guyzmo - Slashdot User

French Minister Sells Surveillance Legislation With Fake Benefits 51

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday January 06, 2011 @02:38AM from the it-slices-it-dices dept.

Dangerous_Minds writes "The debate over LOPPSI 2, the legislation that would allow police to upload malware including Trojan Horses and key loggers to unwitting users without a court order, is heating up in France. Interior minister Brice Hortefeux told the media that LOPPSI 2 would stop the theft of smart phones because vendors would then be able to discontinue use of on-board SIM cards. Critics are pointing out that the theft of stolen portable phones is not covered under LOPPSI 2 in its current form. Others also point out that the discontinued use of SIM cards on stolen phones is already possible in France without the legislation. It's unclear if this is just a case of the minister not knowing what is actually in the legislation he is trying to pass."

Submission + - Stephen Fry and DVD Jon back USB Sniffer Project (kickstarter.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 26, 2010 @04:52AM

An anonymous reader writes: bushing and pytey of the iPhone DevTeam and Team Twiizers have created a Kickstarter project to fund the build of an open-source/open-hardware high-speed USB protocol analyzer. The board features a high-speed USB 2.0 sniffer that will help with the reverse engineering of proprietary USB hardware, the project has gained the backing from two high-profile individuals Jon Lech Johansen (DVD Jon) and Actor and Comedian Stephen Fry

Pirate Bay Day 5 — Prosecution Tries To Sneak In Evidence 341

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday February 21, 2009 @06:11AM from the not-sneaky-enough dept.

Hodejo1 writes "On the old Perry Mason TV shows, it was a common sight to see someone burst into the crowded courtroom at a dire moment and confess aloud that they, not the defendant, killed so-and-so. In reality, courts do not allow evidence to enter trial without a chance for the opposing council to view it and for a judge to rule on their admissibility. Yet, in the fifth day of the Pirate Bay trial, lawyers for the prosecution again tried to sneak in surprise evidence while questioning defendants. The judge put his foot down this time, telling lawyers for the state, 'If you have documents which you eventually plan to use, you need to hand them over now.' The prosecution continues to struggle in court. In one humorous moment, prosecutor Håkan Roswall tried to show how 'hip' he was with technology when he questioned defendant Peter Sunde. 'When did you meet [Gottfrid] for the first time IRL?' asked the Prosecutor. 'We do not use the expression IRL,' said Peter, 'We use AFK.' The defendants are not out of the woods yet. Lawyer and technology writer Richard Koman wonders aloud if the Pirate Bay's 'I-dunno' defense is all that much better."

Open Source 'Sage' Takes Aim at High End Math Software 360

Posted by CmdrTaco on Saturday December 08, 2007 @10:15AM from the that'll-take-awhile dept.

coondoggie writes "A new open source mathematics program is looking to push aside commercial software commonly used in mathematics education, in large government laboratories and in math-intensive research. The program's backers say the software, called Sage, can do anything from mapping a 12-dimensional object to calculating rainfall patterns under global warming."

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