Tag: twitter

New Privacy Concerns About US Program That Can Track Snail Mail

Lashdots writes: A lawyers’ group has called for greater oversight of a government program that gives state and federal law enforcement officials access to metadata from private communications for criminal investigations and national security purposes. But it’s not digital: this warrantless surveillance is conducted on regular mail. “The mail cover has been in use, in some form, since the 1800s, ” Chief Postal Inspector Guy J. Cottrell told Congress in November. The program targets a range of criminal activity including fraud, pornography, and terrorism, but, he said, “today, the most common use of this tool is related to investigations to rid the mail of illegal drugs and illegal drug proceeds.” Recent revelations that the U.S. Postal Service photographs the front and back of all mail sent through the U.S., ostensibly for sorting purposes, has, Fast Company reports, brought new scrutiny—and new legal responses—to this obscure program. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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New Privacy Concerns About US Program That Can Track Snail Mail

Africa E-Waste Dump Continues Hyperbole War

retroworks writes: Two stories appear today which feature close up photos of young African men surrounded by scrap metal in the city of Accra. The headlines state that this is where our computers go to die (Wired). The Daily Mail puts it in even starker terms, alleging “millions of tons” are dumped in Agbogbloshie. The stories appear the same day as a press release by investigators who returned this week from 3 weeks at the site. The release claims that Agbogbloshie’s depiction as the worlds “largest ewaste dump site” to be a hoax. It is a scrap automobile yard which accounts for nothing more than local scrap from Accra. Three Dagbani language speaking electronics technicians, three reporters, Ghana customs officials and yours truly visited the site, interviewed workers about the origins of the material, and assessed volumes. About 27 young men burn wire, mostly from automobile scrap harnesses. The electronics — 20 to 50 items per day — are collected from Accra businesses and households. The majority of Accra (population 5M) have had televisions since the 1990s, according to World Bank metadata (over 80% by 2003). The investigation did confirm that most of the scrap was originally imported used, and that work conditions were poor. However, the equipment being recycled had been repaired and maintained, typically for a decade (longer than the original OECD owner). It is a fact that used goods will, one day, eventually become e-waste. Does that support a ban on the trade in used goods to Africa? Or, as the World Bank reports, is the affordable used product essential to establish a critical mass of users so that investment in highways, phone towers, and internet cable can find necessary consumers? Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Africa E-Waste Dump Continues Hyperbole War

3.46-Billion-Year-Old ‘Fossils’ Were Not Created By Life Forms

sciencehabit writes: What are the oldest fossils on Earth? For a long time, a 3.46-billion-year-old rock from Western Australia seemed to hold the record. A 1993 Science paper (abstract) suggested that the Apex chert contained tiny, wormy structures that could have been fossilized cell walls of some of the world’s first cyanobacteria. But now there is more evidence that these structures have nothing to do with life. The elongated filaments were instead created by minerals forming in hydrothermal systems, researchers report (abstract). After the minerals were formed, carbon glommed on to the edges, leaving behind an organic signature that looked suspiciously like cell walls. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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3.46-Billion-Year-Old ‘Fossils’ Were Not Created By Life Forms

ISS Could Be Fitted With Lasers To Shoot Down Space Junk

An anonymous reader writes Japan’s Riken research institute has suggested a new idea for dealing with space junk. They say a fiber optic laser mounted onto the International Space Station could blast debris out of the sky. From the article: “To combat the increasingly dense layer of dead satellites and miscellaneous space debris that are enshrouding our planet, no idea — nets, lassos, even ballistic gas clouds — seems too far-fetched to avoid. Now, an international team of researchers led by Japan’s Riken research institute has put forward what may be the most ambitious plan to date. They propose blasting an estimated 3, 000 tons of space junk out of orbit with a fiber optic laser mounted on the International Space Station.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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ISS Could Be Fitted With Lasers To Shoot Down Space Junk

220TB Tapes Show Tape Storage Still Has a Long Future

alphadogg writes: IBM and Fujifilm have figured out how to fit 220TB of data on a standard-size tape that fits in your hand, flexing the technology’s strengths as a long-term storage medium. The prototype Fujifilm tape and accompanying drive technology from IBM labs packs 88 times as much data onto a tape as industry-standard LTO-6 systems using the same size cartridge, IBM says. LTO6 tape can hold 2.5TB, uncompressed, on a cartridge about 4 by 4 inches across and 2 centimeters thick. The new technologies won’t come out in products for several years. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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220TB Tapes Show Tape Storage Still Has a Long Future

LG Accidentally Leaks Apple iMac 8K Is Coming Later This Year

An anonymous reader writes LG accidentally revealed in blog post that Apple is planning to release a 8K iMac later this year. This news comes as a surprise as the leak came from a different company rather than Apple. LG is one of Apple’s biggest display partners and has already demonstrated 8K monitors at CES in Las Vegas. They note that the panel boasts 16 times the number of pixels as a standard Full HD screen. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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LG Accidentally Leaks Apple iMac 8K Is Coming Later This Year

Build Your Own Satellite For Less Than $30K

schwit1 writes An industry of new cubesat builders can now build satellites for anyone for any reason for very little money. From the article: “The miniaturization of technology allows people to do more with less hardware, said Chad Anderson, the managing director of Space Angels Network, an investment house specializing in the space industry. That industry, he said, was worth $300bn (£200bn) last year. Constellations of smaller satellites, like those suggested as tracking devices for planes over oceans, are now a possibility. ‘The launch costs are coming down and people leveraging today’s technology are able to do more with less and launch less mass to orbit. The price point has come down to where start-ups and entrepreneurs can really make an impact on the scene for the first time, ‘ he said.” When the first tiny satellite launch companies arrive, expect this industry to blossom at an astonishing rate. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Build Your Own Satellite For Less Than $30K

Intel Launches SSD 750 Series Consumer NVMe PCI Express SSD At Under $1 Per GiB

MojoKid writes Today, Intel took the wraps off new NVMe PCI Express Solid State Drives, which are the first products with these high speed interfaces, that the company has launched specifically for the enthusiast computing and workstation market. Historically, Intel’s PCI Express-based offerings, like the SSD DC P3700 Series, have been targeted for datacenter or enterprise applications, with price tags to match. However, the Intel SSD 750 Series PCI Express SSD, though based on the same custom NVMe controller technology as the company’s expensive P3700 drive, will drop in at less than a dollar per GiB, while offering performance almost on par with its enterprise-class sibling. Available in 400GB and 1.2TB capacities, the Intel SSD 750 is able to hit peak read and write bandwidth numbers of 2.4GB/sec and 1.2GB/sec, respectively. In the benchmarks, it takes many of the top PCIe SSD cards to task easily and at $389 for a 400GB model, you won’t have to sell an organ to afford one. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Intel Launches SSD 750 Series Consumer NVMe PCI Express SSD At Under $1 Per GiB

Amazon introduces wi-fi buttons to buy products

Amazon has started sending out Dash Buttons to Prime members. It’s a Wi-Fi button that you place next to your dishwasher, coffeemaker, washing machine, or medicine cabinet so you can instantly re-order a consumable product.

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Amazon introduces wi-fi buttons to buy products