Shared posts

22 Feb 07:18

Winter Olympics: Anna Gasser wins women's big air final with last jump

Austria's Anna Gasser secures gold in the the women's big air with the last jump of the day to snatch gold from Jamie Anderson.
15 Feb 16:39

Airbus takes new €1.3bn hit on A400M troop carrier

The aerospace group has now written off a total of €8bn in losses on the military transport plane.
15 Feb 16:33

Oxfam scandal: Ex-director hits out at 'lies and exaggerations'

Accused of hiring prostitutes in Haiti, the former executive hits out at "lies and exaggerations".
04 Feb 23:22

Gerry Adams backs Jeremy Corbyn as next PM

The outgoing Sinn Féin leader praises the Labour leader's past role in the peace process.
02 Feb 18:06

Anti-Isis fighters gather in Dorset for funeral of UK sniper Jac Holmes

by Matt Blake

Volunteers from Kurdish YPG force pay tribute to former IT worker killed in action in Syria

Anti-Islamic State fighters from around the globe were among hundreds of mourners who flooded a small Dorset community hall on Friday to celebrate the life of a British former IT worker killed fighting the jihadist group in Syria.

Jac Holmes, 24, from Bournemouth, was one of the longest-serving international volunteers with Syria’s Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), having travelled to northern Syria three times since August 2015.

Continue reading...
09 Jan 07:41

CCTV commish: Bring all surveillance systems under code of practice

by Rebecca Hill

Proliferation of video tracking in Blighty 'undermines' efforts to improve

The UK's surveillance camera commissioner has told the British government to adopt a "common sense position" and bring all bodies using surveillance camera systems under its code of practice.…

11 Dec 22:44

The Brexit situation is a 'shambles': your best comments on the Guardian today

by Guardian readers

Your reaction to David Davis’ suggestion the UK could back out of its Brexit deal on the Irish border, and comments on weather woes and travel chaos


Discussion today looks at the latest from Brexit secretary David Davis as he retracts his suggestion that the UK could back out of its Brexit deal on the Irish border. We also follow the latest on plunging temperatures in the UK and the travel chaos it has created.

Related: David Davis clashes with Ireland over Brexit deal

Continue reading...
06 Dec 11:29

Theresa May’s Brexit red lines were reckless. Now she has to cross them | Keir Starmer

by Keir Starmer
This week’s farcical talks exposed the flaws in her government’s approach. She is hostage to the DUP and has made promises she cannot sensibly keep

The breakdown of the Brexit talks yesterday was the latest, but most serious, setback so far. It further eroded the prime minister’s already limited authority. It raised the stakes in Northern Ireland even higher. And it increased the risk of negotiations not progressing to the crucial next phase and a long overdue agreement on transitional arrangements.

Related: Brexit talks: bad-tempered breakdown in sight as deadline looms | Dan Roberts

Continue reading...
26 Nov 23:02

Franken 'embarrassed and ashamed' over groping allegations

Sen. Al Franken said Sunday that he plans to return to the Senate on Monday and expressed embarrassment and shame after several women said he had touched them inappropriately.
22 Nov 15:17

Indescribable King of the Hill creepywave remix video

by Rob Beschizza

"Clouds?"

Now I'll be spending all day seeing what other divine nightmares await in the kingdom of KoTH YouTube poop.

02 Nov 13:30

'My therapist reignited my sex abuse trauma'

The ineffective regulation of those practising talking therapies 'leaves patients at risk of harm'.
01 Oct 18:13

Troops fire rubber bullets to prevent Catalan independence vote, injure at least 465

by Cory Doctorow

The Catalonian referendum on independence from Spain went ahead today, using the backup ballot boxes the opposition had secretly procured in anticipation of the brutal crackdown on the independence movement by the central government in Madrid, which included snatching elected officials and seizing ballot boxes. (more…)

14 Sep 10:16

Prisoner 'trapped' in jail for 11 years to be released

James Ward received a 10-month prison sentence for arson but has been behind bars for 11 years.
06 Sep 07:21

Good Samaritan helps young boy

02 Sep 08:14

Petition Asks the Developers of Phoenix OS to Open Source the Kernel

by msmash
An anonymous reader shares a report: Android is mainly considered an open source mobile operating system, but there are a number of closed source elements that hundreds of millions of people use every day. The actual requirements of Android is that the kernel be open sourced for the public. This is enforced by the GPL but sadly this is one of those gray areas where someone actually needs to take legal action to enforce it. Some companies have violated this time and time again, and a new petition is calling for the developers of Phoenix OS to do the right thing. For those who are unaware, Phoenix OS is one of the only full desktop versions of Android that is still being maintained. [...] So a dedicated fan of the platform, Karol Putra, has created a Change.org petition in hopes that it will change their minds.

Share on Google+

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

14 Aug 10:22

Surrey man helps trace missing four-year-old girl in US with free pizza

by Jamie Grierson

Harry Brown discovers Yvette Henley being held in Arizona by father against court order by tricking him into taking delivery

A man from Surrey helped to find a missing four-year-old girl from his bedroom 5,000 miles away after convincing her captor to reveal his location online through the promise of a free pizza.

Harry Brown, tracked Yvette Henley to a hotel in Arizona where she was with her father, Virgil Henley, 28.

Continue reading...
03 Aug 06:34

Growing Threat to Free/Libre Software From Software Patents: Apple, Microsoft and Nokia Charge Ahead

by Roy Schestowitz
The triplet of phone companies with dying ambitions (or declining market share) and just a big pile of patents is still a potent threat to the success of (GNU/)Linux-powered devices which now dominate the market
22 Jul 13:22

The day the sun disappears

In less than a month, the sun will disappear -- for a short time -- across America.
09 Jul 18:21

Bruce Perens Warns Grsecurity Breaches the Linux Kernel's GPL License

by EditorDavid
Bruce Perens co-founded the Open Source Initiative with Eric Raymond. Now he's sharing a "strong opinion" that companies should avoid the Grsecurity security patch for the Linux kernel "because it presents a contributory infringement and breach of contract risk." Slashdot reader NewGnu shared Bruce's comments: [I]t would fail a fair-use test... Because of its strongly derivative nature of the kernel, it must be under the GPL version 2 license, or a license compatible with the GPL and with terms no more restrictive than the GPL. Earlier versions were distributed under GPL version 2... My understanding from several reliable sources is that customers are verbally or otherwise warned that if they redistribute the Grsecurity patch, as would be their right under the GPL, that they will be assessed a penalty: they will no longer be allowed to be customers, and will not be granted access to any further versions of Grsecurity. GPL version 2 section 6 explicitly prohibits the addition of terms such as this redistribution prohibition... This is tantamount to the addition of a term to the GPL prohibiting distribution or creating a penalty for distribution. GPL section 6 specifically prohibits any addition of terms. Thus, the GPL license, which allows Grsecurity to create its derivative work of the Linux kernel, terminates, and the copyright of the Linux Kernel is infringed. The contract from the Linux kernel developers to both Grsecurity and the customer which is inherent in the GPL is breached. Perens advises companies to discuss his position with their attorneys, adding "In the public interest, I am willing to discuss this issue with companies and their legal counsel, under NDA, without charge."

Share on Google+

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

23 Jun 06:19

In China's far west the 'perfect police state' is emerging

by Tom Phillips in southern Xinjiang

During a trip through China’s violence-plagued Xinjiang, the Guardian witnesses dramatic security surge as Communist party fights to ‘pacify’ region

It was Friday, the Islamic day of assembly, but outside Kashgar’s Id Kah mosque on Liberation Avenue it was the growl of diesel engines that filled the air not a muezzin’s wistful cry.

One by one armoured personnel carriers, some with machine guns poking from their turrets, rolled towards People’s Square where a 12-metre statue of Mao Zedong was preparing to preside over the latest in a series of tub-thumping “anti-terror” rallies to be held here in the heartlands of China’s Muslim Uighur minority this year.

Continue reading...
26 Apr 06:16

Strangers 'said sorry' before acid attack

His attackers, who were strangers, said: "Are you Chris? We're ever so sorry," before the attack.
18 Apr 05:59

Dingo Wins The World's Most Interesting Genome Competition

by msmash
An anonymous reader shares a report: It sounds like an argument scientists might have during a night of drinking: Which creature has the most interesting genome in the world? But the question is more than a passing musing. San Francisco biotech company Pacific Biosciences held a public competition to determine which critter should receive the honor. The winner: Sandy Maliki, an Australian desert dingo. The company will now sequence the dingo's genome to help researchers study animal domestication. Sandy beat out four other interesting finalists in the competition, receiving 41 percent of the public votes, which were cast from around the world. This is the fourth year the company has sponsored the competition. The company invites researchers to send in grant proposals explaining why the interesting plants and animals they study should be sequenced. Then a committee of scientists whittles the entries down to five finalists for the final public vote.

Share on Google+

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

13 Apr 17:15

Tesco sorry for Good Friday beer advert

Supermarket says "no intention to offend" over beer advert that said "Good Friday just got better".
11 Mar 23:02

Will WebAssembly Replace JavaScript?

by EditorDavid
On Tuesday Firefox 52 became the first browser to support WebAssembly, a new standard "to enable near-native performance for web applications" without a plug-in by pre-compiling code into low-level, machine-ready instructions. Mozilla engineer Lin Clark sees this as an inflection point where the speed of browser-based applications increases dramatically. An anonymous reader quotes David Bryant, the head of platform engineering at Mozilla. This new standard will enable amazing video games and high-performance web apps for things like computer-aided design, video and image editing, and scientific visualization... Over time, many existing productivity apps (e.g. email, social networks, word processing) and JavaScript frameworks will likely use WebAssembly to significantly reduce load times while simultaneously improving performance while running... developers can integrate WebAssembly libraries for CPU-intensive calculations (e.g. compression, face detection, physics) into existing web apps that use JavaScript for less intensive work... In some ways, WebAssembly changes what it means to be a web developer, as well as the fundamental abilities of the web. Mozilla celebrated with a demo video of the high-resolution graphics of Zen Garden, and while right now WebAssembly supports compilation from C and C++ (plus some preliminary support for Rust), "We expect that, as WebAssembly continues to evolve, you'll also be able to use it with programming languages often used for mobile apps, like Java, Swift, and C#."

Share on Google+

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

28 Dec 22:44

Windows 10 Getting a Game Mode That Would Improve Game Performance - Report

by msmash
Microsoft may have plans to improve gaming experience on Windows 10. The speculation comes after long time watcher @h0x0d found a new "gamemode.dll" in the latest Windows 10 developer build, reports GameSpot. The feature appears to allow Windows 10 to adjust CPU and GPU resources when running a game to allocate more power for the game that's running instead of toward any background apps. From the article: The feature will reportedly launch as part of the Creators update and will be enabled for Windows Insider users soon. What's unclear is exactly which games this is compatible with. It's possible it could be limited to only to those downloaded from the Windows Store, or it might be much more far-reaching. We should know more once Windows Insiders testers get their hands on the feature.

Share on Google+

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

20 Dec 04:33

Donald Trump wins electoral college vote

Donald Trump wins electoral college vote, confirming his election as the 45th US president.
14 Dec 19:03

Three men charged with indecent assault against a child in Rotherham

by Frances Perraudin North of England reporter

Riaz Makhmood, Sajid Ali and Zaheer Iqbal charged with assaulting girl under the age of 14 between June 1994 and June 1995

Three men have been charged with a total of 15 offences of indecent assault against a child in Rotherham following an independent investigation by the National Crime Agency.

Riaz Makhmood, 38, Sajid Ali, 37 and Zaheer Iqbal, 39, all from Rotherham, have been charged with assaulting a girl under the age of 14 between June 1994 and June 1995.

Continue reading...
11 Dec 00:33

Patti Smith falters in Stockholm tribute to an absent Bob Dylan

by Vanessa Thorpe and Chris Johnston

Representing the Nobel laureate at the prize-giving, the US singer admitted nerves in performance at Swedish academy

A very nervous Patti Smith initially stumbled through A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall in Stockholm on Saturday in a performance given to mark Bob Dylan’s Nobel prize for literature.

Making the award, Horace Engdahl, a Swedish literary historian and critic and member of the Swedish academy that awards the prize, responded to international criticism of the choice of a popular lyricist as recipient.

Continue reading...
10 Dec 08:07

Netherlands trial: Geert Wilders guilty of incitement

Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders is convicted in hate speech trial but no penalty is imposed.
10 Dec 07:53

Michael Gove: Theresa May was 'right to sack me'

Michael Gove says the PM was right to ask him to quit the cabinet, adding: "I would've sacked me too".