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Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What Would Computing Look Like Today If The Amiga Had Survived?

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: The Amiga was a remarkable machine at the time it was released — 1985. It had a multitasking capable GUI-driven OS and a mouse. It had a number of cleverly designed custom-chips that gave the Amiga amazing graphics and sound capabilities far beyond the typical IBM/DOS PCs of its time. The Amiga was the multimedia beast of its time — you could create animated and still 2D or 3D graphics on it, compose sophisticated electronic music, develop 2D or 3D 16-Bit games, edit and process digital video (using Video Toaster), and of course play some amazing games. And after the Amiga — as well as the Atari ST, Archimedes and so on — died, everybody pretty much had to migrate to either the PC or Mac platforms. If Commodore and the Amiga had survived and thrived, there might have been 4 major desktop platforms in use today — Windows, OSX, AmigaOS and Linux. And who knows what the custom-chips (ASICs? FPGAs?) of an Amiga in 2019 might have been capable of — Amiga could possibly have been the platform that makes nearly life-like games and VR/AR a reality, and given Nvidia and AMD's GPUs a run for their money. What do you think the computing landscape in 2019 would have looked like if the Amiga and AmigaOS as a platform had survived? Would Macs be as popular with digital content creators as they are today? Would AAA games target Windows 7/8/10 by default or tilt more towards the Amiga? Could there have been an Amiga hardware based game console? Might AmigaOS and Linux have had a symbiotic existence of sorts, with AmigOS co-existing with Linux on many enthusiast's Amigas, or even becoming compatible with each other over time?

Submission + - Feds Dropping Child Porn Cases Instead of Revealing Their Surveillance Systems (reason.com)

Submitted by SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: The Department of Justice has been dismissing child pornography cases in order to not reveal information about the software programs used as the basis for the charges.

An array of cases suggest serious problems with the tech tools used by federal authorities. But the private entities who developed these tools won't submit them for independent inspection or hand over hardly any information about how they work, their error rates, or other critical information. As a result, potentially innocent people are being smeared as pedophiles and prosecuted as child porn collectors, while potentially guilty people are going free so these companies can protect "trade secrets."

The situation suggests some of the many problems that can arise around public-private partnerships in catching criminals and the secretive digital surveillance software that it entails (software that's being employed for far more than catching child predators).

With the child pornography cases, "the defendants are hardly the most sympathetic," notes Tim Cushing at Techdirt. Yet that's all the more reason why the government's antics here are disturbing. Either the feds initially brought bad cases against people whom they just didn't think would fight back, or they're willing to let bad behavior go rather than face some public scrutiny.

An extensive investigation by ProPublica "found more than a dozen cases since 2011 that were dismissed either because of challenges to the software's findings, or the refusal by the government or the maker to share the computer programs with defense attorneys, or both," writes Jack Gillum. Many more cases raised issues with the software as a defense.

"Defense attorneys have long complained that the government's secrecy claims may hamstring suspects seeking to prove that the software wrongly identified them," notes Gillum. "But the growing success of their counterattack is also raising concerns that, by questioning the software used by investigators, some who trade in child pornography can avoid punishment."

Courts have sought to overcome concerns that scrutiny would diminish the effectiveness of the software for law enforcement or infringe on intellectual property rights by ordering only secret and monitored third-party review processes. But federal prosecutors have rejected even these compromises, drawing worry that it's not legitimate concerns driving their secrecy but a lack of confidence in the software's efficacy or some other more nefarious reason.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has raised questions about how much data (not just on defendants but on all Americans) these programs have been accessing and storing.

In February, HRW sent a letter to Justice Department officials expressing concerns about one such program, called the Child Protection System (CPS). TLO, the company behind the CPS system, has intervened in court cases to prevent disclosure of more information about the program or independent testing of it.

"Since the system is designed to flag people as suspected of having committed crimes, both its error rates and its potential to exceed constitutional bounds have implications for rights," HRW states. Yet "it is unclear what information the Justice Department has about CPS' potential for error (and on what basis)."

Prosecutors say they can't share any details about it "because it is proprietary and not in the government's possession," notes HRW, which since 2016 has been researching cases involving the CPS system. "We fear that the government may be shielding its methods from scrutiny by relying on its arrangements with the non-profit," states HRW. (Read more here.)

Submission + - SPAM: Japan team maps 'semi-infinite' trove of rare earth elements

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Japanese researchers have mapped vast reserves of rare earth elements in deep-sea mud, enough to feed global demand on a “semi-infinite basis,” according to a new study.

The deposit, found within Japan’s exclusive economic zone waters, contains more than 16 million tons of the elements needed to build high-tech products ranging from mobile phones to electric vehicles, according to the study, released Tuesday in the journal Scientific Reports. The team, comprised of several universities, businesses and government institutions, surveyed the western Pacific Ocean near Minamitori Island.

In a sample area of the mineral-rich region, the team’s survey estimated 1.2 million tons of “rare earth oxide” is deposited there, said the study, conducted jointly by Waseda University’s Yutaro Takaya and the University of Tokyo’s Yasuhiro Kato, among others.

The finding extrapolates that a 2,500-sq. km region off the southern Japanese island should contain 16 million tons of the valuable elements, and “has the potential to supply these metals on a semi-infinite basis to the world,” the study said.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Lead even more dangerous than previously thought (theguardian.com) 1

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: "Last week, a massive new study concluded that lead is 10 times more dangerous than thought, and that past exposure now hastens one in every five US deaths.... The study found that deaths, especially from cardiovascular disease, increased markedly with exposure, even at the lowest levels. It concluded that lead kills 412,000 people a year – accounting for 18% of all US mortality, not much less than the 483,000 who perish as a result of smoking."

NB — another instance where scientific experts were proved disastrously wrong...

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Suggestions for tools to manage Home Owners Association Projects 1

Submitted by jishak
jishak writes: I am a long time Slashdot reader who has been serving on an HOA board for 7 years. Much of the job requires managing projects that happen around the community. For example, landscaping, plumbing, building maintenance, etc. Pretty much all the vendors work with paper or a management company scans the paper giving us a digital version. I am looking for suggestions on tools to visualize and manage projects using maps/geolocation software to see where jobs are happening and track work if that makes sense. I did a rudimentary search but didn't really find anything other than a couple of companies who make map software which is good for placing static items like a building on a map but not for ongoing work. There are tools like Vizio or Autodesk which are expensive and good for a single building but they don't seem so practical for an entire community of 80 units with very little funds (I am a volunteer board member). The other software packages I have seen are more like general project management or CRM tools but they are of no use to track where trees are planted, which units have had termite inspections, etc.

I am looking for tools where I could see a map and add custom layers for different projects that can be enabled/disabled or show historical changes. If it is web based and can be shared for use among other board members, property managers, and vendors or viewable on a phone or tablet that woudl be a plus. I am not sure how to proceed and a quick search of Slashdot didn't really turn anything up. I can't be the first person to encounter this type of problem. Readers of Slashdot what do you recommend? If I go down the road of having to roll my own solution, can you offer ideas on how to implement it? I am open to suggestions.

Submission + - NTSB releases final report on Military Helicopter vs. drone collision

Submitted by ElizabethGreene
ElizabethGreene writes: In September, slashdot reported on an in-flight collision between an Army UA60 and a hobby drone over Staten Island. https://news.slashdot.org/stor...

The NTSB has released its Final report on the incident, blaming the drone pilot.
The NTSB report is here: https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenera...
vvg

The press release is here: https://www.ntsb.gov/news/pres...

Submission + - Youbit Shuts Down Crypto-Currency Exchange After 2nd Hack, Files For Bankruptcy (bbc.com)

Submitted by phalse phace
phalse phace writes: After experiencing another hack, South Korean crypto-currency exchange Youbit has closed their doors and is filing for bankruptcy.

Youbit, which lets people buy and sell bitcoins and other virtual currencies, has filed for bankruptcy after losing 17% of its assets in the cyber-attack.

It did not disclose how much the assets were worth at the time of the attack.

In April, Youbit, formerly called Yapizon, lost 4,000 bitcoins now worth $73m (£55m) to cyberthieves.

South Korea's Internet and Security Agency (Kisa) which investigates net crime, said it had started an enquiry into how the thieves gained access to the exchange's core systems.

Kisa blamed the earlier attack on Youbit on cyber-spies working for North Korea. Separate, more recent, attacks on the Bithumb and Coinis exchanges, have also been blamed on the regime.

No information has been released about who might have been behind the latest Youbit attack.

In a statement, Youbit said that customers would get back about 75% of the value of the crypto-currency they have lodged with the exchange.

Comment Exempt from overtime (Score 1) 358

by happynut (#55621647) Attached to: Why Do Employers Require College Degrees That Aren't Necessary?

I didn't see anyone else mention this, so here's my understanding.

There are three common categories of employees are are exempt from standard overtime rules: supervisors, administrative, and professional.

A college degree (usually expressed as degree or equivalent experience) is evidence that the position has professional requirements, and can qualify for a Fair Labor Standards Act exemption from overtime rules.

Submission + - What They Don't Tell You About Climate Change (economist.com)

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: No, it is not that Climate Change is hoax or that the climate science gets it all wrong and Climate Change isn't happening. According to the Economist, it is rather that "Fully 101 of the 116 models the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change uses to chart what lies ahead assume that carbon will be taken OUT of the air in order for the world to have a good chance of meeting the 2C target." In other words, reducing carbon emissions around the world, creating clean energy from wind farms, driving electrical cars and so forth is not going to suffice to meet agreed upon climate targets at all. Negative emissions are needed. The world is going to overshoot the "maximum 2 degrees of warming" target completely unless someone figures out how to suck as much as 810 Billion Tons of carbon out of Earth's atmosphere by 2100 using some kind of industrial scale process that currently does not exist. Basic summary: Solar power, wind power, wave power, electrical vehicles and other niceties are not, by themselves, going to be able to stop Climate Change. Some kind of brilliant new process, invention, technology or other solution is needed that can remove very large quantities of carbon from Earth's atmosphere.

Submission + - Purism Now Offers Laptops with AMT disabled

Submitted by boudie2
boudie2 writes: San Francisco company Purism announced that they are now offering their Librem laptops with the Intel Management Engine disabled. Part of all Intel CPUs since 2008 it enables remote management of the computer's hardware. What will be the repurcussions,
if any of this? Is Intel okay with it?
https://puri.sm/posts/purism-l...

Submission + - SPAM: F-35s Hobbled by Parts Shortages, Slow Repairs, Audit Finds

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes:

Already, the agency said in the draft obtained by Bloomberg News, the Defense Department “must stretch its resources to meet the needs of continued system development and production while at the same time sustain the more than 250 aircraft it has already fielded.”

Upkeep of the F-35 fleet will become more challenging as the Pentagon prepares for what the manager of the program has called a “tsunami” of new production toward an eventual planned U.S. fleet of 2,456 planes plus more than 700 additional planes to be sold to allies.

The F-35 program office and Lockheed have identified steps to increase parts availability “to prevent these challenges from worsening” as aircraft numbers increase, the GAO said, but Pentagon documentation indicates “the program’s ability to speed up this time line is uncertain.”

The GAO also disclosed that the F-35B the Marine Corps version of the fighter that’s scheduled to begin ship deployments next year won’t have required maintenance and repair capabilities at sea and “will likely experience degraded readiness.”

This is akin to buying an exotic car you can barely afford, without also budgeting for insurance, repairs, and tuneups.

This follows another recent F-35 revelation: 108 F-35s Will Not Be Combat Capable
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Vulnerabilities Discovered in Mobile Bootloaders of Major Vendors (bleepingcomputer.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Android bootloader components from five major chipset vendors are affected by vulnerabilities that break the CoT (Chain of Trust) during the Android OS boot-up sequence, opening devices to attacks. The vulnerabilities were discovered with a new tool called BootStomp, developed by nine computer scientists from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Researchers analyzed five bootloaders from four vendors (NVIDIA, Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Huawei/HiSilicon). Using BootStomp, researchers identified seven security flaws, six new and one previously known (CVE-2014-9798). Of the six new flaws, bootloader vendors already acknowledged five and are working on a fix.

"Some of these vulnerabilities would allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code as part of the bootloader (thus compromising the entire chain of trust), or to perform permanent denial-of-service attacks," the research team said. "Our tool also identified two bootloader vulnerabilities that can be leveraged by an attacker with root privileges on the OS to unlock the device and break the CoT."

Submission + - Linux finally starting to see the problem with certain init systems? (lkml.org)

Submitted by jawtheshark
jawtheshark writes: In a latest Linux Kernel Mailing List post, Linux Torvalds, finishes his mail with a little poke towards a certain init system. It is a very faint criticism, compared to his usual style. While Linus has no direct influence on the "choices" of distro maintainers, his opinion is usually valued.

Submission + - $40 NanoPi K2 Board Competes with ODROID-C2, Raspberry Pi 3

Submitted by DeathByLlama
DeathByLlama writes: The single board computer market, broken wide-open just a few years ago by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, continues to flourish today as FriendELEC releases their $40 NanoPi K2 board. This SBC packs a 1.5 GHz 64-bit quad core Amlogic S905 processor, and paired with 2 GB of DDR3 RAM and the Mali450 GPU, it is able to stream 4K at 60 FPS. Add in gigabit ethernet, onboard WiFi, Bluetooth, IR (and a remote!), eMMC compatibility, a familiar GPIO header, and a $40 price tag, and you end up with some stiff competition for other market leaders like Hardkernel's Odroid-C2 and Raspberry Pi's flagship Pi 3. The release is clearly in early phases with Ubuntu images and house-sold eMMC modules still on their way.
It's amazing to see such strong competition in this market — and with so many sub-$100, incredibly capable SBC options, which will choose?

Submission + - Pioneering Data Genius Hans Rosling Passes Away (bbc.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Tuesday Sweden's prime minister tweeted that Hans Rosling "made human progress across our world come alive for millions," and the professor-turned-pubic educator will probably best be remembered as the man who could condense 200 years of global history into four minutes. He was a geek's geek, a former professor of global health who "dropped out" because he wanted to help start a nonprofit about data. Specifically, it urged data-based decisions for global development policy, and the Gapminder foundation created the massive Trendalyzer tool which let users build their own data visualisations. Eventually they handed off the tool to Google who used it with open-source scientific datasets.

The BBC describes Rosling as a "public educator" with a belief that facts "could correct 'global ignorance' about the reality of the world, which 'has never been less bad.'" Rosling's TED talks include "The Best Data You've Never Seen" and "How Not To Be Ignorant About The World," and in 2015 he also gave a talk titled "How to Beat Ebola.

Hans Rosling died Tuesday at age 68.

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