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[Slashdot] Stories for 2011-08-07

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Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* United States Loses S&P AAA Credit Rating
* The Mathematics of Lawn Mowing
* Philly Answers Youth Flash Mobs With Curfew Enforcement
* FOX To Host New Cosmos
* ISPs Will Now Be Copyright Cops
* Ask Slashdot: Does SSL Validation Matter?
* World Wide Web Turns 20 Today
* Defcon Hacks Defeat Card-And-Code Locks In Seconds
* In German Trials, Airport Body Scanners Easily Confused
* After Complaints, VMware Revises VSphere 5 Licensing
* Autodesk + Instructables: For Makers?
* Eben Upton Talks About the Raspberry Pi USB Computer
* Office 15 Development To Go JavaScript, HTML5 For Extensibility
* Army Gives Robo Jeeps a Go
* Boeing Employees To Man CST-100 Crew Capsule
* McAfee Disclaims Claims of Chinese Involvement in 'Shady RAT'
* Black Hat Talk Demonstrates New Document Exploits

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| United States Loses S&P AAA Credit Rating
| from the don't-worry-the-next-19-generations-won't-mind dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 06, @02:42 (Government)
| with 1109 comments
| https://politics.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/0428246/United-States-Loses-SampP-AAA-Credit-Rating?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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oxide7 writes with this excerpt from the International Business Times:
"The United States lost its top-notch AAA credit rating from Standard &
Poor's on Friday in [0]an unprecedented reversal of fortune for the
world's largest economy. S&P cut the long-term U.S. credit rating by one
notch to AA-plus on concerns about the government's budget deficits and
rising debt burden. The move is likely to raise borrowing costs
eventually for the American government, companies and consumers."

Discuss this story at:
https://politics.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/0428246/United-States-Loses-SampP-AAA-Credit-Rating?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/193427/20110805/united-states-loses-aaa-credit-rating-fromp.htm

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| The Mathematics of Lawn Mowing
| from the go-fast-turn-left dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 06, @08:26 (Math)
| with 424 comments
| https://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/0127201/The-Mathematics-of-Lawn-Mowing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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[0]Hugh Pickens writes "I enjoy mowing my six-acre lawn with my John
Deere 757 zero-turn every week, and over the course of the last five
years of mowing I have come up with my own most efficient method of
getting the job done which takes me about three hours. While completing
my task this morning, I decided after I finished to research the subject
to discover if there is a method for determining the most efficient path
for mowing, and found that Australians Bunkard Polster and Marty Ross
wrote last summer about an elegant mathematical presentation of the
problem of [1]mowing an irregularly shaped area as efficiently as
possible. First we simplify our golf course mowing problem by covering
the course with an array of circles with each circle radius equal to the
width of the mower disc. Connecting the centers of the circles produces
an equilateral triangular grid, with vertices at the circle centers.
Following a path consisting of grid edges, there will necessarily be a
fair amount of overlap so the statement of the problem is to minimize the
overlap by minimizing the number of vertices that are visited more than
once which Polster and Ross say is easily achieved by well-known computer
search algorithms. Any other tips from Slashdot readers?"

Discuss this story at:
https://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/0127201/The-Mathematics-of-Lawn-Mowing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://education.theage.com.au/cmspage.php?intid=147&intversion=76

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| Philly Answers Youth Flash Mobs With Curfew Enforcement
| from the at-last-a-flash-mob-with-a-mob-mentality dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 06, @12:27 (Communications)
| with 299 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/1420236/Philly-Answers-Youth-Flash-Mobs-With-Curfew-Enforcement?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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[0]Not that it's the first city to enforce a youth curfew, and not that
kids on a crime-spree is the only variety of moral panic offered as a
rationale, but Philadelphia is cracking down through [1]increased
enforcement of a [2]youth curfew law after children and teenagers
attacked two people in the Center City district ��� attacks which,
according to police, were coordinated via text messaging.

Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/1420236/Philly-Answers-Youth-Flash-Mobs-With-Curfew-Enforcement?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://public.findlaw.com/civil-rights/curfew-laws/juvenile-curfew-laws-25-cities.html
1. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/08/06/Philly-cracks-down-on-teen-flash-mobs/UPI-76161312603804/
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/us/11curfew.html

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| FOX To Host New Cosmos
| from the with-nancy-cartwright-narration-please dept.
| posted by timothy on Friday August 05, @20:33 (Television)
| with 196 comments
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/0029228/FOX-To-Host-New-Cosmos?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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twocows writes "FOX is [0]set to make a new season of Carl Sagan's
'Cosmos: A Personal Voyage,' hosted by Neil Degrasse Tyson and written by
none other than Ann Druyan (Carl Sagan's widow). Let's hope they don't
screw it up like every other good show they've aired in the past decade."

Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/0029228/FOX-To-Host-New-Cosmos?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.digitaltrends.com/lifestyle/fox-to-revamp-acclaimed-science-series-cosmos-with-neil-degrasse-tyson/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| ISPs Will Now Be Copyright Cops
| from the best-of-europe-and-australia-coming-soon dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 06, @19:07 (The Internet)
| with 195 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/235206/ISPs-Will-Now-Be-Copyright-Cops?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An anonymous reader writes "Wendy Seltzer, Fellow at Princeton
University's Center for Information Technology Policy, talks about the
new plan by ISPs and content providers to '[0]crack down on what users
can do with their internet connections' using a 6-step warning system to
curb online copyright infringement."

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/235206/ISPs-Will-Now-Be-Copyright-Cops?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://isp-services.com/videos/seltzer-says-internet-providers-will-now-be-copyright-cops/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Ask Slashdot: Does SSL Validation Matter?
| from the your-boy-zoolander's-on-the-move dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 06, @14:41 (Networking)
| with 162 comments
| https://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/1841210/Ask-Slashdot-Does-SSL-Validation-Matter?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An anonymous reader writes "Right now, in an email list excluded from the
public eye, some bright people are discussing the future of SSL. Under
debate is (a) do they allow DV (domain only validation) certificates to
continue to exist (exist for e-commerce use? only encryption use?) or do
they require a higher degree of certificate validation? (b) Do they allow
certificates to be issued with non-unique common names (certificates used
on internal networks, think your exchange server) or do they ban the
practice? If this were 'hypothetically' a heated debate going on right
now and you could chime in, what would you say?"

Discuss this story at:
https://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/1841210/Ask-Slashdot-Does-SSL-Validation-Matter?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

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| World Wide Web Turns 20 Today
| from the why-it-can-barely-vote-yet dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 06, @13:31 (The Internet)
| with 142 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/1456226/World-Wide-Web-Turns-20-Today?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

girlmad writes "On 6 August 1991, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, then a humble
scientist at CERN, [0]made the first page on the World Wide Web publicly
available in a move that, unbeknown to him at the time, would change the
world more quickly and profoundly than anything before or since."
[1]Wired also has a retrospective, noting that "[i]t can be hard now,
even for many of us who regularly used the Internet before there was a
World Wide Web, to remember that there was a time when the two terms
weren���t considered nearly synonymous by the general public." For those
who remember, what was your first experience with the Web per se? For me,
it was in 1993 or early 1994, with an excited demonstration of [2]Mosaic
on Sun workstations in the Geology department at the University of Texas.

Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/1456226/World-Wide-Web-Turns-20-Today?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/analysis/2099398/world-wide-web-changed-world-forever
1. http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/08/world-wide-web-20-years/
2. http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/Projects/mosaic.html

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Defcon Hacks Defeat Card-And-Code Locks In Seconds
| from the hey-tsa-locks-are-awesome dept.
| posted by timothy on Friday August 05, @20:57 (Security)
| with 133 comments
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/0011247/Defcon-Hacks-Defeat-Card-And-Code-Locks-In-Seconds?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sparrowvsrevolution writes "At the Defcon security conference in Las
Vegas, Marc Weber Tobias and Toby Bluzmanis plan to demonstrate simple
hardware hacks that expose [0]critical security problems in Swiss lock
firm Kaba's E-plex 5800 and its older 5000. Kaba markets the 5800 lock,
which Bluzmmanis says can cost as much as $1,300, as the first to
integrate code-based access controls with a new Department of Homeland
Security standard that goes into effect next year and requires
identifying credentials be used in secure facilities to control access.
One attack uses a mallet to 'rap' open the lock, another opens the lock
by putting a pin through the LED display light to ground a contact on the
circuit board, and a third uses a wire inserted in the lock's back panel
to hit a switch that resets its software."

Discuss this story at:
https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/0011247/Defcon-Hacks-Defeat-Card-And-Code-Locks-In-Seconds?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2011/08/05/defcon-lockpickers-open-card-and-code-government-locks-in-seconds/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| In German Trials, Airport Body Scanners Easily Confused
| from the bitte-to-be-straightening-dein-pleats-maedchen dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 06, @05:30 (Australia)
| with 84 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/0113259/In-German-Trials-Airport-Body-Scanners-Easily-Confused?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OverTheGeicoE writes "The German government just finished a 10-month test
of millimeter-wave body scanners made by L3 Communications. It appears
[0]they are not happy with the results. The devices raise false alarms 7
times out of 10, and are confused by layered clothing, boots, zippers,
pleats, and even incorrect posture. Australia recently started a trial,
and the second person in at the Sydney airport set off the alarm
repeatedly due to [1]sweaty armpits."

Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/0113259/In-German-Trials-Airport-Body-Scanners-Easily-Confused?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jGUyRTjF-WA40GLjIMEo6dFgSxlw?docId=CNG.d76d1890df3edca8dd08181cb6808c7f.881
1. http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/sweating-over-scan-new-airport-body-scanner-doesnt-like-perspiration/story-e6frfq80-1226106381522

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| After Complaints, VMware Revises VSphere 5 Licensing
| from the think-of-them-as-pretend-instances dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 06, @09:59 (Virtualization)
| with 71 comments
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/1320211/After-Complaints-VMware-Revises-VSphere-5-Licensing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

msmoriarty writes "Three weeks after IT shops [0]began complaining loudly
that the licensing changes with vSphere 5 would cost them significantly
more, VMware has [1]revised the requirements (although not as much as
[2]some users would like)."

Discuss this story at:
https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/1320211/After-Complaints-VMware-Revises-VSphere-5-Licensing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://communities.vmware.com/thread/320877?start=0&tstart=0
1. http://virtualizationreview.com/articles/2011/08/04/vmware-raises-vsphere-5-vram-entitlements.aspx
2. http://communities.vmware.com/thread/320877?start=1380&tstart=0

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Autodesk + Instructables: For Makers?
| from the interesting-bedfellows dept.
| posted by timothy on Friday August 05, @23:49 (Hardware Hacking)
| with 69 comments
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/0045259/Autodesk--Instructables-For-Makers?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[0]ptorrone writes "MAKE magazine has published an in-depth look at what
the recent [1]acquisition of Instructables by [2]Autodesk [3]means for
makers and the DIY movement. MAKE suggests it wasn't about getting the
millions of members or projects at Instructables or upselling Autodesk
tools. Instead, the acquisition was more about creating many
Instructable-like communities around Autodesk's new free and trial tools
including their 3D printing site and service, [4]Autodesk123D."

Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/0045259/Autodesk--Instructables-For-Makers?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://.pt..at..adafruit.com./
1. http://www.instructables.com/community/Instructables-Joins-Autodesk/
2. http://usa.autodesk.com/
3. http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/08/autodesk-acquires-instructables-what-it-means-for-makers.html
4. http://www.123dapp.com/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Eben Upton Talks About the Raspberry Pi USB Computer
| from the but-such-small-slices dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 06, @10:31 (Portables)
| with 69 comments
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/1324230/Eben-Upton-Talks-About-the-Raspberry-Pi-USB-Computer?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An anonymous reader writes "I contacted the Director of the Raspberry Pi
Foundation, Eben Upton, and he graciously gave an interview pertaining to
[0]his foundation, the Raspberry Pi device, and how the device relates to
robotics. [1]The Raspberry Pi device is basically a $25 Linux PC on a
credit card sized board! This microcomputer looks perfectly suited as a
low cost, micro form factor, low power, PC performance robot brain."

Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/1324230/Eben-Upton-Talks-About-the-Raspberry-Pi-USB-Computer?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.robots.net/article/3215.html
1. http://www.raspberrypi.org/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Office 15 Development To Go JavaScript, HTML5 For Extensibility
| from the is-this-the-embrace-or-the-extend? dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 06, @17:53 (Microsoft)
| with 69 comments
| https://developers.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/2146245/Office-15-Development-To-Go-JavaScript-HTML5-For-Extensibility?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

mikejuk writes "Programmers have had to put up with Microsoft dithering
over Office development for a long while. The macro language VBA has been
on its way out ever since .NET was introduced and yet it is still the
only macro language available. Now it looks as if Microsoft plan to put
JavaScript and HTML5 into Office 15. And how do we know this? [0]By
reading job ads to discover what projects Microsoft is hiring for."

Discuss this story at:
https://developers.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/2146245/Office-15-Development-To-Go-JavaScript-HTML5-For-Extensibility?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-to-focus-on-html5-and-javascript-for-office-15-extensions/10266?tag=mantle_skin;content

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Army Gives Robo Jeeps a Go
| from the don't-worry-yet dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 06, @16:49 (Robotics)
| with 68 comments
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/2048239/Army-Gives-Robo-Jeeps-a-Go?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

jamesl writes with an excerpt from Defense Tech, which says the U.S. Army
is sending "four [of] Lockheed's [0]Squad Mission Support System (SMSS)
robot jeeps to Afghanistan where they'll haul supplies for troops. The
trucks are being sent there as part of a test program to see just how
useful robot cargo trucks can be. The 11-foot long trucks can carry a
half a ton of supplies for up to 125 miles after being delivered to the
field in a CH-47 or CH-53 helo."

Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/2048239/Army-Gives-Robo-Jeeps-a-Go?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://defensetech.org/2011/08/05/army-fielding-robo-jeeps-to-astan/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Boeing Employees To Man CST-100 Crew Capsule
| from the lockheed-employees-failed-to-volunteer dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 06, @11:26 (Space)
| with 66 comments
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/141222/Boeing-Employees-To-Man-CST-100-Crew-Capsule?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The BBC reports that Boeing has a source of human passengers to populate
its manned crew transport vehicle, the [0]CST-100: [1]Boeing employees.
The CST-100 is Boeing's bid to replace more expensive options, such as
the recently retired space shuttle family, for delivering astronauts to
space, including to the International Space Station. The lucky employees
(interns?) won't have a chance to visit space until the experimental
capsule first makes two unmanned trips, lifted by an [2]Atlas V rocket.
These first three trips are all slated for 2015.

Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/141222/Boeing-Employees-To-Man-CST-100-Crew-Capsule?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1323
1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14417634
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_V

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| McAfee Disclaims Claims of Chinese Involvement in 'Shady RAT'
| from the not-in-so-many-words dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 06, @09:28 (China)
| with 51 comments
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/130220/McAfee-Disclaims-Claims-of-Chinese-Involvement-in-Shady-RAT?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hackingbear writes "In an interview with Chinese official Xinhua news
agency, McAfee said [0]no direct evidence suggests a particular nation
such as China is behind Operation Shady RAT, a five-year cyber campaign
discovered by McAfee. Alperovitch told Xinhua that they 'don't have
direct evidence that conclusively points to a particular nation state'
behind the scheme. So the same online security industry that [1]has
propagated Chinese cyber threats in front of Western media denies they
made such suggestion of China, another of their major markets." Also on
the Shady RAT front, reader kermidge writes with a post from Hon Lau at
Symantec containing [2]details lacking in McAfee's Wednesday report;
included are examples of the vectors and commands used, along with cogent
commentary.

Discuss this story at:
https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/130220/McAfee-Disclaims-Claims-of-Chinese-Involvement-in-Shady-RAT?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2011-08/05/c_131032071.htm
1. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/05/1422254/Chinas-5-Year-Cyberwar-Met-With-Western-Silence
2. http://www.symantec.com/connect/fr/blogs/truth-behind-shady-rat

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Black Hat Talk Demonstrates New Document Exploits
| from the send-you-this-file-in-order-to-have-your-advice dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 06, @15:38 (Security)
| with 45 comments
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/195228/Black-Hat-Talk-Demonstrates-New-Document-Exploits?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

darthcamaro writes "Remember the days of the viruses embedded in email
attachments? They're coming back, according to a pair of researcher
talking at Black Hat this week: '"If you have installed all Microsoft
Office patches and there are no 0 day vulnerabilities, will it be safe to
open a Word or Excel document?" TT asked the audience. "[0]The answer is
no."'"

Discuss this story at:
https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/08/06/195228/Black-Hat-Talk-Demonstrates-New-Document-Exploits?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.datamation.com/security/black-hat-document-exploits-continue-to-evolve.html


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