SoylentNews

lhsi writes:

A study on how children acquire knowledge shows that as children get older, they rely more on retrieving facts from memory than doing actual counting [Study Abstract].

Subsentient writes:

The Linux Foundation has introduced a new exam-based certifications program, using an online-based exam, for a fee.

Excerpt from ZDNet:

It's a common story: Businesses desperately want Linux savvy employees. Programmers and system administrators who cut their teeth on the gcc and the BASH shell want jobs. But, between them rises the wall of human resources, which wants degrees and certifications. The Linux Foundation introduced an answer at LinuxCon: a new Linux Foundation Certification Program for both early-career and engineer-level systems administrators.

Hugh Pickens writes:

Asian Image reports that a campaign has been launched on Twitter urging people not to share a video purporting to show the murder of James Foley and thousands of ordinary users from around the world have backed the plan to deny IS publicity in horror at the horrific beheading footage, using the hashtag #ISISmediablackout. Twitter's chief executive Dick Costolo said the firm was taking action against accounts which spread the video. Still images from the video were removed from Twitter. Some individuals, including Al Jazeera America’s Wajahat Ali, said sharing the images of Foley’s apparent death on social media played into the militant group’s hands while others users suggested journalists “have a responsibility” to report murder.

The video of Foley’s purported killing was initially posted on YouTube, but taken down shortly afterward. Some criticized YouTube for not taking the video down quickly enough. "It's lucky that video didn't have a unlicensed Katy Perry song as a soundtrack or it would've been deleted from YouTube in seconds," wrote Tom Gara. A YouTube spokesperson would not say how long the video had remained posted on the site. The spokesperson said the company had "clear policies that prohibit content like gratuitous violence, hate speech and incitement to commit violent acts, and we remove videos violating these policies when flagged by our users".

c0lo writes:

In a "How to Save the Internet" series, Wired runs the opinion of Bruce Schneier which makes a compelling case for splitting NSA in three.

By treating the Internet as a giant surveillance platform, the NSA has betrayed the Internet and the world. It has subverted the products, protocols, and standards that we use to protect ourselves. It has left us all vulnerable—to foreign governments, to cybercriminals, to hackers. And it has transformed the Internet into a medium that no one can trust.

Spying on foreign governments properly belongs within the Department of Defense under US Cyber Command. These days, espionage requires offensive actions in cyberspace—for example, breaking into networks and installing malware. [...] Attacking a foreign computer network is potentially an act of war, and we should be very careful in choosing to do so.

But the NSA's extensive domestic and foreign surveillance of individuals is an activity that is properly placed inside the Justice Department. There it can be subject to standard domestic law: the Constitution, the warrant process, conventional courts, and much less secrecy.

Finally, the NSA's defensive mission—protecting U.S. communications from eavesdropping and other attacks—should be transferred to a new organization. [...] This new agency would not have to be secret at all, because its ultimate goal ought to be a more secure Internet for everyone.

While all seems conceptually sound, I still have an uneasy feeling about placing the responsibility of fixing the internet in what used to be a part of NSA. What about you?

lhsi writes:

The nightly build of Firefox for Android has received support for Chromecast, to allow users to cast a video to a screen with Chromecast.

RobotMonster writes:

Australia's ABC reports that the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will not treat Bitcoin transactions as money, saying Bitcoin or other digital currency payments will be taxed like a non-cash barter transaction.

Local businesses which accept Bitcoin as payment for goods or services had been hoping the internet currency would be treated under tax law as the same as money or foreign exchange. Doing so makes record keeping and taxation requirements significantly easier. It also avoids double taxation as, under the ATO's view, businesses buying digital coins will have to pay GST on the Bitcoin and on the services they offer.

The tax office essentially views Bitcoin transactions in one of two ways. The first is people using Bitcoin occasionally – such as making small purchases or dabbling in digital currency mining or trading. If the purchase amount is less than $10,000, those people will likely be ignored by the ATO. The second group are people who use crypto-currencies specifically for profit or business. The ATO says, for that group, taxes like capital gains, GST or fringe benefits should be paid and records kept – including the date of the transaction, the amount, what it was for and who the other party was.

"It's the law. We don't make it up, we have to look at the existing law that we have," Michael Hardy, a senior assistant commissioner at the Australian Taxation Office, said.

"We explored it [the law] carefully with input from industry experts in coming to this view."

"It just doesn't fit the legal definitions [of money or foreign currency], so we can't pretend that it is something what it's not."

Mr Hardy said for Bitcoin to be treated as money under Australian law, there would have to be a change of the legislation or another country would have to adopt Bitcoin as its national currency.

Hugh Pickens writes:

BBC reports that according to Dmitri Dolgov, lead software engineer for Google's driverless car project, Google's self-driving cars are programmed to exceed speed limits by up to 10 mph when surrounding vehicles are breaking the speed limit, because going more slowly could actually present a danger. In many countries, including the United States, the speed limit is a rather nebulous thing. It's posted, but on many roads hardly anybody obeys it.

Almost every driver speeds regularly, and anybody going at or below the limit on a clear road outside the right lane is typically an obstruction to traffic—they will find themselves being tailgated or passed at high speed on the left and right. A ticket for going 1 mph over the limit is an extremely rare thing and usually signals a cop with another agenda or a special day of zero-tolerance enforcement. In fact, many drivers feel safe from tickets up to about 9 mph over the limit. Tickets happen there, but the major penalties require going faster, and most police like to go after that one weaving, racing guy who thinks the limit does not apply to him. Commenting on Google self-drive cars' ability to exceed the speed limit, a Department for Transport spokesman said: "There are no plans to change speed limits, which will still apply to driverless cars".

lhsi writes:

Researchers from Columbia University have developed a system called XRay that aims to make why adverts appear on the web more transparent.

PizzaRollPlinkett writes:

Politico reports that the government is having secret meetings with big corporations about bringing overseas technology workers into America. This report quotes the usual anonymous sources, so take it for what it's worth.

Compare the list of corporations mentioned in this article to the top 25 list of H-1B visa sponsors for 2014: Other than the lobbying groups (Fwd.US and Compete America), the names of Microsoft, Accenture, and Oracle appear on both. Cisco is not on the list, but is partnered with Tata which is.

Should the government be meeting in secret with corporations about bringing in more foreign workers to take American jobs? Why aren't these meetings and what topics are discussed on the public record?

gewg_ writes:

A letter from Steve Ballmer in Redmond's press release section confirms he is stepping down as a board member.

In the six months since leaving [the CEO position], I have become very busy. I see a combination of the Clippers, civic contribution, teaching and study taking a lot of time. I have confidence in our approach of mobile-first, cloud-first, and in our primary innovation emphasis on platforms and productivity and the building of capability in devices and services as core business drivers. I hold more Microsoft shares than anyone other than index funds and love the mix of profits, investments and dividends returned in our stock. I expect to continue holding that position for the foreseeable future.

Given my confidence and the multitude of new commitments I am taking on now, I think it would be impractical for me to continue to serve on the board, and it is best for me to move off.

Hugh Pickens writes:

Jessica Roy reports at NY Magazine that news aggregator Fark has became one of the first original link aggregators to ban misogyny from its community making moderators responsible for ensuring that misogyny doesn't make its way into headlines or comments. Banned headlines include rape jokes, calling women as a group "whores" or "sluts" or similar demeaning terminology, and jokes suggesting that a woman who suffered a crime was somehow asking for it.

There are lots of examples of highly misogynistic language in pop culture, and Fark has used those plenty over the years. From SNL's "Jane, you ignorant slut" to Blazing Saddles' multiple casual references to rape, there are a lot of instances where views are made extreme to parody them. On Fark, we have a tendency to use pop culture references as a type of referential shorthand with one another.

On SNL and in a comedy movie, though, the context is clear. On the Internet, it's impossible to know the difference between a person with hateful views and a person lampooning hateful views to make a point.

According to Roy, Fark's new guidelines are a "refreshing departure from the misguided free speech arguments that sites like Reddit that bend over backwards to defend the handful of misogynist communities that are among its ranks, not to mention the free-floating slut-shaming that snakes its way into regular comment threads."

lhsi writes:

Facebook is to trial a "Satire" tag on linked articles, to help users distinguish what is satire and what is actual real news.

Stories posted in users' feeds are being tagged as "[Satire]" in an apparent move to prevent them being mistaken for real news stories.

Satirical stories have provoked confusion and angry comments from some social media users.

Facebook told the BBC that feedback from users has highlighted the need for the feature.

"We are running a small test which shows the text '[Satire]' in front of links to satirical articles in the related articles unit in News Feed," a Facebook spokesman said in a statement.

"This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these units."

The Onion has responded [Satire] with an article about a stupid Facebook user that needs everything to be as easy as possible.

One has to wonder whether the satire tag is needed because satire articles have become too clever for people to tell the difference, or whether real world events are becoming indistinguishable from satire (the most recent example I can think of being people in Ferguson getting tips on how to handle tear gas from people in Gaza).

AnonTechie writes:

Ars Technica reports:

Delaware has become the first state in the US to enact a law that ensures families' rights to access the digital assets of loved ones during incapacitation or after death.

Last week, Gov. Jack Markell signed House Bill (HB) 345, “Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets and Digital Accounts Act,” which gives heirs and executors the same authority to take legal control of a digital account or device, just as they would take control of a physical asset or document.

Earlier this year, the Uniform Law Commission, a non-profit group that lobbies to enact model legislations across all jurisdictions in the United States, adopted its Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (UFADAA). Delaware is the first state to take the UFADAA and turn it into a bona fide law.

Marneus68 writes:

After a failed Kickstarter back in 2013, the GPLGPU project has delivered a first version of its free (GPL v3) GPU.

As explicated by Hackaday, this FPGA based GPU does 3D over VGA and works with a standard PCI interface. This is not exactly a powerhouse, but it's a starting point for truly free GPU solutions, and an exciting news for everyone in the FLOSS community since truly free GPU are quite rare.

You can read the official announcement here.

gewg_ writes:

ZeroHedge reports:

Cisco reported a whole lot of numbers as part of its Q4 earnings release. For the most part these were largely irrelevant, but for the pedants out there here is what Wall Street is focusing on: revenue and EPS beats of $12.36 billion ($12.15 billion estimated) and $0.55 ($0.53 estimated) even as Chinese sales continue to crater, plunging 23% in the quarter: thank you NSA.

But the punchline was revealed into the conference call when John Chambers announced CSCO would proceed with another mass layoff, firing 6,000 people or 8% of its workforce.

Putting this number in context, CSCO also announced it had just spent $1.5 billion in the quarter to repurchase 61 million shares of its stock, bringing the total for 2014 to $9.5 billion (including $3.8 billion in dividends).