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Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* Drone Kills Top Al Qaeda Figure
* IBM Unseats Microsoft As Second Most Valued Tech Company
* Security By Obscurity — a New Theory
* State Dept. Employee Investigated For Linking To WikiLeaks
* Amazon To Lose $10 Per Kindle Fire
* Australia's National Broadband Network Officially Open For Business
* Nokia Preps Linux OS For Low-End Smartphones
* Help Liberate the Debian Administrator's Handbook
* AT&T Starts Throttling Heavy Wireless Data Users
* The Cult of DevOps
* Estimating Age With Kinect's 3D Camera To Filter Content
* Battle For Open Standards In Dutch Public Education
* Mozilla Develops Gladius 3D Game Engine
* Ask Slashdot: Websites Friendly To eReader Browsers?
* Web Hosts — One-Stop-Shops For Mass Hacking?
* Michael Nielsen's Free Video Courseware On Quantum Computing

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Drone Kills Top Al Qaeda Figure
| from the automated-violence dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 01, @09:37 (The Military)
| with 666 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/1128258/drone-kills-top-al-qaeda-figure?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

wiredmikey writes with this excerpt from a Wall Street Journal report:
"The U.S. ushered in a new CIA-led counterterrorism program in Yemen on
Friday, [0]sending unmanned aircraft to kill an American-born cleric who
occupied a top place on the U.S.'s anti-terrorist list. The death of
Anwar al-Awlaki eliminates a leading figure in Yemen's branch of al Qaeda
and one of its most charismatic recruiters. A Web-savvy Islamic preacher
with sparkling English, Mr. Awlaki was known for his ability to couch
extremist views in ways that appealed to Western youth. He had been
linked to suspects in the 2009 Fort Hood, Texas, shooting spree and the
botched bombing of a Detroit-bound jet that Christmas."

Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/1128258/drone-kills-top-al-qaeda-figure?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204138204576602301252340820.html

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| IBM Unseats Microsoft As Second Most Valued Tech Company
| from the big-blue-gets-even-bigger dept.
| posted by Unknown Lamer on Friday September 30, @23:13 (IBM)
| with 274 comments
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/0048250/ibm-unseats-microsoft-as-second-most-valued-tech-company?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First time accepted submitter FlatEric521 writes "The BBC is reporting
that for the first time since 1996 [0]IBM's market value has exceeded
Microsoft's. The values cap a sustained period in which IBM's share price
has moved steadily upward as Microsoft's has generally been in decline.
Of course, Apple is still the #1 company by far."

Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/0048250/ibm-unseats-microsoft-as-second-most-valued-tech-company?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15124005

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Security By Obscurity — a New Theory
| from the can-we-try-this-at-airports dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 01, @18:12 (Security)
| with 180 comments
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/2034215/security-by-obscurity-a-new-theory?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

mikejuk writes "[0]Kerckhoffs' Principle suggests that there is no
security by obscurity — but perhaps there is. A recent paper by Dusko
Pavlovic suggests that [1]security is a game of incomplete information
and the more you can do to keep your opponent in the dark, the better. In
addition to considering the attacker's computing power limits, he also
thinks it's worth [2]considering limits on their logic or programming
capabilities (PDF). He recommends obscurity plus a little reactive
security in response to an attacker probing the system. In this case,
instead of having to protect against every possible attack vector, you
can just defend against the attack that has been or is about to be
launched."

Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/2034215/security-by-obscurity-a-new-theory?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerckhoffs's_Principle
1. http://www.i-programmer.info/news/149-security/3132-security-by-obscurity-a-new-theory.html
2. http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1109/1109.5542v1.pdf

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| State Dept. Employee Investigated For Linking To WikiLeaks
| from the don't-point-at-things-either dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 01, @10:40 (United States)
| with 149 comments
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/1143233/state-dept-employee-investigated-for-linking-to-wikileaks?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New submitter Jimme Blue writes "An employee of the State Department is
under investigation and [0]may be fired for 'disclosing classified
information.' Or, as others might call it, posting a link to WikiLeaks.
'His crime, he said, was a link he posted on August 25 in a blog post
discussing the hypocrisy of recent U.S. actions against Libyan leader
Muammar Qadaffi. The link went to a 2009 cable about the sale of U.S.
military spare parts to Qadaffi through a Portuguese middleman. ... The
State Department investigators, he said, [1]demanded to know who had
helped him with his blog and told him that every blog post, Facebook
post, and tweet by State Department employees had to be pre-cleared by
the Department prior to publication."

Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/1143233/state-dept-employee-investigated-for-linking-to-wikileaks?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/09/gov-employee-faces-firing/
1. http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175446/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_wikileaked_at_the_state_department/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Amazon To Lose $10 Per Kindle Fire
| from the on-hardware-anyway dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 01, @12:50 (Businesses)
| with 144 comments
| https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/1632249/amazon-to-lose-10-per-kindle-fire?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An anonymous reader writes "According to a manufacturing cost breakdown,
it turns out Amazon is willing to [0]sell its new Kindle Fire at a $10
loss. An analyst estimates that the Kindle Fire, priced at $199, actually
costs $209.63 to produce. That said, the device is likely to be much more
valuable to Amazon through content sales and the ability to drive more
purchases through its website."

Discuss this story at:
https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/1632249/amazon-to-lose-10-per-kindle-fire?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2393947,00.asp

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Australia's National Broadband Network Officially Open For Business
| from the and-you-thought-america-had-high-prices dept.
| posted by Unknown Lamer on Saturday October 01, @02:25 (Australia)
| with 138 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/0139210/australias-national-broadband-network-officially-open-for-business?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[0]sydneyhype writes "The Australian [1]National Broadband Network is
open for business. The 14,000 residents on the [2]first roll-out will be
able to order an NBN service (current ISP contract permitting).
Internode, Exetel, and iiNet have released their commercial pricing.
[3]iiNet has undercut Internode with prices starting at $49.95 per month
for 12Mbps down and 1Mbps up with 20gb on-peak and 20gb off-peak."

Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/0139210/australias-national-broadband-network-officially-open-for-business?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.sydneyhype.com.au/
1. http://www.nbn.gov.au/
2. http://www.zdnet.com.au/nbn-co-goes-commercial-339323418.htm
3. http://www.zdnet.com.au/iinet-undercuts-internode-with-nbn-pricing-339322588.htm

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Nokia Preps Linux OS For Low-End Smartphones
| from the eggs-in-different-baskets dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 01, @13:52 (Cellphones)
| with 131 comments
| https://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/172205/nokia-preps-linux-os-for-low-end-smartphones?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[0]itwbennett writes "Nokia is [1]going after the low-end smartphone
market with a Linux-based OS code-named 'Meltemi.' The phones are
expected to cost under $100 without subsidies. A Nokia spokesman's
no-comment comment went like this: 'Of course, we don't comment on future
products or technologies. However, I can say that our Mobile Phones team
has a number of exciting projects in the works that will help [2]connect
the next billion consumers to the Internet.'"

Discuss this story at:
https://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/172205/nokia-preps-linux-os-for-low-end-smartphones?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.itworld.com/
1. http://www.itworld.com/hardware/208803/nokia-readies-linux-os-low-end-smartphones
2. http://www.bgr.com/2011/09/29/nokia-to-turn-mobile-landscape-on-its-head-with-meltemi-smartphone-os/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Help Liberate the Debian Administrator's Handbook
| from the books-want-to-be-free-too dept.
| posted by Unknown Lamer on Friday September 30, @20:15 (Debian)
| with 127 comments
| https://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/09/30/2342241/help-liberate-the-debian-administrators-handbook?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First time accepted submitter [0]buxy writes "Roland Mas and me [Raphael
Hertzog] are the authors of a [1]French Debian bestseller. We want to
[2]translate this book into English and publish it under a license
compatible with the Debian Free Software Guidelines. That would be the
first free and up-to-date book about Debian that can be integrated into
Debian. But we need your support to make this happen. [3]Pledge some
money [toward the translation effort] and get a copy of the book once
it's done! As a special bonus, you can alternatively support the project
and have about [4]12% of the donated money given back to the Debian
project."

Discuss this story at:
https://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/09/30/2342241/help-liberate-the-debian-administrators-handbook?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://raphaelhertzog.com/
1. http://debian-handbook.info/
2. http://raphaelhertzog.com/2011/09/27/do-you-want-a-free-debian-book-read-this/
3. http://www.ulule.com/debian-handbook/
4. http://www.ulule.com/debian-handbook/?utm_campaign=project_1973&utm_source=debian&utm_medium=default

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| AT&T Starts Throttling Heavy Wireless Data Users
| from the keeping-a-promise dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 01, @17:11 (AT&T)
| with 107 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/1947203/att-starts-throttling-heavy-wireless-data-users?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[0]tekgoblin writes "AT&T has [1]started tossing out warnings for users
that [2]fall into the top 5% of data users on their wireless network.
AT&T announced this change [3]back in July and is now starting to
actually enforce it."

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/1947203/att-starts-throttling-heavy-wireless-data-users?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.tekgoblin.com/
1. http://www.tekgoblin.com/2011/09/29/att-starts-throttling-heavy-data-users/
2. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/09/att-throttling-warnings/
3. http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/07/29/2247215/att-to-start-data-throttling-heaviest-users

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| The Cult of DevOps
| from the but-risky-deployments-are-exciting dept.
| posted by Unknown Lamer on Saturday October 01, @08:31 (Google)
| with 89 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/017221/the-cult-of-devops?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

packetrat writes "I was at [0]OmniTI's Surge conference today, which
turned out to be, among other things, a meeting of the cult of [1]DevOps.
Ars Technica covered the [2]keynote and some of the presentations, but
some of the best stuff is in the comments. Google CIO Ben Fried told the
tale of a really poorly engineered trading application at Morgan Stanley
that he was associated with, and how the way IT was structured there
contributed to that engineering and to its spectacular failure, costing
the bank untold millions in stock trade processing fees from its
institutional customers. He said what he learned from cleaning up the
mess has informed how Google runs its IT operations, and a culture that
promotes generalist skills. A lot of how he describes Google's approach
sounds like the DevOps kool-aid a lot of the other speakers were serving,
but it also sounds like common sense — are most IT organizations really
that poorly run that developers are totally unaware their software is
sending messages that are generating network storms, or network engineers
are clueless enough about QoS to route leased lines into their data
center through their public-facing Internet?"

Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/017221/the-cult-of-devops?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://omniti.com/surge/2011
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps
2. http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/09/google-devops-and-disaster-porn.ars

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Estimating Age With Kinect's 3D Camera To Filter Content
| from the can-i-choose-what's-objectionable dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 01, @11:41 (Microsoft)
| with 88 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/1421209/estimating-age-with-kinects-3d-camera-to-filter-content?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

theodp writes "[0]Hal in 2001: 'I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do
that [open the pod bay doors].' Kinect in 2011: 'I'm sorry, Dave Jr. I'm
afraid I can't do that [tune in to the [1]Spice Channel].' A Microsoft
patent filing made public this week proposes to [2]restrict access to TV,
movies and video games by using a 3D depth camera to estimate viewers'
ages based upon the dimensions and proportions of a person's body, such
as head width to shoulder width, and torso length to overall height. For
adults with short arms or other seemingly childlike proportions, settings
can be overridden by someone with an administrator password."

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/1421209/estimating-age-with-kinects-3d-camera-to-filter-content?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/quotes?qt=qt0396921
1. http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/gizmos/2004/02/avert_your_eyes.html
2. http://www.geekwire.com/2011/microsoft-idea-kinect-body-scans-estimate-age-automate-parental-controls

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Battle For Open Standards In Dutch Public Education
| from the think-of-the-gnu-slash-children dept.
| posted by Unknown Lamer on Saturday October 01, @05:30 (Education)
| with 83 comments
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/0013203/battle-for-open-standards-in-dutch-public-education?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In his first accepted submission, pjstevns writes "The heat is on! With
the rising use of online systems for school administration the battle for
open and accessible solutions is here, now. Parents are forced to buy
'proper' operating systems from your favorite Redmond based supplier —
just to be able to access their childrens' grades, or participate in
classes. A [0]petition addressed at parliament for proper implementation
of the open-standards guidelines put forward by the Dutch government
itself is buzzing around the Netherlands. Comply or Explain!" It seems
like a major supplier of education software in the Netherlands has
written essential software in Silverlight that all students must use,
claiming "...Magister is truly multiplatform because Silverlight is
available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux" despite it more or less being
non-functional with Moonlight.

Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/0013203/battle-for-open-standards-in-dutch-public-education?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.janstedehouder.nl/2011/09/28/make-the-use-of-open-standards-in-education-mandatory/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Mozilla Develops Gladius 3D Game Engine
| from the new-versions-every-six-hours dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 01, @16:04 (Software)
| with 76 comments
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/1846221/mozilla-develops-gladius-3d-game-engine?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An anonymous reader writes "Mozilla is [0]developing its own 3D engine
called Gladius as part of [1]a wider Paladin project whose aim it is to
bring 3D to the web. As all programmers know, the best way to learn is to
experiment, and that's exactly what Mozilla is doing. In order to develop
Gladius the team decided to create a game called [2]RescueFox (best
played in Firefox). It's a very basic prototype, and Mozilla has no
interest in taking it further, but the purpose it served was to highlight
what still needs to be done to make Gladius a solid web browser 3D engine
solution."

Discuss this story at:
https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/1846221/mozilla-develops-gladius-3d-game-engine?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.geek.com/articles/games/mozilla-paladin-project-is-developing-gladius-a-3d-game-engine-for-web-browsers-2011101/
1. https://mozillalabs.com/blog/2011/09/rescuefox-the-value-of-a-prototype/
2. http://rescuefox.mozillalabs.com/src/index.html

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Ask Slashdot: Websites Friendly To eReader Browsers?
| from the avoid-youtube dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 01, @19:14 (Handhelds)
| with 54 comments
| https://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/2129239/ask-slashdot-websites-friendly-to-ereader-browsers?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DJCouchyCouch writes "I have a Kobo Touch eReader that comes with a
bare-bones web browser. Since the screen is E-Ink based, the browsing
experience is pretty poor due to the low refresh rate of the screen.
Scrolling is twitchy and often laggy. Are there sites out there that can
reformat a website to be more like book reading? I'm not asking for a
perfect, tablet-like experience, just something better than what it does
now."

Discuss this story at:
https://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/2129239/ask-slashdot-websites-friendly-to-ereader-browsers?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Web Hosts — One-Stop-Shops For Mass Hacking?
| from the digital-walmarts-for-script-kiddies dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 01, @15:00 (Security)
| with 50 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/1724219/web-hosts-one-stop-shops-for-mass-hacking?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[0]jjp9999 writes "More than 70,000 websites were [1]compromised in a
recent breach of InMotion. Thousands of websites were defaced and others
had alterations made to give users a hard time accessing their accounts
and fixing the damage. [2]A similar attack hit JustHost back in June, and
in a breach of Australian Web host DistributeIT just prior to that,
[3]hackers completely deleted more than 4,800 websites that the company
was unable to recover. The incidents raise concern that hacker groups are
bypassing single targets and hitting Web hosts directly, giving them
access to tens of thousands of websites, rather than single targets.
While the attacks have caused damage, they weren't as malicious as they
could have been. Rather than defacing and deleting, hackers could have
quietly planted malware in the sites or stolen customer data. Web hosting
companies could be one of the largest holes in non-government
cybersecurity, since malicious hackers can gain access through openings
left by the Web host, regardless of the security of a given site."

Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/1724219/web-hosts-one-stop-shops-for-mass-hacking?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://techzwn.com/
1. http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/technology/hosting-firm-inmotion-hacked-thousands-of-websites-defaced-62209.html
2. http://thehackernews.com/2011/06/justhost-hosting-server-compromised.html
3. http://distributeitsupport.blogspot.com/2011/06/notice-service-disruptions.html

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Michael Nielsen's Free Video Courseware On Quantum Computing
| from the superposition-of-knowledge dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 01, @15:36 (Education)
| with 31 comments
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/1849230/michael-nielsens-free-video-courseware-on-quantum-computing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New submitter [0]quax writes "Michael Nielsen, who co-authored [1] the
book on Quantum Computing, released [2]a set of short video lectures on
his blog this summer ([3]link to Google cache). They make a great
introduction to the subject. But here's the catch: Due to other work
responsibilities, he stopped short of completing the course, and will
only complete it if he sees enough interest in the videos. Let's show him
some numbers."

Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/10/01/1849230/michael-nielsens-free-video-courseware-on-quantum-computing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://slashdot.org/~quax
1. http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Computation-Information-10th-Anniversary/dp/1107002176
2. http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/quantum-computing-for-the-determined/
3. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:f_zRG7-3sTwJ:michaelnielsen.org/blog/quantum-computing-for-the-determined

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