Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 30 2013 @ 05:38 PM EDT |
The question of how to interest more women in technology fields is
one of the most important questions facing us today, for many reasons.
The
internet, of course, is rife with opinion about What Has To Happen in order for
more girls to get into programming, for more women to speak at tech conferences,
and for how to make guys not be jerks to them when they do enter these fields or
show up at these conferences.
Nevermind all that for now. Let’s focus on how
one teenage girl, Jennie Lamere, defeated a room full of smart, motivated,
experienced, full-grown men. This would seem to be instructive to the greater
argument about women in technology, and besides, it has the added bonus of being
based in fact rather than opinion.
Eliot Van Buskirk evolver.fm[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 30 2013 @ 08:15 PM EDT |
My Smartphone Is Thinner Than Yours.
Pity
you won't be allowed to buy it Stateside.
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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 30 2013 @ 09:47 PM EDT |
But there’s still that mindless stare up and to the right, a
telltale
giveaway that sneaky things are afoot.
cringely.com
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Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 02:25 AM EDT |
Yes, doing the honorable
thing.
No,
Appliance Design 101 - Fail
Water + Mains Power
is an order of magnitude
more serious than swipe to unlock.
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Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 10:47 AM EDT |
"BT unleashes SIP licensing troll army"
"VoIP-to-PSTN termination
providers and SIP vendors will be watching their inboxes for a lawyer's letter
from BT, which has kicked off a taxing licensing program levying a fee on the
industry, based on a list of 99 patents."
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Authored by: JamesK on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 12:24 PM EDT |
With "A
Boy and His Atom," Big Blue and its scanning tunneling microscope have made what
is surely the first movie explicitly starring atoms. --- The following
program contains immature subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 12:28 PM EDT |
Adobe's products are a security nightmare. Reader, Flash and Air are
- alongside Oracle's Java browser plugin - the screen door through which the raw
unfiltered sewage of the internet oozes into the homes of
netizens.
[...]
Adobe's solution to the security problem is decidedly
half-arsed: the software giant's updater, which kicks into life when it notices
the installed version of Flash is out of date, is a bug-ridden example of the
unfathomable number of methods by which an application can crash. It fails to
apply the upgrades and security fixes required on far too many
occasions.
[...]
It is demeaning that Adobe should resort to attempting
to bamboozle users with trial installer nagware in the pursuit of a few more
coppers. It is downright vindictive to demand that third parties cease providing
unified tools that augment the security of the internet by cleaning up the mess
they made in the first place by shipping software as insecure as
Flash.
[...]
What Adobe should explicitly not be doing is preventing
Kuzins – and others like him – from making the internet we all share more
secure. I can't find a way to justify this. Whatever the rationalization used by
the Adobe department of idiocy enforcement, they should have checked with PR
first.
The Register[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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- McAffee? Ask? - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 03:11 PM EDT
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Authored by: JamesK on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 12:38 PM EDT |
New Android models
are just hotter than the stoic iPhone. --- The following program
contains immature subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 03:38 PM EDT |
For some time now, the reddit privacy policy has been a bit of legal
boilerplate. While it did its job, it does not give a clear picture on how we
actually approach user privacy. I'm happy to announce that this is
changing.
The reddit privacy policy has been rewritten from the
ground-up. The new text can be found here. This new
policy is a clear and direct description of how we handle your data on reddit,
and the steps we take to ensure your privacy.
To develop the new policy,
we enlisted the help of Lauren Gelman (/u/LaurenGelman). Lauren is the founder of BlurryEdge Strategies, a legal and
strategy consulting firm located in San Francisco that advises technology
companies and investors on cutting-edge legal issues. She previously worked at
Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society, the EFF, and ACM.
Lauren will be helping answer
questions in the thread today regarding the new policy. Please let us know if
there are any questions or concerns you have about the policy. We're happy to
take input, as well as answer any questions we can.
http://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/1dhw2j/reddits_privacy_policy_has_been_rew
ritten_from/[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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- Unringing a Bell - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 04:13 PM EDT
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Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 07:57 PM EDT |
"Over the course of playing $12 million worth of video
poker, Las Vegas
resident John Kane stumbled onto a firmware
bug in IGT's 'Game King' machines
that allowed him to cash
out for 10x the amount of his winnings. John and his
friends
took advantage of the vulnerability to the tune of
$429,945.
John's friend was arrested by U.S. marshals and charged
with
violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, but a federal
magistrate
ruled that the law doesn't apply and recommended
dismissal. The case is
currently being argued in a U.S.
District Court."
link[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: SilverWave on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 08:09 PM EDT |
The Troubled Life of
Patent No. 6,456,841 Tracing the tortured
legal trail of a
simple smartphone patent --- RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions
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Authored by: SilverWave on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 08:22 PM EDT |
Andreessen: Android poised to
explode in emerging
markets --- RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions
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Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 08:38 PM EDT |
Mozilla has sent a cease-and-desist letter to a company that sells
spyware allegedly disguised as the Firefox browser to governments. The action
follows a report
by Citizen Lab, which identifies 36 countries (including the US) hosting
command and control servers for FinFisher, a type of surveillance software. Also
known as FinSpy, the software is sold by UK-based Gamma International to
governments, which use it in criminal investigations and allegedly for spying on dissidents.
Mozilla revealed yesterday in its blog that it has sent the
cease and desist letter to Gamma "demanding that these illegal practices stop
immediately." Gamma's software is "designed to trick people into thinking it's
Mozilla Firefox," Mozilla noted.
Jon Brodkin, ars technica[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 02 2013 @ 12:00 AM EDT |
Twenty years ago this week, researchers renounced the right to
patent the World Wide Web. Officials at CERN, the European research center where
the Web was invented, wrote: CERN relinquishes all intellectual
property to this code, both source and binary form and permission is granted for
anyone to use, duplicate, modify and redistribute it. It's a
dull sentence from a dull
document. But that document marks the moment when the World Wide Web entered
the public domain — a moment that was central to creating the Web as we know it
today.
Jacob Goldstein, NPR[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 02 2013 @ 05:08 AM EDT |
I asked for opinions yesterday about the multiple murder trial of Kermit
Gosnell, and why the trial seems to have been very much under-reported by
main-stream media.
My question seems to have vanished. Is there something sinister going on here,
or am I just paranoid? The Groklaw that I've loved for ten years wouldn't
suppress the reporting of a trial, surely?[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 02 2013 @ 09:51 AM EDT |
href="”http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/01/senator-charles-schumer-plans-bill-for-u
spto-to-review-patent-troll-suits-before-they-head-to-court”">
U.S. Sen.
Charles Schumer (D-NY) is expected to announce legislation that looks to snuff
out patent suits brought by these companies in their early stages, by sending
the suits to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for vetting before they hit
the courts.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: cassini2006 on Thursday, May 02 2013 @ 10:23 AM EDT |
A pop bottle is an explosive device. They "explode" all the time. Also,
everyone is hyper-sensitive about explosive devices, especially near a
school.
Of course, an exploding pop-bottle merits an immediate criminal
investigation, especially near a school.
See for a story about a high-school student and a pop-bottle that resulted
criminal explosive charges.
She's lucky she only got charged with (a)
making an explosive device, and (b) discharging it on school property. She is
very lucky she did not get charged as a terrorist, as I think she qualifies.
After all, a pop bottle is a large explosive device, and the law doesn't
actually specify that the explosive device needs to be effective (or even
dangerous) just that it must be used against people and/or property.
In any
case, people are protesting the stupidity of this situation.
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: JamesK on Thursday, May 02 2013 @ 12:58 PM EDT |
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson took
T-Mobile to court because he believed the wireless service provider's calling
plans that are clearly different from standard practices of the biggest wireless
service providers in the United States were somehow
"deceptive."
Perhaps what the government should do is require
unbundling phones from plans. Do people really believe they're getting a phone
for free or nearly so? Do they not understand that when they get that sort of
contract, they're also buying their phone on a time payment plan? What's even
more galling is the way they think they can reneg^H^H^H^H^H^cancel their
contract early an not owe anything on the phone they bought. If carriers were
required to to what T-Mobile is doing, that is separating the cost of the phone
from the cost of the service, we'd see a quick end to this sort of nonsense,
where people think they're getting a "free" phone and can ignore contract
obligations. Perhaps, as this article mentioned, the other carriers should be
called on why they don't drop the plan rates after the phone has been paid for.
At least my carrier will sell you a plan at a lower rate, if you don't buy the
phone with the plan.--- The following program contains immature subject
matter.
Viewer discretion is advised. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 02 2013 @ 04:21 PM EDT |
selected bits
Thanks to a “performance pay” tax loophole, large corporations in the United
States today are routinely deducting enormous executive payouts from their
income taxes. In effect, these companies are exploiting the U.S. tax code to
send taxpayers the bill for the huge rewards they’re doling out to their top
executives.
During the three-year period 2009-2011, the 90 publicly held corporate members
of the austerity-focused “Fix the Debt” lobby group shoveled out $6.3 billion in
pay to their CEOs and next three highest-paid executives.
These 90 Fix the Debt member firms raked in at least $953 million — and as much
as $1.6 billion — from the “performance pay” loophole between 2009-2011.
Top executives at these same Fix the Debt companies are aggressively advocating
cuts to government programs that benefit the ordinary American taxpayers
subsidizing their compensation.
Many of these executives have also added to America’s debt and deficit by using
tax havens and other accounting tricks to have their corporations avoid paying
their fair tax share.
Health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group enjoyed the biggest taxpayer subsidy
for its CEO pay largesse. The nation’s largest HMO paid CEO Stephen Hemsley $199
million in total compensation between 2009 and 2011. Of this, at least $194
million went for fully deductible “performance pay.”
That works out to a $68 million taxpayer subsidy to UnitedHealth Group – just
for one individual CEO’s pay.
http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/ceo-tax-subsidized-pay [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 02 2013 @ 04:27 PM EDT |
The principle is well accepted in the natural sciences. However, it
is far less common in empirical economics, even though non-reproducible research
can barely be considered a contribution to the consolidated body of scientific
knowledge. ...
In the narrow sense, replicability means that the raw data
for an analysis can be accessed, that the transformation from the raw data to
the final data set is well documented, and that software code is available for
producing the final data set and the empirical results. Basically, this comes
down to a question of data and code availability, but nonetheless it is a
necessary prerequisite for replication. A successful replication would then
indicate that all of the material has been provided and that the same results
were obtained when redoing the analysis.
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2013/05/economics-needs-replica
tion.html[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, May 03 2013 @ 03:33 AM EDT |
The US-EU free trade pact and TPP are about
securing regulatory
gains for major corporate interests.
[...]
The deals in questions, the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
and the US-European Union "Free Trade"
Agreement are both
being pushed as major openings to trade that will increase
growth and create jobs. In fact, eliminating trade
restrictions is a
relatively small part of both agreements,
since most tariffs and quotas have
already been sharply
reduced or eliminated.
Rather, these deals are about
securing regulatory gains for
major corporate interests. In some cases, such as
increased
patent and copyright protection, these deals are 180 degrees
at odds
with free trade. They are about increasing
protectionist
barriers.
Dean Baker, Al Jazeera
---
some more background from:
Yves
Smith, Naked Capitalism [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: JamesK on Friday, May 03 2013 @ 10:08 AM EDT |
For all the feet on the street
chasing the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, a key break came when the
victim who was carjacked and released by the Tsarnaev brothers on April 19 told
the cops his Mercedes could be tracked with one quick call to
Mercedes-Benz. --- The following program contains immature subject
matter.
Viewer discretion is advised. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, May 03 2013 @ 10:38 AM EDT |
This week, Susskind’s popular lectures found a new home of sorts
with the launch of The
Theoretical Minimum, a new web site that presents the six courses in a way that’s
neat, clean and easy to navigate. The site also offers a short text summary of
each lecture, plus related reference materials. You can jump into the courses
and get started on your own intellectual journey via this list:
Dan Colman, Open Culture
---
about Leonard
Susskind:
Wikipedia,
Stanford [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: ukjaybrat on Friday, May 03 2013 @ 12:13 PM EDT |
What new features do you wish Google
would add to
Android? --- IANAL [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, May 03 2013 @ 01:11 PM EDT |
Questions have also arisen over whether US companies should host content from terrorist
organisations. Among the questions involved in such a decision are the legal
implications of an American company hosting speech from organisations on the US
government's official list of "designated foreign terrorist organisations". US
citizens are banned from most types of transactions (financial or otherwise)
with organisations on the list, but those rules do not generally apply to
citizens of other countries.
This is not merely a reference to the
old adage that "one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter", but a serious
question in an age when the US government designates as terrorist a group that,
in another country, is a legitimately popular political party. Though Hezbollah
in particular seems to be going strong on social networks, Twitter has been
accused of removing the accounts of al-Shabab (a designated terrorist group) and
the Syrian Electronic Army, for example.
Jillian C. York, Al Jazeera
Jillian York is director for
international freedom of expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, May 03 2013 @ 02:52 PM EDT |
What it’s like to live without the Internet for a year [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: albert on Friday, May 03 2013 @ 04:20 PM EDT |
http://paper.li/ballard_ip/intellectual-property
No 'Yellow River' jokes, please.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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