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Submission + - 40th Anniversary of the Computer Virus (net-security.org)

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes: This year marks the 40th anniversary of Creeper, the world’s first computer virus. From Creeper to Stuxnet, the last four decades saw the number of malware instances boom from 1,300 in 1990, to 50,000 in 2000, to over 200 million in 2010. Besides sheer quantity, viruses, which were originally used as academic proof of concepts, quickly turned into geek pranks, then evolved into cybercriminal tools. By 2005, the virus scene had been monetized, and virtually all viruses were developed with the sole purpose of making money via more or less complex business models.

Submission + - The polics of the root (politico.com)

Submitted by
dstates
dstates writes: "The good news is that the Internet has become a central enough part of global life that politicians are starting to pay attention to the details of Internet management. The bad news is that the politicians are paying attention to the Internet. Politico.com has an interesting note on the politics surrounding the annual meeting of the The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) which is opening its annual meeting in San Francisco today. While some people finding it frightening that a US corporation controls names usage on the Internet, the prospect of a UN body assuming control raises its own concerns."

Comment Size matters (Score 1) 449

by bromoseltzer (#34477338) Attached to: PC Era Forecasted To End In 18 Months

What's a iPhone? A tiny PC, that's what. And a PC is a giant iPhone. The story here is that lots of people want to carry a small smart screen around with them, like we didn't know that. It's a good place for little apps, messaging, and small emails -- and making phone calls.

But sometimes you want a 20 inch screen - or two of them. How much coding is done on the iPhone? How much graphics editing? Where would you want to write your thesis or read Wikipedia? Reading War and Peace on my smartphone is a real chore, but it fits nicely on the Kindle.

The story is that all the computer ecological niches are being filled: desktop, laptop, small laptop (iPad), and hand-held. Not to mention "real" computers in datacenters. An investor wants to know who's going to make the big profits, but I want one of each, please.

Let 1,000 flowers bloom, said Mr. Mao.

Comment What you see is what you get (Score 1) 1348

by bromoseltzer (#33932902) Attached to: Desktop Linux Is Dead
Newsflash: Linux is not going to overtake Windows or MacOS on the desktop. Who ever thought they would? Be happy with what we have: A vibrant niche of the computing world, where geeks hang out and where lots of cool experimentation and collaboration happens. And where a lot of folks learn skills that they can use on the dark side if they need to earn a living. (And where corporate folks invest lots of $$ to get cost-effective server and embedded solutions.)

If Linux had conquered the desktop, most of us would have to move on to some other GeekOS.

Submission + - Ubuntu Linux Claims 12,000 Cloud Deployments (serverwatch.com)

Submitted by darthcamaro
darthcamaro writes: The cloud is more than just hype for Ubuntu. Canonical COO Mat Asay is now saying that they can count 12,000 deployments of the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud. He also things the cloud is where Ubuntu can make money — because to be frank in his view the company for the last five years wasn't setup to generate revenue.

"For the first five years of the company's life, it wasn't set up to make money," Asay said. "The company was set up to make a fantastic Linux distribution and other tools around it and get it out there and get people using it. That was the focus."

Submission + - How will we know when IPv4 address space is gone? (enterprisenetworkingplanet.com)

Submitted by darthcamaro
darthcamaro writes: We all know that IPv4 address space is almost all gone — but how will we know when the exact date is? and what will happen that day? IN a new report ARIN's CIO explains exactly what will happen on that last day of IPv4 address availability.

"We will run out of IPv4 address space and the real difficult part is that there is no flag date. It's a real moving date based on demand and the amount of address space we can reclaim from organizations," Jimmerson told InternetNews.com. "If things continue they way they have, ARIN will for the very first time, sometime between the middle and end of next year, receive a request for IPv4 address space that is justified and meets the policy. However, ARIN won't have the address space. So we'll have to say no for the very first time."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Threats to Legislature Seal Huge Tax Cut (microsofttaxdodge.com) 1

Submitted by newscloud
newscloud writes: As the Washington State Legislature wound down its special session to close a $2.8 billion fiscal deficit, Microsoft's General Counsel Brad Smith successfully used a carefully timed press conference making veiled threats about tax rates as a concern regarding future job expansion in Washington State. Led by Finance Chair Rep. Ross Hunter, a 17 year former Microsoft manager, the Legislature gave Microsoft two huge gifts: a $100 million annual tax cut and an estimated $1.25 billion in amnesty on its 13 year Nevada tax dodge. To make ends meet, the Legislature cut $120 million from K-12 education and $73 million from university budgets. It also raised the general tax rate on businesses from 1.5% to 1.8% and created new '7-11' taxes on the Average Joe on beer, soda and candy. The benefits of 4,700 at-risk unemployed people with disabilities will expire in the coming year. No word on how cash-strapped Washington plans to address Smith's concerns about its educational system and transportation infrastructure. On Wednesday, Gates' father, Bill Sr. announced a citizen initiative to replace the business tax with an income tax on high earners (>$200,000/yr). Asked if his son was on board with the tax initiative, Gates Sr. said, improbably, they hadn't discussed it. 'I don't know what my son is going to do.' Governor Gregoire said this isn't over: once the budget is signed into law, 'there will be real cuts, there will be real people losing jobs.' Yesterday, Microsoft reported record quarterly revenue. It now has $39.6 billion in cash and short term investments.
AMD

Hidden Cores On Phenom CPUs Can Be Unlocked 251

Posted by CmdrTaco from the what-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.
An anonymous reader writes "One of the major ways a semiconductor manufacturer manages to make the most of its chips is through binning. Chips able to cope with high clock speeds with all cores running end up as premium product lines, while others end up as models rated at lower speed grades, or with fewer cores. In the case of AMD's Phenom CPUs, dual and triple core models are quad cores with some disabled, while some newer quad core CPUs are actually six core models with two disabled. To this end both ASUS and MSI have announced that they have modified versions of AMD 890FX- and 890GX-based motherboards to unlock these hidden cores. Much like overclocking, there is no guarantee that you will gain anything by unlocking the hidden cores — everything depends on just why your CPU ended up in a certain product line."
Crime

Fraud Fighter "Bobbear" To Close Up Shop 61

Posted by kdawson from the one-of-the-good-guys dept.
Krebsonsecurity.com has a writeup on the decision of UK anti-fraud activist site bobbear.co.uk to retire from the fray. The 66-year-old fraud fighter said he was getting too old for the work, which takes him about 15 hours a day. "We had so many messages of thanks, and congratulations on the site, but it is so stressful and takes so much out of you, and there is always the worry of litigation hanging over your head." "The owner and curator of bobbear.co.uk, a site that specializes in exposing Internet fraud scams and phantom online companies, announced Saturday that he will be shuttering the site at the end of April. Bobbear and its companion site bobbear.com are creations of [the pseudonomous] Bob Harrison, a 66-year-old UK resident who for the last four years has tirelessly chronicled and exposed a myriad of fraud and scam Web sites. The sites, which are well-indexed by Google and other search engines and receive about 2,000 hits per day, often are among the first results returned in a search for the names of fly-by-night corporations advertised in spam and aimed at swindling the unsuspecting or duping the unwitting." Any ideas on who might want to take over the domains and carry on the work would be appreciated by the Internet community at large.
Space

New Europe-Wide Radio Telescope To Look For ET 49

Posted by samzenpus from the phone-011-then-home dept.
astroengine writes "A new radio telescope is under construction, consisting of 44 stations (each consisting of several antennae) spread across Europe. The pan-European Low Frequency Array is half built and already returning unprecedented observations of cosmic radio sources. The best thing is, when it's complete, SETI will be able to use the array to seek out transmitting extraterrestrial civilizations in these untapped low radio frequencies."
Image

Swiss Millionaire Hit By Record Speed Fine 52

Posted by samzenpus from the fight-the-ticket dept.
tugfoigel writes "A Swiss court has slapped a local millionaire with a record speeding fine of $290,000.The man was reportedly caught driving a red Ferrari Testarossa at 137km/h (85mph) through a village.The penalty was calculated based on the unnamed motorist's wealth — assessed by the court as $22.7m — and on his status as a repeat offender."

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