Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook's Timeline Apps Are Beacon 2.0 (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "Remember Beacon, the Facebook advertising initiative that went down in a hail of privacy protests in late 2009? Well, as privacy blogger Dan Tynan points out, the array of Facebook Timeline apps announced today look an awful lot like Beacon 2.0. There have been some genuine privacy improvements over the original — and there's probably also been a definite shift in attitudes about sharing in the last 2+ years."
Cloud

Submission + - Linux Thrives On The Cloud And In The Data Center (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "We've all more or less given up on this year being the "year of the Linux desktop," but that shouldn't obscure the fact that Linux is thriving in ways few could have predicted in the early '00s. Two big arenas where Linux is king: the cloud servers bearing more and more of the industry's computing load, and doing the heavy lifting for so-called "big data" analytical installations."
Hardware

Submission + - Could Non-Volatile MRAM Replace DRAM? (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "When you talk about how much RAM your computer has, you're talking about DRAM — dynamic memory that needs to be charged to maintain the data it stores. For years, researchers have been working on MRAM, which stores data magnetically and doesn't require constant charging. It's too expensive now for anything but very specialized uses, but in the not-so-distant future that could change."

Submission + - LightSquared Says GPS Tests Were Rigged (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "Would-be cellular carrier LightSquared claims that the company's LTE network was set up to fail in GPS intereference tests. 'Makers of GPS (Global Positioning System) equipment put old and incomplete GPS receivers in the test so the results would show interference, under the cover of non-disclosure agreements that prevented the public and third parties from analyzing the process,' LightSquared executives said on a conference call with reporters Wednesday morning."
Blackberry

Submission + - Samsung's not going to buy RIM (not now, anyway) (itworld.com)

Submitted by bdking
bdking writes: Research in Motion reportedly is in talks with a number of companies regarding a sale, with Samsung as the top contender to buy the troubled BlackBerry maker, according to the Boy Genius Report. But BGR's sources say RIM co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are jeopardizing a potential sale by grossly overvaluing the Canadian company.
Android

Submission + - Google Introduces, Then Yanks QR-Code Security (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "If typing your Google account password into a public computer makes you nervous, then Google had the answer to you: a login process that involved a QR code processed by your more secure Android phone. Note that I said 'had': the unannounced feature was pulled almost as soon as it went up. Hopefully it'll be back soon?"
Linux

Submission + - Tizen Gets Boost From Bada Merger (itworld.com)

Submitted by LinuxScribe
LinuxScribe writes: As predicted last September, Samsung has announced plans to merge Tizen with its own Bada platform to create a new mobile OS that will fit well on low- and high-end smartphones. Last year, Bada had more global phone deployments than Windows Phone 7. The merger means each Linux-based platform will have access to more native- and HTML5-based apps.
Censorship

Submission + - White House turned up the heat on SOPA, PIPA (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by LinuxScribe
LinuxScribe writes: As political opposition against the SOPA and PIPA bills continues to grow stronger, the White House today issued its official response to online petitions urging the vetoing of these bills. The skinny? Focus on fighting intellectual property theft and copyright infringement, but not at the cost of potentially breaking the Internet and enabling censorship.
Piracy

Submission + - SOPA Wouldn't Stop The Pirate Bay (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "The main justification of the much-hated proposed SOPA legislation is that it would shut down non-U.S. websites that are hosting copyright-infringing content. But here's an oddity: The Pirate Bay, the most famous copyright-infringing non-U.S. website in the world, has a .org address, and, under the definitions of the proposed law, wouldn't qualify as a foreign site. SOPA provisions wouldn't apply to it."
Security

Submission + - CPanel installs back door into Linux servers (cpanel.net)

Submitted by
Animats
Animats writes: "I recently leased a new dedicated server from a well-known hosting company. The server came with CPanel, a popular system administration tool, installed, and on first log-in, I was presented with a CPanel EULA, something that wasn't present on older servers. The EULA indicates that CPanel, Inc. has a back door into the server for "authentication", and can not only "copy, access, store, disclose and use cPanel Data indefinitely in its sole discretion", but can disable the server remotely. This is like CarrierIQ's back door — something that has no business being there.

This is for a fully dedicated server, not shared, not virtual, and not managed by the hosting company. I'm leasing a bare CentOS machine in a rack here. This isn't something to give a hosting company access. It allows access by a third party company that just sells system administration software. They have no need for that access whatsoever.

Here are the actual EULA terms:

*Authentication System*. The Software contains technological measures that, working in conjunction with cPanel computer servers, are designed to prevent unlicensed or illegal use of the Software (collectively, the "Authentication System"). You acknowledge and agree that such Authentication System allows cPanel to (among other things) (a) monitor use of the Software by you and Third Party Users as set forth in Section 2.5.4 (cPanel Data); (b) verify that the Software is only used on the Licensed Server; (c) suspend or disable access to the Software in whole or in part in the event of a breach of this Agreement or in the event of a breach by a Third Party User of cPanel-related provisions of a Third Party Agreement; and (d) terminate use of the Software upon the expiration or termination of this Agreement. You agree not to thwart, interfere with, circumvent or block the operation of any aspect of the Authentication System, including any communications between the Software and cPanelâ's computer servers. For the avoidance of doubt, the Software will not operate unless cPanel from time to time verifies the Software using the Authentication System which requires the exchange of information between the Licensed Server and cPanel over the Internet.

*cPanel Data*. You agree that, without further notice to you or any Third Party User, cPanel may use technological means, including the Authentication System, to (a) monitor use of the Software as may be necessary to monitor for compliance with the terms of this Agreement; (b) collect language file modifications as provided in Section 3.6 (License to Language File Modifications); and (c) collect cPanel Data. cPanel reserves the right to copy, access, store, disclose and use cPanel Data indefinitely in its sole discretion; provided, however, that in the event that cPanel collects information concerning which features of the Software are most often used by you or Third Party Users, cPanel will remove personally identifiable information (if any) from such data and copy, access, store, disclose and use such data solely for the purpose of improving the Software.

"
Google

Submission + - Pricey Google Maps Drive Developers Away (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "Google warned developers months ago that the Google Maps free ride was ending, but 'someone at Google got their pricing wrong by an order of magnitude,' said StreetEasy's Sebastian Delmont in a Google+ post. For the $200,000 to $300,000 per year Google is charging for Maps, StreetEasy can find an open source alternative, hire a developer (or 2), and give something back to the community. Thanks Google."
Medicine

Submission + - Marijuana Smoking Does Not Harm Lungs, Study Finds (nytimes.com)

Submitted by NotSanguine
NotSanguine writes: A large new government study has found that smoking marijuana on a regular basis, even over many years, does not impair lung function.

The study, abstract here (full JAMA article paywalled), concluded that "Occasional and low cumulative marijuana use was not associated with adverse effects on pulmonary function." By contrast, the researchers found that compared to nonsmokers, marijuana users performed slightly better on lung function tests, though the improvement was minuscule.

Slashdot Top Deals

Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle. -- Steinbach

Close