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Submission + - The Promise Of Blockchain Is A World Without Middlemen (hbr.org)

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: The Harvard Business Review has an interesting article about how Blockchain technology may bring down the cost of business transactions and enable new ways of doing things: "Consider the problem that small manufacturers have dealing with giants like Wal-Mart. To keep transaction costs and the costs of carrying each product line down, large companies generally only buy from companies that can service a substantial percentage of their customers. But if the cost of carrying a new product was tiny, a much larger number of small manufacturers might be included in the value network. Amazon carries this approach a long way, with enormous numbers of small vendors selling through the same platform, but the idea carried to its limit is eBay and Craigslist, which bring business right down to the individual level. While it’s hard to imagine a Wal-Mart with the diversity of products offered by Amazon or even eBay, that is the kind of future we are moving into."

Submission + - Writers Say They Feel Censored by Surveillance (nytimes.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: A survey of writers around the world by the PEN American Center has found that a significant majority said they were deeply concerned with government surveillance, with many reporting that they have avoided, or have considered avoiding, controversial topics in their work or in personal communications as a result.

The findings show that writers consider freedom of expression to be under significant threat around the world in democratic and nondemocratic countries. Some 75 percent of respondents in countries classified as “free,” 84 percent in “partly free” countries, and 80 percent in countries that were “not free” said that they were “very” or “somewhat” worried about government surveillance in their countries.

The survey, which will be released Monday, was conducted anonymously online in fall 2014 and yielded 772 responses from fiction and nonfiction writers and related professionals, including translators and editors, in 50 countries.

Submission + - Finnish Bank OP Under Persistent DDoS Attack

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Finnish bank OP Pohjola Group has been a target of a dedicated DDoS attack for days. The attack, which investigators said was launched from both Finland and abroad, began on New Year's Eve. OP was forced to open a helpline for customers unable to confirm payments or transfer money because of jammed systems. On Saturday the firm said it would compensate people for any losses or late payment fees incurred as a result of attack. On Sunday morning the bank tweeted that its services were operating normally and even customers based outside Finland were able to access their accounts — and that it was still monitoring traffic carefully to try and ward off any renewed strikes. However, on Sunday afternoon further denial of service attacks took place delaying payments and preventing access to banking services for OP customers. A formal police complaint has been filed and OP says that KRP is looking into the case.

Submission + - Is Wikipedia for Sale? (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: Insiders have encountered something altogether more worrying: a concerted attack on the very fabric of Wikipedia by PR companies that have subverted the online encyclopedia’s editing hierarchy to alter articles on a massive scale—perhaps tens of thousands of them. Wikipedia is the world’s most popular source of cultural, historical, and scientific knowledge—if their fears are correct, its all-important credibility could be on the line... Adam Masonbrink, a founder and Vice-President of Sales at Wiki-PR, boasts of new clients including Priceline and Viacom. Viacom didn’t respond to my requests for comment, but Priceline—a NASDAQ listed firm with over 5,000 employees and William Shatner as their official spokesman—did. Sadly, Priceline didn't choose to respond to us via Captain Kirk; instead Leslie Cafferty, vice president of corporate communications and public relations, admitted, “We are using them to help us get all of our brands a presence because I don’t have the resources internally to otherwise manage.”

Submission + - Linus Torvalds Admits He's Been Asked to Insert NSA Backdoor (eweek.com)

Submitted by darthcamaro
darthcamaro writes: At the Linuxcon conference in New Orleans today, Linus Torvalds joined fellow kernel developers in answering a barrage of questions about Linux development. One question he was asked was whether a government agency had ever asked about inserting a back-door into Linux.

Torvalds responded "no" while shaking his head "yes," as the audience broke into spontaneous laughter.

Torvalds also admitted that while he as a full life outside of Linux he couldn't imagine his life without it.

While Torvalds has a full life outside Linux, it is at the core of his existence, he said. "I don't see any project coming along being more interesting to me than Linux," Torvalds said. "I couldn't imagine filling the void in my life if I didn't have Linux." /blockquote.

Submission + - Dark Matter Found? Orbital Experiment Detects Hints (discovery.com)

Submitted by astroengine
astroengine writes: A $2 billion particle detector attached to the International Space Station has detected the potential signature of dark matter annihilation in the Cosmos, scientists have announced today. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) was attached to the space station in May 2011 by space shuttle Endeavour — the second-to last shuttle mission to the orbital outpost. Since then, the AMS has been detecting electrons and positrons (the electron’s anti-particle) originating from deep space and assessing their energies. By doing a tally of electrons and positrons, physicists hope the AMS will help to answer one of the most enduring mysteries in science: Does dark matter exist? And today, it looks like the answer is a cautious, yet exciting, yes.

Submission + - Samoa Air becomes first airline to implement "pay as you weigh" system (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: Thrifty Samoans looking to take a trip may want to shed a few pounds before booking a flight with Samoan Air after the airline announced the implementation of a “pay as you weigh” system. Unlike some other airlines that have courted controversy by forcing some obese passengers to purchase two seats, Samoa’s national carrier will charge passengers based on their weight.
Mars

Submission + - Ancient Flood Channels Cut Deep into Mars (discovery.com)

Submitted by
astroengine
astroengine writes: "Relatively recently, water blasted out from an underground aquifer on Mars, carving out deep flood channels in the surface that were later buried by lava flows, radar images complied from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter probe shows. The channels are at least twice as deep as previous estimates for Marte Vallis, an expanse of plains just north of the Martian equator that is the youngest volcanic region on the planet. “We see similar channels elsewhere on Mars and they are not filled with lava so it’s important to be able to compare different channel systems, and also similar systems on Earth, to give us clues about how they formed,” lead researcher Gareth Morgan, with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, told Discovery News."
Security

Submission + - New Car Anti-Theft Device Profiles Your Rear End 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "A car-seat identifier developed at Japan’s Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology by Associate Professor Shigeomi Koshimizu can recognize a person by his or her rear end with 98 percent accuracy when the person takes a seat in his car. The bucket seat’s lower section is lined with 360 pressure sensors that measure pressure on a scale from 0 to 256 sending information to a laptop, which aggregates the information, generates the key data and produces a precise map of the seated person's rear profile. Researchers say that traditional biometric techniques such as iris scanners and fingerprint readers cause stress to people undergoing identity checks, while the simple act of getting seated carries less psychological baggage. Koshimizu wants to see his work available commercially as an anti-theft product in two to three years if automakers agree to collaborate and sees possibilities of this device being used beyond auto-theft identity protection to a device for security identification in office settings, where users log on to their PCs as they sit down."

Comment Re:Very sensitive people? (Score 2, Interesting) 432

by dastasha (#26370133) Attached to: Hippies Say WiFi Network Is Harming Their Chakras
I served a four year apprenticeship repairing and aligning 100 watt UHF power amplifier modules on a daily basis, among other RF devices. All this was done on a test bench at approximately groin level. Despite the warnings I received at the time, it certainly has not affected my ability to reproduce. I have three normal children to prove this. The closest I ever came to injury from electromagnetic radiation was the odd RF burn on my fingers.

Comment Re:Modding system (Score 1) 716

by dastasha (#25017825) Attached to: Hubble Finds Unidentified Object In Space
Long time reader first time poster here. I have thought the same thing myself before now. Tuning in to slashdot is an intellectual exercise for me. When I click an article I do it to see what the smart people think. I do appreciate the sense of humor here but there are better places on the net for a laugh.

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