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Submission + - Tesla's FSD software under investigation by federal safety regulator (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by theweatherelectric
theweatherelectric writes: The top U.S. automotive safety regulator has opened a new investigation into Tesla’s so-called “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” software after four reported crashes in low-visibility situations — including one where a pedestrian was killed. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Office of Defects Investigation announced Friday that it is probing the driver assistance system to find out whether it can “detect and respond appropriately to reduced roadway visibility conditions,” such as “sun glare, fog, or airborne dust.” The agency also wants to know if other crashes have occurred in these conditions beyond the ones that were reported.

Submission + - Google Announces Support of The Controversial TPP (recode.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google has announced in a blog post Friday their support for the controversial Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership (TPP). Recode reports: "The trade agreement includes key provisions about the global passage of digital data, intellectual property and copyright — measures that have drawn criticism from both the political right and left, including several outspoken tech groups. Google's endorsement isn't axactly full-throated, but its stake clearly demonstrates another key area of support with the Obama administration, to which Google is close." Google's SVP and general counsel Kent Walker wrote: "The TPP is not perfect, and the trade negotiation process would certainly benefit from greater transparency. We will continue to advocate for process reforms, including the opportunity for all stakeholders to have a meaningful opportunity for input into trade negotiations." The company has already shown support of the TPP behind the Internet Association, which endorsed the trade agreement in March. Google joins a list of other tech titans, like Apple and Microsoft, who have shown their support as well. The Electronic Frontier Foundation calls the TPP a "secretive, multinational trade agreement" that will restrict IP laws and enforce digital policies that "benefit big corporations at the expense of the public." The TPP is still awaiting congressional approval after being signed in February.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Time to repeal Godwin's Law? 2

Journal by shanen

Is it time to repeal Godwin's Law?

In his younger days as a usenet flamer, Mike wanted to discourage excessive and hyperbolic appeals to the Nazis. Therefore he proposed what has become the eponymous law, but there are times when Nazi comparisons are in order and should NOT terminate the discussion or concede any point. (And usenet is dead, anyway.)

Submission + - How a Bad UI Decision from Microsoft Helped Macro Malware Make a Comeback (softpedia.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Macro malware is a term to describe malware that relies on automatically executed macro scripts inside Office documents. This type of malware was very popular in the '90s, but when Microsoft launched Office 97, it added a popup before opening Office files that warned users about the dangers of enabling macros. Microsoft's decision had a huge impact on macro malware, and by the 2000s, this type of malware went almost extinct. Lo and behold, some smart Microsoft UI designers starts thinking that users might get popup fatigue, so in Office 2007, Microsoft makes the monumental mistake of removing the very informative popup, and transforming the warning into a notification bar at the top of the document with only six words warning users about macros. Things get worse in Office 2010, when Microsoft even adds a shiny button that reads"Enable Macros", ruining everything it had done in the past 10-15 years, and allowing macro malware to become the dangerous threat it is today.
The Internet

Submission + - 40GB of data that costs the same as a house (pcpro.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
Barence
Barence writes: "PC Pro has an infographic that reveals the extortionate cost of roaming data. They compared the cost of data typically bundled with a fixed-line broadband package (40GB) costing £15, with the cost of buying that data on various mobile tariffs. Buying 40GB of data on a domestic mobile internet tariff from Orange would cost the same as an iMac; buying the same quantity of data on O2's non-Europe roaming tariff would cost £240,000 — or the same as a three-bedroom house."

Submission + - Does software need a law license to practice law? (cnn.com)

Submitted by Bob the Super Hamste
Bob the Super Hamste writes: Fortune has an interesting piece about a federal class action law suit against LegalZoom claiming that its software is illegally practicing law without a license. The law suit seeks to recover money from LegalZoom for every resident in Missouri who has used LegalZoom regardless of how satisfied the users were of the service. Currently Missouri law states that an individual who paid money to a non lawyer for legal services is entitled to sue the provider for 3 times the amount paid.
Cellphones

Submission + - Eight Major 3G & 4G Networks Tested Nationwide

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: Building on last year's efforts, PCMag once again hit the road on a 6,000 mile trip to test out eight 3G and 4G networks to determine which ones were the fastest (and slowest) in 21 different cities. With 10 stops in each city for at least 15 minutes each, the team used custom speed test software on 16 different handsets which ran HTTP uploads and downloads tests every 25 seconds to 3 minutes. The test results were broken down by city as well as region. As expected Verizon’s 4G led the pack. It performed the best in Dallas where it averaged 15.75 Mbsp and also hit the highest download speed of 37.66 Mbsp. On the other hand Sprint's 4G simply disappointed, in fact in some cities AT&T provided better download speeds. Beyond the 4G, T-Mobile's HSPA+ offered blazing fast speeds as well, going as high up as 15.93 Mbsp in Detroit while averaging the best in Dallas at 6.44 Mbps. Amongst the 3G networks, AT&T mostly outperformed all others.
Mars

Submission + - Homemade 'Mars in a Bottle' Tortures Bacteria (discovery.com)

Submitted by
astroengine
astroengine writes: "The only time we've ever directly looked for life on Mars was during the 1970's when NASA's Viking landers attempted to make direct measurements of Martian microbes metabolizing. Even today, the results of these groundbreaking experiments are hotly debated. Although the Viking experiments were often considered premature, a team of scientists hope to refine the next life-searching experiment to be sent to the Red Planet by building a Mars habitat on Earth. Imagine a Mars environment "goldfish bowl" complete with UV radiation, dust, chilly temperatures, and an extremely low atmospheric pressure. So what have they done with this micro-Mars environment? They've been torturing various terrestrial microbes to see how they enjoy stints on the Martian surface. Their results have shown that even Earth microorganisms have a trick or two up their sleeves to survive in this alien environment."
Patents

Submission + - A Generation of Software Patents (ssrn.com)

Submitted by
pieterh
pieterh writes: "Boston University's James Bessen has published a landmark study on a generation of software patents. Looking at almost 20 years of software patents, he finds "that most software firms still do not patent, most software patents are obtained by a few large firms in the software industry or in other industries, and the risk of litigation from software patents continues to increase dramatically. Given these findings, it is hard to conclude that software patents have provided a net social benefit in the software industry." Not that this surprises anyone actually innovating in software."
Programming

Submission + - Learning Programming in a Post-BASIC World (computerworld.com) 5

Submitted by ErichTheRed
ErichTheRed writes: This Computerworld piece actually got me thinking — it basically says that there are few good "starter languages" to get students interested in programming. I remember hacking away at BASIC incessantly when I was a kid, and it taught me a lot about logic and computers in general. Has the level of abstraction in computer systems reached a point where beginners can't just code something quick without a huge amount of back-story? I find this to be the case now; scripting languages are good, but limited in what you can do...and GUI creation requires students to be familiar with a lot of concepts (event handling, etc.) that aren't intuitive for beginners. What would you show a beginner first — JavaScript? Python? How do you get the instant gratification we oldies got when sitting down in front of the early-80s home computers?
Games

Submission + - Women Remain The Ignored Audience In Gaming (industrygamers.com)

Submitted by donniebaseball23
donniebaseball23 writes: Research firm Interpret has released its new report, “Games and Girls: Video Gaming’s Ignored Audience”, which finds that while the female audience in gaming has grown, games tailored to their needs and preferences continue to go missing. Women represent 50% of the market and their usage of HD consoles like Xbox 360 and PS3 is rising. "It remains to be seen whether developers and marketers will effectively invest in understanding and exploiting the undertapped female gaming market," said Courtney Johnson, analyst for Intrepret.
Cloud

Submission + - Why Businesses Move To The Cloud: They Hate IT (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "Cloud services can be unreliable, pricey, and often duplicate capabilities larger companies already have in-house. So why do many managers within organizations use them? Partly because they don't want to deal with their own company's IT department. Getting a big project started is often such a politically fraught process that for many managers its easier to simply write a check."

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