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Facebook Patented Making NSA Data Handoffs Easier 137

Posted by Soulskill from the can-make-a-fortune-on-the-infringement-suits dept.
theodp writes "In June, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg blasted 'outrageous press reports' about the PRISM surveillance program, denying that Facebook was ever 'part of any program to give the U.S. or any other government direct access to our servers.' What Zuckerberg didn't mention, and what the press overlooked, is that the USPTO granted Facebook a patent in May for its Automated Writ Response System. Like the NSA-enabling systems described by the NY Times on the same day Zuckerberg cried foul, the patent covers technical methods to more efficiently share the personal data of users with law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in response to lawful government requests via APIs and secured portals installed at company-controlled locations. 'While handing over data in response to a legitimate FISA request is a legal requirement,' the Times noted, 'making it easier for the government to get the information is not, which is why Twitter could decline to do so.'"

Comment Re:BT (Score 1) 336

The worst part about third party installers like sourceforge is that it will ask you "I agree to the terms of agreement to install Ask.com toolbar" and then you uncheck it and it installs anyways. This almost never fails, and it's not fishy English, they install it regardless and blame it on a technical glitch.

The technical glitch was letting you uncheck it at all. :)

Comment Re:Good geeks? (Score 1) 388

by Applekid (#45373251) Attached to: The NSA Is Looking For a Few Good Geeks

This is exactly right, and those kinds of geeks are not "good" geeks. They are a kind of evil themselves.

Your rocket scientist reference is both correct and a good example of that: Oppenheimer famously replied to someone asking if he was bothered by the fact that his work was being used to kill lots of innocent people and his response was that his only worry was getting them to go up. It was someone else's job to worry about where they come down.

That's pure evil, right there.

What a shock: when we grant a monopoly on snuffing out liberties to the state, the only people who are attracted to working for the state are those with desires to snuff out liberties.

Comment Re:Good geeks? (Score 1) 388

by Applekid (#45373239) Attached to: The NSA Is Looking For a Few Good Geeks

At this point, no "good" geek would work for the NSA.

It's a little bit like the police. No good human being would ever join at this point (maybe generations past). These days it's only those looking for a legal sanction of their bullying fantasies.

The NSA is looking for a few evil geeks.
The Gimp

GIMP, Citing Ad Policies, Moves to FTP Rather Than SourceForge Downloads 336

Posted by timothy from the voluntary-action dept.
Dangerous_Minds writes "GIMP, a free and open source alternative to image manipulation software like Photoshop, recently announced that it will no longer be distributing their program through SourceForge. Citing some of the ads as reasons, they say that the tipping point was 'the introduction of their own SourceForge Installer software, which bundles third-party offers with Free Software packages. We do not want to support this kind of behavior, and have thus decided to abandon SourceForge.' The policy changes were reported back in August by Gluster. GIMP is now distributing their software via their own FTP page instead." Note: SourceForge and Slashdot share a corporate parent.
Earth

Scientists Says Jellyfish Are Taking Over the Oceans 274

Posted by timothy from the on-the-upside-they-make-great-pets-and-snacks dept.
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Karla Cripps reports at CNN that a combination of overfishing, warming water, low oxygen and pollution are creating perfect conditions for jellyfish to multiply. "The jellyfish seem to be the ones that are flourishing in this while everything else is suffering," says Australian jellyfish researcher Lisa-ann Gershwin. In 2000, a bloom of sea tomato jellyfish in Australia was so enormous — it stretched for more than 1,000 miles from north to south — that it was even visible from space. While most blooms are not quite that big, Gershwin's survey of research on jellyfish from the last few decades indicate that populations are most likely on the rise, and that this boom is taking place in an ocean that is faced with overfishing, acid rain, nutrient pollution from fertilizers and climate change, among other problems. This past summer, southern Europe experienced one of its worst jellyfish infestations ever. Experts there have been reporting a steady increase in the number of jellyfish in the Mediterranean Sea for years. With more than 2,000 species of jellyfish swimming through the world's waters, most stings are completely harmless, some will leave you in excruciating pain, then there are the killers. There are several species of big box jellyfish that have caused many deaths — these include chironex fleckeri in Australia, known as the "most lethal jellyfish in the world whose sting can kill in three minutes. "Just the lightest brush — you don't even feel it — and then, whammo, you're in more pain than you ever could have imagined, and you are struggling to breathe and you can't move your limbs and you can't stop vomiting and your blood pressure just keeps going up and up," says Gershwin. "It is really surprising how many places they occur around the world — places you would never expect: Hawaii, Caribbean, Florida, Wales, New Caledonia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, India ... as well as Australia.""
Government

Healthcare.gov Official Resigns, Website Still a Disaster 559

Posted by timothy from the sell-your-stock-in-this-one-oh-wait dept.
Nerval's Lobster writes "A government official who helped oversee the bug-riddled Healthcare.gov Website has resigned his post. Tony Trenkle, Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees Healthcare.gov, will reportedly join the private sector after he departs on November 15. A spokesperson for the Medicare agency refused to say whether he had been forced out, telling reporters: 'Tony made a decision that he was going to move to the private sector and that is what our COO announced yesterday.' Because of his supervisory role, Trenkle is considered a significant player in the Website's development; The New York Times indicated that he was one of two federal officials who signed an internal memo suggesting that security protocols for the Website weren't in place as recently as late September, a few days before Healthcare.gov's launch.Following Trenkle's resignation, Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted to the Senate Finance Committee that Healthcare.gov would require hundreds of fixes. 'We're not where we need to be,' she said. 'It's a pretty aggressive schedule to get to the entire punch list by the end of November.' Sebelius added that she was ultimately accountable for what she termed the 'excruciatingly awful' rollout. Healthcare.gov has experienced massive problems since its Oct. 1 debut. In addition to repeated crashes and slow performance, the Website's software often prevents people from setting up accounts. President Obama has expressed intense frustration with the situation, but insists the Affordable Care Act (ACA) backing the Website remains strong. 'The essence of the law, the health insurance that's available to people is working just fine,' he told reporters in October. 'The problem has been that the website that's supposed to make it easy to apply for insurance hasn't been working.' While the federal government won't release 'official' enrollment numbers until the end of November, it's clear that the Website's backers are losing the battle of public perception."

Comment Re:Yea, Right! (Score 0) 261

by Applekid (#45348511) Attached to: The Silk Road Is Back

My thoughts exactly.

I am surprised that law enforcement allowed it to be shut down in the first place. They should have taken it over, and run it for a few months, track every transaction, and then come down hard on all the dealers.

Or just sit back and bust the top seller every month. Someone else will always step up to fill the gap, and some smart cop looks like a hero to his/her superiors.

The problem with those ideas, of which the police and politicians are most certainly aware, is that any extremely effective method of catching bad guys will eventually put themselves out of business right along with the criminals. They need to only be effective enough to steal enough people away into The System (of prisons, poverty, indentured servitude into perpetuity for themselves and their offspring in a cycle), but not so effective that the reaction stops breeding.

Comment Re:YAY !! (Score 2) 261

by Applekid (#45348467) Attached to: The Silk Road Is Back

True. The freakiest thing I saw when taking a look at SR was large amounts of cyanide from one vendor. I haven't heard about mass-poisonings, but making it that easy for a crazy to hurt a lot of people is very worrying.

Does cyanide have no uses other than poisoning? I don't know, but I presume someone who does know and is interested in playing with the stuff would rather pick it up black market than try to procure it legally and be added to a watch list somewhere.

Comment Re:Be Warned, Anandtech was paid off (Score 1) 183

by Applekid (#45347237) Attached to: AMD's Radeon R9 290 Delivers 290X Performance For $150 Less

Nvidia has been holding VERY profitable meetings with every possible technical site, explaining in detail just how they should trash the new AMD cards in their forthcoming reviews.

It's not uncommon for competitors to run "debunking" presentations for their partners and vendors in anticipation of their competition's releases.
Medicine

Global Biological Experiment Generates Exciting New Results 340

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the we're-all-gonna-die dept.
New submitter hoboroadie writes "Scientific American Magazine says antibiotic-resistance genes have moved from the incubators of our hospitals and factory farms, and are spreading through diverse species in the wild. Resistance genes have been detected in crows, gulls, houseflies, moths, foxes, frogs, sharks and whales, as well as in sand and coastal water samples from California and Washington. This stuff is getting more and more like a Hollywood script everyday, n'est ce pas?"
AMD

AMD's Radeon R9 290 Delivers 290X Performance For $150 Less 183

Posted by Soulskill from the superfluous-frames-per-second-battle-continues dept.
crookedvulture writes "The back and forth battle for PC graphics supremacy is quite a thing to behold. Last week, Nvidia cut GeForce prices in response to the arrival of AMD's latest Radeons. That move caused AMD to rejigger its plans for the new Radeon R9 290, which debuted today with a higher default fan speed and faster performance than originally planned. This $400 card offers almost identical performance to AMD's flagship R9 290X for $150 less. Indeed, it's often faster than Nvidia's $1000 GeForce Titan. But the 290 also consumes a lot more power, and its fan spins up to 49 decibels under load. Fortunately, the acoustic profile isn't too grating. Radeon R9 290 isn't the only new graphics card due this week, either. Nvidia is scheduled to unveil its GeForce GTX 780 Ti on November 7, and that card could further upset the balance at the high end of the GPU market. As AMD and Nvidia trade blows, PC gamers seem to be the ones who benefit." Additional reviews available from AnandTech, PC Perspective, Hot Hardware, and Tom's Hardware.
Robotics

Japanese Researchers Build Rock-paper-scissors Robot That Wins 100% of the Time 114

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the humanity-is-doomed dept.
slew writes "Although the robot technically cheats because it watches your hand and can recognize what shape you are intending to make and beat it before you even know what is happening. Apparently it takes about 60ms for you to shape your hand, but the robot can recognize the shape before it is completed, and only takes 20ms to counter your shape so the results appear to the human opponent to be virtually simultaneous. I wonder how difficult it would be to add lizard and spock to the mix.... ;^)."
Businesses

Silicon Valley Could Be Heading For a New Stock Collapse. 200

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the where's-my-model-s dept.
First time accepted submitter billcarson writes "Even though for most of us the recession is far from over, analysts are worried the technology sector might be near the end of a bubble. Technology stocks are at records highs at the moment. Companies that have no sound business plan have no difficulty in raising capital to fund their crazy dreams. Even Yahoo is again buying companies without real profit (Tumblr). Andreessen Horowitz, a major venture capitalist in Silicon Valley is already pulling up the ladder. Might this be an indicator for more woe to come?"

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