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Comment e.g. Lior Pachter's latest blog posts (Score 1) 136

by maubp (#46218675) Attached to: How Blogs Are Changing the Scientific Discourse

Lior didn't think much of two recent articles in Nature Biotechnology and attempted the traditional reply route, but the journal declined to publish it - so he blogged it:

http://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/the-network-nonsense-of-albert-laszlo-barabasi/
http://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/the-network-nonsense-of-manolis-kellis/
Space

Astronomers Locate Solar System Very Similar To Our Own 101

Posted by Zonk from the i-think-it-is-awfully-pretty-out-there dept.
Smivs writes "Astronomers from St Andrews University in the UK have discovered a planetary system which looks much like our own. Dr Martin Dominik told BBC news: 'We found a system with two planets that take the roles of Jupiter and Saturn in our Solar System. These two planets have a similar mass ratio and similar orbital radius and a similar orbital period. The newfound planetary system, which orbits the star OGLE-2006-BLG-109L, is more compact than our own and is about five thousand light-years away. The OGLE planets were found using a technique called gravitational micro-lensing, in which light from the faraway planets is bent and magnified by the gravity of a foreground object, in this case a another star.'" Update: 04/08 12:26 GMT by Z : This story is talking about a subject we have already discussed.
Privacy

EU Recommends Slashing Search Data Retention 93

Posted by Zonk from the tracks-in-the-snow dept.
Wayland writes "The European Union's Article 29 Working Group has completed its PDF report on data protection and search engines. The group recommends that search engines only be allowed to hold onto search data for six months. 'To hang onto data for longer, search engine operators will need to show that such data is "strictly necessary" to offer the service. Google and others have long said that they need to retain data in order to refine search results, prevent click fraud, and launch new services like spell check (which, in Google's case, was built from user search data). In addition, the data that is kept will need to be guarded more closely. The working group concluded that IP addresses could be used to identify individuals; if not by the search engine itself, then by law enforcement or after a subpoena.'"
The Courts

The Privacy of Email 133

Posted by samzenpus from the stop-reading-that dept.
An Anonymous Coward writes "A U.S. appeals court in Ohio has ruled that e-mail messages stored on Internet servers are protected by the Constitution as are telephone conversations and that a federal law permitting warrantless secret searches of e-mail violates the Fourth Amendment. 'The Stored Communications Act is very important,' former federal prosecutor and counter-terrorism specialist Andrew McCarthy told United Press International. But the future of the law now hangs in the balance."
Security

Submission + - DHS acknowledges own computer break-ins (yahoo.com)

Submitted by WrongSizeGlass
WrongSizeGlass writes: Yahoo is reporting about the computer security nightmare going on at the Department of Homeland Security. Senior DHS officials admitted to Congress that over a two year period there were 800 hacker break-ins, virus outbreaks and in one instance, hacker tools for stealing passwords and other files were found on two internal Homeland Security computer systems. I guess it's true what they say ... a mechanic's car is always the last to get fixed.
Security

Submission + - Malware Hijacks Windows Update

Submitted by
clickclickdrone
clickclickdrone writes: "The BBC are reporting a new piece of malware is in the wild that can hijack Windows Update's functionality and bypass firewalls allowing it to install malicious code on users PCs. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6657677.stm notes the new code was discovered by Frank Boldewin at http://www.reconstruction.org/ in an email.

The attack utilises the BITS system but as ever, the best way to avoid it is common sense and an up to date AV package.

To be honest, I'm surprised it's taken this long to find a way to use Windows Update as a way in to otherwise secure systems."
Censorship

Submission + - Flickr Censors A Photographer's Plea

Submitted by Bananatree3
Bananatree3 writes: Popular Iclandic photographer and art-student Rebekka Guoleifsdottir has been targeted by Flickr for posting a plea for help in a theft case involving an online retailer selling copycat art. She requested that people send the retailer letters concerning the issue, and in response her original post was promptly deleted. It is still ironically available on Yahoo cache. In the end it appears that the retailer had been duped by a rogue art dealer under the title "Wild Aspects and Panoramics LTD". However, Flickr seems to have overstepped its bounds in deleting this post.
United States

Submission + - Spy chief hints at more limits on satellite photos

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Vice Adm. Robert Murrett, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, says that the increasing availability of commercial satellite photos may require the government to restrict distribution. "I could certainly foresee circumstances in which we would not want imagery to be openly disseminated of a sensitive site of any type, whether it is here or overseas," he said. This would include imagery on Web sites such as Google Earth, because the companies that supply the photos get help from the NGIA with launches.
Java

Sun Completes Java Core Tech Open-Sourcing 141

Posted by Zonk from the the-beans-are-gratis dept.
MsManhattan writes "A year after announcing its plans, Sun Microsystems has made almost all of the core technology in Java available as open-source software under the GNU general public license version 2 (GPLv2). However, some of the code remains 'encumbered'; that is, Sun doesn't have sufficient rights to release it under GPLv2, and the company is requesting the open-source community's help in resolving these issues. Rich Sands, community marketing manager for OpenJDK community at Sun, would not say what percentage of Java's 6.5 million lines of code are encumbered, but explained that it is largely Java 2D graphics technology, such as font and graphics rasterizing."
Businesses

Submission + - Mozilla and Google - Exchange Killers at last?

Submitted by
phase_9
phase_9 writes: "The latest version of Mozilla Thunderbird may still only be in beta but already the user community have started creating an extensive set of viable Exhchange killers. One such example is the latest mashup between Thunderbird and Google Calendars, providing bi-directional syncing of calendar information from both the client and internet. How long will it be before open-source software can provide a complete, accessible office suite for a fraction of the cost that Microsoft current impose?"

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