Comment Re:I have a pair of Dell Micro Towers on my deskto (Score 1) 75
Ouch
Submission + - Supreme Court Hacker Approaching Sentencing (abovethelaw.com)
beadon writes: > Remember when the Supreme Court was absolutely consumed with figuring out who leaked the Dobbs draft opinion? They assigned the Marshal to investigate, brought in outside help, and made scores of employees sign affidavits. The response was immediate, muscular, and deeply unserious. The investigation did basically everything except interview the justices, because why interview anyone with both opportunity AND motive? Say, a justice credibly accused of leaking the results of other decisions who might have feared that colleagues would water down the maximalist draft before the case came down? No need to check in on anyone like that!
However, access was widely available from "the front door" so to speak, and the accused Nicholas Moore, is set to plead guilty to accessing these files receiving sentencing soon after.
However, access was widely available from "the front door" so to speak, and the accused Nicholas Moore, is set to plead guilty to accessing these files receiving sentencing soon after.
Comment Re:Here we go... (Score 2) 75
SOoooooooo many companies have done the EXACT same thing. This is a very tired playbook. Usually results in little to no real effective improvement, but the metrics and dashboards look good to upper management, and the consultants doing the implementation are well paid.
It's just re-arranging chairs in a big organization. Hardly newsworthy in my opinion.
Submission + - ICE Is Going on a Surveillance Shopping Spree (eff.org)
beadon writes: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has a new budget under the current administration, and they are going on a surveillance tech shopping spree. Standing at $28.7 billion dollars for the year 2025 (nearly triple their 2024 budget) and at least another $56.25 billion over the next three years, ICE's budget would be the envy of many national militaries around the world. Indeed, this budget would put ICE as the 14th most well-funded military in the world, right between Ukraine and Israel.
Submission + - Inside ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Entire Neighborhoods (404media.co)
beadon writes: A social media and phone surveillance system ICE bought access to is designed to monitor a city neighborhood or block for mobile phones, track the movements of those devices and their owners over time, and follow them from their places of work to home or other locations, according to material that describes how the system works obtained by 404 Media.
Commercial location data, in this case acquired from hundreds of millions of phones via a company called Penlink, can be queried without a warrant, according to an internal ICE legal analysis shared with 404 Media. The purchase comes squarely during ICE’s mass deportation effort and continued crackdown on protected speech, alarming civil liberties experts and raising questions on what exactly ICE will use the surveillance system for.
Do you know anything else about this tool? Do you work for ICE, CBP, or another agency? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at joseph.404 or send me an email at joseph@404media.co.
“This is a very dangerous tool in the hands of an out-of-control agency. This granular location information paints a detailed picture of who we are, where we go, and who we spend time with,” Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy project director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told 404 Media.
Commercial location data, in this case acquired from hundreds of millions of phones via a company called Penlink, can be queried without a warrant, according to an internal ICE legal analysis shared with 404 Media. The purchase comes squarely during ICE’s mass deportation effort and continued crackdown on protected speech, alarming civil liberties experts and raising questions on what exactly ICE will use the surveillance system for.
Do you know anything else about this tool? Do you work for ICE, CBP, or another agency? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at joseph.404 or send me an email at joseph@404media.co.
“This is a very dangerous tool in the hands of an out-of-control agency. This granular location information paints a detailed picture of who we are, where we go, and who we spend time with,” Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy project director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told 404 Media.
Submission + - We Hacked Flock Safety Cameras in under 30 Seconds. (youtube.com) 1
beadon writes: This video discusses the concerning vulnerabilities, questionable efficacy, and public pushback against Flock Safety cameras and similar ALPR (Automatic License Plate Reader) services.
It's long, but really interesting from a security perspective.
It's long, but really interesting from a security perspective.
Submission + - Stefan Fatsis on the words that defined 2025 From rage bait to slop (reuters.com)
beadon writes: In an era of search engines and algorithm-inspired slang, dictionaries can seem like analog relics.
But for writer Stefan Fatsis — who spent time working for America’s oldest dictionary publisher, Merriam-Webster, while researching his new book “Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary” — they remain vital catalogs of language and, by extension, who we are as people.
Speaking from his home in Washington, D.C., Fatsis reflects on the thousands of words that were added to the lexicon in 2025, what they reveal about the year just passed, and the forces shaping language to come.
This conversation, conducted in December, has been edited for length and clarity.
But for writer Stefan Fatsis — who spent time working for America’s oldest dictionary publisher, Merriam-Webster, while researching his new book “Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary” — they remain vital catalogs of language and, by extension, who we are as people.
Speaking from his home in Washington, D.C., Fatsis reflects on the thousands of words that were added to the lexicon in 2025, what they reveal about the year just passed, and the forces shaping language to come.
This conversation, conducted in December, has been edited for length and clarity.
Submission + - FCC approves 7,500 additional Starlink Gen2 satellites (reuters.com)
beadon writes: WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) — The Federal Communications Commission said on Friday it has approved SpaceX's request to deploy another 7,500 second-generation Starlink satellites as it works to boost internet service worldwide.
The FCC said Elon Musk's SpaceX can now operate an additional 7,500 Gen2 Starlink satellites, bringing the total to 15,000 satellites worldwide. The FCC is also allowing SpaceX to upgrade the satellites and operate across five frequencies and is waiving prior requirements that prevented overlapping coverage and enhanced capacity.
The FCC said Elon Musk's SpaceX can now operate an additional 7,500 Gen2 Starlink satellites, bringing the total to 15,000 satellites worldwide. The FCC is also allowing SpaceX to upgrade the satellites and operate across five frequencies and is waiving prior requirements that prevented overlapping coverage and enhanced capacity.
Submission + - World's most powerful flying wind turbine launched in western China (scmp.com)
beadon writes: Gigantic gliding ‘power bank’ could help communities cut off from the grid during blackouts and cement China’s leading role in green energy
China has successfully flown the world’s largest and most powerful airborne wind turbine, a milestone that could bring cheaper, more reliable green energy and strengthen the country’s leading role in the global clean energy transition.
Between September 19 and 21 2025, the airship-like S1500 – about the size of a basketball court and as tall as a 13-story building – became the first turbine of its kind to generate one megawatt of power during a test flight at a desert site in China’s western Xinjiang region.
China has successfully flown the world’s largest and most powerful airborne wind turbine, a milestone that could bring cheaper, more reliable green energy and strengthen the country’s leading role in the global clean energy transition.
Between September 19 and 21 2025, the airship-like S1500 – about the size of a basketball court and as tall as a 13-story building – became the first turbine of its kind to generate one megawatt of power during a test flight at a desert site in China’s western Xinjiang region.
Comment down (Score 2, Funny) 45
Looks like it was slashdotted
currently down.
Comment Re:Don't leave me hanging! (Score 1) 63
How a Power Outage In Colorado Caused US Official Time To Be 4.8 Microseconds
4.8 microseconds what? Longer, shorter - wider, thinner? Unless... (*gasp*) Time is now 4.8 microseconds.
Yes, I thought the same thing. To the author: Please form complete sentences with the title of the post.
Comment Re:Checked the date (Score 1) 81
Not joking. As soon as I saw this headline, I checked the date to make sure it was not Apr 1.
I did the same -- this was something we would see on joke sites. Not an *actual* product.
If this ends up selling well I will lose faith in humanity, again.
Comment Re:Should have banned TCP/IP (Score 1) 153
Why stop at WiFi?
The author doesn't know the differences between WiFi, fiber and the internet.
Agreed. People confusing "the internet" with "wifi" need to be educated, and the mistake highlights a major technology literacy problem.
The article states it's a ban on fiber internet, then also mentions that cable internet is also banned (later in the article).
Also, we get to hear about a random person's, unrelated, internet outage issue: "One Balkh resident noticed connectivity issues a few days ago at home and contacted his service provider, which said it was a technical issue that would be resolved."
This article is terrible writing.
Submission + - New Sni5Gect Attack Crashes Phones + Downgrades 5G to 4G w/o rogue base station (thehackernews.com)
beadon writes: A team of academics has devised a novel attack that can be used to downgrade a 5G connection to a lower generation without relying on a rogue base station (gNB).
The attack, per the ASSET (Automated Systems SEcuriTy) Research Group at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), relies on a new open-source software toolkit named Sni5Gect (short for "Sniffing 5G Inject") that's designed to sniff unencrypted messages sent between the base station and the user equipment (UE, i.e., a phone) and inject messages to the target UE over-the-air.
The framework can be used to carry out attacks such as crashing the UE modem, downgrading to earlier generations of networks, fingerprinting, or authentication bypass, according to Shijie Luo, Matheus Garbelini, Sudipta Chattopadhyay, and Jianying Zhou.
The attack, per the ASSET (Automated Systems SEcuriTy) Research Group at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), relies on a new open-source software toolkit named Sni5Gect (short for "Sniffing 5G Inject") that's designed to sniff unencrypted messages sent between the base station and the user equipment (UE, i.e., a phone) and inject messages to the target UE over-the-air.
The framework can be used to carry out attacks such as crashing the UE modem, downgrading to earlier generations of networks, fingerprinting, or authentication bypass, according to Shijie Luo, Matheus Garbelini, Sudipta Chattopadhyay, and Jianying Zhou.
Comment For an Excellent Product (Score 0) 69
For an excellent product, I am glad that Plex is charging an appropriate amount. Software development time, basic hosting for software downloads and login services are not free. The Plex clients getting onto so many different platforms I also imagine is quite a bear to get under control. Then, open-source alternatives still require overhead and maintenance from an admin - consider the $ spent with Plex the cost of your time.
There will always be inflation, and this does not seem like an excessive increase for "lifetime" membership. That being said, I am cautious of other "lifetime" memberships which have failed :
- American Airlines - AAirpass : scrapped when people took massive advantage of the number of flights, tied to a person
- TiVo DVR All-In Plan : scrapped when physical time-shifting media products were no longer feasible, the "license" was tied to the device
- Unlimited Web Hosting : scrapped when people really used the unlimited webhosts for unlimited data transfers, hidden limits are typically enforced to kick off the worst offenders.
- probably a lot more
Notably, some have really succeeded! ( and there are many more examples) :
- US National Parks Service - $80 Senior Lifetime pass ( must be over 62 to qualify ), tied to your death like you would expect.
- REI - $30 - a lot of in-store perks, and returns.
- Forever Stamps - fixed cost of mailing letters.
- etc
Here's to a lifetime membership that thrives!
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