Rotolight uses DMCA to claim ”Infringement” on Review it didn’t like

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While spending some time on my Facebook feed I came across a post I missed earlier by a friend of mine Den Lennie talking about censorship from a test he did on some lights.  It would seem that the company Rotolight didn’t fare as well as they would have liked and decided to file a DMCA notice with Vimeo.  This is a disturbing trend that companies are trying to use to remove tests that they don’t like, and even bigger brands are trying to use it as GoPro tried to do with a review it didn’t like.  Though GoPro upper management realized it stepped in it and backtracked a bit saying it was just the images they were filing on not the review content.

via Rotolight uses DMCA to claim ”Infringement” on Review it didn’t like – Dave Lawlor {Dot} Com.

Scientists Demonstrate Ultra-Fast Magnetite Electrical Switch

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However, there’s a slight hitch to be overcome before fabbing magnetite computer chips is possible. To lock an electrical charge in place in the material, it has to be chilled to minus 190 degrees Celsius.

Kukreja said the next objective for the team will be to try out electrical switching with “more complex materials and room-temperature applications” through new experiments which “aim to identify exotic compounds and test new techniques to induce the switching and tap into other properties that are superior to modern-day silicon transistors.”

via Scientists Demonstrate Ultra-Fast Magnetite Electrical Switch | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

College students hijack $80 million yacht with GPS signal spoofing

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A group of students at the University of Texas at Austin built and successfully tested a GPS spoofing device to remotely redirect an $80 million yacht onto a different route, the Houston Chronicle reports. The project, which was completed with the permission of the yacht’s owners in the Mediterranean Sea this past June, is explained in the video below.

via College students hijack $80 million yacht with GPS signal spoofing.

Court blocks the publication of a scientific paper

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The English High Court (the highest civil court) has blocked the publication of a scientific paper that would have revealed the full details of a zero day vulnerability in Volkswagen’s immobiliser mechanisms – the temporary injunction against publication has been granted to stop the publication of “Dismantling Megamos Crypto: Wirelessly Lockpicking a Vehicle Immobilizer” – due to be presented at a Usenix security conference.

via Court blocks the publication of a scientific paper | cartesian product.

NSA Award for Best Scientific Cybersecurity Paper

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In accepting the award I don’t condone the NSA’s surveillance. Simply put, I don’t think a free society is compatible with an organisation like the NSA in its current form. Yet I’m glad I got the rare opportunity to visit with the NSA and I’m grateful for my hosts’ genuine hospitality. A large group of engineers turned up to hear my presentation, asked sharp questions, understood and cared about the privacy implications of studying password data. It affirmed my feeling that America’s core problems are in Washington and not in Fort Meade. Our focus must remain on winning the public debate around surveillance and developing privacy-enhancing technology. But I hope that this award program, established to increase engagement with academic researchers, can be a small but positive step.

via Light Blue Touchpaper » Blog Archive » NSA Award for Best Scientific Cybersecurity Paper.

Game over for Zynga? Firm loses 25 percent of daily active users in one quarter

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In its latest earnings statement filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Zynga reported the number of daily average users (DAU) dropped to 39 million in the second quarter of 2013—the lowest ever since the company began keeping track. Last quarter, the DAU fell to the then-lowest record, 52 million users. The fall to 39 million means that 25 percent of its daily user base stopped using Zynga products in just one quarter.

via Game over for Zynga? Firm loses 25 percent of daily active users in one quarter | Ars Technica.

Chinese firm Huawei controls net filter praised by PM

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The pornography filtering system praised by David Cameron is controlled by the controversial Chinese company Huawei, the BBC has learned.

via BBC News – Chinese firm Huawei controls net filter praised by PM.

Customers who do not want filtering still have their traffic routed through the system, but matches to Huawei’s database are dismissed rather than acted upon.

Tiny, cheap, and dangerous: Inside a (fake) iPhone charger

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I recently wrote a popular article on the history of computer power supplies, which led to speculation on what’s inside those amazingly small one-inch cube USB chargers sold by Apple, Samsung, RIM, and other companies. In the interest of science, I bought a cheap no-name cube charger off eBay for $2.79, and took it apart. It’s amazing that manufacturers can build and sell a complex charger for just a few dollars. It looks a lot like a genuine Apple charger and cost a lot less. But looking inside, I found that important safety corners were cut, which could lead to a 340 volt surprise. In addition, the interference from a cheap charger like this can cause touchscreen malfunctions. Thus, I recommend spending a few dollars more to get a brand-name charger.

via Ken Shirriff’s blog: Tiny, cheap, and dangerous: Inside a (fake) iPhone charger.