Meet the woman leading the race to build the world's first quantum computer

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/02/meet-the-woman-leading-the-race-to-build-the-worlds-first-quantum-computer

<< Michelle Simmons and her Australian team make strides in developing a true supercomputer, pursuing the idea that cheap silicon is the key. >>

Revealed: how Google enlisted members of US Congress it bankrolled to fight $6bn EU antitrust case

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/17/google-lobbyists-congress-antitrust-brussels-eu

<< Google enlisted members of the US congress, whose election campaigns it had funded, to pressure the European Union to drop a €6bn antitrust case which threatens to decimate the US tech firm's business in Europe. The coordinated effort by senators and members of the House of Representatives, as well as by a congressional committee, formed part of a sophisticated, multimillion-pound lobbying drive in Brussels, which Google has significantly ramped up as it fends off challenges to its dominance in Europe. >>

The link to the 32-bit Windows wallet download on the OP needs to be fixed.

Windows Pre-Boot Malware Puts Financial Industry At Risk

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-nemesis-bootkit-financial-industry,30703.html

Security researchers from FireEye discovered Windows pre-boot malware (or bootkit) on the machines of a customer from the financial transactions market. FireEye believes the malware belongs to a financial crime group from Russia, called FIN1.

"We identified the presence of a financially motivated threat group that we track as FIN1, whose activity at the organisation dated back several years", FireEye reported. "The threat group deployed numerous malicious files and utilities, all of which were part of a malware ecosystem referred to as 'Nemesis' by the malware developer(s)."

A "bootkit" can infect lower-level system components, which makes identifying it quite difficult. It’s also highly persistent and will not be removed by re-installing the Windows operating system. The malware supports a wide array of backdoors and capabilities, which include file transfer, screen capture, keystroke logging, process injection, process manipulation, and task scheduling support.

Once a target computer is infected with the Nemesis malware, it can be further updated to include more hacking tools and functionality. In early 2015, the FIN1 group updated Nemesis to include a utility that modifies the Volume Boot Record (VBR) and hijacks the system boot process to begin loading malware components before Windows system code. FireEye called this utility BOOTRASH.

Source: Tom's Hardware

The County: the story of America's deadliest police

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/01/the-county-kern-county-deadliest-police-killings

Police in Kern County, California, have killed more people per capita than in any other American county in 2015. The Guardian examines how, with little oversight, officers here became the country’s most lethal. Part one of a five-part series from The Counted.

The County: where deputies dole out rough justice

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/04/the-county-kern-county-california-deputies-tactics

How the brutal tactics of officers in American law enforcement's deadliest county have ended lives, cost the public millions, and prompted claims of a police force out of control. Part two of a five-part series from The Counted.

The County: sexual assault and the price of silence

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/08/the-county-kern-county-california-sexual-assault-secret-payoffs

How law enforcement officers in Kern County, California, secretly tried to "buy off" victims in sexual misconduct cases against the men sworn to protect them. Part three of a five-part series from The Counted.

The County: partners in crime

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/10/kern-county-california-police-killings-misconduct-district-attorney

How the officers of American law enforcement’s deadliest county plan to continue policing themselves. Part four of a five-part series from The Counted.

The County: what happens after police kill someone you love? [VIDEO]

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/dec/11/kern-county-california-victims-police-killings-justice-video

When someone dies after an encounter with law enforcement, he leaves behind parents and children, loss and confusion. What's to be done when those people sworn to protect you are the same people who pull the trigger? In Kern County, California, officer-involved deaths have been more common than in any other US county this year. Meet the families across this rural swath of America calling for justice in a place where law enforcement consistently clears itself of wrongdoing. Part five of a five-part series from The Counted.

What can we learn from the great German school turnaround?

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/nov/25/what-can-we-learn-from-the-great-german-school-turnaround

<< In 2000, Germany experienced an uncomfortable reality check when the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) revealed disappointing results for performance and equality in its schools. The country tested below average in maths, reading and science in the Programme for International Assessment (PISA) report – and received the unwanted accolade of having the most unequal education performance among the 43 countries examined.

The results were a blow to a country that prides itself on its strong literary tradition and belief in social equality. "Germany's school system – and indeed the whole nation – was shocked by the first PISA results of 2000", says Christian Füeller, German author and commentator on education. "It revealed a broad group of 'at risk' students that could not properly read and were termed 'functional illiterates'. This seemed to destroy any notions of being Goethe's and Thomas Mann's 'kulturnation' of thinkers and poets."

Just over a decade later, Germany was celebrated in the same research. In 2012, it was one of just three countries surveyed by the OECD that reduced inequality while improving its math scores. The great "Pisa shock" led to what has now been called the "great turnaround" in German education. So, does Germany, with its complex and fragmented education system, and school days that have traditionally stopped at lunchtime, have a lesson or two to teach other countries? >>

Who owns our cities – and why this urban takeover should concern us all

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/nov/24/who-owns-our-cities-and-why-this-urban-takeover-should-concern-us-all

<< Does the massive foreign and national corporate buying of urban buildings and land that took off after the 2008 crisis signal an emergent new phase in major cities? From mid-2013 to mid-2014, corporate buying of existing properties exceeded $600bn (£395bn) in the top 100 recipient cities, and $1trillion a year later – and this figure includes only major acquisitions (eg. a minimum of $5m in the case of New York City).

I want to examine the details of this large corporate investment surge, and why it matters. Cities are the spaces where those without power get to make a history and a culture, thereby making their powerlessness complex. If the current large-scale buying continues, we will lose this type of making that has given our cities their cosmopolitanism.

Indeed, at the current scale of acquisitions, we are seeing a systemic transformation in the pattern of land ownership in cities: one that alters the historic meaning of the city. Such a transformation has deep and significant implications for equity, democracy and rights. >>

Double Backdoor Exposed In Arris Cable Modems

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/double-backdoor-arris-cable-modems,30620.html

Bernardo Rodrigues, a Brazilian security researcher, said that he uncovered not one, but two backdoors in some Arris cable modems (TG862A, TG862G, DG860A). Over 600,000 cable customers are affected by this, and according to Rodrigues, the vendor hasn't committed to fixing the software flaws yet. Arris cable modems are used by some of the largest U.S. ISPs, including Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter and Cox.

The firmware of the cable modems in question came with an undocumented "libarris_password.so" library that acted as a backdoor by allowing privileged account logins with a different custom password for each day of the year. This backdoor actually dates to 2009, but Arris never fixed it.

When users or attackers exploit this backdoor, they can access the modem through SSH or Telnet ports over a hidden HTTP administrative interface. The default password for the SSH user "root" is "arris." When SSH or Telnet sessions were created, the system launched a "mini_cli" shell that asked for the backdoor's password.

While the researcher was analyzing the backdoor, he discovered that there was another backdoor inside the first backdoor. This second backdoor could be accessed through SSH/Telnet by using the last five digits of the modem's serial number as its password. Once accessed, a full busybox session is opened, giving the attackers even more capabilities.

Rodrigues was asked by the vendor not to disclose the password generating algorithm, but he didn't think this will do much to slow down attackers, considering the extent of the vulnerabilities in these Arris cable modems. "I'm pretty sure bad guys had been exploiting flaws on these devices for some time (just search for ARRIS DNS on Twitter, for example)," said Rodrigues.

Rodrigues reported the vulnerabilities to the CERT/CC, a major center for addressing Internet security problems that's funded by the U.S. federal government, which has a policy of waiting 45 days before software bugs are disclosed to the public. The researcher and CERT/CC have already waited more than 65 days for Arris to fix the problem, but that hasn't happened yet, which is why the researcher is now making it all public.

Rodrigues believes that if modem software can't be open sourced so everyone could audit the software in their modems, as Vint Cert and others recently suggested, then researchers should at least be allowed to reverse-engineer modem firmware. This way, white hat security experts could find and help fix more security issues in our modems without being potentially liable to lawsuits against them by the modem companies who don't want their vulnerabilities exposed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmKd69-KyhQ

Source: Tom's Hardware

Saudi court sentences poet to death for renouncing Islam

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/20/saudi-court-sentences-poet-to-death-for-renouncing-islam

<< A Palestinian poet and leading member of Saudi Arabia's nascent contemporary art scene has been sentenced to death for renouncing Islam. A Saudi court on Tuesday ordered the execution of Ashraf Fayadh, who has curated art shows in Jeddah and at the Venice Biennale. The poet, who said he did not have legal representation, was given 30 days to appeal against the ruling.

Fayadh, 35, a key member of the British-Saudi art organisation Edge of Arabia, was originally sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes by the general court in Abha, a city in the south-west of the ultraconservative kingdom, in May 2014. But after his appeal was dismissed he was retried last month and a new panel of judges ruled that his repentance did not prevent his execution.

"I was really shocked but it was expected, though I didn't do anything that deserves death", Fayadh told the Guardian.

Mona Kareem, a migrant rights activist from Kuwait who has led a campaign for the poet's release, said: "For one and a half years they promised him an appeal and kept intimidating him that there's new evidence. He was unable to assign a lawyer because his ID was confiscated when he was arrested [in January 2014]. Then they said you must have a retrial and we'll change the prosecutor and the judges. The new judge didn't even talk to him, he just made the verdict."

Fayadh's supporters believe he is being punished by hardliners for posting a video online showing the religious police (mutaween) in Abha lashing a man in public. "Some Saudis think this was revenge by the morality police", said Kareem. Kareem also believes that Fayadh has been targeted because he is a Palestinian refugee, although he was born in Saudi Arabia. >>

Source: The Guardian

I live in Brazil and, like dive said, there is no "tax" on each purchase or sale of bitcoin. Bitcoin is NOT regulated in Brazil. The exchanges each have their own transaction fees but THERE IS NO BITCOIN-SPECIFIC GOVERNMENT TAX.

Microsoft surreptitiously reissues botched patch KB3097877 for Windows 7

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3004441/microsoft-windows/microsoft-surreptitiously-reissues-botched-patch-kb-3097877-for-windows-7.html

<< As best I can tell, around 1:30 a.m. Redmond time on Thursday, Nov. 12, Microsoft re-released KB3097877 - the horribly messed-up security patch I talked about yesterday that freezes Outlook, blocks network logons, crashes the Asus DX Xonar driver, and kills Win7 sidebar gadgets and SolidWorks, among others. The patch is part of security bulletin MS15-115, a "critical update", in Microsoft's lexicon, designed to prevent remote code execution triggered by malicious fonts. Yes, fonts.

The KB article was updated at 1:42 a.m. Redmond time to say:

"This security update was rereleased on November 11, 2015 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to resolve an issue where crashes occurred in all supported versions of Microsoft Outlook when users were reading certain emails."

I've seen no other official description of the problem or its solution. The master list of Windows updates doesn't list a re-release. Several TechNet threads mention a second version of KB3097877, but I haven't seen any official confirmation or description. It's mushroom patch management time.

It looks like the patch was only re-released for Windows 7, not for any of the other Windows versions. I had anecdotal evidence on AskWoody.com that the patch had been pulled for Windows 7 on the night of Nov. 11, at least for a short time. That means it took Microsoft 30 hours or more to pull the bad KB3097877 and 36 hours to get a new version posted. That's the kind of timescale we were accustomed to earlier this year. Considering that the failure seems to affect all versions of Windows 7 running all versions of Outlook, it's hard to understand why the problem wasn't caught in testing - and why it took so long to make it right.

It's also not clear why Microsoft re-released the patch with the same KB number as the bad patch. That's going to make life difficult for some admins. For those who hang their tails out in the breeze and turn on Windows Automatic Update, though, it means that a run through Windows Update will solve the old problems, and you're not likely to notice that anything's been updated.

If you can get to Windows Update.

If the new version really solves all the problems. >>

In other words, he loved every piece of crap Micro$oft shoved down his throat after Win 7. He must be feeling he's "on the edge of technology" for being on "10 Pro". My suggestion: abandon this techboy2 account and create a new one with a username like DumbMSFanboi or CluelessSheep.

Women are "either bisexual or gay but NEVER straight": Females become aroused by naked videos of both sexes

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3305320/Women-bisexual-gay-NEVER-straight-Females-aroused-naked-videos-sexes.html

<< Women are either bisexual or gay but "never straight", a new study has claimed. Women who class themselves as heterosexual are aroused by naked videos of both attractive men and women - whereas lesbians are far more attracted to the female form. Clips were played to women and their responses, including whether their pupils dilated when shown sexual stimuli, were recorded.

Experts from the University of Essex found straight women were strongly aroused by both sexes, even though they said they were only interested in men. In contrast, lesbians showed far stronger responses to women and barely any when shown the men. The researchers said lesbians were the most like men in their responses because it is usually men who show distinct sexual responses to their favourite sex. >>

Religious children are meaner than their secular counterparts, study finds

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/06/religious-children-less-altruistic-secular-kids-study

Children from religious families are less kind and more punitive than those from non-religious households, according to a new study. Academics from seven universities across the world studied Christian, Muslim and non-religious children to test the relationship between religion and morality. They found that religious belief is a negative influence on children's altruism.

"Overall, our findings... contradict the commonsense and popular assumption that children from religious households are more altruistic and kind towards others", said the authors of The Negative Association Between Religiousness and Children's Altruism Across the World, published this week in Current Biology. "More generally, they call into question whether religion is vital for moral development, supporting the idea that secularisation of moral discourse will not reduce human kindness – in fact, it will do just the opposite."

Almost 1,200 children, aged between five and 12, in the US, Canada, China, Jordan, Turkey and South Africa participated in the study. Almost 24% were Christian, 43% Muslim, and 27.6% non-religious. The numbers of Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, agnostic and other children were too small to be statistically valid. They were asked to choose stickers and then told there were not enough to go round for all children in their school, to see if they would share. They were also shown film of children pushing and bumping one another to gauge their responses.

The findings "robustly demonstrate that children from households identifying as either of the two major world religions (Christianity and Islam) were less altruistic than children from non-religious households". Older children, usually those with a longer exposure to religion, "exhibit[ed] the greatest negative relations".

The study also found that "religiosity affects children's punitive tendencies". Children from religious households "frequently appear to be more judgmental of others' actions", it said. Muslim children judged "interpersonal harm as more mean" than children from Christian families, with non-religious children the least judgmental. Muslim children demanded harsher punishment than those from Christian or non-religious homes. At the same time, the report said that religious parents were more likely than others to consider their children to be "more empathetic and more sensitive to the plight of others".

The report pointed out that 5.8 billion humans, representing 84% of the worldwide population, identify as religious. "While it is generally accepted that religion contours people's moral judgments and pro-social behaviour, the relation between religion and morality is a contentious one", it said.

The report was "a welcome antidote to the presumption that religion is a prerequisite of morality", said Keith Porteus Wood of the UK National Secular Society. "It would be interesting to see further research in this area, but we hope this goes some way to undoing the idea that religious ethics are innately superior to the secular outlook. We suspect that people of all faiths and none share similar ethical principles in their day to day lives, albeit may express them differently depending on their worldview".

According to the respected Pew Research Center, which examines attitudes toward and practices of faith, most people around the world think it is necessary to believe in God to be a moral person. In the US, 53% of adults think that faith in God is necessary to morality, a figure which rose to seven of 10 adults in the Middle East and three-quarters of adults in six African countries surveyed by Pew.

Source: The Guardian

Theresa May unveils UK surveillance measures in wake of Snowden claims

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/04/theresa-may-surveillance-measures-edward-snowden

- Spy agencies free to track everyone's internet use without warrant
- UK governments have signed secret orders on data collection for years
- Snowden says bill is most intrusive surveillance regime in the west

New surveillance powers will be given to the police and security services, allowing them to access records tracking every UK citizen's use of the internet without any judicial check, under the provisions of the draft investigatory powers bill unveiled by Theresa May. It includes new powers requiring internet and phone companies to keep "internet connection records" – tracking every website visited but not every page – for a maximum of 12 months but will not require a warrant for the police, security services or other bodies to access the data. Local authorities will be banned from accessing internet records.

Key points

- Requires web and phone companies to store records of websites visited by every citizen for 12 months for access by police, security services and other public bodies.
- Makes explicit in law for the first time security services' powers for the "bulk collection" of large volumes of personal communications data.
- Makes explicit in law for the first time powers of the security services and police to hack and bug into computers and phones. Places new legal obligation on companies to assist in these operations to bypass encryption.
- New "double-lock" on ministerial authorisation of intercept warrants with panel of seven judicial commissioners given power of veto. But exemptions allowed in "urgent cases" of up to five days.
- Existing system of three oversight commissioners replaced with single investigatory powers commissioner who will be a senior judge.
- Prime minister to be consulted in all cases involving interception of MPs' communications. Safeguards on requests for communications data in other "sensitive professions" such as journalists to be written into law.

You nailed it, especially the interface aspect. XP's classic menu + GUI is better in every way. Win 7 is bearable after you spend a few days making it look like XP and disabling the all the bloat, but you'll still need to resort to something like ClassicShell to enjoy things like the classic start menu. The search function on 7 is terrible though.

I recently found out this amazing file explorer which looks like XP's explorer but with a lot of other useful options like tabs:

http://www.cubicreality.com/ce/

Now about the 8th Abomination and the 10th Plague... I can only pity the poor morons I mean users of those pieces of shit.

Microsoft places severe limits on unlimited OneDrive Storage

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/microsoft-places-severe-limits-on-unlimited-onedrive-storage.html

Yesterday the news broke that Microsoft will be drastically change the way they deal with OneDrive subscriptions. Users of Office 365 will no longer have unlimited storage and users with a free account will be reduced from 15GB towards 5 GB storage.

With that sudden move Microsoft certainly is thinning their service and last years promise. Last year Microsoft posted bombastically that users of Office 365 Home (a subscription based Office) would get unlimited storage, that promise is now retracted. You'll get 1 TBG of storage space.

Here are the changes:

- No longer unlimited storage to Office 365 Home, Personal, or University subscribers. Starting now, those subscriptions will include 1 TB of OneDrive storage.
- 100 GB and 200 GB paid plans are going away as an option for new users and will be replaced with a 50 GB plan for $1.99 per month in early 2016.
- Free OneDrive storage will decrease from 15 GB to 5 GB for all users, current and new. The 15 GB camera roll storage bonus will also be discontinued. These changes will start rolling out in early 2016.

MS are  taking the following steps to make this transition as easy as possible for customers:

- If you are an Office 365 consumer subscriber and have stored in excess of 1 TB, you will be notified of this change and will be able to keep your increased storage for at least 12 months.
- If you are an Office 365 consumer subscriber and find that Office 365 no longer meets your needs, a pro-rated refund will be given.
- If you are using more than 5 GB of free storage, you will continue to have access to all files for at least 12 months after these changes go into effect in early 2016. In addition, you can redeem a free one-year Office 365 Personal subscription (credit card required), which includes 1 TB of OneDrive storage.
- Current customers of standalone OneDrive storage plans (such as a 100 or 200 GB plans) are not affected by these changes.

In a blog post the OneDrive team explains that it's making these changes after some of its unlimited subscribers each uploaded more than 75 terabytes of data to its servers. Microsoft really didn't see that one coming? E.g. that no one would take advantage of its promise to offer unlimited storage? If Microsoft didn’t anticipate this development all along, it probably shouldn't have committed to it and announce it so bombastically. OneDrive is now just another cloud, like many.

Source: Guru3D

XP 64. Released 2 years after the more common 32-bit XP and based on the Windows Server 2003 kernel, it's the best OS Microsoft ever released. Everything that came after was a downgrade in some way. My install is 6 years old and still as stable and responsive as on the first day I installed it. I don't have any antivirus crap installed and have never been "infected" by anything. About Microsoft's "security updates" which are no longer released for XP, good luck to you if you think you're "safer" because of that shit.

Mein Kampf: strange tales of the world's most dangerous book

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/03/mein-kampf-strange-tales-of-the-worlds-most-dangerous-book

<< A stage version of Hitler's rambling manifesto is attracting big audiences, months before its copyright expires and a new academic edition is published. >>

You know you're consuming too much – how to stop before it consumes you too

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/nov/03/advertising-overconsumption-psychology

<< From a material standpoint, our needs should be limited, but advertisers take advantage of our unlimited emotional needs to keep us shopping, says a former ad writer. The first step to a solution, he believes, is seeing the problem. >>