Comment Re:Light Saber? (Score 1) 175
In the best Greedo voice: "I find your lack of faith disturbing..."
Too much?
Submission + - Naps Nurture Growing Brains (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: Few features of child-rearing occupy as much parental brain space as sleep, and with it the timeless question: Is my child getting enough? Despite the craving among many parents for more sleep in their offspring (and, by extension, themselves), the purpose that sleep serves in young kids remains something of a mystery—especially when it comes to daytime naps. Do they help children retain information, as overnight sleep has been found to do in adults? A new study provides the first evidence that daytime sleep is in fact critical for effective learning in young children.
Submission + - Medical records given to pharmacies are not constitutionally protected, says DEA (theverge.com) 1
schwit1 writes: Like emails and documents stored in the cloud, your prescription medical records may have a tenuous right to privacy. In response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) over the privacy of certain medical records, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is arguing that citizens whose medical records are handed over to a pharmacy — or any other third-party — have "no expectation of privacy" for that information.
Submission + - Are We Witnessing the Decline of Ubuntu? (datamation.com) 2
jammag writes: "When the history of free software is written, I am increasingly convinced that this last year will be noted as the start of the decline of Ubuntu," opines Linux pundit Bruce Byfield. After great initial success, Ubuntu and Canonical began to isolate themselves from the mainstream of the free software community. Canonical, he says, has tried to control the open source community, and the company has floundered in many of its initiatives. Really, the mighty Ubuntu, in decline?
Submission + - Car Dealers Stand In Line, Complain to DMV About Tesla's Website (greencarreports.com) 2
cartechboy writes: Ok maybe they don't actually stand in line, but still, talk about complaining into ether. State and national car dealer groups have been battling Tesla Motors for years, trying to stop them from selling its electric cars directly to buyers. Most of the time, the dealers work behind the scenes to change state laws and and force Tesla to conduct its sales through "independently-owned third parties" which are aka, well, car dealers. But in California, Tesla's operations are legal, so that tactic won't work. So dealers there are taking an interesting new tack — complaining to the DMV about Tesla's website.
Submission + - Did Today's Pakistan Earthquake Create a New Island? (zerohedge.com) 2
schwit1 writes: Pakistani's The News reports, an entire island emerged off the country's Gwadar coast in the aftermath of the quake. "According to DIG Gwadar Moazzam Jah, the island's altitude is 20 to 40 feet and width around 100 feet. Talking to Geo news, the DIG said that the island emerged at a distance of 350 feet in the sea from the Gwadar coast."
How long until US military claims this new rock as a new naval base which just happens to be in close proximity to Iran's eastern maritime border?
How long until US military claims this new rock as a new naval base which just happens to be in close proximity to Iran's eastern maritime border?
Submission + - NSA data center front and center in debate over liberty, security and privacy (foxnews.com)
chamilto0516 writes: Twenty-five miles due south of Salt Lake City, a massive construction project is nearing completion. The heavily secured site belongs to the National Security Agency.
"The spy center" — that's what some of the locals like Jasmine Widmer, who works at Bluffdale's sandwich shop, told our Fox News team as part of an eight month investigation into data collection and privacy rights that will be broadcast Sunday at 9 p.m. ET called "Fox News Reporting: Your Secrets Out.”
The NSA says the Utah Data Center is a facility for the intelligence community that will have a major focus on cyber security. The agency will neither confirm nor deny specifics. Some published reports suggest it could hold 5 zettabytes of data. (Just one zettabyte is the equivalent of about 62 billion stacked iPhones 5's-- that stretches past the moon.
"The spy center" — that's what some of the locals like Jasmine Widmer, who works at Bluffdale's sandwich shop, told our Fox News team as part of an eight month investigation into data collection and privacy rights that will be broadcast Sunday at 9 p.m. ET called "Fox News Reporting: Your Secrets Out.”
The NSA says the Utah Data Center is a facility for the intelligence community that will have a major focus on cyber security. The agency will neither confirm nor deny specifics. Some published reports suggest it could hold 5 zettabytes of data. (Just one zettabyte is the equivalent of about 62 billion stacked iPhones 5's-- that stretches past the moon.
Submission + - What happens to your digital inheritance?
ron-l-j writes: The last few months a digital inheritance idea has been floating around in my head, and I am sure the thought has crossed your mind as well.With Google talking about the inactive account program it made me wonder, will my children get my iTunes, and amazon movies? I have plenty of mp4 movies on my server that will just set itself to admin with no password after I do not log in within a 6 month time frame.
But what about the millions of dollars spent on digital content?
We all know your favorite DVD will become scratched, and will be worthless after a few years. But the possibility of your purchases lasting a long time is more relevant today with more reliable storage. Will it be the case of my boring 2D movies being laughed at by my kids and their 3D holographic displays? I do have a collection of written material, photos, home video, and a database I would like my descendants to have access to.
I can see the lawyers now grabbing for a fee, and the government digging in to tax your digital life in an inheritance tax.
But what about the millions of dollars spent on digital content?
We all know your favorite DVD will become scratched, and will be worthless after a few years. But the possibility of your purchases lasting a long time is more relevant today with more reliable storage. Will it be the case of my boring 2D movies being laughed at by my kids and their 3D holographic displays? I do have a collection of written material, photos, home video, and a database I would like my descendants to have access to.
I can see the lawyers now grabbing for a fee, and the government digging in to tax your digital life in an inheritance tax.
Submission + - Corruption Allegations Rock Australia's CSIRO (theage.com.au)
An anonymous reader writes: Australia's premiere government research organisation the CSIRO has been rocked by allegations of corruption including fraud against drug giant Novartis, dishonesty with 60 top-class scientists bullied or fired, illegally using intellectual property, faking documents and unreliable testimony to judicial officers, but CSIRO Boss Megan Clark has refused to discipline the staff responsible and the federal police don't want to get involved. Victims are unimpressed and former CSIRO scientists are calling for an inquiry.
Submission + - Aurora Borealis likely to be visible in southern NY and PA tonight
chromaexcursion writes: Several news source are reporting the likelihood of an impressive show of the Aurora Borealis visible as far south as even Washington DC this evening. NPR and AccuWeather http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/dazzling-northern-lights-antic-1/10107004 both have the story. Check the map, if you're in a fair to good zone head out after sunset to see the show.
Submission + - Popular Wordpress Plug-in Caught Spamming Is Put On Double-Secret Probation (securityledger.com)
chicksdaddy writes: Social Media Widget, a free plug-in for the WordPress blogging platform with more than a million downloads, was restored WordPress's official plugin directory on Thursday, days after it was found injecting WordPress websites with spam links to web sites offering Pay Day Loans.
In a post on a support forum for Social Media Widget (SMW), Samuel Wood, a WordPress administrator, said that WordPress was willing to give SMW and its owner a second chance after he claimed to have been the victim of a contract developer gone rogue.
“Naturally we do take a very hard line on spam, and obviously an author putting malicious code into a plugin is enough grounds for us to bring down the ban hammer,” Wood wrote on Friday. “But there are natural circumstances where an author may not be at fault.”
Social Media Widget (SMW) appears to be such a case. It is one of the 20 most popular WordPress add-ons and allows WordPress web site operators to include links to their other social media accounts. In an e-mail interview with The Security Ledger and in comments on the SMW support forum, Brendan Sheehan, the owner of SMW and co-founder of the online marketing firm Media Compass, said that changes that inserted links to Pay Day Loan scam sites were “a mistake that we will not let happen again.”
“We trusted the wrong people with our plugin code and take full responsibility. We are a marketing company at heart and are not actually developers, so in order to provide major updates and improvements, we had to seek outside help. Some of these people deceived us and abused our trust and naivety...We will not make this mistake again.”
Wood said the folks at Wordpress decided to accept that story — but that they're watching SMW closely. "Basically, the current maintainer is not a professional programmer, and put his trust in the wrong freelancers to do the coding work for him...We’ll be watching the plugin for changes,” he said. “The plugin is back up for now, and as long as it stays clean, it’s fine.”"
In a post on a support forum for Social Media Widget (SMW), Samuel Wood, a WordPress administrator, said that WordPress was willing to give SMW and its owner a second chance after he claimed to have been the victim of a contract developer gone rogue.
“Naturally we do take a very hard line on spam, and obviously an author putting malicious code into a plugin is enough grounds for us to bring down the ban hammer,” Wood wrote on Friday. “But there are natural circumstances where an author may not be at fault.”
Social Media Widget (SMW) appears to be such a case. It is one of the 20 most popular WordPress add-ons and allows WordPress web site operators to include links to their other social media accounts. In an e-mail interview with The Security Ledger and in comments on the SMW support forum, Brendan Sheehan, the owner of SMW and co-founder of the online marketing firm Media Compass, said that changes that inserted links to Pay Day Loan scam sites were “a mistake that we will not let happen again.”
“We trusted the wrong people with our plugin code and take full responsibility. We are a marketing company at heart and are not actually developers, so in order to provide major updates and improvements, we had to seek outside help. Some of these people deceived us and abused our trust and naivety...We will not make this mistake again.”
Wood said the folks at Wordpress decided to accept that story — but that they're watching SMW closely. "Basically, the current maintainer is not a professional programmer, and put his trust in the wrong freelancers to do the coding work for him...We’ll be watching the plugin for changes,” he said. “The plugin is back up for now, and as long as it stays clean, it’s fine.”"
Submission + - Scientists Are Cracking the Primordial Soup Mystery (vice.com) 1
derekmead writes: Scientists have had a basic understanding of how life first popped up on Earth for a while. The so-called "primordial soup" was sitting around, stagnant but containing the basic building blocks of life. Then magic happened and we ended up with life. It's that "magic" that has been the sticking point for scientists, but new research from a team of scientists at the University of Leeds has started to shed light on the mystery, explaining just how objects from space might have kindled the reaction that sparked life on Earth.
It's generally accepted that space rocks played an important role in life's genesis on Earth. Meteorites bombarding the planet early in its history delivered some of the necessary materials for life but none brought life as we know it. How inanimate rocks transformed into the building blocks of life has been a mystery.
But this latest research suggests an answer. If meteorites containing phosphorus landed in the hot, acidic pools that surrounded young volcanoes on the early Earth, there could have been a reaction that produced a chemical similar one that's found in all living cells and is vital in producing the energy that makes something alive.
It's generally accepted that space rocks played an important role in life's genesis on Earth. Meteorites bombarding the planet early in its history delivered some of the necessary materials for life but none brought life as we know it. How inanimate rocks transformed into the building blocks of life has been a mystery.
But this latest research suggests an answer. If meteorites containing phosphorus landed in the hot, acidic pools that surrounded young volcanoes on the early Earth, there could have been a reaction that produced a chemical similar one that's found in all living cells and is vital in producing the energy that makes something alive.
Submission + - Google Fiber: Why Traditional ISPs Are Officially On Notice (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: A few years ago, when Google was determining which city to launch its pilot Google Fiber program, cities all over the country went all-out trying to persuade the search giant to bring all that fantastical bandwidth to their neck of the woods. And with good reason: Google Fiber offers gigabit Internet speeds and even TV service, all at prices that meet or beat the competition. In fact, the lowest tier of Google Fiber service (5Mbps down, 1Mbps up) is free, once users pay a $300 construction fee. If ISPs were concerned before, they should really start sweating it now. Although Google Fiber looked like it would whip traditional ISPs in every regard, with Time Warner Cable cutting prices and boosting speeds for users in Kansas City in a desperate attempt to keep them, surely other ISPs were hoping the pilot program would flame out. Now that Austin is happening, it’s clear that it’s only a matter of time before Google rolls out its service in many more cities. Further, this jump from legacy Internet speeds to gigabit-class service is not just about people wanting to download movies faster; it’s a sea change in what the Internet is really capable of.
Submission + - Wordpress sites under wide-scale brute force attack (siliconrepublic.com)
NitzJaaron writes: Some of us have been experiencing these attacks for the last few days, but it's now beginning to be widely reported that there's a fairly large brute force attack happening on Wordpress users on multiple hosts, including HostGator and LiquidWeb. CloudFlare has announced that they're giving all users (free and paid) protection from said attacks with their services.
Submission + - Solar electric spacecraft propulsion could get NASA to an asteroid, beyond (networkworld.com)
coondoggie writes: In the process of detailing its $17.7 billion 2014 budget this week, NASA highlighted a mission to snag a 500 ton asteroid, bring it back, stash it near the moon and study it. It also took the time to put in a plug for an ongoing research project it has gong called Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) that NASA says could be the key technology it needs to pull off the asteroid plan.
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Little known fact about Middle Earth: The Hobbits had a very sophisticated computer network! It was a Tolkien Ring...
