Golygydd Max - Slashdot User

Submission + - UK to Repeat US Mistakes with Patents? (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by Glyn Moody on Tuesday November 09, 2010 @01:01PM

Glyn Moody writes: Alongside British Prime Minister David Cameron's surprise announcement that he wanted to make UK copyright law "fit for the internet age" was a comment from David Willetts, the UK science and universities minister, who said: "The US rule is that 'anything man has invented under the sun you should be able to patent'. That's something we do wish to investigate." Unfortunately, he seems to be under the impression that Google built its success through being "able to patent some work", when in fact, Google has relatively few patents compared to other companies like Microsoft, say. Is the UK about to suffer problems of overburdened examiners approving too many weak patents that then lead to patent thickets and spiralling levels of litigation, as has happened in the US? What would you say to discourage him from taking this step?

Submission + - Google sues government agency over Microsoft bias (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by superapecommando on Tuesday November 02, 2010 @08:01AM

superapecommando writes: Google and a reseller of its products have filed a lawsuit against the US Department of the Interior after the agency solicited bids for cloud-based email and messaging services specifying that bidders must use Microsoft products.

Google and reseller Onix Networking filed the lawsuit against the DOI Friday in the US Court of Federal Claims. The contract, for up to $59.3 million over five years, tells bidders they must deploy Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite-Federal (BPOS) package to deliver the services.

The Microsoft requirement is "unduly restrictive of competition" and violates federal contracting law, Google and Onix said in their complaint. The DOI, despite promising to look at alternatives to the Microsoft package, issued an August 30 request for bids constituting "a sole source procurement that is arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion and otherwise contrary to law," the complaint said.

Submission + - Antivirus guy admits scanning is useless (techworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 02, 2010 @07:16AM

An anonymous reader writes: US antivirus vendor Webroot has bought UK-based Prevx in an acquisition that looks like the latest symptom of the growing dissatisfaction among security companies with the current signature-based scanning model for detecting malware.

On the face of it a 20-person software security company based in Derby is an unlikely bride for an ambitious US outfit looking to grow. But since its founding as long ago as 2001, Prevx has been a pioneer of the application fingerprinting technology that in the cloud services era has suddenly become ultra-fashionable.

Application fingerprinting is a very different approach than signature-based detection, and is based on separating the thousands of known good apps from unknown and suspect ones. Any unknown programs encountered are compared to fingerprints in a cloud database to determine whether they are harmful and if they can't be identified at all they are blocked as a precaution.

Submission + - Traders convicted for outsmarting broker algorithm

Submitted by E5Rebel on Thursday October 14, 2010 @10:42AM

E5Rebel writes: Men beat machines. Norwegian traders, Svend Egil Larsen and Peder Veiby, were handed suspended prison sentences and fines for market manipulation after outsmarting the trading system of Timber Hill, which is a unit of US-based Interactive Brokers.The two men managed to work out how the computerised system would react to certain trading patterns. This allowed them to influence the price of low-volume stocks and profit from it.Is this a crime or a something to celebrate?

http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/security/3244186/norwegian-traders-convicted-for-outsmarting-us-stock-broker-algorithm/

Submission + - Microsoft admits OpenOffice.org is a contender (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by ChiefMonkeyGrinder on Thursday October 14, 2010 @07:19AM

ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes: Microsoft has unwittingly admitted that OpenOffice.org is a rival, by launching a three-minute video of customers explaining why they switched to Microsoft Office from OpenOffice.org. Glyn Moody writes: "You don't compare a rival's product with your own if it is not comparable. And you don't make this kind of attack video unless you are really, really worried about the growing success of a competitor. [Microsoft] has now clearly announced that OpenOffice.org is a serious rival to Microsoft Office, and should be seriously considered by anyone using the latter."

Submission + - The EU wants your thoughts on net neutrality (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by ChiefMonkeyGrinder on Wednesday September 29, 2010 @07:42AM

ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes: Alongside the Ofcom consulation on Net neutrality, the EU too is seeking our deepest hopes and fears on the subject: A consultation on key questions arising from the issue of net neutrality has been launched. The European Commission has a document explaining the key issues. Open source champion Glyn Moody urges you to get involved in submitting your thoughts. "A paramount consideration must be to preserve an ecology that has functioned and continues to functions so well. To allow changes to be made without considerable evidence that they will help rather than harm the functioning of the Internet would be ill-advised." Sir Tim Berners-Lee has also .

Submission + - Law firm facing legal action over porn data breach (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by E5Rebel on Monday September 27, 2010 @12:35PM

E5Rebel writes: A UK law firm which stands accussed of collecting data, including names, home addresses and IP addresses of thousands of porn users has had its site hacked and with the data being repeatedly downloaded. The firm was apparently collecting data on peope it claimed were breaking copyright on the porn. Now it faces legal action from pressure group Provacy International, which has complained to the UK's Information Commissioner. This is going to be fun...

Submission + - British council set to go open source (techworld.com)

Submitted by Golygydd Max on Wednesday September 22, 2010 @11:42AM

Golygydd Max writes: Bristol city councillors are considering a proposal for a major shift to open source, the first British council to go so far down the open source path, according to a Techworld story. The councillor pushing for the project to go ahead would like to have gone the whole hog and installed open source throughout the council but for pragmatic reasons has accepted some Microsoft on the desktops. Still, it's a major move for a UK local authority which up till now has lagged behind the rest of Europe on open source.

Submission + - Are desktop firewalls overkill? (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by Barence on Wednesday September 22, 2010 @10:50AM

Barence writes: Should you be running firewalls on your desktop and server machines? PC Pro's Jon Honeyball argues the case for switching off Windows firewalls and handing over responsibility for security to server-based solutions. "I’d rather have security baked right into my network design than scattered willy-nilly around my desktops and servers," Honeyball argues. "It seems to me that there’s much sense in concentrating your security into a small number of trusty gatekeepers rather than relying on a fog of barely managed faux security devices. Of course, it puts your eggs into fewer baskets, but it does mean these gatekeepers are easier to control and manage: monitoring them in real-time becomes routine."

Submission + - Trojan blamed for Spanish air crash (techworld.com)

Submitted by ChiefMonkeyGrinder on Monday August 23, 2010 @06:29AM

ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes: A plane crash that killed 154 people in 2008 might have been partly connected to the infection of an important ground safety system by malware, a Spanish newspaper has claimed.

Submission + - Grand Theft Auto maker is insolvent (techworld.com) 1

Submitted by ChiefMonkeyGrinder on Thursday August 19, 2010 @06:14AM

ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes: One of Scotland and the UK's most important games development firms, Realtime Worlds, has gone into administration. Realtime Worlds developed Grand Theft Auto, Lemmings and, its latest game, All Points Bulletin (APB). "As Scotland’s largest games development outfit, until recent lay-offs employing 250 people, its possible demise would be a technological disaster to match the worst days in the decline of silicon glen."

Submission + - UK Government refuses to ditch Microsoft IE6 (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by ChiefMonkeyGrinder on Monday August 02, 2010 @07:35AM

ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes: The UK government has said it will not upgrade its departments computers from Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 because it would not be 'cost-effective'. A recent online petition posted to Number10.gov.uk received 6,223 signatures that called for the “Prime Minister to encourage government departments to upgrade away from Internet Explorer 6” due to its alleged vulnerability to attack, and because it requires web developers to specially craft sites to support the browser. This raises the question, what is the cost of an upgrade compared to a massive security breach?

Submission + - US accuse scientist of foreign trade espionage (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by ChiefMonkeyGrinder on Tuesday July 20, 2010 @06:59AM

ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes: US has accused fired Dow Chemical scientist of stealing $100 million worth of trade secrets about organic pesticides for China. Data leakage of the highest order is at the centre of an unfolding story that finds a Massachusetts scientist under indictment for allegedly conveying trade secrets about organic pesticides developed by Dow Chemical to a university in China.

Submission + - Why Android's Victory is Inevitable (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by superapecommando on Monday July 12, 2010 @06:31AM

superapecommando writes: Arguably the most important development in the world of open source in the last year or two has been the rise and rise of Google's Linux-based Android operating system. It's true that the mobiles out there employing it are not 100% free, but they are considerably more free than the main alternatives. More importantly, they are turning Linux into a global, mass-market platform in a way never before seen.

Interesting stuff on Google promoting 'easy' app development with App Inventor. Got to say, I'm a little conflicted about this. Given the lack of quality control on Android Market already, and the difficulty of community-based rating with the interface it has, it seems like a well-intentioned act which could flood the Market with crapware. Well, more than it is already.

Anyone actually tried out the app? Thoughts?

Submission + - Peter Mandelson is Internet villain of the year (techworld.com) 1

Submitted by ChiefMonkeyGrinder on Friday July 09, 2010 @07:47AM

ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes: Lord Mandelson has been called many things in his time and can add a new title to the list, the former business business cabinet minister was voted Internet Villain of the Year at the ISPA awards, the annual event run by the Internet Service Providers Association. Mandelson won the award for his work in pushing through the much-criticised Digital Economy Act, the legality of which is currently being challenged in the High Court. This award is only UK-based, otherwise, surely Stephen Conroy would trump Mandelson?

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