Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

Comment Re:It's also Facebook itself (Score 1) 31

"image may contain: trees, house, sky" or "image may contain: one or more people". Oh! The horror! As though those are things that might offend me, I guess.

Those descriptions are just alt text put there for accessibility reasons, to help out users such as those who use a screen reader or other assistive technology, and your browser displays it to you when it can't load the image itself. If the image contains text, Facebook will also include their attempt at transcribing it. The "Image may contain" phrasing isn't meant to serve as a "trigger warning" or anything, it's just a reminder that the caption is generated by Facebook's AI (notoriously less-than-perfect) and may not always accurately reflect what's actually in the image.

Comment Re:Same problem that affects many businesses (Score 1) 135

by Nexus Unplugged (#58763178) Attached to: 'The New Dropbox Sucks'

* Offer Linux support.

Dropbox already has Linux support, and they have for the entire time I've used their service. It's running in the system tray right now on my Linux desktop, and while I don't do it any more, years ago I used to run their client headless on some Linux servers as well -- I was doing that before Google Drive even existed. There's no mounting involved, it works just the same as the normal desktop client. You have a folder full of real files, and their client keeps everything synced.
United Kingdom

UK To Let Huawei Firm Help Build 5G Network (bbc.co.uk) 64

Posted by BeauHD from the to-each-their-own dept.
AmiMoJo writes: The UK government has given Chinese telecoms giant Huawei the go-ahead to supply equipment for the UK 5G data network. The company will help build some "non-core" parts such as antennas. But the plans have concerned the home, defense and foreign secretaries. The U.S. also wants its allies in the "Five Eyes" intelligence grouping -- the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand -- to exclude Huawei. Huawei said it was "pleased that the UK is continuing to take an evidence-based approach to its work," adding it would continue to work cooperatively with the government and the industry.

Comment Re:Why? Its not like the users care. (Score 1) 26

Google can say all they want about how they're trying to protect users against malicious extension updates, but I won't believe a word of it until they change the fact that Chrome still won't:

- Show you what extensions of yours have recently updated
- Show you when a particular extension was last updated
- Allow users to disable automatic updates for an extension

These are pretty basic features, and they're all things the Play Store has done on Android for years. It boggles the mind that they would develop a platform for shipping updates to one of the most important pieces of software many users run without giving the user any real control or insight into the process.
Data Storage

Sex Workers Say Porn On Google Drive Is Suddenly Disappearing (vice.com) 356

Posted by BeauHD from the magic-tricks dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Porn performer Avey Moon was trying to send the lucky winner of her Chaturbate contest his prize -- one of her videos, titled "POV Blowjob" -- through her Google Drive account. But it wouldn't send, and Google wasn't telling her why. "I thought there was something wrong with my file and I got rather worried," Moon told me in a Twitter message. "I had promised this guy his content and he was so good to me. I was panicked because I thought if I couldn't give him his prize, he would feel like he got ripped off and never come back again or worse, he could actually file a complaint with Chaturbate about me and they can take money from me." She's not alone. Six porn performers I talked to and more on social media said that they suddenly can't download adult content they keep on Google Drive. They also said they can't a share that content with other accounts or send to clients. In some cases, the adult content is disappearing from Drive without warning or explanation. The porn performers I talked to started sounding the alarm on Twitter last week. They said that Google Drive no longer seemed sex-trade friendly, detailing error messages and sharing cloud storage alternatives with each other.

When I asked about sexual content being blocked on Drive, a spokesperson for Google directed me to the Drive policy page -- specifically the section on sexually explicit material, which says, "Do not publish sexually explicit or pornographic images or videos.... Additionally, we do not allow content that drives traffic to commercial pornography." Writing about porn and sex is permitted, the policy states, as long as it's not accompanied by sexually explicit images or videos. According to Google, Drive uses a combination of automated systems and manual review to decide what's in violation. One worker said they've been using Google Drive for most of the last five and a half years but just recently received an error message when sending a video, saying that the item may violate Google's Terms of Service, with a link to request a review. In this case, the video title was explicit, but other adult performers report similar messages when sending content with non-explicit titles. "Some sex workers are wondering if this has something to do with the impending vote on the SESTA-FOSTA bill," reports Motherboard. We now have learned that the Senate has passed the bill.
Businesses

Motherboard and VICE Are Building a Community Internet Network (vice.com) 142

Posted by msmash from the fighting-back dept.
In order to preserve net neutrality and the free and open internet, we must end our reliance on monopolistic corporations and build something fundamentally different: internet infrastructure that is locally owned and operated and is dedicated to serving the people who connect to it, writes Jason Koebler, editor-in-chief of Vice's Motherboard news outlet. He writes: The good news is a better internet infrastructure is possible: Small communities, nonprofits, and startup companies around the United States have built networks that rival those built by big companies. Because these networks are built to serve their communities rather than their owners, they are privacy-focused and respect net neutrality ideals. These networks are proofs-of-concept around the country that a better internet is possible. This week, Motherboard and VICE Media are committing to be part of the change we'd like to see. We will build a community network based at our Brooklyn headquarters that will provide internet connections for our neighborhood. We will also connect to the broader NYC Mesh network in order to strengthen a community network that has already decided the status quo isn't good enough. We are in the very early stages of this process and have begun considering dark fiber to light up, hardware to use, and organizations to work with, support, and learn from. To be clear and to answer a few questions I've gotten: This network will be connected to the real internet and will be backed by fiber from an internet exchange. It will not rely on a traditional ISP.

Submission + - Stack Clash Linux Flaw Enables Root Access; Patch Now (threatpost.com)

Submitted by msm1267
msm1267 writes: Linux, BSD, Solaris and other open source systems are vulnerable to a local privilege escalation vulnerability known as Stack Clash that allows an attacker to execute code at root.

Major Linux and open source distributors have made patches available today, and systems running Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD or Solaris on i386 or amd64 hardware should be updated soon.

The risk presented by this flaw, CVE-2017-1000364, becomes elevated especially if attackers are already present on a vulnerable system. They would now be able to chain this vulnerability with other critical issues, including the recently addressed Sudo vulnerability, and then run arbitrary code with the highest privileges, said researchers at Qualys who discovered the vulnerability.

The vulnerability was found in the stack, a memory management region on these systems. The attack bypasses the Stack guard-page mitigation introduced in Linux in 2010 after attacks in 2005 and 2010 targeted the stack.

Comment Re:Good and bad about 5X (Score 2) 208

by Nexus Unplugged (#50623327) Attached to: Google Shows Off 2 New Nexus Phones, a New Pixel, and More

4 hours of life in 10 minutes, and in general, is just way, way faster to charge. Wireless is nice, but it's always super sloooooooow.

It's 7 PM right now, and the battery on my Nexus 5 is at 86%. The last time I gave any conscious thought to charging my phone was weeks ago. That's just not possible without wireless charging. Who cares that your phone charges slower when your battery never drops below 50%? USB-only means that I would go back to forgetting to plug in my phone when it needs it, and having to scramble to find a (new, not yet common) charger. That's a step backwards, and it's a deal breaker for me.

Comment Re:juvenile vandalism (Score 1) 36

by Nexus Unplugged (#49140961) Attached to: Lizard Squad Claims Attack On Lenovo Days After Superfish
While normally correct, this attack is more noteworthy when combined with the news of Superfish. This was a DNS hijack, which means the attackers would have been able to point *.lenovo.com at the server of their choosing. While I don't believe Superfish was actually running its requests through a subdomain of lenovo.com, this particular type of simple "vandalism" could have just as easily been used to take advantage of Superfish's automatic MITM and intercepted all manner of sensitive data.

Slashdot Top Deals

When it is incorrect, it is, at least *authoritatively* incorrect. -- Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Close