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The Internet

Submission + - Preserving the "Web before the Web:" Minitel history could be lost (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "It's been almost a year since France Telecom shut down its once widely popular Minitel online services and historians are worried that its legacy from a preservationist point of view is being lost forever. The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA., naturally wants to collect and preserve all manner of industry historical artifacts and Minitel if one of the central components of its "Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing" exhibit."

Submission + - US Attorney General Defends Handling of Aaron Swartz Case (wired.com)

Submitted by TrueSatan
TrueSatan writes: Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday said the suicide death of internet activist Aaron Swartz was a “tragedy,” but the hacking case against the 26-year-old was “a good use of prosecutorial discretion.” The attorney general was testifying at a Justice Department oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary committee and was facing terse questioning from Sen. John Cornyn (D-Texas).
Holder stated: “I think that’s a good use of prosecutorial discretion to look at the conduct, regardless of what the statutory maximums were and to fashion a sentence that was consistent with what the nature of the conduct was. And I think what those prosecutors did in offering 3, 4, zero to 6 was consistent with that conduct.”
Notwithstanding Holder’s testimony, Massachusetts federal prosecutors twice indicted Swartz for the alleged hacking, once in 2011 on four felonies and again last year on 13 felonies. The case included hacking charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act that was passed in 1984 to enhance the government’s ability to prosecute hackers who accessed computers to steal information or to disrupt or destroy computer functionality.

Submission + - DOJ admits Aaron's prosecution was political (tumblr.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The DOJ has told Congressional investigators that Aaron’s prosecution was motivated by his political views on copyright.
I was going to start that last paragraph with “In a stunning turn of events,” but I realized that would be inaccurate — because it’s really not that surprising. Many people speculated throughout the whole ordeal that this was a political prosecution, motivated by anything/everything from Aaron’s effective campaigning against SOPA to his run-ins with the FBI over the PACER database. But Aaron actually didn’t believe it was — he thought it was overreach by some local prosecutors who didn’t really understand the internet and just saw him as a high-profile scalp they could claim, facilitated by a criminal justice system and computer crime laws specifically designed to give prosecutors, however incompetent or malicious, all the wrong incentives and all the power they could ever want.
Earth

Submission + - Global Warming Will Make the World Too Hot to Get Any Work Done (vice.com)

Submitted by
pigrabbitbear
pigrabbitbear writes: "It’s a good thing that robots are stealing our jobs, because in about thirty-five years, nobody in their right mind is going to want to do them.

Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just published a report in Nature Climate Change that details how a warming climate impacts the way we work, and the results are pretty clear—we do less of it. NOAA discovered that over the last 60 years, the hotter, wetter climate has decreased human labor capacity by 10%. And it projects that by 2050, that number will double."
The Internet

Submission + - The FCC Wants to Blanket the Country in Free Wi-Fi (vice.com)

Submitted by
pigrabbitbear
pigrabbitbear writes: "Internet access is an essential need on par with education access, but at what point do regulators recognize that? When will government officials acknowledge that widespread, guaranteed access is essential to fostering growth in the country? Somewhat surprisingly, that time is now, as the FCC is now calling for nationwide free wi-fi networks to be opened up to the public.

The FCC proposes buying back spectrum from TV stations that would allow for what the Washington Post is dubbing "super wi-fi," as the commission wants to cover the country with wide-ranging, highly-penetrative networks. Essentially, you can imagine the proposal as covering a majority of the country with open-access data networks, similar to cell networks now, that your car, tablet, or even phone could connect to. That means no one is ever disconnected, and some folks–especially light users and the poor–could likely ditch regular Internet and cell plans altogether."
Government

Submission + - Stallman's solution to "Too big to fail" (reuters.com) 1

Submitted by lcam
lcam writes: Richard Stallman's opinion appears on Reuters.com addressing the "Too big to fail" view that has recently caused large corporations to be bailed out by taxpayer dollars. His solution is elegant however needs some refining, for example his measure would create a required minimum "Return on Investment" scale that corporations need to follow to be viable, these types of metrics are very industry specific. Another issue is that many large corporations don't fail because they don't take unnecessary risk; companies like Intel, Lockhead, Wallmart are very large and have a very low chance of failure and yet Stallman would have them be split up as a result of excessive risks that banks and insurance companies where seen to have taken.

And lastly, in a global market, the United States has the distinct advantage over countries like Brasil because they don't have as much government regulation/meddling that cuts into their competitively. If Stallman's idea should be taken seriously, it should not undermine competitive in the global market, else multinationals may find it better to simply "move out" to a country that doesn't compromise their business models.

How can this genious idea be made better?
Science

Submission + - Dung Beetles Navigate by the Milky Way (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: A day in the life of a male dung beetle goes something like this: Fly to a heap of dung, sculpt a clump of it into a large ball, then roll the ball away from the pile as fast as possible. However, it turns out that the beetles, who work at night, need some sort of compass to prevent them from rolling around in circles. New research suggests that the insects use starlight to guide their way. Birds, seals, and humans also use starlight to navigate, but this is the first time it's been shown in an insect.

Comment Re:Holy shit... (Score 2) 215

by Curseyoukhan (#42671465) Attached to: The One Sided Cyber War
" I bet Fox News would love you." I bet you're wrong.

I like your snarky attitude. I deserve nothing less.

I am grateful to you for pointing out the things I screwed up on and will go correct them.

A) make it clear that I am referring to the first US cyber war -- not cyber war overall. B) I totally screwed up on the Flame/Stuxnet timing. C) Obama! My own friggin' fault for going for a very minor sarcasm when I should have double checked.

The Iranians being ranked among the big three when it comes to cyberwar is far too subjective a claim to take seriously. Remember when Iraq was a major threat? An earlier commenter referred to people who have secret information the rest of us don't have. As HL Mencken wrote: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." Give me evidence or leave me alone.

"Second of all, the attacks were not at all "ineffective"; ask any Bank of America customer who uses online banking." As a matter of fact I did. I asked myself and you know what during the whole time that was going on I only had one problem getting to my account. Also, it's hard for me to equate inconveniencing some bank customers with wrecking Iran's uranium processing. Asking the NSA for help may mean the banks are being smart and anticipating problems, not that they are seeing them now. I didn't say the Iranians couldn't cause problems, just that they hadn't so far.

As to your point about the financial sector being a higher priority target. OK, but why aren't they also targeting other water/energy, etc? Why continue with one so far fruitless line of attack? Are they being lead by the Iranian equivalent of Douglas Haig?

That said, my apologies for my mistakes and very real thanks to you for pointing them out. If you send me an email with your name I will thank you in the post.

Cheers,

CvH
Government

Submission + - Cyber War is Upon Us–But Only One Side is Attacking (cio.com)

Submitted by
Curseyoukhan
Curseyoukhan writes: "The first shot was probably the release of Stuxnet sometime during or before 2009. Even though no one has officially claimed responsibility everyone knows who was behind it. Stuxnet hit with a bang and did a whole lot of damage to Iran’s uranium-enrichment capabilities. We followed up Stuxnet with Flame–the ebola virus of spyware.

What did the Iranians fire back with? A series of massive, on-going and ineffective DDoS attacks on American banks. This is a disproportionate response but not in the way military experts usually mean that phrase. It’s the equivalent of someone stealing your car and you throwing an ever-increasing number of eggs at his house in response.

It’s fascinating that Iran continues to do nothing more despite the fact that U.S. critical infrastructure currently has the defensive posture of a dog waiting for a belly rub. Keep that in mind the next time you hear that a "cyber Pearl Harbor" is imminent."
Science

Submission + - "Superomniphobic" nanoscale coating repels almost any liquid (gizmag.com) 1

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: A team of engineering researchers at the University of Michigan has developed a nanoscale coating that causes almost all liquids to bounce off surfaces treated with it. Creating a surface structure that is least 95 percent air, the new "superomniphobic" coating is claimed to repel the broadest range of liquids of any material in its class, opening up the possibility of super stain-resistant clothing, drag-reducing waterproof paints for ship hulls, breathable garments that provide protection from harmful chemicals, and touchscreens resistant to fingerprint smudges.

Submission + - 3D Printable Ammo Clip Skirts New Proposed Gun Laws (forbes.com)

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: Slashdot has closely followed the developing controversy around Defense Distributed, the group that hopes to create 3D printable guns to defeat gun control legislation. The group has yet to create an entirely 3D printable gun. But it's already testing the limits of gun control with a simpler invention: the 3D printable ammunition clip.

Over the past weekend, Defense Distributed successfully 3D-printed and tested an ammunition magazine for an AR semi-automatic rifle, loading and firing 86 rounds from the 30-round clip. That homemade chunk of curved plastic holds special significance: Between 1994 and 2004, so-called “high capacity magazines” capable of holding more than 10 bullets were banned from sale. And a new gun control bill proposed by California Senator Diane Feinstein in the wake of recent shootings would ban those larger ammo clips again. President Obama has also voiced support for the magazine restrictions.

Defense Distributed says it hopes to preempt any high capacity magazine ban by showing how impossible it has become to prevent the creation of a simple spring-loaded box in the age of cheap 3D printing. It's posted the 3D-printable magazine blueprints on its website, Defcad.org, and gun enthusiasts have already downloaded files related to the ammo holders more than 2,200 times.

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