Dev.SN

lhsi writes:

Marketing data for a pregnant woman is particularly sought after by advertisers. In an attempt to avoid data-collection, Janet Vertesi, assistant professor of sociology at Princeton University, tried to hide her pregnancy from the internet. She ensured there was no mention on social media, used Tor to browse baby related websites, and used cash or gift cards when buying baby related items.

Vertesi presented on big data at the Theorizing the Web conference in Brooklyn on Friday, where she discussed how she hid her pregnancy, the challenges she faced and how the experience sheds light on the overall political and social implications of data-collecting bots and cookies.
"My story is about big data, but from the bottom up," she said. "From a very personal perspective of what it takes to avoid being collected, being tracked and being placed into databases."

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exec writes:

Computerworld is currently carrying an article on Atari's latest foray into the tech marketplace - expanding the internet of things over the SigFox network:

The latest entrant in the Internet of Things is legendary gaming company Atari, which plans to make consumer devices that communicate over the SigFox low-power network.

The devices will be for homes, pets, lifestyle and safety. Over the SigFox network, users will be able to see the location and status of their devices at all times, the companies said. They’re set to go into production this year.

[...] One advantage of SigFox is that it doesn't force consumers to set up cellular service or pair their devices with something nearby. Each hardware product will connect itself to the network as soon as the batteries go in, the companies said.

This seems to be a deviation from the previous direction Atari claimed to be heading in.

The story's rather light on listing the actual features and capabilities of these devices - will they just be privacy-invading snooping devices by design? Or will they simply be so insecure that they accidentally turn into such devices?

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MSE Bug Crashes Windows XP

danomac writes:

Apparently a bug in a Microsoft Security Essentials update caused XP computers to bluescreen. After rebooting once updates were installed the XP machines would bluescreen with "MsMpEng.exe application error".

Microsoft has fixed the error by releasing a definitions update for Security Essentials. Whoops!

Microsoft warns of Internet Explorer flaw

crutchy writes:

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27184188

"The flaw affects Internet Explorer (IE) versions 6 to 11 and Microsoft said it was aware of "limited, targeted attacks" to exploit it."

"the issue may be of special concern to people still using the Windows XP operating system"

"This will be the first zero day vulnerability that will not be patched for Windows XP users,"

--from the windows-8-marketing dept

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paulej72 writes:

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Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

The Register has a run-down of some notable -- and expensive -- errors made by Steve Ballmer while he was the CEO of Microsoft.

But this [the acquisition of Nokia] wasn't the first time one of Ballmer's plans cost Microsoft some serious coin. In fact, on several occasions during his tenure he bet big on the wrong idea when he probably should have known better, ultimately costing the company millions or even billions in the process.

While it's true that Ballmer's 14 years in the corner office left Microsoft a more profitable and more valuable company than when he first became chief exec, his legacy also includes a series of bad gambles that didn't pay off. Here we remember a few of the biggest ones – and time will tell whether Nadella can avoid similar mistakes.

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"The Mighty Buzzard" writes:

blah blah blah

crutchy is awesome

fruit noodley noot[sic]

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While public consultation about bill C-51 is still ongoing in Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is requesting new power to enable the interception and decryption of electronic conversations.

Suspected child predators, drug traffickers and extremists allegedly planning attacks or to join ISIS are escaping the eyes of the law because of increasingly impenetrable encryption and other digital roadblocks, according to top secret RCMP files reviewed by a CBC News/Toronto Star investigation.

The article also refers to an episode where the RCMP spent a considerable amount of money to install equipment to tap into a person of interest's conversations, only to notice that the communications could not be decrypted.

In late 2014, the Mounties spent two months and $250,000 to engineer a custom tool to intercept the target's communications only to discover all of it was encrypted and unreadable.

Anonymous Coward writes:

Der Spiegel reports:

[Approximate Translation:] An Airbus A321 Lufthansa with 109 passengers on the flight from Bilbao to Munich nearly crashed when the misguided on-board computer took control.
 
The cause of the incident on November 5 last year was sensors that iced up during the initial climb after takeoff and fed false data to the aircraft's guidance system. Then, the computer began a steep descent; the aircraft's altitude plunged 1000 meters per minute. For several minutes the pilot could not stop the crash with his own control commands. Only by turning off the on-board computer did the crew manage to get the aircraft back under control and land safely in Munich.

This kind of thing would give me nightmares as an aircraft engineer. With the era of self-driving cars dawning, is this a glimpse of things to come on the ground as sensors come into contact with real-world wear & tear, weather, and randomness?

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Bits hit an all time high! [Continued...]

martyb writes:

The scoop - on first opening the submit stories page, there was NO 'Reviews' topic to select.

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