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Security

Submission + - New Tool Automates Webmail Account Hijacks (washingtonpost.com) 1

andrewd18 writes: "According to the Washington Post's Security Fix blog, a tool was debuted at the Black Hat conference that makes it simple to hijack webmail services over a wireless network. While the dangers of unencrypted data transfer on a public wireless network have been around for some time, this tool presents the first example of an automated webmail hijack. Since the tool uses a cookie based attack, it works whether or not the user changes his or her password. This tool could potentially automate the attack of any user on a wireless network, so long as the website the user logs into does not encrypt its login information."
Quickies

Submission + - New FingerprintingTechnique to Reveal Race and Sex (telegraph.co.uk) 1

Tech.Luver writes: "Telegraph reports, " A new fingerprinting technique that can identify the race and sex, and possibly the diet of suspects has been developed. Scientists have shown that using a gelatine-based gel and high-tech chemical analysis can provide significant clues to a person?s identity even if police do not hold existing fingerprint records. ""
Privacy

Submission + - Ruling by Secret US Court Allegedly Reduces Spying

conspirator57 writes: TFA http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la- na-spying2aug02,0,5813563.story?coll=la-home-cente r states that the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (a court that no citizen can establish standing to appear before) has ruled against Executive requests for so-called "basket warrants" as violating the 4th amendment to the Constitution, namely that such warrants do not meet the clearly expressed criteria in the second half of the amendment. To accomplish this they must have looked startlingly like British general warrants which were the original motivation for the 4th amendment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_(law) for more.

TFA is very sympathetic to the Executive branch, going on to depict ways in which we're all less safe because of this ruling. Personally, I feel safer with more rulings like this one. Just wish the process were a bit more transparent.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Music

Submission + - Multiformat Listening Test at 64kbps 1

prospective_user writes: "Do you think you have good ears? Think again.

The community at Hydrogenaudio has prepared a Public Listening Test for comparison of the most popular audio codecs (AAC, Vorbis, and Microsoft's WMA included) in a battle to see how they stand at compressing audio at 64kbps.

Many of the participants right now have expressed their surprise at being unable to determine which is the original and which is the compressed version of 18 samples covering a vast amount of musical styles.

The results of this test (and other that are conducted at Hydrogenaudio) will be used by the developers of the codecs to further improve the "transparency" and let this kind of test be even harder.

Everyone is invited to participate and show how good your listening is!"
Music

RIAA Announces New Campus Lawsuit Strategy 299

An anonymous reader writes "The RIAA is once again revising their lawsuit strategy, and will now be sending college students and others "pre-lawsuit letters." People will now be able to settle for a discount. How nice."
Businesses

CompUSA Closing More Than 50 Percent of Stores 423

Zurbrick writes to tell us that CompUSA hs announced that they are closing the doors on over half their stores over the next three months. "CompUSA said in a statement it would close 126 of its stores and would receive a $440 million cash capital infusion, but it was not specific as to the source of the cash. The company also said it would cut costs and restructure. The company operates 225 stores, which its Web site says are located in the United States and Puerto Rico. "
Biotech

New Nanoparticle Cancer Therapy 81

quixote9 tips us to a BBC story on a promising new cancer therapy using targeted nanoparticles. From the article: "The researchers used the nanoparticles to zero in on the network of blood vessels that supply the tumors in mice with nutrients and oxygen... [They] developed a technique for amplifying [the nanoparticles'] homing ability by designing a multifunctional nanoparticle that binds to a protein structure found only in tumors and associated blood vessels... The tests showed that within hours of the injection, the artificial platelets began blocking the supply without harming normal tissues. The scientists believe the nanoparticles could also be used to carry drugs to the tumor."
Google

Submission + - Google Earth has left beta.... again

dickeya writes: Approximately one year after the Google Earth version 3 client moved out of beta, the version 4 beta has done the same. The official announcement hasn't posted, but from the Google Earth Blog:

Google Earth 4 is officially released! The beta program began 6 months ago, and now almost exactly 1 year after GE 3 was released, GE 4 is no longer in beta (latest version is 4.0.2722). See the Google Earth home page for details, or just go download GE 4 now. GE 4 has many new features not available in the earlier version. Many of the features have been described in this blog over the past few months. Here are some highlights and why you should definitely consider upgrading.

If you haven't checked it out lately, now's a good time.
The Internet

Submission + - Non-Network Neutrality: Redux

MobyDisk writes: "Network Performance Daily retracted last week's interview with Professor Christopher Yoo from Vanderbilt University Law School on his opposition to Net-Neutrality policies. The new article is clearer, more subdued interview. The editor, Brian Boyko, says he never received Mr. Yoo's corrections to the article. From the apology: "The article had done him a disservice and resolved to repair any inaccuracy or anything that would be unfair to his words or image." Lost corrections, or a revision in response to criticism?

Last week's article now points to an series by Art Brodsky, Communications Director of Public Knowledge that is in support of Network Neutrality."

An Inconvenient Truth 1033

There's a movie teaser line that you may have seen recently, that goes like this: "What if you had to tell someone the most important thing in the world, but you knew they'd never believe you?" The answer is "I'd try." The teaser's actually for another movie, but that's the story that's told in the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth": it starts with a man who, after talking with scientists and senators, can't get anyone to listen to what he thinks is the most important thing in the world. It comes out on DVD today.

Open Source Malware Search Engine 123

chr0.ot writes "Metasploit creator HD Moore has released an open-source search engine that finds live malware samples through Google queries. From the article: 'The new Malware Search project provides a Web interface that allows anyone to enter the name of a known virus or Trojan and find Google results for Web sites hosting malicious executables.' The tool then searches for actual malware signatures and uses the signature output from ClamAV to find the name of the malware. This is then used in conjunction with a PE signature matching method to form a Google query. Afterwards the malware can then be downloaded directly from Google."

Your Favorite Support Anecdote 1177

Most of us have had the unfortunate opportunity to have worked tech support at some point, whether it was for a paycheck or for a relative. The Register has offered up a vote for several of their favorite support stories but I'm sure there are many more out there to be had. My favorite horror story was while working a tech support call for a governmental employee, when asked to take her mouse and click on the "start" button all I could hear over the phone is what I later found out was the user banging her mouse against the monitor. What other horror stories have people seen from the trenches?

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Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?

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