Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - New California declares 'independence' from California (usatoday.com)

Submitted by Ayano
Ayano writes:

The founders of New California took an early step toward statehood Monday with the reading of their own Declaration of Independence from California, a state they describe as "ungovernable." Their solution: Take over most of current-day California — including many rural counties — and leave the coastal urban areas to themselves.

Submission + - Amazon won't say if it hands your Echo data to the government (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Amazon has a transparency problem.

Three years ago, the retail giant became the last major tech company to reveal how many subpoenas, search warrants, and court orders it received for customer data in a half-year period. While every other tech giant had regularly published its government request figures for years, spurred on by accusations of participation in government surveillance, Amazon had been largely forgotten.

Eventually, people noticed and Amazon acquiesced.

Since then, Amazon's business has expanded. By its quarterly revenue, it's no longer a retail company — it's a cloud giant and a device maker. The company's flagship Echo, an "always listening" speaker, collects vast amounts of customer data that's openly up for grabs by the government.

But Amazon's bi-annual transparency figures don't want you to know that.

What started as a debut transparency report attempt, with all the hallmarks of aiming to appease its AWS customers (and misconstrued by this reporter), quickly became, albeit three years later, a successful effort to mislead and confuse by deliberately avoiding answering a simple question.

If Amazon's transparency reports are not limited to AWS, the implication is that the government has requested customer data that includes Echo audio files and user shopping activity, at least.

Submission + - Westinghouse Files For Bankruptcy, In Blow To Nuclear Power (reuters.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Westinghouse Electric Co, a unit of Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp, filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, hit by billions of dollars of cost overruns at four nuclear reactors under construction in the U.S. Southeast. The bankruptcy casts doubt on the future of the first new U.S. nuclear power plants in three decades, which were scheduled to begin producing power as soon as this week, but are now years behind schedule. The four reactors are part of two projects known as V.C. Summer in South Carolina, which is majority owned by SCANA Corp, and Vogtle in Georgia, which is owned by a group of utilities led by Southern Co. Costs for the projects have soared due to increased safety demands by U.S. regulators, and also due to significantly higher-than-anticipated costs for labor, equipment and components. Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse said it hopes to use bankruptcy to isolate and reorganize around its "very profitable" nuclear fuel and power plant servicing businesses from its money-losing construction operation. Westinghouse said in a court filing it has secured $800 million in financing from Apollo Investment Corp, an affiliate of Apollo Global Management, to fund its core businesses during its reorganization. Westinghouse’s nuclear services business is expected to continue to perform profitably over the course of the bankruptcy and eventually be sold by Toshiba, people familiar with the matter said. When regulators in Georgia and South Carolina approved the construction of Westinghouse's AP1000 reactors in 2009, it was meant to be the start of renewed push to develop U.S. nuclear power. However, a flood of cheap natural gas from shale, the lack of U.S. legislation to curb carbon emissions and the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan dampened enthusiasm for nuclear power. Toshiba had acquired Westinghouse in 2006 for $5.4 billion. It expected to build dozens of its new AP1000 reactors — which were hailed as safer, quicker to construct and more compact — creating a pipeline of work for its maintenance division.

Submission + - About 90% of Smart TVs Vulnerable To Remote Hacking Via Rogue TV Signals (bleepingcomputer.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new attack on smart TVs allows a malicious actor to take over devices using rogue DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial) signals, get root access on the smart TV, and use the device for all sorts of nasty actions, ranging from DDoS attacks to spying on end users. The attack, developed by Rafael Scheel, a security researcher working for Swiss cyber security consulting company Oneconsult, is unique and much more dangerous than previous smart TV hacks. Scheel's method, which he recently presented at a security conference, is different because the attacker can execute it from a remote location, without user interaction, and runs in the TV's background processes, meaning users won't notice when an attacker compromises their TVs. The researcher told Bleeping Computer via email that he developed this technique without knowing about the CIA's Weeping Angel toolkit, which makes his work even more impressing. Furthermore, Scheel says that "about 90% of the TVs sold in the last years are potential victims of similar attacks," highlighting a major flaw in the infrastructure surrounding smart TVs all over the globe. At the center of Scheel's attack is Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV), an industry standard supported by most cable providers and smart TV makers that "harmonizes" classic broadcast, IPTV, and broadband delivery systems. TV transmission signal technologies like DVB-T, DVB-C, or IPTV all support HbbTV. Scheel says that anyone can set up a custom DVB-T transmitter with equipment priced between $50-$150, and start broadcasting a DVB-T signal.

Comment Let the baby keep it (Score 1) 321

by bracktra (#39513241) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Store Umbilical Cord Blood — and If So, Where?
A view from the other side of the fence: http://midwifethinking.com/2011/02/10/cord-blood-collection-confessions-of-a-vampire-midwife/ Basically, the opposing argument is that newborns need their blood. Wait a few minutes to let them get it all. Many companies market many things to new parents... cord blood saving may be little more than that.
Games

Submission + - Civilization V Coming This Fall (gamasutra.com)

Submitted by sopssa
sopssa writes: 2K Games announced today that they will be releasing Civilization V in the fall. For the first time in the series the square tiles will be changed to hexes, which 2K Games says provides "deeper strategy" and "more realistic gameplay". Civilization V will also include new graphics engine, new combat system including ranged bombardment, multiplayer and good support for the modding community. 'Each new version of Civilization presents exciting challenges for our team. Thankfully, ideas on how to bring new and fun experiences to Civ players never seem to stop flowing. From fully animated leaders and realistic landscapes, new combat tactics, expanded diplomacy and shared mods, we're excited for players to see the new vision our team at Firaxis has brought to the series.', Sid Meier said. In addition to Civilization V, the Facebook-based Civilization Network will also be released during 2010.
Censorship

Submission + - Giuliani predicts deadly earthquake, censored (nytimes.com) 2

Submitted by Khashishi
Khashishi writes: Seismologist Giampaolo Giuliani claims to have predicted the deadly earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy, that killed at least 92 people. His attempts at warning the public were reported to the authorities and his warnings were censored to prevent public panic.

It must be noted that accurate earthquake prediction is not well-established within the science community, so what is the government's proper response?
Social Networks

Submission + - The Wikipedia Deletion Wars

Submitted by
The Narrative Fallacy
The Narrative Fallacy writes: "Nicholson Baker has written a good review of John Broughton's new book "Wikipedia: The Missing Manual" that details the Wikipedia War between deletionists and inclusionists that started in the fall of 2006, when groups of editors went around getting rid of articles on webcomic artists — some of the most original and articulate people on the Net. As the deletions and ill-will spread in 2007 — deletions not just of webcomics but of companies, urban places, Web sites, lists, people, categories, and ideas — all deemed to be trivial, "NN" (nonnotable), "stubby," undersourced, or otherwise unencyclopedic — Andrew Lih, one of the most thoughtful observers of Wikipedia's history, told a Canadian reporter: "The preference now is for excising, deleting, restricting information rather than letting it sit there and grow." Although the war seems to have subsided "someone recently proposed a Wikimorgue — a bin of broken dreams where all rejects could still be read, as long as they weren't libelous or otherwise illegal. Like other middens, it would have much to tell us over time. We could call it the Deletopedia." Kevin Kelly has some additional thoughts on the book."
Power

Submission + - Paint-on Solar Panels (eurekalert.org)

Submitted by LeadSongDog
LeadSongDog writes: "Someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations."

Guess I won't need that Mr. Fusion after all.
Security

Submission + - Fingerprints at School 2

Submitted by
Inda
Inda writes: "My daughter, 7, is about to start at a new school that likes to think they excel in technology. They use an interesting system for checking out library books using a single thumb print. When I first heard this, alarm bells rang. The way I understand it, once a fingerprint is compromised, it is compromised forever.

I'm told the children enjoy using the fingerprint system and I would not want to single my daughter out as being different. The alternative to fingerprints are library cards, with barcodes, that are scanned manually.

I am not confident that the school's security is up to scratch. Their website is poorly written in FrontPage by the headmaster, all the staff use the Comic Sans MS font; I'm sure you get the picture. At the end of the day, they're teachers, not security experts. Security is not my field of expertise either.

Should I be concerned? Have I been reading Slashdot too long? Should I put the tinfoil hat down?"

Slashdot Top Deals

I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning. -- Plato

Close