Tag: security

Cable Boxes Are the 2nd Biggest Energy Users In Many Homes

SpzToid (869795) writes 224 million U.S. cable TV set-top boxes combined consume as much electricity as produced by four giant nuclear reactors, running around the clock. They have become the biggest single energy user in many homes, apart from air conditioning. Cheryl Williamsen, a Los Alamitos architect, has three of the boxes leased from her cable provider in her home, but she had no idea how much power they consumed until recently, when she saw a rating on the back for as much as 500 watts — about the same as a washing machine. A typical set-top cable box with a digital recorder can consume as much as 35 watts of power, costing about $8 a month for a typical Southern California consumer. And the devices use nearly as much power turned off as they do when they are turned on. The article outlines a voluntary industry agreement that should make a dent in this power consumption (it “calls for a power reduction in the range of 10% to 45% by 2017”), but makes the point that much larger gains are possible: “Energy experts say the boxes could be just as efficient as smartphones, laptop computers or other electronic devices that use a fraction of the power thanks to microprocessors and other technology that conserves electricity. Ideally, they say, these boxes could be put into a deep sleep mode when turned off, cutting consumption to a few watts. At that rate, a box could cost less than $1 a month for power, depending on how much it is used.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Cable Boxes Are the 2nd Biggest Energy Users In Many Homes

Endurance Experiment Writes One Petabyte To Six Consumer SSDs

crookedvulture (1866146) writes “Last year, we kicked off an SSD endurance experiment to see how much data could be written to six consumer drives. One petabyte later, half of them are still going. Their performance hasn’t really suffered, either. The casualties slowed down a little toward the very end, and they died in different ways. The Intel 335 Series and Kingston HyperX 3K provided plenty of warning of their imminent demise, though both still ended up completely unresponsive at the very end. The Samsung 840 Series, which uses more fragile TLC NAND, perished unexpectedly. It also suffered a rash of cell failures and multiple bouts of uncorrectable errors during its life. While the sample size is far too small to draw any definitive conclusions, all six SSDs exceeded their rated lifespans by hundreds of terabytes. The fact that all of them wrote over 700TB is a testament to the endurance of modern SSDs.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Endurance Experiment Writes One Petabyte To Six Consumer SSDs

Civilians Try to Lure an Abandoned NASA Spacecraft Back to Earth

A New York Time piece (as carried by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) outlines a fascinating project operating in unlikely circumstances for a quixotic goal. They want to control, and return to earth, the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3, launched in 1978 but which “appears to be in good working order.” Engineer Dennis Wingo, along with like minded folks (of whom he says “We call ourselves techno-archaeologists”) has established a business called Skycorp that “has its offices in the McDonald’s that used to serve the Navy’s Moffett air station, 15 minutes northwest of San Jose, Calif. After the base closed, NASA converted it to a research campus for small technology companies, academia and nonprofits. … The race to revive the craft, ISEE-3, began in earnest in April. At the end of May, using the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Puerto Rico, the team succeeded in talking to the spacecraft, a moment Mr. Wingo described as “way cool.” This made Skycorp the first private organization to command a spacecraft outside Earth orbit, he said. The most disheartening part: “No one has the full operating manual anymore, and the fragments are sometimes contradictory.” The most exciting? “Despite the obstacles, progress has been steady, and Mr. Wingo said the team should be ready to fire the engines within weeks.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Civilians Try to Lure an Abandoned NASA Spacecraft Back to Earth

Amazon Prime Music: One Million Songs, Free For Prime Subscribers

Here comes Prime Music, a free service for Amazon Prime subscribers with over a million songs available for streaming and cached download. Amazon Prime was already an amazing deal —perhaps the best in all of tech—and today, it’s getting even better. Read more…

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Amazon Prime Music: One Million Songs, Free For Prime Subscribers

Teacher Tenure Laws Ruled Unconstitutional In California

An anonymous reader writes “Tenure laws one of the most controversial aspects of education reform, and now the tide seems to be turning against them. A California judge has handed down a ruling that such laws are unconstitutional, depriving students of an education by sometimes securing positions held by bad teachers. The judge said, “Substantial evidence presented makes it clear to this court that the challenged statutes disproportionately affect poor and/or minority students. The evidence is compelling. Indeed, it shocks the conscience.” The plaintiff’s case was that “California’s current laws make it impossible to get rid of the system’s numerous low-performing and incompetent teachers; that seniority rules requiring the newest teachers to be laid off first were harmful; and that granting tenure to teachers after only two years on the job was farcical, offering far too little time for a fair assessment of their skills.” This is a precedent-setting case, and there will likely be many similar cases around the country as tenure is challenged with this new ammunition.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Teacher Tenure Laws Ruled Unconstitutional In California

Auditors Release Verified Repositories of TrueCrypt

Trailrunner7 writes: As the uncertainty surrounding the end of TrueCrypt continues, members of the security community are working to preserve a known-good archive of the last version of the open source encryption software released before the developers inserted a warning about potential unfixed bugs in the software and ended development. The message that the TrueCrypt posted about the security of the software also was included in the release of version 7.2a. The OCAP team decided to focus on version 7.1a and created the verified repository by comparing the SHA2 hashes with files found in other TrueCrypt repositories. So the files are the same as the ones that were distributed as 7.1a. “These files were obtained last November in preparation for our audit, and match the hash reported by iSec in their official report from phase I of the audit, ” said Kenn White, part of the team involved in the TrueCrypt audit. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Auditors Release Verified Repositories of TrueCrypt

Before the Hollywood Sign Found Fame, Others Signs Dotted LA’s Hillsides

HOLLYWOODLAND’s voice was not alone. Other hillsides also spoke. Across Los Angeles in the 1920s, signs announced new real-estate subdivisions in big block letters perched high above the city. BEVERLY CREST. BRYN MAWR. TRYON RIDGE. Read more…

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Before the Hollywood Sign Found Fame, Others Signs Dotted LA’s Hillsides

Britain Gets National .uk Web Address

hypnosec (2231454) writes ‘Starting today businesses and individuals in the UK will be able to register a new national web address (“.uk”) and drop their existing “.co.uk” or “.com” suffix in favour of a shorter and snappier domain name. The entire process along with the transition is being overseen by private yet not-for-profit organisation Nominet, which has already started notifying existing customers with a “.co.uk” domain of their chance to adopt a “.uk” domain. Nominet will reserve all “.uk” domain names, which already have a “.co.uk” counterparts, for the next five years offering registrants the chance to adopt the new domain and to keep cyber squatters at bay.’ Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Britain Gets National .uk Web Address

Chicago Robber Caught By Facial Recognition Sentenced To 22 Years

mpicpp (3454017) writes with this excerpt from Ars: “The first man to be arrested in Chicago based on facial recognition analysis was sentenced last week to 22 years in prison for armed robbery. … In February 2013, Pierre Martin robbed a man at gunpoint while on a Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) train. After taking the man’s phone, Martin jumped off the train. However, his image was captured by CTA surveillance cameras and was then compared to the Chicago Police Department’s database of 4.5 million criminal booking images. Martin, who already had priors, had a mugshot in the database. He was later positively identified by witnesses. At trial, Martin also admitted to committing a similar robbery also on the Pink Line in January 2013—his face was captured during both robberies.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Chicago Robber Caught By Facial Recognition Sentenced To 22 Years

Tesla Makes Improvements To Model S

An anonymous reader writes “In a lull between product launches Tesla intends to keep making improvements to the Model S according to Elon Musk. Tesla will automatically push software to the Model S fleet that will help the car learn the driver’s habits and the navigation system will offer directions to avoid traffic jams. ‘This year, Tesla is offering only the single model, the Model S that is EPA rated at up to 265 miles on a single charge, the most of any electric car. The company’s next model won’t come until next year, when the delayed Model X crossover goes on sale. Musk says the holdup has centered on making sure its signature design element, gullwing doors to make it easier to get in the rear, works properly and is leak-proof. “Getting the door right is extremely difficult, ” he says.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Tesla Makes Improvements To Model S