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Phoenix666 writes:

One of the founding fathers of the internet, Robert Taylor, has died.

While working at the Pentagon in the 1960s, he instigated the creation of Arpanet - a computer network that initially linked together four US research centres, and later evolved into the internet.

At Xerox, he later oversaw the first computer with desktop-inspired icons and a word processor that formed the basis of Microsoft Word.

Mr Taylor died at home aged 85.

His family told the Los Angeles Times that he had suffered from Parkinson's disease among other ailments.

Mr Taylor studied psychology at university, but worked as an engineer at several aircraft companies and Nasa before joining the US Department of Defense's Advanced Research Project Agency (Arpa) in 1965.

So long, Robert, and thanks for all the fish.

Original Submission

Soylentbob writes:

Edit: The link.

There were lots of good titles for this submission, as in "Breaking news: Poettering clueless?" to finally disprove Betteridge's law, or "systemd surprisingly not as good as advertised" or "Breaking new: systemd broken" or "Poettering censors critics after epic fail".

Systemd implementation of "rm -rf .*" will follow ".." to upper directory and erase /

After the issue was fixed, finally Poettering added this gem of wisdom:

The answer to this question, as many clarified for him, obviously is a loud "NO!". After being told a couple of times in no uncertain terms, the thread was closed for non-developers

for which I proposed the "freedom-of-speech" department (although I admit it is a weak proposal).

Original Submission

In the continuing saga of website tinkering and people's love of update posts, I'm back with some backend configuration changes. Right now, things have been relatively quiet on the backend side of things. We've got some good news, and some bad news in this update. That being said, we've made a few small updates over the weekend. Rapid fire style, let's go through them:

takyon writes:

http://www.space.com/36270-nasa-deep-space-gateway-moon-orbit.html

It looks like NASA's stepping-stone to Mars will be a miniature space station in lunar orbit rather than a chunk of captured asteroid.

The agency plans to build an astronaut-tended "deep space gateway" in orbit around the moon during the first few missions of the Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket and Orion crew capsule, which are scheduled to fly together for the first time in late 2018, NASA officials said.

"I envision different partners, both international and commercial, contributing to the gateway and using it in a variety of ways with a system that can move to different orbits to enable a variety of missions," William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C, said in a statement. [Red Planet or Bust: 5 Crewed Mars Mission Ideas]

"The gateway could move to support robotic or partner missions to the surface of the moon, or to a high lunar orbit to support missions departing from the gateway to other destinations in the solar system," Gerstenmaier added.

One of those "other destinations" is Mars. NASA is working to get astronauts to the vicinity of the Red Planet sometime in the 2030s, as directed by former President Barack Obama in 2010. For the last few years, the agency's envisioned "Journey to Mars" campaign has included the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), an effort to pluck a boulder from a near-Earth asteroid and drag the rock to lunar orbit, where it could be visited by astronauts aboard Orion.

But ARM's future looks bleak; President Donald Trump provided no money for the mission in his proposed 2018 federal budget, which the White House released earlier this month.

Also see:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/deep-space-gateway-to-open-opportunities-for-distant-destinations

http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a25872/nasa-cis-lunar-orbit/

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/sep/index.html

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Dan Wright and Joanne Leon of Shadowproof interview cybersecurity expert Jeffrey Carr about Crowdstrike's controversial claims on successfully identifying Russia as the actor that hacked the Democratic National Committee:

The evidence has always been thin despite U.S. intelligence agencies ultimately supporting the claim.

Carr discusses Crowdstrike's history of bad calls, including having to recently rewrite a report on alleged Russian hacking in Ukraine. The Ukrainian government as well as other cybersecurity experts heavily disputed Crowdstrikes[sic] initial claims.

[...] For firms like Crowdstrike, there's no financial downside in pretending to be able to attribute a hack as the nature of cyber makes it hard to prove or disprove an attribution. Additionally, each report serves as marketing material for future clients.

Original Submission

The FBI and DoJ Were Granted a FISA Warrant to Monitor a Trump Campaign Aide Last Summer

takyon writes:

A FISA warrant was obtained to monitor Trump campaign aide Carter Page before the election:

The FBI obtained a warrant to secretly surveil former Donald Trump aide Carter Page last summer under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), according to a Tuesday Washington Post report.

The FBI and Justice Department demonstrated probable cause that Page is acting on behalf of a foreign state in order to be granted the warrant.

The FISA warrant was part of the FBI's investigation into possible ties between Russia and Trump campaign associates, law enforcement and U.S. officials told the Post.

"This confirms all of my suspicions about unjustified, politically motivated government surveillance," Page told the Post Tuesday. "I have nothing to hide."

Page has not been accused of committing a crime.

Also at MarketWatch.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Most of us tailor our language to our audience. We choose different words when talking to our child than when talking to our spouse, our pastor or our boss. We may not even notice that we are doing it. It's often automatic and unintentional.

At work, knowingly or not, people choose words for specific purposes beyond just conveying an idea. They want to impress, show deference, take credit, look smart, intimidate, dominate or avoid blame. They want to cover up their own incompetence or avoid managerial scrutiny.

Unfortunately, they often employ communications strategies that backfire by distracting from the message and subtext they want to convey and instead placing focus on the language and the speaker. This can make them seem pompous or condescending, caricatures to be mocked rather than professionals to be admired.

Here are a few of the ways people undermine their own credibility.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

An editorial in the Wellesley College student newspaper that called for "shutting down" some forms of hateful rhetoric became the latest flashpoint in a contentious national debate over free speech and its limits on college campuses.

The editorial, published Wednesday in the Wellesley News, argues that the campus community will "not stand for hate speech, and will call it out when possible."

"Shutting down rhetoric that undermines the existence and rights of others is not a violation of free speech; it is hate speech," the editorial states. "The spirit of free speech is to protect the suppressed, not to protect a free-for-all where anything is acceptable, no matter how hateful and damaging."

The editorial was widely criticized on social media as antithetical to the free exchange of ideas that is critical in a democracy and in liberal arts education. It comes as colleges across the country are wrestling with how to protect free speech in an era of trigger warnings, safe spaces, and even assaults on incendiary speakers invited to campuses.

Free speech for all. Unless they disagree with us on something...

Source: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/04/14/wellesley-college-student-newspaper-ignites-free-speech-debate/NHVrp8nNensXxCQHaPLHPJ/story.html

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

The CBC reports that Canada's ruling Liberal Party has proposed legislation concerning the use of cannabis:

The pot plan comes with two new bills; one to regulate the recreational use, sale and cultivation of marijuana, and a second that strengthens measures to stop impaired driving.

It would allow people to possess up to 30 grams of dried or fresh cannabis and sets the minimum at 18 years of age, though provinces and territories can set a higher legal age.

Consumers can grow up to four plants at home or buy from a licensed retailer.

[...] buying, selling or using marijuana outside the regulatory regime will remain a serious criminal offence with stiff penalties.

butthurt writes:

KUOW-FM reports about two detention centres operated by The GEO Group, Inc., formerly called the Wackenhut Corrections Corporation (ticker symbol GEO). Detainees for the centres are provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

A class action lawsuit says the company running an immigration detention center in Colorado is violating federal anti-slavery laws. It's the same company that runs the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, scene of an expanding hunger strike.

[...] Nina Disalvo is an attorney for the detainees in Colorado. She said it's illegal to pay them $1 a day.

"It's not the market wage that GEO would have to pay [...]," Disalvo said.

The Seattle Times via The News Tribune quoted a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson, concerning the hunger strike at the Tacoma facility:

"The sole detainee who is continuing to refuse meals has been allowed to remain in the general population, but the facility personnel are monitoring him closely," Kice wrote of the strike that began Monday.

Kice said about one-third of the civil detainees — who are awaiting immigration hearings or deportation — refused meals but, citing fluctuating numbers, did not provide exact numbers of those who participated in the strike. As of Friday morning, the population count at the facility was 1,401.

aristarchus writes:

[UPDATED 2017-04-17] Ars Technica reports that Mysterious Microsoft patch killed 0days released by NSA-leaking Shadow Brokers — Microsoft fixed critical vulnerabilities in uncredited update released in March.:

Contrary to what Ars and the rest of the world reported Friday, none of the published exploits stolen from the National Security Agency work against currently supported Microsoft products. This is according to a Microsoft blog post published late Friday night.

That's because the critical vulnerabilities for four exploits previously believed to be zerodays were patched in March, exactly one month before a group called Shadow Brokers published Friday's latest installment of weapons-grade attacks. Those updates—which Microsoft indexes as MS17-010, CVE-2017-0146, and CVE-2017-0147—make no mention of the person or group who reported the vulnerabilities to Microsoft. The lack of credit isn't unprecedented, but it's uncommon, and it's generating speculation that the reporters were tied to the NSA. In a vaguely worded statement issued Friday, Microsoft seemed to say it had had no contact with NSA officials concerning any of the exploits contained in Friday's leak.

Original story follows:

The "Shadow Brokers" released files that purport to expose vulnerabilities in Windows and especially in Windows Server.

Numerous Windows hacking tools are also among the new batch of files the Shadow Brokers dumped Friday. In recent months, the mysterious group has been releasing hacking tools allegedly taken from the NSA, and security researchers say they actually work.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

BusinessInsider reports on some creative solutions that have been submitted for "The Trump Wall"

Main link:
http://www.businessinsider.com/design-trumps-border-wall-hyperloop-2017-4

This aliases to:
http://www.businessinsider.com/design-trumps-border-wall-hyperloop-2017-4/#the-19th-century-brought-us-boundaries-the-20th-century-we-built-walls-the-next-will-bridge-nations-by-creating-communities-based-on-shared-principles-of-economic-resiliency-energy-independence-and-a-trust-based-society-the-designers-wrote-5

Homeland Security has put out a request for proposal and some of the submissions are truly creative. This article focuses on a joint Mexican-US proposal to convert land along the border to a neutral zone and build a Hyperloop along the border.

While this certainly wasn't what your AC was expecting, it appears to be a completely serious proposal from experienced builders and planners -- http://www.otranation.com/proposal

Other proposals submitted include:

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

The World Socialist Web Site reports

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its quadrennial "Report Card" last month on the condition of infrastructure in the United States. Once again, the association gave the country an overall grade of D+, the same as in 2013.

The report is a damning appraisal of the state of American society under capitalism, and the Obama years, which saw essential social needs starved of funding while the stock market tripled in value and vast public resources were squandered on war. This will only accelerate under Trump.

The ASCE report assesses the state of sixteen different categories of infrastructure: aviation, bridges, dams, drinking water, energy, hazardous waste, inland waterways, levees, parks and recreation, ports, rail, roads, schools, solid waste, transit and wastewater.

Twelve of the sixteen sections evaluated earned a D grade. The report defines a D grade as "The infrastructure is in poor to fair condition and mostly below standard, with many elements approaching the end of their service life. A large portion of the system exhibits significant deterioration. Condition and capacity are of serious concern with strong risk of failure."

According to ASCE, the total costs to bring all US infrastructure into an adequate condition would exceed two trillion dollars.

[...] ASCE's answer to this crisis is not only inadequate but downright reactionary.

[...] In the section of the report titled "solutions to raise the grade" the authors suggest that "Infrastructure owners and operators must charge, and Americans must be willing to pay, rates and fees that reflect the true cost of using, maintaining, and improving infrastructure." Other sections advocate "user generated fees", hiking the gasoline tax, and other regressive proposals that would disproportionately affect the country's poorest citizens. The report also calls for more "public-private" partnerships, along with the streamlining of approval for private investment in public infrastructure projects.

Such free-market measures would only create an ever-greater class-based infrastructure system, where only those who could afford to will be able to drive on high toll expressways and bridges, send their children to quality schools, drink clean water, and live in areas not threatened with constant flooding or environmental disasters.

View the ASCE's report card here.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The Cassini spacecraft has taken the closest-ever images of Saturn's 40.8 × 35.4 × 18.8 km moon Atlas. The images were taken on April 12th from a closest approach of about 11,000 km.

Next up is a final flyby of Titan on April 22nd, and the Cassini Grand Finale from April 26th to September 15th.

Previously: Cassini Spacecraft to Begin Diving Between Saturn and its Rings This Month

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

Betanews reports on an announcement from Microsoft regarding its Windows 10 operating system:

additional coverage:
Computerworld

related story:
Microsoft Kills Windows Vista On April 11: No Security Patches, No Hot Fixes, No Support, Nada

Original Submission