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Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Is there a use for a smart wall clock that displays notifications? 8

Submitted by ne0phyte73
ne0phyte73 writes: There seems to be a new “smart” device every week, but the Glance Clock is a smart wall clock focused on presenting information as you need it. But beyond notifications, what else is it good for?

Here is how Techcrunch describes a couple of features: "The Glance Clock lets you wirelessly humblebrag by displaying fitness goals of you and your frenemies on the same clock face. Before heading out, you also can conveniently check the weather."

Glance says that they have an open API, so it can be connected almost to anything directly or via IFTTT. Other than a normal consumer, how else would you use it?

Submission + - Vandenberg Fire Threatens ULA, SpaceX Launches (latimes.com)

Submitted by Bruce Perens
Bruce Perens writes: A fire at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast, currently over 10,000 acres in size, has approached the pads used by SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. No structures have been damaged, but power lines have been destroyed. There is about 1000 feet of firebreak around each pad, but the presence of smoke and the absence of electrical power is potentially a problem for rockets, payloads, and ground-support equipment. The WorldView 4 satellite and a Delta 4, and a SpaceX Falcon 9 with at least 7 and potentially 11 Iridium satellites are known to be on site. Ground support equipment at the base constitutes the United States only access to polar orbit for large rockets without overflying populated areas. Liquid oxygen stored on the site may already have been released as a precaution or boiled off, and there are large supplies of rocket fuel, but these have so far not been at hazard.

The Soberanes fire near Big Sur, 180 miles farther South on the California coast, has gone on for two months, burning 185 square miles and costing over 200 Million dollars to fight with no end in sight. Obviously, it's dry out there.

Submission + - Activity Trackers May Undermine Weight Loss Efforts (nytimes.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Wearable activity monitors can count your steps and track your movements, but they don’t, apparently, help you lose weight. In fact, you might lose more weight without them.

The fascinating finding comes from a study published today in JAMA that found dieting adults who wore activity monitors for 18 months lost significantly fewer pounds over that time than those who did not.

The results suggest that activity monitors may not change our behavior in the way we expected, and raise interesting questions about the tangled relationships between exercise, eating, our willpower and our waistlines.

Submission + - Apple patents bold new innovation – a paper bag (theguardian.com)

Submitted by mspohr
mspohr writes: Continuing its leadership in innovation, Apple has patented a paper bag. We all remember the groundbreaking "rounded corners" innovation Now we have a paper bag!!! Just try to make your own paper bag and you'll be speaking with Apple lawyers,
(Note: In fairness to Apple, this is a "special" paper bag which is stronger due to numerous improvements on your ordinary bag... just don't try to copy it.)

Submission + - macOS Sierra Is Now Available For Download

Submitted by Dave Knott
Dave Knott writes: Apple's latest desktop operating system, macOS Sierra, is now available for download. In addition to the Siri virtual assistant hitting the desktop for the first time, the free update includes features like a universal clipboard, revamped Messages, a storage optimization tool, and Apple Pay on the web.

Submission + - Here's Another Vulnerable DVR System Ready to Become a DDoS Botnet (softpedia.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Companies that are developing equipment and dropping all kind of support for older tech after they create newer products are putting the Internet in danger. A security researcher discovered (yet another) DVR system that was hopelessly insecure. The DVR device ccomes with two, not one, backdoor accounts, grants access to the admin panel by editing a URL parameter, and slings around admin credentials as plaintext in cookie headers. As you can imagine, there is no patch because the company does not "support" the product anymore, leaving thousands of devices exposed to easy hijacking by anyone interested in becoming the second coming of LizardSquad.

In June and in August, Sucuri and Level 3, discovered two huge botnets of infected DVR systems used to launch crippling DDoS attack.

Submission + - End of the line for Microsoft Band? (networkworld.com)

Submitted by Miche67
Miche67 writes: There's news on the Microsoft Band front, and it doesn't sound good.

Future Band products were supposed to get the new Windows 10 operating system--or enough of it to make them functional with PCs. But now it looks like the group working on bringing Windows 10 to Band has disbanded (pun intended).

This could be another Microsoft product fading into the sunset.

Submission + - The Little Hack That Could: The Story of Spotify's "Discover Weekly" Recommendat (ieee.org)

Submitted by Tekla Perry
Tekla Perry writes: Software engineer Edward Newett thought Spotify was making it too hard for users to get to recommendations of new music. So he pulled together various machine learning systems used elsewhere in the company, pulled user photos from Facebook, and quietly pulled together a new recommender, "Discover Weekly" that he pushed out to Spotify's employees, and then the world. The first "production incident" verified its popularity: Some users “went into blind rage or existential crisis.” Newett told the story of Discover Weekly at the @Scale conference last week. “This wasn’t a big company initiative,” he said, “just a team of passionate engineers who went about solving a problem we saw with the technology we had.”

Submission + - ITT Tech Shuts Down (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: The Washington Post is reporting that the IIT Educational Services ended operations at all of its ITT Technical Institutes on Tuesday, citing government action to curtail the company’s access to millions of dollars in federal loans and grants, a critical source of revenue. The shutdown occurred two weeks after the federal Education Department said ITT would no longer be allowed to enroll new students who rely on federal loans and grants, award raises, pay bonuses or make severance payments to its executives without government approval.

The shutdown of ITT campuses puts hundreds of millions of dollars in federal financial aid on the line because the government is obligated to forgive the federal loans of students affected by the closure. ITT reported almost $850 million in total revenue in 2015, roughly $580 million of which was sourced from federal aid, according to the department.

Earlier this year, Slashdot covered the Massachusetts Attorney General suing ITT Tech for exploiting computer network students (https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/04/04/2241230/massachusetts-ag-sues-itt-tech-for-exploiting-computer-network-students) and how the SEC charged the company for fraud over its student loan programs (https://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/05/13/029215/sec-charges-itt-educational-services-with-fraud).

Submission + - Warner Brothers reports own site as illegal (bbc.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Film studio Warner Brothers has asked Google to remove its own website from search results, saying it violates copyright laws.
It also asked the search giant to remove links to legitimate movie streaming websites run by Amazon and Sky, as well as the film database IMDB.
The request was submitted on behalf of Warner Brothers by Vobile, a company that files hundreds of thousands of takedown requests every month.

Warner Brothers has yet to comment.

BBC News links to https://torrentfreak.com/warne... Warner Bros. is vigorously trying to prevent pirated content from showing up in search results, but in doing so the movie studio has shot itself in the foot. Recently, Warner asked Google to take down several of its own pages, claiming that they are copyright-infringing.

Submission + - Meet URL, the USB Porn-Sniffing Dog

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: CNN reports that URL, the porn-sniffing dog, is the newest crime-fighting tool at the Weber County Sheriff's office with a nose that could help put away some of the country's most predatory and dangerous criminals. URL (pronounced Earl) sniffs out electronic storage media. Still just a pup, the 18-month-old K-9 is one of fewer than two dozen such dogs in the United States that hunt the unique chemical compounds emitted from flash drives, memory cards, cell phones, iPads and other similar devices. While dogs like URL can't tell detectives if a device has electronic evidence on it, they are able to find devices that humans might otherwise miss. Detective Cameron Hartman points to the high-profile case of former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle, who was convicted on child pornography and other charges last year. A K-9 named Bear, who was trained by the same man who trained URL, led investigators to hidden thumb drives inside Fogle's home. The US Attorney's office for Southern Indiana confirmed those devices contained evidence against Fogle. URL has found evidence relating to pornography during the execution of search warrants for the task force in several investigations of child sex crimes and child trafficking. "He actually found a USB that was in this jar that was closed, and the jar was in a box, and the box had stuff in it. The jar itself had stuff in it."

Submission + - Insurance company refuses fire payout claiming it was remote arson (independent.co.uk)

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: A man whose house burnt down has been refused his insurance payout on the grounds that the fire was caused by a device using a laptop and printer set up to be initiated over the internet. The criminal case against him for the alleged offence collapsed, but the insurance company is still refusing to pay out, leaving him bankrupt.

Submission + - Phony Ubuntu website possibly serving malware 4

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: If you accidentally misspell Ubuntu while typing in the address, you may end up at http://uhuntu.com/ . Spelling Ubuntu with an "h" instead of a "b" takes you to a website that looks just like Canonicals Ubuntu website. No word on whether or not they are serving malware ridden Ubuntu ISOs, so watch what you type into that address bar.

Submission + - Over 25 million accounts stolen after Mail.ru forums hacked (zdnet.com)

Submitted by alir1272
alir1272 writes: Over 25 million accounts associated with forums hosted by Russian internet giant Mail.ru have been stolen by hackers.

Two hackers carried out attacks on three separate game-related forums in July and August. One forum alone accounted for almost half of the breached data — a little under 13 million records; the other two forums make up over 12 million records.

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