Black Underbelly of Windows 8.1 'Blue' Exposed; Snowden: NSA and Israel Co-Wrote Stuxnet Virus

To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Black Underbelly of Windows 8.1 'Blue' Exposed Snowden: NSA and Israel Co-Wrote Stuxnet Virus HTTP 2.0 Will Be a Binary Protocol Sent to Jail Because of a Software Bug What PRISM Knows About You Revealed by MIT Project Hot Comment: "If you remove guns, then you would have a sword problem. If you remove..." From the Vault: Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man Watch It: Robots That Are About Form, Not Function Poll Booth: WRT virtualization... Black Underbelly of Windows 8.1 'Blue' Exposed Changes in Microsoft's forthcoming upgrade to Windows 8 reveal the dark underbelly of Microsoft's evolving agenda, one that finds pieces of Windows 8 inexplicably disappearing and a new feature that allows Microsoft to track your local searches cropping up, InfoWorld reports. Sound Off>> Snowden: NSA and Israel Co-Wrote Stuxnet Virus In an interview with Der Spiegel, U.S. surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden claims that the NSA collaborated with Israel to write the Stuxnet virus, which successfully infiltrated Iranian nuclear facilities. He also spoke about how the "Five Eye Partners" sometimes go beyond the NSA. Sound Off>> HTTP 2.0 Will Be a Binary Protocol A working copy of the HTTP 2.0 spec has been released. But, unlike previous versions of the HTTP protocol, this version will be a binary format, for better or worse. However, this protocol is also completely optional because it "does not obsolete the HTTP/1.1 message format or protocol." Sound Off>> Sent to Jail Because of a Software Bug More than 100 sub-post office workers in the UK say they were wrongly prosecuted or made to repay money after a bug in accounting software reported non-existent shortfalls, according to a BBC report. Some of them lost their homes and some went to prison as a result. Sound Off>> What PRISM Knows About You Revealed by MIT Project MIT's Immersion project sifts your Gmail, and constructs a map of your associations and without opening a single message, it gives a clear view of who you connect with. It's a glimpse of some of what the NSA PRISM can do. Sound Off>>   Re: 1 2 3 4 I declare flame war "If you remove guns, then you would have a sword problem. If you remove swords, then you'd have spear problem. If you remove spears, then you'd have a rock problem. Get rid of rocks and it would simply be the biggest guy wins. The 'gun problem' is merely another face of a violence problem." --by sycodon Read More>>   Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man Four years ago, The NY Times wrote about a conference where a group of computer scientists, impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, debated "whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society's workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone." Read More>> Robots That Are About Form, Not Function SlashTV: Meet Sarah Thee Campagna, who assembles robots, ray guns, and spaceships from found parts that others might think are just ordinary industrial detritus. Her creations will not fight battles or clean your house, but they look so cool, they get shown in fine art galleries. Watch the Video>>  WRT virtualization: I don't have / use any virtual machines I experiment with VMs, but only dipping my toes I use VMs, but only for a few specialized tasks I use VMs interchangeably with physical machines I am a gung-ho VM user, the PC is just a host I have no physical machines If by "virtualization" you mean living in the Matrix ... Cast Your Vote>>   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.

 

Pay to Get Paid: When Paychecks Go Plastic; Electric Cars: Unclean at Any Speed?

To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Pay to Get Paid: When Paychecks Go Plastic Firefox Snatches Performance Crown from Chrome Electric Cars: Unclean at Any Speed? Microsoft Killing Off TechNet Subscriptions Motorola Is Listening Hot Comment: "Yes, freedom is more important than general safety." From the Vault: Best and Worst Coding Standards? Watch It: Bye-Bye to Booth Babes? Poll Booth: I'd most rather, of the following, search with ... Pay to Get Paid: When Paychecks Go Plastic A growing number of American workers are being paid by prepaid payroll cards, which often have fees attached to basic services like making a cash withdrawal or for inactivity. And some employees report that their employers refuse to pay them by check or direct deposit. Sound Off>> Firefox Snatches Performance Crown from Chrome Recent browser benchmarks are showing surprising results: in a geometric mean of all four performance-based categories, Firefox 22 "pulls off an upset, replacing the long-time performance champion Google Chrome 27 as the new speed king." Sound Off>> Electric Cars: Unclean at Any Speed? The answer to the question, "Are electric cars really green?" depends on whom you ask. While most who have studied the issue say they are, there are a few critics who say that the supposed benefits of electric vehicles are nothing but myths. Sound Off>> Microsoft Killing Off TechNet Subscriptions Since 1998, Microsoft TechNet has been a mainstay for all system developers attached to the Microsoft platform. Users were given easy access to almost every product the company produced for the price of a subscription. But now it's coming to an end. Sound Off>> Motorola Is Listening While hooking up to Microsoft ActiveSync at work, Ben Lincoln discovered that his Motorola Droid X2 was silently sending a considerable amount of sensitive information to Motorola servers. To compound the problem, he also found that a great deal of the data was being sent over an unencrypted HTTP channel. Sound Off>> Re: So much for... "Yes Freedom is more important than general safety. When the government says you can't have or do X because it is unsafe. It allows them to take the next step and say the next thing is unsafe and you shouldn't do it." --by jellomizer Read More>>   Best and Worst Coding Standards? Five years ago, an anonymous reader asked Slashdotters, "What standards have you found worked well in practice, increasing code readability and maintainability? Which only looked good on paper?" Read More>> Bye-Bye to Booth Babes? It seems those scantily-dressed females hired to attract people to displays at IT trade shows and conferences are making fewer appearances. Enterprise Cloud Site Editor-in-Chief Michael Steinhart and frequent show attendee discusses the case of the disappearing booth babes and possible reasons. Watch the Video>> I'd most rather, of the following, search with: Lycos InfoSeek AltaVista WebCrawler Ask Jeeves Dogpile Gopher Some other (non-Google, non-Bing) option Cast Your Vote>> 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.

 

PS4 Runs Modified FreeBSD; NSA Releases Secret Pre-History of Computers

To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend PS4 Runs Modified FreeBSD How Can a Self-Taught Old Techie Get Hired? Bitcoin Foundation Hit with Cease and Desist Order NSA Releases Secret Pre-History of Computers Wikileaks Aiding Snowden as Diplomatic Storm Swirls Hot Comment: "Could you not just write 'Bazinga! 42! All Your Base!! xD!' instead?" From the Vault: British Men Jailed for Online Hate Crimes Watch It: HackMiami: Not Your Typical Hackerspace Poll Booth: Edward Snowden is ... PS4 Runs Modified FreeBSD The operating system powering the PlayStation 4 is Orbis OS, which is a Sony spin of FreeBSD 9.0. It's not a huge surprise FreeBSD is being used over Linux, in part due to the more liberal licensing. Also, the PS4 is x86-64 based now rather than Cell-based, which makes it easier to use FreeBSD. Sound Off>> How Can a Self-Taught Old Techie Get Hired? StonyCreekBare says he has a long track record of success, despite limited formal education, but can't seem to get past the canned hiring process.  So, he asked Slashdotters to ask, "How can an accomplished, if gray-haired, self-educated techie get a foot in the door?" Sound Off>> Bitcoin Foundation Hit with Cease and Desist Order On the heels of last month's Bitcoin 2013 conference event in Silicon Valley, California's Department of Financial Institutions issued a cease and desist warning to the Bitcoin Foundation for allegedly engaging in the business of money transmission without a license or proper authorization. Sound Off>> NSA Releases Secret Pre-History of Computers The National Security Agency has declassified an eye-opening pre-history of computers used for code-breaking between the 1930s and 1960s. The 344-page report titled, "It Wasn't All Magic: The Early Struggle to Automate Cryptanalysis," is available on the Government Attic web site. Sound Off>> Wikileaks Aiding Snowden as Diplomatic Storm Swirls Despite the U.S. cancelling his passport, Edward Snowden continues his travels aided by Wikileaks, and is leaving a trail of strained diplomatic relations in his wake. It appears China gifted the issue to Russia, which may be just a stopover on his way to a third country. Sound Off>>  Geek Food Staple? "Could you not just write 'Bazinga! 42! All Your Base!! xD!' instead? If anything, the Twinkie is the food staple to those who are too nostalgic or stupid to know to buy ANYTHING ELSE..." --by DrGamez Read More>>   British Men Jailed for Online Hate Crimes Four years ago, two British men became the first to be jailed for inciting racial hatred online. The men believed that material they published on web servers based in the United States did not fall under the jurisdiction of UK law and was protected under the First Amendment. The argument was rejected by the British trial judge. Read More>> HackMiami: Not Your Typical Hackerspace SlashTV: What started out as a group of CS college students who would meet in unlocked rooms on campus has evolved into a for-profit security firm on the cutting edge of vulnerability research. HackMiami's Alex Heid talks about that journey and offers advice for those who want to do the same in their area. Watch the Video>> Edward Snowden is ... A Hero More hero than villain Ambiguous in intent More villain than hero A villain A fictional character designed to distract us In it for the airline snacks Cast Your Vote>> 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.

 

Leaked Xbox One FAQ: Real Answers or Fake Questions?; Your Silence May Be Used Against You in a Court of Law

To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Leaked Xbox One FAQ: Real Answers or Fake Questions? Your Silence May Be Used Against You in a Court of Law Find a 400-Year-Old Skeleton, Get Charged $5K Microsoft Takes Anti-Indie Dev Stance with Xbox One How to Start Reading Others' Code? Hot Comment: "...Just copy (the NSA) on every email you send. It's just courtesy, not..." From the Vault: Emigrating to a Freer Country? Watch It: Unanticipated Effects of Autonomous Cars Poll Booth: My view of touchscreen laptops Leaked Xbox One FAQ: Real Answers or Fake Questions? In the wake of a disastrous E3 product reveal, Microsoft has purportedly distributed a confidential internal 100-point "FAQ" for the Xbox One that reads like it's from the Ministry of Truth. It was, of course, immediately leaked on pastebin. Sound Off>> Your Silence May Be Used Against You in a Court of Law The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the State of Texas in a murder trial where the defendant, prior to be taken into custody, had been questioned by the police and chose to remain silent on key questions. This fact was bought up at trial and used to convict him. Sound Off>> Find a 400-Year-Old Skeleton, Get Charged $5K During a recent fence installation, Ontario couple Ken Campbell and Nicole Sauve discovered the bones of an aboriginal woman who died between the late 1500s to the early 1600s. Under Ontario law, Campbell and Sauve were required to hire an archeologist to assess their property at their own expense. Sound Off>> Microsoft Takes Anti-Indie Dev Stance with Xbox One The new Oddworld game New 'n' Tasty is coming to every platform in the current generation and even the next generation, but not the Xbox One. Microsoft has decided all developers must have a publisher to grace its console. Sound Off>> How to Start Reading Others' Code? BorgeStrand is reviving an open source project and need to read up on a lot of existing code written by others and asks Slashdotters, "What are your tricks for quickly getting to grips with code written by others?" Sound Off>> Re: Game the system ... "Close. Just copy (the NSA) on every email you send. It's just courtesy, not a DDoS, and not our fault if their servers can't handle it." --by mapsjanhere Read More>>   Emigrating to a Freer Country? Four years ago, puroresu lamented the erosion of privacy, free expression and civil liberties in the UK and asked Slashdotters, "Which countries would you recommend in terms of freedom and privacy?" As usual, you had plenty to say on the topic. Read More>> Unanticipated Effects of Autonomous Cars SlashTV: While driverless cars could solve a host of issues, they could also bring a whole new set of problems, questions, and -- no doubt -- legislation. Author Peter Wayner talks to Timothy Lord about the possible effects of autonomous cars on our lives and the economy. Watch the Video>> My view of touchscreen laptops: Tool of the devil: stupid and awful I'm against them (annoying, smudgy) Neutralish, but leaning slightly against Neutralish, but warming to the concept I like them, but not a fanatic They're awesome; I'm hooked There are touch-screen laptops? Cast Your Vote>> 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.

 

Apple's War Against Jailbreaking Now Makes Perfect Sense; Snowden's Big Truth: We Are All Less Free

To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Apple's War Against Jailbreaking Now Makes Perfect Sense Snowden's Big Truth: We Are All Less Free How Do You Prove a Manager Is Incompetent? Hacker Releases 1.7TB Treasure Trove of Gaming Info Linus Torvalds to Find New Ways to Curse Devs, Their Mothers Hot Comment: "Indoctrination is not education. They often call it..." From the Vault: Japan Imposes 'Fine on Fat' Watch It: How to Remote-Control Cockroaches Voting Booth: To replace Google Reader, I favor ... Apple's War Against Jailbreaking Now Makes Perfect Sense Apple has always been extremely anti-jailbreaking, but it might now have a good reason to plug up the exploits. As Hardware 2.0 argues, Apple's new iOS 7 Activation Lock anti-theft mechanism, which renders stolen handsets useless (even after wiping) unless the owner's Apple ID is entered, relies on having a secure, locked-down OS. Are the days of jailbreaking iOS coming to a close? Sound Off>> Snowden's Big Truth: We Are All Less Free In the days since stories based on classified information leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden hit the headlines, a string of reports and editorials claim that he had his facts wrong, accuse him of treason -- or both. But nobody has seriously challenged the basic truth of Snowden's leak: that many telecoms and tech firms are regularly divulging information about users' activities to intelligence agencies. Sound Off>> How Do You Prove a Manager Is Incompetent? What do you do when you find out that the "head of IT" is the main reason a company's IT group is ineffective? An anonymous reader turned to Slashdotters to answer the question: How can one objectively illustrate that a person doesn't have the knowledge sufficient to run a project, let alone a department? Sound Off>> Hacker Releases 1.7TB Treasure Trove of Gaming Info A hacker named SuperDaeE, who breached multiple gaming companies, including Sony, Microsoft, Valve and Blizzard, has released a 1.7TB file for download, according to Kotaku. The file, which contains source code for older titles and development kits for the PS4 and Xbox One consoles, is encrypted and SuperDaeE is using it as "insurance" in case he gets arrested. Sound Off>> Linus Torvalds to Find New Ways to Curse Devs, Their Mothers Linus Torvalds has released Linux 3.10-rc5, and he is definitely not happy with the changes merged last week. Rc5 is bigger than rc4 and has code scattered across its entire code base because it addresses many outstanding problems. He warned developers if they don't stop sending him non-critical stuff, he is going to "try to come up with new ways to insult you, your mother, and your deceased pet hamster." Sound Off>> Re: "Liberty-Minded"? "Indoctrination is not education. They often call it that though. Being told you have to submit to the state authority on all things is exactly what is wrong with our current system. IRS, NSA, DOJ scandals all presuppose power to the state." --by Archangel Michael Read More>>   Japan Imposes 'Fine on Fat' Five years ago, CNN reported that Japan introduced a law that requires all businesses to have mandatory obesity checks for all their employees and employees' family members over the age of 40. If the employee or family member is deemed obese, and does not lose the extra fat soon, their employer faces large fines. Read More>> How to Remote-Control Cockroaches SlashTV: Backyard Brains (Motto: "Neuroscience for Everyone!") makes roaches crawl on command. Watch the video to learn about the roboroaches and watch how, with little circuit boards on their little backs, scurry hither and yon under control of their human masters. Watch the Video>> To replace Google Reader, I favor ... Newsblur Feedly Net News Wire Taptu Google Currents Flipboard None of these; I don't use Reader None of these; I favor a different alternative Cast Your Vote>> 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.

 

Can Windows 8 Be Fixed?; Google Security Pro Publishes Windows Zero-Day Exploit

To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Can Windows 8 Be Fixed? Why Your Users Hate Agile Google Security Pro Publishes Windows Zero-Day Exploit Beer Fridge Knocks Out Mobile Network Video Reveals Drone Nearly Downed Passenger Plane in 2004 Hot Comment: "It's like 1991 all over again. Do I have to install Trumpet WinSOCK..." From the Vault: Efficiency? Think Racing Cars, Not Hybrids Watch It: Touring Google-Powered Wii Street U Poll Booth: My credits by name in (released) software Can Windows 8 Be Fixed? It seems everyone but Microsoft knows that Windows 8 a mess of an OS. And the Windows 8.1 "Blue" that was revealed last week doesn't address fundamental flaws. So, a team at InfoWorld worked up a serious proposal to redesign Windows 8, complete with mockups of the proposed Windows "Red." Sound Off>> Why Your Users Hate Agile Esther Schindler writes that what developers see as iterative and flexible, users see as disorganized and never-ending. However, some experienced developers have changed that perception, but success has not come easily. Sound Off>> Google Security Pro Publishes Windows Zero-Day Exploit Security expert Tavis Ormandy discovered a vulnerability in the Windows kernel that could allow an ordinary user to obtain administrative privileges of the system. Instead of reporting it to Microsoft, he posted details to the Full Disclosure mailing list in May and has now published a working exploit. Sound Off>> Beer Fridge Knocks Out Mobile Network A man's backyard beer fridge in Australia has been busted for interfering with the cellular network of major carrier Telstra. Engineers used an internally developed software "robot" to crawl log files from the network and sent a field team out to pinpoint the cause of the interference. Sound Off>> Video Reveals Drone Nearly Downed Passenger Plane in 2004 A German drone aircraft was within 2 meters of bringing down a passenger aircraft with 100 people on board. The incident had been hushed up for nine years, and is creating waves in Germany now that the video footage has emerged. Sound Off>> Multiple, resizable Windows - Wow! "It's like 1991 all over again. Do I have to install Trumpet WinSOCK to connect to my ISP? Seriously, it feels like Microsoft has forgotten why they called the damn OS 'Windows' in the first place. At work, we just finally upgraded to Windows 7 a few months ago. Microsoft still has plenty of time to fix more things before IT even considers Win8." --Necron69 Read More>>   Efficiency? Think Racing Cars, Not Hybrids Five years ago, a renowned engineer who designed some of the most successful Formula One cars ever built, as well as the McLaren F1, said that manufacturers should be looking at making cars lighter to improve efficiency, rather than adding complex drive trains. He added that a weight saving of 10% in a normal car would make more difference than switching to a hybrid engine and motor combination. Read More>> Touring Google-Powered Wii Street U SlashTV: Wii Street U uses Google Maps to create an immersive experience that Nintendo says makes you feel like you're actually there. The free app on the Wii U lets you view a 360-degree Google Maps Street View of locations all over the world. Get a closer look in this demo. Watch the Video>> My credits by name in (released) software: None, but I still write code. 1 or 2 3-5 6-10 11-20 More than 20. Zero because I don't program. Cast Your Vote>> 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.

 

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