Comment Re:Not relevant here (Score 1) 374
Well said!
Comment Re:"Post Tech or GTFO!" (Score 1) 374
Of course it does! It included every QANTAS employee. I feel bad for the customers, but the airline grounded for bureaucratic BS and union bickering reasons. Not because of a technology or engineering related issues. The former will always be a CNN, BBC and WSJ story, the latter means it's a /. story. Otherwise, GTFO.
Comment Re:Lessons for others? (Score 1) 94
An article on Ars Technia stated that:
"The intrusion was reported to kernel.org users earlier this week by site administrator John Hawley. The attack is believed to have occurred on August 12 but wasn't detected until August 28. The attack vector isn't known for certain, but it is thought that the attacker somehow obtained a legitimate user's login credentials and then exploited an unknown privilege escalation vulnerability. The attack was discovered when an Xnest error message was found in the system logs on a server that did not have Xnest installed."
Submission + - Welcome Back Kernel.org (kernel.org)
Hummdis writes: "After more than a month of being offline due to a security breach at Kernel.org, they're back!
While they were down, they took the time to "rearchitect" the site for developers and users.
"As noted previously, kernel.org suffered a security breach. Because of this, we have taken the time to rearchitect the site in order to improve our systems for developers and users of kernel.org. To this end, we would like all developers who previously had access to kernel.org who wish to continue to use it to host their git and static content, to follow the instructions here.
Right now, www.kernel.org and git.kernel.org have been brought back online. All developer git trees have been removed from git.kernel.org and will be added back as the relevant developers regain access to the system.
Thanks to all for your patience and understanding during our outage and please bear with us as we bring up the different kernel.org systems over the next few weeks. We will be writing up a report on the incident in the future.""
While they were down, they took the time to "rearchitect" the site for developers and users.
"As noted previously, kernel.org suffered a security breach. Because of this, we have taken the time to rearchitect the site in order to improve our systems for developers and users of kernel.org. To this end, we would like all developers who previously had access to kernel.org who wish to continue to use it to host their git and static content, to follow the instructions here.
Right now, www.kernel.org and git.kernel.org have been brought back online. All developer git trees have been removed from git.kernel.org and will be added back as the relevant developers regain access to the system.
Thanks to all for your patience and understanding during our outage and please bear with us as we bring up the different kernel.org systems over the next few weeks. We will be writing up a report on the incident in the future.""
Submission + - Is Steve Ballmer Underpaid? (itworld.com)
jfruhlinger writes: "An odd tidbit from Microsoft's recent SEC filing: the company believes that CEO Steve Ballmer is "underpaid," at his own request. Which offers an interesting question of what "underpaid" might mean. Ballmer made $1.38 million in salaries and bonuses. That's more than the overwhelming majority of Americans. It's less than other tech executives, including some of Microsoft's own staff. It's tiny compared to his accumulated wealth, much of which is in Microsoft stock and therefore tied to his company's performance. But if his salary is meant to reflect the value he's adding to the company, well, maybe it's still too much."
Submission + - Get Your Hacked PayPal Accounts Here (krebsonsecurity.com)
An anonymous reader writes: PayPal accounts get hacked all the time, either through phishing scams or via banking trojans. Usually, these are sold on underground crime forums, or crook-to-crook via private messages. But increasingly the crooks are taking their wares straight to the public. Krebsonsecurity.com writes today about iProfit.su, a Web site that sells compromised PayPal accounts for a fraction of their available balance. From the story: "according to the proprietor of this shop these are all “verified.” PayPal “verifies” an account when a customer agrees to attach a bank account to it; PayPal then sends a micropayment the bank account, and asks the user the value of that mini deposit. A bonus feature: all the hacked PayPal profiles currently for sale at iProfit.su are advertised as having a credit card attached to them, which is another way PayPal accounts can be verified.
Submission + - Android cuts into Apple's margins (zerohedge.com)
dave562 writes: Reggie Middleton at BoomBustBlog offers some insightful analysis about how Android is impacting Apple's market share.
The maddening pace of Android technology development is simply too much for Apple to keep pace, or at least keep pace with while maintaining those fat margins. So what do they do? they release a marginally improved product that has yet to match the 6 month old Android flagship tech that is about to be refreshed/replaced/updated in exactly ONE WEEK!
He goes on to point out how Google has backed Apple into a corner, and they will have no choice but to cut into their fat profit margins in order to stay competitive.
Lower prices and/or higher technological bars will lead to lower margins. For those that are paying attention, it is evident that it is already happening. The disappointment felt throughout the web at the release of the iPhone 4GS was not due to Apple releasing a subpar product. It was due to Android raising the bar so high that Apple simply could not match it without busting its extremely fat (72%) margins.
What does this mean for Apple's share prices? I think the answer is obvious.
The maddening pace of Android technology development is simply too much for Apple to keep pace, or at least keep pace with while maintaining those fat margins. So what do they do? they release a marginally improved product that has yet to match the 6 month old Android flagship tech that is about to be refreshed/replaced/updated in exactly ONE WEEK!
He goes on to point out how Google has backed Apple into a corner, and they will have no choice but to cut into their fat profit margins in order to stay competitive.
Lower prices and/or higher technological bars will lead to lower margins. For those that are paying attention, it is evident that it is already happening. The disappointment felt throughout the web at the release of the iPhone 4GS was not due to Apple releasing a subpar product. It was due to Android raising the bar so high that Apple simply could not match it without busting its extremely fat (72%) margins.
What does this mean for Apple's share prices? I think the answer is obvious.
Submission + - Facebook Confirms New Cookie Tracking Issue
An anonymous reader writes: Facebook is once again setting its datr cookie via the Like button and other social plugins on third-party websites. The datr cookie can be used for tracking users" whether you are logged in or logged out of the service. Facebook has confirmed this is indeed a bug, but says that it is limited in scope and that it will be fixed today. Talk about damage control.
Submission + - Big Brother Calls "Shotgun" (faqs.org)
kackle writes: I received a from letter from the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority saying that my first-generation "IPASS" transponder needs to be replaced because the battery is old. I called them for clarification since the first-generation transponders obviously have user-replaceable batteries, and I wanted to keep this version because it beeps when a toll is paid. (This notifies drivers that their battery is still good, unlike the silent second-generation version which has informed them of a dead battery by sending a ticket in the mail.) The woman on the phone explained that they were replacing them just because the electronics are old. This uninformed answer made me research the device. I found that the manufacturer has recently filed a patent application for a new transponder that a has a camera in it-a camera pointed inward at the occupants. How long before they make it illegal to cover that camera with tape?
Comment Re:DirecTV does not own Blockbuster (Score 1) 214
You'd think that jfruhlinger would have picked up on that given that it's in the first sentence in TFA.
Blockbuster, the former DVD rental powerhouse that went bankrupt and was purchased by Dish Network in April,....
Submission + - Last.FM Requires Subscription (blog.last.fm)
Hummdis writes: If you, like so many others, listen to Last.FM on your mobile or home entertainment devices, then you're going to need to pay for this once free service effective February 15th.
It remains free to listen on Last.FM (the website), but if you want to continue to listen on Android, your BluRay player, or any other device, you'll need to spend the $3.00 per month to be able to do so.
It remains free to listen on Last.FM (the website), but if you want to continue to listen on Android, your BluRay player, or any other device, you'll need to spend the $3.00 per month to be able to do so.
Submission + - FedEx struck by software glitch (networkworld.com)
alphadogg writes: FedEx package-delivery personnel across the United States have been reduced to inputting package information by hand and getting handwritten signatures instead of doing this all electronically due to what’s believed to be a software glitch on their handheld devices.
"We’re trying to resolve this today," said FedEx spokesperson Sally Davenport at FedEx's Memphis headquarters, saying the problem has been traced to a suspected bad software download on Sunday affecting the PowerPad devices carried by FedEx package-delivery personnel. "It was inadvertently downloaded," she said, referring to a glitch believed to be related to a "wrong version" of the software FedEx uses.
The PowerPad downtime is highly unusual, according to the FedEx spokeswoman, but she said there is no reason to suspect that the software glitch is related to any possible type of cyber-attack.
"We’re trying to resolve this today," said FedEx spokesperson Sally Davenport at FedEx's Memphis headquarters, saying the problem has been traced to a suspected bad software download on Sunday affecting the PowerPad devices carried by FedEx package-delivery personnel. "It was inadvertently downloaded," she said, referring to a glitch believed to be related to a "wrong version" of the software FedEx uses.
The PowerPad downtime is highly unusual, according to the FedEx spokeswoman, but she said there is no reason to suspect that the software glitch is related to any possible type of cyber-attack.
Comment Re:Ignorance (Score 1) 490
Another great example of this ignorance (and misinformation spread by Apple) is that Mac OSX is virus-free and will stay so, while in fact there have been several recent instances of malware on OSX. The funny thing is that because Apple spreads these lies and users blindly trust them, they also are ignorant and can't see it. It's the classic lalalalala.
Comment Re:Remove the artificial monopoly (Score 1) 299
Exactly! They claim to have lower rates but there are federal laws that prohibit UPS, FedEx, DHL and any other courier services from underselling the government. Therefore, even if they could/would undersell, they can't according to federal law.
Adapting the Post Office To the Digital Age 299
Hugh Pickens writes "Paul B. Carroll and Chunka Mui write in the Washington Post that with projected deficits through 2020 of $238 billion, the debate over potential changes at the US Postal Service is like a fight over the dessert bar on the Titanic: email has already supplanted letters, more people will send money via PayPal rather than mail checks, people will download their movies and books, check their bills online, and receive information about their investments electronically. Delivery volume for first-class mail fell 22 percent from 1998 through 2007, tumbled an additional 13 percent last year and was down 3 percent in the first half of this year despite heavy mailings from the Census Bureau. USPS's future lies in things that need to be delivered physically: shoes, computers and other objects, and the USPS has assets that could let it take on UPS and FedEx. 'USPS needs to start with the future and work backward to the present,' write Carroll and Mui. 'It needs to forecast volumes for all types of its business five, 10 and 15 years out and design a business model that will thrive under those scenarios. Only then can it figure out what radical changes need to be made now.'"
