Gorgonzola - Slashdot User

Submission + - Spammers Hijacking IP Space? You be the judge 3

Submitted by

Ron Guilmette

on Monday April 28, 2008 @10:28PM

Ron Guilmette writes: "As Reported in this Washington Post story a substantial hunk of IP address space appears to have been taken over by notorious mass e-mailing company Media Breakaway, LLC, formerly known as OptInRealBig, via means that are at best questionable. The block in question is the 134.17.0.0/16 IP address block, which I investigated in depth in this independent investigation. (Apparently, the President of Media Breakaway has now admitted to the Washington Post that his company has been occupying and using the 134.17.0.0/16 block and that front company JKS Media which provides routing to the block is actually owned by Media Breakaway.)

Remarkably, the President of Media Breakaway... who happens to be an attorney... is trying to defend his company's apparent snatching of this block based upon his own rather novel and legalistic argument that ARIN doesn't have ``jurisdiction'' over any IP address space that was handed out before ARIN was formed. Get the popcorn ready! This is bound to be entertaining."

Submission + - Hans Reiser convicted of murder

Submitted by Mental Maelstrom on Monday April 28, 2008 @07:31PM

Mental Maelstrom writes: Hans Reiser, the creator of the ReiserFS file system, was found quilty of murder of his 31-year-old wife, Nina Reiser, around Labor Day (1st March) of 2006. Although her body was never found, the Oakland jury convicted Hans Reiser of first-degree murder, concluding that the slaying was deliberate and premeditated. When sentenced at a later date Reiser faces 25 years to life in prison.

Researchers Infiltrate and 'Pollute' Storm Botnet 261

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday April 24, 2008 @12:15PM from the i'm-infiltrating-see-yeah dept.

ancientribe writes "Dark Reading reports that a group of European researchers has found a way to disrupt the massive Storm botnet by infiltrating it and injecting "polluted" content into it to disrupt communication among the bots and their controlling hosts. Other researchers have historically shied way from this controversial method because they don't "want to mess with other peoples' PCs by injecting commands," said one botnet expert quoted in the article.

Acid3 Race In Full Swing, Opera Overtakes Safari 261

Posted by Zonk on Wednesday March 26, 2008 @04:43PM from the going-for-the-gold dept.

enemi writes "Just a few days after Safari released version 3.1, Opera employee David Storey writes on his blog that they've overtaken Apple's browser in the Acid3 test. In the race to be the first to reach the reference rendering, Opera's software leads now with 98%, closely following by Safari with 96% and Firefox 3 beta 4 with 71%. He also noted the implemented features will not make a public appearance in the following weeks, because they are getting close to releasing Opera 9.5. That version has been under public testing since September and the new CSS3 color modes and font rendering features might further delay this. They will probably show the score in a preview build soon and wait for a post 9.5 stable build to release the new features to the public." Update: 03/26 21:21 GMT by Z : Opera is now at 100%, apparently, with Safari close behind at 98%. Update: 03/27 by J : Public build r31356 of WebKit (Safari's rendering engine) is at 100%.

Bill Allows Teachers to Contradict Evolution 1049

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday March 04, 2008 @01:01PM from the legislating-science-is-a-challenge dept.

Helical writes "In an attempt to defy the newly approved state science standards, Florida Senator Rhonda Storms has proposed a bill that would allow teachers to contradict the teaching of evolution. Her bill states that 'Every public school teacher in the state's K-12 school system shall have the affirmative right and freedom to objectively present scientific information relevant to the full range of scientific views regarding biological and chemical evolution in connection with teaching any prescribed curriculum regarding chemical or biological origins.' The bill's main focus is on protecting teachers who want to adopt alternative teaching plans from sanction, and to allow teachers the freedom to teach whatever they wish, even if it is in opposition to current standards."

Geek Wins Copyright Lawsuit Against Corporation 616

Posted by kdawson on Monday February 25, 2008 @12:07AM from the david-1-goliath-0 dept.

Chris Gregerson writes "I work as a stock photographer/web developer. I saw a photo of mine used in Vilana Financial's full-page phone book ad. They wouldn't pay the licensing fee, and I wrote about it online (mirror). They sued me for defamation, producing a sales agreement signed by one ' Michael Zubitskiy' (who they said took the photo and sold the rights to them). I sued them for copyright infringement, and they added claims against me for trademark infringement, deceptive trade practices, and tortuous interference. There was a trial I'll long remember on the 5th of November, and the judge recently issued her verdict (PDF; mirror). She ruled Vilana Financial forged the sales agreement and willfully infringed my photos, and awarded me $19,462. All claims against me were denied. I represented myself during the litigation."

The Starbucks/AT&T Deal To Change Perception of Public Wi-Fi? 170

Posted by Zonk on Thursday February 14, 2008 @04:11PM from the more-for-free-less-for-pay dept.

ericatcw writes "According to ComputerWorld, with two hours of free Wi-Fi soon to arrive at Starbucks consumers should expect more hotspots to go free as well as more attractive bundles from the likes of AT&T, Verizon and providers. While T-Mobile is hurting, indie coffeehouses and chains such as Caribou Coffee, Tully's and others that already offered free Wi-Fi, insist they are not, saying their ambiance and superior brew will help them retain customers."

Hardware Based OpenID Service Available 119

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday February 13, 2008 @05:00PM from the welcome-to-your-next-new-buzzword dept.

An anonymous reader writes "TrustBearer Labs has announced a new service that lets you use various hardware based security tokens like smartcards and biometric devices with OpenID. A hardware based connection to OpenID allows higher levels of security and makes it easier for the end-user to control their credentials. OpenID is a decentralized cross-site authentication system that has been gaining momentum for quite a while now with major supporters like AOL, Google and Microsoft already announced."

Deal Reportedly Reached In Writers' Strike 333

Posted by kdawson on Friday February 08, 2008 @11:21AM from the gonna-be-a-backlog dept.

BlueshiftVFX writes to let us know that the writers' strike may be over. CNBC and other media are quoting former Disney CEO Michael Eisner: "It's over. They made the deal, they shook hands on the deal. It's going on Saturday to the writers in general... A deal has been made, and they'll be back to work very soon."

The Life of a Software Engineer 519

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 04, 2008 @02:54PM from the code-as-an-art-form dept.

Jonathan Wise writes to share with us an interesting bit of prose describing life as a software engineer. "I am, in the States, known as a Software Engineer. In Canada we're not allowed to call ourselves engineers, although the discipline is no less rigorous than any other kind of engineering. But perhaps its for the best, because 'engineering' describes only a part of what I do. A software developer must be part writer and poet, part salesperson and public speaker, part artist and designer, and always equal parts logic and empathy."

How Pervasive is ISP Outbound Email Filtering? 281

Posted by Zonk on Thursday January 31, 2008 @06:18PM from the making-me-nervous dept.

Erris writes "A member of the Baton Rouge LUG noticed that Cox checks the text of outgoing email and rejects mail containing key phrases. I was aware of forced inbox filtering that has caused problems and been abused by other ISPs in China and in the US. I've also read about forced use of ISP SMTP and outbound throttling, but did not know they outbound filtered as well. How prevalent and justified is this practice? Wouldn't it be better to cut off people with infected computers than to censor the internet?"

BSA's Tactics and Motives Questioned 237

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday January 29, 2008 @05:50PM from the shakedown-artist-is-still-an-artist dept.

_Hellfire_ sends us over to Baseline Magazine for a longish article entitled After 20 Years, Critics Question the BSA's Real Motives, which paints the Business Software Alliance in the same colors as the RIAA. "A recent Associated Press story highlighted the fact that 90 percent of the $13 million collected by the BSA in 2006 came from small businesses. Since 1993 the group has collected an estimated $89 million in damages from businesses on behalf of its members, every penny of which it keeps. 'I don't know of a business where you can get away with raiding a customer with armed marshals and expect them to continue to do business with you...' said [Sterling] Ball, who shifted his company to open source software after the raid."

World of Warcraft Hits 10 Million Subscribers 450

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday January 23, 2008 @09:45AM from the that's-a-lotta-bored-paladins dept.

technirvana writes "Blizzard Entertainment, owners of World of Warcraft, announced today that the game now has more than 10 million paying subscribers around the world. Online gameplay costs an average of $15 USD per month. Those 10 million paying subscribers include 5.5 million players in Asia, 2.5 million in the US and 2 million in Europe. The Warcraft brand was first introduced in 1994 and World of Warcraft was launched in 2001."

iPhone Trojan Sign of Things to Come? 151

Posted by Zonk on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @04:43PM from the im-in-ur-iphone-removin-ur-apps dept.

climber writes "Just days after the first scareware for OSX, researchers are pondering the problems of an iPhone exploit that could lead to larger issues. The Trojan pulls legitimate apps off the phone if you try to remove it, but it only infects iPhones that have 'been modified or opened through a security hole in the system.' Though this worm is more of an annoyance than anything else, it could be a proof of concept for a more serious attack. 'The fear is hackers may be experimenting and gathering research that will increase the dangers of a more malicious attack in the near future. It is clear at least one writer -- the author of this piece at Web Worker Daily -- thinks that the iPhone should be left on the dresser in the morning. She offers several reasons that the device isn't a good corporate tool.'"

GNOME 2.20.3 for Slackware 44

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday January 15, 2008 @12:42AM from the fresh-bits dept.

Steve writes "Originally based on the Freerock GNOME project, GNOME.SlackBuild (GSB) brings the latest GNOME Desktop, 2.20.3, to Slackware Linux. It provides both a binary distribution and a complete GNOME source build system. The GSB project has been revitalized by a new development team that has, over the past several months of hard work, re-engineered the GSB source build system and brought the project back to the forefront of the GNOME packaging projects for Slackware. This project also supports and provides binary packages for x86_64 ports of Slackware, such as Slamd64. Follow the link for information about the project, screenshots, and downloads."

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