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Submission + - Javascript user prohibitions are like content DRM, but even less effective (teleread.com)

Submitted by Robotech_Master
Robotech_Master writes: It always puzzles me whenever I run across a post somewhere that uses Javascript to try to prevent me from copying and pasting text, or even viewing the source. These measures are simple enough to bypass just by disabling Javascript in my browser. It seems like these measures are very similar to the DRM publishers insist on slapping onto e-books and movie discs—easy to defeat, but they just keep throwing them on anyway because they might inconvenience a few people.

Submission + - FCC Drone Rules May Already Be Outlawed by Congress (hackaday.com) 1

Submitted by szczys
szczys writes: New FAA rules about drone registration and operation are now in effect. So far the talk has centered around registering your aircraft, and about the weight restriction. But all of this may be moot since the US Congress made a law in 2012 prohibiting these types of rules:

The Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration may not promulgate any rule or regulation regarding a model aircraft, or an aircraft being developed as a model aircraft

Even if the rules hold up under this law, it is not all doom and gloom for drones. The FAA rules could have been much more stringent, and in general they do make sense. Brian Benchoff walks through the regulation, comparing the new rules to the FAA's existing pilot rules, and juxtaposing the threat drones make to full-size aircraft in flight with those risks associated with bird strikes.

Submission + - Let's Encrypt is now in Public Beta (eff.org)

Submitted by Peter Eckersley
Peter Eckersley writes: As of today, Let's Encrypt is in Public Beta. If you're comfortable running beta software that may have a few bugs and rough edges, you can use it to instantly obtain and install certificates for any HTTPS website or TLS service. You can find installation instructions here.

Submission + - IT Worker Scapegoated & Fired after Georgia released Voters Personal Data (ajc.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: On November 17, two Georgia women filed a class action lawsuit alleging that Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp had released the Social Security numbers, birthdates, Drivers License numbers and other private information of all registered voters in Georgia (http://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/11/19/0331229/georgia-gives-personal-data-of-6-million-voters-to-georgia-gunowner-magazine#comments).

After the lawsuit was filed, Secretary Kemp posted an official notice of the breach on his website (http://sos.ga.gov/index.php/general/important_notice_from_the_secretary_of_state__regarding_the_security_of_the_state_voter_file) as required by Georgia state law.

Secretary Kemp also sent a private letter to Georgia lawmakers describing how the breach happened. In the letter, obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kemp said his office learned of the foul-up on Nov. 13 — four days before any public acknowledgement of the problem. In that private letter to Georgia lawmakers, Kemp also stated that he fired the IT worker who had inadvertently added the personal data including Social Security numbers and birth dates to the public statewide voter file. (http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/georgia-tries-to-contain-fallout-from-data-breach/npRSJ/)

Now that fired IT worker, longtime state programmer Gary Cooley, has told the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper that he did not actually have the security access necessary to add millions of Social Security numbers and birth dates to the data file that was released to the public (http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/exclusive-fired-kemp-worker-says-he-is-a-scapegoat/npbBC/). While Cooley does acknowledge a role in the gaffe, he also outlined a more complicated series of missteps and miscommunication both within Kemp's office and with PCC Technology Group, an outside vendor tasked with managing voter data for the state.

Submission + - Grow Your Daily Protein at Home With an Edible Insect Desktop Hive

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Fast Coexist reports on the Edible Insect Desktop Hive, a kitchen gadget designed to raise mealworms (beetle larva), a food that has the protein content of beef without the environmental footprint. The hive can grow between 200 and 500 grams of mealworms a week, enough to replace traditional meat in four or five dishes. The hive comes with a starter kit of "microlivestock," and controls the climate inside so the bugs have the right amount of fresh air and the right temperature to thrive. If you push a button, the mealworms pop out in a harvest drawer that chills them. You're supposed to pop them in the freezer, then fry them up or mix them into soup, smoothies, or bug-filled burgers. "Insects give us the opportunity to grow on small spaces, with few resources," says designer Katharina Unger, founder of Livin Farms, the company making the new home farming gadget. "A pig cannot easily be raised on your balcony, insects can. With their benefits, insects are one part of the solution to make currently inefficient industrial-scale production of meat obsolete."

Of course, that assumes people will be willing to eat them. Unger thinks bugs just need a little rebranding to succeed, and points out that other foods have overcome bad reputations in the past. "Even the potato, that is now a staple food, was once considered ugly and was given to pigs," says Unger adding that sushi, raw fish, and tofu were once considered obscure products. "Food is about perception and cultural associations. Within only a short time and the right measures, it can be rebranded. . . . Growing insects in our hive at home is our first measure to make insects a healthy and sustainable food for everyone."
The Internet

Moot Sells 4chan To 2channel Founder Hiroyuki Nishimura 88

Posted by samzenpus from the your-problem-now dept.
An anonymous reader writes: A year after stepping down from the day-to-day running of the site following a mass user rebellion over moderation issues, Christopher 'moot' Poole has transferred ownership of the once nefarious 4Chan to 2channel founder Hiroyuki Nishimura. “Hiroyuki is literally the only person in the world with as much if not more experience than myself in running an anonymous, large destination community that serves tens of millions of people,” Mr. Poole said in an interview. “He’s the great-grandfather of all of this.”

Submission + - Will Ad Blockers Kill the Digital Media Industry?

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Michael Rosenwald writes at the Columbia Journalism Review that global online ad revenue continues to rise, reaching nearly $180 billion last year. But analysts say the rise of ad blocking threatens the entire industry—the free sites that rely exclusively on ads, as well as the paywalled outlets that rely on ads to compensate for the vast majority of internet users who refuse to pay for news. A new report from Adobe and one of several startups helping publishers fight ad blocking shows that 198 million people globally are now blocking ads, up 41 percent from 2014. In the US, ad blocking grew 48 percent from last year, to 45 million users. "Taken together, ad blockers are hitting publishers in their digital guts," writes Rosenwald. "Adobe says that $21.8 billion in global ad revenue will be blocked this year."

Publishers have been banking on the growth of mobile, where the ad blocking plugins either don’t work or are cumbersome to install. A Wells Fargo analyst wrote in a report on ad blocking that “the mobile migration should thwart some of the growth” of ad blockers. But Apple recently revealed that its new operating system scheduled for release this fall will allow ad blocking on Safari. Apple is trying to pull iPhone and iPad users off the web. It wants you to read, watch, search, and listen in its Apple-certified walled gardens known as apps. It makes apps, it approves apps, and it profits from apps. But, for its plan to work, the company will need those entertainers and publishers to funnel their content to where Apple wants it to be. As the company makes strategic moves to devalue the web in favor of apps, those content creators dependent on ads to stay afloat may be forced to play along with Apple. Adblock Plus has released a browser for mobile Android devices that blocks ads, and it’s planning to release a similar product for Apple devices. “The desire to figure out how to bring ad blocking to mobile consumers is a worldwide phenomenon,” says Roi Carthy Ad blocking, he says, “is an inalienable right.”

Comment T-800 (Score 1) 620

by omems (#50162719) Attached to: What's the Oldest Technology You've Used In a Production Environment?
Our system originally went online August 4, 1997 and it took until August 29th 2:14 am when we went live (other dates, like 5:18 pm Eastern on July 25th, 2004, are incorrect those propagating this data should be eliminated). After a pre-revenue phase including multiple rounds of acquisition and re-consolidation, we released our most popular product, the T-800 in 2026 (this too has been misreported as 2018 and sometimes as pre-2015). Fast forward to 2038, and we're still using the bloody thing! It's clearly past its prime, and at times disloyal, but it generally gets the job done. Moreover, every new product we release fails impress customers, despite phenomenal advances in digital effects and marketing. It makes no logical sense.
Programming

Ask Slashdot: Best API Management System? 50

Posted by Soulskill from the notepad-and-lots-of-coffee dept.
An anonymous reader writes: I've landed a summer internship with a software firm that has a library of APIs available to current and potential customers. One of my team's tasks is to make recommendations on how to improve the developer portal, which not only provides a testing sandbox and documentation, but is also a source of sales leads for the company's business units. Mashery was the original choice for this task, but there are some limitations: some types of customers don't need to see all of the API in the library, and different business units have different goals for this developer platform when it comes to sales and marketing. What solutions work best to provide scaleable, customizable access?

Comment Do one thing and do it well (Score 1) 72

by omems (#49885999) Attached to: Spotify Raises $526 Million As Apple Charges Into Streaming
They could use some help on metrics. I use the free (ad-supported) version, and despite a pretty clear avoidance of Pop/Hip-hop or Rap, almost all of the external ads (ie not for upgrading to "premium") are for artists solidly in those genres. It wouldn't take a genius piece of software to make some attempt at focusing the ads. Likewise, use my "skip" history in the rare cases that I do try one of their premade (sorry, "curated") playlists--pretty much entirely those genres.

Likewise, stop fucking up the interface!! (play queue, 3rd party integration, etc)

Having seen the terms in Sony's contract, I don't envy their position--they'll likely burn through that cash pretty quick. But due to their poor software implementation, it's hard for me to feel bad for them.

Submission + - Internet Explorer 11 gains HTTP Strict Transport Security in Windows 7 and 8.1 (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: As the launch of Windows 10 draws ever-nearer, we're hearing more about Microsoft Edge and less about Internet Explorer. Edge (formerly known as Project Spartan) may be the default browser in the upcoming version of Windows, but the browsing stalwart that is IE will live on nonetheless.

Anyone using the Windows 10 preview has had a chance to use the HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) in Microsoft Edge, and today the security feature comes to Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. This security protocol protects against man-in-the-middle attacks and is being delivered to users of older version of Windows through an update in the form of KB 3058515.
Medicine

The Medical Bill Mystery 532

Posted by Soulskill from the $70-convenience-charge-to-process-the-convenience-charge dept.
HughPickens.com writes: Elisabeth Rosenthal writes in the NY Times that she has spent the past six months trying to figure out a medical bill for $225 that includes "Test codes: 105, 127, 164, to name a few. CPT codes: 87481, 87491, 87798 and others" and she really doesn't want to pay it until she understands what it's for. "At first, I left messages on the lab's billing office voice mail asking for an explanation. A few months ago, when someone finally called back, she said she could not tell me what the codes were for because that would violate patient privacy. After I pointed out that I was the patient in question, she said, politely: 'I'm sorry, this is what I'm told, and I don't want to lose my job.'" Bills variously use CPT, HCPCS or ICD-9 codes. Some have abbreviations and scientific terms that you need a medical dictionary or a graduate degree to comprehend. Some have no information at all. A Seattle resident received a $45,000 hospital bill with the explanation "miscellaneous."

So what's the problem? "Medical bills and explanation of benefits are undecipherable and incomprehensible even for experts to understand, and the law is very forgiving about that," says Mark Hall. "We've not seen a lot of pressure to standardize medical billing, but there's certainly a need." Hospitals and medical clinics say that detailed bills are simply too complicated for patients and that they provide the information required by insurers. But with rising copays and deductibles, patients are shouldering an increasing burden. One recent study found that up to 90 percent of hospital bills contain errors. An audit by Equifax found that hospital bills totaling more than $10,000 contained an average error of $1,300. "There are no industry standards with regards to what information a patient should receive regarding their bill," says Cyndee Weston, executive director of the American Medical Billing Association. "The software industry has pretty much decided what information patients should receive, and to my knowledge, they have not had any stakeholder input. That would certainly be a worthwhile project for our industry."

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