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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 56 declined, 19 accepted (75 total, 25.33% accepted)

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Submission + - Alleged Satellite Photograph Says Ukraine Shootdown of MH17

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: A group calling itself the Russian Union of Engineers has published a photograph, picked up by many news organizations (just picked one, Google it yourself to find more), claiming to show that MH17 was shot down by a Ukrainian fighter plane. The interesting thing is the very quick ad hoc crowd sourced debunking of the photograph using tools from Google maps, online photos/data, to their own domain knowledge backed up with the previous information. It would be interesting to understand who the "Russian Union of Engineers" are and why they in particular were chosen to release this information.

Submission + - iPhone 6 and 6+ Drop Test on Video. (youtube.com) 2

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: A mobile review website, phonebuff.com has posted a drop test video on YouTube featuring the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+. This was done outside on concrete. When dropped on their backs, both were OK. Dropped on their edges, the iPhone 6+ screen had significant breakage in the bottom corner area. When dropped on its face, the iPhone 6 screen shattered completely. The video is pretty straight forward.

Submission + - Newly Discovered Asteroid Passing Within Geostationary Orbit Sunday 1

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: A newly found asteroid the size of a house will give earth a close flyby this weekend. It will pass just below satellites in geostationary orbit, and above New Zealand around 14:18 EDT / 18:18 GMT / 06:18 NZST this coming Sunday (Monday morning in NZ).

"Asteroid 2014 RC was initially discovered on the night of August 31 by the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona, and independently detected the next night by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope, located on the summit of Haleakal on Maui, Hawaii," NASA officials said in a statement."

Submission + - Blackberry Passport Specs "Leaked" Synopsis: Powerful, more than expected

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: Digital Spy says:"BlackBerry's square-shaped Passport smartphone will be more powerful than first thought if a specs leak turns out to be accurate. N4BB has posted a page of what they say is the full specification sheet for the new device."
It is set to be released in September, so time will tell. N4BB says it will include:
  • 4.5-inch 1,440 x 1,440 display with a pixel density of 453dpi. possibly a higher resolution than the iPhone 6.
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 with 2.2GHz Quad-Core CPUs (MSM8974-AA)
  • Adreno 330, 450MHz GPU
  • 3GB of LPDDR3 800MHz RAM
  • 32GB Flash storage
  • micro-SD support (hot swappable) to 64 GB.
  • 13 MP back camera, 2 MP Front
  • 1080p HD video recording at 60fps (back)
  • image stabilization front and back
  • USB 2 support out of the box
  • USB 3 support with optional (as in buy separately) BB cable
  • etc... see the N4BB link for more detail

Submission + - Private Data On iOS Devices, Not So Private (reuters.com)

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: Personal data including text messages, contact lists and photos can be extracted from iPhones through previously unpublicized techniques by Apple Inc employees, the company acknowledged this week.

The same techniques to circumvent backup encryption could be used by law enforcement or others with access to the "trusted" computers to which the devices have been connected, according to the security expert who prompted Apple's admission.

Users are not notified that the services are running and cannot disable them, Zdziarski said. There is no way for iPhone users to know what computers have previously been granted trusted status via the backup process or block future connections.

Submission + - Selfie of Stroke Symptoms Finally Gets Woman Correct Diagnosis

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: Canada's CBC TV reports that a woman suffering from a transient ischemic attack (mini-stroke) was diagnosed by the attending emergency room physician as suffering from stress, given tips on how to manage it and sent home. As she left the hospital she again began suffering the same symptoms in her car. Thinking quick she pulled out her smart phone and started taking a video selfie of herself to show the doctors the classic symptoms of a stroke. She was originally stricken at home and remembering the symptoms of a stroke from a public service announcement, went to the hospital when the symptoms subsided. After the second episode, her quick thinking and video convinced the doctors they were wrong and she was right, and they sent her for the proper diagnostic testing and treatment they should have given in first place. The article has a link to the video she took, but here it is in case, and I know it is unlikely on Slashdot, you don't want to read it.

Submission + - Toyota Paying $1.2 Billion Penalty for Safety Issues

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: Remember the safety issue with Toyota vehicles causing them to accelerate uncontrollably while not allowing the drivers to turn them off? The one caused by killer firmware? Seems they have now been dinged for $1.2 billion for lying about it. From this article on the CBC:

Under the agreement, announced Wednesday by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the company will admit that it misled U.S. consumers by making deceptive statements about two safety issues affecting its vehicles. As a result, Toyota will pay a $1.2-billion financial penalty under a "deferred prosecution agreement."

The article also said, "the payments are unlikely to hurt Toyota's finances much." It seems even if the government has decided to punish Toyota, the consumer hasn't.

Submission + - Graphine Condom Proposed By Bill Gates

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: Well it's not exactly carbon fibre, and might not be bullet proof, but scientists at the National Graphene Institute in Manchester are working on blocking another kind of shot. According to the BBC, "The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded scientists $100,000 (£60,000) to create stronger, thinner condoms from the new 'wonder material'." Perhaps they might even provide an enhancement so that you can broadcast some 'getting in the mood' music at the same time?

Submission + - Putin Beats Chuck Norris

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: In a true news for nerds flash, Slashdot's favorite ass kicker Chuck Norris has just been eclipsed by Vladimir Putin in the realm of Taekwondo. It seems our man Vlad has just been granted a 9th degree black belt, one better than yesterday's news Chuck. The king is dead, long live the king. Now to start rewriting all those old Norris jokes. Let's see, Chuck Norris^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HVladimir Putin is the only person that can punch a cyclops between the eye.

Submission + - Elementary School Bans Students From Touching Each Other (ctvnews.ca)

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: From the 'Think Of The Children' Department: OK, so this isn't a tech article. But it is about something that is so messed up I just had to post it. A school in British Columbia (the province that now even California can call flakey) has just banned elementary school students from touching each other during recess. You know, one of those times for play and more importantly learning how to socialize (which itself includes touching). CTV News reports: "A ban on touching during recess at a B.C. elementary school has shocked parents, who call the new no-touch policy "ridiculous." For most kids, recess is a chance to run around and goof-off with their friends, but a new ban on touching at a school in Aldergrove could put a damper on playtime. School administrators at Coghlan Fundamental Elementary School in B.C. have banned kindergarten students from touching each other during recess."

Submission + - Bell Canada Will Begin Tracking All Customer Online Activity

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: A report in the Financial Post says: "A move by BCE Inc. to track its cellular customers’ every move and use that information for marketing purposes has prompted public complaints along with an investigation by Canada’s privacy regulator. ... BCE plans to change its privacy policy on Nov. 16 and begin using account and network usage information to serve up personalized advertising it says will be more relevant to users. ... BCE’s policy states it will collect network usage information including: web pages users visit from their mobile devices or home Internet, search terms used, location, app usage, television viewing and calling patterns." BCE == Bell Canada Enterprises. Granted Google and Facebook do this already, but you have a choice to use them or not. With limited competition in the mobility market, when your service provider gets in on the act, it gets increasingly hard for people to opt out of corporate bother's ever watchful eye. Is VPN (or similar mechanism) for all mobile users the answer? Or do we just have to learn to eat whatever they feed us?

Submission + - CDN Gov Security Concerns - Egypt Accelero Barred from Buying CDN Telco Division (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports that:

Manitoba Telecom Services says the federal government has rejected a deal for it to sell its business unit Allstream to Egyptian investment group Accelero Capital Holdings due to "unspecified national security concerns." ...

The Winnipeg company said late Monday it is "extremely surprised and disappointed" by the decision to not approve the deal, which was announced last May. At the time, the company valued the sale at $520 million.

The company said it and Accelero, which is owned by Egyptian telecom magnate Naguib Sawiris, have offered to "take whatever actions are necessary" to address Industry Canada's concerns, but have been rejected.

Sawiris is an original investor in small wireless company Wind Mobile, which operates in Canada. ...

Submission + - Gore Site Operator Arrested for Posting Video of Murder (montrealgazette.com)

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes:

The owner and operator of a well-known “real gore” website is charged with corrupting morals for posting a video allegedly depicting the murder of student Jun Lin by Luka Magnotta.

Magnotta, 30, is currently in custody charged with first-degree murder in the death of the 33-year-old Chinese international student, who was killed in Montreal in May 2012. The victim’s severed limbs were then mailed to political parties and elementary schools, and his torso found inside a discarded suitcase.

A news interview with the detective in charge of the case, airing on CTV as I type this, says he believes the web site hosts a lot of racist content and unimaginable violence. You should note that Canada has less free speech than in America (we have 'hate crime laws'), but there will likely be some arguments in this vein. The charge against the operator is quite rare and no-one so far remembers it ever being used before.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot - Node.js vs JEE/C/C++/.NET in the Enterprise 1

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: I'm working at a small to medium sized company that creates software for mobile devices, but came from a 'large enterprise' world before. I see node.js being used increasingly in smaller companies (including ours) or in web/mobile related software. Meanwhile we see languages like Java/JEE, C/C++, and .NET continue to be used for medium to large enterprise corporate software. Compared to the status quo in the enterprise (JEE/C/C++/.NET ... and yes, maybe even COBOL) maybe Slashdotters can chime in on how they see Node.js in this role. I'm thinking of things like complexity of business logic (dependencies, workflows, linear processes, etc), transaction support (for processes in general and database support), messaging services, etc. etc. etc. Also what is the state of Node.js in terms of paradigms like application containers, where much of the 'plumbing' is already set up for your (one of the main benefits of JEE application containers). But there is also the question of maintainability, deployment, and ongoing operations. What say you, Slashdot?
Science

Submission + - Electrolyzer Discovery Could Boost Use of Fuel Cells

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: (Despite the misleading headline in the article) Researchers at the University of Calgary in Canada have discovered how to make highly efficient electrolyzers using common metals instead of rare earth metals. I think the key quote from the article is this:

Electrolyzers depend on rare, difficult-to-work-with and sometimes toxic metals, but the method developed by Chris Berlinguette and Simon Trudel uses metals as common as rust. It delivers results comparable to current techniques but costs about 1,000 times less.

This seems like it could make the use of fuel cells common place with an economical fuel source. If this pans out, what other hurdles might need addressing to get a fuel cell into every home?

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