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Comment Re:Not Silicon Valley (Score 1) 171

Housing in Silicon Valley is getting so expensive that the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) petitioned 6,000 faculty and staff members to consider offering students "a room in your home."

The headline is straight up wrong, but I think it's interesting that this sentence in the summary could actually be using SV correctly. Santa Cruz does see the spillover from SV's refusal to build more housing.

Really they should have used Bay Area throughout because it's the (mostly interconnected) Bay Area housing market that is relevant to the discussion.

Comment The root cause is NIMBYism (Score 1) 171

Previously ridiculous stories about how people are trying to cope with the housing crisis are becoming commonplace, but all of it is a band-aid. The real problem is that the Bay Area has refused, city by city, to build sufficient new housing. Delusional NIMBY homeowners believe that they can block all new development and prevent their city from ever changing. Meanwhile, their children moved out of state, service workers commute hours each way coming in from Stockton, car traffic gets worse because so few can live near transit, and nobody new can move in save a few tech workers.

Submission + - The First Climate Model Turns 50, And Predicted Global Warming Almost Perfectly (forbes.com) 2

Submitted by Layzej
Layzej writes: Astrophysicist Ethan Siegel looks at a climate model (MW67) published in 1967 and finds "50 years after their groundbreaking 1967 paper, the science can be robustly evaluated, and they got almost everything exactly right."

An analysis on the "Climate Graphs" blog shows exactly how close the prediction has proven to be: "The slope of the CO2-vs-temperature regression line in the 50 years of actual observations is 2.57, only slightly higher than MW67’s prediction of 2.36" They also note that "This is even more impressive when one considers that at the time MW67 was published, there had been no detectable warming in over two decades. Their predicted warming appeared to mark a radical change with the recent past:"

Submission + - Is Physical Law an Alien Intelligence? (nautil.us) 1

Submitted by wjcofkc
wjcofkc writes: Caleb Scharf, astronomer and the director of the multidisciplinary Columbia Astrobiology Center at Columbia University presents an intriguing thought experiment.

"Perhaps Arthur C. Clarke was being uncharacteristically unambitious. He once pointed out that any sufficiently advanced technology is going to be indistinguishable from magic. If you dropped in on a bunch of Paleolithic farmers with your iPhone and a pair of sneakers, you’d undoubtedly seem pretty magical. But the contrast is only middling: The farmers would still recognize you as basically like them, and before long they’d be taking selfies. But what if life has moved so far on that it doesn’t just appear magical, but appears like physics?"

Submission + - U.S. Weapons Data Stolen During Raid Of Australian Defense Contractors Computers (wsj.com)

Submitted by phalse phace
phalse phace writes: Another day, another report of a major breach of sensitive U.S. military and intelligence data.

According to a report by the Wall St. Journal, "A cyberattacker nicknamed “Alf” gained access to an Australian defense contractor’s computers and began a four-month raid that snared data on sophisticated U.S. weapons systems.

Using the simple combinations of login names and passwords “admin; admin” and “guest; guest” and exploiting a vulnerability in the company’s help-desk portal, the attacker roved the firm’s network for four months.

The identity and affiliation of the hackers in the Australian attack weren’t disclosed, but officials with knowledge of the intrusion said the attack was thought to have originated in China."

The article goes on to state that "Alf obtained around 30 gigabytes of data on Australia’s planned purchase of up to 100 F-35 fighters made by Lockheed Martin, as well as information on new warships and Boeing-built P-8 Poseidon maritime-surveillance aircraft, in the July 2016 breach."

The stolen data also included details of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft and guided bombs used by the U.S. and Australian militaries as well as design information “down to the captain’s chair” on new warships for Australia’s navy.

Submission + - SPAM: In a Cashless World, You'd Better Pray the Power Never Goes Out 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: When Hurricane Maria knocked out power in Puerto Rico, residents there realized they were going to need physical cash — and a lot of it.

Bloomberg reported yesterday that the Fed was forced to fly a planeload of cash to the Island to help avert disaster:

William Dudley, the New York Fed president, put the word out within minutes, and ultimately a jet loaded with an undisclosed amount of cash landed on the stricken island...

[Business executive in Puerto Rico] described corporate clients' urgent requests for hundreds of thousands in cash to meet payrolls, and the challenge of finding enough armored cars to satisfy endless demand at ATMs. Such were the days after Maria devastated the U.S. territory last month, killing 39 people, crushing buildings and wiping out the island's energy grid. As early as the day after the storm, the Fed began working to get money onto the island,

For a time, unless one had a hoard of cash stored up in ones home, it was impossible to get cash at all. 85 percent of Puerto Rico is still without power, as of October 9. Bloomberg continues: "When some generator-powered ATMs finally opened, lines stretched hours long, with people camping out in beach chairs and holding umbrellas against the sun."

In an earlier article from September 25, Bloomberg noted how, without cash, necessities were simply unavailable:

"Cash only," said Abraham Lebron, the store manager standing guard at Supermax, a supermarket in San Juan's Plaza de las Armas. He was in a well-policed area, but admitted feeling like a sitting duck with so many bills on hand. "The system is down, so we can't process the cards. It's tough, but one finds a way to make it work."


Link to Original Source

Submission + - Equifax Breach Included 10 Million US Driving Licenses (engadget.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: 10.9 million U.S. driver's licenses were stolen in the massive breach that Equifax suffered in mid-May, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal. In addition, WSJ has revealed that the attackers got a hold of 15.2 million UK customers' records, though only 693,665 among them had enough info in the system for the breach to be a real threat to their privacy. Affected customers provided most of the driver's licenses on file to verify their identities when they disputed their credit-report information through an Equifax web page. That page was one of the entry points the attackers used to gain entry into the credit reporting agency's system.

Comment Life sentence (Score 1, Insightful) 145

by MalleusEBHC (#54521679) Attached to: Silk Road Founder Loses Appeal and Will Serve Life

He was given a life sentence for convictions on drug trafficking and money laundering. This should be unconstitutional except our cruelty has become usual.

The convoluted wording of legalisms grew up around the necessity to hide from ourselves the violence we intend toward each other. Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. You have done violence to him, consumed his energy. Elaborate euphemisms may conceal your intent to kill, but behind any use of power over another the ultimate assumption remains: "I feed on your energy."

Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

Comment Obligatory slashdot editing joke (Score 1) 237

by MalleusEBHC (#54428247) Attached to: US Law Allows Low H-1B Wages; Just Look At Apple

This is sensationalist bullshit. Apple is not hiring software engineers in the valley for anywhere close to $52k. Infosys, Tata, et al. import bargain basement engineers. Apple is bringing in the top talent, and those people have no problem finding another employer to sponsor their H-1B if they want to job hop.

As a software engineer, I want H-1B engineers to come work at Apple in the valley. They start or strengthen companies here which then leads to more demand for engineers, and that's a huge plus to my mobility and pay. If they didn't, they would be starting companies back home which does me fuck all good.

Comment Re:Irresponsible disclosure (Score 1) 64

by MalleusEBHC (#53804121) Attached to: Zero-Day Windows Security Flaw Can Crash Systems, Cause BSODs

It depends on his motivations. He could be doing this to embarrass MS, but it may be that he's pressuring them to ensure that the patch gets released on Tuesday. He's been sitting on a 0-day for three months, so he could embarrass them at any time of his choosing. Why do it a few days before a patch Tuesday, i.e. when it will have the smallest impact?

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