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Security

Firefox Extension Makes Social-Network ID Spoofing Trivial 185

Posted by timothy from the plausible-deniability-for-farmville dept.
Orome1 writes "A simple-to-use Firefox plugin presented yesterday at Toorcon in San Diego has hit the security world with the realization that squabbles about Facebook's changing privacy settings and various privacy breaches simply miss the point. 'When it comes to user privacy, SSL is the elephant in the room,' said Eric Butler, the developer of the extension in question, dubbed Firesheep. By installing and running it, anyone can 'sniff out' the unencrypted HTTP sessions currently allowing users on that network segment to access social networks, online services and other website requiring a login, and simply hijack them and impersonate the user."

Comment Re:Water means life? (Score 1) 104

by vinlud (#26200045) Attached to: Water Detected At Record Distance From Earth

It is a shame that current physicists are using valuable resources to search for "life" within such a limited framework.

Its a shame somebody gets modded up that much on /. for such an unconstructive post, not giving any idea how the very scarce resources of our physicists should be assigned and what your framework in such a quest would be.

Comment Re:Number One Thing (Score 1) 1455

by vinlud (#22048994) Attached to: What Would You Do As President?
I don't qualify under current law, but the first thing I would do is to look at how to make the current US problem in Iraq someone else's problem. Over the past five years Iraq has all but destroyed the US army. Whose army do we most want to destroy most (or care least about)? That would be Iran. So the US says to Iran 'your problem now', withdraw to Kuwait, see whether Iran prefers to have a festering civil war on its border or gets sucked in.

This is even worse policy then Bush did/does in his terms. So basically you say the solution to end a civil war is to create another one in a neigbouring country? I can see Iran having some influence in the current affairs, but no so much that it would justify burdening the normal, hard working, mostly non-fanatic, Iranian people with a (civil) war. Anyone doing something like this should be treated as a war criminal.
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - The Programmer Dress Code? (codethinked.com)

Submitted by vinlud
vinlud writes: Justin Etheredge made a nice collection of our heroes of the computer industry: "I really want to know what it is about programming, or computers in general, that makes people want to grow a beard, have long hair, and dress like a slob. So there you have it, my totally incomplete list of bearded, long haired, casually dressed visionaries. Got any other great pictures of any computer scientists/software engineers? Let us know in the comments!"
Mars

Potential Landing Sites for EU Mars Rover Selected 79

Posted by Zonk from the going-on-up dept.
kfz versicherung writes "In 2013 the European Space Agency will launch its mission to Mars - ExoMars. The multi-million-euro mission calls for a rover weighing just over 200kg that can trundle over the martian soil in search of past and present life. Now prime landing spots have been selected. The list includes two sites at Meridiani Planum, the flat expanse near Mars' equator where Nasa's Opportunity found possible evidence for an ancient sea. Early in Earth's history, all the primordial biochemistry took place in phyllosilicates, some kind of mineral that is a good matrix for preserving organic matter. Scientists are guessing that a similar site is the best place to start looking for fossil life on the Red Planet."
PC Games (Games)

Valve Locking Out Gamers Who Buy Orange Box Internationally 665

Posted by Zonk from the steaming-up-your-users dept.
Via Opposable Thumbs, a post on the Consumerist site notes that some enterprising gamers who bought the Orange Box in a territory different than the one they lived (to save a few bucks) have now found themselves unable to play the game. "One user, Todd, explains that thousands of crafty North American gamers looking for a deal have 'bought the product (and hence, the serial numbers) at well known international game stores' at a significant markdown. Activation of the purchased titles went off without a hitch. However, Valve apparently has taken issue with the region-specificity of some international versions and has begun locking out accounts of those living in North America, but owning international serial numbers with the message that the purchased game is in the 'incorrect territory.'" Worse, folks who tried to 'make it right' by buying a local copy have found they're basically SOL. I've been a big fan of the Steam concept since it launched, but this is the sort of thing you need to communicate to your users before you sting them.
Spam

Spam Sites Infesting Google Search Results 207

Posted by CmdrTaco from the hate-when-that-happens dept.
The Google Watchdog blog is reporting that "Spam and virus sites infesting the Google SERPs in several categories" and speculates, ...Google's own index has been hacked. The circumvention of a guideline normally picked up by the Googlebot quickly is worrisome. The fact that none of the sites have real content and don't appear to even be hosted anywhere is even more scary. How did millions of sites get indexed if they don't exist?
Wireless Networking

Submission + - cell-phones used to avoid car-pedestrian accidents

Submitted by Anton
Anton writes: "This deadly accident would not have happened if it had been between a Nissan driver and a DoCoMo user?" Sounds weird? But might happen: Nissan Japan announced today that it started testing ITS in Japan. This Intelligent Transport System aims to prevent accidents between cars and pedestrians using GPS data fom pedestrian's cellphones. Pedestrian locations are transmitted to a central server which displays a warning message in the car's navigation system if and where an accident is likely to accur. Nissan hopes to reduce accidents ecpecially in blind-spot situations this way. If implemented, some accidents involving pedestrians might simply not happen if the pedestrian carries a GPS enabled G3 cell-phone. The research is conducted in collaboration with NTT DoCoMo Japan. ITS means that DoCoMo users, if they want to benefit from it, will have to agree that their position is constantly transmitted to a central server. What about the legal and security implications? And will Nissan and DoCoMo be willing to share protocols and technology so that other car-manufacturers and cell-phone companies can join the system?
United States

Submission + - CS programs changing to attract women students

Submitted by Magnifico
Magnifico writes: In today's The New York Times, there is a story about American universities are actively recruiting women to be Computer Science students and changing CS courses to do so. The story, "Computer Science Takes Steps to Bring Women to the Fold", explains that the number of women in CS is shrinking: "Women received about 38 percent of the computer science bachelor's degrees awarded in the United States in 1985, the peak year, but in 2003, the figure was only about 28 percent, according to the National Science Foundation." One of the largest barriers to recruiting women to the field is the "nerd factor". To attract women students to the CS field, "Moving emphasis away from programming proficiency was a key to the success of programs Dr. Blum and her colleagues at Carnegie Mellon instituted to draw more women into computer science." Changes at CMU increased women students in the CS program from 8 percent to nearly 40 percent.
Space

NASA Probe Validates Einstein Within 1% 188

Posted by kdawson from the kind-of-a-drag dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Gravity Probe B uses four ultra-precise gyroscopes to measure two effects of Einstein's general relativity theory — the geodetic effect and frame dragging. According to the mission's principal investigator, the data from Gravity Probe B's gyroscopes confirm the Einstein theory's value for the geodetic effect to better than 1%. In a common analogy, the geodetic effect is similar to the shape of the dip created when the ball is placed on to a rubber sheet. If the ball is then rotated, it will start to drag the rubber sheet around with it. In a similar way, the Earth drags local space and time around with it — ever so slightly — as it rotates. Over time, these effects cause the angle of spin of the satellite's gyroscopes to shift by tiny amounts." The investigators will be doing further data analysis over the coming months and expect to release final results late this year.
Enlightenment

Submission + - Do-it-yourself quantum eraser

Submitted by aeoneal
aeoneal writes: Observe the essential strangeness of quantum behavior up close and personal, in the privacy of your own home. Scientific American provides a useful guide on making your own quantum eraser, allowing you to replicate the classic experimental demonstration of the wave-particle nature of light. They provide a slide show, along with details on equipment, troubleshooting, and notes on the physics involved.
Science

Brain Tumor Vaccine Shows Promising Results 62

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the getting-a-head-of-cancer dept.
ScienceDaily is reporting that a new vaccine used in the treatment of a cancer found primarliy in the brain is showing promising results after an initial trial at the University of California. "Of the 12 patients being treated, eight can currently be evaluated for overall survival, while four are still receiving treatment. Seven out of the eight patients have exceeded the historical median benchmark of 6.5 months survival from time of recurrence. The investigators will continue to follow the patients for overall survival. Based on these results, a larger, multi-center phase 2 study is planned for late 2007."
Biotech

Submission + - Swedish chickens challenge evolutionary theory

Submitted by paulraps
paulraps writes: ...or at least the bit where Darwin says that behaviour cannot be inherited. Researchers from Sweden and Norway have found that offspring of domestic hens that were exposed to high levels of stress displayed similar behavioral anomalies as their parents — despite growing up in a stress free environment. Of course, this doesn't mean evolution is out the window, but it's a major new twist in the tale.
Communications

Record High Frequency Achieved 141

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the music-to-their-ears dept.
eldavojohn writes "Researchers at UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science managed to push our control of frequencies to another level when they hit a submillimeter 324 gigahertz frequency. As any signal geek out there might tell you, this is a non-trivial task. 'With traditional 90-nanometer CMOS circuit approaches, it is virtually impossible to generate usable submillimeter signals with a frequency higher than about 190 GHz. That's because conventional oscillator circuits are nonlinear systems in which increases in frequency are accompanied by a corresponding loss in gain or efficiency and an increase in noise, making them unsuitable for practical applications.' The article also talks about the surprising applications this new technology may evolve into."

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