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Patents

8-Year-Old Receives Patent 142

Posted by samzenpus from the young-inventor-society dept.
Knile writes "While not the youngest patent recipient ever (that would be a four year old in Texas), Bryce Gunderman has received a patent at age 8 for a space-saver that combines an outlet cover plate with a shelf. From the article: '"I thought how I was going to make a lot of money," Bryce said about what raced through his brain when he received the patent.'"

Comment Re:Fixing a hole where the rain gets in... (Score 2, Interesting) 89

by AlphaZeta (#33978602) Attached to: RDS Protocol Bug Creates a Linux Kernel Hole, Now Fixed

Just tried on my home machine (Ubuntu 10.04 64 bit) and it couldn't get the root shell. It's running 2.6.32-25-generic.
[*] Linux kernel >= 2.6.30 RDS socket exploit
[*] by Dan Rosenberg
[*] Resolving kernel addresses...
  [+] Resolved rds_proto_ops to 0xffffffffa0bc4860
  [+] Resolved rds_ioctl to 0xffffffffa0bbd000
  [+] Resolved commit_creds to 0xffffffff8108aee0
  [+] Resolved prepare_kernel_cred to 0xffffffff8108b2c0
[*] Overwriting function pointer...
[*] Triggering payload...
[*] Restoring function pointer...
[*] Exploit failed to get root.
Supercomputing

Open Source Solution Breaks World Sorting Records 139

Posted by Soulskill from the out-of-sorts dept.
allenw writes "In a recent blog post, Yahoo's grid computing team announced that Apache Hadoop was used to break the current world sorting records in the annual GraySort contest. It topped the 'Gray' and 'Minute' sorts in the general purpose (Daytona) category. They sorted 1TB in 62 seconds, and 1PB in 16.25 hours. Apache Hadoop is the only open source software to ever win the competition. It also won the Terasort competition last year."
Silicon Graphics

SGI Lives On, In Name At Least 107

Posted by kdawson from the meet-the-new-boss dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "In a surprise corporate move, after Rackable Systems received bankruptcy court approval on April 30 to close its purchase of SGI, the company announced on Monday that the deal had closed and that the combined company would be called SGI — short for Silicon Graphics International instead of the original Silicon Graphics Inc. The revival of the SGI brand will certainly please people in Silicon Valley with a historical bent, as SGI has been one of the area's true icons. However, some consider this a curious turn of events, considering that Rackable has come to represent the new guard in the server market, while SGI has struggled for years. Executives hope the name change will help it expand its business overseas, where SGI is a better-known brand. The new SGI will also continue to develop and support the high-performance computing systems that Silicon Graphics was known for, says Rackable's president and CEO. 'There should be no disruption to Silicon Graphics customers.'"
Games

Square Enix Shuts Down Fan-Made Chrono Trigger Sequel 455

Posted by Soulskill from the suspicious-timing dept.
KIllagouge writes "Just days before the release of Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes, SquareEnix sent a Cease & Desist letter to Chrono Compendium to stop everything to do with Crimson Echoes. People might remember when they did this with Chrono Resurrection. Seems to be the growing trend; instead of listening to their fans, which would net them even more money, game developers continue to lock down old gaming IP. A copy of the C&D letter is available online." The fan project had been in development since 2004 and was 98% complete.
Operating Systems

Apple Freezes Snow Leopard APIs 256

Posted by kdawson from the see-you-at-the-base-camp dept.
DJRumpy writes in to alert us that Apple's new OS, Snow Leopard, is apparently nearing completion. "Apple this past weekend distributed a new beta of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard that altered the programming methods used to optimize code for multi-core Macs, telling developers they were the last programming-oriented changes planned ahead of the software's release. ...`Apple is said to have informed recipients of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard build 10A354 that it has simplified the`... APIs for working with Grand Central, a new architecture that makes it easier for developers to take advantage of Macs with multiple processing cores. This technology works by breaking complex tasks into smaller blocks, which are then`... dispatched efficiently to a Mac's available cores for faster processing."
Businesses

Submission + - SGI Lives On - at least in Name

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "In a surprise corporate move, after Rackable Systems received bankruptcy court approval on April 30 to close its purchase of SGI, the company announced on Monday that the deal had closed and that the combined company would be called SGI — short for Silicon Graphics International instead of the original Silicon Graphics Inc. The revival of the SGI brand will certainly please people in Silicon Valley with a historical bent as SGI has been one of the area's true icons. However some consider this a curious turn of events, considering that Rackable has come to represent the new guard in the server market, while SGI has struggled for years. "There may be some preconceived notions about whether this brand is a good brand," said George Skaff, the chief marketing officer at Rackable — er, SGI. "They obviously had some problems. This is where we as a company are stepping in to resolve some of the issues and turn it around." Executives hope the name change will help it expand its business overseas, where SGI is a better-known brand and the new SGI will also continue to develop and support the high-performance computing systems that Silicon Graphics was known for says Mark Barrenechea, Rackable's president and CEO. "There should be no disruption to Silicon Graphics customers.""
Wireless Networking

Baby Monitors Killing Urban Wi-Fi 348

Posted by CmdrTaco from the along-with-my-full-night's-sleep dept.
Barence writes "Baby monitors and wireless TV transmitters are responsible for slowing down Wi-Fi connections in built-up areas, according to a report commissioned by British telecoms regulator Ofcom. The research smashes the myth that overlapping Wi-Fi networks in heavily congested towns and cities are to blame for faltering connection speeds. Instead it claims that unlicensed devices operating in the 2.4GHz band are dragging down signals. 'It only requires a single device, such as an analogue video sender, to severely affect Wi-Fi services within a short range, such that a single large building or cluster of houses can experience difficulties with using a single Wi-Fi channel,' the report claims."
Microsoft

Submission + - MS-DEBUG 1981 - 2009 (kerrywong.com)

Submitted by
AlphaZeta
AlphaZeta writes: "After 28 years, MS-DEBUG is finally being phased out in Windows 7. Over the years, people have been using MS-DEBUG for writing code (virus/malware, you name it) and debugging. What is your reaction? Are you nostalgic? What other applications do you think Microsoft should have made obsolete?"
Windows

Microsoft To Disable Autorun 429

Posted by timothy from the mounting-is-fine-but-opening-is-obnoxious dept.
jchrisos writes "Microsoft is planning to disable autorun in the next Release Candidate of Windows 7 and future updates to Windows XP and Vista. In order to maintain a 'balance between security and usability,' non-writable media will maintain its current behavior however. In any case, if it means no more autorun on flash drives, removable hard drives and network shares, that is definitely a step in the right direction. Will be interesting to see what malware creators do to get around this ..."
Space

Russian Manned Space Vehicle May Land With Rockets 197

Posted by Soulskill from the this-can-only-end-well dept.
The Narrative Fallacy writes "Russia's next-generation manned space vehicle may be equipped with thrusters to perform a precision landing on its return to Earth. Previous manned missions have landed on Earth using a parachute or, in the case of space shuttles, a pair of wings. Combined with retractable landing legs and a re-usable thermal protection system, the new system promises to enable not only a safe return to Earth, but also the possibility of performing multiple space missions with the same crew capsule. The spacecraft will fire its engines at an altitude of just 600-800m, as the capsule is streaking toward Earth after re-entering the atmosphere at the end of its mission. After a vertical descent, the precision landing would be initiated at the altitude of 30m above the surface. Last July, Korolev-based RKK Energia released the first drawings of a multi-purpose transport ship, known as the Advanced Crew Transportation System (ACTS), which, at the time, Russia had hoped to develop in co-operation with Europe. 'It was explained to us how it was supposed to work and, I think, from the technical point of view, there is no doubt that this concept would work,' says Christian Bank, the leading designer of manned space systems at EADS-Astrium in Bremen, Germany. However, the design of the spacecraft's crew capsule had raised eyebrows in some quarters, as it lacked a parachute — instead sporting a cluster of 12 soft-landing rockets, burning solid propellant. Inside Russia, the idea apparently has many detractors. During the formal defense of the project, one high-ranking official skeptical of the rocket-cushioned approach to landing reportedly used an unprintable expletive to describe what was going to happen to crew members unlucky enough to encounter a rocket engine failure a few seconds before touchdown."

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