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Submission + - Inside the Electronic Frontier Foundation (tuxradar.com)

qwerdf writes: Airstrip One wasn’t built in a day, nor will a total police state suddenly appear overnight. But times are changing, the threats to our freedom are coming from every direction, and fighting this battle demands a great deal of persistence and determination. One group firmly on our side is the EFF. The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s goal is “defending your rights in the digital world”, and its activities span the full gamut of freedom fighting: providing help with court cases; issuing white papers that explain current threats; running campaigns to spread awareness of various issues; and developing technologies that make our online activities safer from prying eyes. It’s a non-profit, donation-supported organisation based in San Francisco with an impressive staff roster (see www.eff.org/about/staff), including attorneys, analysts and activists – and generally with a strong pro-free software and pro-GNU/Linux culture.

Read on to find out how the EFF came together, what it has done so far, and how it’s preparing for upcoming battles.

Submission + - EFF urges court to protect privacy of text messages (networkworld.com)

netbuzz writes: The police in Washington state arrested a suspected drug dealer, rummaged through the text messages on his phone, responded to one message while pretending to be the suspect, arranged a meeting, and then arrested the recipient of the text — all without a warrant. The state argues – and an appeals court majority agreed – that both suspects had neither a legal expectation of privacy nor Fourth Amendment protection because both considerations evaporate the moment that any text message arrives on any phone. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is urging the state’s Supreme Court to overturn that decision and recognize that “text messages are the 21st Century phone call.”

Submission + - Google's idea of productivity is a bad fit for many other workplaces (citeworld.com) 3

rjupstate writes: Google places a lot of value on the spontaneous creativity that can occur when two employees from completely different parts of the company meet. It's a an ideal that Google has perfected over the years, but it's not something that will work for most other organizations. Executives trying to replicate Google's approach could even create major problems among their workforces.

Submission + - NVIDIA Releases Optimus Linux Driver With New Features (phoronix.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Nearly one year after Linux creator Linux Torvalds publicly bashed NVIDIA and several years after their multi-GPU mobile technology premiered, the graphics vendor has finally delivered an Optimus-supported Linux driver. NVIDIA released the 319.12 Beta Linux driver that brings support for "RandR 1.4 GPU provider objects" that basically allows for Optimus-like functionality when using the latest X Server, Linux kernel, and XRandR. The 319.12 beta also has many other features including better UEFI support, installer improvements, new pages on their settings panel, and new GPU support.

Submission + - Mozilla: Unlike FB and Twitter single sign-in, Persona protects user privacy (infoworld.com)

tsamsoniw writes: Mozilla today unveiled Persona Beta 2, the newest edition of the organization's open authentication system. The release includes Identity Bridging, which lets user sign in to Persona-supported sites using their existing webmail accounts, starting with Yahoo. Mozilla used the releases as an opportunity to bash social sign-in offerings from Facebook and Twitter, which "conflate the act of signing into a website with sharing access to your social network, and often granting the site permission to publish on your behalf," said Lloyd Hilaiel, technical lead for Mozilla Persona. He added that they are built in such a way that social providers have full visibility into a user's browsing behavior.

Submission + - DoJ Answers FOIA Request After Six Years With No Real Information (informationweek.com)

An anonymous reader writes: In response to a Freedom of Information Act request about Google's 2007 complaint against Windows Vista search interference, the Department of Justice has after six years released 114 partially redacted pages and 60 full pages of material. Yet these "responsive documents" consist of public news articles and email boilerplate. All the substantive information has been blacked out.

Submission + - Google fiber coming to Austin (google.com)

skade88 writes: Google Fiber will roll out in Austin with the first homes hooked up in mid 2014. The delay is due to the fact that a whole new fiber network will be deployed for the service. This will only be deployed in the Austin City limits. Google says in early 2014 they will allow people in Austin register their address for service. Google will deploy to neighborhoods with the most interest. Google Fiber will also start hiring employees soon. Wanna be the most popular guy in town? Become the GF man!

Submission + - Tiny Chiplets: A New Level of Micro Manufacturing (nytimes.com)

concealment writes: The technology, on display at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC, is part of a new system for making electronics, one that takes advantage of a Xerox invention from the 1970s: the laser printer.

If perfected, it could lead to desktop manufacturing plants that “print” the circuitry for a wide array of electronic devices — flexible smartphones that won’t break when you sit on them; a supple, pressure-sensitive skin for a new breed of robot hands; smart-sensing medical bandages that could capture health data and then be thrown away.

Submission + - Secrets of FBI Smartphone Surveillance Tool Revealed in Court Fight (wired.com)

concealment writes: The actions described by Rigmaiden are much more intrusive than previously known information about how the government uses stingrays, which are generally employed for tracking cell phones and are widely used in drug and other criminal investigations.

The government has long asserted that it doesn’t need to obtain a probable-cause warrant to use the devices because they don’t collect the content of phone calls and text messages and operate like pen-registers and trap-and-traces, collecting the equivalent of header information.

The government has conceded, however, that it needed a warrant in his case alone — because the stingray reached into his apartment remotely to locate the air card — and that the activities performed by Verizon and the FBI to locate Rigmaiden were all authorized by a court order signed by a magistrate.

Submission + - Search Engine more dangerous than Google (cnn.com)

mallyn writes: This is an article about a search engine that is designed to look for devices on the net that are not really intended to be viewed and used by the general public. Devices include pool filters, skating rink cooling system, and other goodies

Submission + - Navy to deploys lasers on ships in 2014 (foxnews.com)

Velcroman1 writes: The Pentagon has plans to deploy its first ever ship-mounted laser next year, a disruptive, cutting-edge weapon capable of obliterating small boats and unmanned aerial vehicles with a blast of infrared energy. Navy officials announced Monday that in early 2014, a solid-state laser prototype will be mounted to the fantail of the USS Ponce and sent to the 5th fleet region in the Middle East for real-world experience. "It operates much like a blowtorch ... with an unlimited magazine," one official said.

Comment Recovery is the best prevention (Score 1) 203

Protecting the city from a storm surge is a little small-minded. NY worst disasters have been from blizzards (1888), terrorists (2001) and hurricanes ('85, '11, '12). There is no single defense to save the city from all three. Additionally, other cities have been hit by disasters, defending each one against whatever nature can throw would be impossible. On a national level, creating a disaster 'first-aid' organization which can respond to any event is probably the most effective way to go. (FEMA isn't operating at the level, most of there work is long term recovery.)

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