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Submission + - Ask Slashdot

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I love the idea of getting an ebook reader primarily for reading research journal papers, however I've heard bad things about the handling of pdf's of the major ones. I don't particularly care for color, but having an e-ink display and the ability to handle pdf/ps docs without conversion would be major pluses. I'd even be open to a hacked kindle running linux if it was practical. Does any good solution exist?
Earth

Submission + - NASA shoots down comet Elenin doomsday predictions (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "The comet Elenin which will pass by Earth October 16 has generated such an inordinate amount of doomsday reports from a number of different sources that NASA today issued a release meant to address a variety of them. To address the myriad concerns, NASA said its scientists compiled a list of the most popular questions it has received about Elenin."
Power

Submission + - US Energy Panel Cautiously Endorses Fracking

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The Christian Science Monitor reports that a US Energy Department advisory panel has endorsed fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, a promising technology that injects a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals underground to fracture rock and release shale gas previously thought unretrievable paving the way for tens of thousands of new wells. If fracking can be done safely, it could be a major source of domestic energy over the next century. Shale gas makes up about 14 percent of the US natural gas supply today but is expected to reach 45 percent by 2035. But first, serious environmental concerns must be addressed. Earlier this year, a Duke University study of 68 private groundwater wells in Pennsylvania and New York state found evidence that shale-gas extraction has caused them to become contaminated with methane. One key recommendation by the panel is a call for transparency regarding the use of chemicals in the extraction process. Drillers say they would like to keep the exact formula of the chemicals they use secret because it represents a competitive advantage. "Shale gas represents a bright hope for America’s energy future" concludes CSM's editorial staff. "But only if its benefits don’t bring along an environmental disaster with them."
Cloud

Submission + - Police Arrests 12 Over Facebook Use Inciting Riots

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Scotland Yard vowed to track down and arrest protesters who posted “really inflammatory, inaccurate” messages on Facebook, but it didn’t stop at just two people. While two teenagers were arrested earlier this week in connection with messages posted on Facebook allegedly encouraging people to start rioting, 10 more have now joined them.
Social Networks

Submission + - Syrian Hackers Deface Anonymous' Social Network (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "After the hacking gang Anonymous took credit for defacing Syria's Ministry of Defense website, a Syrian group retaliated on Monday by posting gruesome photos on Anonymous' embryonic social network. The defacement of AnonPlus — the site Anonymous set up last month when it was booted off Google+ — did not include the name of the group responsible. The University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, however, credited the AnonPlus defacement to the 'Syrian Electronic Army' in a message posted to Twitter. 'In response to your hacking to the website of the Syrian Ministry of Defence, the Syrian people have decided to purify the internet of [y]our pathetic website,' the defacement read."
Security

Submission + - Science fair entry shuts down airport (oregonlive.com) 2

Submitted by OverTheGeicoE
OverTheGeicoE writes: A graduate student was returning home from a science fair in Omaha with his handmade entry in his carry-on luggage. When TSA discovered it they shut down the airport for several hours, until they could determine it was harmless. All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again, so before you fly with your homemade Minty MP3 player make sure you take a look at TSA Blogger Bob's warning or it could wind up looking like this.
Sony

Submission + - Sony Crowned 'Epic Fail' at Pwnie Awards (itproportal.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: Hackers’ hot favourite victim Sony Corp. has won an award at the Black Hat conference held in Las Vegas this week. However, much to the embarrassment of the company, the award it nailed was in the category of the “Epic Fail” of the year. The Pwnie award, which is kind of close being an Oscar equivalent in the hackers-community, awarded this ‘honour’ to Sony following the series of hack attacks it was subjected to a few months back, which saw the company’s PlayStation and PC Gaming Networks, as well as many other services suffering heavily through the hands of cyber criminals.
Programming

Submission + - What Todays' Coders Don't Know And Why It Matters (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "Today's programmers have much more advanced languages and more forgiving hardware to play with — but it seems that many have forgotten some of the lessons that their predecessors picked up in a more resource-constrained era. Newer programmers are less adept at identifying hardware constraints and errors, thorough specifications developed before coding, and low-level skills like programming in assembly language. You never know when a seemingly obsolete skill will come in handy: for instance, Web developers who cut their teeth in the days of 14.4 Kbps modems have a leg up in writing apps for laggy wireless networks."
Security

Submission + - DOS, Backdoor and Easter Egg Found in Siemens S7 (threatpost.com)

Submitted by
chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: "A BlackHat presentation on Wednesday will reveal more software vulnerabilities affecting industrial controllers from Siemens, including a serious remotely exploitable denial of service vulnerability, more hard-coded administrative passwords, and even an easter egg program buried in the code that runs industrial machinery around the globe. In an interview Tuesday evening, Beresford said he has reported 18 separate issues to Siemens and to officials at ICS CERT, the Computer Emergency Response Team for the Industrial Control Sector. Siemens said it is readying a patch for some of the holes, including one that would allow a remote attacker to gain administrative control over machinery controlled by certain models of its Step 7 industrial control software."

Submission + - The Code War - It's On (businessweek.com)

Submitted by pacopico
pacopico writes: A story in Bloomberg Businessweek gives the first in-depth look at a wave of new start-ups selling cyber weaponry. The story describes this as the evolution of the defense industry in response to a wave of brazen attacks against Google, the Pentagon, the IMF and thousands of companies. It's pretty scary stuff, especially considering that these new weapons are not regulated at all. Good times!
Google

Submission + - Google+ growing at unprecedented rate (wsj.com)

Submitted by OverTheGeicoE
OverTheGeicoE writes: The Wall Street Journal reports that Google+ has added 20 million users in just 3 weeks. According to the article, no other site has recorded such high growth in such a short time period. Twitter did something similar once, but in months, not weeks. It's especially surprising considering that access to Google+ is by invitation only.

Why is Google+ growing so quickly? Perhaps the obligatory XKCD reference actually offers some insight.
Security

Submission + - Apple Laptops Vulnerable to Battery Firmware Hack (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Security researcher Charlie Miller, widely known for his work on Mac OS X and Apple's iOS, has discovered an interesting method that enables him to completely disable the batteries on Apple laptops, making them permanently unusable, and perform a number of other unintended actions. The method, which involves accessing and sending instructions to the chip housed on smart batteries could also be used for more malicious purposes down the road.

Miller discovered the default passwords set on the battery at the factory to change the battery into unsealed mode and developed a method that let him permanently brick the battery as well as read and modify the entire firmware.

"You can read all the firmware, make changes to the code, do whatever you want. And those code changes will survive a reinstall of the OS, so you could imagine writing malware that could hide on the chip on the battery. You'd need a vulnerability in the OS or something that the battery could then attack, though," Miller said.

Comment Re:Reflexive /. Gates bashing in 3...2... (Score 1) 471

by aric4ever (#36750496) Attached to: Bill Gates Looks to Reinvent the Toilet

The problem is that there are literally no solutions in place for toilets in third world countries. So excrement is anywhere/everywhere. And since the classic western toilet is expensive and requires a lot of hookups/extras (treament facilties, running water, toilet paper, etc) they have been funding two projects. One is to build pit latrines and other facilities to contain it. The other is what to do with it when gathered.

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Never tell people how to do things. Tell them WHAT to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. -- Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.

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