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Google

Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Yahoo Form Alliance Against NSA 293

Posted by samzenpus from the team-up dept.
mrspoonsi writes "BBC reports: Leading global technology firms have called for 'wide-scale changes' to US government surveillance. Eight firms, Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Yahoo, have formed an alliance called Reform Government Surveillance group. The group has written a letter to the US President and Congress arguing that current surveillance practice 'undermines the freedom' of people. It comes after recent leaks detailed the extent of surveillance programs. 'We understand that governments have a duty to protect their citizens. But this summer's revelations highlighted the urgent need to reform government surveillance practices worldwide,' the group said in an open letter published on its website."

Submission + - Free Software Foundation announces 2013 Holiday Giving Guide (fsf.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On Cyber Monday, millions of Americans will take to the Internet in search of the newest gadgets to bestow upon their loved ones. Most of these "gifts" are trojan horses that will spy on their recipients, prevent them from doing what they want with their device, or maybe even block access to their favorite books or music.

The Free Software Foundation is proud to introduce a map through this minefield: our 2013 Giving Guide. The Giving Guide features gifts that will not only make your recipients jump for joy; these gifts will also protect their freedom.

Submission + - What To Do With Old Domains 3

Submitted by Jason Levine
Jason Levine writes: While looking to buy a new domain for a website idea I had, I realized that over the years I've purchased quite a few domain names. I'm not a domain hoarder by any stretch of the imagination, but 14 domains isn't a small number either. Of those domains, only 6 are actively being used. Many of the others were used for web projects that died out or that never launched. I could let the domains expire or possibly sell them (some might actually take in some cash), but I'm afraid of the domains being grabbed by spammers or other nefarious individuals. Holding onto them is an option, but increasingly I'm wondering why I'm paying annual fees for domain names that I'm not using and likely will never use again.

How do you handle old domain names in your possession that you no longer need?
Graphics

Nvidia Removed Linux Driver Feature For Feature Parity With Windows 237

Posted by timothy from the leveling-the-playing-the-field dept.
RemyBR writes "Softpedia points to a Nvidia Developer Zone forum post revealing that the company has removed a specific Linux feature as of the v310 drivers due to the Windows platform. A BaseMosaic user on Ubuntu 12.04 noticed a change in the number of displays that can be used simultaneously after upgrading from the v295 drivers to v310. Another user, apparently working for Nvidia, gave a very troubling answer: 'For feature parity between Windows and Linux we set BaseMosaic to 3 screens.'"
Cloud

Microsoft Azure Platform Certified "Secure" By Department of Defense 90

Posted by timothy from the until-proven-otherwise dept.
cagraham writes "Microsoft's cloud storage platform Azure received their first government certification yesterday, less than 24 hours before the official shutdown. The certification, which grants Azure 'Provisional Authority to Operate,' should make it easier for Microsoft to compete with rivals like IBM and Amazon Web Services for government contracts. The certification signifies that the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, and US General Services Administration have all deemed Azure safe from external hackers. Government cloud contracts are a lucrative market, as seen by Amazon's recent tussle with IBM over a $600M contract for a private CIA cloud."

Submission + - Linus Torvalds Admits He's Been Asked to Insert NSA Backdoor (eweek.com)

Submitted by darthcamaro
darthcamaro writes: At the Linuxcon conference in New Orleans today, Linus Torvalds joined fellow kernel developers in answering a barrage of questions about Linux development. One question he was asked was whether a government agency had ever asked about inserting a back-door into Linux.

Torvalds responded "no" while shaking his head "yes," as the audience broke into spontaneous laughter.

Torvalds also admitted that while he as a full life outside of Linux he couldn't imagine his life without it.

While Torvalds has a full life outside Linux, it is at the core of his existence, he said. "I don't see any project coming along being more interesting to me than Linux," Torvalds said. "I couldn't imagine filling the void in my life if I didn't have Linux." /blockquote.

Submission + - Physicists Discover Geometry Underlying Particle Physics (simonsfoundation.org)

Submitted by Lee_Dailey
Lee_Dailey writes: Physicists have discovered a jewel-like geometric object that dramatically simplifies calculations of particle interactions and challenges the notion that space and time are fundamental components of reality.

“This is completely new and very much simpler than anything that has been done before,” said Andrew Hodges, a mathematical physicist at Oxford University who has been following the work.

Submission + - Facebook, Twitter, Google opening URLs in your email (computerweekly.com)

Submitted by qubezz
qubezz writes: You have emailed someone a confidential email with a URL that gives them secure access to your site — well guess what, your email provider is logging into it also. Several email and messaging platforms are reading message contents and following web links in the messages.

Security firm High-Tech Bridge set up a dedicated server to see which of the services picked up and used a unique URL they added to emails sent through various services. During the 10 days of the experiment, only six services out of the 50 took the bait, but they included four of the biggest and most used social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Formspring.

Submission + - Venezuela's e-government law includes penalties for not using free software (aporrea.org)

Submitted by Clsid
Clsid writes: New e-gov law not only reinforces a previous decree that made free software mandatory in public institutions, but also includes taxes for using closed-source software. These funds go to a National Endowment for Science that will help small enterprises and groups of individuals create free software alternatives. And judging by the impact of the first decree, which ended up creating Canaima GNU/Linux and also the promotion of a local initiative similar to OLPC which put laptops with Linux in the hands of 90% of elementary school children, Venezuelan free software collectives are describing it as huge achievement and even calling for open hardware initiatives as well. Original article in Spanish (Google translation).
Software

How To Build a Simple Open Source Server Monitoring Solution With Mobile Support 58

Posted by timothy from the be-here-now-or-at-least-check-in dept.
reifman writes "Nothing sucks more than finding an 'Error establishing database connection' on your blog hours after the fact, but it's not easy to find inexpensive, simple monitoring solutions which support smartphone notifications. I wrote MonitorApp, a free, open source software applet which sends notifications to your iPhone (or Android) if anything goes wrong with your web site or services. This tutorial describes how to install and configure MonitorApp for your own purposes. The only cost is a $4.99 mobile application called Pushover — which links MonitorApp to your phone. Pushover also links with Nagios, a more complex open source option — but ironically, Nagios' website was down when I looked for it last month."
Software

New Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Service Packs Roll Out 44

Posted by Soulskill from the packed-with-services dept.
jones_supa writes "While service packs are out of style for the Windows operating system, Microsoft has pushed out another service pack (SP2) for both Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 products. According to the company, they provide key updates and fixes across servers, services and applications including security, stability, and performance enhancements and better compatibility with Windows 8, Internet Explorer 10, Office 2013, and SharePoint 2013. The updates are available through Windows Update and as separate downloads."
Windows

Ask Slashdot: Light-Footprint Antivirus For Windows XP? 294

Posted by timothy from the tread-lightly-stomp-hard dept.
New submitter Bauermlb writes "I service computers for retired folks in my community, often older machines with modest speed (2 GHz Centron) and modest memory (512 MB). Adding AVAST to one of these machines slows it to a crawl. Any recommendations for a light-duty antivirus program with a low overhead? (These people do not tend to surf 'dirty' sites.)"
IOS

iOS 7 Beta 3 Now Available For iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch 205

Posted by samzenpus from the get-it-while-it's-hot dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Apple on Monday released iOS 7 beta 3 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch to developers. Apple unveiled iOS 7 during its WWDC 2013 keynote in early June, and the new software was met with mixed responses. While some believe iOS 7 is a big leap forward in terms of innovation, BGR said that iOS 7 focused mainly on renovation rather than the introduction of innovative new features. Of course, Apple still may have some surprises in store for the release version of iOS 7 this fall, especially considering the next-generation iPhone 5S is expected to launch around the same time with an integrated fingerprint scanner."
Security

Backdoor Discovered In Atlassian Crowd 133

Posted by timothy from the your-gate-is-up dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Recently published on the Command Five website is a technically detailed threat advisory (PDF) in relation to a recurring vulnerability in Atlassian Crowd. Tucked away inconspicuously at the end of this document in a section entitled 'Unpatched Vulnerabilities' is the real security bombshell: Atlassian's turnkey solution for enterprise single sign-on and secure user authentication contains an unpatched backdoor. The backdoor allows anyone to remotely take full control of a Crowd server and, according to Command Five, successful exploitation 'invariably' results in compromise of all application and user credentials as well as accessible data storage, configured directories (for example Active Directory), and dependent systems."

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