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Unix

Submission + - Define: /etc

Submitted by ogar572
ogar572 writes: There has been an ongoing and heated debate around the office concerning the definition of what /etc means on *nix operating systems. One side says "et cetera" per Wikipedia. Another side says it means "extended tool chest" per this gnome mailing list entry or per this Norwegian article. Yet another side says neither, but he doesn't remember exactly what he heard in the past. All he remembers is that he was flamed when he called it "et cetera", but that "extended tool chest" didn't sound right either. So, what does it really mean?
Space

Submission + - Wasabi threatens the International Space Station

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "A NASA report issued to congress this week showed that the International Space Station faces a number of significant risks — not surprisingly flying space rocks crushing the hull among the biggest risks. But it didn't account for this: Wasabi. Yep, the hot green stuff that goes so well with sushi is a great threat when exposed to weightlessness as it could get in eyes, air ducts and all manner of things that might screw up a space mission. According to an AP report Astronaut Sunita Williams this week was trying to make a pretend sushi meal with bag-packaged salmon and accidentally squirted a load of the green stuff into the air. After a lengthy cleanup, the wasabi was exiled to a cargo bay. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1199 9"
Biotech

Submission + - Rice is people?

Submitted by f1055man
f1055man writes: The Washington Post reports that the "USDA Backs Production of Rice With Human Genes": http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2007/03/01/AR2007030101495.html


The plan, confirmed yesterday by the California biotechnology company leading the effort, calls for large-scale cultivation in Kansas of rice that produces human immune system proteins in its seeds. The proteins are to be extracted for use as an anti-diarrhea medicine and might be added to health foods such as yogurt and granola bars.

Despite the benefits, some consider the project risky.


But critics are assailing the effort, saying gene-altered plants inevitably migrate out of their home plots. In this case, they said, that could result in pharmacologically active proteins showing up in the food of unsuspecting consumers.

Anheuser-Busch (the nation's largest rice buyer) has prevented the application of gene-altered rice due to concerns customers would not accept GM beer. Should they use their influence to shut this down too?
Programming

Submission + - notMac Challenge to Create Open Source .Mac

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday in his blog for the New York Times, David Pogue wrote up the notMac Challenge. The site's raising contributions from the public to encourage the development of an open-source alternative to Apple's .Mac service. The post mentions that "the value of the prize pool has grown to over $6,000", but when I checked out the site this morning the total had grown to over $7,100.
Wireless Networking

Submission + - Skype asks FCC to open cellular networks

Submitted by Milwaukee's_Best
Milwaukee's_Best writes: Skype has just asked the FCC to force wireless phone companies to open their networks to all comers. "Skype essentially wants to turn the wireless phone companies into just another network of the kind currently operated on the ground. This would require carriers to allow any phone to be used on their networks, and for any application. Users would simply purchase a voice or data plan (though these could easily converge into a data plan if VoIP calling is used) and then use the device of their choice to access the network of their choice." Think of it as network neutrality—for cell networks. Given the competition that exists within the industry, is this needed?
Security

Submission + - Severe Google Desktop XSS Vulnerability

Submitted by
Tsudohnimh
Tsudohnimh writes: "A new research from Watchfire has revealed a serious vulnerability in Google Desktop.
The attack, which is fully presented in a new Watchfire research paper released today can allow a malicious individual to achieve not only remote, persistent access to sensitive data, but in some cases full system control as well.
The full paper can be found here (1).
A demonstration of the attack flow can be found here(2).
1. http://www.watchfire.com/resources/Overtaking-Goog le-Desktop.pdf
2. http://download.watchfire.com/googledesktopdemo/in dex.htm"
Programming

Submission + - Ruby Implementations Shootout

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ruby has an ever growing number of alternative implementations, and many of these attempt to improve the suboptimal performance of the current mainstream interpreter. Antonio Cangiano has an interesting article in which he benchmarks a few of the most popular Ruby implementations, including Yarv (the heart of Ruby 2.0), JRuby, Ruby.NET, Rubinius and Cardinal (Ruby on Parrot). Numerical evidence is provided rather than shear opinions. The tests clearly show that Yarv is the fastest implementation and that it offers a promising future when it comes to the speed of the next Ruby version.
Mozilla

Submission + - Firefox 3 to support offline apps

Submitted by thinkingpen
thinkingpen writes: Read/Write web is carrying an interesting story about Firefox 3. From the article — "An interesting tidbit came out of the recent Foo Camp New Zealand (which unfortunately I wasn't able to attend). Robert O'Callahan from Mozilla, who is based in NZ but drives the rendering engine of Mozilla/FireFox, spoke about how Firefox 3 will deliver support for offline applications. This is significant because you'll be able to use your web apps — like Gmail, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, etc — in the browser even when offline. I deliberately mentioned all Google web apps there, because of course this plays right into Google's hands." Now thats web 3.0 ?
Announcements

Submission + - Computer history on a postage stamp.

Submitted by
Terry Mitchell
Terry Mitchell writes: "Computer history on a postage stamp. On 1st March 2007 Bletchley Park Post Office will celebrate one of the most significant events in the history of the computer. It is the creation by British Post Office engineers of the world's first electronic computer in 1943. To coincide with the issue of Royal Mail's "World of Invention" stamps it will issue a first day cover featuring Colossus. This was the World's first semi-programmable electronic computer. That it was designed and built by Post Office engineers is a unique historical twist. The first of these massive room sized machines was installed at Bletchley Park in December 1943. Its job was to crack Adolf Hitler's personal codes ahead of the D-day landings. The limited edition first day cover will feature rare wartime photographs of Colossus in action and the men responsible for this technological breakthrough. The stamps will be cancelled using a facsimile of a Colossus valve. Proceeds from the cover will go towards preserving Bletchley Park as a national heritage site. 1000 covers will be issued at £12.50 plus £1.50 post and packing. A replica of a Colossus computer has been rebuilt at Bletchley Park and completion is expected by mid-summer. It represents years of work by a team of volunteers with little to go on but scraps of drawings and a few photographs. At the end of World War Two Winston Churchill ordered all trace of the Colossi computers destroyed so that such advanced technology did not fall into the hands of a future enemy. The rebuilt machine, which can be viewed at Bletchley Park, is featured on the rear of the first day cover. The first day cover can only be obtained direct from Bletchley Park Post Office, The Mansion, Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, MK3 6EB, through the web site at www.bletchleycovers.com or by calling +44(0)1908 272690/631797."
The Internet

Submission + - Rich-Web Pioneers Love AJAX But Analyst Demurs

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: AJAXWorld Magazine at the weekend marked the second birthday of the coining of 'AJAX' by asking some of the early pioneers of rich applications delivered into web browsers how it was for them when suddenly on February 18th two years ago a freshly-minted term arrived to help them propagate their rich-web goals. Those canvassed include David Temkin of OpenLaszlo, Coach Wei of Nexaweb, and Burton Group analyst Richard Monson-Haefel, whose contribution is in no uncertain terms to temper the undiluted optimism of Temkin, Wei, et al. by saying: "Given a choice I would much rather work with Adobe Flex 2 than AJAX simply because the tooling is much better."
PHP

Submission + - Month of PHP bugs

Submitted by
PHP
PHP writes: "Stefan Esser is the founder of both the Hardened-PHP Project and the PHP Security Response Team (which he recently left). During an interview with SecurityFocus he announced the upcoming "Month of PHP bugs" initiative: "We will disclose different types of bugs, mainly buffer overflows or double free(/destruction) vulnerabilities, some only local, but some remotely trigger-able (for example, because they are in functions usually exposed to user input). Additionally there are some trivial bypass vulnerabilities in PHP's own protection features. [...] As a vulnerability reporter you feel kinda puzzled how people among the PHP Security Response Team can claim in public that they do not know about any security vulnerability in PHP, when you disclosed about 20 holes to them in the two weeks before. At this point you stop bothering whether anyone considers the disclosure of unreported vulnerabilities unethical. Additionally a few of the reported bugs have been known for years among the PHP developers and will most probably never be fixed. In total we have more than 31 bugs to disclose, and therefore there will be days when more than one vulnerability will be disclosed. The Month of PHP bugs will take place in March 2007.""

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