection, and bring uniformity to decisions regarding trading halts in individual securities.'"
Crime

Justice Not As Blind As Previously Thought 256

Posted by samzenpus from the too-pretty-for-jail dept.
NotSoHeavyD3 writes "I doubt this is much of a surprise but apparently Cornell University did a study that seems to show you're more likely to get convicted if you're ugly. From the article: 'According to a Cornell University study, unattractive defendants are 22 percent more likely to be convicted than good-looking ones. And the unattractive also get slapped with harsher sentences — an average of 22 months longer in prison.'"
Education

Why Computer Science Students Cheat 694

Posted by Soulskill from the your-comments-will-be-analyzed-for-plagiarism dept.
alphadogg writes "Enrollment in undergraduate computer science courses is at an all-time high at colleges nationwide. But this trend that's been hailed by the US tech industry has a dark side: a disproportionate number of students taking these courses are caught cheating. More students are caught cheating in introductory computer science courses than in any other course on campus, thanks to automated tools that professors use to detect unauthorized code reuse, excessive collaboration, and other forbidden ways of completing homework assignments. Computer science professors say their students are not more dishonest than students in other fields; they're just more likely to get caught because software is available to check for plagiarism. 'The truth is that on every campus, a large proportion of the reported cases of academic dishonesty come from introductory computer science courses, and the reason is totally obvious: we use automated tools to detect plagiarism,' explains Professor Ed Lazowska, chair of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington. 'We compare against other student submissions, and we compare against previous student submissions and against code that may be on the Web. These tools flag suspicious cases, which are then manually examined.'"
Programming

How Many Hours a Week Can You Program? 547

Posted by timothy from the please-answer-in-earth-hours dept.
An anonymous reader writes "How many hours a week should a full-time programmer program? Trying to program anywhere near 40 wears me out. On a good week, I can do 20. Often, it is around 10 or 15. I'm talking about your programming session at the console, typing — including, of course, stopping and thinking for a minute, but not meetings, reading programming books, notes, specifications, etc., which by comparison feel like lunch breaks. I rarely get called to meetings (which is good) but that means to keep my brain from overheating I spend several hours a week surfing the web (usually reading tech news but also a few stops on Facebook, email, etc.). I should add that I am interrupted a few times per day. Me and another guy maintain an intranet site of a couple dozen web apps for an IT department, so we work on a few different things: phone calls, bug fixes, feature adds, as well as writing new web apps from the ground up, all in a day's work. And I know that wears a person out more than if they had just one project to work on. I wonder if programming is like mental sprinting, not walking, so you can only do it in bursts. Am I normal or stealing?"
Biotech

A New "Medical Lab On a Chip" For Every Home? 56

Posted by Soulskill from the a-mischievous-sibling-could-have-fun-with-this dept.
destinyland writes "NWU professor Chad Mirkin discusses his company's new 'lab-on-a-chip' technology — the ability to automatically treat a blood sample with chemicals on a microchip, quickly detecting markers for diseases and other anomalies. The quick 'bio-barcode' test creates the possibility of a medical diagnostic system in every home, since it offers greater sensitivity than current tests with simpler instruments and at lower costs. This is not a futuristic technology; four tests already have received FDA clearances, so 'They're here.... It's in hospitals around the country. Really, what we are waiting for is just an increasing menu [of tests]... It will scale rapidly.'" Reader Trintech sent word of a similar chip developed by Fraunhofer reseachers, writing, "The core element of this new chip is a disposable cartridge made of plastic which can be fitted with various types of sensors. To perform an assay, the doctor only has to place the relevant substances (reagents, etc.) into the cartridge and the test then takes place automatically. It is the researchers' hope that, by using this chip, medical patients will be able to get their lab results in a matter of minutes instead of days."
Operating Systems

Multicore Requires OS Rework, Windows Expert Says 631

Posted by timothy from the ok-let's-split-up dept.
alphadogg writes "With chip makers continuing to increase the number of cores they include on each new generation of their processors, perhaps it's time to rethink the basic architecture of today's operating systems, suggested Dave Probert, a kernel architect within the Windows core operating systems division at Microsoft. The current approach to harnessing the power of multicore processors is complicated and not entirely successful, he argued. The key may not be in throwing more energy into refining techniques such as parallel programming, but rather rethinking the basic abstractions that make up the operating systems model. Today's computers don't get enough performance out of their multicore chips, Probert said. 'Why should you ever, with all this parallel hardware, ever be waiting for your computer?' he asked. Probert made his presentation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Universal Parallel Computing Research Center."

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