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29 Jun 13:23

US Entertainment Industry To Congress: Make It Legal For Us To Deploy Rootkits

by samzenpus
An anonymous reader writes "The hilariously named 'Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property' has finally released its report, an 84-page tome that's pretty bonkers. But there's a bit that stands out as particularly crazy: a proposal to legalize the use of malware in order to punish people believed to be copying illegally. The report proposes that software would be loaded on computers that would somehow figure out if you were a pirate, and if you were, it would lock your computer up and take all your files hostage until you call the police and confess your crime. This is the mechanism that crooks use when they deploy ransomware."

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27 May 05:51

Cells

Jay McDaniel

I firearm can solve many illnesses. ;-)

Now, if it selectively kills cancer cells in a petri dish, you can be sure it's at least a great breakthrough for everyone suffering from petri dish cancer.
26 May 20:21

5 Often Overlooked Ways to Invest in Your Marriage

by Craig Ford

Married Couple

Every time you invest your money there is an element of uncertainty. The future is unknown, and it’s hard to predict what type of returns you’ll get on your investment.

However, you can confidently invest in your marriage knowing that you’re certain to have a positive return. Here are some ways to invest in your marriage resulting in tremendous returns.

5 Ways to Invest in Your Marriage

1.  Consider symbols that invite Jesus into your marriage.

A preacher friend was telling the story about a couple who came into his office complaining that they argue about everything. He gave them the homework of writing down every time they argued and what they argued about. The next week they came back and had nothing on their papers. He asked about it, and they explained that every time they started to argue they knew they’d have to write it down and then explain the silly reasons to their preacher. The next week he told them to set an extra place setting at the table when they eat. The plate symbolizes the presence of Jesus. He explained that if they are embarrassed about reporting their arguments to the preacher, they’ll probably be even more embarrassed if they remember that Jesus is in their midst.

I’ve heard of others who have a picture of Jesus as a reminder of his constant presence in their home. This exercise will take time and energy, but it will ultimately bring peace to a home that might otherwise rarely experience marital peace. It’s a great idea even if you have a healthy marriage.

2. Keep a record of rights.

While we all know love keeps no records of wrongs, I bet sometimes love keeps records of rights.

Sometimes when we want to love and adore someone we talk about all their strengths and seemingly ignore all their weaknesses. I guess this is why people say that love is blind.

Someone once told me that during dating your eyes should be wide open, and while you’re married your eyes should be half shut. That’s wise advice. We focus where we want to focus. We see what we want to see. Sometimes during times of disappointment or frustration with a spouse, we focus on their wrongs. Instead, if you’re having trouble seeing your spouse in a positive light, write down (so you don’t blindly overlook them) every time your spouse does something good, kind, or right. By focusing on positive attributes, you’ll start to notice their positive attributes more.

3. Date your spouse frequently.

I believe marriage is to be an investment. The cost of dating pales in comparison to the cost of divorce. There’s not just all those lawyer fees, but there is also the need to buy more of everything that you once shared. Dates need not be expensive. However, there are times when a date is special just because you know your spouse went the extra mile to do something special.

My wife and I have a 7, 5, and 3-year old at home. Fortunately, we also have grandparents in town. However, for the previous six years, we were miles away from any relatives. We’d be creative by doing at home dates after the kids went to bed. We did babysitting switches where we’d watch friends’ kids for a night, and then they’d watch our kids.

Make dating a priority. If necessary, increase your date budget to be sure that it reflects how important it is for your marriage.

4. Break routines.

I’m a rut man. I make ruts, and I like living in ruts. The problem with ruts is that sometimes life and relationships can become too predictable. The good news is that since your schedule is like a machine, if you only change one element then the whole system can be positively impacted.

As an example, I developed a habit of watching a TV show before going to bed. I’m half way through a 30-day challenge where I don’t watch any TV before bed. The result? My wife and I have been playing more games lately and communicating!

What one small adjustment could you make that would break a current rut?

5. Openly communicate about money.

Budgeting together is how my wife and I communicate about money.

Every purchase has an opportunity cost associated with it. When you buy a DVD for $20, that’s $20 you can’t spend on something else. Financial disagreement in marriage often stems from associating different value to different items. One partner might not think anything of paying $100 for dinner, while the other thinks that’s a tremendous waste of money. “Wouldn’t it be better if we’d used the money for . . . ?”

As you budget together, you’ll communicate your values. You’ll both need to give and take so that you give flexibility to your spouse to buy things that align with their values while they also stick within the household budget framework.

Time, talent, and money are all resources you can use to have a happy marriage. In many ways, they are limited household resources so if you invest too heavily outside your home your marriage will suffer. As you consider your marriage a priority, you’ll see increasing returns from every dollar and minute you invest in your marriage.

What other things do you do to invest in your marriage? What types of returns have you experienced from that investment? Leave a comment!

26 May 20:05

Comic for May 26, 2013

26 May 20:00

Why is My Nexus 7 So Slow? 8 Ways to Speed it Up Again

by Chris Hoffman

nexus-7-with-back-off-and-android-logo

Everyone seems to be complaining about their Nexus 7 tablets slowing down over time. Sure, this is anecdotal — but there are a lot of anecdotes. We’ll cover a variety of ways to speed it up.

Many people report that the update to Android 4.2 slowed down the Nexus 7. However, it seems that many issues can cause Nexus 7 slowness. We’ve looked all over the web to see the tricks people recommend.

    


26 May 05:33

Web of Tax Shelters Saved Apple Billions, Inquiry Finds

by Unknown Lamer
Jay McDaniel

This stuff has got to be stopped. It's killing the middle class and crippling the poor.

mspohr writes with news that Apple might be in a bit of hot water over its policy of offshoring revenues to favorable tax jurisdictions. Only they take it a step further, from the article: "Apple relied on a 'complex web of offshore entities' and U.S. tax loopholes to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes on $44 billion in offshore income over the past four years ... The maker of iPhones and iPads used at least three foreign subsidiaries that it claims are not 'tax resident in any nation' to help it avoid paying billions in 'otherwise taxable offshore income,' the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said in a statement yesterday."

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26 May 05:31

Working Handgun Printed On a Sub-$2,000 3D Printer

by timothy
Jay McDaniel

This is cool!!!

Just a few weeks after Cody Wilson and friends successfully fired an instance of their own 3-D printed handgun design, Sparrowvsrevolution writes, "a couple of Wisconsin hobbyist gunsmiths have already managed to adapt Defense Distributed's so-called Liberator firearm and print it on a $1,725 Lulzbot 3D printer, a consumer grade machine that's far cheaper than the industrial quality Stratasys machine Defense Distributed used. They then proceeded to record their cheaper gun (dubbed the 'Lulz Liberator') firing nine .380 rounds without any signs of cracking or melting. Eight of the rounds were fired from a single plastic barrel. (Defense Distributed only fired one through its prototype.) In total, the Lulz Liberator's materials cost around $25 and were printed over just 48 hours."

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26 May 05:29

Hollywood Studios Use DMCA To Censor Pirate Bay Documentary

by timothy
First time accepted submitter Aaron B Lingwood writes "As reported by TorrentFreak, Viacom, Paramount, Fox and Lionsgate have all asked Google to take down links pointing to the Pirate Bay documentary 'TPB-AFK.' The film, created by Simon Klose, is available for no cost and has already been watched by millions of people. The public response to this free release model has been overwhelmingly positive, but it's now meeting resistance from Hollywood, TPB's arch rival. Pirate Party Australia opines 'Hollywood is using takedown notices to censor Pirate Bay doco, is it incompetence or malice? Always hard to tell.' Whichever the answer, the system is definitely broken."

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26 May 05:28

The Six Most Important Things You'll Learn At Racing School

by Jason Torchinsky

I'm an embarrassingly slow driver, but I was lucky enough to be offered the chance to take part in a two-day race driving class at the Performance Driving Center at Sonoma Raceway and, while it didn't turn me into Mario Andretti, I'd like to pass on some of what I learned to any other rank but hopeful amateurs.

(Full Disclosure: Simraceway was so disgusted with my general lack of track driving skills that they let me take this class for free, as long as I found my own way up there. I did, in a press-car V6 Mustang, and I got a speeding ticket on the way there. The cop didn't like it when I told him I was an auto journalist, saying "I see. You write about how fast cars go so every idiot can go out and drive them fast?" I was boned.)

The class I took was a special event for winners of a contest held in the Simraceway community. So, the people I was with were from all over the world — Spain, Poland, New Zealand, Narnia, California — and all were excellent at the high-end racing sim that got them out to Sonoma. Except me. I'd never actually played it, but it sure looked impressive.

Some of the winners had some real track experience, and a good number had a lot of karting experience, which is how almost all real racers start. Even their computer-based racing experience proved useful for learning tracks, finding the ideal lines through turns, and helping to train your eyes and reflexes.

In other ways, the simulator is useless. Nothing can replicate the physical feel of the car in a hard turn, and you can't exploit physics in the real world without some serious health-and-money related consequences. All in all, more realistic simulators like Simraceway do seem to help a little bit, at least, so if you needed another excuse to play, there you go.

Normally, our How To Drive Fast columns are written by genuinely fast people like Alex Lloyd, but I thought there should be at least one of these that covers the subject from an unskilled perspective. And boy am I qualified to do that. Despite how incredibly well we all drive on the racetracks located inside our craniums, I suspect that I'm not alone, and there's a good number of readers interested in more competitive track driving but who just never had the time or resources to really give it a try. This is for you.

For the vast number of you who know more than I do, I'm looking forward to your suggestions down there in Kinja, and the painful ache of shame in my stomach when you inevitably call me out on some woefully wrong bit of advice.

So, here's the six big things I took away from racing school. I think the fact that these seem to be the ones that stuck with me must mean something, right?

1. Imagine a string tied from your steering wheel to your gas pedal.

This is one of the most fundamental pieces of advice I got about driving fast, and it seems obvious once you hear it, but thinking about it while driving makes a big difference. Essentially, what this business of strings tied to gas pedals means is that you can only really go fast when your wheel is straight. If the wheel is cranked far in one direction or the other, your string will be tight on the gas pedal, and you can't push it much. When the wheel is straight, there's plenty of slack, so you can stomp that gas.

Lots of gas with your wheel cranked will usually just get you in trouble. So, you let up in the turns, and bury it in the straights. As you're driving, keep imagining that string, and you'll be surprised how much easier it is to adjust your throttle to what your car is actually doing.

2. Brake hard and early.

This one was a bit counter-intuitive, and goes against how most of us have been trained to drive all our driving lives. Track driving is not like street driving, and this is one of those things that drives that point home. My instructor suggested that when you get to the braking point of your turn, right before your turn-in point, you need to hit the brakes hard and deliberately — with about 80%-90% of full braking force, then gradually let off the brake as you go through the turn.

This does two things: first, it slows you down before you get in your turn, pretty dramatically, and second, by gradually letting off the brake it keeps the front of the car planted, since your car will tend to nose-down while braking. This is essentially trail braking, and it helps your front tires, which are doing the steering, maintain good contact with the track so the turning actually works.

Slamming on the brakes hard as you approach the turn feels strange at first, since in most people's driving experience, that sort of stop equates to panic. Once you get past those feelings, it quite fun.

3. Hands at 9 and 3.

Now, don't let go. Even if your arms get all twisted.

In some ways, this one is the hardest to get used to, but it makes sense. Essentially, in track driving, you'll grab that wheel at 9 and 3 (not 6 and 7 like my preferred relaxed driving method) and keep those hands there. That means no letting the wheel slide through your fingers, no hand-over-hand. Your hands stay on the sides of the wheel.

This gets weird-feeling because at some points your arms will be crossed over each other like a challah or a French braid, and that just feels wrong. But it's not — in fact, look at that GIF there — I saw that this method is exactly what Tiff Needell uses when I was out with him at Willow Springs in a modified 911. If it's good enough for Tiff...

The reasons for this are to keep the range of how much your turning clear in your mind, and you'll never lose track of which way your wheels are pointing if your arms are mirroring their position. It also keeps you from inputing too much steering in situations where the steering isn't responding, because, invariably, if the front tires aren't able to steer you, adding more to the angle of those wheels sure isn't going to help.

So, practice this one off track, because it absolutely feels strange.

4. Not all corners are important.

I'm sure each of these corners mothers told them differently, but the sad truth is not all corners are created equal. One of the keys to being fast around a track is knowing how to exit a corner so you can get that wheel straight and start gaining speed again. So, in multiple-corner situations, the important one is the one that exits onto a straight. If you have to sacrifice an ideal line through one corner to enter another one well, give the one that exits into a straight the best entry, even at the expense of the one that doesn't.

No one said life was fair for corners.

5. Eyes up here.

That big window above the dashboard is quite useful, for drivers who don't insist on driving by the instruments alone. And how you look through that windshield is important as well. Generally, I was told to be always looking through the top 1/3 of the windshield. Keep your eyes on where you want to go in the distance, not right at the end of your own hood. Look where you want to drive to, and you'll drive there.

This sounds much easier to do than it actually proves to be. Just try it sometime.

6. It's not like regular driving, and it feels weird at first.

This is one of those things that sounds obvious, but it helps to keep it in mind when you start track driving. Even though a good racing driver is smooth, eases into and out of speed and all that, the truth is track driving does not feel like regular driving. You realize how little of your car and tires you actually use driving to and from work. On a track, everything is amplified: the speed, the noise, the inertia, the body roll, pitch, yaw, everything. You'll be tossed around and yanked and your arms will be exhausted when you're finished.

Your car will slip, grip, stop and move in ways you're just not used to. And it's absolutely great, but you have to adjust to it. You have to adjust your own thresholds of what is too fast, what is too hard to yank a wheel, to hit brakes, everything. The abandon doesn't come quickly, and that's a good thing. But be ready to adapt away from where you're comfortable.

26 May 05:13

House Bill Would Mandate Smart Gun Tech By U.S. Manufacturers

by Soulskill
Jay McDaniel

Bad idea!!! It's only for the movies.

Lucas123 writes "U.S. Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass) is pushing a bill that would require all U.S. handgun manufacturers to include 'personalization technology' in their weapons. Tierney said he got the idea for The Personalized Handgun Safety Act of 2013 from the latest James Bond film, Skyfall. In it Bond escapes death when his handgun, which is equipped with technology that recognizes his fingerprints, becomes inoperable when a bad guy picks it up. 'This technology, however, isn't just for the movies — it's a reality,' Tierney said. Tierney pointed to a myriad of cases where the smart gun tech could prevent children from being harmed or killed in firearms accidents. Jim Wallace, executive director of the Massachusetts Gun Owners Action League, the official state association of the NRA, said he knows of no gun owners who would want smart gun technology on their weapons. Wallace said any technology that may impede the proper function of a weapon is a problem. He pointed to the fact that any integrated processor technology would also require a battery of some kind, which could pose a system failure if it lost power."

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26 May 05:04

Bandages That Can Turn Off Genes Encourages Wound Healing

by samzenpus
MTorrice writes "Medical researchers think specially tailored RNA sequences could kill tumor cells or encourage wound healing by turning off genes in patients' cells. Now researchers have developed a nanocoating for bandages or other medical materials that could deliver these fragile gene-silencing RNAs right where they're needed. The team hopes to produce a bandage that shuts down genes standing in the way of healing in chronic wounds."

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26 May 05:03

AT&T Quietly Adds Charges To All Contract Cell Plans

by Soulskill
guttentag writes "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that AT&T Mobility, the second-largest wireless carrier in the U.S., has added a new monthly administrative fee of 61 cents to the bills of all of its contract wireless lines as of May 1, a move that could bring in more than a half-billion dollars in annual revenue to the telecom giant. An AT&T spokeswoman said the fee covers 'certain expenses, such as interconnection and cell-site rents and maintenance.' The increased cost to consumers comes even though AT&T's growth in wireless revenue last year outpaced the costs to operate and support its wireless business. The company has talked of continuing to improve wireless profitability. Citigroup analyst Michael Rollins noted that the new administrative fee is a key component for accelerating revenue growth for the rest of the year. He said the fee should add 0.30 of a percentage point to AT&T's 2013 revenue growth; he predicts total top-line growth of about 1.5%. Normally, consumers could vote with their wallets by taking their business elsewhere. AT&T would be required to let customers out of their contracts without an early termination fee if it raised prices, but it is avoiding this by simply calling the increase a 'surcharge,' effectively forcing millions of people to either pay more money per month or pay the ETF."

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25 May 22:48

Ex-Marine Detained Under Operation Vigilant Eagle For His Political Views Sues

by timothy
stry_cat writes "You may remember the story of Brandon Raub, who was detained without due process over some Facebook posts he made. Now with the help of the Rutherford Institute, he is suing his captors. According to his complaint [PDF], his detention was part of a federal government program code-named 'Operation Vigilant Eagle,' which monitors military veterans with certain political views."

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25 May 22:47

World's Biggest 'Agile' Software Project Close To Failure

by Soulskill
00_NOP writes "'Universal Credit' — the plan to consolidate all Britain's welfare payments into one — is the world's biggest 'agile' software development project. It is now close to collapse, the British government admitted yesterday. The failure, if and when it comes, could cost billions and have dire social consequences. 'Some steps have been taken to try to rescue the project. The back end – the benefits calculation – has reportedly been shifted to a "waterfall" development process – which offers some assurances that the government at least takes its fiduciary duties seriously as it should mean no code will be deployed that has not been finished. The front end – the bit used by humans – is still meant to be “agile” – which makes some sense, but where is the testing? Agile is supposed to be about openness between developer and client and we – the taxpayers – are the clients: why can’t we see what our money is paying for?'"

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25 May 22:44

Spain's New S-80 Class Submarines Sink, But Won't Float

by Soulskill
New submitter home-electro.com writes "In the era of total CAD and CAM, is it even possible to come up with a fundamentally flawed design ? Turns out, yes. This a fascinating engineering SNAFU. Spain's newly built submarine is 100 tons too heavy, which means it is unable to float. 'Unfortunately for the Spainards, Quartz reports that they have already sunk the equivalent of $680 million into the Isaac Peral, and a total of $3 billion into the entire quartet of S-80 class submarines. If Spain hopes to salvage its submarines, it must either find some weight that can be trimmed from the current design or lengthen the ship to accommodate the excess weight, The Local notes. Though the latter option is more feasible, it is expected to cost Spain an extra $9.7 million per meter.'"

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25 May 22:42

Organize Laundry with Kitchen Cabinets

by Shep McAllister

Organize Laundry with Kitchen Cabinets

It you're having trouble keeping your laundry room organized, you can repurpose an old wall-mounted kitchen cabinet into a great laundry organizer.

This tip comes via IKEA Hackers, but the principle is applicable pretty much any cabinet. Basically, just take a set of wall-mounted cabinets and either turn them upside down, or re-mount the handles to the top of the unit so you can reach them easily when the cabinet is on the ground. Then, cut a large circular hole into the top of each cabinet so that you can just toss your dirty clothes through while you're sorting your laundry into lights and darks. Once you're ready to start a load, just open up the cabinet door and pull everything out in one bundle.

As for the shelves within the cabinet, you could either remove them to use the entire thing as one big laundry hamper, or keep a few near the bottom to stash dryer sheets, detergent, and a lint roller. You could buy something similar commercially to do the same things, but if you can find some discarded kitchen cabinets on Craigslist, this would be significantly cheaper.

Laundry Organizer from Kitchen Cabinets | IKEA Hackers

25 May 22:29

Comic for May 24, 2013

25 May 22:29

Comic for May 25, 2013

25 May 01:49

WHO: Intellectual Property Claims Hindering Research On Deadly Novel Coronavirus

by Soulskill
New submitter kwyjibo87 writes "The World Health Organization (WHO) publicly expressed dismay yesterday concerning news that intellectual property claims were hindering research on a deadly new emerging virus. Novel coronavirus (nCoV), a member of the same viral genus as the causative agent of SARS, has claimed the lives of 22 people (out of 44 reported infected) and left both researchers and health officials scrambling to develop effective diagnostic tests in addition to possible medications and vaccines against nCoV. Now, however, claims of intellectual property on the new virus are hindering research on nCoV according to the WHO, delaying advancements on tools to prevent further spread of the infection. Stories of intellectual property rights in science hindering advancements in research, particularly in clinical applications, are nothing new; the U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments on the validity of patents on the BRCA1/2 genes and has yet to issue a decision. The issue of sharing scientific information in order to promote faster research on emerging pathogens is not limited to intellectual property — a recent article in the journal Nature highlighted a case where Chinese researchers risked having their research scooped after uploading viral sequences to a public database designed aid global scientific collaboration."

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24 May 06:13

The Canadian Government's War On Science

by Soulskill
FuzzNugget writes "A contributor at ScienceBlogs.com has compiled and published a shockingly long list of systematic attacks on scientific research committed by the Canadian government since the conservatives came to power in 2006. This anti-scientific scourge includes muzzling scientists, shutting down research centers, industry deregulation and re-purposing the National Research Council to align with business interests instead of doing real science. It will be another two years before Canadians have the chance to go to the polls, but how much more damage will be done in the meantime?"

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24 May 05:07

Inteliscope: because your tactical rifle totally needed an iPhone strapped to it

by Darren Murph

Inteliscope because your tactical rifle totally needed an iPhone strapped to it

It's surely not the first contraption to bring an iDevice to a weapon, but the Inteliscope does appear to be one of the first to take itself seriously. It's designed to secure an iPhone 4 / 4S / 5 or iPod touch to any firearm with a Picatinny (Mil-STD-1913) or Weaver tactical rail, enabling shooters to peek around corners with no head exposure. Naturally, the mount itself wouldn't be all that attractive without an accompanying app. The software portion of the equation offers up custom crosshairs, a 5x digital zoom, video recording capabilities, ballistics / firearm data, a built-in compass and a shot timer. There's also a flashlight and strobe feature, information about local prevailing winds and a constant check on your location. Folks interested in pre-ordering can do so at the source link for $69.99, with initial shipments expected to head out in June.

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals

Comments

Source: Inteliscope

24 May 04:52

Warrior Web from DARPA aims to boost muscles, reduce fatigue and injury (video)

by Steve Dent

Warrior Web from DARPA aims to augment soldier's muscles to reduce fatigue and injury video

The US military's dabbled with full-on robotic suits in the past, but it's now looking at a less convoluted, more energy-efficient approach. A project called Warrior Web from DARPA aims to enhance soldier carrying capacity and minimize injuries by distributing loads better, providing better joint support and "reapply(ing) energy to enhance motion." Such a suit would be equipped with sensors to detect forces, and be able to fit beneath existing uniforms while consuming only 100W of juice. The US Army has nearly completed five months of prototype testing using a multi-camera motion capture system (see the video after the break) to develop critical tech. The next step will be to design and fabricate a suit ready for real-world testing, which should happen in the fall -- assuming the program keeps its footing.

Filed under: Wearables, Science

Comments

Source: DARPA

24 May 04:48

First Government Lawsuit Against a Patent Troll

by samzenpus
Jay McDaniel

FINALLY!!!

walterbyrd writes "Late last year, a vigorous and secretive patent troll began sending out thousands of letters to small businesses all around the country, insisting that they owed between $900 and $1,200 per worker just for using scanners. The brazen patent-trolling scheme, carried out by a company called MPHJ technologies and dozens of shell companies with six-letter names, has caught the attention of politicians. MPHJ and its principals may have gone too far. They're now the subject of a government lawsuit targeting patent trolling—the first ever such case. Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell has filed suit in his home state, saying that MPHJ is violating Vermont consumer-protection laws."

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24 May 04:47

One-Time Pad From Caltech Offers Uncrackable Cryptography

by timothy
zrbyte writes "One-time pads are the holy grail of cryptography — they are impossible to crack, even in principle. However, the ability to copy electronic code makes one-time pads vulnerable to hackers. Now engineers at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, have found a way round this to create a system of cryptography that is invulnerable to electronic attack. Their solution is based on a special kind of one-time pad that generates a random key through the complexity of its physical structure, namely shining a light through a diffusive glass plate."

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24 May 04:47

One-Shot vs. Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma

by schneier

This post by Aleatha Parker-Wood is very applicable to the things I wrote in Liars & Outliers:

A lot of fundamental social problems can be modeled as a disconnection between people who believe (correctly or incorrectly) that they are playing a non-iterated game (in the game theory sense of the word), and people who believe that (correctly or incorrectly) that they are playing an iterated game.

For instance, mechanisms such as reputation mechanisms, ostracism, shaming, etc., are all predicated on the idea that the person you're shaming will reappear and have further interactions with the group. Legal punishment is only useful if you can catch the person, and if the cost of the punishment is more than the benefit of the crime.

If it is possible to act as if the game you are playing is a one-shot game (for instance, you have a very large population to hide in, you don't need to ever interact with people again, or you can be anonymous), your optimal strategies are going to be different than if you will have to play the game many times, and live with the legal or social consequences of your actions. If you can make enough money as CEO to retire immediately, you may choose to do so, even if you're so terrible at running the company that no one will ever hire you again.

Social cohesion can be thought of as a manifestation of how "iterated" people feel their interactions are, how likely they are to interact with the same people again and again and have to deal with long term consequences of locally optimal choices, or whether they feel they can "opt out" of consequences of interacting with some set of people in a poor way.

24 May 04:41

3D-printed tracheal splint supports baby's airways, saves life

by Nicole Lee

3Dprinted tracheal splint supports baby's airways, saves life

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and nowhere was it more necessary than in the case of Kaiba Gionfriddo's life. The infant was born with a condition called tracheobronchomalacia that results in weakened support for the trachea, and his fate seemed all but decided until researchers at the University of Michigan proffered an unlikely solution: a 3D-printed tracheal splint. The splint was custom-made just for the child and designed to hold the trachea in place as the bronchus builds around it, giving it strength. In two to three years, the trachea will be able to stand on its own, and the polycaprolactone biomaterial used to create the splint will be absorbed into the body. After a successful operation, Kaiba was taken off ventilator support -- and he hasn't needed it since. From 3D-printed skull prosthetics to this recent innovation, it's clear 3D printing has a far more noble future than just making pizza.

Filed under: Science, Alt

Comments

Via: Gizmodo

Source: New England Journal of Medicine

24 May 04:37

Don't Believe the Publishers' Hype: Support Open Access

by Adi Kamdar and Adi Kamdar

Once again, we are seeing entrenched interests try to fight the future with scare tactics and misinformation. This time, it's major journal publishers, and their target is open access to taxpayer-funded research.  

First things first: The reason the publishers are on the warpath is that state and federal legislators are looking to expand open access.  One of the leading bills is California's open access bill (AB 609). This legislation is being discussed in the Assembly's Appropriations Committee tomorrow. If you're a California resident, now is the time to contact your Assembly member and ask that they support public access to taxpayer-funded research.

Now for a dose of reality. As a nation, we've already seen successful public access policies—most notably the NIH public access policy, which requires research funded by one of the nation's largest funding bodies to be put in a free repository within a year of first publication. A bill now pending in Congress, the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR) would expand the NIH policy to a dozen other funding bodies while also reducing the embargo period to six months. Over the last several years, the academic medical community has embraced open access, and publishers that adapted to this policy are still making record profits.

But they aren't happy about it and they certainly don't want expansion. Now that the open access train appears to be leaving the station, their message is simple: we don't need a mandate, just trust us to handle open access. The trouble is they think open access means nothing more than providing publicly accessible links to their own publications.

Most recently, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) sent a letter to the California Assembly's Appropriations Committee full of numbers and allegations that would scare anyone—if only they were based in fact. Similar language was used to challenge FASTR last February, when the bill was introduced into the House and Senate. U.C. Berkeley professor and PLoS-co-founder Michael Eisen has done a thorough takedown of the AAP's letter. We'll focus here on a few major points:

Claim: The policies would add significant costs to agencies' and states' budgets

The AAP's California letter claims that "state universities could be faced with open access publishing charges estimated at more than $1 million annually." In truth, the law leads to nothing of the sort. Rather, it simply requires recipients of state funding to put their final manuscripts in a public repository. These repositories already exist: for example, the University of California system has already offered their robust, scalable eScholarship repository for this task. Moreover, the world of open access publishing is new, it's burgeoning, and it's fostering competitive and cost-effective new options like PeerJ.

The AAP also says that in 2008 an NIH director "indicated the agency spends $100 million a year for page fees and open access charges" and then proceed to use fuzzy math to assume California's costs to be $1.1 million for a public access policy. As Professor Eisen points out, not only did this number come out before the NIH policy was implemented, but the estimate carefully avoids mentioning that a majority of page fees went towards publishers, not open access costs.

Claim: The policies would "undermine publishers' efforts to provide access to high-quality peer-review research publications in a sustainable way"

It's unclear how a policy that mandates final, peer-reviewed manuscripts to be put in a repository undercuts access to peer-reviewed works. The NIH policy features similar language, and last we checked publishers and journals were still able to carry out comprehensive peer review processes—most of which, by the way, are done for free by other scholars. 

The AAP simultaneously claims that universities would not actually be able to cancel subscriptions if there were an open access policy, and therefore not actually save money. Eisen puts it best: "The bill will not save California any money because libraries will not cancel any subscriptions, but will undermine publishers' ability to carry out peer review because they will lose revenue from canceled subscriptions. Huh? They can not have it both ways." The fact is, AB 609 most likely will not affect journals at all.  Here's what will: the growth of open-access journal models. And that trend will continue with or without the law.

Claim: These bills will negatively impact jobs and force journals to go the way of newspapers

This is the familiar we-can't-compete-with-free argument. The claim that existing businesses cannot adapt to new technologies and new cultures of sharing has been disproven repeatedly, and we predict the same outcome here. First of all, open access legislation does not prevent publishers from offering subscription or fee-based models. Right now, the crisis in the current knowledge-space centers on the fact that information cannot be accessed, shared, or built upon. If anything, more access to knowledge will lead to further scientific progress, more uses of collected information, and downstream innovation—all of which sounds like more jobs and a strengthened economy.

Also worth noting with respect to the California bill: the majority of journal publishing jobs are not located in this state at all. And as a recent study highlighted, 90 percent of the revenue of the five largest science, technical, and medical publishers was generated by foreign-owned firms.

Claim: The policies require agencies and states to "undertake extensive, open-ended work already being performed successfully by the private sector," including the fact that "publishers are devoted to providing access to research and invest in the dissemination of research in a variety of ways"

Major publishers have made some effort to improve access to portions of their research, but they have consistently been followers, not leaders.  Indeed, their efforts gained momentum only after the leading open access journals—such as PLoS or BioMed Central—showed that they could publish works, have impact, and make money. If the major publishers are "devoted" to providing access to research, they sure aren't showing it. The bulk of research is still locked down behind paywalls, time barriers, and strict licensing regimes. That means we don't have robust access to the work we helped fund, like the latest medical and scientific research.    

Publishers and their lobbying groups float these arguments—and even more absurd ones—every time a similar bill is proposed. It's time to put these falsities and fears aside and support strong open access policies. Contact your Congressmen about supporting FASTR. And Californians, contact your Assembly Member today about supporting AB 609, the California public access bill.


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23 May 21:51

Curiosity Rewarded: Florida Teen Heading to Space Camp, Not Jail

by timothy
Jay McDaniel

Good for her!

Kiera Wilmot, the Florida high school student who was expelled from her school after an unauthorized science experiment was misperceived as a weapon (at least for purposes of arrest and charging), won't be going to jail. She will, though, be going to Space Camp, thanks to a crowdfunding campaign started by author and former NASA engineer Homer Hickham. All charges against her have been dropped.

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23 May 21:49

Create Multiple "Tablet Stations" with Command Hooks

by Melanie Pinola

Pick up a few inexpensive command hooks and you've got an instant holder for your tablet in any (or every) room of your house.

This comes in very handy in the kitchen, where you can watch cooking videos or read recipes; in the living room to turn your tablet into a digital photo frame; as well as in the bedroom for hands-free video watching. In fact, the original idea comes from Reddit user etothepowerof3, who uses the 3M command hooks to watch Netflix in bed.

The photo above from Hack College says it all. Just slide the tablet in or out when you're off to the next room. What can't those things do?

Use Command Hooks to Create Tablet Stations Throughout Your Home | Hack College

23 May 21:45

Google Code Deprecates Download Service For Project Hosting

by timothy
New submitter c0d3g33k writes "Google Project Hosting announced changes to the Download service on Wednesday, offering only 'increasing misuse of the service and a desire to keep our community safe and secure' by way of explanation. Effective immediately, existing projects that offer no downloads and all new projects will no longer be able to create downloads. Existing projects which currently have downloads will lose the ability to create new downloads by January 2014, though existing downloads will remain available 'for the foreseeable future.' Google Drive is recommended as an alternative, but this will likely have to be done manually by project maintainers since the ability to create and manage downloads won't be part of the Project Hosting tools. This is a rather baffling move, since distributing project files via download is integral to FOSS culture."

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