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Comment Re:What is really needed ... (Score 1) 281

My ideas on this would work less well, but still be reasonably effective: simply check that any non-withheld numbers are actually valid! I have seen a lot of (admittedly UK and not US) calls apparently coming from numbers that cannot possibly exist. For example you would see calls where the local part is too short, or simply see invalid area codes. If you know all the valid number formats and area codes for domestic calls, you can drop all calls that do not fit. I'd also suggest wildcard-blocking for end users, too.

Another option would be to have the telcos automatically and freely lookup return routes for each call. If the openly announced number has no reverse route the inbound call should be null-routed. You would then have three cases: valid-but-possibly-forged domestic numbers, withheld numbers and international/not-available.

Submission + - Liberating the JSTOR articles one PDF ata time (arstechnica.com) 1

bboitano writes: On Monday afternoon, a group of online archivists released the "Aaron Swartz Memorial JSTOR Liberator." The initiative is a JavaScript-based bookmarklet that lets Internet users "liberate" an article, already in the public domain, from the online academic archive JSTOR. By running the script—which is limited to once per browser—a public domain academic article is downloaded to the user’s computer, then uploaded back to ArchiveTeam in a small act of protest against JSTOR's restrictive policies.
The Internet

Submission + - Twitter's BBC hashtag shows visitors hardcore porn images (pcpro.co.uk) 1

Barence writes: "PC Pro has discovered an unfortunate consequence of Twitter's new image preview feature — visitors searching for the UK's national broadcaster, the BBC, are having their screens filled with highly explicit porn.

Twitter automatically displays images linked to from tweets, including searches for particular hashtags. #bbc refers to both the British Broadcasting Corporation and an abbreviation commonly used by pornography sites.

A search for that hashtag throws up graphic images with no warning of adult content, alongside trailers for Radio 1 shows and BBC nature programmes."

Mars

Submission + - Curiosity Finds Evidence of Watery Past (spaceflightnow.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Curiosity has wheeled its way over to the low point in Yellowknife Bay and has found veined rocks, evidence that water once percolated through this area. Scientists are excited because it is the first evidence of precipitation of minerals and water. There is also cross bedding that can be seen, thin layers of rocks oriented in different directions. The grains are apparently too course for the wind to have created, alluding to flowing water. Even with this discovery, much is still not known about Mars' past.
Government

Submission + - UAE Government 'Used Java Flaw To Load Spyware' (techweekeurope.co.uk)

judgecorp writes: "Rights groups say the United Arab Emirates government used the latest Java zero day flaw in an attempt to load spyware onto an activist's computer. Bahrain Watch reports dissecting an email sent to an activist, which promised a video involving Dubai's chief of policy, but which actually contained a Java applet that exploited the unpatched flaw, to install a remote administration toolkit apparently based on SpyNet."
News

Submission + - Kingston Announces the World's First 1TB USB Flash Drive (rtoz.org)

rtoz writes: "Kingston Digital, Inc. announced the DataTraveler® HyperX® Predator 3.0 USB Flash drive in CES 2013.

DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 is the world’s largest-capacity USB 3.0 Flash drive as it will be available in a 1TB capacity later in Q1. It is shipping now in 512GB capacity.

“Our new DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 allows users to store their entire digital world on a portable USB 3.0 Flash drive,” said Andrew Ewing, Flash memory business manager, Kingston.
The price for the 512GB is $1,337.00 , and therefore the 1TB Flash Drive will be too expensive .

Read more details at Kingston press release"

Submission + - Boeing Dreamliner catches fire in Boston (bbc.co.uk)

19061969 writes: The BBC reports that a Boeing 787 Dreamliner caught fire in Boston. Carter Leake, an analyst at BB&T Capital Markets in Virginia, said, "I don't want to be an alarmist, but onboard fires on airplanes are as bad as it gets." This represents bad news for Boeing especially after the FAA identified errors in the assembly of fuel line couplings in the Dreamliner.

Submission + - End of PSTN equipment and all IP phones by 2018? (arstechnica.com) 2

An anonymous reader writes: Ars Technica reports that " “The telephone network is obsolete”: Get ready for the all-IP telco
AT&T wants to get rid of obsolete PSTN equipment, and those pesky FCC rules."

Science

Submission + - Astrophysics : A 15 years old French student (english.rfi.fr)

dvaldenaire writes: At only 15, Neil Ibata has just make a fantastic discovering in astrophysics. A theory that could question what we know about gravity and dark matter. His father, Rodrigo Ibata, is an astrophysician working at the Strasbourg's Space Obsevatory and study, the dwarf galaxies graviting around Andromed. He asks his kid to modelise the movements of the galaxies, and over a week-end, he discovers that they were forming a rotating disk.
Microsoft

Submission + - How CES 2013 has Lost its Star Appeal (ibtimes.co.uk)

An anonymous reader writes: It's hard to know who the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) really benefits. A common perception is that CES is the place where all the major technology companies launch their latest and greatest gadgets. But this is simply not the case.

Let's look at 2012 as an example. Last year's most talked about consumer technology products (in no particular order) were: the iPhone 5, iPad 3, iPad mini, Microsoft Surface, Samsung Galaxy S3, Google Nexus 7, Amazon Kindle Fire HD and the Wii U.

How many were launched at CES 2012? None.

Japan

Submission + - Identified Fukushima Workers Pelted "With Bottles"

Readycharged writes: "The BBC reports that not only are the "Fukushima 50" considered anti heros in their locale, they also face aggressive hostility when identified.

Dr Jun Shigemura, psychiatrist from Japan's National Defense University, states, "The workers have been through multiple stresses."

"They experienced the plant explosions, the tsunami...(and) radiation exposure. They are also victims of the disaster because they live in the area and have lost homes and family members. And the last thing is the discrimination."

"Yes, discrimination.....the workers (are) not being celebrated....(they) have tried to rent apartments (but) landlords turn them down...some have had plastic bottles thrown at them....some have had papers pinned on their apartment door saying 'Get out, Tepco'."

Reporter Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, corrects the myth that a mere 50 tackled the devastation, stating that there were hundreds working around the clock in shifts.

Whilst the Japanese government seem to want to bury the human drama surrounding the catastrophic event, Nuclear News cites a new book which reports on acts of sacrificial heroism whilst mentioning many of the clear up workers by name."

Comment Re:So long, Usenet. (Score 1) 204

It looks like Virgin Media at least still do run NNTP servers in the UK if this page is to be believed, although I have not used them in years: http://help.virginmedia.com/system/selfservice.controller?CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&ARTICLE_ID=3525. Most ISPs were in the habit of dropping the binary groups even 10 years ago on storage and bandwidth grounds, which would also reduce the exposure to copyright issues.

Power

Submission + - Quantum entangled batteries could be the perfect power source (extremetech.com)

MrSeb writes: "Two European theoretical physicists have shown that it may be possible to build a near-perfect, entangled quantum battery. In the future, such quantum batteries might power the tiniest of devices — or provide power storage that is much more efficient than state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery packs. In a quantum system, some quantum states have energy that can be extracted, reducing the system to a passive, neutral energy state. Robert Alicki of the University of Gdansk in Poland, and Mark Fannes of the University of Leuven in Belgium, theorize that it should be possible to build a quantum battery that is full of energy-rich quantum states — and then, somehow, recharge it when you run out of juice. Better yet, the physicists also theorize that quantum entanglement could be used to create an even more efficient quantum battery. In essence, Alicki and Fannes say that you can link together any number of quantum batteries, allowing you to extract all of the stored energy in one big gulp. Their research paper goes on to say that with enough entanglement, these batteries would be perfect — with no energy lost/wasted during charge or discharge."
Security

Submission + - Zero-day PDF exploit reportedly defeats Adobe Reader sandbox protection (itworld.com)

concealment writes: "Cybercriminals are using a new PDF exploit that bypasses the sandbox security features in Adobe Reader X and XI, in order to install banking malware on computers, according to researchers from Russian security firm Group-IB.

The zero-day exploit — an exploit for a previously unknown and unpatched vulnerability — has been integrated into a privately modified version of Blackhole, a commercial Web-based attack toolkit, the Group-IB researchers announced Wednesday."

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