beowulf01 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Student Designer Gets Cease and Desist from U. (studlife.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @08:38PM

An anonymous reader writes: A student who tried to help the dismal course listings at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) should have gotten a thank you letter for his volunteer work. Instead, they sent him a cease-and-desist letter for using a common moniker – Wash U – in his website URL. This abrasive stance from the University might have been warranted if the site actually made WUSTL look bad, but instead it has been embraced by students as a welcome change. Even if the University cares more about its business than its students, a far-sighted U. might have realized that future alumni might be more likely to give money if the University *seemed* to work for students. One more reason why lawyers are the scourge of the earth...

Submission + - The return of VRML? 3D graphics for Firefox (goodgearguide.com.au)

Submitted by

angry tapir

on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @07:54PM

angry tapir writes: "A group of researchers plans to release a version of the Firefox browser that includes the built-in ability to view 3D graphics. They've integrated real-time ray tracing technology, called RT Fact, into Firefox and Webkit. Images are described using XML3D, and the browser can natively render the 3D scene."

Submission + - Experts Call Google Hackers 'Amateurs'

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @07:50PM

An anonymous reader writes: While Google called a cyber-attack against its network last January a "highly sophisticated" and targeted attack, security experts said the techniques show the attackers to be nothing more than "amateurs." The report could be a blow to Google's efforts to classify the attack as state-sponsored, giving it considerably less leverage as it attempts to negotiate with China about its continued operations in the country.

Submission + - Fire Prevention Month (cebueventours.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @07:49PM

An anonymous reader writes: Summer is approaching we feel the hot temperature and the dry surroundings and we all aware that the month of March is the fire prevention month.
Well let me discuss you a little tidbits tip about Fire Prevention, first we should know the composition of a fire.

Submission + - Bluetooth 4.0 to reach devices in fourth quarter (goodgearguide.com.au)

Submitted by

angry tapir

on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @07:44PM

angry tapir writes: "The Bluetooth 4.0 wireless specification could start to appear in devices such as headsets, smartphones and PCs by the fourth quarter, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. The new specification will be able to be used in lower-power devices than previous versions of the technology, including watches, pedometers, smart meters and other gadgets that run on coin-cell batteries."

Submission + - The UK's very own DMCA; only worse. (pirateparty.org.uk)

Submitted by Grumbleduke on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @07:36PM

Grumbleduke writes: During today's debate in the UK's House of Lords on the much-criticised Digital Economy Bill the unpopular Clause 17 (that would have allowed the government to alter copyright law much more easily than it currently can) was voted out in favour of a DMCA-style take-down system for websites and ISPs. The new amendment (known as 120A) sets up a system whereby a copyright owner could force an ISP to block certain websites who allegedly host or link to infringing material or face being taken before the High Court (and made to pay the copyright owner's legal fees). This amendment was tabled by the Liberal Democrat party who had so far been seen as the defenders of the internet and reason and with the Conservative party supporting them passed by 165 to 140 votes. The UK's Pirate Party and Open Rights Group have both strongly criticised this new amendment.

The Bill is currently in Report stage in the House of Lords, and will then and will then have to pass through the (elected) House of Commons. The government has indicated its desire to push through the legislation before the upcoming election.

Submission + - Captcha-Bots Got the Best Seats in the House

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens

on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @07:26PM

Hugh Pickens writes: "The Globe and Mail reports that a few seconds after tickets went on sale for Bruce Springsteen's concert at New Jersey's Giants Stadium in the summer of 2008, half the 440 floor seats were gone – snatched by computers posing as human beings. According to the FBI, Wiseguy Tickets, Inc. targeted on-line ticket sites including Ticketmaster, Tickets.com and Major League Baseball, re-selling some 1.5-million tickets to shows ranging from Bon Jovi to Barbara Streisand for a profit of nearly $29 million from 2002 to 2008. “The public thought it had a fair shot at getting tickets to these events, but what the public didn't know was that the defendants had cheated them out of that opportunity,” says US attorney Paul Fishman. According to the indictment, the accused men worked with hackers in Bulgaria to build a network of computers using "CAPTCHA Bots" let Wiseguy Tickets to flood ticket vendors and purchase tickets faster than any human. To beat the system, Wiseguy staff began manually entering huge amounts of previously encountered images into a database, along with the words they represented. By referencing the database, the computers could sometimes get through in fractions of a second. The defendants have pled not guilty and their legal team claims that their clients did not break any laws. “Congress has not yet legislated that ticket brokering is illegal.” attorney Mark Rush told the judge adding that selling tickets for higher than face value is legal in 47 states."

Submission + - I feel better the Cyber Czar is here (darkreading.com)

Submitted by JumpDrive on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @05:09PM

JumpDrive writes: The Cyber Czar has announced priorities for U.S. government cyber security. Details ( well the government version of details) is outlined in pdf document. It appears to be more rhetoric than substance. Discussions of what they are going to do to improve the security of government networks, which is unverifiable until failure. Very little that would or could effect the increase in security of the average citizens usage. But maybe that was the plan to bury the information on possible scanning of private networks in 12 initiatives that said nothing verifiable. I wish my boss would allow me to use initiatives instead of verifiable goals.

Submission + - Opera demand up as Microsoft opens up EU market (reuters.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @04:10PM

An anonymous reader writes: Opera Software said downloads of its desktop browser increased three-fold this week as Microsoft rolled out the browser Choice Screen to Windows users in Europe. Opera downloads have tripled in major European countries such as Belgium, France, Spain, Poland and the UK.

Submission + - Turn your Roomba into a walking Google Bot (gaaglebot.com)

Submitted by

Wael Chatila

on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @04:03PM

Wael Chatila writes: "By adding an onboard computer and a camera on a Roomba, the Roomba can be used to index your home. As a bonus, you can also control the Roomba across an internet connection, and see the images from the camera — a spybot for you to check on your own home while you are out."

Submission + - Ubuntu dumps the brown, gets new visual identity (arstechnica.com) 4

Submitted by buntcake on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @03:59PM

buntcake writes: Canonical has launched a new visual identity for the Ubuntu Linux distribution. Ubuntu is shedding its previous brown look and adopting a more professional color scheme with purple and orange. The colors will be used in a new GNOME theme and boot splash for Ubuntu 10.04. According to updated design documents that were published in the Ubuntu wiki, "light" is the underlying concept behind the new visual identity. It displaces the "human" concept that has been part of Ubuntu's theming and brand vernacular for the past five years. Ubuntu community manager Jono Bacon has posted a screenshot and additional information.

Submission + - Google Engineer's Windows DEP Bypass Opens Doors (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @03:47PM

CWmike writes: The disclosure of a new exploit technique that bypasses an important Windows security feature may result in more successful attacks against Microsoft's newer OSes, researchers said on Wednesday. On Monday, Google security software engineer Berend-Jan Wever published proof-of-concept code that bypasses DEP, or data error prevention, one of two major security enhancements Microsoft has added to Windows since 2004. The other: ASLR, for address space layout randomization. Microsoft introduced DEP in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), the security-oriented refresh launched in 2004, and it debuted ASLR in Windows Vista three years later. 'I am releasing this because I feel it helps explain why ASLR+DEP are not a mitigation to put a lot of faith in, especially on x86 platforms,' said Wever in a post to his personal blog. 'This is pretty significant,' said David Sancho, a senior threat researcher with Trend Micro, of Wever's demonstration. 'This can be used to further enhance exploits, and I expect that we'll start seeing it being used within exploits fairly soon.'

Comment Game on! Sir Terry! (Score 0) 1

by beowulf01 on Wednesday December 31, 2008 @04:45AM (#26277749) Attached to: Sir Terry Pratchett

I have enjoyed many of his stories over the years. Wikipedia has a nice write-up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett

Comment Entertainment Providor Greed (Score 0) 1

by beowulf01 on Wednesday December 31, 2008 @04:31AM (#26277695) Attached to: Time Warner to lose MTV, Comedy Central, and More

Viacom can charge whatever it thinks the market will bear, a cable distributor can refuse to pay or pass it on to the customer, but what really happens is that the consumer gets robbed again with limited choices and higher prices. Its bad enough that those advertisement banners n the bottom of shows are getting larger every year. I see this with Dish Network all the time as channels com and go due to a price hike or contact dispute. Most of the channels and shows are just so much mindless drivel (for example: The Science Channel with very little science, and SCIFI with often very little actual science fiction, such as ECW? what the....?). Ah, but the mob needs entertainment! To the Colosseum! I fully expect that I will burn out soon and decide to save the $50US/month. I can rent a lot of movies with that savings...or maybe catch up on all those video games...or wait! Read a book! How retro!

Submission + - Time Warner to lose MTV, Comedy Central, and More (google.com) 1

Submitted by

Selikoff

on Wednesday December 31, 2008 @04:01AM

Selikoff writes: "Viacom has started flooding airwaves (in the form of a scrolling banner on certain channels) announcing Time Warner customers will lose a number of channels at midnight tonight including: Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Noggin, Nicktoons, Spike, VH1, TV Land, and more. The banner encourages customers to call Time Warner to complain and even provides a support number. Apparently, the issue stems from Viacom raising rates as much as 22 and 36 percent per channel. Funny, they didn't post a customer support number to call Viacom in the scrolling banner, but according to their website its (212) 258-6000. Read more about it at: here and here."

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