[« 2019/11/16] [today] [2019/11/18 »] [« previous 15]
Iran Shuts Down Country's Internet In the Wake of Fuel Protests Slashdotby EditorDavid on censorship at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at November 17, 2019, 11:08 pm)

"Iran, one of the countries most strongly identified with the rise cyber terrorism and malicious hacking, appears now to be using an iron fist to turn on its own," reports TechCrunch: The country has reportedly shut down nearly all internet access in the country in retaliation to escalating protests that were originally ignited by a rise in fuel prices, according to readings taken by NetBlocks, a non-governmental organization that monitors cybersecurity and internet governance around the world... The protests arose in response to a decision by the state to raise the price of gas in the country by 50%. As this AP article points out, Iran has some of the cheapest gas in the world -- in part because it has one of the world's biggest crude oil reserves -- and so residents in the country see cheap gas as a "birthright." Many use their cars not just to get around themselves but to provide informal taxi services to others, so -- regardless your opinion on whether using fossil fuels is something to be defended or not -- hiking up the prices cuts right to ordinary people's daily lives, and has served as the spark for protest in the country over bigger frustrations with the government and economy, as Iran continues to struggle under the weight of U.S. sanctions. Clamping down on internet access as a way of trying to contain not just protesters' communication with each other, but also the outside world, is not an unprecedented move; it is part and parcel of how un-democratic regimes control their people and situations. Alarmingly, its use seems to be growing. Pakistan in September cut off internet access in specific regions response to protests over conflicts with India. And Russia -- which has now approved a bill to be able to shut down internet access should it decide to -- is now going to start running a series of drills to ensure its blocks work when they are being used in live responses. On Twitter, NetBlocks reported yesterday that realtime network data "shows connectivity at 7% of ordinary levels after twelve hours of progressive network disconnections."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hassan Rouhani warns protest-hit Iran cannot allow 'insecurity' AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at November 17, 2019, 10:30 pm)

President defends steep fuel price rise as the United States condemns 'lethal force' used against Iranian demonstrators.
'Yellow vest' anniversary: Has anything changed? AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at November 17, 2019, 10:30 pm)

Exactly one year ago, protests about fuel prices sparked a mass movement challenging French President Emmanuel Macron.
Why Firefox Fights for the Future of the Web Slashdotby EditorDavid on firefox at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at November 17, 2019, 9:38 pm)

"Mozilla is no longer fighting for market share of its browser: it is fighting for the future of the web," writes the Guardian, citing Mozilla Project co-founder Mitchell Baker: Baker's pitch is that only Mozilla is motivated, first and foremost, to make using the web a pleasurable experience. Google's main priority is to funnel user data into the enormous advertising engine that accounts for most of its revenue. Apple's motivation is to ensure that customers continue to buy a new iPhone every couple of years and don't switch to Android...." Firefox now runs sites such as Facebook in "containers", effectively hiving the social network off into its own little sandboxed world, where it can't see what's happening on other sites. Baker says: "It reduces Facebook's ability to follow you around the web and track you when you're not on Facebook and just living your life...." Mozilla has launched Monitor, a data-breach reporting service; Lockwise, a password manager; and Send, a privacy-focused alternative to services such as WeSendit. It's also beta-testing a VPN (virtual private network) service, which it hopes to market to privacy-conscious users... Apple's iOS (mobile operating system) is an acknowledged disaster for Mozilla. Safari is the default and, while users can install other browsers, they come doubly hindered: they can never be set as the default, meaning any link clicked in other applications will open in Safari; and they must use Safari's "rendering engine", a technical limitation that means that even the browsers that Firefox does have on the platform are technically just fancy wrappers for Apple's own browser, rather than full versions of the service that Mozilla has built over the decades... "Even if you do download a replacement, iOS drops you back into the default. I don't know why that's acceptable. Every link you open on a phone is the choice of the phone maker, even if you, as a user, want something else." Summarizing Baker's concerns, the Guardian writes that "It is perfectly possible to build a browser that prevents advertising companies from aggregating user data. But it is unlikely that any browser made by an advertising company would offer such a feature..." And an activist for the Small Technology Foundation tells them that Google "wants the web to go through Google. It already mostly does: with eyes on 70% to 80% of the web."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Greece remembers the brutality that felled its dictatorship AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at November 17, 2019, 9:30 pm)

The anniversary of a student uprising acts as a test-run for new police freedom to enter university campuses.
Microsoft To Kids With Chromebooks: No 2019 Minecraft Hour of Code For You! Slashdotby EditorDavid on microsoft at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at November 17, 2019, 8:38 pm)

Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: In years past, Microsoft's wildly popular Minecraft-themed Hour of Code tutorials were browser-based, pretty much allowing schoolchildren to participate regardless of whether their schools used PCs, Macs or Chromebooks. "Computer science is a foundation for every student," Microsoft explained on a web page about the Hour of Code, adding that "a quality computer science education should be available to every child, not just a lucky few." But that was then, and this is now. "The new Minecraft Hour of Code tutorial," explains a new announcement at Microsoft-sponsored Code.org, "is now available in Minecraft: Education Edition for Windows, Mac, and iPad." So, when will the Chromebook version be available? Silly Rabbit, the 2019 Minecraft Hour of Code is for Windows and Apple kids! From the Minecraft 2019 Hour of Code Lesson FAQ: Q. Does the Hour of Code Lesson work on Chromebooks? A. The Hour of Code Lesson is not compatible with Chromebooks. If your class has Chromebooks and would like to do a Minecraft Hour of Code lesson, we recommend using one of the [old] Minecraft tutorials on Code.org." Yes, but that means schoolkids with Chromebooks won't be exposed to the teased AI for Good concepts introduced in the 2019 Minecraft tutorial, which seems at odds with Microsoft's professed focus on democratizing AI and putting AI developer tools in the hands of "every public sector organization around the world."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Donald Trump tells Kim Jong Un: 'Get the deal done' AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at November 17, 2019, 8:00 pm)

In a tweet, US President Trump seeks re-engagement amid stalled denuclearisation negotiations with Pyongyang.
UK government and military covered up war crimes: report AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at November 17, 2019, 8:00 pm)

Military detectives who unearthed evidence say senior commanders hid alleged war crimes 'for political reasons'.
Leaked Russian Interference Report Raises Questions About Brexit, UK Election Securi Slashdotby EditorDavid on uk at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at November 17, 2019, 7:38 pm)

A report from the U.K. Parliament's intelligence committee concludes that "Russian interference may have had an impact on the Brexit referendum," reports the Times of London, adding that "the effect was 'unquantifiable.'" The Associated Press reports: The committee said British intelligence services failed to devote enough resources to counter the threat and highlighted the impact of articles posted by Russian new sites that were widely disseminated on social media, the newspaper reported... [Conservative Prime Minister Boris] Johnson's government has said it needs more time to review the security implications of the report, but it will be released after the election. Critics have alleged the report is being withheld because it shows Russians have made large donations to the Conservative Party, which is seeking to win a majority that would allow Johnson to push his Brexit deal through Parliament.... The House of Commons Intelligence and Security Committee began its investigation following allegations of Russian interference in both the 2016 U.S. election and the Brexit referendum earlier that year. The committee sent its report to Johnson for review on Oct. 17, saying it expected to "publish the report imminently." Committee Chairman Dominic Grieve has criticized Johnson's government for failing to release the document amid media reports it has already been cleared by British security services. The debate comes amid growing concerns about the security of elections fought in an increasingly digital world. Britain's election laws were written for a time when campaigns pushed mass-produced leaflets through mail slots, rather than flooding Facebook and Twitter accounts with individually targeted messages.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

tweetSucker work Scripting News(cached at November 17, 2019, 7:35 pm)

I'm doing a bit of refinement now that I've had a chance to use tweetSucker for a few days. First impression, I tweet a lot, and most of it is uninteresting a day later. I realized what I want most are tweets that are't links, rt's or replies. Original stuff. An idea that could possibly turn into an interesting piece on the blog. So I adjusted the app so that it splits them up into the four categories. I've pasted below the four classes of tweets from yesterday. Here's the OPML file.

Original tweets

Links

Replies

RTs

Colin Kaepernick refuses to attend NFL tryout session AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at November 17, 2019, 7:30 pm)

The controversial quarterback says he is ready to play anywhere despite refusing to attend a tryout session organised by the NFL in Atlanta.
[no title] Scripting News(cached at November 17, 2019, 7:05 pm)

Following up on yesterday's american.newbie piece. True story. I went to eat Chinese food with my Mom a few years ago. Highly rated restaurant. In the neighborhood I grew up, many years ago when it was a sleepy boring place with an embarassing name. Most of the people spoke Chinese. We had to wait quite a while for a table. When we were seated the waiter asked if we were tourists. I laughed and said no we're natives. The funny thing is that not that long ago we were the newbies. The food was fantastic, btw. So many flavors, very satisfying. Before the Chinese came, Flushing was famous for nothing in the way of anything, in the last three centuries at least.
[no title] Scripting News(cached at November 17, 2019, 7:05 pm)

The whole point of impeachment it seems to me is to spin the Repubs around until they pass out. Then we hypnotize them.
Will Electric Cars Last Longer Than Combustion-Engine Cars? Slashdotby EditorDavid on transportation at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at November 17, 2019, 6:38 pm)

Long-time Slashdot reader jimminy_cricket shared Qz's report on some of "the highest-mileage Teslas in the world": Few have driven a Tesla to the point at which the vehicle really starts to show its age. But Tesloop, a shuttle service in Southern California composed of Teslas, was ticking the odometers of its cars well past 300,000 miles with no signs of slowing... These long days have pushed Tesla's engineering to the limit, making Tesloop an extreme testbed for the durability of Elon Musk's cars.Tesloop provided Quartz with five years of maintenance logs, where its vehicles racked up over more than 2.5 million miles, to understand how the electric vehicles (EV) are living up to the promise of cheaper vehicles with unprecedented durability compared to their conventional combustion-engine counterparts. The results reveal Tesla to be a company still ironing out bugs in its products, but one that pushes the limits of what vehicles can do. "When we first started our company, we predicted the drive train would practically last forever," Tesloop founder Haydn Sonnad told Quartz. "That's proven to be relatively true." He notes that every car except one, a vehicle taken out of service after a collision with a drunk driver, is still running. "The cars have never died of old age," he added.... [T]he implications could be huge. Every year, corporations and rental car companies add more than 12 million vehicles in Europe and North America to their fleets. Adding EVs to the mix could see those cars lasting five times longer -- costing a fraction of conventional cars over the same period -- while feeding a massive new stream of used electric cars into the marketplace.... One of the first surveys done on EVs came this March when New York City revealed its first lifetime analysis of fuel and maintenance costs for its light-passenger fleet. It found conventional vehicle maintenance was two to four times higher than the $386 spent on EVs. That's before gas... If EVs continued to perform well past this point, the economics of the car market could change. Lower fuel prices and more durable vehicles could, theoretically, push total cost of ownership below conventional vehicles. Several of the Teslas in their fleet have already driven nearly half a million miles.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

[no title] Scripting News(cached at November 17, 2019, 6:35 pm)

A neighbor who gets the nightly email says I should go easier on Elizabeth Warren. I love getting comments from people I see who read my stuff. It's an affirmation that I exist, in some fashion, and at least one person is listening. I like that. Alan Kay said that Macintosh was the first PC worth criticizing. Jean-Louis Gassée says the higher the monkey climbs a tree, the more people can see his derrière. I criticize Warren as a front-runner, the likely nominee, and because POTUS is an important job, esp the next one. It's not enough to win as Democrats, we have to win for the Constitution. Overlook our differences just for one election. There used to be liberals in the Republican Party, no reason the Democratic Party can't have expat Repubs. We're fighting for our soul as a country. Imho everything else is a detail to be worked out later.
[« 2019/11/16] [today] [2019/11/18 »] [« previous 15]