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Submission + - SPAM: Biden Admin Wants to use Private Spy Firms to Bypass 4th Amendment

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The plan being discussed inside DHS, according to multiple sources, would, in effect, allow the department to circumvent” restrictions the U.S. government has to surveil American citizens. “A source familiar with the effort said it is not about decrypting data but rather using outside entities who can legally access these private groups to gather large amounts of information that could help DHS identify key narratives as they emerge.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Tor to Use Never-Before-Seen Distributed RNG to Generate Better Random Numbers (softpedia.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Tor developers have been working on the next iteration of the Tor network and its underbelly, the Onion routing protocol, in order to create a stronger, harder-to-crack anonymous communications system. To advance the project, the developer team schedules brainstorming and planning meetings at regular intervals. The most recent of these meetings took place last week, in Montreal, Canada.

In this session, the team tested the next generation of the Tor network working on top of a revamped Onion protocol that uses a new algorithm for generating random numbers, never before seen on the Internet. The Tor Project says it created something it calls "a distributed RNG" (random number generator) that uses two or more computers to create random numbers and then blends their outputs together into a new random number. The end result is something that's almost impossible to crack without knowing which computers from a network contributed to the final random number, and which entropy each one used.

Submission + - Jet strikes drone near Heathrow airport

Submitted by smooth wombat
smooth wombat writes: A British Airways flight Sunday appears to have collided with a drone on a flight bound for London's busy Heathrow Airport in what may be the first such incident involving a major airline.

The flight from Geneva, Switzerland to Heathrow, Europe's busiest hub, is believed to have struck a drone, the London Metropolitan Police said in a statement. The plane landed safely following the incident, which occurred around 12:50 p.m. local time.

"It was only a matter of time before we had a drone strike given the huge numbers being flown around by amateurs who don't understand the risks and the rules," said BALPA flight safety specialist Steve Landells, adding "much more education of drone users and enforcement of the rules is needed to ensure our skies remain safe from this threat."
Robotics

Man Builds 'Scarlett Johansson' Robot From Scratch (mirror.co.uk) 158

Posted by BeauHD from the fulfilling-childhood-dreams dept.
An anonymous reader writes: 42-year-old product and graphic designer Ricky Ma has spent more than $50,000 building a replica Scarlett Johansson robot from scratch. The robot, named Mark 1, responds to a set of programmed verbal commands spoken into a microphone and has moving facial expressions. Ricky said, "When I was a child, I liked robots. Why? Because I liked watching animation. All children loved it. There were Transformers, cartoons about robots fighting each other and games about robots. After I grew up, I wanted to make one. But during this process, a lot of people would say things like, 'Are you stupid? This takes a lot of money. Do you even know how to do it? It's really hard.'" Ricky has dressed Mark 1 in a crop top and grey skirt. A 3D-printed skeleton lies beneath Mark 1's silicone skin, covering its mechanical and electronic interior.
Communications

North Korea Launches Missile and Tries To Jam GPS Signals (go.com) 127

Posted by BeauHD from the that's-cute dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Hours after North Korea fired a short-range missile into the sea in retaliation for ongoing U.S. join military drills with South Korea, they started jamming GPS navigation systems near its border with South Korea, affecting hundreds of fishing boats but not causing any immediate danger. There were no disruptions to drivers' satellite navigation system or air traffic, but warning messages were broadcast in affected areas warning ships not to rely on their GPS navigation. In a statement, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense said: "North Korea has been continuously disrupting GPS system since 7:30 pm [Thursday] and thereby interfering and hampering our military movements, which is threatening the safety of our people."

Submission + - Communication records of Americans' are retained forever (seattletimes.com)

Submitted by Trachman
Trachman writes: Here is the interesting case to pay attention to . Seattle man has been wrongfully convicted for a crime that took place in 1957. He finally got an an alibi, which was a telephone call which he took in 1957. While it surely is a good thing that an innocence has been proved, the case is also an evidence that American's communication records are retained infinitely.

Comment geek-shall-inherit-earth-rap (Score 0) 2

by GlennWaller1963 (#51773115) Attached to: Congressman: "The geeks shall inherit the Earth"
It's interesting to see a politician standing for the people who voted him(her) in, Against the flow of Donations from lobbyists and labelling (bullying) from their own party.
This style of politic where the party rules and dictates has to change. It's a pattern I call the American Business Model here in Australia. I'm hoping that our system moves towards real democracy (it's compulsory to vote if you're over 18yo in Aust.) from the tweedism we are being served up today! My hope is he doesn't end up like the rest of the peoples politicians in the US, shot.

Submission + - US Army Creates Virtual Reality Dome to Assess Soldier Thinking During Combat

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Bryant Jordan reports at Defense Tech that the Cognitive Science and Applications Team at the US Army's Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center is creating a computer-generated reality “dome” to immerse warfighters in a virtual environment that not only tests their skills, but allows Army researchers to assess soldier cognitive abilities and study the impact of real-world operational situations on decision-making, spatial memory and wayfinding. The dome is a concave virtual-reality system that provides a full 180-degree horizontal field, using high-density, front-projection to create a high-resolution, visual world where the simulations will be modeled on real-world locations. “The integration of multiple input modalities, along with multisensory feedback, increases the realism, immersion and engagement on behalf of users subjected to prolonged, workload-intensive activities,” says Dr. Caroline Mahoney. "These novel integrations provide unprecedented opportunities to monitor and optimize human behavior during real-world task execution, and to evaluate and predict the impact of innovative human-systems technologies on operational performance."

In the virtual dome, users can interact and alter the environment through hand-held and weapon-based devices, which control movement, orientation and weapon aiming. Future additions to the dome will include whole-body motion tracking, low-frequency vibration and directional wind. Vibro-tactile collision feedback — which combines vibration and touch to help give participants a physical sense of constraints in a virtual environment — will also be included. "Our new, virtual-reality capability provides unprecedented translational value to basic and applied cognitive sciences, allowing us to bridge the gap between highly controlled laboratory research and the inherent richness, dynamics and complexity of real-world Soldier experiences," says Dr. Tad Brunyé.

Submission + - MuckRock launches March Madness — for FOIA (muckrock.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: Looking for a new office pool to get in on, but can't tell a layup from a low post? MuckRock has launched a FOIA bracket that pits 64 agencies against each other in a single-elimination tournament of transparency. The Freedom of Information website is working to get processing manuals for each of the agencies in the tournament, and invites you to pick winners across four divisions, with winners receiving free requests, MuckRock swag, and, of course, bragging rights among transparency aficionados.

Submission + - Google, Microsoft, Yahoo Join Forces to Create New Encrypted Email Protocol

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A group of independent security researchers and major Silicon Valley tech giants have submitted last Friday a proposal for a new email protocol called SMTP STS (Strict Transport Security). The protocol is to SMTP STARTTLS what HSTS is to HTTPS, meaning it's set to ensure message confidentiality and server authenticity, issues to which STARTTLS is subject to via MitM and SSL/TLS downgrade attacks.

The biggest names on the contributors list include Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, and Comcast. Last year, Oracle also submitted a similar proposal called DEEP (Deployable Enhanced Email Privacy).

Submission + - Rust-Based Redox OS Devs Slam Linux, Unix, GPL 1

Submitted by Freshly Exhumed
Freshly Exhumed writes: Redox OS, a project on GitHub aimed at creating an alternative OS able to run almost all Linux executables with only minimal modifications, is to feature a pure Rust ecosystem, which they hope will improve correctness and security over other OSes. In their own words, 'Redox isn't afraid of dropping the bad parts of POSIX, while preserving modest Linux API compatibility.' They also level harsh criticisms at other OSes, saying '...we will not replicate the mistakes made by others. This is probably the most important tenet of Redox. In the past, bad design choices were made by Linux, Unix, BSD, HURD, and so on. We all make mistakes, that's no secret, but there is no reason to repeat others' mistakes.' Not stopping there, Redox documentation contains blunt critiques of Plan 9, the GPL, and other mainstays.

Submission + - Autism associated with shorter lifespan according to UK charity study

Submitted by Cognitive Dissident
Cognitive Dissident writes: It's only one study, but the results are disturbing. An article in The Guardian describes a study by the UK charity Autistica showing that all people on the autism spectrum, not just the profoundly autistic, seem to be dying much younger than the average. There is no single definable cause, though a higher rate of suicide is one problem, but the aggregate result is a much higher mortality rate than the general population. There is no single cause, but a higher rate of suicide is noted. "Autistic people with no learning disabilities are nine times more likely to die from suicide compared to the rest of the population, the report states." Looks like something that needs more attention and research, which the charity is trying to organize.

Submission + - Jury orders Gawker to pay $115 million to Hulk Hogan in sex tape lawsuit (zerohedge.com) 4

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "Gawker took a secretly recorded sex tape and put it on the Internet." And now they are paying for it, dearly. Also notable is that there doesn't seem to be anyone interested in defending them, as even the Twitter community (if it can truly be called that) has come out strongly in favor of the ruling against Gawker. Maybe they should have at least made more friends? They did make $6.5 million in net income in 2014 and their Wikipedia article states that they were last sold in 2009 for $300 million, so while they may not be put out of business, it seems likely they will at least be change hands, and soon, with the jury ruling $55 million for economic injuries and $60 million for emotional distress. I think that's jury-speak for "body slam."

Submission + - Comcast failed to install Internet then demanded $60,000 in fees (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Earthquake Retrofit
Earthquake Retrofit writes: Silicon Valley startup called SmartCar in Mountain View, California signed up for Comcast Internet service. After hearing Comcast excuses for months, company owner Katta finally got fed up and decided that he would find a new office building once his 12-month lease expires on April 20 of this year. Katta told Comcast he wanted to “cancel” his nonexistent service and get a refund for a $2,100 deposit he had paid. Instead, Comcast told him he’d have to pay more than $60,000 to get out of his contract with the company. Comcast eventually waived the fee—but only after being contacted by Ars Technica about the case.

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