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Comment Oh, NOW I get it. (Score 1) 81

Explained in layman's terms, "this may allow an attacker to utilize operating system APIs to gain access to sensitive memory information or control low-level operating system functions."

@msmash: I, for one, laud your biddable rectitude anent proffering pleonasm-eschewing elucidationary paraphrasing. Kudos!

Comment Use the Netflix app speed test... (Score 4, Informative) 203

by Ambrose Carracho (#56278707) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Can I Prove My ISP Slows Certain Traffic?
Many devices allow you to check your connection speed within the Netflix app. (I would presume HBONow offers a similar utility.) The Netflix Page explaining how to do this is here: https://help.netflix.com/en/no.... On the same Netflix page are their internet download speed recommendations for playing TV shows and movies: 0.5 Megabits per second - Required broadband connection speed 1.5 Megabits per second - Recommended broadband connection speed 3.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for SD quality 5.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for HD quality 25 Megabits per second - Recommended for Ultra HD quality Remember that these figures are per stream, so concurrent streaming to multiple devices is bandwidth additive.

Submission + - Software 'No More Accurate Than Untrained Humans' At Predicting Recidivism (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The credibility of a computer program used for bail and sentencing decisions has been called into question after it was found to be no more accurate at predicting the risk of reoffending than people with no criminal justice experience provided with only the defendant’s age, sex and criminal history. The algorithm, called Compas (Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions), is used throughout the U.S. to weigh up whether defendants awaiting trial or sentencing are at too much risk of reoffending to be released on bail. Since being developed in 1998, the tool is reported to have been used to assess more than one million defendants. But a new paper has cast doubt on whether the software’s predictions are sufficiently accurate to justify its use in potentially life-changing decisions.

The academics used a database of more than 7,000 pretrial defendants from Broward County, Florida, which included individual demographic information, age, sex, criminal history and arrest record in the two year period following the Compas scoring. The online workers were given short descriptions that included a defendant’s sex, age, and previous criminal history and asked whether they thought they would reoffend. Using far less information than Compas (seven variables versus 137), when the results were pooled the humans were accurate in 67% of cases, compared to the 65% accuracy of Compas. In a second analysis, the paper found that Compas’s accuracy at predicting recidivism could also be matched using a simple calculation involving only an offender’s age and the number of prior convictions.

Comment In another five years... (Score 1) 261

I'd say that in five years or so from now, we'll read a Slashdot story describing the inverse of this behavior:

"Due to the behind-the-counter proliferation of robotics in the fast food industry, most people no longer think to say, 'Thank you' on those occasions where they have been served their food by an actual live human."

Submission + - Critical Zen Cart vulnerability could spell Black Friday disaster for shoppers (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: It's around this time of year, with Black Friday looming and Christmas just around the corner, that online sales boom. Today security firm High-Tech Bridge has issued a warning to retailers and shoppers about a critical vulnerability in the popular Zen Cart shopping management system.

High-Tech Bridge has provided Zen Cart with full details of the security flaw which could allow remote attackers to infiltrate web servers and gain access to customer data. Servers running Zen Cart are also at risk of malware, meaning that hundreds of thousands of ecommerce sites pose a potential danger.

Technical details of the vulnerability are not yet being made public, but having notified Zen Cart of the issue High-Tech Bridge says the date of full public disclosure is 16 December.

Submission + - IT Execs on Their Dream Dinner Guests

Submitted by StewBeans
StewBeans writes: In this lighthearted article for the holiday, IT executives were asked, if they could invite any technologist living or deceased to their Thanksgiving dinner, who would they invite and why? One CTO said that he'd invite the CTO of Amazon, Werner Vogels, so he could hear his thoughts on the future of cloud computing. Another would invite Ratan Tata, who he calls the "Bill Gates of India." Other responses range from early visionaries like Grace Hopper and Vint Cerf to the mysterious inventors/designers of the Roland TR-808.

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