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Submission + - Route-Injection Attacks Detouring Internet Traffic (threatpost.com) 1

Submitted by msm1267
msm1267 writes: Attackers are using route injection attacks against BGP-speaking routers to insert additional hops in the traffic stream, redirecting traffic to third-party locations where it can be inspected before it’s sent to its destination.
Internet intelligence company Renesys has detected close to 1,500 IP address blocks that have been hijacked on more than 60 days this year, a disturbing trend that indicates attackers could finally have an increased interest in weaknesses inherent in core Internet infrastructure.

Comment Congress hates us (Score 5, Informative) 564

by StanramonFlash (#42846915) Attached to: On the end of USPS 1st Class Saturday delivery:
Congress is trying to break the Postal union. They're actually quite solvent right now and in the black. The problem it would seem is that Congress is insisting the USPS have enough money on hand? to pay for 15 years worth of pensions. I couldn't find supporting evidence of this but this opinion piece in Reuters seems to support this conclusion. http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/07/20/how-congress-is-killing-the-post-office/

Submission + - Programming / I. T. job opportunities for older retrained workers? 1

Submitted by 12_West
12_West writes: I seek opinions from the Slashdot community about entry level job opportunities as programmers (or other I.T. Staff) for seniors who want to switch careers and continue to work full time. I do not want to retire, nor go part time, as long as I can get up and drive myself in to work.
I'm currently 58 years old, working as an industrial electrician in a maintenance department setting for a building products manufacturer. I like the work, but it is becoming hard on my aging body, so, I would like to begin gradually retraining and hope to switch careers in about 4 years. A lower paying, less physical job would be just fine as there will be pension money coming in.
I'm not currently a programmer, but have done some hobbyist level coding in Qbasic and MS-DOS batch files "back in the days". I also have some exposure to the Rockwell Automation RSLogix programmimg tools that are now going obsolete. So, I will be retraining whether I switch careers or not.
Your input is most welcome, I thank you!
Sony

Submission + - Sony to make its last MiniDisc system next month (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The BBC reports that Sony, the creators of the MiniDisc audio format, are to deliver their last MiniDisc stereo system in March.

Launched over 20 years ago in late 1992 as a would-be successor to the original audio cassette, MiniDisc outlasted Philips' rival Digital Compact Cassette format, but never enjoyed major success outside Japan.

Other manufacturers will continue making MiniDisc players, but this is a sign that- over ten years after the first iPod- the MiniDisc now belongs to a bygone era.
Space

Submission + - Multiple minds smooths your ship's path (newscientist.com)

Submitted by FatLittleMonkey
FatLittleMonkey writes: My mind to your mind... my thoughts to your thoughts... Researchers at the University of Essex have shown that combining the output from two non-invasive "brain-computer interfaces", computer-interpreted EEG signals, led to a much clearer signal of the subjects' intention than the output from a single subject. To test this idea, they had two subjects try to steer a simulated space-ship at a target planet, by thinking of one of eight possible directions. While a single user could achieve 67% accuracy, this jumped to 90% when two minds were combined. Researchers believe the technique also compensates for individual lapses in attention, and thus may have applications in real-world space missions.
AT&T

Submission + - AT&T Will Opt You Into a Data Plan for Smartphones Whether You Want It Or No (clickboom.me)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Joel Runyon recounts a tale that will be familiar to many people who have bought secondhand smartphones. After his old phone died a few months ago, Runyon picked up a used iPhone. He just needed it for basic phone capabilities, and used it as such, turning data off. However, AT&T eventually figured out he was making calls from a smartphone, and they decided he needed a data plan, even if he wasn't going to use it. They went ahead and opted him into a plan that cost an extra $30 a month. Quoting: 'According to AT&T: They can opt me into a contract that I didn't agree to because I was using a phone that I didn't buy from them because it had the ability to use data that I wasn't using (and was turned off). To top it all off, they got the privilege of charging me for it because I bought a differently categorized device – even though the actual usage of their network did not change at all and I never reconstituted a new agreement with them.'
Biotech

Submission + - International challenge to computationally interpret protein function (muohio.edu)

Submitted by Shipud
Shipud writes: We live in the post-genomic era, when DNA sequence data is growing exponentially. However, for most of the genes that we identify, we have no idea of their biological functions. They are like words in a foreign language, waiting to be deciphered. The Critical Assessment of Function Annotation, or CAFA, is a new community-wide experiment to assess the performance of the multitude of computational methods developed by research groups worldwide to help channel the flood of data from genome research to deduce the function of proteins.

Thirty research groups participated in the first CAFA, presenting a total of 54 algorithms. The results are published in an article in Nature Methods. The researchers participated in blind-test experiments in which they predicted the function of protein sequences for which the functions are already known but haven't yet been made publicly available. Independent assessors then judged their performance. The challenge organizers explain that: 'The accurate annotation of protein function is key to understanding life at the molecular level and has great biochemical and pharmaceutical implications, explain the study authors; however, with its inherent difficulty and expense, experimental characterization of function cannot scale up to accommodate the vast amount of sequence data already available.The computational annotation of protein function has therefore emerged as a problem at the forefront of computational and molecular biology.'

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What to do about patent trolls seeking Wifi license fees? 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: My company has been contacted by certified letter by Delaware law firm “Stamatios & Weinblatt LLC”. They are seeking license fees for a Wifi patent. I believe this is a patent troll (not that this matters in relation to dealing with this issue). This is a newly formed law firm less than 4 months old. They are representing “Wyncomm LLC” in regards to a “Wifi patent”. This patent is U.S. Patent No. 5,506,866. This patent covers equipment and method related to the transmission of information involving the multiplexing information into a stream of signal points (and demultiplexing the same), and related technology. They have “offered” to license this patent with no amounts specified. Unfortunately we are a small free software company. The company is setup as a sole proprietorship. I'm not asking for legal advise from the Slashdot community. The question is where might one look for “legal counsel” with the expertise to answer these types of legal questions as it relates to this inquiry. I would prefer to avoid legal fees, court cases, or license fees running the company into the ground. The company is registered in New Jersey.
Technology

Submission + - Turning SF's Bay Bridge into a Giant LED Display (xconomy.com)

Submitted by
waderoush
waderoush writes: "It may be the biggest art hack ever: a project to install 25,000 individually addressable LED lights on the western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. New York-based 'light sculptor' Leo Villareal was in San Francisco last week to test the vast 'Bay Lights' art installation, which will officially debut on March 5 and last for two years; Xconomy has photos and video of Villareal running the light show from his laptop. To optimize his algorithms and figure out which patterns would be most interesting or arresting, Villareal needed to experiment on the bridge itself, says Bay Lights director Ben Davis, who has raised $5.8 million for the project so far. 'This has never been done before in history — literally debugging software 500 feet in the air, in front of a million people,' says Davis."

Comment An Affordable Pen (Score 1) 712

by StanramonFlash (#41838323) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: The Search For the Ultimate Engineer's Pen
I was just shopping for pens the other day... I picked up a couple of mechanical pencils and I replaced this cheap Parker that I've fallen in love with another. http://www.amazon.com/PAR7803211-Retractable-Ballpoint-Medium-Barrel/dp/B00275YMAU/ref=sr_1_23 They like to wander to off, so I don't know what good it'll do you? but everytime I pick up one of these I'm satisfied and I stop looking for a pen and start writing again. They write small, smooth, and have a comfortable heft. Dry quickly and have blue ink. I have a more expensive parker and it kind of sucks. I think I just need to replace the ink cartridge. I do know pens need maintenance, maybe you're not taking care of your pen, OP? Parker does generally make pretty decent stuff and on the ink cartridge it says www.parkerpen.com Ballpen Refill [1.0][M] if M is for medium... So I'm thinking you could probably even find something finer, though how it writes I don't know.
Google

Submission + - Google Warns Irish Government Against Tax Increase

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: The Irish government has been given a stark warning from some of the biggest American companies in Ireland on the risk of a mass exodus if the country's controversial low corporate tax rate is raised in return for an IMF/EU bailout to shore up the country's beleaguered banking system. According to The Telegraph, a statement signed by senior execs at Microsoft, HP, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and Intel points out that although Ireland's tax rate may be low in European terms, it is not when compared with locations such as Singapore, India and China. Separately, the head of Google's 2,000-strong European HQ in Dublin told the Belfast Telegraph that 'anything that impinges on Ireland's competitiveness is going to be a big thing for Google,' adding that, 'anything that increases the cost-base of a business is negative for competitiveness.' Or, as Tony Soprano might say, 'You'll be dead to me'.

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