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Submission + - Has the 'impossible' EM drive being tested by NASA finally been explained? (examiner.com) 1

MarkWhittington writes: The EM drive, the so-called “impossible” space drive that uses no propellant, has roiled the aerospace world for the past several years, ever since it was proposed by British aerospace engineer Robert Shawyer. In essence, the claim advanced by Shawyer and others is that if you bounced microwaves in a truncated cone, thrust would be produced out the open end. Most scientists have snorted at the idea, noting correctly that such a thing would violate physical laws. However, organizations as prestigious as NASA have replicated the same results, that prototypes of the EM drive produces thrust. How does one reconcile the experimental results with the apparent scientific impossibility? MIT Technology Review suggested a reason why.

Submission + - RIP Alan Rickman, AKA Hans Gruber, Severus Snape

TigerPlish writes: Variety reports Rickman died after a short bout of cancer, and was surrounded by friends and family when he went.

While some may question how is this News for Nerds, I'm of the opinion that Harry Potter was, is, and will always be a nerd favorite.

Submission + - Keeping My Data Mine

schklerg writes: Like many, I am tired of being the product of the corporate “cloud” overlords. To that end, I’ve got my own Linux server running Tiny Tiny RSS (RSS — Feedly replacement), OwnCloud (Storage / phone backup / Keepass sync / notes — Google Drive replacement), Coppermine Gallery (picture library), Dokuwiki (quick reference), and Shaarli (bookmarks manager — Foxmarks / Sync replacement).

Crashplan lets me pick the keys for my backups, and the only thing Google Drive ever sees is a pgp encrypted file of various items. Next up is moving from gmail with iRedMail.

Yes, the NSA may have it all anyway, but being under less corporate control is a nice feeling. What have you done to maintain control of your own data?

Submission + - Ivan Ristic And SSL Labs: How One Man Changed The Way We Understand SSL

An anonymous reader writes: Ivan Ristic is well-known in the information security world, and his name has become almost a synonym for SSL Labs, a project he started in early 2009. Before that, he was mostly known for his work with OWASP and the development of the wildly popular open source web application firewall ModSecurity. While SSL Labs was something Ristic worked on in his spare time, over time it became his main focus. In fact, over the years, the project incorporated a great number of checks that are impossible to perform manually. It's a game changer because, to assess your TLS configuration, you don't need to be an expert. Read the story about the project's evolution on Help Net Security.

Comment Key word is mainstream (Score 1) 2

Don't pick on the safe bets and human friendliness of mainstream Ubuntu, it's almost level field with commercial. Things that happen under the hoods and around 'hipster' distros are still very exciting... I've not seen many examples of your choices for direction in innovation, but on the virtualization/containers/server realm concepts are bent and quirks are tested. And a lot of services, and a lot of languages and a lot of DEs and a lot of...

Submission + - Innovative operating systems/distros in 2015? 2

iamacat writes: Back in 90s, we used Linux not only because of open source, but also for innovative features not found in commercial operating systems — better multitasking, network power features like slirp and masquerading, free developer tools for many languages. Nowadays OSX and Windows caught up in these areas and mainstream distros like Ubuntu dumbed down in default configuration. So where to go for active innovation like 3D/VR desktop, artificial intelligence, drag and drop ability to mash up UI of multiple apps or just drastically better performance? Something maybe rough around the edges but usable and exciting enough to use as daily desktop?

Submission + - A Tower of Molten Salt Will Deliver Solar Power After Sunset (ieee.org)

schwit1 writes: For the first time, solar thermal can compete with natural gas during nighttime peak demand

Solar power projects intended to turn solar heat into steam to generate electricity have struggled to compete amid tumbling prices for solar energy from solid-state photovoltaic (PV) panels. But the first commercial-scale implementation of an innovative solar thermal design could turn the tide. Engineered from the ground up to store some of its solar energy, the 110-megawatt plant is nearing completion in the Crescent Dunes near Tonopah, Nev. It aims to simultaneously produce the cheapest solar thermal power and to dispatch that power for up to 10 hours after the setting sun has idled photovoltaics.

Submission + - How Volkswagen Cheated Emissions Tests And Who Authorized It? (computerworld.com)

Lucas123 writes: The method by which Volkswagen diesel cars were able to thwart emissions tests and spew up to 40X the nitrogen oxide levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency was relatively simple. It was more likely no more than a single line of code used to detect when an emissions test was being performed and place the emissions system in an alternate mode — something as simple as a software "on/off" switch. Volkswagen AG CEO Martin Winterkorn, who stepping down as the result of his company's scandal, has said he had no knowledge of the emissions cheat, but software dev/test audit trails are almost certain to pinpoint who embedded the code and who authorized it. You can actually see who asked the developer to write that code," said Nikhil Kaul, a product manager at test/dev software maker SmartBear Software. "Then if you go upstream you can see who that person's boss was...and see if testing happened...and, if testing didn't happen. So you can go from the bottom up to nail everyone."

Comment Re:That was easy (Score 1) 867

YMMV, hibernate/suspend is indeed buggy but it will not stay that way ;). And think of various Linux failures as opportunities: the community makes it so that you don't get several Gb of unattended updates unless you ask for it. Any distro that violates that is readily swappable with one that doesn't.

Submission + - Tiny Pebbles Built the Gas Giant Behemoths (discovery.com)

astroengine writes: Scientists have long puzzled over how gas planets like Jupiter and Saturn got to be so big. Current theories suggest the cores of these behemoths are comprised of mini-planets, some 62- to 620 miles in diameter, which collided and gradually merged together over time. But computer simulations show this process is more likely to produce hundreds of Earth-sized worlds. Instead, a new study suggests "slow pebble accretion" is a more likely process.

Submission + - ISPs Claim Title II Regulations Don't Apply to the Internet Because "Computers" (arstechnica.com)

Gryle writes: ArsTechnica is reporting on an interesting legal tactic by ISPs in the net neutrality fight. In a 95-page brief the United States Telecom Association claims Internet access qualifies as information service, not a telecommunication service, because it involves computer processing. The brief further claims "The FCC's reclassification of mobile broadband internet access as a common-carrier service is doubly unlawful" (page 56).

Comment Re:In Other Words... (Score 1) 432

So I'm going to explain myself as I see you are meeting my point:
Why do we have to complain about regulations instead of implementing them, proactively, as you have noticed that some areas in these activities needs some ground rules? Basic, simple, sane rules.
I agree with you on Hillary's approach on this, and I'll add to that that most politicians taking on the task to solve this problem will only serve some limited group or perspective. They will almost always lack the insight concerning exploits, abuse, scams or difficulties caused by either unregulated or poorly regulated activities, and yet they will dictate the policies.

Submission + - The Free Software Foundation's statement on Canonical's updated licensing terms (fsf.org)

donaldrobertson writes: "On July 15th, 2015, the Free Software Foundation's Licensing and Compliance Lab, along with the Software Freedom Conservancy, announces that, after two years of negotiations, Canonical, Ltd. has published an update to the licensing terms of Ubuntu GNU/Linux.

This update now makes Canonical's policy unequivocally comply with the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) and other free software licenses. It does this by adding a "trump clause" that prevails in all situations possibly covered by the policy:"

Submission + - ARM Support Comes to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (suse.com)

jrepin writes: SUSE announced partner program expansion to include support for 64-bit ARM server processors. This expansion makes available to partners a version of SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 that allows them to develop, test and deliver products to the market using 64-bit ARM chips. To simplify partner access, SUSE has also implemented support for ARM and AArch64 into its openSUSE Build Service. This allows the community to build packages against real 64-bit ARM hardware and the SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 binaries,

Comment Re:In Other Words... (Score 1) 432

Just tell me one thing: what unregulated activity works well as is? No exploits, no abuse and no scamming...

While I agree with your freedom reflexes, instead of whining about any attempt to tackle a problem please be the one to say the sane solution(s). Because there are simple solutions. Not solving correctly our problems is what gives them the task of screwing it up. So it's our fault, not theirs.

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