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Napalm Death concert cancelled, fear of volume-related building damage

Famed grindcore band Napalm Death were slated to play a unique concert at the Victoria and Albert Museum on Friday night, but the museum cancelled the show fearing that “the high level of decibels generated by the performance would damage the historic fabric of the building.” The group was to play through a sculptural ceramic sound system built by artist Keith Harrison. The sculpture was expected to crumble under the volume of the performance. “Sound as a weapon – or a weapon of change – is a very interesting concept and I think that the whole process of our sound gradually degrading clay sculptures is captivating,” Napalm Death vocalist Mark “Barney” Greenway said last week. “The noise element of music should never be understated and this exhibition at the V&A will hopefully demonstrate that music can do interesting things beyond the realms of clipped production techniques.” According to the V&A, the museum “is committed to an exciting programme of exhibitions and events but the safety of our visitors and building remains our priority at all times.” Above, Napalm Death’s “Suffer the Children” from their 1990 album Harmony Corruption , the first album to feature Greenway on vocals. (via BBC News )   What does a sonic blaster (“less-lethal” audio weapon) feel like … Make your own $1 million vomit-inducing flashlight for $250 – Boing … Testing infrasound thrills and chills with a double-blind randomized … Infrasound Experiment – Boing Boing

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Napalm Death concert cancelled, fear of volume-related building damage

Guerilla researcher created epic botnet to scan billions of IP addresses

Aurich Lawson (after Aliens) In one of the more audacious and ethically questionable research projects in recent memory, an anonymous hacker built a botnet of more than 420,000 Internet-connected devices and used it to perform one of the most comprehensive surveys ever to measure the insecurity of the global network. In all, the nine-month scanning project found 420 million IPv4 addresses that responded to probes and 36 million more addresses that had one or more ports open. A large percentage of the unsecured devices bore the hallmarks of broadband modems, network routers, and other devices with embedded operating systems that typically aren’t intended to be exposed to the outside world. The researcher found a total of 1.3 billion addresses in use, including 141 million that were behind a firewall and 729 million that returned reverse domain name system records. There were no signs of life from the remaining 2.3 billion IPv4 addresses. Continually scanning almost 4 billion addresses for nine months is a big job. In true guerilla research fashion, the unknown hacker developed a small scanning program that scoured the Internet for devices that could be logged into using no account credentials at all or the usernames and passwords of either “root” or “admin.” When the program encountered unsecured devices, it installed itself on them and used them to conduct additional scans. The viral growth of the botnet allowed it to infect about 100,000 devices within a day of the program’s release. The critical mass allowed the hacker to scan the Internet quickly and cheaply. With about 4,000 clients, it could scan one port on all 3.6 billion addresses in a single day. Because the project ran 1,000 unique probes on 742 separate ports, and possibly because the binary was uninstalled each time an infected device was restarted, the hacker commandeered a total of 420,000 devices to perform the survey. Read 16 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Guerilla researcher created epic botnet to scan billions of IP addresses

Wireless ‘under the skin’ prototype implant beams instant blood test read-outs to your smartphone

A new blood-testing subdermal sensor has been developed by a team of scientists in Switzerland. While that may not sound particularly notable, this half-inch prototype can instantly beam several health metrics to smart devices over Bluetooth , monitoring cholesterol, blood sugar levels as well as the impact of medical treatments like chemotherapy using five built-in sensors. The device has already been tested on animals and while the researchers hope to begin testing soon on patients that would typically require a lot of blood tests and monitoring, the module is still several years from a commercial release. According to the EPFL ‘s video, the sensor can even predict heart attacks several hours before they occur, sensing minute changes in the bloodstream ahead of time. We’ve ‘implanted’ the explanation after the break, but if you’re looking for some more medical-minded specifics, head to the source. Filed under: Science , Alt Comments Via: BBC Source: EPFL

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Wireless ‘under the skin’ prototype implant beams instant blood test read-outs to your smartphone

Canonical cuts support for non-LTS versions of Ubuntu, users now get nine months of bug fixes

Until now, people who downloaded non-LTS (long-term support) versions of Ubuntu were treated to a lengthy support period — a full 18 months. Now, though, Ubuntu’s technical board is shortening that support window to nine months, in the hopes that Canonical can assign its engineers to other projects. (If you look at the board’s meeting notes at the link below, the group also agrees that most bugs get fixed within nine months anyway.) If you’re wondering how this might affect you, the new policy applies to version 13.04, along with all future non-LTS releases. Separately, the board decided that it will switch to a rolling release model, in which users won’t have to do a full system upgrade to take advantage of major OS updates. Many of the particulars there are still up in the air, though, which is a shame because this has already been a hot topic of conversation in the Ubuntu community, and quite a few folks are likely to be curious. In any case, for those of you who want to know more, we recommend checking out those meeting notes to soak up as much detail as you can. Filed under: Software Comments Via: Phoronix Source: Ubuntu Technical Board (IRC log)

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Canonical cuts support for non-LTS versions of Ubuntu, users now get nine months of bug fixes

The World’s Biggest Ship Is Assembled like a Lego Model

With a capacity of more than 16,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit shipping containers) the CMA CGM Marco Polo currently reigns as the ” world’s largest container ship ” but it won’t for much longer. Construction of an even larger line of mega-ships—the Maersk Triple E—will soon be complete and, once launched, will dwarf every other vessel on the high seas. More »

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The World’s Biggest Ship Is Assembled like a Lego Model

Finally, Feds say cops’ access to your e-mail shouldn’t be time-dependent

“When ECPA was enacted, e-mail was primarily a means of communicating information, not storing it,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) on Tuesday in a statement. Ed Yourdon On Tuesday, the Department of Justice acknowledged for the first time that the notion that e-mail more than 180 days old should require a different legal standard is outdated. This marked shift in legal theory, combined with new House subcommittee hearings and new Senate legislation, might just actually yield real, meaningful reform on the  much-maligned Electronic Communications Privacy Act . It’s an act, by the way, that dates back to 1986. As Ars’ Tim Lee wrote  in November 2012, “ECPA requires a warrant to obtain freshly sent e-mail before it’s been opened by the recipient. But once an e-mail has been opened, or once it has been sitting in the recipient’s e-mail box for 180 days, a lower standard applies. These rules simply don’t line up with the way modern e-mail systems work.” Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Finally, Feds say cops’ access to your e-mail shouldn’t be time-dependent