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Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* Reading Terrorists' Minds About Imminent Attack
* Alternatives To Paypal's Virtual Credit Card Service?
* First GNOME Census Results
* Are the New Kindles Tablets-In-Training?
* BlackBerry Services To Be Halted In UAE
* Cooling Pump Malfunction On ISS
* Hacker Builds $1,500 Cell Phone Tapping Device
* Should Professors Be Required To Teach With Tech?
* Hubble Accuracy Surpassed By Earthbound Telescope
* Tor Developer Detained At US Border, Pressed On Wikileaks
* First Membrane Controlled By Light Developed
* Verizon Changing Users Router Passwords
* RIM's Encryption 'Too Secure' For Indian Government's Taste
* Electric Car Subsidies As Handouts For the Rich
* How Can an Old-School Coder Regain His Chops?
* Chernobyl Area Survey Finds Lasting Problems For Wildlife

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Reading Terrorists' Minds About Imminent Attack |
| from the that-sounds-rather-pat dept. |
| posted by timothy on Saturday July 31, @23:00 (Crime) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/08/01/0029200/Reading-Terrorists-Minds-About-Imminent|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Imagine technology that allows you to get
inside the mind of a terrorist to know how, when, and where the next
attack will occur. In the Northwestern study, when researchers knew in
advance specifics of the planned attacks by the make-believe
'terrorists,' they were [0]able to correlate P300 brain waves to guilty
knowledge with 100 percent accuracy in the lab, said J. Peter Rosenfeld,
professor of psychology in Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and
Sciences."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/08/01/0029200

Links:
0. http://www.medicaldaily.com/news/20100731/779/reading-terrorists-minds-about-imminent-attack.htm

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Alternatives To Paypal's Virtual Credit Card Service? |
| from the other-than-giant-stone-discs dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 01, @02:02 (Privacy) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/08/01/0311246/Alternatives-To-Paypals-Virtual-Credit-Card|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Paypal has [0]quietly killed the Paypal
plugin and the related virtual-card service. The service generated
on-the-fly, one-time-use credit card numbers. When I called in and
inquired about the service, I was told that the service has been
discontinued, but may be relaunching something similar depending on
interest. They are treating inquiries as a sort of petition, taking down
names and contact info. The forums seem to be a lost cause, as no Paypal
reps have replied to the numerous posts regarding virtual cards being
discontinued. Does anyone know of a good alternative source of
one-time-use credit card numbers?"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/08/01/0311246

Links:
0. https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/cps/general/NewPayPalPlugin-outside

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| First GNOME Census Results |
| from the but-it's-in-the-constitution dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 01, @05:07 (GNOME) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/08/01/0326208/First-GNOME-Census-Results |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

supersloshy writes "The GNOME Census, a project to see who contributes to
GNOME and how, [0]has released its first set of results. The results
group people by their reasons to contribute code, what they contributed
code to, and what percentage of the total contributions they have. For
example, 23.45% of code contributions were volunteer, 16.3% of code
contributions came from Red Hat, 1% of contributions came from Canonical
([1]which has caused a lot of controversy), and 0.24% came from Mozilla
Corporation. The census results are also represented in diagrams ([2]release
activity, [3]why contributions were made, and [4]what was contributed to
and by who). The [5]report is also available here and is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/08/01/0326208

Links:
0. http://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2010/07/28/gnome-census/
1. http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/07/gnome-census-is-out-reveals-canonical.html
2. http://www.neary-consulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/gnome_releases_activity.png
3. http://www.neary-consulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/gnome_participation.png
4. http://www.neary-consulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/diagramme_inkscape_updated.png
5. http://www.neary-consulting.com/index.php/services/gnome-census/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Are the New Kindles Tablets-In-Training? |
| from the one-can-hope dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 01, @08:12 (Displays) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/08/01/0011248/Are-the-New-Kindles-Tablets-In-Trainin|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Hugh Pickens writes "TechNewsWorld reports that [1]Amazon's new,
slimmed-down Kindle devices are notable for several things, including
upgrades to their experimental WebKit browser that makes it faster and
easier to navigate, and the new 'article mode' feature extracts the main
text-based content from Web pages for easier reading (as Safari does),
suggesting the possibility that the Kindle [2]may grow up to be a real
tablet computer someday. Eventually, the tablet and e-reader categories
'are going to slam together,' says Rob Enderle, adding that they are
'held apart, largely because we don't yet have an affordable display that
will do both tasks well.' One current problem 'is that TFT displays like
the iPad uses suck for reading because they aren't outdoor viewable and
are very power hungry. [3]Display technologies like the Qualcomm Mirasol
stuff will change this over the next 18 months, and by the end of next
year — likely before — we'll begin to see converged devices.' Mirasol
uses tiny mirrors, known as microelectronic machines, to create its
display, which has the low power characteristics of E-Ink displays and
the video-playing and color abilities of LCDs."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/08/01/0011248

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.digitaltrends.com/gadgets/amazons-new-kindle-is-worth-the-upgrade/?news=123
2. http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Are-Amazons-New-Kindles-Tablets-in-Training-70522.html
3. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20006737-56.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| BlackBerry Services To Be Halted In UAE |
| from the blocking-the-tip-of-an-iceberg dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday August 01, @09:14 (Cellphones) |
| https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/10/08/01/1159240/BlackBerry-Services-To-Be-Halted-In-UAE |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

WrongSizeGlass writes "Bloomberg is reporting RIM's BlackBerry Messenger,
e-mail and Web browsing services [0]will be suspended in the United Arab
Emirates, the Middle East's business hub, starting October 11th due to
security concerns. RIM [1]faces similar restrictions in India. The
Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said in a statement on state-run
Emirates News Agency, 'In their current form, certain BlackBerry services
allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial,
social and national security concerns for the UAE.' A senior Indian
government official said, 'Though RIM has been fully cooperating ever
since the matter was taken up with it in 2008, reports of the company's
move to set up a server in China forced us to look at it in a different
way.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/08/01/1159240

Links:
0. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-01/blackberry-messenger-web-browsing-to-be-suspended-in-u-a-e-from-oct-11.html
1. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/BlackBerry-server-in-China-India-wants-a-monitoring-unit-too/articleshow/6230540.cms

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Cooling Pump Malfunction On ISS |
| from the no-la-forge-door-rolls-required dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday August 01, @10:18 (Bug) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/10/08/01/1341203/Cooling-Pump-Malfunction-On-ISS |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

eldavojohn writes "On Saturday at 8pm GMT, the crew of the International
Space Station awoke to [0]alarm bells as one of two ammonia pumps shut
down due to a spike in power. Their backup cooling (Loop B) is
functioning as designed and NASA released an official statement: 'The
crew is in no danger, but will need to work additional troubleshooting on
Sunday to keep the station in a stable configuration, including the
installation of a jumper cable to maintain proper cooling to the Zarya
module in the Russian segment.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/08/01/1341203

Links:
0. http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/space-station-cooling-malfunction-100801.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Hacker Builds $1,500 Cell Phone Tapping Device |
| from the snoop-on-the-cheap dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday August 01, @11:19 (Cellphones) |
| https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/10/08/01/1357221/Hacker-Builds-1500-Cell-Phone-Tapping-De|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

We [0]previously discussed security researcher Chris Paget's plans to
demonstrate practical cell phone interception at DefCon. Paget completed
his talk yesterday, and reader suraj.sun points out coverage from Wired.
Quoting: "A security researcher created a $1,500 cell phone base station
kit (including a laptop and two RF antennas) that [1]tricks cell phones
into routing their outbound calls through his device, allowing someone to
intercept even encrypted calls in the clear. Most of the price is for the
laptop he used to operate the system. The device tricks the phones into
disabling encryption and records call details and content before they are
routed on their proper way through voice-over-IP. The low-cost,
home-brewed device ... mimics more expensive devices already used by
intelligence and law enforcement agencies — called IMSI catchers — that
can capture phone ID data and content. The devices essentially spoof a
legitimate GSM tower and entice cell phones to send them data by emitting
a signal that's stronger than legitimate towers in the area. Encrypted
calls are not protected from interception because the rogue tower can
simply turn it off. Although the GSM specifications say that a phone
should pop up a warning when it connects to a station that does not have
encryption, SIM cards disable that setting so that alerts are not
displayed. Even though the GSM spec requires it, this is a deliberate
choice of the cell phone makers, Paget said."

Discuss this story at:
http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/08/01/1357221

Links:
0. http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/10/07/26/1943245/Cell-Phone-Interception-At-Def-Con
1. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/intercepting-cell-phone-calls/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Should Professors Be Required To Teach With Tech? |
| from the or-required-to-teach-with-guns dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday August 01, @12:21 (Education) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/10/08/01/1551246/Should-Professors-Be-Required-To-Teach-Wit|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Are [0]professors who don't update their
teaching methods like doctors who fail to keep up with the latest ways to
treat disease? Or are professors better off teaching old-school? From the
article: 'It is tough to measure how many professors teach with
technology or try other techniques [1]the report recommends, such as
group activities and hands-on exercises. (Technology isn't the only way
to improve teaching, of course, and some argue that it can hinder it.)
Though most colleges can point to several cutting-edge teaching
experiments on their campuses, a recent national assessment called the
Faculty Survey of Student Engagement suggests that old-school instruction
remains the norm. Only 13 percent of the professors surveyed said they
used blogs in teaching; 12 percent had tried videoconferencing; and 13
percent gave interactive quizzes using 'clickers,' or TV-remotelike
devices that let students respond and get feedback instantaneously. The
one technology that most teachers use regularly — course-management
systems — focuses mostly on housekeeping tasks like handing out
assignments or keeping track of student grades.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/08/01/1551246

Links:
0. http://chronicle.com/article/Reaching-the-Last-Technology/123659/
1. http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Hubble Accuracy Surpassed By Earthbound Telescope |
| from the and-we-can-get-to-this-one dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday August 01, @13:24 (Space) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/08/01/1652239/Hubble-Accuracy-Surpassed-By-Earthbound|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

randuev writes "A high-speed adaptive optics system helped the Large
Binocular Telescope (on Earth) to [0]beat the accuracy of the Hubble
Space Telescope's observations. 'A special sensor detects atmospheric
distortions in real time and controls the mirror to adjust its position
to compensate, effectively canceling out the blurring. The mirror can
make adjustments every one-thousandth of a second, with accuracy to
better than ten nanometers.' Now, that's what I call real-time. This
nifty trick [1]multiplied the Strehl ratio (optical quality) of the LBT
by about 80 times. The new system was tested in May and June, so
hopefully we'll soon see more space around us in higher resolution on
Google Sky."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/08/01/1652239

Links:
0. http://medusa.as.arizona.edu/lbto/AO/AOpressrelease.htm
1. http://www.physorg.com/news195838118.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Tor Developer Detained At US Border, Pressed On Wikileaks |
| from the number-you've-reached-has-been-changed dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 01, @14:27 (Government) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/08/01/1751212/Tor-Developer-Detained-At-US-Border-Pressed|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

suraj.sun writes with this news from CNET: "A security researcher
involved with the Wikileaks Web site — Jacob Appelbaum, a Seattle-based
programmer for the online privacy protection project called Tor — was
[0]detained by US agents at the border for three hours and questioned
about the controversial whistleblower project as he entered the country
on Thursday to attend a hacker conference. He was also approached by two
FBI agents at the Defcon conference after his presentation on Saturday
afternoon about the Tor Project. Appelbaum, a US citizen, arrived at the
Newark, New Jersey, airport from Holland Thursday morning, was taken into
a room, frisked and his bag was searched. Officials from the Immigration
and Customs Enforcement and the US Army then told him he was not under
arrest but was being detained. They asked questions about Wikileaks,
asked for his opinions about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and asked
where Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is, but he declined to comment
without a lawyer present, according to the sources. He was not permitted
to make a phone call, they said." Appelbaum told me that he just spoke at
length with The New York Times, and quipped that his Defcon talk about
Tor was "just fine, until the FBI showed up"; this post will likely be
updated with more details. Update: 08/02 03:59 GMT by [1]T : [2]Here's
the NYT's coverage.

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/08/01/1751212

Links:
0. http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20012253-245.html
1. http://www.monkey.org/~timothy/
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/world/02wiki.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| First Membrane Controlled By Light Developed |
| from the my-eyelid-aside dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 01, @14:54 (Science) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/08/01/1828218/First-Membrane-Controlled-By-Light-Deve|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt: "A new membrane developed
at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics blocks
gas from flowing through it when one color of light is shined on its
surface, and permits gas to flow through when another color of light is
used. It is the first time that scientists have developed a [0]membrane
that can be controlled in this way by light."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/08/01/1828218

Links:
0. http://www.medicaldaily.com/news/20100801/784/purple-light-means-go-ultraviolet-light-means-stop.htm

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Verizon Changing Users Router Passwords |
| from the has-this-happened-to-you? dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 01, @15:32 (Networking) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/08/01/1845234/Verizon-Changing-Users-Router-Passwords |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Kohenkatz writes "I have Verizon FIOS at home and my Verizon-supplied
Actiontec router had the password 'password1' that the tech assigned to
it when he set it up three years ago. I received an email from Verizon
that said 'we have identified that your router still had a password of
either password1 or admin1 and we have changed it to your serial number.'
I checked and it actually had been changed. I believe this to be in
response to the Black Hat presentation about the [1]hackability of home
routers. I am upset about this because Verizon should not have any way to
get into my router and change the settings, especially because I own the
router, not them! I looked in the router's settings and I see port 4567
goes to the router and is labeled 'Verizon FIOS Service.' Is this port
for anything useful other than Verizon changing settings on my router?
What security measures does Verizon have to protect that port from
unauthorized access?"

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/08/01/1845234

Links:
0. mailto:moshe@@@ymkatz...net
1. http://it.slashdot.org/story/10/07/16/122259/Millions-of-Home-Routers-Are-Hackable

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| RIM's Encryption 'Too Secure' For Indian Government's Taste |
| from the nsa-smiles-and-nods-politely dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 01, @16:33 (Privacy) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/08/01/194208/RIMs-Encryption-Too-Secure-For-Indian-Govern|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]climenole writes "Research in Motion, the creator of the widely used
enterprise-cum-consumer BlackBerry device, has an uncertain position in
India. The Indian government's internal security and intelligence
services [1]cannot break the encryption of the device, which makes
countering terror threats and national security matters difficult —
especially for a region which faces constant threats and attacks from
domestic Maoist insurgents and extremist Islamic groups." Does it make
you wonder how much safer everyone would be if parkas, mailing envelopes,
cash, and superglue were all evaluated on the same basis?

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/08/01/194208

Links:
0. mailto:climenole@gmail.com
1. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/blackberry-encryption-too-secure-national-security-vs-consumer-privacy/5732?

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Electric Car Subsidies As Handouts For the Rich |
| from the he-said-it-blame-him dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 01, @17:36 (Transportation) |
| https://politics.slashdot.org/story/10/08/01/2056228/Electric-Car-Subsidies-As-Handouts-For|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Atypical Geek writes "Charles Lane, writing for Slate, argues that
subsidies for electric cars are an example of 'limousine liberalism' —
[0]a lavish gift for well-off Americans to buy expensive cars for the
sake of appearing green. From the article: 'How rarefied is the
electric-car demographic? When [1]Deloitte Consulting interviewed
industry experts and 2,000 potential buyers, it found that from now until
2020, only "young, very high income individuals" — from households making
more than $200,000 a year — would even be interested in plug-in hybrids
or all-electric cars.' Lane also takes issue with the billions of dollars
in subsidies offered to automakers for the manufacture of batteries,
arguing that research (warning, PDF) concludes that the money [2]will not
help in jump-starting the economies of scale that will drive down prices.
At least, not as much or as quickly as the President has argued."

Discuss this story at:
http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/08/01/2056228

Links:
0. http://www.slate.com/id/2262229/pagenum/all/
1. http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/industries/Automotive-Manufacturing/c3b1a4c65c948210VgnVCM100000ba42f00aRCRD.htm
2. http://www.bcg.com/documents/file36615.pdf

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| How Can an Old-School Coder Regain His Chops? |
| from the just-eat-the-brain-of-someone-younger dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 01, @18:41 (Education) |
| https://ask.slashdot.org/story/10/08/01/2150243/How-Can-an-Old-School-Coder-Regain-His-Chop|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

DonLab writes "I was a proficient software engineer in the 1980s, writing
hundreds of thousands of lines of ALGOL, FORTRAN, COBOL, and Pascal
programs, as well as working in 370 and 8080 assembly language &
pre-relational DBMS systems. My hands-on programming career ended when I
became a freelance analyst and designer, ultimately retiring young in the
early '90s. Now I'd like to reenter the field, but I'm finding that I
know nothing about today's post-C languages, programming tools, and
computing environments. I wouldn't know where to start learning C++, PHP,
Java, HTML5, or PERL, much less how to choose one over the other for a
particular application. Can I be the only pre-GUI software designer or
hobbyist searching for a way to update his skills for Windows, iOS, or
Android?"

Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/08/01/2150243

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Chernobyl Area Survey Finds Lasting Problems For Wildlife |
| from the click-click-clickclickclickclick dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 01, @19:50 (Earth) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/08/01/2328234/Chernobyl-Area-Survey-Finds-Lasting-Pro|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

ninguna writes "The largest wildlife census of its kind conducted in
Chernobyl has revealed that mammals are declining in the exclusion zone
surrounding the nuclear power plant. While [0]some stories [1]seem to
indicate Nature recovering, the [2]actual picture isn't quite so great."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/08/01/2328234

Links:
0. http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/04/08/0136250/What-Chernobyl-Looks-Like-In-2010
1. http://science.slashdot.org/story/06/04/20/2318242/Wildlife-Defies-Chernobyl-Radiation
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10819027

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