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Submission + - Healthcare.gov Website Violates Open Source Licensing Agreement (weeklystandard.com)

Submitted by PoliTech
PoliTech writes:

The latest indication of the haphazard way in which Healthcare.gov was developed is the uncredited use of a copyrighted web script for a data function used by the site, a violation of the licensing agreement for the software.

The script in question is called DataTables, a very long and complex piece of website software used for formatting and presenting data. DataTables was developed by a British company called SpryMedia which licenses the open-source software freely to anyone who complies with the licensing agreement.

... a cursory comparison of the two scripts removes any doubt that the source for the script used at Healthcare.gov is indeed the SpryMedia script. The Healthcare.gov version even retained easily identifiable comments by the script's author ...

Submission + - New EU Rules To Curb Transfer Of European Data To The U.S. (theguardian.com)

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: The Guardian reports: New European rules aimed at curbing questionable transfers of data from EU countries to the US are being finalised in Brussels in the first concrete reaction to the Edward Snowden disclosures on US and British mass surveillance of digital communications. Regulations on European data protection standards are expected to pass the European parliament committee stage on Monday after the various political groupings agreed on a new compromise draft following two years of gridlock on the issue. The draft would make it harder for the big US internet servers and social media providers to transfer European data to third countries, subject them to EU law rather than secret American court orders, and authorise swingeing fines possibly running into the billions for the first time for not complying with the new rules. 'As parliamentarians, as politicians, as governments we have lost control over our intelligence services. We have to get it back again,' said Jan Philipp Albrecht, the German Greens MEP who is steering the data protection regulation through the parliament. Data privacy in the EU is currently under the authority of national governments with standards varying enormously across the 28 countries, complicating efforts to arrive at satisfactory data transfer agreements with the US. The current rules are easily sidestepped by the big Silicon Valley companies, Brussels argues. The new rules, if agreed, would ban the transfer of data unless based on EU law or under a new transatlantic pact with the Americans complying with EU law. 'Without any concrete agreement there would be no data processing by telecommunications and internet companies allowed,' says a summary of the proposed new regime. Such bans were foreseen in initial wording two years ago but were dropped under the pressure of intense lobbying from Washington. The proposed ban has been revived directly as a result of the uproar over operations by the US's National Security Agency (NSA).

Submission + - Intel Reports $3B Net Income, BayTrail Devices Soon,14nm Broadwell Delay (forbes.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Intel's manufacturing machine is running full bore as we enter calendar Q4 and the company reported its fiscal third-quarter results on Tuesday. Top-line revenue of $13.5 billion was reported with a net income of only a cool $3 billion. However, it was the color along with the numbers that recently appointed CEO, Brian Krzanich offered, that delivered the rest of the story. Krzanich noted that while Intel’s PC Client Group only saw modest gains of 3.5 percent sequentially (down year-on-year), the company’s Data Center Group was up a very healthy 12+ percent year-on-year fueled by Ivy Bridge EP Xeon and high density Intel Atom Avoton server technologies. The big buzz, however, was Intel’s announcement that they’re also pushing out their new 14nm Broadwell follow-on to Haswell Core series processors. Krzanich noted, “While we are comfortable with where we are at with yields, from a timing standpoint, we are about a quarter behind our projections. As a result, we are now planning to begin production in the first quarter of next year.” Though Intel would like to enable some of the lower power, fanless hybrid designs that Broadwell will be capable of, the company doesn’t really need Broadwell just yet, as Haswell is just now hitting full stride for Ultrabooks and high-end tablets like Microsoft’s Surface 2 Pro and they’ve got Bay Trail for lower powered mainstream devices. What will be interesting is if we’ll see Android driven tablets with Intel inside or if Microsoft Windows RT 8.1 and Windows 8.1 tablets will be the only devices to hit retail in time for the holiday shopping season.
United States

NSA Director Keith Alexander Is Reportedly Stepping Down 92

Posted by samzenpus from the so-long-farewell dept.
Daniel_Stuckey writes "Keith Alexander will step down by April or May of next year. What's more, the agency's deputy director Chris Inglis also plans to retire by the end of next year, anonymous US officials told Reuters today. Though the news comes in the midst of a global public backlash over the NSA's widespread surveillance programs, it's worth pointing out that Alexander had revealed his plans to retire before Edward Snowden leaked details of PRISM in June. Officials didn't give a reason for his departure."
Privacy

Oakland Is Building a Big Data Center For Police Surveillance 92

Posted by samzenpus from the all-the-better-to-police-you-with dept.
rjmarvin writes "$7 million in federal grant money originally tasked with terrorism prevention is now being used to fund construction of a new data center in Oakland to electronically gather and analyze data around the clock from a variety of sensors and databases, displaying selected info on a bank of giant monitors. The center will mine massive data streams, helping the police department tap into 911 calls, port and traffic cameras, license plate readers, gunshot sensors, social media posts and commuters' electronic toll payments."
United States

US Government Shutdown Ends 999

Posted by Soulskill from the nobody-surprised,-everybody-irritated dept.
An anonymous reader writes "After more than two weeks of bickering that made the schoolyard appear civilized, Congress has finally passed a bill to reopen the U.S. Federal Government. 'The Senate passed the measure by a vote of 81 - 18, followed by approval in the House by a vote of 285 - 144. The bill now goes to the President, who will make remarks on Thursday regarding the reopening of the federal government. ... Earlier in the day, Speaker Boehner conceded that the House would not vote to stop the Senate-negotiated agreement. In a statement, the Speaker said that, after a fight with President Obama over his signature health care law, " . . . blocking the bipartisan agreement reached today by the members of the Senate will not be a tactic for us." The agreement will raise the debt limit until February 2014, fund the government through January 2014 and establish a joint House-Senate committee to make spending cut decisions.' CNN adds, 'Obama, for one, didn't seem in the mood Wednesday night for more of the same -- saying politicians in Washington have to "get out of the habit of governing by crisis." "Hopefully, next time, it will not be in the 11th hour," Obama told reporters, calling for both parties to work together on a budget, immigration reform and other issues. When asked as he left the podium whether he believed America would be going through all this political turmoil again in a few months, the President didn't waste words. "No."'"
The Courts

Mark Cuban Found Not Guilty of Insider Trading 48

Posted by samzenpus from the off-the-hook dept.
schwit1 writes "Mark Cuban won a years-long fight with the federal government Wednesday as jurors decided that the billionaire basketball team owner did not commit insider-trading when he sold his shares in an Internet company in 2004. The jury in federal district court in Dallas said that the Securities and Exchange Commission failed to prove the key elements of its case, including the claim that Cuban agreed to keep certain information confidential and not trade on it. The nine-member jury deliberated about half a day before reaching the unanimous decision that ended the three-week trial."
The Internet

Most Parents Allow Unsupervised Internet Access To Children At Age 8 198

Posted by samzenpus from the how-old? dept.
colinneagle writes "The timing for this study is interesting, given the arrests of two teenagers believed to have bullied a 12-year-old classmate until she committed suicide, but Microsoft found that 94% of parents said they allow their kids unsupervised access to at least one device or online service like email or social networks. The average age at which most children are allowed access to at least one online service, such as email or social media, was 8 years old, while 40% allow children under the age of 7 to access a computer unsupervised."

Comment Nice job blaming the regulators (Score 1) 93

by rsilvergun (#45146747) Attached to: Uneven Enforcement Suspected At Nuclear Plants
I love this line of reasoning. It's the same reasoning that blames the Union Auto Workers and a guy who tightens bolts for a living for making shotty cars instead of the CEOs and Engineers who made the decision to use cheap bolts.

If the regulators are untrained it's by design. You don't just 'forget' to train the people that inspect your Nuclear power plants you know...

Comment Re:Yeah, right ... (Score 2) 734

by betterprimate (#45145495) Attached to: Facebook Comment Prompts Arrests In Cyberbullying Suicide Case

Why does your kid have a computer, ipad, ipod, and cellphone? More specifically, why do you continue to let him have them after he's repeatedly rebelled against you? Have you tried selling all of them and disconnecting the internet from your house, then reintroducing them when he's learned to behave?

Parenting is only affective when you're consistent.

Comment The iPhone's pretty reasonable... (Score 2) 361

by rsilvergun (#45143343) Attached to: Is Choice a Problem For Android?
I can get one from t-mobile for the same or less than a Samsung S-4. I agree you can't do as much. I wrote a little Android program (Shameless Plug) that pops up a contact's picture (sadly the cute girl in the screenshots is a stock pic from the Creative Common's main image site) and keeps it there because I got tired of not noticing the itty bitty missed call notification. It's only pretty recently that I could distribute it to others on the iPhone without jumping through a _lot_ of hoops.

Comment Naw, not really (Score 2) 610

the powers that be aren't going to let us go to war. It's bad for business. Take that one terrorist attack ages ago in India that was traced back to Pakistan. The Indian people called for blood, the corps said no (since real war cuts into their profits) and everyone backed down.

Oh, for sure you're going to see a lot of human misery for the sake of the super rich being super rich. But large scale wars that wipe out the pleebs aren't going to happen again.

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