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Submission + - Secret trade agreement covering 68% of world services published by WikiLeaks (rt.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The text of a 19-page, international trade agreement being drafted in secret was published by WikiLeaks on Thursday as the transparency group’s editor commemorated his two-year anniversary confined to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

Fifty countries around the globe have already signed on to the Trade in Service Agreement, or TISA, including the United States, Australia and the European Union. Despite vast international ties, however, details about the deal have been negotiated behind closed-doors and largely ignored by the press.

In a statement published by the group alongside the leaked draft this week, WikiLeaks said “proponents of TISA aim to further deregulate global financial services markets,” and have participated in “a significant anti-transparency manoeuvre” by working secretly on a deal that covers more than 68 percent of world trade in services, according to the Swiss National Center for Competence in Research.

Submission + - Developer Loses $50,00 Twitter Name Through Extortion

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Naoki Hiroshima, creator of Cocoyon and a developer for Echofon, writes at TNW that he had a rare one-letter Twitter username, @N and had been offered as much as $50,000 for its purchase. "People have tried to steal it. Password reset instructions are a regular sight in my email inbox," writes Hiroshima. "As of today, I no longer control @N. I was extorted into giving it up." Hiroshima writes that a hacker used social engineering with paypal to get the last four digits of his credit card number over the phone then used that information to gain control of his GoDaddy account. "Most websites use email as a method of verification. If your email account is compromised, an attacker can easily reset your password on many other websites. By taking control of my domain name at GoDaddy, my attacker was able to control my email." Hiroshima received a message from his extortionist. "Your GoDaddy domains are in my possession, one fake purchase and they can be repossessed by godaddy and never seen again. I see you run quite a few nice websites so I have left those alone for now, all data on the sites has remained intact. Would you be willing to compromise? access to @N for about 5 minutes while I swap the handle in exchange for your godaddy, and help securing your data?" Hiroshima writes that it'’s hard to decide what’s more shocking, the fact that PayPal gave the attacker the last four digits of his credit card number over the phone, or that GoDaddy accepted it as verification. Hiroshima has two takeaways from his experience: Avoid custom domains for your login email address and don’t let companies such as PayPal and GoDaddy store your credit card information.

Submission + - Edward Snowden Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Submitted by SmartAboutThings
SmartAboutThings writes: Edward Snowden has a chance of getting the 2014 Nobel Peace Price, as two Norwegian members of the Parliament have nominated him – Baard Vegard Solhjell, a former environment minister and Snorre Valen. For those who don't know, the Nobel prize has been running since 1901 and is awarded annually in Oslo, Norway. So, the fact that members of the Norwegian Parliament have proposed him for the Nobel Peace Prize could improve his chance of winning. After all, if Obama got this prize, why wouldn't Snowden get it?

Submission + - It's icebreakers . . . all the way down . . . (foxnews.com) 2

Submitted by PolygamousRanchKid
PolygamousRanchKid writes: A U.S. Coast Guard heavy icebreaker left Australia for Antarctica on Sunday to rescue more than 120 crew members aboard two icebreakers trapped in pack ice near the frozen continent's eastern edge, officials said. The 399-foot cutter, the Polar Star, is responding to a Jan. 3 request from Australia, Russia and China to assist the Russian and Chinese ships because "there is sufficient concern that the vessels may not be able to free themselves from the ice," the Coast Guard said in a statement.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority's Rescue Coordination Centre, which oversaw the rescue, said the Polar Star, the Coast Guard's only active heavy polar icebreaker, would take about seven days to reach Commonwealth Bay, depending on weather. Under international conventions observed by most countries, ships' crews are obliged to take part in such rescues and the owners carry the costs.

Comment Re:Oh really? (Score 4, Informative) 389

by featurelesscube (#30361836) Attached to: Linux Reaches 32% Netbook Market Share
I'm so tired of hearing this 'no professional level music tools on linux' rubbish. Try Ardour. You can even use VST plugins if you really want to (though I wouldn't, too many are rubbish). I've been a recording engineer for close to twenty years and I find the only barrier I have to using it professionally is uninformed bigotry from ProTools users who regard themselves as the centre of the universe. Also, if it taking you DAYS to get jack working, you are definitely doing it wrong or your computer is from Mars.

Comment Re:CRT? Are you from the past? (Score 1) 393

by featurelesscube (#29601037) Attached to: NVidia Cripples PhysX "Open" API
Oh come on, I used to be a tech for a computer refurbisher so I have dealt with literally hundreds of rather abused ex-corporate CRTs. You make it sound like you have to tune the things like an old radio every time you turn them on. I'd say about one in every thirty of these old, old units would benefit from a five minute alignment as they passed through the shop, then the vast majority would be fine until they were retired by the new owners.

Submission + - Quantum computers set to move beyond classical dev (newscientist.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Generating entangled photons in a reliable way is impossible right now, stalling the development of the optical quantum computers that would use entangled photons as quantum bits (qubits). Because entangled photons can only be produced at random — which takes time — the most powerful optical quantum computing device use only 6 qubits.

UK and Israeli quantum physicists have designed a blueprint for a "quantum machine gun" that fires out barrages of entangled photons on demand. They think within a few years this device will be built, and could lead to quantum computing using 20-30 qubits. Every additional qubit doubles the computing power, so these quantum computers could perform better than classical computers, the researchers say. The quantum machine gun is described as "one of the most exciting theoretical proposals I've read in five years" by a leading quantum physicist.
Role Playing (Games)

Mythic Shutting Down 63 Warhammer Servers 137

Posted by Soulskill from the consolidation-of-quality dept.
Gamasutra reports that Mythic Entertainment is consolidating a number of their Warhammer Online servers to keep population levels within an acceptable range. 43 servers are set to close in North America and Oceania, and 20 more in Europe. Mythic posted details of the character transfers at the game's website. CEO Mark Jacobs also made a "State of the Game" post, highlighting the live expansion that's currently underway, as well as the changes and updates they have planned for the near future.

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