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Programming

Submission + - Steve Gibson Discusses Software Patents

Submitted by MasterOfMagic
MasterOfMagic writes: On this week's episode of Security Now, Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte discuss software patents, how they are different from trademarks and copyrights, and why they think that they are bad. The actual discussion about software patents starts 15:50 into the podcast. They also discuss IBM's patent portfolio, the RIM patent matter, and the Novel-Microsoft pact. As a bonus, they discuss Apple's Airport responding to request to closed ports instead of ignoring requests to them, and a follow up to the allegation that The Geek Squad used SpinRite without permission. While I know that software patents is a quite divisive issue on Slashdot, the discussion is a good introduction and refresher for people that are 'new around here'. IANAL, nor is Steve Gibson or Leo Laporte, but their discussion is a good starting point.
The Courts

Verizon Claims Free Speech Over NSA Wiretapping 391

Posted by Zonk from the corporations-shold-have-the-right-to-have-babies dept.
xvx writes "Verizon is claiming that they have the right to hand over customer information to the US government under the First Amendment. 'Essentially, the argument is that turning over truthful information to the government is free speech, and the EFF and ACLU can't do anything about it. In fact, Verizon basically argues that the entire lawsuit is a giant SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) suit, and that the case is an attempt to deter the company from exercising its First Amendment right to turn over customer calling information to government security services.'"
Windows

Vista vs. XP Game Stability and Performance 114

Posted by Zonk from the going-for-both-not-quite-getting-there dept.
boyko.at.netqos writes "HardOCP does a side-by side comparison with a battery of games to check stability and framerates in Windows XP and Windows Vista. In addition to the lowered framerates in Vista, they had stability issues in Need for Speed: Carbon and Prey. From the article: 'For some titles, especially Company of Heroes and Need for Speed, we saw dramatic framerate discrepancies. What's more, both of these titles have recently released patches! Other titles showed a slight, but essentially negligible difference, such as BF2142, World of Warcraft, and Prey. Really, there was only one instance where Vista was able to pick up a few more frames than XP — World of Warcraft at greater than 90fps, where the human eye can't even see the difference. To see this overall trend against Vista is very interesting and makes us wonder as to the cause.'"
Security

Submission + - Data breach at UWF

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: There's been a data breach at UWF according to some posts, compromising the privacy of an unknown number of students. I'm just surprised this hasn't received much coverage. Are we getting blasé about privacy breaches because they occur so often nowadays??
Operating Systems

Submission + - Gentoo Linux 2007.0 released

Submitted by goldfinger67
goldfinger67 writes: The Gentoo Release Engineering project is pleased to announce the much-delayed release of Gentoo Linux 2007.0, code named "Secret Sauce". This release met with several delays due to an abnormally high number of security vulnerabilities in large packages which had to be rebuilt using the newer, secure versions of the packages. There was also a complete resnapshot done about half-way through the release period due to the release taking so long and the packages becoming stale.

Main features:

x86/amd64:
Updated hardware support is among the highlights of the x86 release. Besides
the many updated office and productivity packages x86 also brings an update to
GLIBC 2.5.
On amd64 you can enjoy updated 32-bit emulation libraries improving support
for many closed source applications and browser plugins.

x86 and amd64 also provides both hardened and non-hardened stages in this
release. Hardened stages are still using GCC 3.4.6 and GLIBC 2.3.6 but it's
possible to upgrade from hardened to non-hardened stages, if needed.
The Courts

Student, Denied Degree For MySpace Photo, Sues 823

Posted by kdawson from the striking-back dept.
gwoodrow writes "We've all heard the 'fired because of MySpace' stories, where a simple blog or picture gets someone canned. But now one of the targets is fighting back. (The offending picture in this case was a snap from Halloween 2005 of the student in a pirate outfit drinking from a cup.)" From the article: "Teacher in training Stacy Snyder was denied her education degree on the eve of graduation when Millersville University apparently found pictures on her MySpace page 'promoting underage drinking.' As a result, the 27-year-old mother of two had her teaching certificate withheld and was granted an English degree instead. In response, Snyder has filed a Federal lawsuit against the Pennsylvania university asking for her education diploma and certificate along with $75,000 in damages."
Security

Submission + - TJX Pwn3d by Pringles?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: According to the Wall Street Journal it seems that the TJX data breach of over 40 million credit card numbers and >400,000 SSNs, driver's license numbers, and military identification was a result of someone using a "telescope-shaped" antenna at a WEP encrypted wireless link at a Marshall's near St. Paul, Minnesota starting in July 2005.
United States

Submission + - Preventing Global Warming Costs Only 0.1% GDP

Submitted by
reporter
reporter writes: "According to a report by "The Economist", the United Nations has just released a study demonstrating that preventing global warming is relatively inexpensive. The study states that the cost is only 0.1% of gross domestic product per year."

Feed IBM gearing up to lay off over 100000 American employees? (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

We'll admit, even we're a bit frightened that immensely intelligent humanoid bots may one day oust us from these seats, but according to whispers going around at IBM's HQ, something just as momentous could be going down as early as this year. Shortly after Lenovo told 1,400 of its US-based employees to politely hop off the payroll, IBM's LEAN plan could call for over 100,000 American workers to be canned in favor of (surprise, surprise) hiring overseas. Already, the firm has laid off 1,300 employees in 2007, but according to a recent report, an ongoing "planning meeting" for how to handle the company's Global Services could eventually axe "up to 150,000 US jobs" while hiring cheaper labor in China and India. Interestingly, this news could actually be sweet music to Wall Street, at least in the short term, but we can't imagine how this logistical nightmare will ever bode well for Big Blue's future.

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