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Communications

Hacked Business Owner Stuck With $52k Phone Bill 300

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the build-a-better-mousetrap dept.
ubercam writes "A Canadian business man is on the hook for a $52,000 phone bill after someone hacked into his voice mail system and found a way to dial out. The hacker racked up the charges with calls to Bulgaria. The business owner noticed an odd message coming up on his call display (Feature 36), and alerted his provider, Manitoba Telecom Services. They referred him to their fraud department, who discovered the breach. MTS said that they would reverse the charges if the hacked equipment was theirs, but in this case it was customer owned. The ironic part is that the victim's company, HUB Computer Solutions, is in the business of computer and network security. They even offer to sell, configure and secure Cisco VoIP systems. Looks as though they even couldn't manage to secure their own system, which doesn't bode well for their customers." This certainly isn't the first time someone has exploited the phone system and stuck another with the bill. Maybe it's time for the phone company to get their fraud detection and prevention services at least on par with the credit card companies'.
Image

The Best Burglar Alarm In History Screenshot-sm 137

Posted by samzenpus from the suck-it-Edison dept.
Sportsqs writes "When Nikola Tesla got creative with transformers and driver circuits at the turn of the 20th century he probably had no idea that others would have so much fun with his concepts over a hundred years later. One such guy is an Australian named Peter who runs a website called TeslaDownUnder, which showcases all his wacky Tesla ways, or rather electrickery, as Peter calls it." Very cool stuff, I wish I would have had something like this to protect my comic books from my little brother when I was a kid.
Math

Quantum Test Found For Mathematical Undecidability 223

Posted by kdawson from the not-to-decide-is-to-decide dept.
KentuckyFC writes "Philosophers have long wondered at the profound link between mathematics and physics, but how deep does this connection go? Pretty deep according to the results of a quantum experiment exploring the nature of mathematical undecidability. Here's how: any logical system must be based on axioms, which are propositions that are defined to be true. A proposition is logically independent from these axioms if it can neither be proved nor disproved from them; mathematicians say it is undecidable. In the experiment, researchers encoded a set of axioms as quantum states. A particular measurement on this system can then be thought of as a proposition which, if undecidable, yields a random result — which is what they found. 'This sheds new light on the (mathematical) origin of quantum randomness in these measurements,' say the researchers (abstract)."
Biotech

Repairing Genetic Mutations With Lasers? 65

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the shed-a-little-light-on-your-genes dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "German researchers at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU) think they've proved that genetic information can be controlled by light. The group studied the interaction between the four DNA bases — adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T) — by using femtosecond time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. The researchers think that they've demonstrated that DNA strands differ in their light sensitivity depending on their base sequences. The team thinks that it might be possible in the future to repair gene mutations using laser radiation. One of the project leaders said that 'it might even be possible under some circumstances to make transistors from DNA that would work through the hydrogen bonds.' It's not the first time I've heard about DNA computing, but this new approach looks promising."

Comment Re:Good for them... (Score 1) 833

by Calmiche (#24600595) Attached to: Psystar "Definitely Still Shipping" Mac Clones

"But didn't Apple spend a whole ton of money to write and maintain Mac OS X"

Yes, in EXACTLY the same way Microsoft did with Windows. So why is it that Microsoft can't say "You can only run Windows on Microsoft created computers."? Heck! There's an instant monopoly. Drive HP, Dell, Acer, and Sony right out of business!

I've NEVER understood why Apple thinks that they can dictate this. The Franklin case in '83 shouldn't even apply. (That case was based on modifying apple software and reselling it.) Apple's entire case is based on a shaky interpretation of what an EULA allows and an even shakier and broken US patent office.

Of course, Apple can't afford to NOT challenge Psystar. They have to try and challenge them and try to slap them down hard. There is a fairly good chance that they can even win if they bring enough force to bear and get a sympathetic or under informed judge, allowing them to maintain their monopoly.

Personally, I think Psystar has a stronger case but Apple has more money. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

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