elzurawka - Slashdot User

Submission + - Firefox javascript/cookie vulnerability uncovered

Submitted by mybecq on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @10:29PM

mybecq writes: Michal Zalewski has uncovered and disclosed a serious vulnerability (BugZilla: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=37044 5) in Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.1, whereby a javascript string containing '\x00' (escaped NUL character) can cause Firefox to allow malicious sites to manipulate cookies for third-party webpages.

A demonstration of the vulnerability is available. The vulnerability requires javascript and session cookies to be enabled to be able to be exploited.

Submission + - Open Source Wii Modchip To Come in Two Weeks

Submitted by

MBrichacek

on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @10:23PM

MBrichacek writes: "Wiip is a hardware mod for the Wii system that will allow the user to boot backup discs. This mod works by utilizing a cheap and simple micro controller that communicates with the serial port of the Wii's hybrid DVD drive and overrides certain parts of the media's data stream. The most important part of this project, is that it is open source! This chip will be much cheaper than other chips costing only $20. For the extra geeky among us, the instructions will be posted so that you can make one yourself for under $10 in parts."

Submission + - 14 HP Company Secrets from a former employee

Submitted by rob101 on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @08:50PM

rob101 writes: A former Hewlett-Packard worker could barely wait for their non-disclosure-agreement to end so they could spill 14 company secrets to The Consumerist. Full article at the Consumerist. This article details secrets about HP printers, how to get past the voice prompt system, HP cartridges and warranty information.

Submission + - MS warns users not to trust its software -- DST

Submitted by

Ant

on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @06:40PM

Ant writes: "Yahoo! News reports that Microsoft is warning users not to trust its calendar and appointment software. For three weeks this March and April, Microsoft warns that users of its calendar programs "should view any appointments ... as suspect until they communicate with all meeting invitees." It's a potential problem in any software that was programmed before a 2005 law decreed that daylight-saving time (DST) would start three weeks earlier and end one week later, beginning this year. Congress decided that more early evening daylight would translate into energy savings. Software created earlier is set to automatically advance its timekeeping by one hour on the first Sunday in April, not the second Sunday in March (that's March 11 this year [2007]). The result is a glitch reminiscent of the Y2K bug, when cataclysmic crashes were feared if computers interpreted the year 2000 as 1900 and couldn't reconcile time appearing to move backward. This bug is much less threatening, but it could cause head-scratching episodes when some computers are an hour off. The problem won't show up only in computers, of course. It will affect plenty of non-networked devices that store the time and automatically adjust for daylight saving, like some digital watches and clocks. But in those instances the result will be a nuisance (adjust the time manually or wait three weeks) rather than something that might throw a wrench in the works. Digg."

SCO Vs. Groklaw 477

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @11:15PM from the timely-break dept.

Conrad Mazian points us to an article in Forbes reporting that the SCO Group is trying to subpoena Pamela Jones of Groklaw. Except they can't find her. A few days ago PJ posted a note on Groklaw saying that she is taking some time away from the blog for health reasons; she didn't mention any SCO deposition. SCO's lawyers apparently believe that "Pamela Jones" does not exist and that Groklaw is penned by a team of IBM lawyers.

Submission + - Supreme Commander Performance

Submitted by

LegionHW

on Monday February 12, 2007 @11:08PM

LegionHW writes: "All those RTS (Real-Time Strategy) fans out there have no doubt heard of "Supreme Commander" and I am sure anyone who enjoyed Total Annihilation has been on the edge of their seats waiting for this one. Supreme Commander is the successor of Total Annihilation and is set to be the next big RTS game. However, after having played the recently released demo I was shocked by how demanding this game is! Therefore I decided to sacrifice a few graphics cards in order to help you determine if you will need to dig deep and upgrade in time for the release of Supreme Commander. http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=617"

Submission + - US bill to prohibit patenting genetics

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 12, 2007 @10:46PM

An anonymous reader writes: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d110:3:./t emp/~bd3poG::

Submission + - Net neutrality in Canada now in serious risk.

Submitted by

Oshawapilot

on Monday February 12, 2007 @09:23PM

Oshawapilot writes: "A editorial piece in todays Toronto Star newspaper points towards some disturbing movements on the Net Neutrality front in Canada.

With a Minister Of Industry making such troubling statements as "[Maxime] Bernier believes that consumers are best served by giving the dominant telecom companies maximum regulatory freedom" along with several questionable decisions on the Internet front, one must wonder if this government minister either fails to grasp what he is dealing with, or is in the pockets of big-telecom in Canada.

With 84% of the internet connections in Canada being controlled by only a few companies, this should concern Canadians, and be a wakeup call to all those who concern themselves with Net Neutrality.

With some ISP's in Canada already subjecting their customers to content or application discrimination, is a full blown attack on Net Neutrality that far away on this side of the border?

Does the government care? Or even understand?"

Submission + - Study finds P2P has no effect on legal music sales

Submitted by

MBrichacek

on Monday February 12, 2007 @07:52PM

MBrichacek writes: "A new study in the has found that illegal music downloads have had no noticeable effects on the sale of music, contrary to the claims of the recording industry. Analyzing data from the final four months of 2002, the researchers estimated that P2P affected no more than 0.7% of sales in that timeframe. The study reports that 803 million CDs were sold in 2002, which was a decrease of about 80 million from the previous year. The RIAA has blamed the majority of the decrease on piracy, and has maintained that argument in recent years as music sales have faltered. Yet according to the study, the impact from file sharing could not have been more than 6 million albums total in 2002, leaving 74 million unsold CDs without an excuse for sitting on shelves."

Submission + - ATi Unveils the R600

Submitted by

MBrichacek

on Monday February 12, 2007 @07:29PM

MBrichacek writes: "VR-Zone has learned about some new details on 80nm R600 today and there will be 2 SKUs at launch; XTX and XT. There will be 2 versions of R600XTX; one is for OEM/SI and the other for retail. Both feature 1GB DDR4 memories on board but the OEM version is 12.4" long to be exact and the retail is 9.5" long. This picture shows a 12.4" OEM version. The power consumption of the card is huge at 270W for 12" version and 240W for 9.5" version. As for R600XT, it will have 512MB of GDDR3 memories onboard, 9.5" long and consumes 240W of power. Lastly, there is a cheaper R600XL SKU to be launched at a later date. Good luck fitting this thing into your case!"

Submission + - BSG Renewed For 4th Season?

Submitted by BiteMyShinyMetalAss on Monday February 12, 2007 @07:22PM

BiteMyShinyMetalAss writes: According to the LA Times (reg required, SPOILER ALERT), the Sci Fi Channel is expected to announce on February 13th that Battlestar Galactica's 4th season will premiere in January 2008. Also of interest is discussion about the role of DVRs in calcuating viewship and advertising revenue:

[Mark Stern, head of programming for Sci Fi] also pointed out that 510,000 additional viewers in the 18-to-49 demographic are watching the show on digital video recorders. They bring the total demographic average closer to 1.6 million, the show's highest numbers since Season 1.
Advertisers, however, do not yet pay for the playback ratings because the general assumption is that viewers watching recorded programs fast-forward through the commercials. It could be a crucial point for the channel, and Stern is hopeful that the business model is shifting.

"Who knows? This upfront season you might find that we can monetize that DVR usage," he said. "The important thing is when you add in the DVR numbers, the audience is there."

Yay! I don't feel so guilty anymore :)

Submission + - Canada Claims Quantum Leap

Submitted by

egyptiankarim

on Monday February 12, 2007 @07:16PM

egyptiankarim writes: "From the article:
...it's been a holy grail in the arcane world of supercomputers — and a Canadian firm claims it will be unveiling one on Tuesday.

D-Wave Systems, Inc. is making some big claims about having developed a quantum computer. Though, I don't know how willing I am to believe the announcements seeing as how even the researcher from MIT they cite seems skeptical."

Submission + - Firefox 3 To Support Offline Apps

Submitted by on Monday February 12, 2007 @05:19PM

An anonymous reader writes: Read/WriteWeb reports that Robert O'Callahan from Mozilla, a kiwi who drives the rendering engine of Mozilla/FireFox, spoke at the recent New Zealand Foo Camp event about how Firefox 3 will deliver support for offline applications. This means you'll be able to use your web apps — like Gmail, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, etc — in the browser even when offline. Not only does this move suit Google, but it makes Firefox attractive as the browser platform of choice for SaaS providers like salesforce.com. All of which will hit Microsoft where it hurts. Robert O'Callahan turns up in the comments to the article to say that "Yes, Web apps need to be reengineered for this, and no, no-one (including Google) has announced they will do so — although we hope they will!".

Submission + - Congress Wants To Monitor All E-Mails, IMs, Etc.

Submitted by

Red Weasel

on Monday February 12, 2007 @04:00PM

Red Weasel writes: "A bill submitted February 6, 2007 called, what else, "Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth Act (SAFETY) of 2007 " HR 837 IH would [It] would require ISPs to record all users' surfing activity, IM conversations and email traffic indefinitely." The full bill at The Library of Congress THOMAS."

Submission + - How do your store your movie collection?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 12, 2007 @03:00PM

An anonymous reader writes: I finally went HD. I bought a new TV, new stereo, even upgraded my DVR to HD. Problem is, my DVD recorder isn't HD, and I'd rather keep things at my finger tips instead of burning everything to DVD. I'd like to capture HD content from my sat/cable system and import my DVDs so I can access everything from my couch. Ideally you could browse, search, and organize the collection, use imported DVDs (still browse the DVD menus to see things like extra features), and record HD content. And it needs to have the capacity for a reasonably sized collection (at least 200 DVDs). It doesn't need lots of bells and whistles. Importing and organizing can be complicated, but browsing and playing needs to be simple. Are there commercial solutions? How would you go about building such a system? Or would you just buy a HD DVD burner and another bookcase?

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