Author Archives: Dustin - Page 47

Don't buy cheap home automation/security/whatever equipment

Posted by on February 17, 2016 No comments
Bad stuff happens.  Like the stuff that happens on this cheap home video surveillance DVR:

* The default username/password is blank, and it's hard to change.
* The above doesn't make much difference because they're not enforced anyway.
* There is a remote, unauthenticated web-accessible root shell that you can't disable.
* Snapshots from the first camera connected to the DVR are sent to…someone.  That someone is not the owner of the DVR, that's for sure.

Pwning CCTV camerasPen Test Partners

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Julia Belluz goes over some research on the dangers of late night eating.

Posted by on February 17, 2016 No comments
Julia Belluz goes over some research on the dangers of late night eating.

Why researchers say eating late at night is a ​particularly​ bad idea
Late-night eating is considered a risk factor for weight gain, obesity, and diabetes.

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Promising, but preliminary, immunotherapy results

Posted by on February 17, 2016 4 comments
In a trial of 29 people with a deadly form of leukemia—acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)—and no other treatment options, 27 went into remission after scientists plucked some of their immune cells, engineering them to fight cancer, then replaced them

…

The method was also successful at treating handfuls of patients with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Treatment saved ~90% of terminal cancer patients, but it has scary side effects | Ars Technica
Scientists cautiously optimistic about reprogramming immune cells to wipe out cancer.


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Compound keeps mice with ALS alive for 650 days instead of the 150 they normally…

Posted by on February 17, 2016 2 comments
Compound keeps mice with ALS alive for 650 days instead of the 150 they normally live.

It's nice that we spend so much time working on the health of mice!

(warning, auto-play video at link along with the article)

ALS: ‘Shockingly successful’ Copper-ATSM mice trials show first signs of prolonging life
Study could have discovered first motor neurone disease treatment that can prolong lives for more than weeks.


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This is the oppsite of what people normally want to do, but

Posted by on February 17, 2016 No comments
This Firefox extension routes all browsing traffic through a proxy located in China so you can see what its like to be behind the Great Firewall.

China Channel
China Channel Firefox Add-on. Experience the censored Chinese internet at home! The Firefox add-on China Channel offers internet user outside China to surf the web as if they were in China. Take an unforgetable virtual trip to China and experience the technical expertise of the Chinese Ministry …

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Don't Alienate Open Source Contributors

Posted by on February 16, 2016 No comments
https://goo.gl/zo7lyA

From the article:
Don't alienate volunteers — everyone in the R community is a volunteer, and it doesn't benefit the community when you're unnecessarily rude.
Understand volunteers have other commitments — while the core R team is doing an excellent job building a statistical computing platform, not everyone can make the same commitment to an open-source project.
Open-source has limited resources — every contribution helps.
Be patient — not everyone can operate on the same level, and new members will need to be brought up to speed on best practices._

(I removed the auto-scraped G+ link at the bottom of this post because apaprently G+ hates the format of the linked page and can't provide the picture or the correct headline)


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When adopting a new library or framework into a project, do a close evaluation on…

Posted by on February 16, 2016 No comments
When adopting a new library or framework into a project, do a close evaluation on the changelog and updating guides available for the library.

This is particularly relevant in frontend web development where there's constant library churn, constant evolution in libraries, and where changelogs and update guides seem to be particularly bad.

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Exciting time for exoplanets

Posted by on February 16, 2016 1 comment
According to results published in the Astrophysical Journal, European astronomers have found hydrogen and helium in the atmosphere around Janssen, which may have a diamond-like core due to its very high density. This atmosphere is likely a remnant of the nebula from which the planet and its star formed about 8 billion years ago. The planet has kept this atmosphere somehow, despite the proximity of its star.

Astronomers have detected a Super-Earth atmosphere for the first time
Diamond-like world isn’t going to be on anyone’s bucket list, though.


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It feels like most people are so ignorant they should be embarrassed

Posted by on February 15, 2016 19 comments
I mean, by any reasonable metric I can think of, the US military is by far the world's number 1 military, yet 49% of Americans think it is not…

Americans Less Likely to See U.S. as No. 1 Militarily
About half of Americans now think the U.S. is the world’s No.1 military power, down from last year, and by one percentage point the lowest Gallup has measured over the past quarter century.

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This is a pretty great introduction to Facebook's React javascript library that…

Posted by on February 13, 2016 No comments
This is a pretty great introduction to Facebook's React javascript library that doesn't use any React code!

I always love these sorts of articles that give a great overview of the hows and whys.

What will you learn when you are finished with part 1 and 2? A high level understanding of why you might need React and maybe Redux or another state container.

What you will not need: No need for JSX, ES6/ES*, Webpack, Hot Reloading, understanding of how the virtual DOM functions not even React itself.

Learning React Without Using React Part 1
First Concepts Then Frameworks

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