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Submission + - PostgreSQL 9.5 released

Submitted by iamvego
iamvego writes: Later than the typical release cadence, PostgreSQL 9.5 has finally been released, and brings with it a slew of new features including UPSERT functionality, row-level security, and some big data features (CUBE/ROLLUP, join pushdown for foreign data wrappers, TABLESAMPLE, BRIN indexing and more). The previous release had brought about some new JSON functions and operators, but they only queried the data; 9.5 comes with new operators which now allow modification of JSON values, so it no longer has to be manipulated outside of the database. PostgreSQL's wiki has a more detailed overview of the new features.

Submission + - DMV Releases Draft Requirements for Public Deployment of Autonomous Vehicles

Submitted by kheldan
kheldan writes: The California DMV will be allowing so-called 'autonomous cars' on the roads — with some restrictions. Namely: There must be a licensed driver behind the wheel at all times, alert and ready to take over on a moments notice, who additionally will be requried to obtain special training in the operation of the 'autonomous' vehicle they'll be driving; there must be extensive certification of the vehicle itself, subject to a three-year 'deployment permit', and re-evaluation of the vehicles' performance after that time; and there must be proof from the manufacturer that the vehicle is safe from cyber-attack. Those are the highlights; the full text of the press release is here, on the Calfornia DMV website, and the DMV is encouraging the public to attend workshops in January to discuss the draft regulations.
Image

Obese Woman Told To Get MRI At the Zoo 15

Posted by samzenpus from the tons-of-fun dept.
5-foot tall, 275-pound Carolyn Ragan is upset with the University of Kansas Hospital after she was told to have an MRI of her spinal tumor done at a zoo because the hospital's machine could not accommodate her. "(a medical assistant)...suggested the Kansas City Zoo," Ragan said. "I thought, I know I'm big, but I'm not as big as an elephant. And my husband got mad." The University of Kansas Hospital would not comment on Ragan's claim, but said its MRI department does not know of any animal MRI in the Kansas City area that would scan a human. You know it's time to put down the burger and go for a walk when you have to go to the large mammal exhibit for health care.
The Courts

Hacker Admits To Scientology DDoS Attack 275

Posted by Soulskill from the may-xenu-protect-you dept.
lbwbl writes with news that a New Jersey man will plead guilty to one felony count of 'unauthorized impairment of a protected computer' for his distributed denial of service attacks on Scientology websites as part of 'Anonymous' earlier this year. From Wired: "He faces a likely sentence of 12 to 18 months in prison based on stipulations in his plea agreement, which also obliges him to pay $37,500 in restitution. ... Friday's case, in US District Court in Los Angeles, marks the first prosecution of an Anonymous member for a series of attacks against the Church of Scientology that began in mid-January. The secretive religious group strayed into Anonymous' sights after trying to suppress the publication of a creepy Tom Cruise video produced for Scientology members."

Comment Success? (Score 1) 1

by adamlazz (#21017741) Attached to: Stephen Colbert officially announces
I think it would be interesting to make a statement about how he would define a success. In my humble opinion, I think he knows what he is doing. But for some strange reason, I don't think he has enough of the country behind him to pull out as the winner. I wonder what kind of impact he wishes to make, or if he actually thinks he can win this thing.
Music

Name-Your-Cost Radiohead Album Pirated More Than Purchased 582

Posted by Zonk from the perhaps-you-don't-understand-the-concept-of-free dept.
phantomfive writes "Forbes is reporting that despite Radiohead giving their latest album away 'for free', more copies of the album were pirated than downloaded from their site. Commentators offered up the opinion that this was probably more out of habit than malice. People download from regular BitTorrent sources, and may not have fully understood the band's very new approach to the subject. Regardless, Readiohead's efforts are having some measurable effect, as noted by the chairman of EMI: 'The industry, rather than embracing digitalization and the opportunities it brings for promotion of product and distribution through multiple channels, has stuck its head in the sand. Radiohead's actions are a wake-up call which we should all welcome and respond to with creativity and energy.'"
The Internet

Submission + - Infrequent Anonymous Cowards Reliable on Wikipedia

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Researchers at Dartmouth University have recently discovered that infrequent anonymous contributors, so called "Good Samaritans," are as reliable as registered users who update constantly and have a reputation to maintain.

By subdividing their analysis by registered versus anonymous contributors, the researchers found that among those who contribute often, registered users are more reliable. And they discovered that among those who contribute only a little, the anonymous users are more reliable. The researchers were most surprised to find that the reliability of Good Samaritans' contributions were at least as high as that of the more reputable registered users' contributions. "This finding was both novel and unexpected," says Denise Anthony, associate professor of sociology. "In traditional laboratory studies of collective goods, we don't include Good Samaritans, those people who just happen to pass by and contribute, because those carefully designed studies don't allow for outside actors. It took a real-life situation for us to recognize and appreciate the contributions of Good Samaritans to web content."
A graph from page 31 of the group's original paper (pdf file) shows that the quality of contributions of anonymous users goes down as the number of edits increases while quality goes up with the number of edits for registered users."
Security

Man Hacks 911 System, Sends SWAT on Bogus Raid 754

Posted by Zonk from the word-dumb-doesn't-cover-it dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Orange County Register reports that a 19 year old from Washington state broke into the Orange County California 911 emergency system. He randomly selected the name and address of a Lake Forest, California couple and electronically transferred false information into the 911 system. The Orange County California Sheriff's Department's Special Weapons and Tactics Team was immediately sent to the home of a couple with two sleeping toddlers. The SWAT team handcuffed the husband and wife before deciding it was a prank. Says the article, 'Other law enforcement agencies have seen similar breaches into their 911 systems as part of a trend picked up by computer hackers in the nation called "SWATting"'"
Handhelds

Steve Jobs Announces iPhone SDK 467

Posted by Zonk from the independent-thought-coming-soon-to-a-phone-near-you dept.
An anonymous reader writes "It finally happened. Steve Jobs announced an iPhone SDK today. The plan is to release it in February, and the suggestion is that apps will need to be digitally signed (not unlike digital signing in Leopard). Here's hoping that developing for the iPhone/Touch will be cheap (or free) enough to allow the folks who have been writing apps to continue doing so. Says Jobs: 'It will take until February to release an SDK because we're trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once--provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task.'"
Security

Spam Hits 95% of All Email 270

Posted by CmdrTaco from the thats-just-depressing dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Commtouch released its Email Threats Trend Report based on the automated analysis of billions of email messages weekly. The report examines the appearance of new kinds of attachment spamsuch as PDF spam and Excel spam together with the decline of image spam, as well as the growing threat of innocent appearing spam containing links to malicious web sites. Image spam declined to a level of less than 5% of all spam, down from 30% in the first quarter of 2007; also, image pump-and-dump spam has all but disappeared, with pornographic images taking its place."
Yahoo!

Submission + - Yahoo! accused of lying to Congress (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by
verybadradio
verybadradio writes: "The House Committee on Foreign Affairs is calling Yahoo! chief executive Jerry Yang to a hearing on 6 November to explain why the company lied to Congress in early 2006 about its knowledge of the investigation into Chinese journalist Shi Tao."
GNU is Not Unix

OSI Approves Microsoft Ms-PL and Ms-RL 301

Posted by kdawson from the left-hand-right-hand dept.
Russ Nelson writes "In a board meeting held October 10th and announced today, the Open Source Initiative approved two of Microsoft's software licenses: the Microsoft Reciprocal License and the Microsoft Public License. These licenses are refreshingly short and clean, compared to, say, the GPLv3 and the Sun CDDL. They share a patent peace clause, a no-trademark-license clause, and they differ only in the essential clause of reciprocation. Of course, Microsoft is not widely trusted in the Open Source world, and their motives have been called into question during the approval discussions. How can they be attacking Open Source projects on one hand, and seeking not only to use open source methods, but even to use the OSI Approved Open Source trademark? Nobody knows for sure except Microsoft. But if you are confident that Open Source is the best way to develop software (as we at the Open Source Initiative are), then you can see why Microsoft would both attack Open Source and seek to use it. It is both their enemy and their salvation."

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