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Sci-Fi

Submission + - Anti-virus software in Klingon (sophos.com)

Submitted by
grahamlee
grahamlee writes: "In what looks like a pre-launch leak, British security software company Sophos have released a Klingon version of their threat detection tool. From an anonymous coward quoted in an article over at The Register, "While other people are worried about down turns in IT spending, it seems that some people in Sophos have had the time between lighting cigars on £50 notes to turn out a version of the product in Klingon.""
Worms

Submission + - Linux boxes make ideal botnet controllers (daniweb.com)

Submitted by
lysdexia
lysdexia writes: "Yet another warning about RstB, this time from over at daniweb, so it's somewhat less silly than the usual anti-virus company [Moose Diarrhea|Soda]. I have been running linux since I was given a copy SLS (19-odd floppies) back in the dream time and have never had a virus or trojan crop up on any of my systems. How are these spread? Doofusism?

From the article: Security researchers at Sophos Labs have revealed that nearly 70 percent of all Linux honeypot infections are caused by a single virus. Perhaps even more shocking, all things considered, is the fact that the virus in question, Linux/Rst-B, is actually six years old now. So concerned is Sophos at this identified trend that is has now made a specific tool available just to detect whether this one virus is present on your Linux based computer or server."
Security

Submission + - Six years on, Linux RST-B infections still rife (sophos.com)

Submitted by
grahamlee
grahamlee writes: "Security firm Sophos' blog describes a detection tool for the Linux RST-B virus, which has been in the wild for six years but is still showing up on the firm's honeypots. By running the detection tool, Linux users can help SophosLabs to research the extent of RST-B infection and perhaps understand why it is still infecting Linux boxes, despite being detected by many different Anti-Virus programs.

[Disclaimer: I work for Sophos]"
Graphics

All GeForce 8 Graphics Cards to Gain PhysX Support 114

Posted by Soulskill from the theoretical-physx dept.
J. Dzhugashvili writes "Nvidia completed its acquisition of Ageia yesterday, and it has revealed exactly what it plans to do with the company's PhysX physics processing engine. Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang says Nvidia is working to add PhysX support to its GeForce 8 series graphics processors using its CUDA general-purpose GPU (GPGPU) application programming interface. PhysX support will be available to all GeForce 8 owners via a simple software download, allowing those users to accelerate games that use the PhysX API without the need for any extra hardware. (Older cards aren't CUDA-compatible and therefore won't gain PhysX support.) With Havok FX shelved, the move may finally popularize hardware-accelerated physics processing in games."
Security

Submission + - Linux and viruses: real threat or just more FUD? (itwire.com) 2

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Sophos have announced they are going to study the role of Linux in botnet plague.

Personally I have always regarded stories of Linux viruses as just another piece of FUD, but I suppose as the plan for global domination takes shape, the bad guys will come after us. How worried should we be?
X

XFCE Adds Icons, Switches to Thunar in v4.4 83

Posted by timothy from the longtime-companion dept.
b100dian points out yesterday's release of XFCE 4.4, writing "If you have already followed the release candidates, you know that XFCE is really evolving. Besides adding desktop icons, introducing Thunar (in lieu of xffm) and MousePad, applications that are as simple as they are effective, and Terminal, which has built-in support for desktop composition (supported by the window manager out-of-the-box), it also introduced (finally!) a shortcut for the pop-up menu (you can see in the tour that Ctrl-Esc is bound to this menu). Congratulations for the lightest and slickest window manager ever:)" I've been using Thunar a lot lately (mostly under Gnome) because the renaming feature is powerful but reasonably intuitive -- very handy for cleaning up digicam photo names.

IE7 Separated from Windows Explorer 434

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the long-overdue dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Security experts warned Microsoft 10 years ago that putting IE as a component of Windows Explorer was a bad idea, looks like Microsoft finally decided to listen to the advice. According to a short write up in Business Week, Microsoft has decided that when IE7 comes out with Vista it will no longer be a component of Windows Explorer and will be able to replace IE6 even on XP machines."

Sudo vs. Root 327

Posted by CmdrTaco from the security-comes-first dept.
lessthan0 writes "In Mac OS X, the root account is disabled by default. The first user account created is added to the admin group and that user can use the sudo command to execute other commands as root. The conventional wisdom is that sudo is the most secure way to run root commands, but a closer look reveals a picture that is not so clear." The article is about OSX but the debate is a little older ;)
Programming

Coding Communities - What Works? 90

Posted by Cliff from the a-part-of-something-larger-than-yourself dept.
drDugan asks: "There is a resurgence in interest lately in information-based systems and websites for data sharing, structured data, and enabling communities to work together better. I'm working a contract for a new business that is trying to build a community to support people who write software. What communities are you a part of now that help you write and develop software? I mean this question in a general way, including both online communities and offline interactions (your office, LUGs, etc.) -- where do you find connection with other people to get information, answers, and inspiration?"

Nike and Google launch Joga.com 216

Posted by Hemos from the where's-the-hooligans dept.
hpcanswers writes "Given the increasing popularity of social-networking sites among the young and affluent, Nike has introduced a new site dedicated to the world's most popular sport: soccer. While Nike provides the content (via its army of sponsored athletes, among others), Google provides the technical expertise. Orkut has been very popular in soccer-crazed Brazil, so Google may be able to make a brand extension here. Joga.com is currently invite only, though a form at the bottom of the home page takes requests for invitations." I actually found the launch of a site like this interesting not because of the content, but because of the trend in "private label" sites. It's a Shake'n'Bake Social Network, and you helped make it.
Networking (Apple)

Journal Journal: No, I don't update here too often

Journal by grahamlee
Try my blog instead. Yes, it's a livejournal. Yes, I have long hair. No, te tw don't necessarily have to go together. BTW, just to let you know what you're in for, a load of NeXT->Apple related nerdy stuff and some motorbiking.
GNUStep

Journal Journal: Many projects 2

Journal by grahamlee

After ages of prevarication, and of starting projects and giving up once they compile, I've actually started doing some useful stuff. Hopefully quite a lot will be finished this week and I can release.

Just a quick tasteroony: an Objective-C CGI library, an Objective-C dict accessor library and app, a few graphical apps, and an httpd and web browser. Hopefully they'll all compile anywhere that Cocoa and GNUstep can be compiled.

More as it happens...

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