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Submission + - Saudi Nuclear Weapons 'On Order' From Pakistan (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by cold fjord
cold fjord writes: The BBC reports, "Saudi Arabia has invested in Pakistani nuclear weapons projects, and believes it could obtain atomic bombs at will, ... While the kingdom's quest has often been set in the context of countering Iran's atomic programme, it is now possible that the Saudis might be able to deploy such devices more quickly than the Islamic republic. Earlier this year, a senior Nato decision maker told me that he had seen intelligence reporting that nuclear weapons made in Pakistan on behalf of Saudi Arabia are now sitting ready for delivery. Last month Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, told a conference in Sweden that if Iran got the bomb, "the Saudis will not wait one month. They already paid for the bomb, they will go to Pakistan and bring what they need to bring." Since 2009, when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia warned visiting US special envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross that if Iran crossed the threshold, "we will get nuclear weapons", the kingdom has sent the Americans numerous signals of its intentions. " — A Telegraph story from July discusses a recently identified Saudi missile base. The Christian Science Monitor reports on slow progress in negotiations on Iran's nuclear program. NBC news reports on strained relations between the US and Saudi Arabia.

Submission + - Want a petabyte of mobile data? That'll be £8m, please (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by nk497
nk497 writes: UK mobile operator EE has unveiled a new mobile data plan for businesses: the world's first petabyte data bundle. The petabyte bundle – one million gigabytes – costs a cool £8m, but according to EE it could save companies, such as broadcasters, that rely on data millions of pounds in the long term by using mobile connections instead of satellites. "Satellite uplink costs range from £20/GB for data transfer," it says. "Super Bundles, costing £8 per gigabyte for a petabyte of data, could save broadcasters as much as £12 million when using that amount of data."

Submission + - Internet Archive Burns (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Rambo Tribble
Rambo Tribble writes: The San Francisco building housing the Internet Archive, and its popular Wayback Machine, has suffered a serious fire. While no archived data was destroyed, materials awaiting archival were. Rebuilding with be a major undertaking, and the group is soliciting donations.

Submission + - As IPO Nears, Do Twitter's Active User Claims Add Up? (networkworld.com)

Submitted by netbuzz
netbuzz writes: With Twitter’s IPO looming, an independent developer who is intimately familiar with the makeup and behavior of the site’s users says his analysis of 1 million random accounts does not support the company’s claims of 215 million active monthly users and 100 million active daily users. In fact, Si Dawson, who until March ran Twit Cleaner, a popular app used to weed deadwood and spammers from Twitter accounts, puts those numbers at 112 million and 48 million, respectively, or about half of what Twitter claims.

Submission + - H.264 going Free (cisco.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: We plan to open-source our H.264 codec, and to provide it as a binary module that can be downloaded for free from the Internet. Cisco will not pass on our MPEG LA licensing costs for this module, and based on the current licensing environment, this will effectively make H.264 free for use in WebRTC.

Submission + - Dark Mail initiative being Kickstarted

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: There is a Kickstarter page for the Dark Mail initiative which promises to clean up and release code for the "magma" encrypted email daemon of Lavabit infamy. The kickstarter campaign also promises to begin development on an open source Dark Mail Protocol client to connect to the daemon. The only "real" reward for donating is the peace of mind brought by a ubiquitous encrypted mail solution, but that's enough for me.

Submission + - High-gain patch antennas boost Wi-Fi capacity for Georgia Tech (networkworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: To boost its Wi-Fi capacity in packed lecture halls, Georgia Institute of Technology gave up trying to cram in more access points, with conventional omni-directional antennas, and juggle power settings and channel plans. Instead, it turned to new high-gain directional antennas. Ventev’s new TerraWave High-Density Ceiling Mount Antenna, which looks almost exactly like the bottom half of a small pizza box, focuses the Wi-Fi signal from the ceiling mounted Cisco access point in a precise cone-shaped pattern, covering part of the lecture hall floor. Instead of the flakey, laggy connections, about which professors had been complaining, users now consistently get up to 144Mbps (if they have 802.11n client radios). “Overall, the system performed much better" with the new antennas, says William Lawrence, IT project manager principal with the university’s academic and research technologies group. “And there was a much more even distribution of clients across the room’s access points.”

Submission + - Blackberry's secret weapon (foxnews.com) 1

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: What's going on in Canada, eh? Toronto is being run by a wild man — Mayor Rob Ford just admitted to smoking crack during a “drunken stupor" — and one of the country's leading technology lights has got not just a black eye, but a black berry (yes, I went there). No longer hooked on the Crackberry, the world has moved on to iPhones and Android handsets. Fortunately, Blackberry has a secret weapon — if only they realize it. In 2010, Blackberry purchased QNX Software, ostensibly to power a growing panoply of Blackberry devices, including a tablet computer (we all know how that went). But QNX's real strength, indeed what it's famous for in the tech world, is what's in the car.

Submission + - It's hard NOT to use Google Now on the Nexus 5 (citeworld.com) 2

Submitted by mattydread23
mattydread23 writes: Google's latest Android showcase device is really a showcase for its services, particularly Google Now. It's so deeply integrated into the platform, you're practically compelled to use it for everything. That may be the whole point.
Internet Explorer

Why Internet Explorer Still Dominates South Korea. 218

Posted by timothy from the stuck-in-a-rut dept.
New submitter bmurray7 writes "You might think that the country that has the fastest average home internet speeds would be a first adapter of modern browsers. Instead, as the Washington Post reports, a payment processing security standard forces most South Koreans to rely upon Internet Explorer for online shopping. Since the standard uses a unique encryption algorithm, an ActiveX control is required to complete online purchases. As a result, many internet users are in the habit of approving all AtivceX control prompts, potentially exposing them to malware."

Submission + - The NYPD Is FOIA-Proof (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: Reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman, who shared a Pulitzer last year as part of the Associated Press team covering the NYPD’s surveillance activity, have summed it up perfectly: The NYPD doesn't answer document requests.

“For the most part, they don’t respond,” Apuzzo told the Huffington Post. "Even the NSA responds.”

It's not just reporters who've noticed. New York City Public Advocate and mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio gave the police department a failing grade in an April report based on its dismal response rate to Freedom of Information requests. By de Blasio’s analysis, nearly a third of requests submitted to NYPD go unanswered.

Submission + - Bribe Devs To Improve Open Source Software (i-programmer.info) 1

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: Bribe.io announces itself as:
A super easy way to bribe developers to fix bugs and add features in the software you're using.
Recognizing the fact that a lot of open source projects are maintained by developers working alone and in their spare time, the idea is to encourage other developers to by specifying a monetary value to a bug report or feature enhancement. Once an initial "Bribe" has been posted others can "chip in" and add to the financial incentive.
Obviously there are problems to overcome — will it lead to devs introducing bugs at the same time as new features just to get paid to fix them? Also how does this fit with the underlying ethos of open source software? I Can hear RMS already....

Submission + - Captain James Kirk is now commanding a destroyer 1

Submitted by mcgrew
mcgrew writes: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Captain Kirk will be commanding the U.S. Navy’s most advanced destroyer.

On screen, the newest Capt. Kirk is a brash, headstrong, rebellious commander who gets in bar brawls, defies orders from his superiors, and temporarily loses command of the Enterprise. The real life Capt. Kirk is expected to have a much more sedate command. “No stories of him kissing green aliens or yelling ‘KAAHHHNNN!’ on the bridge of his ship,” said Mr. Servello. “No worry over him stealing his own ship to chase after Spock, although I am told he is looking for a chief engineer named Scotty.”

Submission + - 10-Year-Old Boy Discovers 600-Million-Year-Old Supernova (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by minty3
minty3 writes: Nathan Gray, 10, from Nova Scotia, Canada, recently discovered a 600-million-year-old supernova in the galaxy PGC 61330, which lies in the constellation of Draco – beating his sister by 33 days as the youngest person to find a supernova.

Gray made the discovery on October 30 while looking at astronomical images taken by Dave Lane, who runs the Abbey Ridge Observatory (ARO) in Nova Scotia. The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada confirmed Gray’s discovery, but astronomers with the International Astronomical Union say they will need to use a larger telescope to make the finding official.

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