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tekk and Angry Jesus submitted stories about Mozilla adding DRM to its browser.

tekk writes:

It was recently announced on the Mozilla Hacks Blog that Mozilla was partnering with Adobe to bring the infamous W3M EME extensions (web DRM) into Firefox. Their explanation is that this is required, because watching DRM'd video on the web such as that from Netflix or the BBC is now a basic functionality of the browser and not optional. Users can currently watch encrypted videos using flash or silverlight, but they will lose this feature if EME isn't added when sites move to HTML5+EME. As something of a compromise, the extension will be run within a sandbox in order to prevent it from actually accessing the user's computer in any way aside from decrypting content, and the user will have to agree to actually load the DRM module.

Angry Jesus sent in an article from theguardian:

Future versions of the open-source Firefox browser will include closed-source digital rights management (DRM) from Adobe, the Mozilla project's chief technology officer, Andreas Gal, announced on Wednesday.

This move was done without much enthusiasm, out of a fear that Firefox was being sidelined by Apple, Google and Microsoft's inclusion of proprietary technology to support Netflix and other DRM-encumbered videos in their browsers.

kaszz writes:

The Japanese startup "Power Japan Plus" has unveiled a battery that in testing has completed more than 3000 charge/discharge cycles with virtually no performance degradation. This means it likely can last the lifetime of a car. Multiple patents are pending and thus details are few. The battery chemistry requires 'specific and proprietary changes to the nanostructure of the carbon crystal'. The energy density is comparable to Li-ion at 900 - 2628 J/m³. However this a battery can be recharged 20 times faster and barely heats up when doing so. A single cell has 4 volts. It can be discharged fully without damage. The production using the commodity 18650 package will start later this year.

The new dual-carbon anode and cathode can both be produced by existing cell manufacturing processes and require essentially just carbon as input. The first markets to be targeted are satellite and medical devices.

AndyTheAbsurd writes:

Human bones are remarkably plastic and respond surprisingly quickly to change. Put under stress through physical exertion - such as long-distance walking or running - bones gain in strength as the fibres are added or redistributed according to where strains are highest. The ability of bone to adapt to loading is shown by analysis of the skeletons of modern athletes, whose bones show remarkably rapid adaptation to both the intensity and direction of strains.

Angry Jesus writes:

Richard Humphrey, who is currently serving prison time in the US for operating pirate distribution websites, has taken his life in his own hands and filed a complaint with his warden about prison staff showing pirated, still in theater, movies to inmates.

According to Humphrey, the Lorain Correctional Institution is not the only prison where pirated movies are shown to inmates. During his youth he was detained at Lorain County Juvenile Detention Center, where the same issues took place.

It seems more than a little unfair, but utterly unsurprising, that prison staff can flagrantly commit the same sort of crimes that put Humphrey in prison.

kaszz writes:

The Chief information security officer (CISO) of In-Q-Tel Dan Geer has proposed implementation of a self terminate logic in embedded devices like industrial control and SCADA systems to manage a future where many of them will heavily populate our personal, professional and lived environments. Individually, these devices may be unimportant. But, together, many embedded systems are tremendously powerful and capable of causing tremendous social disruption. He noted the malware TheMoon, that spreads between vulnerable home routers, as one example of how a population of vulnerable, unpatchable embedded devices might be cobbled into a force of mass disruption. And proposes tgat embedded systems that lack means of being (securely) managed and updated remotely should be configured with some kind of 'end of life,' past which they will cease to operate. Allowing embedded systems to 'die' will remove a population of remote and insecure devices from the Internet and prevent those devices from being used by cyber criminals or other malicious actors.

lhsi writes:

A mathematical model that looked at the sudden collapse of empires or states was created, with an intent to look at why social disorder can appear from an apparently stable state (an example cited is the Arab Spring in 2011). Factions within a state make choices described by game-theory about whether to accept the political status quo, or to attempt to better their circumstances through costly rebellion.

We find that a small amount of dissatisfaction is typically harmless to the state, but can trigger sudden collapse when there is a sufficient buildup of political inequality. Contrary to intuition, a state is predicted to be least stable when its leadership is at the height of its political power and thus most able to exert its influence through external warfare, lavish expense or autocratic decree.

AnonTechie writes:

Encrypted or not, Skype communications prove "vital" to NSA surveillance. Newly published memo leaked by Edward Snowden details the value of Skype data.

Last year, Ars documented how Skype encryption posed little challenge to Microsoft abuse filters that scanned instant messages for potentially abusive Web links. Within hours of newly created, never-before-visited URLs being transmitted over the service, the scanners were able to pluck them out of a cryptographically protected stream and test if they were malicious. Now comes word that the National Security Agency is also able to work around Skype crypto-so much so that analysts have deemed the Microsoft-owned service "vital" to a key surveillance regimen known as PRISM.

gewg_ writes:

With the XP end of life, radio show presenter and Windoze-only stalwart Kim Komando has deviated from her longstanding position.

you can find refurbished office PCs online and in local thrift stores for around $100. These usually have hardware from the early 2000s.

There's a catch, though. They mostly run Windows XP, and XP isn't a safe operating system to be running anymore.

[...]you could try an operating system based on Linux. These are free, come with everything you need for basic computing, and will run great on older hardware. If you're going to give this a whirl, check out Linux Mint. The MATE edition should run better than XP, in fact.

For those unfamiliar, Kim's radio audience is largely less-technical than those who would usually be dabbling in Linux.

Fluffeh writes:

After months of trouble free operations the inevitable has finally caught up with the teenage developer of a hugely popular iOS Game Boy emulator. With no jailbreak needed and millions of downloads, GBA4iOS was riding a wave of popularity, but copyright action by Nintendo of America has now taken the project offline.

GBA4iOS works very well indeed. The no-jailbreak installation on iPhone or iPad is achieved by exploiting a loophole in Apple's Developer Enterprise Program and once in situ the user has access to countless games, accessible via an inbuilt browser and third party ROM sites. The latest version even has Dropbox integration. Additionally, up until a few hours ago GBA4iOS was hosted on Github, but now the gaming giant's legal team has hit the code sharing website with a takedown for the popular emulator.

Thexalon writes:

The New York Times is running a Room for Debate on whether all children should be taught to code. Opinions range from "Teach it as soon as possible" to "It's a scam".

Despite the rapid spread of coding instruction in grade schools, there is some concern that creative thinking and other important social and creative skills could be compromised by a growing focus on technology, particularly among younger students. Should coding be part of the elementary school curriculum?

I'm curious what Soylentils think about this: Is teaching kids coding in elementary school a good idea?

nsa writes:

David Cole at the Washington Post has written a rather harsh review of Glenn Greenwald's forthcoming book "NO PLACE TO HIDE: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State".

In his review Cole notes:

Some of Greenwald's most disturbing disclosures concern not the NSA but its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). His documents reveal that the GCHQ engages in "online covert action" against loosely defined "hacktivists" designed to disrupt, degrade and discredit their online presence. Taking a page from COINTELPRO, the FBI's 1960s campaign against U.S. radicals, the GCHQ's tactics include luring targets to sexually compromising Web sites, posting false blogs and launching other "info ops to damage reputations."

Cole however then goes on to harshly criticize Greenwald for failing to see the middle ground of the issues.

Some disclosures raise more questions about Greenwald's judgment than about the NSA's activities. One document, for example, identifies the specific methods used to bug 24 named foreign embassies. The document reveals top-secret methods and targets, and its disclosure is likely to undermine legitimate intelligence-gathering and cause serious diplomatic problems. Yet it is difficult to see what possible value it adds to the public debate. It is one thing to disclose secret government practices that raise serious moral, political and constitutional concerns as many of Snowden's disclosures have done. But bugging foreign embassies is at the core of foreign intelligence, and there is nothing illegal or particularly surprising about the fact that we do it.

While I am jaded and educated enough to agree with the lack of surprise, I am young enough to still find it incomprehensible that if this is such a known and unchangeable state of affairs, why it hasn't simply been codified in law and taken outside the realm of secrecy... But what do I know, I'm just a dirty filthy hacktivist :)

Angry Jesus writes:

Nevada dad John Eppolito was concerned about Nevada's recent decision to join a multi-state consortium that shares students' data. He wanted to know exactly what information had been compiled on his school-age kids. But state officials told him he would have to pay fees and the cost of programming totaling more than $10,000 for running a custom report.

Eppolito said, "This data is for everyone except the parents. It's wrong."

kaszz writes:

Russia will now ban US military satellite launches using Russian-made rockets. According to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin in retaliation for US sanctions on high-tech items, put in place because of the dispute in the Ukraine. Rogozin made a threat to block US plans to use the International Space Station (ISS) beyond its mission end date 2020.

Rogozin also said Russia will suspend the operation of the GPS satellite navigation system sites in Russia from June and seek talks with Washington on opening similar sites in the US for Russia's own system, Glonass.

He threatened the permanent closure of the GPS sites in Russia if that is not agreed by September.

The Wikipedia article on GLONASS can be found here.

c0lo writes:

In medical trials, Australian researchers have successfully used seaweed to help regenerate bone and damaged human tissue, with the team being already able to regenerate knee-cap cartilage by injecting stem cells in a seaweed gel paste.

Australian Broadcast Corporation reports:

Unlike other plants, seaweed cells do not have vascular tissue, instead they use a gel-like substance to hold cells together.

The institute's director, Professor Gordon Wallace, says the team is mixing the seaweed extracts with human stem cells for use with sophisticated 3D printing technology.

"We're looking at extracts from seaweed that can actually form the structural component of 3D printed parts that we're using in studies for nerve, muscle, bone and cartilage regeneration," he said.

soylentsandor writes:

CNN reports that underwater explorer Barry Clifford, who led a team that found and investigated the wreck, says he's confident to have found the long-lost remains of the Santa Maria, Christopher Columbus' flagship from his first voyage to the Americas.

Clifford says he found it in the exact area where Columbus said the Santa Maria ran aground more than 500 years ago. The wreck is stuck on a reef off Haiti's northern coast, 10 to 15 feet beneath the water's surface.

lhsi writes:

From TorrentFreak:

VPN services operate in an industry that has security and trust as its hallmarks. So when a major security threat such as Heartbleed is revealed, they should be among the first to address the issue. TorrentFreak reached out to several popular VPN services to find out how they responded to Heartbleed.

The VPN providers who responded to TorrentFreak are Private Internet Access, TorGuard, IPredator, Mullvad, VikingVPN, IVPN, TigerVPN, blackVPN, Anonymizer, BolehVPN, NordVPN, proxy.sh, HideIPVPN, SlickVPN, OctaneVPN, IPVanish, LiquidVPN, AirVPN, VPN.S, VPN.ac, Unspyable, Seed4.Me, and VyprVPN.

AnonTechie writes:

National Journal reports:

Fifty-five percent of Americans think that they are smarter than the average American, according to a new survey by YouGov, a research organization that uses online polling. In other words, as YouGov cleverly points out, the average American thinks that he or she is smarter than the average American. A humble 34 percent of citizens say they are about as smart as everyone else, while a dispirited 4 percent say they are less intelligent than most people. Men (24 percent) are more likely than women (15 percent) to say they are "much more intelligent" than the average American. White people are more likely to say the same than Hispanic and black people. So, this many smart people must mean that, on the whole, the United States ranks pretty high in intelligence, right?

Not quite. According to the survey, just 44 percent of Americans say that Americans are "averagely intelligent." People who make less than $40,000 a year are much more likely to say that their fellow Americans are intelligent, while those who make more than $100,000 are far more likely to say that Americans are unintelligent.