Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Domains

Domain: sc.edu

Stories and comments across the archive that link to sc.edu.

Stories · 5

  1. Some Smart Meters Broadcast Readings in the Clear

    Hardware · Privacy · · posted by Unknown · from the find-out-who-hates-the-planet dept. · 138 comments
    alphadogg writes "University of South Carolina have discovered that some types of electricity meter are broadcasting unencrypted information that, with the right software, would enable eavesdroppers to determine whether you're at home. The meters, called AMR (automatic meter reading) in the utility industry, are a first-generation smart meter technology and they are installed in one third of American homes and businesses. They are intended to make it easy for utilities to collect meter readings. Instead of requiring access to your home, workers need simply drive or walk by a house with a handheld terminal and the current meter reading can be received." Perhaps more distressing, given trends in 4th amendment interpretation, I bet the transmissions are open game for law enforcement.

  2. Can Statistics Predict the Outcome of a War?

    Politics · Math · · posted by kdawson · from the first-you-have-to-get-the-inputs-right dept. · 572 comments
    StatisticallyDeadGuy writes "A University of Georgia scientist has developed a statistical system that can, she claims, predict the outcome of wars with an accuracy of 80 percent. Her approach, applied retrospectively, says the US chance of victory in the first Gulf War was 93%, while the poor Soviets only had a 7% chance in Afghanistan (if only they'd known; failure maybe triggered the collapse of the USSR). As for the current Iraq conflict: the US started off with a 70% chance of a successful regime change, which was duly achieved — but extending the mission past this to support a weak government has dropped the probability of ultimate success to 26%. Full elaboration of the forecasting methodology is laid out in a new paper (subscription required — link goes to the abstract). Some details can be gleaned from her 2006 draft (PDF)."

  3. Lindows - Where's the Source?

    Linux · Linux · · posted by timothy · from the it's-in-there dept. · 483 comments
    bbh writes: "NewsForge has an article about the Free Software Foundation asking the makers of LindowsOS a simple question, 'Where's the Source?' Lindows CEO Michael Robertson has an interesting take on what the GPL means."

  4. SETI@home: Research on the Research

    Science · Science · · posted by Hemos · from the looking-behind-the-curtain dept. · 50 comments
    Officer Larry writes "A professor and a graduate student at the University of South Carolina just posted a study into SETI@home work unit completion times. They came up with some pretty interesting results. It stems off Team Lamb Chop's work, but these guys are interested in how much variation there is in completion times if the same work unit is analyzed over and over again on the same system. It looks like they have other studies in the hopper. Warning: there looks to be quite a bit of statistics in this study..."

  5. IMUnified: Playing Red Rover With AOL

    Internet · · posted by ryuzaki0 · from the talk-to-me-baby-talk-to-me dept. · 109 comments
    Griz writes: "Looks like the bigger names in the IM business have come together to support a uniform protocol, and to rally behind IETF. AOL is noticeably absent. Check out IMUnified for more information." And practically speaking, it looks like a tough sell even for giant AOL to balk at implementing the same standards that will be available to customers of Excite@home, MSN, Prodigy, Yahoo!, AT&T and others.