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Submission + - Debian will include Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird, and SeaMonkey once more. (pcworld.com)

Submitted by hochl
hochl writes: On Debian, I recently noticed the Iceweasel icons disappear from the list of icons I could choose from on XFCE. Some updates later, my installed Iceweasel looked suspiciously like Firefox. I got curious and checked my installed packages to find out that Iceweasel is now a transitional dummy package. It turns out that Debian again includes Firefox, Thunderbird and Sunbird as noted in an article on PCWorld.

Submission + - Researchers Crack Google Maps Shortened URLs to Track Users (wired.com)

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: Researchers at Cornell Tech have demonstrated in a study the unexpected privacy-invasive potential of brute-forcing shortened URLs: They found that URL shortening services that use only five or six random characters could, with enough computers, have every possible shortened URL generated and tested. By generating millions of shortened URLs for services like Microsoft OneDrive and Google Maps until they found working ones, the researchers accessed online files and folders as well as Google Maps directions that were meant to be shared privately, making possible in detailed analysis of Google users' travel patterns from the leaked data. "[Users] think they’re sharing a document with a collaborator," said Cornell Tech computer scientist Vitaly Shmatikov. "But if you’re sharing a six character shortened URL, you’re sharing it with the whole world.”

As a result of that brute forcing, the researchers that they could have spread malware on unwitting victims’ computers via Microsoft’s cloud storage service by inserting malicious files into publicly editable folders synchronized with users' computers. And most disturbingly, their analysis of millions of revealed Google Maps directions showed that anyone could track users from what appear to be their homes to "clinics for specific diseases (including cancer and mental illnesses), addiction treatment centers, abortion providers, correctional and juvenile detention facilities, payday and car-title lenders, [and] gentlemen’s clubs." In one case they found (but didn't publish) the full name, age, and home address of a young woman who had requested driving directions to Planned Parenthood.

Comment cure the source, not the symptoms (Score 2) 301

by hochl (#45099173) Attached to: Guardian Ignores MI5 Warnings, Vows To 'Publish More Snowden Leaks'
Instead of mass surveillance of *all* means of communication (terrorists could use any form of communication, wow -- we have to monitor everything!) maybe it would be a much better *and cheaper* idea to ask why there is terrorism and how to combat the source of it. Really, those people have some reason why they do it, even if those reasons are hard to understand from out perspective. I guess for them everything makes perfect sense ...
Graphics

Submission + - Blender 2.66 released (blender.org)

Submitted by hochl
hochl writes: The Blender Foundation has announced a new release of the popular, free 3D design program Blender. From the release page: The Blender Foundation and online developer community is proud to present Blender 2.66. This release contains long awaited features like rigid body physics simulation, dynamic topology sculpting and matcap display. Other new features include Cycles hair rendering, support for high pixel density displays, much better handling of premultiplied and straight alpha transparency, a vertex bevel tool, a mesh cache modifier and a new SPH particle fluid dynamics solver.
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - PlayStation 4: Sony's New Console is Doing A Lot Right (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by
DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: "Worried gaming fans can rest easy. They will be able to buy and sell second hand PlayStation 4 games a Sony boss has confirmed after the launch of the company's next-generation console. It had been feared that a chip inside the new console would prevent users from playing games once they had been played once by other players."

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