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Submission + - Anonabox Accused Of Lying About Its Product Being Open-Source On Kickstarter

Submitted by blottsie
blottsie writes: The 'anonabox' has raised more than $550,000 on Kickstarter in only three days. But some believe the company's claims that the router-like device, which is said to automatically route users' Internet traffic through Tor, is entirely open-source are false.

Anonabox developer August Germar tells the Daily Dot, however, that the device was commissioned specifically to run their code.

Comment It's not about the show! (Score 3) 193

by 1729 (#48105933) Attached to: A Critical Look At Walter "Scorpion" O'Brien

For everyone saying "it's just a show": that's not the problem. Walter O'Brien is using his credibility from his show to promote himself as a real super-genius consultant. He has news programs touting him as the person who solved the Boston marathon bombings. He spent two hours on the radio last night promoting his "concierge" service. It's not just a bad TV show; the guy is perpetrating a real-life fraud.

Comment Re:Then, he's the writer of the series? (Score 1) 193

by 1729 (#48105083) Attached to: A Critical Look At Walter "Scorpion" O'Brien

I don't understand why it'd matter. Just look at him as the writer of the series.

He's been all over the media promoting his super-genius consulting company, and CBS has been running news stories proclaiming his "achievements":

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com...
http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/...
http://boston.cbslocal.com/201...

Comment Accidentally submitted (Score 1) 2

by 1729 (#48104841) Attached to: Another look at Walter "Scorpion" O'Brien, the "genius hacker" behind CBS

I was editing the title, must have hit enter in the wrong field, and next thing I knew the story was submitted. So two corrections:

1) Title should finish "...behind CBS's Scorpion TV drama"

2) Beginning ("Back in August") should link to previous slashdot story: http://entertainment.slashdot....

Submission + - Another look at Walter "Scorpion" O'Brien, the "genius hacker" behind CBS 2

Submitted by 1729
1729 writes: Back in August, there was speculation that the "real life" Walter O'Brien (alleged inspiration for CBS's new drama Scorpion) might be a fraud. Mike Masnick from techdirt follows up on the story:

The more you dig, the more of the same you find. Former co-workers of O'Brien's have shown up in comments or reached out to me and others directly — and they all say the same thing. Walter is a nice enough guy, works hard, does a decent job (though it didn't stop him from getting laid off from The Capital Group), but has a penchant for telling absolutely unbelievable stories about his life. It appears that in just repeating those stories enough, some gullible Hollywood folks took him at his word (and the press did too), and now there's a mediocre TV show about those made up stories.

Masnick's article is a fascinating look at a man who appears to have conned both TV executives and journalists into believing his far-fetched Walter Mitty fantasies.

Comment Fact check: LLNL isn't shut down (yet) (Score 1) 118

by 1729 (#45097885) Attached to: Fusion "Breakthrough" At National Ignition Facility? Not So Fast

Because the staff and management are contractors, not Fed employees, LLNL is not shut down. The Lab will begin shutting down next week (assuming the budget boondoggle continues), but until now has been fully staffed with the exception of a very small number of people directly employed by DOE.

Comment Re:Private browsing (Score 1) 382

by 1729 (#44458451) Attached to: Surveillance Story Turns Into a Warning About Employer Monitoring

Google searches can be made over SSL. You could also tunnel to your home proxy server.

Unfortunately, a lot of employers perform MITM attacks to defeat SSL. I know my employer does. This creates a significant security risk, not the least because it trains employees to ignore certificate errors, but it's increasingly common.

Comment Re:Rubbish (Score 1) 496

by 1729 (#43680263) Attached to: DoD Descends On DEFCAD

You really have no idea how bullets work, do you? The metal casings are for the bullets, not the guns. If you attempt to make a bullet with a plastic casing (you can't buy them), it will fail on the first shot. Not the second shot, not the third, the first. If you use plastic casings on a bullet, it will explode and you will fail. No debate.

Caseless ammunition already exists.

Comment Re:Shock news: first Amendment has limits too (Score 3, Informative) 496

by 1729 (#43680245) Attached to: DoD Descends On DEFCAD

It never ceases to amaze me how people are able to seize on the Amendments to justify their own short-sighted, stupid, destructive, extremist and anarchist hankerings.

Of course there are limits to how far you can push your first-amendment rights; there have to be. See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution and scroll down to Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes who formulated the clear and present danger test for free speech cases.

Thing is, Holmes was wrong in that case.

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