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Facebook Confirms Data-Sharing Deals With Chinese Tech Firms (wsj.com) 39

Posted by msmash from the more-you-know dept.
Facebook confirmed this week that it struck data partnerships with at least four Chinese electronics firms, including Huawei, a telecommunications-equipment maker that U.S. officials view as a potential tool for state-sponsored spying. WSJ: The four partnerships are among the roughly 60 that Facebook struck with device manufacturers starting in 2007 so they could recreate the Facebook service on their devices, a Facebook spokeswoman said. As of Tuesday, more than half of those partnerships have been wound down, the spokeswoman added. The social-media company said it plans to wind down its data-sharing partnership with Huawei by the end of the week. It isn't clear when Facebook will end partnerships with the three other companies: Lenovo, the world's largest personal-computer maker; Oppo, a smartphone maker; and Chinese electronics conglomerate TCL.
Security

Acoustic Attacks on HDDs Can Sabotage PCs, CCTV Systems, ATMs, More (bleepingcomputer.com) 72

Posted by msmash from the security-woes dept.
Catalin Cimpanu, writing for BleepingComputer: Attackers can use sound waves to interfere with a hard drive's normal mode of operation, creating a temporary or permanent denial of state (DoS) that could be used to prevent CCTV systems from recording video footage or freeze computers dealing with critical operations. The basic principle behind this attack is that sound waves introduce mechanical vibrations into an HDD's data-storage platters. If the sound is played at a specific frequency, it creates a resonance effect that amplifies the vibration effect. Because hard drives store vasts amounts of information inside small areas of each platter, they are programmed to stop all read/write operations during the time a platter vibrates so to avoid scratching storage disks and permanently damaging an HDD. Last week, scientists from the Princeton and Purdue universities published new research into the topic, expanding on the previous findings with the results of additional practical tests. The research team used a specially crafted test rig to blast audio waves at a hard drive from different angles, recording results to determine the sound frequency, attack time, distance from the hard drive, and sound wave angle at which the HDD stopped working.
Science

Lab-Grown Meat Is In Your Future, and It May Be Healthier Than the Real Stuff (smh.com.au) 274

Posted by msmash from the grow-your-own-meat dept.
An anonymous reader shares an article on The Sydney Morning Herald:Scientists and businesses working full steam to produce lab-created meat claim it will be healthier than conventional meat and more environmentally friendly. But how much can they improve on old-school pork or beef? In August 2013, a team of Dutch scientists showed off their lab-grown burger (cost: $435,000) and even provided a taste test. Two months ago, the American company Memphis Meats fried the first-ever lab meatball (cost: $23,700 per pound). Those who have tasted these items say they barely differ from the real deal. The Dutch and the Americans claim that within a few years lab-produced meats will start appearing in supermarkets and restaurants. And these are not the only teams working on cultured meat (as they prefer to call it). Another company, Modern Meadow, promises that lab-grown "steak chips" -- something between a potato chip and beef jerky -- will hit the stores in the near future, too.

Submission + - iTunes Stops Working For Windows XP Users

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: iTunes users who still run Windows XP started to experience connectivity issues this week. As documented in an Apple Support Communities thread, they can’t log into the iTunes store, meaning functions like buying content, watching already purchased movies and TV shows, playing DRM-protected content, backing up, updating, and syncing all do not work.

Submission + - Hubble finds something astronomers can't explain

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted the explosion of a star that does not fit into any theory for stellar evolution.

The exploding star, which was seen in the constellation Eridanus, faded over two weeks — much too rapidly to qualify as a supernova. The outburst was also about ten times fainter than most supernovae, explosions that destroy some or all of a star. But it was about 100 times brighter than an ordinary nova, which is a type of surface explosion that leaves a star intact. "The combination of properties is puzzling," says Mario Livio, an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. "I thought about a number of possibilities, but each of them fails" to account for all characteristics of the outburst, he adds.

We can put this discovery on the bottom of a very long list of similar discoveries by Hubble, which this week is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its launch.

Submission + - Oracle Reinstates Free Time Zone Updates for Java 7 (infoq.com)

Submitted by twofishy
twofishy writes: The internet has been buzzing this week with the news that Oracle has ceased to provide free time zone updates outside of the standard JDK release cycle. However, at the end of yesterday the firm appeared to have a change of heart.

We never intended for a support contract to be required to keep JDK 7 up to date. TZUpdater was made unavailable on March 8 as part of the End of Public Updates for JDK 6, and as soon as we learned that this affected JDK 7 users we initiated the process of making it available for JDK 7 again.
Education

A Case For a Software Testing Undergrad Major 220

Posted by samzenpus from the major-learning dept.
colinneagle writes "I have spent the last couple of days at the StarEast conference, listening to people explain to a roomful of testers about modeling workflows and data transitions, managing test environments in the cloud, writing automation scripts for regression tests, best methods for exploratory testing, running mobile test lab. And as I look around the room at the raw intelligence of the people who are not only absorbing that information but probing deeper into it during the Q&A sessions, I have to wonder how much easier their careers could have been if they had been able to major in Software Testing in college. It's time to give employers a testing workforce that is competitive and trained so they can stand toe-to-toe with the development team. Imagine the power of being able to hire a recent college graduate who has been taught how to develop system diagrams, build complex SQL, run log analysis, set up a cloud test environment, and write automation scripts. No more crossing your fingers that this eager young face in front of you can really pick up those skills, and no more investing so much time and money in training them on the job. We ask no less from Technical Writing and Development. Why do we have such different expectations for one of the most important functions on the team?"

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.
Earth

Nuclear Power Could See a Revival 415

Posted by kdawson from the comforting-bremsstrahlung-glow dept.
shmG writes "As the US moves to reduce dependence on oil, the nuclear industry is looking to expand, with new designs making their way through the regulatory process. No less than three new configurations for nuclear power are being considered for licensing by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The first of them could be generating power in Georgia by 2016."
Image

Publishing Company Puts Warning Label on Constitution 676

Posted by samzenpus from the inappropriate-founding-fathers dept.
Wilder Publication is under fire for putting warning labels on copies of historical US documents, including the Constitution. The label warns "This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today." From the article: "The disclaimer goes on to tell parents that they 'might wish to discuss with their children how views on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and interpersonal relations have changed since this book was written before allowing them to read this classic work.'"
Image

Anti-Speed Camera Activist Buys Police Department's Web Domain 680

Posted by samzenpus from the I-bought-the-law dept.
Brian McCrary just bought a website to complain about a $90 speeding ticket he received from the Bluff City PD — the Bluff City Police Department site. The department let its domain expire and McCrary was quick to pick it up. From the article: "Brian McCrary found the perfect venue to gripe about a $90 speeding ticket when he went to the Bluff City Police Department's website, saw that its domain name was about to expire, and bought it right out from under the city's nose. Now that McCrary is the proud owner of the site, bluffcitypd.com, the Gray, Tenn., computer network designer has been using it to post links about speed cameras — like the one on US Highway 11E that caught him — and how people don't like them."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Flash Destroyer Tests Limit of Solid State Storage (dangerousprototypes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: We all know that flash and other types of solid state storage can only endure a limited number of write cycles. The open source Flash Destroyer prototype explores that limit by writing and verifying a solid state storage chip until it dies. The total write-verify cycle count is shown on a display, watch a live video feed and guess when the first chip will die. This project was inspired by the inevitable comments about flash longevity on every Slashdot SSD story, like these from earlier this week. Design files and source are available at Google Code.
United Kingdom

Submission + - UK Home Office set to scrap National ID cards

Submitted by mjwx
mjwx writes: In what would seem to be a sudden break of common sense for the UK, the Home Office has put forward a plan to scrap the national ID card system put into place by the previous government. From the BBC,

"The Home Office is to reveal later how it will abolish the national identity card programme for UK citizens.

The bill, a Queen's Speech pledge, includes scrapping the National Identity Register and the next generation of biometric passports."

The National ID card system, meant to tackle fraud and illegal immigration has drawn widespread criticism for infringing on privacy and civil rights. However the main driver for the change in this policy seems to be the 800 million pound cost. Also in the article, indications of a larger bill aimed at reforms to the DNA database, tighter regulation of CCTV and a review of libel laws.

Cellphones

Submission + - New Law Would Require ID to Buy Prepaid Phones 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The Washington Post reports that Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) have introduced legislation that would require buyers to present identification when purchasing a prepaid cellphone and require phone companies to keep the information on file, as they do with users of landline phones and subscription-based cellphones. "This proposal is overdue because for years, terrorists, drug kingpins and gang members have stayed one step ahead of the law by using prepaid phones that are hard to trace," says Schumer. Civil liberties advocates have concerns about the proposal, saying there must be a role for anonymous communications in a free society adding that the space for such anonymous or pseudonymous communications has been narrowed since pay phones, for example, have largely disappeared. "They remain important for whistleblowers, battered spouses, reporters' sources," says James X. Dempsey, policy director for the Center for Democracy and Technology. "I think everybody would admit in a free society there is a need for some ability to communicate without creating a full digital paper trail," Dempsey says. "We're just saying this proposal has to be considered in a broader context.""

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