Techguy666 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Duke Network problems with Routers not iPhone (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Kalak on Monday July 23, 2007 @10:03AM

Kalak writes: The reported problem with Duke's wireless network that was suspected to be caused by iPhones, was in fact, a problem in the Cisco wireless routers, which have been patched. Officials have exonerated the initial suspect, Apple Inc.'s new iPhone.

Submission + - New Hack Exploits Common Programming Error (techtarget.com)

Submitted by

buzzardsbay

on Monday July 23, 2007 @09:37AM

buzzardsbay writes: "TechTarget's security editor, Dennis Fisher is reporting that researchers at Watchfire Inc. have discovered a reliable method for exploiting a common programming error, which until now had been considered simply a quality problem and not a security vulnerability. According to the article, the researchers stumbled upon the method for remotely exploiting dangling pointers by chance while they were running the company's AppScan software against a Web server. The good folks at Watchfire will detail the technique in a presentation at the Black Hat Briefings in Las Vegas in August, Fisher writes."

Submission + - What Happens Next on the US Vote on OOXML (consortiuminfo.org)

Submitted by

Andy Updegrove

on Monday July 23, 2007 @08:43AM

Andy Updegrove writes: "As you may know, V1, the INCITS Technical Committee that had charge of the US vote on Microsoft's OOXML, failed to reach consensus on either approving or disapproving the specification. As expected, Microsoft has turned to the full INCITS Executive Board in an effort to salvage the situation. Between now and Labor Day, a complicated series of fall-back ballots and meetings has been scheduled to see whether the Executive Board can agree to approve or disapprove OOXML, in either case "with comments." A vote to approve would mean that addressing the comments would not be required for the US vote to stand, while a vote to disapprove would hold the possibility of US approval if the comments are satisfactorily addressed. The process, and the prospects for approval, are described here, based on an extensive interview with a V1 and Executive Board member. The bottom line is that a vote to approve (either in the US or in many other nations around the world) does not appear likely, due to the sheer number of technical issues that have been raised with OOXML, and the expedited schedule upon which Microsoft has insisted throughout the process."

Submission + - Vista retreats as XP sales hold up

Submitted by

Kurtz'sKompund

on Monday July 23, 2007 @04:58AM

Kurtz'sKompund writes: "Microsoft expects Windows XP to make up a significantly larger part of sales than it had previously expected, at Vista's expense. http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?news id=9571"

Submission + - Seeing Yellow: fighting printer tracking dots (miscmeta.com)

Submitted by

jkrobin

on Tuesday July 17, 2007 @04:21PM

jkrobin writes: "MIT's Computing Culture research group has established the 'Seeing Yellow' project, which wants to preserve the right to anonymous communication by fighting both printer tracking dots and the government bullying used to sustain them.

We've known for years that color laser printers can embed a series of tiny yellow dots on pages they print. The dots — almost invisible under normal circumstances — can be used to determine which particular printer produced the image. Essentially, each printer outputs its own serial number. This is great for busting counterfeiters but raises all sorts of privacy concerns. Now, MIT students are getting involved in the campaign against the dots with the new Seeing Yellow project.

Imagine that every time you printed a document, it automatically included a secret code that could be used to identify the printer — and potentially, the person who used it. Sounds like something from an episode of "Alias," right?

Unfortunately, the scenario isn't fictional. In a purported effort to identify counterfeiters, the US government has succeeded in persuading some color laser printer manufacturers to encode each page with identifying information. That means that without your knowledge or consent, an act you assume is private could become public. A communication tool you're using in everyday life could become a tool for government surveillance. And what's worse, there are no laws to prevent abuse.

More at: http://www.shadowmonkey.net/articles/privacy/seein g-yellow.html"

Submission + - Robot aircraft crush worldwide enemies - from Nev. (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

coondoggie

on Monday July 16, 2007 @12:53PM

coondoggie writes: "The first unmanned attack squadron in aviation history will arrive in Iraq today looking to deliver 500-pound bombs and Hellfire missiles to the enemy — all from the comfort of a US Air Force base in Nevada. The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper can be controlled via satellite link thousands of miles away from operational areas. The planes are launched locally, in this case Iraq and Afghanistan, but can be controlled by a pilot and sensor operator sitting at computer consoles in a ground station, or they can be "handed off" via satellite signals to pilots and sensor operators in Nevada's Creech Air Force Base or elsewhere. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1756 0"

Submission + - Fear Enzyme Discovered (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by

InvisblePinkUnicorn

on Monday July 16, 2007 @09:51AM

InvisblePinkUnicorn writes: "Researchers from MIT have uncovered a molecular mechanism that governs the formation of fears rooted in traumatic events. This could lead to the first drug to treat the millions of adults who suffer each year from chronic, debilitating fears — including post traumatic stress disorder. The researchers showed that inhibiting a specific enzyme in the hippocampus removed a preconceived fear from mice. According to the study leader: 'This data points to a promising therapeutic avenue to treat emotional disorders and raises hope for patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or phobia.' The article abstract is available from Nature Neuroscience."

Submission + - Groklaw: Help Massachusetts decide on OOXML

Submitted by jhhdk on Monday July 16, 2007 @08:14AM

jhhdk writes: In a blog entry posted July 12th Pamela Jones, who usually doesn't care much for politics, asks readers to provide feedback to Massachusetts as they try to decide whether OOXML should be accepted as an open standard appropriate for use in the states administration. She also provides usefull links to sources where people can seek inspiration as they write their mails.

Whether ISO will formally approve or reject OOXML early next month is as uncertain as ever after ANSI failed to reach consensus last week despite massive influx of Microsoft supporters who suddenly decided to join the descition process.

Submission + - OOXML Denied INCITS V1 Approval (robweir.com)

Submitted by

Xenographic

on Monday July 16, 2007 @04:05AM

Xenographic writes: "INCITS V1, the US group responsible for the US vote over whether or not ANSI will grant fast-track approval to Microsoft's OOXML format, failed to reach the 2/3 consensus required to recommend OOXML to ANSI. What makes this vote interesting is the graph in the article, showing all the new Microsoft business partners who joined INCITS just this year to vote for OOXML. They will now deliberate further, until they can come to some agreement on what to recommend to ANSI, but it's pretty clear that Microsoft is pushing OOXML as hard as it can."

Submission + - Duke Nukem Forever Solidifying?

Submitted by

BlueMonk

on Sunday July 15, 2007 @09:59PM

BlueMonk writes: "Browsing Best Buy's web site today, one may be surprised to find an offer to pre-order something that a lot of people may be hesitant to place as a pre-order considering its past. It looks like they think Duke Nukem Forever will be coming out in December and are feeling good enough about it to start taking orders."

Submission + - Self-Centered Cultures Narrow Your Viewpoint (eurekalert.org)

Submitted by

InvisblePinkUnicorn

on Thursday July 12, 2007 @10:37AM

InvisblePinkUnicorn writes: "NewScientist reports on research indicating that people from Western cultures such as the US are particularly challenged in their ability to understand someone else's point of view because they are part of a culture that encourages individualism. In the experiment, Chinese students outperformed their US counterparts when ask to infer another person's perspective. Volunteers had to follow the instructions of a director and move named objects from one compartment to another. But sometimes the researchers placed two objects of the same kind (eg, "wooden block") in the grid. 95% of Chinese students would immediately understand which object to move — the one visible to both them and the director. Their US counterparts, however, did not always catch on — only 35% understood what to do."

Submission + - Is Bill Gates Crushing Linux in China?

Submitted by at_$tephen on Tuesday July 10, 2007 @09:15AM

at_$tephen writes: Interesting article from Fortune magazine which stresses the Chinese market's importance to Microsoft's long term strategy. In the early days of Microsoft basic, rampant piracy helped establish it as the de facto standard in PCs despite good alternatives. History may be unfolding again here, with the exception that having the Chinese government as an ally has huge additional benefits. Or perhaps Gates has met his match with the Chinese government who probably view Microsoft's past aggressive tactics as child's play. They'll be wined and dined by Microsoft officials, but at the end of the day they'll pat Gates' back and say "Sorry, dude, can't screw around with the OS. Besides, the escort's sent earlier by RedHat are sexier and open to doing almost anything we want."

Submission + - Robots Teach Autistic Kids Social Skills (wired.com)

Submitted by

posys

on Monday July 09, 2007 @01:46PM

posys writes: "Wired Magazine has an article http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007 /07/autistic_robot?showAllComments=true showing how the eternal patience of Robots lends themselves well to teaching new social skills to Autistic Children.

Of course, since Robots can be designed to exhibit only specific desirable behaviors, and can do them over and over again with infinite patience, Robots are the perfect teachers of new social skills to humans both disabled or not.

In a related story, there is a website promoting improvement of the overall human condition via what is called: "The Age of Recreation via the Emancipation of Humanity from the Machinery of Economy via the TROIKA of Robotic Wageless Economy, AI & Geothermal Energy" "

Submission + - 10 Most Critical Web Application Vulnerabilities

Submitted by

em8chel

on Monday July 09, 2007 @01:29PM

em8chel writes: "The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) has just updated and published the top 10 most serious web application vulnerabilities for 2007, along with discussions on how to protect against them. Both Cross Site Scripting (XSS) and Injection Flaws take the top 2 spots again this year. Unvalidated Input, Buffer Overflows, Denial of Service and Insecure Configuration Management are dropped from the list.

The Paper can be downloaded here (PDF 930k)."

Real Life DirectX 10 Performance 67

Posted by Zonk on Sunday July 08, 2007 @10:43PM from the it-ain't-pretty dept.

AnandTech has a look at the performance PC gamers can expect see under Windows Vista with DirectX 10. Unfortunately, it isn't pretty. Despite the power of the new 10-compliant graphics cards, the choices made in developing this technology have resulted in a significant gap between what is possible and what is actually obtainable from commercial PC hardware. What's worse, the article starts off by pointing out that much of the shiny effects exclusive to DX10 games would have been possible with DX9, had Microsoft been inclined to develop in that direction. From the article: "[Current] cards are just not powerful enough to enable widespread use of any features that reach beyond the capability of DirectX 9. Even our high-end hardware struggled to keep up in some cases, and the highest resolution we tested was 2.3 megapixels. Pushing the resolution up to 4 MP (with 30" display resolutions of 2560x1600) brings all of our cards to their knees. In short, we really need to see faster hardware before developers can start doing more impressive things with DirectX 10."

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