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Raspberry Pi Passes 10M Sales Mark

An anonymous reader writes: The Raspberry Pi has sold 10 million units — continuing its success as the most popular British computer ever. The computer, about the same size as a credit card, was first released in 2012 and is widely used as an educational tool for programming. However, it can also be used for many practical purposes such as streaming music to several devices in a house. A new starter kit for Raspberry Pi, including a keyboard and mouse, has been released to celebrate the success. The kit also includes an SD storage card, official case, power supply, HDMI cable, mouse, keyboard and guidebook — it costs $130 and will be available in the coming weeks. The Pi, which is manufactured in Wales, has been adopted by pupils, programmers and inventors around the world. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Raspberry Pi Passes 10M Sales Mark

Indian workers staged one of the largest strikes in human history and no one in the USA noticed

Tens of millions of unionized public sector workers walked off the job last Friday in a one-day strike against PM Modi’s plan to privatise public industries and increase foreign investment. It was one of the largest strikes in human history, if not the largest, and took place over Labour Day weekend. (more…)

University of California Hires India-Based IT Outsourcer, Lays Off Tech Workers

dcblogs writes from a report via Computerworld: The University of California is laying off a group of IT workers at its San Francisco campus as part of a plan to move work offshore. Laying off IT workers as part of a shift to offshore is somewhere between rare and unheard-of in the public sector. The layoffs will happen at the end of February, but before the final day arrives the IT employees expect to train foreign replacements from India-based IT services firm HCL. The firm is working under a university contract valued at $50 million over five years. This layoff affects 17% of UCSF’s total IT staff, broken down this way: 49 IT permanent employees will lose their jobs, along with 12 contract employees and 18 vendor contractors. This number also includes 18 vacant IT positions that won’t be filled, according to the university. Governments and publicly supported institutions, such as UC, have contracted with offshore outsourcers, but usually it’s for new IT work or to supplement an existing project. The HCL contract with UCSF can be used by other UC campuses, which means the layoffs may expand across its 10 campuses. HCL is a top user of H-1B visa workers. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Stealing login credentials from a locked PC or Mac just got easier

Enlarge Snatching the login credentials of a locked computer just got easier and faster, thanks to a technique that requires only $50 worth of hardware and takes less than 30 seconds to carry out. Rob Fuller, a principal security engineer at R5 Industries, said the hack works reliably on Windows devices and has also succeeded on OS X, although he’s working with others to determine if it’s just his setup that’s vulnerable. The hack works by plugging a flash-sized minicomputer into an unattended computer that’s logged in but currently locked. In about 20 seconds, the USB device will obtain the user name and password hash used to log into the computer. Fuller, who is better known by his hacker handle mubix, said the technique works using both the Hak5 Turtle ($50) and USB Armory ($155) , both of which are USB-mounted computers that run Linux. “First off, this is dead simple and shouldn’t work, but it does,” mubix wrote in a blog post published Tuesday . “Also, there is no possible way that I’m the first one that has identified this, but here it is (trust me, I tested it so many ways to confirm it because I couldn’t believe it was true).” Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Stealing login credentials from a locked PC or Mac just got easier

UPS Is About to Increase Their Rates

Get ready for a price hike from the United Parcel Service (UPS). The company recently announced that rates for ground, air, and international service will increase by about 4.9 percent. The good news is they’re waiting until the tail end of the holiday season to increase those rates. Read more…

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UPS Is About to Increase Their Rates

Supreme Court blocks Senate Backpage sex ad subpoena

US Supreme Court building. (credit: MitchellShapiroPhotography ) The US Supreme Court is giving Backpage.com a victory over the US Senate, at least in the short term. Chief Justice John Roberts says the online classified ad portal, at least for now, does not have to comply with a Senate subpoena investigating how Backpage conducts its business. The investigation demands documents about the ins and outs of the site’s editorial practices. The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations contends that the site is littered with ads that amount to offering sex services by women and children forced into prostitution, and it wants to know how it screens ads posted to its site by third parties. The chief justice’s decision Tuesday comes days after a federal appeals court upheld a ruling by a lower court judge and said (PDF) Backpage must comply with the subpoena. The Senate and Backpage have been deadlocked in a legal battle for more than a year. Backpage said the First Amendment shields it from having to comply with the subpoena , (PDF) while the Senate maintains that the First Amendment implications are secondary (PDF) to cutting down on sex trafficking ads on the site. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Why the Pirate Party could end up running Iceland

With the Icelandic Pirates crushing it in the polls and set to form the next government of a sovereign, carbon-neutral, strategically located nation, it’s worth asking how a party whose two issues — internet freedom and copyright reform — are wonky, minority interests rose to prominence. (more…)

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Why the Pirate Party could end up running Iceland

Apple announces the water-resistant iPhone 7 and 7 Plus

Apple accidentally introduced the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, the latest iterations of its premium smartphone, via Twitter, before deleting the tweets. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus look remarkably similar to the phones they replace — this is the smallest generational design shift in the iPhone’s history — but that’s not to say nothing has changed. The antenna bands on the back of the previous models have been made more discreet; they now hug the edges of the device. This repositioning has allowed Apple to squeeze in larger camera bumps on the back. They’re now “water-resistant, ” and have stereo speakers. And although they haven’t said so yet, there’s no headphone port to be seen As hinted at by the larger bumps, the cameras for both models are new. The iPhone 7 Plus — which is sporting that rumored “piano black” look in the render — has a dual-camera setup that we’ll learn more about soon. The iPhone 7 has a 12-megapixel “low-light loving” camera with optical image stabilization. The new phones will be available on September 16th, with pre-orders set to open today. This story is developing, please refresh your page for more information… Click here to catch all the latest news from Apple’s “See You” event.

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Apple announces the water-resistant iPhone 7 and 7 Plus

Disney World Now Makes Toddlers Get Fingerprint Scans

The Most Magical Place on Earth has started scanning the fingers of three-year-olds in an effort to prevent ticket fraud, because you can never be too careful about tiny babies that have only just started communicating properly. Read more…

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Disney World Now Makes Toddlers Get Fingerprint Scans

T-Mobile To Boost Its LTE Speeds To 400 Mbps

An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Next Web: T-Mobile plans to boost its LTE speeds to up to 400 Mbps in the very near future. The Next Web reports: “The company is getting ready to boost its maximum theoretical internet speeds to become the faster carrier in the U.S. by a wide margin. The network will soon support theoretical speeds up to 400 Mbps — nearly half the speed of Google Fiber. There’s a two-pronged approach to the upgrade. First is incorporating 4×4 MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) technology, which will supposedly double the speed from the current 7-40 Mbps customers tend to experience with T-Mobile (about the same as Verizon with LTE-A). This upgrade is available now in 319 cities, although it’s a moot point because only the S7 and S7 Edge will be able to use the tech via a software update “later this month.” In October, the company will roll out 256 QAM support to the S7 and S7 Edge (and again, more phones later), which increases the amount of bits per transmission. T-Mobile says this will lead to theoretical maximum speeds of 400 Mbps.” The Next Web followed-up with T-Mobile to ask about what the real-world speeds would be after the upgrade. The company says “customers can expect to see real world peak speeds of 190 Mbps, ” which is over four times current peaks speeds, but also far below the theoretical 400 Mbps. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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T-Mobile To Boost Its LTE Speeds To 400 Mbps

Ken May

Author: kenmay