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Privacy

Submission + - Canada prepares for crackdown on BitTorrent movie pirates

Submitted by dreamstateseven
dreamstateseven writes: A forensic software company has collected files on a million Canadians who it says have downloaded pirated content. The company, which works for the motion picture and recording industries, says a recent court decision forcing Internet providers to release subscriber names and details is only the first step in a bid to crack down on illegal downloads.

“The door is closing. People should think twice about downloading content they know isn’t proper,” said Barry Logan, managing director of Canipre , the Montreal-based forensic software company.
Crime

Submission + - Google Search Missed for 'Foolproof Suffocation' in Casey Anthony Case

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The Orlando Sentinel reports that a google search was made for the term "foolproof suffocation" on the Anthony family's computer the day Casey Anthony's 2-year-old daughter Caylee was last seen alive by her family — a search that did not surface at Casey Anthony's trial for first degree murder. In the notorious 31 days which followed, Casey Anthony repeatedly lied about her and her daughter's whereabouts and at Anthony's trial, her defense attorney argued that her daughter drowned accidentally in the family's pool. Anthony was acquitted on all major charges in her daughter's death, including murder. Though computer searches were a key issue at Anthony's murder trial, the term "foolproof suffocation" never came up. "Our investigation reveals the person most likely at the computer was Casey Anthony," says investigative reporter Tony Pipitone. Lead sheriff's Investigator Yuri Melich sent prosecutors a spreadsheet that contained less than 2 percent of the computer’s Internet activity that day and included only Internet data from the computer’s Internet Explorer browser – one Casey Anthony apparently stopped using months earlier — and failed to list 1,247 entries recorded on the Mozilla Firefox browser that day — including the search for “foolproof suffocation.” Prosecutor Jeff Ashton said in a statement to WKMG that it's "a shame we didn't have it. (It would have) put the accidental death claim in serious question.""
Education

Submission + - Introducing students to rigor 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As an engineer who studied in Asia for most of my life, my first exposure to real mathematics was when I arrived at graduate school in the United States. While I did take and enjoy some basic courses in mathematics (like real and functional analysis, measure theory and probability), I had a tough time because I found myself having to train myself in making rigorous proofs/arguments, compared to the engineering approach. I also found that training invaluable in helping me in other aspects of my life (including my engineering job). Now that I am back in my home country with children of my own, I see that the curriculum and approach in mathematics hasn't really changed. Rather than getting them used to thinking and making concrete arguments, they are taught formulae and most of their homework and exams focus on number crunching. So I'd like to ask slashdotters: What books/activities would you recommend for students in the 5th-12th grades (or even earlier) that might get them to appreciate rigor and critical thinking?
Medicine

Submission + - Researchers Investigating Self-Boosting Vaccine (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Vaccines, contrary to opinions from the anti-science crowd, are some of the most effective tools in modern medicine. For some diseases, a single shot is all it takes for lifetime immunity. Others, though, require booster shots, to remind your immune system exactly what it should prepare to fight. Failure to get these shots threatens an individual's health, and the herd immunity concept as well. Scientists are now looking into 'self-boosting' vaccines in order to fix that problem. Some viruses are capable of remaining in the human body for a person's entire lifetime. If researchers can figure out a way to safely harness these, it may be possible to add genes that would create proteins to train the immune system against not just one, but multiple other viruses (abstract). This is a difficult problem to solve; changing the way we do vaccinations will itself have consequences for herd immunity. It also hinges on finding a virus that can survive the immune system without have uncomfortable flare-ups from time to time.

Submission + - Early Human Ancestors Dined on Grass 3.5 Million Years Ago

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: New research suggests that early human ancestors began eating grass half a million years earlier than believed. Researchers found that unlike their predecessors who mostly lived on fruit and insects, our ancestors living 3.5 million years ago in central Africa got half their nutrition from tropical grasses and sedges, according to a new study published Nov. 12 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
AMD

Submission + - AMD hires bank to explore sale options (reuters.com)

Submitted by Dainsanefh
Dainsanefh writes: Advanced Micro Devices has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co to explore options, which could include a potential sale, as the chipmaker struggles to find a role in an industry increasingly focused on mobile and away from traditional PCs, according to three sources familiar with the situation.
Advertising

Submission + - Online Privacy- Who's in Control? (ghostery.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I'm writing to ask if you might have some time to speak with me about developing a story on online privacy. It is estimated that online shoppers will spend more than 54 billion dollars this holiday season, accounting for more than 24% of all U.S. retail spending during this time. All of this activity, all of this personal information and choices of people shopping online, are followed by various advertising and tracking companies whose scripts are embedded on these websites in an attempt to track your online behavior-and later target ads to you.
Ghostery is a browser tool that scans pages for scripts, pixels and other elements and notifies the user of the companies whose code is present on the page. Ghostery allows you to see what is happening behind your browser, to learn more about the companies whose code appears on the page (and their practices), and to block the page elements from loading if you so choose. Ghostery gives you the opportunity to exercise choice and helps you understand how companies collect and use your data- often to target ads to you. Ghostery also gives you the ability to opt out of targeting if you wish.
As you know, online privacy has been a popular topic of late and its use in politics was spotlighted in the press in the past few weeks in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and on Bloomberg TV. Below are a few examples of such stories.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/us/politics/tracking-clicks-online-to-try-to-sway-voters.
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/evidon-barackobama-com-has-87-tracking-cookies-X~44TNmcRcqQ7rBtmO0Lgg.html
I encourage you to download Ghostery (free download available at http://www.ghostery.com/ as using it is the best way to get its full effect. In addition to Ghostery’s' unparalleled transparency, it is able to scan pages without disrupting your browsing experience by either slowing down your browser or not allowing your web pages to load completely. Other products on the market simply block tracking, which may cause websites not to function properly. With Ghostery, consumers can see and make their own choices in real time.
I would welcome the opportunity to discuss Ghostery with you and walk you through the download. Please let me know when you might be available to do so. You can reach me by phone or email.
Best regards,
Annie Oberfield
WIT Strategy
aoberfield@witstrategy.com
484-802-6967
IT

Submission + - What to do after you fire an idiot sysadmin or developer (hp.com) 1

Submitted by
Esther Schindler
Esther Schindler writes: "The job of dealing with an under-performing employee doesn't end when the culprit is shown the door. Everyone focuses on security tasks, after you fire the idiot, such as changing passwords, but that's just one part of the To Do list. More important, in the long run, is the cleanup job that needs to be done after you fire the turkey, looking for the hidden messes and security flaws the ex-employee may have left behind. Otherwise, you’ll still be cleaning up the problems six months later, when you discovered that the backup he automated... well, not that we are speaking from experience or anything, but we wanted to bring him back in just so we could fire his butt all over again. Rick Cook has a checklist of Stuff To Look For in his article, Cleaning Out The Turkey Coop: What To Do After You Get Rid of an Incompetent Employee. See what you might add to the list."
Robotics

Submission + - OpenGertie - Open Hardware relative of Pixar's Luxo Junior (opengertie.org)

Submitted by zapyon
zapyon writes: Fabian Gerlinghaus has constructed a robotic desklamp that includes a camera and a microphone as a "flexible and low-cost resource for conducting research into cognitive products and human-robot interaction." As it is open hardware all plans are available and you may make your own if you have a 3D printer available.
Government

Submission + - Podcast: Chris Soghoian on Exploit Sales (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Gunkerty Jeb
Gunkerty Jeb writes: Threatpost's Dennis Fisher talks with Chris Soghoian, a principal technologist at the ACLU, about the developing market for buying and selling exploits and vulnerabilities. Soghoian has been a vocal critic of exploit sales and in this podcast he discusses the reasons why and why he thinks the policymakers in Washington need to get involved.

Submission + - Rapidshare Limits Public Downloads 1GB/day (myce.com)

Submitted by blindenvy
blindenvy writes: RapidShare has changed its business model (Announcement)) to combat piracy and to avoid ending up in a similar situation as MegaUpload. Under the new policy "Files that are uploaded by free RapidShare accounts will be limited to 1 GB of data traffic a day, where traffic by the user itself or its contacts are not included. All downloads are unrestricted which means they will be served at full speed. The new system will come in effect the 27th of November 2012."
Java

Submission + - Twitter Survives Election after Ruby-to-Java Move

Submitted by mc10
mc10 writes: As the results of the 2012 US Presidential election were being announced Tuesday night, Twitter experienced record traffic to its website, but the service never faltered despite the increased load – something Twitter engineers credit to the company's move from Ruby to Java for its backend software. Unlike in the past, Twitter did not experience service outages, even as the website generated 874,560 posts in a single minute at its peak in traffic.
Politics

Submission + - All of Nate Silver's Presidential Predictions Proved True (singularityhub.com) 2

Submitted by
kkleiner
kkleiner writes: "For the last few months, the political pundit class has been at war with NYT/FiveThirtyEight blogger Nate Silver. Joe Scarborough of MSNBC called him a “joke,” while an op-ed in the LA Times accused him of running a “numbers racket.” But last night, Silver triumphed: every one of his state-level presidential predictions proved true. Statistics FTW!"
China

Submission + - Foxconn Sees New Source Of Cheap Labor: The United States (forbes.com) 1

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: Foxconn is planning to build manufacturing plants in the U.S., probably in cites such as Detroit and Los Angeles. “Since the manufacturing of Apple’s products is rather complicated, the market watchers expect the rumored plants to focus on LCD TV production, which can be highly automated and easier.” Nice to think they will be hiring herebut still a fascinating insult to U.S. manufacturing prowess, dontcha think – the idea that actually making Apple products is a little too complicated for Americans to handle (Or maybe they won't be able to hire enough workers sitting 8 hours a day screwing really tiny screws into iPhone 5; despite of the higher unemployment rate, laborers here may not be as desperate as the millions of migrant workers looking for work in China.) Foxconn chairman Terry Guo, at a recent public event, noted that the company is planning a training program for US-based engineers, bringing them to Taiwan or China to learn the processes of product design and manufacturing.

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