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Submission + - Web searches in idle slivers of time

Submitted by OldAndInTheWay
OldAndInTheWay writes: Perhaps engineers and other techie types should not be allowed idle slivers of time to indulge in gratuitous Google searches. What's the most unusual web search you've run in an idle moment?

Submission + - Ubuntu to Become a Rolling Release (ostatic.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Mark Shuttleworth recently told reporters that Ubuntu will likely be moving from its current six-month release schedule to daily updates. A step of this nature would help Ubuntu keep up with the rapidly changing and increasing complex software and hardware landscape. This is especially true as Ubuntu finds itself on more mobile and smartphone devices.
Shuttleworth said more services and software available through and in connection with the Ubuntu Software Center will see rapid advancement in the next few years. He explained, "In an internet-oriented world, we need to be able to release something every day."

Submission + - My GPL code has been... patented! 4

Submitted by ttsiod
ttsiod writes: Back in 2001, I coded HeapCheck, a GPL library for Windows (inspired by ElectricFence) that detected invalid read/write accesses on any heap allocations at runtime — thus greatly helping my debugging sessions. I published it on my site, and got a few users who were kind enough to thank me — a Serbian programmer even sent me 250$ as a thank you (I still have his mails). After a few years, Microsoft included very similar technology in the operating system itself, calling it PageHeap. I had more or less forgotten these stuff, since for the last 7 years I've been coding for UNIX/Linux, where valgrind superseeded Efence/dmalloc/etc. Imagine my surprise, when yesterday, Googling for references to my site, I found out that the technology I implemented, of runtime detection of invalid heap accesses, has been patented in the States, and to add insult to injury, even mentions my site (via a non-working link to an old version of my page) in the patent references! After the necessary "WTFs" and "bloody hells" I thought this merrits (a) a Slashdotting, and (b) a set of honest questions: what should I do about this? I am not an American citizen, but the "inventors" of this technology (see their names in the top of the patent) have apparently succeeded in passing this ludicrous patent in the States. If my code doesn't count as prior art, Bruce Perens's Efence (which I clearly state my code was inspired from) is at least 12 years prior! Suggestions/cursing patent trolls most welcome.

Submission + - Code-stealing drone vendor settles with devs (narconews.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: An explosive lawsuit alleging that Boston-area tech company Netezza Corp. sold computer hardware loaded with âÅ"hacked,â faulty software to the CIA for use in the agencyââs Predator Drone program has now disappear from public view.

The parties to the lawsuit, which include Netezza and software developer Intelligent Integration Systems Inc. (IISI), announced last week that they had reached a settlement in the case. A day after that announcement, corporate giant IBM closed on a $1.7 billion deal to purchase Netezza.
Security

Submission + - Zeus Malware Gets a Major Upgrade (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: The latest evolution of the popular financial malware, Zeus Trojan – Zeus 2.1 – now boasts features that help it avoid analysis and hostile takeover from law enforcement, researchers, or competing cybercriminal organizations.

Perhaps the most innovative enhancement in Zeus 2.1 is the new “Digital Signature” mechanism which verifies the digital signature on all files and data it downloads, while keeping most of the Trojan’s strings in encoded form and only decoding when needed. For example, when the Trojan needs a resource, it decodes it, uses it, and then destroys the decoded copy shortly thereafter, rendering the strings used by the Trojan “invisible” to an outsider and ensuring any researchers who may attempt to analyze the malware will be unable to access the data it has captured.
Security

Submission + - Hacker arrested after cracking Federal Reserve (federalnewsradio.com)

Submitted by PatPending
PatPending writes: Eastern District of New York Press Release

Defendant's Criminal Activities Extended to the National Security Sector

A four-count indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn today charging Lin Mun Poo, a resident and citizen of Malaysia, with hacking into a computer network of the Federal Reserve Bank and possessing more than 400,000 stolen credit and debit card numbers.1 The defendant was arrested on a criminal complaint shortly after his arrival in the United States on October 21, 2010, and has been held in custody since then. The case has been assigned to United States District Judge Dora L. Irizarry.
Linux

Submission + - All you need is BASH? (linuxconfig.org)

Submitted by lagi
lagi writes: i was looking for a quick way to manage a CentOS dedicated web server's services, configs and other common tasks, so that my co-workers will have easier life while managing things like Apache Virtual Hosts config files. and control services (via SSH, not using any server management tool) ... i'm a LAMP freelancer developer, so the logical thing was writing a PHP CLI script that does some cool stuff, but then i remembered the days all i knew about Linux is that it's called "hurricane" and then "apollo" and that was c00l! (not as much as Slackware) and i also had this BASH script to fire my ISDN connection, always worked like magic. so i looked in google for some Bash Scripting Tutorials and found this one, it covers all basic topics as well as some advance onces too, all topics with examples and are very straightforward. so i ended up with a 30 minutes script that restarts services, and manage some apache config files in a git like syntax. so now that i have this great ref by my side, i would like to know what other common development and deployment tasks i can do with bash? or maybe i should get a server management software like webmin? looks a bit too heavy for my needs...
Linux

Submission + - Microsoft Windows vs. The Linux OS (systechblog.com)

Submitted by systechblog
systechblog writes: Most people purchase computers to run programs – whether it is to send email, browse the web, meet friends of girlfriends on msn messenger, do office work or just play solitaire. People buy computers to use programs for their functionality not to run operating systems be in Microsoft Windows, the new Microsoft Vista product , the Mac Operations Systems or the various Linux Operating Systems – be they Ubuntu Linux , Mandiva , Knoppix or Debian.
Government

Submission + - BBC Against Government Web-Control Plans (eweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by jhernik
jhernik writes: The BBC is prepared to release software that will name and shame ISPs that show preferential bandwidth management

The BBC is working on software for its iPlayer service that will show if an ISP is throttling bandwidth.

At the FT World Telecoms Conference in London, Erik Huggers, BBC’s head of future media and technology, said, “I’ve blogged previously about my thoughts on traffic management but plainly, an open and neutral internet is crucial to the growth of our digital economy. Further, there is a need for consumers to know what sort of broadband package they are buying – or switching to – and the level of service they can expect.”
Technology

Submission + - Speed Up Your Internet Bandwidth By 20% (systechblog.com) 1

Submitted by systechblog
systechblog writes: Windows uses 20% of your bandwidth Here’s how to Get it back

A nice little tweak for XP. Microsoft reserve 20% of your available bandwidth for their own purposes (suspect for updates and interrogating your machine etc..)
Ubuntu

Submission + - Which is the best netbook OS: Windows or Ubuntu? (pcpro.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Barence
Barence writes: With the arrival last month of Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition, PC Pro has revisited a familiar question: which operating system is best for a netbook?. The magazine has run a series of benchmarks on a Asus Eee PC 1008HA running Windows XP Home, two versions of Windows 7 (with and without Aero switched on) and Ubuntu Netbook Edition. The operating systems are tested for start-up performance, Flash handling and video, among other tests. The results are closer than you might think.
Microsoft

Submission + - Internet Explorer 9 Caught Cheating In SunSpider (digitizor.com) 2

Submitted by dkd903
dkd903 writes: A Mozilla engineer has uncovered something embarrassing for Microsoft – Internet Explorer is cheating in the SunSpider Benchmark. The SunSpider, although developed by Apple, has nowadays become a very popular choice of benchmark for the JavaScript engines of browsers.
Security

Submission + - New Rootkit Bypasses Windows Code-Signing Security (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: In recent versions of Windows, specifically Vista and Windows 7, Microsoft has introduced a number of new security features designed to prevent malicious code from running. But attackers are continually finding new ways around those protections, and the latest example is a rootkit that can bypass the Windows driver-signing protection.

The functionality is contained in TDL4, which is the latest version of an older rootkit also known as TDSS. TDSS has been causing serious trouble for users for more than two years now, and is an example of a particularly pernicious type of rootkit that infects the master boot record of a PC. This type of malware often is referred to as a bootkit and can be extremely difficult to remove once it's detected. The older versions of TDSS--TDL1, TDL2 and TDL3--are detected by most antimalware suites now, but it's TDL4 that's the most problematic right now.

TDL4 has a specific function that is designed to bypass a protection in Windows 7 and Windows Vista that requires kernel-level code loaded onto a machine to be signed. The Windows kernel-mode code signing policy is mainly applicable on 64-bit machines.

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