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Space

Submission + - Low Earth Orbit Junk Yard Nearly Full

Submitted by
vlado4
vlado4 writes: "The New York Times has an article on how the amount of space junk in Earth Orbit is at critical levels. Additionally they have great graphics of the nearly 1000 new pieces resulting from testing the new Chinese anti-satellite weapon as well as the damage to Hubble's solar array. Space Debris (Wikipedia) appear to be a difficult problem to deal with and may hinder future space exploration. Somehow this is not surprising considering the tendency for humans to trash every environment they come in contact with."
The Internet

Submission + - Beyond Mashups: The Future of Photo Mapping

Submitted by Dr_Jones
Dr_Jones writes: Since the release of Google Maps, Mashups have become increasingly popular. Web sites like Flickr and Panoramio allow users to associate photos to a point on a map. However, both of these fail to show in which direction each photo was taken, limiting their real-world application. A new Web-based system called Mapwing provides a solution to this problem by enabling users to specify both the location and directional view of an image. Also, users have the option of placing their images on a custom drawn map instead of the traditional Google Map. The result is a birds eye view alongside a first-person walkthrough of a location. Here are several interesting examples to explore on the site: Apple's Campus, Rockefeller Center, and A Beach in France.
Windows

Submission + - More Fatal Windows Vista Exploits Discovered

Submitted by DelawareBoy
DelawareBoy writes: Long Zheng is reporting of two new Vista security exploits which have been discovered. After describing the known exploit of the Voice Recognition Flaw, Long proceeds to describe two more flaws, one of which resides within the Oft-praised Visual Studio 2005. If three exploits have been discovered this soon after the release, how many more are out there?
Operating Systems

Submission + - Linux vs. Windows System Calls Graphed

Submitted by
cgrayson
cgrayson writes: "On Richard Stiennon's blog on ZDNet, a post titled Why Windows is less secure than Linux shows an interesting graphical comparison between system calls on Linux and Windows.

In its long evolution, Windows has grown so complicated that it is harder to secure. Well these images make the point very well. Both images are a complete map of the system calls that occur when a web server serves up a single page of html with a single picture.
"
Linux Business

Submission + - Private sponsoring, an alternative to donations?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Leonard Ritter, creator of the Aldrin Modular Sequencer, writes in his blog about the problem with donating to open-source projects.

Writes Ritter, "As an user ... [Donating] gives you no certainty that the application is still going to be developed — what if the developer is being hired for a more lucrative job? There is simply no contract, just a requirement of trust. As an open source developer, how are you going to sustain and finance ongoing development? You can not rely on ongoing donations."

As a solution Ritter suggests moving service contract arrangements used in the IT world "to the private software user / open source developer level". He thinks this might help maintain FOSS projects more reliably. Makes for an interesting read.
Movies

Wal-Mart Offers Up Downloadable Movies 217

Posted by Zonk from the guess-who-i-don't-shop-with dept.
An anonymous reader slipped us the link to a C|Net article on another downloadable movie offering, this time from retail giant Wal-mart. Stinging from their loss to Netflix in the online DVD rental business two years ago, they are coming out swinging with this service. They've made arrangements with all six major Hollywood studios, and (the article theorizes) will likely have highly competitive prices. With Apple's dominance of this particular market, there is still no guarantee whether Wal-mart will have any success with this program. The biggest problem, commentators note, is that there is no guarantee Wal-mart's service will draw customers into their stores: the issue that ultimately caused them to scuttle the DVD rental service. What do you think of a major retailer getting into movie download business? Will the company be able to outmaneuver Apple and Netflix the same way it has done with other retailers in the past?
Microsoft

Submission + - MSN and Hotmail Blocking Email

Submitted by
AlHark
AlHark writes: "Ever since October 2006 our mail servers haven't been able to send email to MSN or Hotmail users. Coincidentally at the same time Microsoft move MSN and Hotmail to Live.com services. It is not several months later and we still cannot send emails to MSN or Hotmail users. SMTP connections fail, yet Microsoft support for MSN and Hotmail claim nothing is being blocked. Our mail servers have no problems sending email to any other mail server on the planet, yet we cannot send email to MSN or Hotmail. The mail support at MSN/Hotmail are inept in my opinion and of course being that they are "Microsoft" they couldn't be at fault. I say they are. I even called Sprint NOC (our T1 provider) and they can ping/tract to mx1.hotmail.com however I cannot from our network, we aren't blocking or dropping any packets on our firewall or router yet our mail servers fail to connect to Microsoft's mail servers. I have exhausted all of my resources, I need suggestions or a better way to communicate with Microsoft about this issue. I also have a blog entry concerning this issue and I am hoping that if this issue gains enough attention Microsoft might consider that they may have an problem. Sigh, it looks like the Microsoft support drones are winning."
Power

Submission + - Research: power consumption modern PC's

Submitted by
janp
janp writes: "The power consumption of modern PC's has skyrocketed the past few years. Hardware.Info has done some extensive research on the power usage of various configurations. It turns out the a high-end gaming rig can easily use more than 400 W, and that putting a system in stand-by isn't as saving as you might think. The article has some interesting tips to save on power costs."
Security

Submission + - Firefox popup blocker can allow access to local FS

Submitted by cj
cj writes: Whitedust has an interesting article where it appears that Michal Zalewski has unearthed a potentially dangerous vulnerability in the stock behaviour of Firefox's popup blocking element — when used in conjunction with another 'little trick' the vulnerability can apparently allow a malicious user to read files from an effected system and potentially gain access to sensitive information there on.

Feed Bush to Seek Gas Relief (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed
The president will ask Americans to cut their fuel consumption by 20 percent during the next 10 years. Maybe this time he'll mean what he says. In Autopia.


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