AT&T’s plan to watch your Web browsing—and what you can do about it

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If you have AT&T’s gigabit Internet service and wonder why it seems so affordable, here’s the reason—AT&T is boosting profits by rerouting all your Web browsing to an in-house traffic scanning platform, analyzing your Internet habits, then using the results to deliver personalized ads to the websites you visit, e-mail to your inbox, and junk mail to your front door.

via AT&T’s plan to watch your Web browsing—and what you can do about it | Ars Technica.

Use https.  They may know which sites you visit but they won’t know any of the http fields because that is all encrypted.  Most big sites like Google and Facebook use https by default nowadays.

TrueCrypt doesn’t contain NSA backdoors

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A security audit of TrueCrypt has determined that the disk encryption software does not contain any backdoors that could be used by the NSA or other surveillance agencies. A report prepared by the NCC Group for Open Crypto Audit Project found that the encryption tool is not vulnerable to being compromised.

via TrueCrypt doesn’t contain NSA backdoors.

Graphics from the command line

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This article shows how to perform image manipulation using command-line tools. I do this job quite often, since I’ve picked up a some digital cameras and now manage a library of several thousand happy snaps. For Web developers and administrators who frequently have to batch-process large numbers of images, command line tools are an especially attractive option, because the developer can incorporate them into scripts. But even if you only want to perform a manipulation once or twice, a command-line alternative can save time.

The command line tools discussed in this article are part of the excellent ImageMagick suite, which ships with Red Hat Linux and is freely available online (see Resources). ImageMagick can also be accessed via C, C++, Perl, Python, Java, and several other languages, which Linux programmers will appreciate.

via Graphics from the command line.

Rockets Shake And Rattle, So SpaceX Rolls Homegrown CFD

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Lichtl says that people have tried to use wavelet compression before, and these particular simulations are based on work done by Jonathan Regele, a professor at the department of aerospace engineering at Iowa State University.

“The difference is that without GPU acceleration, and without the architecture and the techniques that we just described, it takes months on thousands of cores to run even the simplest of simulations. It is a very interesting approach but it doesn’t have industrial application without the hardware and the correct algorithms behind it. What the GPUs are doing here is enabling tremendous acceleration.

via Rockets Shake And Rattle, So SpaceX Rolls Homegrown CFD.

To be more precise, if you get the temperature wrong in the simulation by a little, you get the kinetic energy of the gas wrong by a lot because there is an exponential relationship there.  If you get the pressure or viscosity of the fluid wrong by a little bit, you will see different effects in the nozzle than will happen in the real motor.

New Homeowner Has To Sell House Because Of Comcast’s Incompetence, Lack Of Competition

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According to the latest Broadband Progress Report from the FCC, 4% of all Americans — and only 2% of people in Washington state — lack access to even the most basic non-mobile broadband service. But Seth’s story makes us wonder how many consumers are being counted as having access to these services when in fact the service providers refuse to make them available?

That’s why it’s in the best interest of Comcast, CenturyLink and others to assume an address is serviceable just because it falls within a certain ZIP code or municipal boundary — because it gives the illusion that they are providing service to more customers.

via New Homeowner Has To Sell House Because Of Comcast’s Incompetence, Lack Of Competition – Consumerist.

The FTC’s internal memo on Google teaches companies a terrible lesson

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FTC staffers spent enormous time pouring through Google’s business practices and documents as well as interviewing executives and rivals. They came to the conclusion that Google was acting in anti-competitive ways, such as restricting advertisers’ from working with rival search engines. But commissioners balked at the prospect of a lengthy and protracted legal fight, former FTC officials said.

via The FTC’s internal memo on Google teaches companies a terrible lesson – The Washington Post.

DRIVE IT YOURSELF: USB CAR

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What we are going to do is a basic variant of a process generally known as reverse engineering. You start examining the device with common tools (USB is quite descriptive itself). Then you capture the data that the device exchanges with its existing (Windows) driver, and try to guess what it means. This is the toughest part, and you’ll need some experience and a bit of luck to reverse engineer a non-trivial protocol.

via DRIVE IT YOURSELF: USB CAR | Linux Voice.

Windows 10 to make the Secure Boot alt-OS lock out a reality

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At its WinHEC hardware conference in Shenzhen, China, Microsoft talked about the hardware requirements for Windows 10. The precise final specs are not available yet, so all this is somewhat subject to change, but right now, Microsoft says that the switch to allow Secure Boot to be turned off is now optional. Hardware can be Designed for Windows 10 and can offer no way to opt out of the Secure Boot lock down.

via Windows 10 to make the Secure Boot alt-OS lock out a reality | Ars Technica.

Universal Music Hijacks YouTube Videos of Indie Artist

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Apparently UMG has the rights to an audiobook that uses Lynne’s music track “Kingdom of the Persians” as background music. This isn’t a problem, as his music can be freely used as long as the license fees are paid.

However, UMG have entered the audiobook in YouTube’s Content-ID system, and as a result they’ve hijacked the ads on the original video. Making matters even worse, UMG also rejected Lynne’s dispute through YouTube after he explained the situation.

via Universal Music Hijacks YouTube Videos of Indie Artist | TorrentFreak.