Is the Speed of Light Slower Than We Think?; FAA Shoots Down Amazon's Drone Delivery Plans

The Rise and Fall of the Cheat Code | Wikipedia Editors Hit with $10M Defamation Suit To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Is the Speed of Light Slower Than We Think? FAA Shoots Down Amazon's Drone Delivery Plans The Rise and Fall of the Cheat Code Wikipedia Editors Hit with $10M Defamation Suit George Lucas Picks Home for New Star Wars Museum Hot Comment: "To see how workaholism saps productivity and rarely leads to ..." From the Vault: Easiest Linux Distro for a Newbie? Watch It: Self-Balancing Electric Motorcycle Looks Like a Car  Poll Booth: I suffer from jet lag ... Sponsored Resource: How SOC/NOC Collaboration Creates a Secure Infrastructure Is the Speed of Light Slower Than We Think? The Physics arXiv Blog reports that "when astronomers first observed light from a supernova arriving 7.7 hours after the neutrinos from the same event, they ignored the evidence. Now one physicist says the speed of light must be slower than Einstein predicted and has developed a theory that explains why." Sound Off>> FAA Shoots Down Amazon's Drone Delivery Plans Amazon may not employ drones to deliver packages, at least anytime soon, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Ars Technica reports that the revelation was buried in an FAA document unveiled this week seeking public comment on its policy on drones, or what the agency calls "model aircraft." Sound Off>> The Rise and Fall of the Cheat Code A new feature published this week takes a deep-dive look at the history of the cheat code and its various manifestations over the years, from manual "pokes" on cassettes to pass phrases with their own dedicated menus. Today's era of online play has all but done away with them, but the need for a level playing field isn't the only reason for their decline. Sound Off>> Wikipedia Editors Hit with $10M Defamation Suit The Daily Dot reports that Canadian businessman and musician Yank Barry and the Global Village Champions Foundation are suing four Wikipedia editors for defamation. The lawsuit claims that the editors have maliciously conspired to keep Barry's Wikipedia biography unduly negative. Sound Off>> George Lucas Picks Home for New Star Wars Museum George Lucas has selected Chicago over San Francisco and Los Angeles as the future home of The Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts, which will house his collection of Star Wars art and movie memorabilia along with exhibits of the technology of Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). Plus, the Chicago Lakefront will make it easy to recreate the ice planet of Hoth. Sound Off>> Look to Japan as a model for what not to do "To see how workaholism saps productivity and rarely leads to better results, look at Japan. Overtime is sacrosanct in Japan, at the company I worked at previously it was a badge of honor that the average amount of overtime was 60 hours a month. Japan has the lowest per-hour output in the G7, and it's a small wonder why. Managers will often times not buy hardware that can increase productivity because hey, you can simply make the workers work longer hours for free, whereas hardware costs money. The result is a populace that is unhappy, unhealthy, and well dying. The low birth rate is well known, what is less well known is that the Japanese have the least amount of ..." --by antifoidulus Read More>>   Easiest Linux Distro for a Newbie Three years ago, anymooseposter asked Slashdot, "what is the easiest version based on Linux for me to put on CD and try? ... What Linux Distro would be easiest to set up without having to resort to dual booting and/or driver issues?" And the community had plenty of advice. Read More>> Self-Balancing Electric Motorcycle Looks Like a Car Two gyros under the seat keep this vehicle standing up at a stop, which is easier on the driver's legs than putting a foot down the way you do while riding most motorcycles. And it sports a shell made of AKDQ steel--the same steel used on nearly every car on the road. Timothy Lord brings you a look at a new electric motorcycle that could be hitting the road soon. Watch the Video>>   I suffer from jet lag ... Not a bit, though I fly between time zones. Just a touch -- nothing serious. To sort of average degree, as far as I can tell More than most people, but it's bearable Terribly Jet lag is for people who fly Cast Your Vote>>    How SOC/NOC Collaboration Creates a Secure Infrastructure Integrating your log management solution with IT operations is beneficial to both your network operations center (NOC) and security operations center (SOC). Find out how creating collaboration between your SOC and NOC empowers your organization to effectively manage your IT infrastructure while simultaneously ensuring its security. Learn More>> Follow Slashdot on Twitter and Facebook. To unsubscribe, click here or send an email to: unsubscribe-213087@elabs10.com To ensure delivery of this newsletter to your inbox and to enable images, please add slashdot@newsletters.slashdot.org to your e-mail address book or safe senders list. Slashdot | 594 Howard Street, Suite 300 | San Francisco, CA 94105 To view our Privacy Policy click here.

 

Iran to Execute Abused Child Bride

An abused child bride will be hanged to death as early as this week unless her husband's family pardons her.

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action alert! An abused child bride will be hanged to death as early as this week unless her husband's family pardons her.   Sign Now to Stop Razieh Ebrahimi's Execution please share it helps!     Dear Annisa, Razieh Ebrahimi was forced to become a child bride at 14 years of age. For three years her husband abused her, insulting her constantly and physically assaulting her. Finally, after he severely beat her one night when she was 17, Razieh killed her husband. Now she could be executed by hanging as early as this week. Her husband's family has the right to pardon her, but so far they have refused. Click here to save Razieh Ebrahimi's life by asking for her to be pardoned from execution. Razieh told reporters that her husband used any excuse to verbally and physically attack her. She was forced into the marriage by her father, and had her first child at age 15. Razieh is facing execution even though international laws prohibit the death sentence for crimes committed by juveniles. Human rights lawyers and activists around the world are calling for Iran to stop executions of juvenile offenders. If thousands of us plead with her husband's family to have compassion, they could be moved to spare Razieh's life. Click here to sign the petition asking for a pardon that would stop Razieh's execution. Thank you for taking action, Jen Care2 and ThePetitionSite Team

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Kept at Sea for 30 Months

Thousands of Indonesian fishermen are held in slavery-like conditions.

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action alert! Thousands of Indonesian fishermen are being held in abysmal conditions in oceans around the world, forced to work long hours, kept at sea for months at a time, and denied compensation for their work. It's time to end the abuse and exploitation. Stop Slavery At Sea! please share it helps!     Dear Annisa, As an island nation, fishing has an important place in Indonesia's culture. But modern-day slavery is a new and unwelcome development. Close to 200,000 Indonesians work in fishing boats across the globe, from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the South China Sea. Many have been lured out to sea with the promise of steady work and good pay, but the reality is very different. Once at sea, they are often verbally and physically abused. They work long hours without rest. And they are kept at sea for long stretches of time. One crew didn't see land for more than 30 months! Tell the President of Indonesia to end slavery at sea. Indonesia has yet to ratify the International Labour Organization Convention 188. This convention would provide opportunities for victims of abuse to seek redress and compensation. It would also set limits on how long fishing vessels could remain at sea. Too many people have suffered already. It is time for Indonesia to step forward and become a leader in addressing forced labor in the fishing industry. Urge the President of Indonesia to ratify Convention 188 and protect fishermen from abuse! Thank you for taking action, Corey H. Care2 and ThePetitionSite Team

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SSD Makers Bait-and-Switching Cheaper Components; Google Threatens to Oust Indie Musicians from YouTube

Teaching Creationism as Science in Public Schools Banned in UK | Amazon Unveils 'Fire Phone' To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend SSD Makers Bait-and-Switching Cheaper Components Hacker Puts Code Spaces Hosting Out of Business Google Threatens to Oust Indie Musicians from YouTube Amazon Unveils 'Fire Phone' Teaching Creationism as Science in Public Schools Banned in UK Hot Comment: "As someone with Asperger's Syndrome this would be a godsend..." From the Vault: Yet Another 'People Plug In Strange USB Sticks' Story Watch It: Homemade Lego-Based Rubik's Cube Solver Poll Booth: I typically start my workday ... Sponsored Resource: Build a Smarter Networking Strategy SSD Makers Bait-and-Switching Cheaper Components A disturbing trend is taking place among SSD manufacturers. First Kingston and now PNY have been caught launching SSDs with one hardware specification, and then quietly changing the hardware configuration after good reviews were published. Sound Off>> Hacker Puts Code Spaces Hosting Out of Business Code hosting service Code Spaces was hit by a well-orchestrated DDOS attack, which the company has seen before. But this time, the attacker managed to delete all the service's hosted customer data and most of the backups, giving Code Spaces no choice but to shut down its business. Sound Off>> Google Threatens to Oust Indie Musicians from YouTube In a statement to the Financial Times and reported by the BBC, Google has confirmed that it will remove the music videos of independent artists unless they sign up for its upcoming subscription music service. Many independent musicians and labels have refused to do so because of the "highly unfavorable terms". Sound Off>> Amazon Unveils 'Fire Phone' Amazon's newly launched Fire Phone runs a modified version of Android, and it will launch exclusively for AT&T's network. The screen is a 4.7" IPS LCD, with an emphasis on brightness. It runs on a quad-core 2.2GHz processor with 2GB of RAM, and an Adreno 330 GPU. Sound Off>> Teaching Creationism as Science in Public Schools Banned in UK The UK government has banned the teaching of creationism as a valid scientific theory in all existing and future public schools, stating that "The requirement for every academy and free school to provide a broad and balanced curriculum in any case prevents the teaching of creationism as evidence based theory in any academy or free school." Sound Off>> Godsend "As someone with Asperger's Syndrome this would be a godsend for me. There are many times where my adrenaline level is far above what is needed for the situation. It is extremely frustrating when most of my body is in full fight/flight response and there is a small voice in the back of my head saying "chill out dude, it's not that important". The problem is that the adrenal response usually overrides the cognitive response and bad things happen. I just hope it does not impact the good things about autism such as the heightened ability to find and keep track of details." --by jklovanc Read More>>    Yet Another 'People Plug In Strange USB Sticks' Story Three years ago, Bruce Schneier blogged about how he's tired of stories like this: "Computer disks and USB sticks were dropped in parking lots of government buildings and private contractors, and 60% of the people who picked them up plugged the devices into office computers." He noted, "People get USB sticks all the time. The problem isn't that people are idiots... The problem is that the OS trusts random USB sticks." Read More>> Homemade Lego-Based Rubik's Cube Solver There may be faster and slicker Rubik's Cube solvers, but this one that Timothy Lord spotted at Maker Faire Bay Area 2014 is a lot more elegant. And it was built by a 12-year-old. See it in action.   Watch the Video>>   I typically start my workday ... There is no typical. Before 6 a.m. Between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Between 5 p.m. and midnight Between midnight and 5 a.m. What is a "workday"? Cast Your Vote>>   Build a Smarter Networking Strategy Rather than just email and files, businesses today send vast amounts of data, virtual systems, and real-time traffic such as voice and video. This report analyzes how top performing businesses improve network and application performance and also looks at how one organization built their own smarter global network. Learn More>>  Follow Slashdot on Twitter and Facebook. To unsubscribe, click here or send an email to: unsubscribe-213087@elabs10.com To ensure delivery of this newsletter to your inbox and to enable images, please add slashdot@newsletters.slashdot.org to your e-mail address book or safe senders list. Slashdot | 594 Howard Street, Suite 300 | San Francisco, CA 94105 To view our Privacy Policy click here.

 

Toyota Floats the Idea of Hovercars; Was Turing Test Really Beaten or Just Tricked?

Google Glass Banned at Theater Chain | Comcast Turning Home Routers into Public Wi-Fi Hotspots To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Toyota Floats the Idea of Hovercars Google Glass Banned at Theater Chain Was Turing Test Really Beaten or Just Tricked? Comcast Turning Home Routers into Public Wi-Fi Hotspots Best Classic Superhero Comic Collections? Hot Comment: "I absolutely want my traffic optimised. Your Bittorrent..." From the Vault: How Do I Scrub Pirated Music from My Collection? Watch It: High-Res, Point-and-Shoot 3-D Scanner Poll Booth: When will large-scale IPv6 deployment happen? Sponsored Resource: Big Security for Big Data Toyota Floats the Idea of Hovercars A team of Toyota engineers is working on a real-life hover car, or at least investigating the potential. The project is underway at one of the company's "most advanced" research and development areas, according to a report on The Verge. Sound Off>> Google Glass Banned at Theater Chain In a bid to clamp down on piracy, a cinema chain that runs theaters in Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, Texas, Virginia, and soon in California, is among the first U.S. chains to ban Google's computerized eyewear. The decision comes as Google has made Glass readily available to the general public. Sound Off>> Was Turing Test Really Beaten or Just Tricked? News that the Turing Test had finally been passed was widely reported by the mainstream media. But TechDirt says that the original press release was just a load of hype. So, who's right? Sound Off>> Comcast Turning Home Routers into Public Wi-Fi Hotspots Comcast has converted 50,000 home routers in Houston into public Wi-Fi hotspots. It's part of an ambitious plan to offer customers and noncustomers access to about 8 million hotspots in 19 of the largest U.S. cities. Sound Off>> Best Classic Superhero Comic Collections? mvdwege, who is interested in the history of superhero comics, asked the Slashdot community, "What are your recommendations for essential reading? What collections/omnibus editions of Golden Age comics would you recommend?" Sound Off>> Re:I prefer "I absolutely want my traffic optimised. Your Bittorrent traffic can wait, whereas my VOIP call cannot. That, however, is a quality of service issue. I'm very happy for their to be QoS on my connection. However, I don't want your Verizon StreamTV or whatever service getting priority over my Netflix service. That is a net neutrality issue. We should not dilute the issue by confusing the two, or even discussing the two together. They are not the same thing." --by L4t3r4lu5 Read More>>   How Do I Scrub Pirated Music from My Collection? Three years ago, an anonymous reader wanted to find a tool to scan their music to identify files that may be flagged as having been pirated by cloud services and turned to Slashdot for some answers. Read More>>  High-Res, Point-and-Shoot 3-D Scanner Fuel 3-D is hoping to ride the current 3-D craze with what it claims be is "The world's first handheld point-and-shoot, full color 3-D scanner." Timothy Lord volunteered to be a test subject. See the device in action. Watch the Video>>   When will large-scale IPv6 deployment happen? Before 2020 2020-2024 2025-2029 2030-2034 2035-2039 2040 or later Never When we build a new Internet Cast Your Vote>>   Big Security for Big Data In order to meet current security problems, a new paradigm shift needs to occur. Businesses need the ability to secure data, collect it, and aggregate into an intelligent format, so that real-time alerting and reporting can take place. Find out how to get started on the challenging task. Learn More>>    Follow Slashdot on Twitter and Facebook. To unsubscribe, click here or send an email to: unsubscribe-213087@elabs10.com To ensure delivery of this newsletter to your inbox and to enable images, please add slashdot@newsletters.slashdot.org to your e-mail address book or safe senders list. Slashdot | 594 Howard Street, Suite 300 | San Francisco, CA 94105 To view our Privacy Policy click here.

 

Why is the UN Giving a Homophobe Power?

Despite Uganda's notorious anti-gay laws, the United Nations is still planning to appoint the country's foreign minister, Sam Kutesa, as the president of its General Assembly.

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action alert! Despite Uganda's notorious anti-gay laws, the United Nations is still planning to appoint the country's foreign minister, Sam Kutesa, as the president of its General Assembly. UN: Don't Appoint Anti-Gay Diplomat to Position of Power please share it helps!     Dear Annisa, By now, you've probably heard about Uganda's notorious anti-gay law, which can land people in prison for years for even expressing support for LGBT rights. Gay couples themselves can be locked away for life, for the mere "crime" of loving someone of the same gender. And Uganda's foreign minister, Sam Kutesa, has done nothing to stop those policies from instilling fear and pain throughout the country. In fact, Kutesa told the press after the law passed, most Africans "hate and fear" homosexuality. These policies have had a devastating effect on LGBT Ugandans. Extreme anti-gay violence -- including lynching, blackmail and arson -- has increased tenfold since the bill's passage. Clearly, Kutesa sees no problem with the environment of bigotry he is abetting, which is why it's so ala rming that he is slated to become the next president of the United Nation's general assembly. Though the position is often largely ceremonial, this year, Kutesa will be able to oversee agenda-setting for the UN's next round of development goals, potentially changing the focus of the group's future initiatives. Just as importantly, his appointment signifies the UN's willingness to overlook hatred, violence and corruption from its leaders -- which is no way to encourage peace throughout the world. The UN must not put any kind of power in the hands of this homophobe. Demand that its leaders revoke Kutesa's appointment to the general assembly presidency immediately! Thank you for taking action, Kathleen J. Care2 and ThePetitionSite

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Apple: Many Users Bought Android 'By Mistake'; U.S. Tech Worker Groups Boycott IBM, Infosys, Manpower

Where's the Most Unusual Place You've Written a Program From? | Do 4G World Phones Exist? To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Apple: Many Users Bought Android 'By Mistake' U.S. Tech Worker Groups Boycott IBM, Infosys, Manpower Where's the Most Unusual Place You've Written a Program From? Beware the Coming Nightmare of Unpatchable Systems Do 4G World Phones Exist? Hot Comment: "I don't understand what the programmers of all these crypto..." From the Vault: C++ Is the Winner in Google's Language Performance Tests Watch It: Open Source Laptop Made By and For Hackers Poll Booth: In the year since Snowden's revelations ... Sponsored Resource: The Ten Commandments of BYOD Apple: Many Users Bought Android 'By Mistake' Apple CEO Tim Cook, during his keynote at the company's Worldwide Developer Conference, said that around 130 million customers bought their first Apple device in the last 12 months. He also noted that many of the new customers had switched from Android, adding that "They had bought an Android phone by mistake, and then had sought a better experience and a better life." Sound Off>> U.S. Tech Worker Groups Boycott IBM, Infosys, Manpower Accusations of employment discrimination has prompted three Americans tech advocacy groups to launch a labor boycott of IBM, Infosys and Manpower. The groups say that the companies targeted in the boycott engaged in a pattern that discourages U.S. workers from applying for U.S. IT jobs by tailoring employment ads toward overseas workers. Sound Off>> Where's the Most Unusual Place You've Written a Program From? Michael Raithel was polling the SAS crowd, but it'd be interesting to hear the answers to the programming questions he posed from a broader audience: 1. What is the most unusual location you have written a program from? 2. What is the most unusual circumstance under which you have written a program? 3. What is the most unusual computing platform that you wrote a program from? 4. What is the most unusual application program that you wrote? Sound Off>> Beware the Coming Nightmare of Unpatchable Systems The end of support for Windows XP is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to software and hardware that is unpatchable and unsupportable. Infoworld reports that "the trend toward systems and devices that, once deployed, stubbornly 'keep on ticking' regardless of the wishes of those who deploy them is fast becoming an IT security nightmare made real, affecting everything from mom-and-pop shops to power stations." Sound Off>> Do 4G World Phones Exist? Viv Savage, who lives in the U.S. and has a daughter who will be attending college overseas next year, needs to buy a new phone for her and asked what Slashdot community members would recommend: "There doesn't appear to be a solution for getting high-speed data (i.e., 4G) here and abroad with one phone. Have any worldly Slashdotters figured this out?" Sound Off>>  Basic programming principles what? "I don't understand what the programmers of all these crypto libraries were thinking here. Even for the most basic and unimportant program, the rule is 'if the data comes from outside, verify!' This is vastly more important when cryptography is involved, so why is it that all these crypto libraries seem to blindly trust whatever the Internet is sending them?!" --by maugle Read More>>   C++ Is the Winner in Google's Language Performance Tests Three years ago, Google released a research paper that suggested C++ was the best-performing language on the market. But the researchers also noted that of the languages tested (C++, Java, Scala and Google's own programming language Go), C++ required the most extensive tuning efforts, "many of which were done at a level of sophistication that would not be available to the average programmer." Read More>> Open Source Laptop Made By and For Hackers Bunnie Huang, author of the freely available book, "Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering," talks about his latest long-term project-- an open source laptop computer that goes much farther than some other open-source hardware projects. He also discusses some of the design decisions that goes into making a computer that is by and for hackers. Watch the Video>>   In the year since Snowden's revelations ... I have changed my security practices not a bit I have mildly upgraded my security practices I've seriously upgraded my security practices I've radically upgraded my security practices I've gone plain-text only, just because. Snowden who? Cast Your Vote>>   The Ten Commandments of BYOD End users are bringing their personal devices into your company's network, with or without IT's permission. So, how will you support workforce desire to use personal apps and devices while allowing them to be productive in a secure environment that protects corporate data? Find out rules on implementing an effective BYOD program in your organization. Learn More>>   Follow Slashdot on Twitter and Facebook. To unsubscribe, click here or send an email to: unsubscribe-213087@elabs10.com To ensure delivery of this newsletter to your inbox and to enable images, please add slashdot@newsletters.slashdot.org to your e-mail address book or safe senders list. Slashdot | 594 Howard Street, Suite 300 | San Francisco, CA 94105 To view our Privacy Policy click here.