cpitman - Slashdot User

Submission + - NSA Admits Searching "3 Hops" from Suspects

Submitted by cpitman on Thursday July 18, 2013 @12:09PM

cpitman writes: In a house hearing Wednesday the NSA admitted that it could query not only a suspect's records, but also perform up to a "three hop query". Considering that most people in the world are separated by under 6 degrees of separation, the NSA essentially claims that any single suspect gives them rights to investigate a chunk of the world's population.

With the terror watch list having over 700,000 names, just how many times has Kevin Bacon been investigated?

Submission + - Adding 'mood detection' to smartphones (techworld.com.au)

Submitted by angry tapir on Thursday June 27, 2013 @10:14PM

angry tapir writes: Researchers at Microsoft Research have produced a prototype software system that can be used on smartphones to infer a user's mood. The 'MoodScope' system produced by researchers uses smartphone usage patterns to determine whether someone is happy, calm, excited, bored or stressed and could potentially add a new dimension to to mobile apps (as well as, as the researchers note, open up a Pandora's Box of privacy issues). The researchers created a low-power background service for iPhones and Android handsets that (with training) can offer reasonable detection of mood and offers and API that app developers could hook into.

Submission + - QUIC: Google's New Secure UDP-Based Protocol

Submitted by jshurst1 on Thursday June 27, 2013 @09:39PM

jshurst1 writes: Google has announced QUIC, a stream multiplexing protocol running over a new variation of TLS, as well as UDP. The new protocol offers zero round trip connectivity, strong security, and pluggable congestion control. QUIC is in experiment now for Chrome dev and canary users connecting to Google websites.

Submission + - Teenage League of Legends player jailed for months for Facebook joke

Submitted by Kohath on Thursday June 27, 2013 @09:19PM

Kohath writes: Eighteen-year-old Justin Carter of Austin, Texas was arguing with a friend on Facebook about League of Legends back in February. After being called "insane", he responded with "Oh yeah, I'm real messed up in the head, I'm going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still, beating hearts". Below that, he wrote "lol" and "jk". He was arrested March 27, 2013 and has been in jail since that time. A hearing to review his case is scheduled for July 1, 2013. His parents have launched a change.org petition to convince the authorities to release their son.

Comment Re:But...Agile teaches us... (Score 1) 400

by cpitman on Tuesday April 23, 2013 @04:55PM (#43530259) Attached to: Dropcam CEO's Beef With Brogramming and Free Dinners

The difference is that saying "no" can mean the client gets it in 3 to 4 weeks (if it is really important enough to push out other work), instead of getting it in 2 years. 2 years isn't an exageration, I've worked on a project that the turn around time for a new requirement was 2+ years from conception to release to production. If you know you'll have to wait 2 years if it doesn't get in NOW, you'll fight tooth and nail.

Submission + - Google will cut 1,200 more jobs at Motorola Mobility (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg on Friday March 08, 2013 @07:39AM

alphadogg writes: Motorola Mobility is cutting 1,200 staff, in addition to a reduction of 4,000 staff it announced in August, to focus on high-end devices. "These cuts are a continuation of the reductions we announced last summer," said Motorola. "It's obviously very hard for the employees concerned, and we are committed to helping them through this difficult transition." Motorola's mobile business has been overwhelmed in the smartphone market by larger players such as Samsung Electronics, Apple, Sony, Huawei Technologies and ZTE.

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