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Security

Submission + - Friends let friends use... Firefox or Chrome? 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: To Firefox or to Chrome, that is the question. Most of you are probably the tech support guy/gal for your very non-techie, almost computer illiterate friends/relatives. You know they type: hopelessly wedded to IE on Windows XP/Vista/Win7; would gladly click on the "infect me" button on Facebook. After which you get a panicked call to help them get rid of this "Security Tool" that is trying to extort money from them. I just went through that scenario a few days ago. Well, not quite, the "infect me" part is a feeble attempt at humour, they have no idea how the malware came in.

So I am asked: what can I do to make sure this does not happen again? Hmmm... Bite my tongue. OK. This type of netizen will not get off Windows, so alternative OS's are out of the question. They are running anti-virus, not much good did it do. They can't afford the HW & SW costs of upgrading from XP to Win7. That leaves the "kick-me-in-the-behind" browser they are using. What can be done with that?

Well, Firefox with its multitide of security oriented add-ons comes to mind (noscript, ad-block, noflash, etc.). Except... it is way too intrusive for this type of users. They just want their browsers to work. The 'permit this, enable that' mode of operation is unacceptable.

What we are looking for then is a Windows-based browser that can stand on its own (default installation + common plug-ins) and be somewhat resilient to attack.

We can consider Google Chrome and it's sandbox security model, it looks awfully good. Firefox on the other hand has a pretty good but not exactly perfect security track record. And... no privilege separation; you own the browser and you own the filesystem (specially if the user is on XP as an administrator).

So, if you were to be asked... which browser can keep me safer? Given the constrains listed above, what would you tell your Windows-addicted friends? Use Firefox? Use Chrome? What the heck, somebody is bound to bring it up: use Opera? I am looking for an intelligent discussion on the security pros and cons of Chrome and Firefox, not a flame war. Let's see if the Slashdot community can deliver.
Idle

Submission + - 'Obsessed' American Couple Wed at Apple Store 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The Telegraph reports that an an 'obsessed' American couple, Josh and Ting Li, have become the first to marry inside one of the technology giant’s stores saying “iDo” at the city’s Apple store on Fifth Avenue, at 12.01 on Valentine’s Day in a ceremony dominated with the company's products and references to them. A video shows that the pair, who met in the Apple store, had their priest, dressed as Steve Jobs, read their vows from their iPhones while the rings were tied to a ribbon wrapped around a first generation iPod. Mrs Ling, dressed in a strapless wedding dress, had her vows written on a card that said "I love you more than this" followed by a picture of an iPhone. “We got to know each other because Ting was looking to buy an iPod and I managed to strike up a conversation that way,” says Mr. Ting. “I used to joke that the Apple Store is my church because I am not religious, and I loved everything Apple." No word on where the couple honeymooned although some say they may have remained in "the big apple.""

Submission + - IdeaPad U1 what we wanted the iPad to be (engadget.com)

Submitted by Xanator
Xanator writes: With the announcement of the iPad the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid appears to go unnoticed, but maybe we ought to pay it more attention, a netbook with a removable screen that turns it into a tablet (swithching OS from Windows 7 to a tablet OS within 3 seconds) looks that it offers what many of us wanted from the iPad, quoting engadget: "When docked, the U1 looks and feels like any other laptop, with an Intel CULV processor and a 128GB SSD running Windows 7 Home Premium. You actually wouldn't know there's a slate hiding in there — until you pull it out and watch it switch to Lenovo's Skylight UI, a process that was smooth and quick for us. Lenovo says the goal is for the full switch to occur in under 3 seconds"
Businesses

Submission + - Dell begins their largest layoff ever. 3

Submitted by cyphercell
cyphercell writes: Dell has begun their largest series of layoffs ever. This morning at about 10:00am more than two hundred employees at Dell's Roseburg Oregon Call center found out that they no longer had jobs. Sparking what appears to be the beginning of year long run of layoffs for the company. http://www.newsreview.info/article/20070802/NEWS/7 0802014

Refuting local suspicions of malice Dell spokesman David Frink states:

... the closure has nothing to do with a lawsuit filed by employees of the Roseburg center in February, claiming Dell violated federal and state wage and hour laws.
http://www.newsreview.info/article/20070213/NEWS/7 0213020

and later says

...plans to reduce employment worldwide by 10 percent at the end of May.


Their plans to reduce employment can be found here:
http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business /stories/technology/06/01/1dell.html

Here are some highlights:

Dell set to shed 8,800 workers...

Dell has 82,200 permanent workers, including 18,000 in Central Texas, and 5,300 temporary workers worldwide. The layoffs are expected to affect both groups...

In its last large-scale layoffs, Dell cut more than 5,000 jobs in Austin after the high-tech bust in 2001.

...many of the layoffs could come in Central Texas, where Dell is headquartered. In a March 29 report to clients, Goldman Sachs analysts said Dell might reduce the work force at its test and assembly facilities in the U.S. and Malaysia.
Software

Do "Illegal" Codecs Actually Scare Linux Users? 510

Posted by kdawson from the hardened-criminals-listening-to-music dept.
jammag writes "In this article, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes points out why he keeps giving money to Microsoft and Apple despite the clear advantages of Linux: the scary legalese dialogs you have to click through to install codecs for common multimedia formats. Quoting: 'Despite strong points that go far beyond price, Linux falls short when it comes to legally supporting file formats such as MP3, WMA/WMV and DVDs.' He talks about using Ubuntu and booting up Totem Movie Player, only to be confronted with a burst of legalese about what a hardened criminal he'll be if he uses Totem without a license. This problem is 'a deal breaker' for him."

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