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Touch Bar MacBook Pros Are Being Banned From Bar Exams Over Predictive Text (techcrunch.com) 128

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: When it launched late last year, the new MacBook Pro's Touch Bar was largely reliant on first-party applications to show off what it could do. Since then, a number of other companies have jumped on board, helping the secondary screen grow into something more than novelty. Of course, as with any new technology, there's going to be some unanticipated downside. Test taking software company Examsoft, for one, believes the input device could help facilitate cheating among students taking the bar exam. What's perhaps most interesting here, is that the company's calling out one of Touch Bar's more mundane features: predictive text. "By default," the company writes, "the Touch Bar will show predictive text depending on what the student is typing, compromising exam integrity." It's hard to say precisely how the company expects a standard feature on mobile devices to help students pass one of the more notoriously exam out there, but The Next Web notes that some states have already taken action. North Carolina, for one, has required test takers with the new model MacBooks to disable the Touch Bar, while New York is banning the machines altogether.

Comment Next: UK datacenter in the US (Score 1) 394

Soooooo, what would stop a 'coalition' of the US and the UK from abusing this to their hearts content? All the UK as to do is set up a datacenter in the UK embassy in the US, and the US to ask telcos and ISPs to route traffic through it. Just like that, two democracies that can spy on it's citizens at will and completely 'legal'.

Comment Re: 3.5" hard drive filled with Thermite (Score 1) 126

I have read a brief article on it but I haven't watched a video of the talk. I'd sincerely like to know the details of why it wouldn't work, such as the type of oxidizer used, stoichiometry of the reaction tested, etc. as this idea is not new and it's been tested and shown to, with the right ratio of chemicals, turn the hard drive bays and anything in them to slag. I'll look for the article and reply to this post with it if someone is interested, or if someone kindly posts the Defcon talk refuting this method.

Comment Re: 3.5" hard drive filled with Thermite (Score 1) 126

Thermite isn't explosive on its own, it's just a high temperature redox reaction. Arson would probably stick in court if it were law enforcement attempting to seize it, along with at a minimum destruction of evidence and some type of assault charge. But the data is destroyed and it's low cost and low tech. Putting the whole thing in a fireproof enclosure (a safe, concrete/center blocks, etc) and it lowers the odds of torching the average house; depending on the person and the data that might be an acceptable compromise.

Comment 3.5" hard drive filled with Thermite (Score 1) 126

Realistically all one would need is a 3.5" hard drive with the guts replaced by Thermite. Installed above the storage medium and RAM and wired to a pressure switch so when the PC is lifted it ignites, it's hard to see how this can be countered unless the ne'er-do-wells know about it ahead of time. And it's cheap.

Comment Just use a cheap access point. (Score 1) 143

Pick up a $30 access point that supports WPA-PSK, put it in the middle of the table and only power it on during the meeting. Unless you have a specific need for net access it doesn't even need to connect to a WAN. You can buy $50 off brand tablets running Android from most Chinese manufacturers, pile them up and hand them out like coasters preloaded with the wireless key and Screenshare or Splashtop.

Comment Just remember: No Transfers! (Score 5, Insightful) 147

Any content you've purchased on one Wii is stuck there forever in most cases. Nintendo won't transfer digital purchases unless you have documentation showing your original Wii was stolen, and that's iffy. Why people keep paying for the same, tired rehash of their game catalog and obvious abuse of the platform is beyond me.
Encryption

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Encrypted digital camera/recording devices?

Ransak writes: "As dashboard cameras catch more unplanned events, I've thought of equipping my vehicles with them just in case that 'one in a billion' moment happens. But given how much over reach law enforcement has shown, I'd only consider one if I could be ensured that the data was secure from prying eyes (ie, a camera that writes to encrypted SD memory, etc). Are there any solutions for the niche market of the paranoid photographer/videographer?"

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