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Submission + - Google illegally tracking Android users, according to new complaint (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems has filed a complaint against Google in France alleging that the US tech giant is illegally tracking users on Android phones without their consent.

Android phones generate unique advertising codes, similar to Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), that allow Google and third parties to track users’ browsing behavior in order to better target them with advertising.

In a complaint filed on Wednesday, Schrems’ campaign group Noyb argued that in creating and storing these codes without first obtaining explicit permission from users, Google was engaging in “illegal operations” that violate EU privacy laws.

Noyb urged France’s data privacy regulator to launch a probe into Google’s tracking practices and to force the company to comply with privacy rules. It argued that fines should be imposed on the tech giant if the watchdog finds evidence of wrongdoing.

“Through these hidden identifiers on your phone, Google and third parties can track users without their consent,” said Stefano Rossetti, privacy lawyer at Noyb. “It is like having powder on your hands and feet, leaving a trace of everything you do on your phone—from whether you swiped right or left to the song you downloaded.”

Last year, Schrems won a landmark case at Europe’s highest court that ruled a transatlantic agreement on transferring data between the bloc and the US used by thousands of corporations did not protect EU citizens’ privacy.

Submission + - DOJ needs to increase prosecution of Online Scams (wired.com)

Submitted by puddingebola
puddingebola writes: The FBI reports that 2020 saw a 69% increase in reports of online scams. Ankush Khardori, a lawyer and former federal prosecutor who specialized in financial fraud, writes in Wired for the need to increase enforcement on internet fraud. "Since the start of the pandemic, the scope and frequency of this criminal activity has become noticeably worse. Online fraudsters have stolen government relief checks, sold fake test kits and vaccines, and exploited the altruistic impulses of the American public through fake charities. But the broader failure has wreaked incalculable harm on the American public for years, including those in our most vulnerable and less tech-savvy populations, like senior citizens. The FBI’s most recent report makes it clear that the government needs to dramatically step up and rethink its approach to combating internet-based fraud—including how it tracks this problem, as well as how it can punish and deter these crimes more effectively going forward."

Submission + - The Air Force Is Having To Reverse Engineer Parts Of Its Own Stealth Bomber (thedrive.com) 2

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: In a surprising turn of events, the United States government is calling upon its country’s industry to reverse engineer components for the Air Force’s B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. An official call for this highly unusual kind of assistance was put out today on the U.S. government’s contracting website beta.SAM.gov. Mark Thompson, a national-security analyst at the Project On Government Oversight, brought our attention to the notice, which seeks an engineering effort that will reverse engineer key parts for the B2’s Load Heat Exchangers. While it is not exactly clear what part of the aircraft’s many complex and exotic subsystems these heat exchangers relate to, the bomber has no shortage of avionics systems, for example, which could require cooling.

While it’s hard to say exactly why this approach is being taken now, it indicates that the original plans for these components are unavailable or the manufacturing processes and tooling used to produce them no longer exists. This could be the result of them having been so secretive that, at some point, they were inadvertently destroyed altogether. They could also have been simply misplaced, or the parts may have been produced by a smaller contractor that has long since disappeared, taking the bespoke tooling with it.

Submission + - Test Pilot Chuck Yeager Dies at age 97 (npr.org)

Submitted by jowifi
jowifi writes: One of the world's most famous aviators has died: Chuck Yeager — best known as the first to break the sound barrier — has died at the age of 97.

After high school, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps where he didn't have the education credentials for flight training. But once the U.S. entered World War II a few months later, he got his chance.

Yeager became a fighter ace, shooting down five enemy aircraft in a single mission and four others on a different day. Then he faced another challenge during a dogfight over France. He got himself shot down and he escaped back to England.

Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947 at Edwards Air Force Base in California. But there were no news broadcasts that day, no newspaper headlines. The aviation feat was kept secret for months.

Comment Re:Late to the party (Score 1) 379

Both companies produce yawn-inducing vehicles that no one really wants to drive. They need to shake up their lines and looks and catch up to their competition.

This is what happens when you put the bean counters in charge. A car manufacturer needs to have "car guys" in charge that have a passion for making cool cars.
Except for the Camaro and the Corvette, GM is building poor quality crap that nobody wants anymore.
GM was way ahead on the electric car scene too with the EV1, but the bean counters killed it because it wasn't profitable that particular quarter.

Comment Re:Flight Simulators and Computerized Calculation (Score 1) 340

by Fast Ben (#54136049) Attached to: Dutch Scientist Proposes Circular Runways For Airport Efficiency

Better tell that to all the pilots before they start landing in crosswinds! Oh wait...

Crosswind landings are no different - you'd BETTER have that airplane lined up straight on touchdown, or you'll have trouble.
Sure, the approach is flown crabbed into the wind, but you'd better have transitioned into a slip before touchdown, or, as the airliners do, kick out of crab just before the mains touch (slipping would likely drag an engine nacelle or wingtip on the ground).

I suppose I should have said "landing gear is built to handle very light side loads only" instead. The pilot's operating manual for every certified airplane in existence will tell you what the maximum allowed crosswind component is for that particular plane.

Comment Re:Flight Simulators and Computerized Calculation (Score 5, Insightful) 340

by Fast Ben (#54127045) Attached to: Dutch Scientist Proposes Circular Runways For Airport Efficiency

Aircraft landing gear are designed to land in a straight line, they are not designed to handle side loads.
It doesn't take much side load for that gear to fold up under the airplane.

Not to mention instrument approaches... I'd love to see a precision instrument approach chart to a circular runway.

Most large airports have several parallel runways. LAX for example has 4 parallel runways, normally all in simultaneous use - 2 are used for departures, and 2 for arrivals. This gets a lot of airplanes in and out at the same time.
If the runway was a circle, you might be able use on side for arrivals and the other for departures at the same time, but that's it.

Circular runways remains a stupid idea.
Disclaimer: I'm also a pilot.

Comment Re:This is what the Dems get (Score 1) 2837

by Fast Ben (#53248861) Attached to: Donald Trump Wins US Presidency

for ignoring the Middle Class. They focused on the very rich and the very poor. Those two groups got taken care of. The rich got tax breaks, cheap labor and cheap money (super low interest rates, etc) and the poor got the Medicare expansion, extended unemployment and a bit of stimulus. The middle class got fuck all.

Nailed it. The "silent majority" middle class that got stuck paying for it all got off their duffs and went to the polls for a change.
My co-worker, who normally can't be bothered to go vote, got a notice that his ACA health insurance premium went from $300/mo to $1200 - higher than his mortgage payment. This time he voted, guess for who.

Comment Re:Mechanical reliability (Score 1) 935

by Fast Ben (#51248819) Attached to: Obama Orders Feds To Study Smart Gun Technology

Easy - build a mechanical lock into the gun. Many guns have a safety lever that you must turn before you can shoot. The "safety" will now be a key that you insert & turn - then your gun is useable. A lock can be made as sturdy as the rest of the gun, so it won't fail you.

Locks can be picked, but a villain that successfully grabs your gun won't have time for that before you hit him with something.

Smith & Wesson and other manufacturers has been building revolvers with these locks since the 70's. Nobody I know actually uses the locks, nor do I.
Use of a firearm is a last resort - when a villain comes running at you with a knife, your sidearm needs to be ready to shoot right fucking now.
Are you going to have time to fumble for a key and unlock your weapon in the 2 seconds it takes him to cover the distance between you?

Submission + - Music Training's Cognitive Benefits Could Help "At-Risk" Students

Submitted by AthanasiusKircher
AthanasiusKircher writes: In recent years, emphasis on standardized testing and basic skills has forced many schools to cut back on things like arts and extracurricular activities. A study out this week from Northwestern University hints that schools may be hurting "at-risk" kids even more by cutting such programs. Just two years of music lessons were shown to have significant effects on brain activity and language processing which the researchers argue could help close achievement gaps between at-risk students and more affluent students. Aside from better brain response to language observed in the lab, practical effects of the interventions were readily apparent: 'Leaders at Harmony Project approached the researchers after the non-profit observed that their students were performing much better than other public school students in the area. Since 2008, over 90 percent of high school seniors who participated in Harmony Project’s free music lessons went on to college, even though the high school dropout rates in the surrounding Los Angeles areas can reach up to 50 percent.' Note that this is only one of several ongoing studies showing significant cognitive benefits for music training among at-risk students; an article last year from The Atlantic gives a more detailed summary of related research.

Submission + - UCLA, CIsco & more launch consortium to replace TCP/IP (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Big name academic and vendor organizations have unveiled a consortium this week that's pushing Named Data Networking (NDN), an emerging Internet architecture designed to better accommodate data and application access in an increasingly mobile world. The Named Data Networking Consortium http://named-data.net/ members, which include universities such as UCLA and China's Tsinghua University as well as vendors such as Cisco and VeriSign, are meeting this week at a two-day workshop at UCLA to discuss NDN's promise for scientific research. Big data, eHealth and climate research are among the application areas on the table. The NDN effort has been backed in large part by the National Science Foundation, which has put more than $13.5 million into it since 2010.

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