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Submission + - Was Alleged CEO Shooter Luigi Mangione Radicalized by Pain? 4

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Podcaster and journalist Robert Evans, who covers topics such as far-right extremism, terrorism and protests, provocatively writes: "When Luigi Mangione, the suspected shooter of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was arrested at a McDonald’s, it didn't take long for digital sleuths to put together a comprehensive record of his online activity. I will tell you now that nothing he read or posted explains why he gunned down an insurance executive better than this single image in the background of his Twitter profile. This is an X-ray showing four screws in someone’s lower base spine, apparently due to lumbar spinal fusion surgery. [...] This is a man who had options [Mangione had a BS and MS in CS from Penn, where he was passionate about game development]. He could have been almost anything he wanted to be. And the thing he ultimately chose to do with his life, after suffering a debilitating injury, was to shoot the CEO of United Healthcare. Luigi Mangione was radicalized by pain."

A commenter on the article notes that Mangione is 26, the age when you get kicked off your parents' health insurance.

Submission + - Linux Mint dethrones MX Linux as the most popular distro on DistroWatch (betanews.com)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Linux Mint has reclaimed its position as the top-ranked Linux distribution on DistroWatch, dethroning MX Linux. The latest page hit rankings, which reflect the popularity of distributions among DistroWatch users, place Linux Mint in first place with 2,412 hits per day. MX Linux, previously the reigning champ, now sits in second with 2,280 hits.

Submission + - Feds Use Bank Loophole To Surveil Americans' Financial Data Without Warrants (freebeacon.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Federal law enforcement exploited the Suspicious Activity Report system to access and surveil Americans’ private financial data without warrants or probable cause, according to a report from the House Judiciary Committee.

The FBI "manipulated" the SAR filing process by pressuring banks to file reports on individuals the FBI deems "suspicious," making financial institutions "de facto arms of law enforcement," the interim report released Friday said. SARs do not require any legal process, granting officials "virtually unchecked access" to "confidential and highly sensitive information."

The committee accused the FBI of circumventing the Bank Secrecy Act, which specifies that it is a bank’s responsibility to file a SAR when it identifies a "suspicious transaction relevant to a possible violation of law or regulation."

The Friday report has shed "new light on the decaying state of Americans’ financial privacy and the federal government’s widespread, warrantless surveillance programs," the committee said.

Comment Nine Is Awesome (Score 1) 192

by americamatrix (#58980128) Attached to: Don't Put Your Work Email on Your Personal Phone
I like to use Nine (https://www.9folders.com/) because of this.

If you use application level inside Nine, as opposed to device level, wiping and other features are not available to your work sys admins. You retain more control over your device. Obviously, every employer is different and your mileage may vary. That being said, Nine is a great outlook client!

-americamatrix

Submission + - Apollo 11 Had a Hidden Hero: Software (wsj.com)

Submitted by Outatime
Outatime writes: Monday's Wall Street Journal includes a special Apollo 11 feature; of particular interest to many Slashdot nerds is the piece on the pioneering computer hardware and software that took three astronauts, and landed two, on the moon.

From the article:

[On July 20, 1969,] the lives of two astronauts, the efforts of more than 300,000 technicians, the labor of eight years at a cost of $25 billion, and the pride of a nation depended on a few lines of pioneering computer code. Humans had never risked so much on zeros and ones. Yet they decided to trust the machine and the binary two-digit code, and Armstrong and Mr. Aldrin reaped the glory as the first people to walk on the moon.

Submission + - Scientists close in on blood test for Alzheimer's (cbsnews.com)

Submitted by pgmrdlm
pgmrdlm writes: Scientists are closing in on a long-sought goal — a blood test to screen people for possible signs of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

On Monday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference, half a dozen research groups gave new results on various experimental tests, including one that seems 88% accurate at indicating Alzheimer's risk.

Doctors are hoping for something to use during routine exams, where most dementia symptoms are evaluated, to gauge who needs more extensive testing. Current tools such as brain scans and spinal fluid tests are too expensive or impractical for regular check-ups.

Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, called the new results "very promising" and said blood tests soon will be used to choose and monitor people for federally funded studies, though it will take a little longer to establish their value in routine medical care.

"In the past year we've seen a dramatic acceleration in progress" on these tests, he said. "This has happened at a pace that is far faster than any of us would have expected."

Submission + - Computer pioneer and codebreaker Alan Turing to appear on UK money (bbc.com) 1

Submitted by sandbagger
sandbagger writes: Alan Turing is celebrated for his code-cracking work that proved vital to the Allies in World War Two. The £50 note will be the last of the Bank of England collection to switch from paper to polymer when it enters circulation by the end of 2021.

"Alan Turing was an outstanding mathematician whose work has had an enormous impact on how we live today," said Bank of England governor Mark Carney. "As the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, as well as a war hero, Alan Turing's contributions were far ranging and path breaking. Turing is a giant on whose shoulders so many now stand."

In 2013, he was given a posthumous royal pardon for his 1952 conviction for gross indecency following which he was chemically castrated. He eventually committed suicide.

Submission + - A Cell Tower in the Swiss Alps Is Struck by Lightning More Than 100 Times a Year (ieee.org)

Submitted by Wave723
Wave723 writes: "Atop a rocky peak in the Swiss Alps sits a telecommunications tower that gets struck by lightning more than 100 times a year, making it perhaps the world’s most frequently struck object. Taking note of the remarkable consistency with which lightning hits this 124-meter structure, researchers have adorned it with instruments for a front-row view of these violent electric discharges."
Classic Games (Games)

First Games Inducted Into the World Video Game Hall of Fame 277

Posted by samzenpus from the best-wasted-hours dept.
An anonymous reader writes: From 15 finalists, the first inductees to the World Video Game Hall of Fame were picked for 2015. Only one of the titles added to the list of legends was launched in the last 15 years. The six games inducted this year are: Pong, Pac-Man, Tetris, Super Mario Bros, Doom, and World of Warcraft. The World Video Game Hall of Fame says it recognizes games across all platforms, and all have the possibility of being included.

Comment Origin PC's New Laptop Line (Score 4, Informative) 325

by americamatrix (#48766029) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: High-Performance Laptop That Doesn't Overheat?
Origin PC (http://www.originpc.com/communicator/news/) - just released some new laptops that use Intel desktop processors.

I have the last gen laptop that utilizes a mobile processor and I love it. It takes everything I can throw at it.

Definitely check out their new lineup, seems like it would be a perfect fit for what you are trying to accomplish.

-americamatrix

Submission + - Supermassive Black Hole At The Centre Of Galaxy May Be Wormhole In Disguise (medium.com)

Submitted by KentuckyFC
KentuckyFC writes: There is growing evidence that the centre of the Milky Way contains a mysterious object some 4 million times more massive than the Sun. Many astronomers believe that this object, called Sagittarius A*, is a supermassive black hole that was crucial in the galaxy's birth and formation. The thinking is that about 100 million years after the Big Bang, this supermassive object attracted the gas and dust that eventually became the Milky Way. But there is a problem with this theory--100 million years is not long enough for a black hole to grow so big. The alternative explanation is that Sagittarius A* is a wormhole that connects the Milky Way to another region of the universe or even a another multiverse. Cosmologists have long known that wormholes could have formed in the instants after the Big Bang and that these objects would have been preserved during inflation to appear today as supermassive objects hidden behind an event horizon, like black holes. It's easy to imagine that it would be impossible to tell these objects apart. But astronomers have now worked out that wormholes are smaller than black holes and so bend light from an object orbiting close to them, such as a plasma cloud, in a unique way that reveals their presence. They've even simulated what such a wormhole will look like. No telescope is yet capable of resolving images like these but that is set to change too. An infrared instrument called GRAVITY is currently being prepared for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer in Chile and should be in a position to spot the signature of a wormhole, if it is there, in the next few years.

Submission + - Can Thunderbolt Survive USB SuperSpeed+? (computerworld.com) 2

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: The USB SuperSpeed+ spec (A.K.A v3.1) offers up to 10Gbps throughput. Combine that with USB's new C-Type Connector, the specification for which is expected out in July, and users will have a symmetrical cable and plug just like Thunderbolt but that will enable up to 100 watts of power depending on the cable version. So where does that leave Thunderbolt, Intel's other hardware interconnect? According to some industry pundits, Thunderbolt withers or remains a niche technology supported almost exclusively by Apple. Even as Thunderbolt 2 offers twice the throughput (on paper) as USB 3.1, or up to 20Gbps), USB SuperSpeed+ is expected to scale past 40Gbps in coming years. "USB's installed base is in the billions. Thunderbolt's biggest problem is a relatively small installed base, in the tens of millions. Adding a higher data throughput, and a more expensive option, is unlikely to change that," said Brian O'Rourke, a principal analyst covering wired interfaces at IHS.

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