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Government

Silicon Valley Stays Quiet As Washington Implodes 299

Posted by timothy from the power-to-tax-is-power-to-destroy dept.
dcblogs writes "In a better time, circa 1998, Cypress Semiconductor founder and CEO T.J. Rodgers gave a provocative speech, titled 'Why Silicon Valley Should Not Normalize Relations with Washington D.C.' This speech is still important to understanding the conflict that tech leaders have with Congress, and their relative silence during the shutdown. 'The metric that differentiates Silicon Valley from Washington does not fall along conventional political lines: Republican versus Democrat, conservative versus liberal, right versus left,' Rogers said. 'It falls between freedom and control. It is a metric that separates individual freedom to speak from tap-ready telephones; local reinvestment of profit from taxes that go to Washington; encryption to protect privacy from government eavesdropping; success in the marketplace from government subsidies; and a free, untaxed Internet from a regulated, overtaxed Internet.'"
United Kingdom

British Police Foil Alleged Mall Massacre Copycat Plot 292

Posted by timothy from the unless-it's-an-fbi-sting dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Washington Post reports, "British law enforcement agencies averted a plot to orchestrate a large-scale terror attack similar to the assault on Kenya's Westgate mall, an official said Monday. Police were questioning four men in their 20s on suspicion of terrorism after they were detained Sunday in pre-planned, intelligence-led raids. A British security official said the men were planning a shooting spree akin to the Westgate attack in Nairobi, in which at least 67 people died. ... in a series of statements, the force said the men were all British nationals between the ages of 25 and 29, with roots in Turkey, Pakistan, Algeria and Azerbaijan. ... the London police firearms unit took part in the arrests. British police rarely carry weapons and their involvement suggested concern that men might have been armed." — The Sydney Morning Herald has video. Prime Minister Cameron recently expressed concern regarding such a possibility."

Comment Re:What evidence do you have that you're being DoS (Score 1) 319

by alostpacket (#45111523) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Mitigating DoS Attacks On Home Network?

Right, but have you gone into the game after changing IPs? Do you have a static/semi-static IP? Or dynamic?

Doesn't much matter *when* you are online --I'm saying as soon as you do go online it could be possible that if some component of the game, or even game/store client (I don't know if Steam or Origin do this) creates P2P connections. After changing IPs, as soon as that game/game client creates a new P2P connection, it's possible the attacker then knows your new IP.

Again, all depends on the game/client and I dont know which ones use P2P style networking to connect users.

Comment Re:What evidence do you have that you're being DoS (Score 1) 319

by alostpacket (#45109781) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Mitigating DoS Attacks On Home Network?

It's also possible, though maybe less likely that if the game they are playing creates P2P connections between the players for say chat, then they could be revealing their IP that way. Like Freshly Exhumed said above though, it all just guesses without some evidence.

But what do I know, I'm a packet who got lost on his way to 127.0.0.1

Comment Google Apps accounts are opted out (Score 1) 136

by alostpacket (#45109011) Attached to: Google ToS Change Means Your Photo Could Go In Ads

It seems Google Apps accounts are opted out by default, but Gmail and other regular Google accounts may be opted in by default.

Still, they have made it very clear how to turn it off, and you would still need to comment, +1, or follow something for "Sharing" to kick in. I can kinda see how it's a nuisance, but they are being very up-front about it and making sure all user are notified via several notification methods.

I'm more bothered by the half-assed attempt to tie my Google account and real name to things like YouTube. Those prompts are (still) down right infuriating (and buggy, a few times I thought it might have change my YouTube account name).

This however, is hardly a blip for me. (Although to be fair, I use an Apps account).
The Almighty Buck

The Ridiculous Tech Fees You're Still Paying 318

Posted by Soulskill from the selling-wifi-at-the-airport-makes-you-evil dept.
Esther Schindler writes "None of us like to spend money (except on shiny new toys). But even we curmudgeons can understand that companies need to charge for things that cost them money; and profit-making is at the heart of our economy. Still, several charges appear on our bills that can drive even the most complacent techie into a screaming fit. How did this advertised price turn into that much on the final bill? Why are they charging for it in the first place? Herewith, fees that make no sense at all — and yet we still fork over money for them. For example: 'While Internet access is free in coffee shops, some public transit, and even campsites, as of 2009 15% of hotels charged guests for the privilege of checking their e-mail and catching up on watching cat videos. Oddly, budget and midscale hotel chains are more likely to offer free Wi-Fi, while luxurious hotels — already costing the traveler more — regularly ding us.'"
Science

Charged Superhydrophobic Condenser Surface May Make Power Plants More Efficient 72

Posted by Soulskill from the making-water-dance-to-our-tune dept.
New submitter _0xd0ad sends this news from the CS Monitor: "The activities of bantam water droplets in just one region of a power plant could make a significant difference in the output of power plants, scientists say. ... When a water droplet forms on a sheet of metal coated with a superhydrophobe, the droplet can camp there only so long as it does not merge with another droplet. As soon as it weds with another droplet, the energy produced is so great that the two will 'jump' away from that surface, as if in urgent deference to the surface's severe water phobia. Scientists have proposed that this 'jumping' could be incorporated into power plant design. ... 'To have the most efficient condensing surface, you want to remove the droplets as early as possible,' says Dr. Nenad Miljkovic, [postdoctoral associate at MIT and co-author on 'Electrostatic charging of jumping droplets']. But, in prototypes, this 'jumping' design is not as efficient as engineers believe it could be. Some of the droplets will just fall back to the condenser's surface, recoating it and slowing the process down. ... But a newly discovered component to the 'jumping' process might allow scientists to eliminate this fall back. In an accidental find, the MIT team found that droplets don't just spring from the surface — they also rebound from each other ... because an electrical charge forms on the droplets as they flee the hydrophobic surface. So, if a charge is applied to the condenser system, the water droplets can be electrically prevented from returning to the surface, he said.
Cellphones

NSA Abandoned Project To Track Cell Phone Locations 70

Posted by Soulskill from the turns-out-we're-all-really-boring dept.
barlevg writes "The Washington Post reports that NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander testified before the Senate about an experimental NSA program to track location data from cell phones in 2011, but abandoned it because it lacked 'the operational value' it needed. It was not made clear what 'operation value' they were seeking. Alexander said, 'the data collected were never available for intelligence analysis purposes.' He added, 'This may be something that is a future requirement for the country, but it is not right now because when we identify a number we can give that to the FBI, [who can a warrant for the data it needs]. That’s the reason we stopped in 2011.''"

Comment Re:Simple solution (Score 2) 332

by alostpacket (#44836463) Attached to: Verizon's Plan To Turn the Web Into Pay-Per-View

This is Verizon Telecom (eg FiOS) not Verizon Wireless. (Though they will soon be one in the same). The FCC only regulated wireline ISPs in it's Open Internet Rules. Thus Verizon Wireless can play all the games they want and sell their paying customers to content providers at will.

However, the case that went to federal court this week was brought by Verizon Telecom so that they could charge Netflix, YouTube, et al.. And they don't even need to degrade service, they just need to drag their feet on peering agreements.

What they are doing is purely evil. It's hostile to their own customers and they are already causing these problems. Now they are suing to be allowed to make it worse.

Another good read:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/09/fccs-wishy-washy-rulemaking-might-doom-net-neutrality-in-court/

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