Iran insisting people be evacuated from al-Foua and Kefyra before civilians allowed out of Aleppo, says rebel leader.

At a bar in London, they're now testing the prototype for a self-driving beer tap, according to drunkdrone. Gizmodo UK reports: All you need to do is select your pint of choice on the touchscreen, pay with a tap of your contactless card and stick your pint glass at its base. The pump contains an electronic valve, which opens to allow beer to flow through. A liquid flow meter ensures the right amount of good stuff comes out. Meanwhile, Bloomberg is also reporting on a London startup that's brewing beer with a special algorithm that constantly modifies the percentage of each ingredient -- hops, water, yeast and grain -- based on ongoing customer feedback. Levels of carbonation, bitterness and alcohol content all change based on how people are responding... The algorithm produces new recipes every month incorporating the feedback. "There are too many brands out there that just have one recipe for a beer, and they've had it for 60 years," said Hew Leith, co-founder of IntelligentX, the maker of the beer appropriately named AI. "We're not about that. We're about using data to listen to our customers, get all that feedback, and then brew something that's more attuned to what they actually want and need." He believes the same process could also be used to design perfume, chocolate, and coffee.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Critics say government bid to pull country out of worst recession in decades with drastic measure hurts poorest most.

tomhath quotes the BBC: Dr Heimlich died at the age of 96. He invented the lifesaving technique, which uses abdominal thrusts to clear a person's airway, in 1974. In May he used the technique himself to save a woman at his retirement home. He dislodged a piece of meat with a bone in it from the airway of an 87-year-old woman, telling the BBC: "I didn't know I really could do it until the other day."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Calling it "the next revolution in roadway safety," the U.S. Department of Transportation hopes to standardize "vehicle communications" technology. Slashdot reader coondoggie writes: The idea is to enable a multitude of new crash-avoidance applications that could save lives by preventing "hundreds of thousands of crashes every year by helping vehicles 'talk' to each other," the DOT stated... [D]evices would use the dedicated short range communications to transmit data, such as location, direction and speed, to nearby vehicles. That data would be updated and broadcast up to 10 times per second to nearby vehicles, and using that information, V2V-equipped vehicles can identify risks and provide warnings to drivers to avoid imminent crashes. Self-driving cars (and human drivers) could be informed when it's safe to enter the passing lane (or when cars move into a vehicle's blind spot), for example, and "often in situations in which the driver and on-board sensors alone cannot detect the threat." Federal agencies estimate it will cost just $350 per vehicle by 2020 (and dropping over the decades to come), and they've also already issued guidelines about securing these systems from unauthorized access.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Treat source files as templates

Perl Based Secure Distributed Computing Network Process

Perl Based Secure Distributed Computing Network Process

Treat source files as templates

Distribution with a rich set of tools built upon the Test2 framework.

Engagement2030 campaign in more than 125 locations worldwide aims to dispel myths and build interfaith understanding.

It is that time of year again. It is the holiday season with presents under the tree. Some of those presents are bound to be electronic. Whether they are PCs, Macs, cellular phones, gaming systems or one of the new electronic gadgets like Alexa/Google devices, digital frames, security cameras, and other wireless devices. These may open a security hole in your network. Each of these devices require a little thought about how they will affect your network.

The first thing that every network, whether home or work, should have is a good well configured firewall. Your firewall can protect unwanted advances to your critical network assets. With a strong password and all of the updates in place the firewall will be your first line of defense.

All of the other devices behind the firewall will get some protection. As the devices are added to your network you need to further secure your network by doing the Security updates from the vendors, using strong passwords and using appropriate security software and antivirus/anti-malware software. Make sure that any applications that you are using are getting updated as the manufacturer makes them available.

You can further protect your data by doing a backup of all of the critical data. Whether you use an offsite backup like Carbon Copy or IDrive, or an external device (hard drive or thumb drive) you need to protect your data. Backing up your machine regularly can protect you from the unexpected. Keep a few months worth of backups and make sure the files can be retrieved if needed.

One of the most important things to remember, use safe practices while online. There are so many exploits on the Internet thattry to trick you into falling into their trap. You need to protect yourself from these bad guys. Ignore unsolicited emails, and be wary of attachments, links and forms in emails that come from people you dont know and from people you do know thatseem phishy. Be careful what websites you visit. Avoid untrustworthy (often free) downloads from freeware or shareware sites. Social networking sites as well as a lot of the news sites have open compromises on their sites. Dont click on links or download software from these sites. Be careful when watching videos or other active content because they as well can contain hidden dangers.

I would like to hear from our readers. What tips do you have for this holiday season?

Deb Hale

(c) SANS Internet Storm Center. https://isc.sans.edu Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

It is that time of year again. It is the holiday season with presents under the tree. Some of those presents are bound to be electronic. Whether they are PCs, Macs, cellular phones, gaming systems or one of the new electronic gadgets like Alexa/Google devices, digital frames, security cameras, and other wireless devices. These may open a security hole in your network. Each of these devices require a little thought about how they will affect your network.

The first thing that every network, whether home or work, should have is a good well configured firewall. Your firewall can protect unwanted advances to your critical network assets. With a strong password and all of the updates in place the firewall will be your first line of defense.

All of the other devices behind the firewall will get some protection. As the devices are added to your network you need to further secure your network by doing the Security updates from the vendors, using strong passwords and using appropriate security software and antivirus/anti-malware software. Make sure that any applications that you are using are getting updated as the manufacturer makes them available.

You can further protect your data by doing a backup of all of the critical data. Whether you use an offsite backup like Carbon Copy or IDrive, or an external device (hard drive or thumb drive) you need to protect your data. Backing up your machine regularly can protect you from the unexpected. Keep a few months worth of backups and make sure the files can be retrieved if needed.

One of the most important things to remember, use safe practices while online. There are so many exploits on the Internet thattry to trick you into falling into their trap. You need to protect yourself from these bad guys. Ignore unsolicited emails, and be wary of attachments, links and forms in emails that come from people you dont know and from people you do know thatseem phishy. Be careful what websites you visit. Avoid untrustworthy (often free) downloads from freeware or shareware sites. Social networking sites as well as a lot of the news sites have open compromises on their sites. Dont click on links or download software from these sites. Be careful when watching videos or other active content because they as well can contain hidden dangers.

I would like to hear from our readers. What tips do you have for this holiday season?

Deb Hale

(c) SANS Internet Storm Center. https://isc.sans.edu Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.