Author: kenmay

Four Code Bootcamps Are Now Eligible For Government Financial Aid

Long-time Slashdot reader theodp notes a pilot program for improving computer science education which includes financial aid for students at four code bootcamps: In this week’s Hack Education Weekly News, Audrey Watters writes, “The US Department of Education has selected eight higher ed institutions and eight ‘non-traditional providers’ that will work as partners to pilot the DoE’s new EQUIP experiment, meaning that students will be able to receive federal financial aid for coding bootcamps, MOOCs, and the like… “Good thing there haven’t been any problems with for-profit higher ed and exploitation of financial aid, otherwise this would all seem like a terrible idea.” The original submission has more details on the participants (including the four code bootcamps). Ultimately the program involves pairing “non-traditional” providers with higher education institutions — and then monitoring their results with a third-party “quality assurance entity” — to improve the ways we measure a school’s performance, but also testing new ways to fund training for computer careers. (I’m curious how Slashdot’s readers feel about government loans for attendees at code bootcamps…) Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Four Code Bootcamps Are Now Eligible For Government Financial Aid

Here’s how the NSA spied on Cisco firewalls for years

Edward Snowden leaks revealed that the NSA had the ability to spy on Cisco firewall traffic for years , but just how did the agency do it? We now have a clearer idea. An analysis of data from the Equation Group hack shows that the NSA used a specialized tool, BenignCertain, that uses an exploit in Cisco’s Internet Key Exchange implementation to extract encryption keys and read otherwise secure virtual private network data. Cisco has confirmed that the attack can compromise multiple versions of its old PIX firewalls, which were last supported in 2009. The issue doesn’t crop up in PIX 7.0 or in Cisco’s newer Adaptive Security Appliance, but that isn’t going to reassure many security experts. Ars Technica warns that there appear to be over 15, 000 networks still clinging on to PIX, and there’s a real possibility that many of them are vulnerable. Other platforms have comparable security holes , too, suggesting that the NSA might have snooped on many VPNs . To make matters worse, the Equation Group breach lets any would-be hacker use the exploit. While the past surveillance is alarming, you may need to worry more about everyday criminals going forward. Via: Ars Technica Source: Musalbas , Cisco

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Here’s how the NSA spied on Cisco firewalls for years

How the New York Public Library made ebooks open, and thus one trillion times better

Leonard Richardson isn’t just the author of Constellation Games , one of the best debut novels I ever read and certainly one of the best books I read in 2013; he’s also an extremely talented free/open source server-software developer who has been working for the New York Public Library on a software project that liberates every part of the electronic book lending system from any kind of proprietary lock-in, and, in the process, made reading library ebooks one trillion times better. (more…)

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How the New York Public Library made ebooks open, and thus one trillion times better

US Army committed $6.5 trillion in accounting fraud in one year

In June, the Defense Department’s Inspector General released a report on the US Army’s accounting, revealing that the Army had invented $6.5 trillion in “improper adjustments” ($2.8T in one quarter!) to make its books appear balanced though it could not account for where the funds had gone. (more…)

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US Army committed $6.5 trillion in accounting fraud in one year

North Korea’s ‘Manbang’ is a state-approved streaming service

You can’t watch Netflix in North Korea , but the Democratic People’s Republic now has something , at least: Manbang — a state-approved set-top box that streams live TV, on-demand video content and newspaper articles over the internet. It’s a step forward for digital media delivery for North Korea , but it’s still fairly limited. Manbang, which ironically translates to “everywhere, ” is only available to citizens in Pyongynag, Siniju and Sariwon. The service’s limited availability is hardly a surprise. North Korea isn’t exactly known for having widespread internet access — and what it does have is fairly limited. That seems to be the case here, too: the service’s on-demand content seems to focus on Juche ideology and documentaries about North Korean leaders (we’re guessing The Interview won’t arrive on this service anytime soon). Viewers will also be able to call up educational programs designed to learn English and Russian. Naturally, the device isn’t being marketed so much as a propaganda delivery system as a convenience — North Korea’s KCTV describes Manbang as a respite from the “radio interference” that makes television broadcasts unwatchable in border cities. That sounds all well and good for citizens who want to watch what the state wants them to watch. As for everybody else? Well, there are options . Source: NK News

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North Korea’s ‘Manbang’ is a state-approved streaming service

Pandora’s new streaming service could launch as soon as September

We’ve know about Pandora’s plan to turn the remaining pieces of Rdio into its own subscription service for some time now, but thanks to The Wall Street Journal, we know that the launch could be imminent. WSJ reports that the company is close to securing the necessary licensing deals for the new paid service in both the US and abroad. The media outlet’s sources indicate that in addition to a free tier, there will also be two paid options — a detail we’ve heard the company’s CEO discuss in the past. We surmise that listening for free means that you’ll have to suffer through some ads, but that’s something Pandora will likely confirm at launch. While Pandora’s version of streaming has focused on internet radio stations based on an artist, this new service will be on-demand like Spotify, Tidal and Apple Music. The company hasn’t offered an update on the launch of the “expanded listening experience” it touted after nabbing what was left of Rdio last year. At that time, the vague “late 2016” estimate was offered. According to WSJ though, the new paid tiers could arrive as soon as next month. Pandora One currently offers ad-free listening with the ability to skip more often and other features for $5 a month or via a day pass for 99 cents. In terms of pricing, Pandora CEO Tim Westergren discussed the two paid tiers in an interview back in June. He explained that in addition to a $10 monthly plan, the company also aims to offer a cheaper option with “mid-level” features. Of course, timing to the official announcement is dependent on these pending licensing deals, but from the details of this latest report, it sounds like Pandora will have some news for us in the near future. Source: The Wall Street Journal

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Pandora’s new streaming service could launch as soon as September

All Eddie Bauer stores in the US hit with malware

If you shopped at an Eddie Bauer store in the first half of 2016, you may want to keep a close eye on your personal and banking information. The clothing store chain has reported that — like a growing number of retailers of the last few years — it’s detected and subsequently removed malware from its point-of-sale systems at every one of its 350+ stores in North America. Unfortunately, if you used a credit or debit card during the first six months of 2016 at Eddie Bauer, there’s a good chance your information may have been compromised. The official announcement from Eddie Bauer comes a good six weeks after KrebsOnSecurity picked up on a possible intrusion. It’s possible the malware was able to grab both credit and debit card numbers from transactions made at Eddie Bauer stores between January 2nd, 2016 through July 17, 2016, though sales online at EddieBauer.com appear to have been unaffected. Source: KrebsOnSecurity

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All Eddie Bauer stores in the US hit with malware

Microsoft PowerShell Goes Open Source and Lands On Linux and Mac

Microsoft announced on Thursday that it is open sourcing PowerShell, its system administration, scripting, and configuration management tool that has been a default part of Windows for several years. The company says it will soon release PowerShell on Mac and Linux platforms. PCWorld reports: The company is also releasing alpha versions of PowerShell for Linux (specifically Ubuntu, Centos and Redhat) and Mac OS X. A new PowerShell GitHub page gives people the ability to download binaries of the software, as well as access to the app’s source code. PowerShell on Linux and Mac will let people who have already built proficiency with Microsoft’s scripting language take those skills and bring them to new platforms. Meanwhile, people who are used to working on those platforms will have access to a new and very powerful tool for getting work done. It’s part of Microsoft’s ongoing moves to open up products that the company has previously kept locked to platforms that it owned. The company’s open sourcing of its .NET programming frameworks in 2014 paved the way for this launch, by making the building blocks of PowerShell available on Linux and OS X. By making PowerShell available on Linux, Microsoft has taken the skills of Windows administrators who are already used to the software, and made them more marketable. It has also made it possible for hardcore Linux users to get access to an additional set of tools that they can use to manage a variety of systems. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft PowerShell Goes Open Source and Lands On Linux and Mac

What’s A ‘Level 4’ Autonomous Car? This Chart Explains Everything

Autonomous cars are coming, and while it may sometimes feel like they’re already here, they’re really not. It can still be confusing, since every manufacturer with anything remotely like an autonomous vehicle seems to overstate what the cars can do . Luckily, levels of autonomy have been decided, and knowing them can help. That’s why we made some charts. Read more…

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What’s A ‘Level 4’ Autonomous Car? This Chart Explains Everything