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Submission + - House Leaders Strike Deal To Protect US Web Browsing Data (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After three days of negotiations, House lawmakers have struck a deal on an amendment to protect innocent Americans from being spied on by their own government online. Discussions were carried out behind closed doors over Memorial Day weekend after news broke Friday that House leaders had agreed to allow a vote on an amendment introduced by Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Warren Davidson to prohibit the FBI from collecting Americans’ web browsing history without a warrant.

The Lofgren-Davidson amendment will require the FBI to obtain a warrant even if there’s only a possibility that the data it seeks is tied to a U.S. person. If the government wishes to access the IP addresses of everyone who has visited a particular website, it could not do so without a warrant unless it can “guarantee” that no U.S. persons will be identified. The House is preparing to vote as early as this week on the surveillance re-authorization bill, which will reinstate several key tools used by the FBI to conduct foreign intelligence investigations.

Submission + - IPv6 will show how many have returned to the office

Submitted by Tim the Gecko
Tim the Gecko writes: Google's IPv6 connectivity stats topped 32% on Saturday for the first time, but the main story has been the midweek stats. Most mobile phone networks and a good chunk of residential broadband have migrated to IPv6, but the typical corporate network where people used to spend their 9 to 5 is largely IPv4-only. There used to be a big dip in the IPv6 stats during the working week, but widespread working from home has halved that dip, with the typical midweek IPv6 connectivity for Google queries moving upwards from 26% to 29%. Looking at this graph will be a good way of checking how fast people are returning to the office.

Comment What matters is grad school (Score 1) 991

by Frisky070802 (#23093056) Attached to: For CS Majors, How Important Is the "Where?"
I had the same choice in 1980. It was a long time ago but I think the same logic applies now. I chose an Ivy League school over MIT and was very happy with the choice. I felt I still got a good technical education (quite a few of my classmates were among the early employees at Microsoft, for instance). I went on to one of the top departments for a Ph.D. I'd say that if you think you'll go on for an MS or PhD, your choice of a BS/BA won't matter that much long term, as long as you do well at the undergrad level. If you don't, it may be the case that a BS from the tech school will open more doors in the tech community than coming from the liberal arts school... but that's just one factor. You have to decide what you will do outside your major and what campus life is like overall. These factors probably collectively outweigh which one is most likely to get you a job at Google.
Education

Submission + - Teacher guilty of endangering kids due to spyware

Submitted by nursegirl
nursegirl writes: Norwich, Conn seventh grade teacher, Julie Amero has been convicted of four counts of risk of injury to a minor after her classroom PC displayed pornographic pop-ups in class. While an expert for the defendant said he had discovered spyware on her PC that had been downloaded from a hairstyling site, the local police investigator claimed that the spyware had been downloaded from actively visiting porn sites.

Amero testified that she had told four other teachers and the assistant principal about the popups, but received no assistance. The school's internet filtration software was not working because it's license had expired.

Amero faces up to forty years in prison.
Television

Choose the New PBS Science Show 143

Posted by kdawson from the new-nova dept.
chinmay7 writes "PBS has posted three different pilots for a new science show, and they want viewers to weigh in and help choose one as the regular science feature. All three pilots are viewable as vodcasts. Wired Science aired on January 3rd. The pilot certainly is polished, as one might expect from Wired Magazine, and deals with interesting topics: 'Meet rocket-belt inventors, stem cell explorers and meteorite hunters.' Science Investigators (air date: January 10) seems to be the most 'science' show: 'The investigators examine 30,000-year-old Neanderthal DNA, vanishing frogs, mind-boggling baseball pitches and more.' 22nd Century (air date: January 17) is pretty gimmicky and loud for my taste, but delivers interesting content — 'In the coming decades will all our brains be wired together like networked computers?' So watch and vote."
Programming

Submission + - Information Technology and Voting

Submitted by
ChelleChelle
ChelleChelle writes: " In this interview from ACM Queue, Douglas W. Jones and Peter G. Neumann attempt to answer the question: Does technology help or hinder election integrity? Focusing on the issues related to the use of computer systems in elections, they discuss some of the most basic problems and potential solutions. This article is both timely and informative!"

Voting Machine Glitches Already Being Reported 742

Posted by Zonk from the go-vote dept.
Neovanglist writes "CNN, FOX, and MSNBC are reporting that voting machines in three states (Ohio, Indiana, and Florida) have already been showing issues, both in the machines themselves and in the training of poll attendants, causing many districts to switch to paper ballots." From the article: "Voters put the Republican congressional majority and a multitude of new voting equipment to the test Tuesday in an election that defined the balance of power for the rest of George W. Bush's presidency. Both parties hustled to get their supporters out in high-stakes contests across the country, Democrats appealing one more time for change, and appearing confident the mood was on their side. Republicans conceded nothing as their vaunted get-out-the-vote machine swung into motion." If you're in the U.S., and you haven't voted already, go do it!

IBM Touts Smart Surveillance System 37

Posted by Zonk from the big-blue-watching-you dept.
mikesd81 writes "Reuters reports that IBM hopes to capitalize on the enormous growth in video surveillance. They'll begin selling technology from their research labs that performs real-time analysis on footage captured by security cameras in stores and sensitive locales. IBM contends that it is the first to add advanced search functions, which make use of computers' improving ability to recognize video content. For example, the IBM system would let a user search for all instances of a green car passing by a store on a certain day. It can also incorporate data gathered from audio or chemical sensors. And IBM said S3 includes important privacy enhancements, such as the ability to automatically obscure faces of customers or passers-by. IBM said that S3's target market includes retail outlets, banks, airports, freight terminals and mass transit systems. It is also being sold to public security agencies and other government departments." C|Net reports that the software is so impressive, it may be monitoring border crossings before too long.

Edward Tufte Talks information Design 193

Posted by samzenpus from the good-design dept.
BoredStiff writes "The Weekend Edition of NPR ran a story on Edward Tufte — the outspoken critic of PowerPoint presentations — he has been described by The New York Times as "The Leonardo da Vinci of Data." Since 1993, thousands have attended his day-long seminars on Information Design. Tufte's most recent book is filled with hundreds of illustrations that demonstrate one concept: good design is timeless, while bad design can be a matter of life and death."

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