In this week's episode we have some more adventures in shipping and misadventures with dates. I just asked "Hey Google, how many days are there in February THIS year" and they answered confidently "28 days." I briefly considered autoplaying that query on this page to see how many of your devices would answer correctly, but then I decided I should autoplay a command to order me a pizza and then I thought better of the whole thing.

Following up on an earlier submission, Dave P. reports "Much to my amazement, the package did arrive in time for Christmas, but just barely. USPS really came through on their end, taking less than 2 days to deliver the package, after the original delivery service took 12 days to find the USPS dropoff facility." Hah! Somebody owes me a nickel!

 

Peter S. on the other hand, had a less-stellar experience with the competition. "Not sure if I can trust UPS ever again. They didn't just lose my package, but also their homepage."

 

Supporter of the arts Chris remark'd "I know February 2024 is supposed to be longer than usual, but I expected just one extra day, not over 330..."

 

Old-timer Barry M. wistfully remembers this movie released in a year that never existed. "man, that's a real classic," he said softly. Wasn't that movie title actually "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle?" Two error'ds in one!

 

Finally, a new anonymous (that is to say, previous anonymous submissions were from different anonymice) sent us a lovely photo of a hill and a fully charged battery, exclaiming "I don't think I was supposed to see this class name. I wonder if I could inject something by escaping strings in my message!" Be careful, it might be a trap.

 

[Advertisement] BuildMaster allows you to create a self-service release management platform that allows different teams to manage their applications. Explore how!

doc1623 shares a report from Ars Technica: Scientists at the University of Arizona decided to investigate whether closing the toilet lid before flushing reduces cross-contamination of bathroom surfaces by airborne bacterial and viral particles via "toilet plumes." The bad news is that putting a lid on it doesn't result in any substantial reduction in contamination, according to their recent paper published in the American Journal of Infection Control. The good news: Adding a disinfectant to the toilet bowl before flushing and using disinfectant dispensers in the tank significantly reduce cross-contamination. [...] The scientists conducted their experiment with E. coli (as a host bacteria) and coliphage MS2; the latter is not a human or animal pathogen but serves as a useful model. The public toilet used in the experiment was located in a stall in the restroom of an office building. That toilet was tankless, relying on water-line pressure for flushing, with no lid and a U-shaped seat with a gap in the front. The home toilet was a standard siphonic toilet with a tank and lid in a private residence; there was no gap on the center of the seat. Toilet bowls were seeded with MS2 and flushed. After one minute, samples were taken from various restroom surfaces: the top and bottom of toilet seats, the bowl rim, three locations on the floor, and the right and left walls. The team also conducted a similar experiment involving cleaning the bowls with toilet brushes, both with and without Lysol toilet bowl cleaner. All those samples were then tested for MS2 contamination. The results: both the tops and bottoms of the lidless public toilet seats had more contamination compared to household seats, but otherwise, there was no statistical significance in the degree of contamination between lidless public toilets and household toilets with lids. And the surface contamination did indeed persist even after repeated flushes. The toilet seat was the worst offender with the greatest degree of contamination, which the authors suggest "reflects the airflow that occurs during toilet flushing, i.e., largely around the top and bottom of the toilet seat." That same airflow is likely a factor in spreading the contamination to restroom floors and walls. Perhaps the least surprising finding is that rigorous cleaning with a toilet bowl brush and Lysol reduced the contamination by 99.99 percent compared to cleaning with just a brush. Therefore, "The most effective strategy for reducing restroom cross-contamination associated with toilet flushing include the addition of a disinfectant to the toilet bowl before flushing and the use of disinfectant/detergent dispensers in the toilet tank," the authors concluded. They also recommend regularly disinfecting all restroom surfaces after flushing or cleaning with a toilet brush in health care facilities -- which often have a lot of immunocompromised people -- and if someone in your house has an active infection like norovirus. The findings have been published in the journal American Journal of Infection Control. Slashdot reader doc1623 writes: "This headline brought me joy today, so I thought I would share (I could honestly care less about reading the article but joy is joy, I take it where I can find it.)"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

New submitter Smonster shares a report from the New York Times: With restrictions on space and weight, what would you bring if you were going to Mars? An ideal option might be a single material that can shift shapes into any object you imagine. In the morning, you could mold that material into utensils for eating. When breakfast is done, you could transform your fork and knife into a spade to tend to your Martian garden. And then when it's happy hour on the red planet, that spade could become a cup for your Martian beer. What sounds like science fiction is, perhaps, one step closer to reality. Researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering have created a new type of plastic with properties that can be set with heat and then locked in with rapid cooling, a process known as tempering. Unlike classic plastics, the material retains this stiffness when returned to room temperature. The findings, published in the journal Science on Thursday, could someday change how astronauts pack for space. "Rather than taking all the different plastics with you, you take this one plastic with you and then just give it the properties you need as you require," said Stuart Rowan, a chemist at the University of Chicago and an author of the new study. But space isn't the only place the material could be useful. Dr. Rowan's team also sees its potential in other environments where resources are scare -- like at sea or on the battlefield. It could also be used to make soft robots and to improve plastics recycling.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Visual effects artists working on James Cameron's Avatar movies have voted to unionize in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election. From the Hollywood Reporter: Of an eligible 88 workers at Walt Disney Studios subsidiary TCF US Productions 27, Inc. who assist with productions for Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment, 57 voted to join the union and 19 voted against, while two ballots were void. These workers include creatures costume leads and environment artists as well as others in the stage, environments, render, post viz, sequence, turn over and kabuki departments. Management and labor now have a few days to file any objections, and if none are raised, the election results will be certified. This bargaining unit doesn't include employees of VFX facility vendors, notably Weta FX, which is the lead VFX house on the Avatar films and employs the vast majority of the more than 1,000 artists who work on a typical Avatar movie. But unionizing the group represents a major inroad for the VFX industry labor movement, believes one VFX industry source who spoke with THR. "While insignificant as a number, this is the core team that answers to Jim Cameron," says the source. "They are not necessarily impressive in size, but in influence." The workers first went public with their organizing bid in December, when they filed for a union election with the NLRB. At the time, participating workers said in public statements that they were aiming to gain comparable benefits and pay to their unionized peers and have greater input into in working conditions. "Every one of my coworkers has dedicated so much time, creativity and passion to make these films a reality. So when you see them struggling to cover their health premiums, or being overworked because they took on multiple roles, or are just scraping by on their wages ... you cannot keep silent," said kabuki lead Jennifer Anaya.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Palworld, a viral "Pokemon with guns" game, has become Microsoft's biggest third-party launch on Game Pass. According to developer Pocketpair, the game sold 12 million copies on Steam and seven million on Xbox since its January 19 launch. A million of the copies were sold in its first eight hours. Engadget reports: In addition to being the biggest third-party Game Pass launch ever, Palworld had the largest third-party day-one launch on Xbox Cloud Gaming (included with Game Pass Ultimate). The game's highest peak since launch was nearly three million daily active users on Xbox. Microsoft says it was the most-played game on Xbox platforms during that period. Palworld uses Pokemon-esque characters and themes -- enough to catch the attention of Nintendo's lawyers. It has battles with monsters similar to those in the creature-collecting series, including the ability to capture them inside a sphere after winning. But Palworld also includes biting social commentary and incorporates themes you'd never see in Pokemon -- like labor exploitation. "Don't worry, there are no labor laws for Pals," a game FAQ reads. One of the title's trailers showed a player circling hard-at-work Pals with an assault rifle. "Creating a productive base like this is the secret to living a comfortable life in Palworld," the narration reads.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The pace is picking up for the Apple Vison Pro apps ahead of the spatial computing device's Friday launch as developers ready their apps for the new platform. While just last week, only 150-plus apps had been specifically designed for the Vision Pro so far, according to a third-party analysis of the App Store, Apple announced today that more than 600 new apps and games are being readied for the Vison Pro ahead of its debut. These join the more than 1 million already compatible apps across iOS and iPadOS, the company says. [...] The company says more than 600 apps and games have been designed to take advantage of the Vision Pro's capabilities and its 3D user interface that's navigated using your eyes, hands and voice. Several streaming apps have already announced their support, including Disney+, ESPN, MLB, PGA Tour, Max, Discovery+, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+, Peacock, Pluto TV, Tubi, Fubo, Crunchyroll, Red Bull TV, IMAX, TikTok and MUBI. The PGA Tour Vision app offers a golf game with real-time shot tracking across models of real golf courses, while the NBA app will allow streaming up to five broadcasts live or on-demand at once, Apple notes. Red Bull TV will include 3D maps of races. Soccer fans will also be able to stream MLS Season Pass via Apple's own Apple TV app. That app will offer access to Apple's Originals, more than 200 3D movies and Apple Immersive Video.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

YouTube has announced it has surpassed 100 million YouTube Music and YouTube Premium subscribers globally. Variety reports: The 100 million figure includes uses who are on free trials, according to YouTube. The company didn't break down how many are on YouTube Music versus YouTube Premium, the subscription service for ad-free viewing, background listening, offline video downloads and full access to YouTube Music. In November 2022, the company said YouTube Music and YouTube Premium topped 80 million paying subscribers combined. The announcement comes after Alphabet, in reporting fourth-quarter 2023 earnings, boasted that YouTube and Google subscription services generated more than $15 billion in revenue last year. That includes YouTube Premium and YouTube Music, as well as YouTube TV and Google One cloud storage.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Snap is recalling all 71,000 of its Pixy flying selfie camera drones because their batteries pose a fire hazard. The Verge reports: Snap and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission say you should "immediately stop using the Pixy Flying Camera, remove the battery and stop charging it" now that there have been four reports of the battery bulging, one fire, and one "minor injury." Then, you can get a full refund for the entire drone and / or any batteries you own -- sounds like we're talking at least $185 back to you, unless you bought it on sale. You don't need a receipt: you can apply for the refund even if you got it as a gift. You can fill out this form to receive a prepaid return label to return the drone. Snap says you will need to safely dispose of the batteries yourself.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission plans to vote on making the use of AI-generated voices in robocalls illegal. The FCC said that AI-generated voices in robocalls have "escalated during the last few years" and have "the potential to confuse consumers with misinformation by imitating the voices of celebrities, political candidates, and close family members." FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's proposed Declaratory Ruling would rule that "calls made with AI-generated voices are 'artificial' voices under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which would make voice cloning technology used in common robocalls scams targeting consumers illegal," the commission announced yesterday. Commissioners reportedly will vote on the proposal in the coming weeks. The TCPA, a 1991 US law, bans the use of artificial or prerecorded voices in most non-emergency calls "without the prior express consent of the called party." The FCC is responsible for writing rules to implement the law, which is punishable with fines. As the FCC noted yesterday, the TCPA "restricts the making of telemarketing calls and the use of automatic telephone dialing systems and artificial or prerecorded voice messages." Telemarketers are required "to obtain prior express written consent from consumers before robocalling them. If successfully enacted, this Declaratory Ruling would ensure AI-generated voice calls are also held to those same standards." Rosenworcel said her proposed ruling will "recognize this emerging technology as illegal under existing law, giving our partners at State Attorneys General offices across the country new tools they can use to crack down on these scams and protect consumers. "AI-generated voice cloning and images are already sowing confusion by tricking consumers into thinking scams and frauds are legitimate," Rosenworcel said. "No matter what celebrity or politician you favor, or what your relationship is with your kin when they call for help, it is possible we could all be a target of these faked calls."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google is bringing generative AI to Google Maps, promising to help users find cool places through the use of large language models (LLM). From a report: The feature will answer queries for restaurant or shopping recommendations, for example, using its LLM to "analyze Maps' detailed information about more than 250 million places and trusted insights from our community of over 300 million contributors to quickly make suggestions for where to go." Google says the feature will first become available in the US, but there's no word yet on when other countries will also get it.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Biden administration is poised to lend $1.5 billion for what what would be the first restart of a shuttered US nuclear reactor, the latest sign of strengthening federal government support for the atomic industry. Bloomberg: The funding, which is set to get conditional backing from the US Energy Department, will be offered as soon as next month to closely held Holtec International to restart its Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, according to people familiar with the matter. Holtec has said a restart of the reactor is contingent on a federal loan. Without such support, the company has said it would decommission the site. The financing comes as the Biden administration prioritizes maintaining the nation's fleet of nuclear plants to help meet its ambitious climate goals -- including a plan to decarbonize the electricity grid by 2035. More than a dozen reactors have closed since 2013 amid competition from cheaper power from natural gas and renewables, and the Energy Department has warned that as many of half of the nation's nuclear reactors are at risk of closing due to economic factors.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft's adoption of Rust continues apace if a posting on the IT titan's careers website is anything to go by. Although headcount at Microsoft might currently be down -- by two percent compared to the previous year -- recruitment persists at the Windows giant. In this case, the company is forming a team of Rustaceans to tackle a platform move away from C#. The job, a principal software architect for Microsoft 365, has responsibilities that include "guiding technical direction, design and implementation of Rust component libraries, SDKs, and re-implementation of existing global scale C# based services to Rust." According to the post, the job lurks within the Substrate App Platform group, part of the Microsoft 365 Core Platform organization. The Substrate does the heavy lifting behind the scenes for Microsoft's cloud services, making a rewrite into Rust quite a statement of intent. Microsoft said: "We are forming a new team focused on enabling the adoption of the Rust programming language as the foundation to modernizing global scale platform services, and beyond."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google's Bard chatbot is adding AI image generation, catching up on a feature that rival ChatGPT Plus has had for months. From a report: Users can prompt Bard to generate photos using Google's Imagen 2 text-to-image model. Bard, now powered by Google's Gemini Pro large language model, was always going to have image generation. It was assumed the more powerful Gemini Ultra model would power it; however, that model remains in development. Google has been positioning Bard as a worthy competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT Plus, which runs GPT-4 and lets users generate images thanks to DALL-E 3 integration. Both chatbots perform well, but Bard's lack of text-to-image features gave ChatGPT Plus a bit of an edge. People can use the updated Bard with Imagen 2 at no cost, unlike ChatGPT Plus, which relies on a paid subscription.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Identity management company Okta said on Thursday in a message to employees that it would lay off 400 employees, about 7% of the company's headcount. From a report: CEO Todd McKinnon said in his message that the "reality is that costs are still too high." Okta is only the latest tech company to trim headcount in the opening weeks of 2024. Nearly 24,000 tech workers lost their jobs in January alone, even as many tech companies saw their stock prices continue to grow.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple has discontinued support for the mid-2012 13-inch MacBook Pro, the last model to include an optical drive. Products are considered obsolete when Apple ceased distribution over 7 years ago, making service and parts unavailable. The laptop was removed from Apple's lineup in 2016 but remained compatible with macOS until Big Sur in 2020. While optical drives had already fallen out of favor, the phase out marks the end of an era for pro users requiring discs for media production.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Biotechnology company Biogen is abandoning Aduhelm, its questionable Alzheimer's drug that has floundered on the market since its scandal-plagued regulatory approval in 2021 and brow-raising pricing. On Wednesday, the company announced it had terminated its license for Aduhelm (aducanumab) and will stop all development and commercialization activities. The rights to Aduhelm will revert back to the Neurimmune, the Swiss biopharmaceutical company that discovered it. Biogen will also end the Phase 4 clinical trial, ENVISION, that was required by the Food and Drug Administration to prove Biogen's claims that Aduhelm is effective at slowing progression of Alzheimer's in its early stages -- something two Phase 3 trials failed to do with certainty. In the announcement, Biogen noted it took a financial hit of $60 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 to close out its work on Aduhelm, which the company at one point reportedly estimated would bring in as much as $18 billion in revenue per year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hulu updated its Terms of Service to explicitly ban password sharing outside of "your primary personal residence." Subscribers will need to comply by March 14th, 2024. Here's the new ToS section in full: m. Account Sharing. Unless otherwise permitted by your Service Tier, you may not share your subscription outside of your household. "Household" means the collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein. Additional usage rules may apply for certain Service Tiers. For more details on our account sharing policy, please visit our Help Center. We may, in our sole discretion, analyze the use of your account to determine compliance with this Agreement. If we determine, in our sole discretion, that you have violated this Agreement, we may limit or terminate access to the Service and/or take any other steps as permitted by this Agreement (including those set forth in Section 6 of this Agreement). You will be responsible for any use of your account by your household, including compliance with this section. The Verge reports: The new ToS is dated January 25th, 2024; previous versions of the ToS didn't mention account sharing at all. "We're adding limitations on sharing your account outside of your household, and explaining how we may assess your compliance with these limitations," the most important paragraph reads. Neither the email nor the ToS say how Hulu will measure compliance or how quickly it'll take action, but Hulu will apparently "analyze the use of your account" and it reserves the right to "limit or terminate access" if it decides you've broken the policy. The ToS also suggests there's more info about its account sharing policy at the Hulu Help Center, but we're not seeing any help articles about account sharing right now. Netflix started cracking down on password sharing in the U.S. last May, resulting in the "four single largest days of U.S. user sign-ups since January 2019." The streaming giant later went on to add 2.6 million U.S. subscribers. Disney Plus enacted a similar plan a few months later.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SpaceX's Starship rocket has been selected by Starlab to launch its private space station into orbit. "SpaceX's history of success and reliability led our team to select Starship to orbit Starlab," Dylan Taylor, chairman and CEO of Voyager Space, said in a statement. "SpaceX is the unmatched leader for high-cadence launches, and we are proud Starlab will be launched to orbit in a single flight by Starship." Space.com reports: Today's announcement didn't give a target launch date. But NASA and Starlab's developers want the four-person commercial station to be up and running before 2030, when the International Space Station (ISS) is expected to cease operations (though that retirement date is apparently not set in stone). [...] The 400-foot-tall (122 meters) Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, capable of hauling up to 150 tons to low Earth orbit. It will send the fully outfitted Starlab up in just one launch, as Taylor noted above. "Starlab's single-launch solution continues to demonstrate not only what is possible, but how the future of commercial space is happening now," Tom Ochinero, senior vice president of commercial business at SpaceX, said in the same statement. "The SpaceX team is excited for Starship to launch Starlab to support humanity's continued presence in low Earth orbit on our way to making life multiplanetary," Ochinero added.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Amanda's company wanted to restrict access to a service by filtering on the requestor's IP address. Yes, this is a terrible idea. So they wanted to make it a bit smarter, and also filter on various subnets. But they had a LOT of different subnets.

So the result was this:

ok = 0 ip = Request.ServerVariables("REMOTE_ADDR") if ip = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" then ok = 1 end if ip2 = Split(ip,".") ip3 = ip2(0) &"."& ip2(1) &"."& ip2(2) if ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" then ok = 1 end if if ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" or ip3 = "xxx.xxx.xxx" then ok = 1 end if if ok = 1 then response.redirect "http://www.somedomain.com/something/that/is/meant/to/be/private" else response.redirect "index.asp?error=1" end if

Imagine that each xxx in there is part of an IP address. Whitespace as in original, apologies to your scrollbar.

This code is fairly old- classic ASP, but it was still in use as of a decade ago. Which, it happens, is when Amanda worked on it. She did the sane thing and deleted this block and just used the authentication system that the application already had. Customers were happy, as it meant they didn't need to get their IP address allowlisted, they could just sign in.

At least one manager was unhappy, because they were convinced that by allowlisting, they were enforcing a "per seat" license- "Every computer has a unique IP address!" they insisted. "Without this check, they could sign on from any computer, anywhere!"

Fortunately, that manager was eventually talked down when someone suggested that this gives each user their own account, and thus prevents two people from sharing the same computer.

[Advertisement] Otter - Provision your servers automatically without ever needing to log-in to a command prompt. Get started today!

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Stretching thousands upon thousands of miles under your feet, a web of fibrous ears is listening. Whether you walk over buried fiber optics or drive a car across them, above-ground activity creates a characteristic vibration that ever-so-slightly disturbs the way light travels through the cables. With the right equipment, scientists can parse that disturbance to identify what the source was and when exactly it was roaming there. This quickly proliferating technique is known as distributed acoustic sensing, or DAS, and it's so sensitive that researchers recently used it to monitor the cacophony of a mass cicada emergence. Others are using the cables as an ultra-sensitive instrument for detecting volcanic eruptions and earthquakes: Unlike a traditional seismometer stuck in one place, a web of fiber optic cables can cover a whole landscape, providing unprecedented detail of Earth's rumblings at different locations. Now scientists are experimenting with bringing DAS to a railroad near you. When a train runs along a section of track, it creates vibrations that analysts can monitor over time -- if that signal suddenly changes, it might indicate a problem with the rail, like a crack, or a snapped tie. Or if on a mountain pass a rockslide blasts across the track, DAS might "hear" that too, warning railroad operators of a problem that human eyes hadn't yet glimpsed. More gradual changes in the signal might betray the development of faults in track alignment. It just so happens that fiber optic cables already run along many railways to connect all the signaling equipment or for telecommunications. "You're utilizing the already available facilities and infrastructure for that, which can reduce the cost," says engineer Hossein Taheri, who is studying DAS for railroads at Georgia Southern University. "There could be some railroads where they don't have the fiber, and you need to lay down. But yes, most of them, usually they do already have it." To tap into that fiber, you need a device called an interrogator, which fires laser pulses down the cables and analyzes the tiny bits of light that bounce back. So, say a rock hits the track 20 miles away from the interrogator. That creates a characteristic ground vibration that disturbs the fiber optics near the track, which shows up in the light signal. Because scientists know the speed of light, they can precisely measure the time it took for that signal to travel back to their interrogator, pinpointing the distance to the disturbance to within 10 meters, or about 30 feet. For a given stretch of track, you'd have already analyzed the DAS signals for a length of time, building a vibration profile for a normal, healthy railway. When the DAS data suddenly starts showing something different, you might have an issue, which shows up like an EKG picking up a problem with a human heartbeat. "What we're doing is profiling the track, looking for changes in the acoustic signature," says Daniel Pyke, a rail expert and spokesperson for Sensonic, which develops DAS technology for railroads. "We know what track should sound like, we know what a train should sound like. And we know that if it's changing -- so let's say this joint is coming loose -- that needs someone to go and fix it before it becomes a problem."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.