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Submission + - What Role Does Software Play in Unintended Acceleration in Vehicles? (cmu.edu)

Submitted by heidibrayer
heidibrayer writes: Safety-critical avionics, aerospace, medical, and automotive systems are becoming increasingly reliant on software. Malfunctions in these systems can have significant consequences including mission failure and loss of life. So, they must be designed, verified, and validated carefully to ensure that they comply with system specifications and requirements and are error free. This blog post describes an effort at the SEI that aims to help engineers use time-proven architecture patterns (such as the publish-subscribe pattern or correct use of shared resources) and validate their correct application.

Submission + - Google Finds Fraudulent Certificates Used by French Government (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: Google announced on Saturday that it detected a French government agency using unauthorized digital certificates for several Google domains to perform man-in-the-middle attacks on a private network.

Google security engineer Adam Langley said the company traced the fraudulent certificates to Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d’information (ANSSI), a French certificate authority that falls under the government's cyber-security agency. "ANSSI has found that the intermediate CA certificate was used in a commercial device, on a private network, to inspect encrypted traffic with the knowledge of the users on that network," Langley noted in a blog post.

In a separate statement, ANSSI blamed "human error" for the incident.

Google's Langley described the incident as a "serious breach" and warned that the company is considering additional actions.

Submission + - Satanists Propose Monument at Oklahoma Statehouse Next to Ten Commandments

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: The Tulsa World reports that in their zeal to tout their faith in the public square, conservatives in Oklahoma may have unwittingly opened the door to a wide range of religious groups, including satanists who are now seeking to put their own statue next to a Ten Commandments monument on the Statehouse steps. The Republican-controlled Legislature in Oklahoma authorized the privately funded Ten Commandments monument in 2009, and it was placed on the Capitol grounds last year despite criticism from legal experts who questioned its constitutionality. But the New York-based Satanic Temple saw an opportunity and notified the state's Capitol Preservation Commission that it wants to donate a monument too. "We believe that all monuments should be in good taste and consistent with community standards," Lucien Greaves wrote in letter to state officials. "Our proposed monument, as an homage to the historic/literary Satan, will certainly abide by these guidelines." Brady Henderson, legal director for ACLU Oklahoma, said if state officials allow one type of religious expression, they must allow alternative forms of expression, although he said a better solution might be to allow none at all on state property. "We would prefer to see Oklahoma's government officials work to faithfully serve our communities and improve the lives of Oklahomans instead of erecting granite monuments to show us all how righteous they are," says Henderson. "But if the Ten Commandments, with its overtly Christian message, is allowed to stay at the Capitol, the Satanic Temple's proposed monument cannot be rejected because of its different religious viewpoint."

Submission + - "Digital Gophers" Advance Understanding of Mima mounds

Submitted by Rambo Tribble
Rambo Tribble writes: The BBC reports on an attempt to explain the mystery of Mima mounds. These features are found worldwide, but have, until now, defied explanation. Theories have ranged from them being burial mounds to evidence of extraterrestrial activity. This latest attempt, using computer modelling, tags generations of the lowly gopher as the mounds' architects.

Comment One Thing Is Clear (Score 1, Interesting) 670

by Rambo Tribble (#45626109) Attached to: Diet Drugs Work: Why Won't Doctors Prescribe Them?
Many conditions that are treated with pills could as effectively be addressed with proper diet, nutrition and exercise. Curiously, doctors are rarely averse to prescribing medications for most of these; it is noteworthy that obesity is treated differently. On the other hand, maybe it's time the pills were left on the shelf and patients were required to take responsibility. Big pharma wouldn't like it, but a host of side effects would be avoided, billions of dollars would be saved, and "survival of the fittest" would actually mean something in the social context.

Submission + - "Uptalk" Becoming More Common in Men?

Submitted by Rambo Tribble
Rambo Tribble writes: The BBC reports that "uptalk" or "valleygirl speak", a raise in pitch at the end of a sentence, is becoming more common in California men. The study was small, but this didn't keep some from coming to conclusions. The opinion seems to vary from this hailing a new age in the use of inflection in human communication, to it just being another So-Cal, androgynous fad.

Submission + - Photorealism on an iPad

Submitted by Rambo Tribble
Rambo Tribble writes: For some artists, overcoming the limitations of technology is an art form in itself. Consider Kyle Lambert's lifelike images, purportedly created on an iPad, as detailed on Gizmodo.

Comment Creativity ... (Score 2) 453

by Rambo Tribble (#45594433) Attached to: The Desktop Is Dead, Long Live the Desktop!
... cannot and will not be confined to a 7-inch screen. Nor can the range of artistic inputs be entirely duplicated by a touch screen. In time holographic displays and other technologies will displace some of the current hardware requirements to run, say, multiple displays, but we aren't there yet.

Submission + - Plastic Waste Threatens Marine Diversity (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Rambo Tribble
Rambo Tribble writes: An article in Current Biology (abstract) details the finding that minute particles of plastic waste are affecting marine worms, potentially having grave impacts on marine biodiversity and leading to the accumulation of toxins in marine animals. Unfortunately, policymakers have routinely treated such wastes as benign. The BBC provides more approachable coverage of the findings.

Submission + - The Brains of Men and Women "Wired Differently" (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Rambo Tribble
Rambo Tribble writes: Research out of the University of Philadelphia concludes there are major differences in the neural pathways in the brains of men and women. Men, they say, are wired more front-to-back, women more side-to-side. They propose this may explain why women have been found to be better multitaskers. Of course, this may also have ramifications for what skill and career proclivities each sex exhibits.

Submission + - Urban German Herbin' (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Rambo Tribble
Rambo Tribble writes: The long-running struggles of Western society to reconcile official pogroms against recreational drug use with the popular and wide-spread practice of such pursuits, has turned a new page in Berlin. There, the city council has voted to legalize opening a cannabis cafe, apparently justified by a somewhat tortured interpretation of German law.

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