Italian Man’s Quest to Fix Toilet Led to Amazing Archaeology Discoveries

Fifteen years ago, Luciano Faggiano of Lecce, Italy sent his sons out digging for a broken sewer line. They didn’t find the pipe, but they did find “a Messapian tomb, a Roman granary, a Franciscan chapel and even etchings from the Knights Templar, ” writes Jim Yardley in a story for the New York Times. Read more…

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Italian Man’s Quest to Fix Toilet Led to Amazing Archaeology Discoveries

Has Your Network-Connected Back-Up Drive Been Indexed By Search Engines?

Connecting a hard drive to your home network is a smart idea: it can let you access your files no matter where you are. But now it seems that, in some cases, Google has been indexing the private files held on such devices. Read more…

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Has Your Network-Connected Back-Up Drive Been Indexed By Search Engines?

The World’s Most Famous Musicians Just Hosted a Bonkers Press Conference

Only a few minutes ago, the entire music industry stood on a stage in a collective display of how rich and out of touch they are. They think you are willing to pay up to double the price of other streaming music services to pay for their streaming music service, because they are crazy. Read more…

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The World’s Most Famous Musicians Just Hosted a Bonkers Press Conference

"It’s Not My Job to Plug Things In," and Other Nightmare IT Stories

We asked for the worst stories you had about working in IT. You rose to the challenge and then some. We may need to wipe and reboot our brains to recover from these. Read more…

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"It’s Not My Job to Plug Things In," and Other Nightmare IT Stories

Clinton’s Private Email System Gets a Security "F" Rating

Penguinisto writes According to a scan by Qualys, Hillary Clinton’s personal e-mail server, which has lately generated more than a little controversy in US political circles, has earned an “F” rating for security from the security vendor. Problems include SSL2 support, a weak signature, and only having support for older TLS protocols, among numerous other problems. Note that there are allegations that the email server was possibly already hacked in 2013. (Note: Mrs. Clinton plans on Giving a press conference to the public today on the issue.) Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Clinton’s Private Email System Gets a Security "F" Rating

The Mexican Drug Cartels’ Involuntary IT Guy

sarahnaomi writes: It could have been any other morning. Felipe del Jesús Peréz García got dressed, said goodbye to his wife and kids, and drove off to work. It would be a two hour commute from their home in Monterrey, in Northeastern Mexico’s Nuevo León state, to Reynosa, in neighboring Tamaulipas state, where Felipe, an architect, would scout possible installation sites for cell phone towers for a telecommunications company before returning that evening That was the last time anyone saw him. What happened to Felipe García? One theory suggests he was abducted by a sophisticated organized crime syndicate, and then forced into a hacker brigade that builds and services the cartel’s hidden, backcountry communications infrastructure. They’re the Geek Squads to some of the biggest mafia-style organizations in the world. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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The Mexican Drug Cartels’ Involuntary IT Guy

A Brief History of the Rubber Band

Cheap, reliable, and strong, the rubber band is one of the world’s most ubiquitous products. It holds papers together, prevents long hair from falling in a face, acts as a reminder around a wrist, is a playful weapon in a pinch, and provides a way to easily castrating baby male livestock … While rubber itself has been around for centuries, rubber bands were only officially patented less than two centuries ago. Here now is a brief history of the humble, yet incredibly useful, rubber band. Read more…

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A Brief History of the Rubber Band

Ford Touts Self-driving Car, Launches Global Mobility Experiments

An anonymous reader writes in with news about Ford’s latest automobile technology unveiled at CES. “Ford showcased the semi-autonomous vehicles it has on the road at CES and gave attendees a glimpse into fully autonomous vehicles now in development. The carmaker also announced a series of experiments with drivers around the globe to test its vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity, autonomous cars and the use of big data collected from vehicles. The company said a fully autonomous Ford Fusion Hybrid research vehicle is undergoing road testing now. The vehicle relies on the same semi-autonomous technology used in Ford vehicles today, while adding four LiDAR (light, radar) sensors to generate a real-time 3D map of the surrounding environment.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Ford Touts Self-driving Car, Launches Global Mobility Experiments

The Very American History of Christmas Lights

Christmas lights are a uniquely American tradition. That’s not just because the first electric Christmas lights appeared in America. The tradition embodies a certain American-ness, an ingenuity and hunger for innovation, that’s easily overlooked. America doesn’t just make things. America makes things spectacular. Read more…

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The Very American History of Christmas Lights

Revert.io Backs Up Your Evernote, Tumblr, and Other Cloud Data

When your data is in the cloud, you’re relying on someone else to back up your stuff. If your account gets hacked or the service glitches, your data could go up in a puff of smoke. Revert.io automatically backs up your Evernote, Tumblr, and other data online. Read more…

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Revert.io Backs Up Your Evernote, Tumblr, and Other Cloud Data