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Submission + - Silence of the Linux (hoodyhoo.com)

Submitted by
Kumeelyun
Kumeelyun writes: "In light of the deals Microsoft is making with Linux distros and the fact that the killer's name in 'Silence of the Lambs' was Bill, this cartoon seems highly appropriate."
Privacy

Submission + - Identity Thief Apprehended by Victim

Submitted by
ewhac
ewhac writes: "Karen Lodrick was entering her sixth month of hell dealing with the repercussions of having her identity stolen and used to loot her accounts. But while she was waiting for a beverage, there standing in line was the woman who appeared on Wells Fargo security video emptying her accounts. What followed was a 45 minute chase through San Francisco streets that ended with the thief being taken into custody by police."
Security

Submission + - teacher porn case

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "Making sure what happened to Julie...doesn't happen again For me, the Julie Amero case was always about two things: 1. Seeing Julie go free. 2. Helping to make sure it didn't happen to others. (1) above is in progress. The judge has accepted the defense's motion for a new trial and now it's largely a waiting game. But there are many others who are in the same boat as Julie. Witness Matthew Bandy, the 16 year old, who went through a fairly controversial ordeal involving alleged malware infestations and child porn. Or the wife of a teacher who contacted me, who has spent practically all of the family's life savings in defense of her husband from apparently spurious computer "porn" charges — when it seems entirely evident that porn was downloaded on a classroom computer by one of the students. The problem is big. And it's not just schools. It's in business as well. How many people are never charged but quietly fired? Now, a lot can be solved with education: How many of you working for corporations have been to mandatory sexual harassment training every year? But how many of you have been to a company security training? (Answer: almost nobody gets security training). Consider it — a simple one or two hour training, with a nice video that explains the basics of security. IT departments layer on defense after defense, but because so much of the problem is social engineering, you have to teach the users. How many systems are infected because of people going to a website in a fake email? Or a bored salesman on the road, downloading some "harmless" porn on his laptop, only to have his system turn into a spam zombie, or worse — turning it into a warez server, serving child porn and pirated software? Or the administrative assistant who just wants to download some "cute screensavers"... Or the CEO who opens up an email attachment that turns out is loaded with a targeted zero-day exploit, stealing highly sensitive confidential information? It doesn't even have to be something horribly nefarious. A system can be infected with a simple piece of adware which produces its own search results. Some of those search results can be bad. You get the picture. And since our schools have made the decision that porn is a dangerous problem (which I have no argument with), then educators all over the world are operating "dangerous" machinery — without sufficient operator education. In law, there is a real problem: Many people involved in this field understand little about about computers. Fear and ignorance combined with great power is a very dangerous thing. So with this in mind, the small group of people who have been crusading to free Julie have started a new effort: The Julie Group. This is a group dedicated to the following objectives: a) Help to educate people on computer security and computer forensics. b) Do what we can to help others in a similar predicament to Julie's. c) Work to remove bad laws, such as the one that Julie was charged with (risk of injury to a minor, or impairing the morals of a child — Conn. Gen. Stat. 53-21, which if you read it, is so broad that almost anyone could be charged with it). So please join us — give us ideas, give us your comments. The Julie Group blog is at http://thejuliegroup.blogspot.com/. It's basic for now but we'll be fleshing it out over the next several weeks. Alex Eckelberry"
Media

Submission + - Microsoft wants both HD-DVD and Blu-ray to go away

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: At the Digital Hollywood conference, Richard Doherty of Microsoft stated that Redmond wants both HD DVD and Blu-ray to go away, saying "I don't know that [HD] will be delivered on an optical disc in five to 10 years. At Microsoft, we'd rather it wasn't [on a disc]." Does this mean that Microsoft's backing of the underdog HD DVD format is intended to delay HD DVD and Blu-ray from gaining traction to create a market for Windows Media Player/DRM? Microsoft's leading role in AACS also didn't help either format — the highly-publicized security collapse of AACS has been a massive embarassment for both HD DVD and Blu-ray.
The Courts

Submission + - Intelligence Czar Requests Expansion of FISA

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: The National Director of Intelligence has circulated a draft bill on Capitol Hill that calls for a "liberalization" of the FISA laws that provide oversight to spying in the United States, the AP and CNN report. Among increasing the lifespan of a warrant obtained from the FISA judge and providing immunity to telecom companies, the draft allows the intelligence agencies to wiretap an foreigner's phone without any authorization from the court.
Security

What Electronic Door Lock Would You Buy? 97

Posted by Cliff from the where-are-my-sliding-doors dept.
zentigger asks: "I work for an ISP that supports internet in several dozen remote areas. Our POPs are typically fairly small shed-like structures, with a couple racks of equipment. For the most part, we can manage this stuff in-band, but frequently we need to have a local agent physically access the equipment for some minor maintenance work or adjustments. As time goes on, the shuffle of keys is becoming farcical and expensive. What we need is an electronic lock of some sort that can be reprogrammed remotely (preferably from a remote console via serial or directly via ethernet) that will stand up to extreme weather. Google certainly turns up lots of glossy brochures — although I don't see how they can -all- be 'The heaviest duty lock you can buy!' Does anyone have good experiences with any particular products or perhaps other means of dealing with the key shuffle?"
User Journal

Journal Journal: OMFG Article Polls! 1

Journal by WillAffleckUW

I just found an article poll (first one I've seen here) for the Next Gen Console article!

Link here.

What do you think? Good or bad news?

Feed Kodak 1881 concept cam takes discreet snaps, is not discreet (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Wearables

Apparently designed so Flava Flav could secretly record his travels back in time, the "1881" concept designer Lindsey Pickett showed at a recent Kodak design exhibition is a bold new entry in the uber-competitive non-existent camera / locket space.The foldable cam takes snaps just by squeezing the case, or you can crack it open and line things up on the dual LCD screens. Pickett also tried to capture some of that old-school photo locket vibe by setting those the screens to auto-play the internal memory when opened, which'll keep you entertained during the frequent rest breaks you'll have to take while lugging this thing around on your neck. No specs to be had, since the 1881 is just a concept, but first Kodak and Pickett need to figure out how to build a camera smaller than a manhole cover.

[Via Techie Diva]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Media

Submission + - The best friend of DRM: Apple Inc.

Submitted by parvenu74
parvenu74 writes: Arstechnica is running an article pointing out that while some pockets of the entertainment industry are experimenting with DRM-free distrobution, Apple Inc, which announced that they have now sold over 2,000,000,000 songs on iTunes, are now the strongest pro-DRM force in digial media. From the article: "DRM is dying. It's a statement being echoed with increasing frequency around the Web over the last few weeks, and is perhaps best articulated in this Billboard article. But there's a powerful force standing in the way of this DRM-free panacea, and it might not be the one you expect: Apple, Inc."
Security

Submission + - PHP apps: security's low-hanging fruit

Submitted by
somersault
somersault writes: "There have been a lot of people on /. making jokes at the expense of PHP recently, but how many common security flaws in PHP are the fault of the language, and how many the fault of the developer? A recent Security Focus article (this version is from El Reg, the layout is better) has a brief discussion which suggests that PHP is no less secure than any other scripting language, and that it is the users of the language themselves who need to be educated. The other side of the story is that the developers of PHP themselves work on tightening up the language to make it more 'idiot proof' by default. Should the team developing PHP take a more active role in controlling the use of their language? What will it take to ensure that users of the language learn to use it securely, short of defacing every vulnerable website out there?"
Space

Submission + - Black diamonds come from space

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "Two teams of U.S. researchers have found that carbonados — or black diamonds — come from outer space. Helped with funds from the National Science Foundation (NSF), they discovered nitrogen and hydrogen in these porous black diamonds found only in Brazil and the Central African Republic. And these elements are not found in conventional diamonds extracted from mines from volcanic rocks. They think these carbonados were part of asteroids which landed on Earth about 3 billion years ago. Read more for additional explanations and a picture of such a not-so-pretty diamond."
AMD/OSTG

Vendor AMD: Ultimate Solutions for Windows Vista

Submitted by OSTG Marketing
In an effort to promote an open platform strategy, AMD has introduced the Better by Design program. The initiative highlights superior technologies in desktop and notebook PCs, adding a level of information for PC users to make a smarter choice. "AMD's leading-edge ecosystem, which includes graphics from ATI and NVIDIA and wireless solutions from Airgo, Atheros and Broadcom, will be incorporated in the Better
Software

Submission + - Another Hole in Microsoft Outlook

Submitted by J Dollaz
J Dollaz writes: International Business Times says "When Outlook opens a specially crafted .iCal meeting request and parses a malformed VEVENT request, it may corrupt system memory in such a way that an attacker could execute arbitrary code and take complete control of an affected system."

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