Apple Rejects App That Tracks U.S. Drone Strikes
November 9th, 2012Via: Wired:
It seemed like a simple enough idea for an iPhone app: Send users a pop-up notice whenever a flying robots kills someone in one of America’s many undeclared wars. But Apple keeps blocking the Drones+ program from its App Store — and therefore, from iPhones everywhere. The Cupertino company says the content is “objectionable and crude,” according to Apple’s latest rejection letter.
It’s the third time in a month that Apple has turned Drones+ away, says Josh Begley, the program’s New York-based developer. The company’s reasons for keeping the program out of the App Store keep shifting. First, Apple called the bare-bones application that aggregates news of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia “not useful.” Then there was an issue with hiding a corporate logo. And now, there’s this crude content problem.
Begley is confused. Drones+ doesn’t present grisly images of corpses left in the aftermath of the strikes. It just tells users when a strike has occurred, going off a publicly available database of strikes compiled by the U.K.’s Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which compiles media accounts of the strikes.
iOS developers have a strict set of guidelines that must be adhered to in order to gain acceptance into the App Store. Apps are judged on technical, content and design criteria. As Apple does not comment on the app reviews process, it can be difficult to ascertain exactly why an app got rejected. But Apple’s team of reviewers is small, sifts through up to 10,000 apps a week, and necessarily errs on the side of caution when it comes to potentially questionable apps.
Apple’s original objections to Drones+ regarded the functionality in Begley’s app, not its content. Now he’s wondering if it’s worth redesigning and submitting it a fourth time.
“If the content is found to be objectionable, and it’s literally just an aggregation of news, I don’t know how to change that,” Begley says.
Microsoft’s Big Hidden Windows 8 Feature: Built-In Advertising
November 9th, 2012Via: Hot Hardware:
Despite the fact that I’ve been using Windows 8 for the past three weeks, I somehow managed to overlook a rather stark feature in the OS: ads. No, we’re not talking about ads cluttering up the desktop or login screen (thankfully), but rather ads that can be found inside of some Modern UI apps that Windows ships with. That includes Finance, Weather, Travel, News and so forth.
How to Steal Data from Your Neighbor in the Cloud
November 9th, 2012It’s not easy, but the description of the attack is pretty interesting.
Via: MIT Technology Review:
The new attack undermines one of the basic assumptions underpinning cloud computing: that a customer’s data is kept completely separate from data belonging to any other customer. This separation is supposedly provided by virtualization technology—software that mimics an instance of a physical computer system. A “virtual machine” offers a familiar system on which to install and run software, hiding the fact that, in reality, all customers are sharing the same complex warehouse-scale computer system.
Juels’s attack depends on finding ways to break that illusion. He found that, because virtual machines running on the same physical hardware share resources, the actions of one can impinge on the performance of the other. Because of this, an attacker in control of one virtual machine can snoop on data stored in memory attached to one of the processors running the cloud environment—memory that serves up recently used data to speed up future access to it—a trick known as a side-channel attack.
“Despite the fact that, in principle, it’s isolated from the victim, the attack virtual machine will catch glimpses of the behavior of the victim through a shared resource,” says Juels.
Cisco VP to Memo leaker: Finding You Is Now ‘My Hobby’
November 9th, 2012In case the leaker happens to be reading: Be aware of canary traps. They might use the technique to try to identify you.
Via: Network World:
Cisco vice president of services Mike Quinn, a former CIA operations officer, believes that whoever recently leaked an internal company memo to a blogger committed corporate treason and violated a “family” trust. In an email sent to Cisco employees, Quinn invites the anonymous leaker to voluntarily step forward, concedes that such a confession is unlikely, and adds, “so I will now make (finding) you my hobby.”
And to emphasize the point: “Ask around (and) you will find out that I like to work on my hobbies.”
New Mastercard has LCD Screen and Keyboard
November 9th, 2012Via: BBC:
A credit card with an LCD display and built-in keyboard has been launched in Singapore by Mastercard.
The card has touch-sensitive buttons and the ability to create a “one-time password” – doing away with the need for a separate device sometimes needed to log in to online banking.
Future versions of the card could display added information such as the remaining balance.
The card will be available from January before being rolled out globally.
‘Next Bush’ Makes Campaign Filing in Texas
November 9th, 2012Via: AP:
George P. Bush, a nephew of former President George W. Bush and son of one-time Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, has made a campaign filing in Texas that is required of candidates planning to run for state office, an official said Thursday night.
The younger Bush, a Fort Worth resident, filed a campaign treasurer appointment Wednesday, a requirement for someone to become a candidate under campaign finance law, Tim Sorrells, general counsel for the Texas Ethics Commission, told The Associated Press.
Sorrells said the report does not specify what office Bush might seek, if any, and he had no other details on the filing, which wasn’t available online. Bush did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment, and no phone listing for him could be found.
The 36-year-old said in September his goal was to run for office and acknowledged that he had his eyes on several statewide offices.
Raised in Florida, Bush decided to settle in Texas, home to his uncle and his grandfather, former President George H.W. Bush. He runs a consulting firm and has been active in Republican Party outreach to college students. He’s also the co-founder of Hispanic Republicans of Texas, a group that seeks to elect Hispanic candidates.
Foxconn Sees New Source Of Cheap Labor: The United States
November 9th, 2012Since MIT did it with Open Courseware years ago, I suspected that the point of the “free education” offerings was to create a pool of relatively skilled workers in some of the poorest countries in the world. You know, places with open sewers where people sleep on dirt floors… and where lots of these people have Internet access! (The way things are headed, this might refer to parts of the U.S. soon.)
—Top U.S. Colleges to Offer Free Classes Online
Update: Foxconn Denies Expansion of U.S. Operations
Via: Cnet:
A spokeswoman for Foxconn told me in an e-mail that the company “already has multiple facilities based in the U.S.” but she also went on to say that “there are no current plans to expand our operations there at this time.”
—End Update—
Via: Forbes:
Foxconn Electronics – the China-based contract electronics manufacturer also known as Hon Hai – is planning to build manufacturing plants in the U.S., DigiTimes reports, in a story attributed to “market watchers.”
The company is reportedly evaluating “cites such as Detroit and Los Angeles.”
Research Credit: dilinger
Odd-Even Gas Rationing System Coming To New York City, Long Island
November 9th, 2012Via: CBS:
New York City and Long Island are following in New Jersey’s footsteps in instituting an odd-even gas rationing system.
In an effort to ease long lines associated with the the fuel crunch taking place in New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a rationing system will go into effect on Friday.
Beginning at 6 a.m., those with license plates ending in an odd number will be able to buy gas on odd numbered days.
Those with license plates ending in an even number will be able to buy gas on even numbered days.
A Holographic Microscope for Just $250
November 8th, 2012Via: MIT Technology Review:
Traditional microscopy is a powerful tool for imaging small objects, such as cells. However, anybody who has used one will know its limitations: a tiny field of view and a shallow depth of field. That makes it hard to get a sense of the three dimensional shape of objects like cells.
One clever way round this is to make a hologram of the sample. The idea here is to split a laser beam in two, use one as a reference beam and bounce the other off the sample to record the pattern of phase shifts that this produces using a digital camera.
Recombining the beams produces an interference pattern that can be analysed to retrieve three-dimensional information about the sample in high resolution.
BBC Prevents Astronomer from Listening for Signs of Extraterrestrial Life on Distant Planet
November 8th, 2012[???]
Via: Telegraph:
Prof Cox, who hosts the show with comedian Dara O’Briain, said he had hoped to point the Jodrell Bank telescope at the planet Threapleton Holmes B after it was discovered live on air last year and listen for signs of life.
But he claimed he was prevented from doing so because the Corporation was concerned that a discovery of aliens could violate BBC regulations.
Speaking on the BBC Radio 6 Music breakfast show on Wednesday, Prof Cox said: “The BBC actually said ‘You can’t do that. We need to go through the regulations and health and safety and everything in case we discover a signal from an alien civilisation’.
“[I said], you mean we would discover the first hint that there is other intelligent life in the universe beyond Earth, live on air, and you’re worried about the health and safety of it?
“It was incredible. They did have guidelines. Compliance!”
