Comment Justice is served (Score 4, Informative) 334
The right thing to do with something that isn't yours is not to pick it up and sell it. Duh. He will learn a lesson from this.
Submission + - Faced with a breach, Hypercom screws merchants (hypercom.com)
infernalC writes: "Hypercom, faced with a recently discovered security vulnerability in their Savannah payment software, decided to drop support and terminate the product immediately rather than fix the problem. Credit card processing servers are very mission critical to merchants. Interestingly enough, this comes as their acquisition by VeriFone is held up on anti-trust grounds. VeriFone makes a very similar competing payment platform, PC Charge.
According to the notification, with zero advance notice, the only support they will offer merchants is to uninstall. No refunds if you bought the software before April. How's that for a mission-critical application?"
According to the notification, with zero advance notice, the only support they will offer merchants is to uninstall. No refunds if you bought the software before April. How's that for a mission-critical application?"
Submission + - Release of 33GiB of scientific publications (thepiratebay.org)
An anonymous reader writes: A Wikipedian, Greg Maxwell, has released 33GiB of scientific publications from the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in response to the arrest of Aaron Swartz for, effectively, downloading too many articles from JSTOR. The release consists of 18,592 scientific articles previously released at $8-$19 each and all published prior to 1923 and so public domain.
Submission + - Meet: NASA's Nuclear-Powered Mars Rover Curiosity (techtribune.com)
techtribune writes: While we know that the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle is already developed, it's still years away from completion. In the meantime, all eyes can be on the next Mars mission with NASA's new Mars Science Laboratory rover called 'Curiosity'. Curiosity is about the size of a mini cooper and is four times more heavy than the Spirit and Opportunity which were launched in 2004. The Curiosity also comes with a larger robot arm, a laser that can split rocks, a weather station, and a percussive drill for drilling rocks. Unlike the Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity also has on board 10.5 pounds of plutonium-238! Yes, Curiosity is nuclear-powered instead of solar powered like the previous rovers. No sun is required to power the systems on board.
Comment This already exists: US-CERT (Score 4, Informative) 160
From the US-CERT "About Us" page:
US-CERT's mission is to improve the nation's cybersecurity posture, coordinate cyber information sharing and proactively manage cyber risks to the nation while protecting the constitutional rights of Americans. US-CERT vision is to be a trusted global leader in cybersecurity - collaborative, agile, and responsive in a complex environment.
Information is available from the US-CERT web site, mailing lists, and RSS channels.
US-CERT also provides a way for citizens, businesses, and other institutions to communicate and coordinate directly with the United States government about cyber security.
Who runs US-CERT?
US-CERT is the operational arm of the National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Where is US-CERT located?
US-CERT is located in the Washington DC Metropolitan area.
What is US-CERT's relationship to NCSD and DHS?
US-CERT is the operational arm of the National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The NCSD was established by DHS to serve as the federal government's cornerstone for cyber security coordination and preparedness, including implementation of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace .
Comment Name-based virtual hosts and TLS/SSL (Score 1) 665
Most web sites run on name-based virtual hosts. This allows multiple web sites to use the same instance of the web server (Apache, IIS, etc.), reducing costs.
This presents a chicken-an-egg problem with TLS/SSL (the encryption used for https).
When the web server receives the initial request from the browser, it sends back a certificate for it's domain that says to the browser, "Yes, I am really where-ever.com, because I paid money to GoDaddy, Comodo, Verisign or whoever and they'll corroborate."
The problem is, when that first request comes in, and you are using TLS/SSL and name-based virtual hosting, the server can't read what domain name was requested to present the correct certificate. You haven't finished negotiating the TLS/SSL connection yet, so you can't read the URI embedded in the request.
So, you need a different IP for each domain that you are going to serve (IP addresses are becoming rare) or use some other hack to accomplish this.
Comment Remember Google bringing SVG to IE? (Score 2) 535
Do you remember this: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/22/1246248/Google-Brings-SVG-Support-To-IE ?
I remember when Google announced the svgweb javascript library to enable SVG support in IE. That sort of reinforced the notion that Microsoft was playing catch-up in the browser technology arena. Microsoft is now, at least trying, I think, to present the appearance that Google is the company that is behind. Not to mention it doesn't hurt MS to have value added to Chrome when it runs on Windows. They're not going to make this happen for Chrome running on GNU/Linux.
Comment Time for a new category... (Score 4, Funny) 99
Jennings: I'll take CAPTCHAs for 1000, Alex...
Big Blue: Damnit.
One Night Stands May Be Genetic 240
An anonymous reader writes "So, he or she has cheated on you for the umpteenth time and their only excuse is: 'I just can't help it.' According to researchers at Binghamton University, they may be right. The propensity for infidelity could very well be in their DNA. In a first of its kind study, a team of investigators led by Justin Garcia, a SUNY Doctoral Diversity Fellow in the laboratory of evolutionary anthropology and health at Binghamton University, State University of New York, has taken a broad look at sexual behavior, matching choices with genes and has come up with a new theory on what makes humans 'tick' when it comes to sexual activity. The biggest culprit seems to be the dopamine receptor D4 polymorphism, or DRD4 gene. Already linked to sensation-seeking behavior such as alcohol use and gambling, DRD4 is known to influence the brain's chemistry and subsequently, an individual's behavior."
Advent Calendar For Geeks
65
bLanark writes "Well, as children and adults all over the world begin their day with chocolate, with the traditional Advent calendar, I'd like to remind you that there's an alternative for geeks. The Perl Advent calendar will give you a new Perl tip every day right up to Christmas."
Building a Telegraph Using Only Stone Age Materials 238
MMBK writes "It's the ultimate salvagepunk experiment, building a telegraph out of things found in the woods. From the article: 'During the summer of 2009, artist Jamie O’Shea of the organization Substitute Materials set out to test whether or not electronic communication could have been built at any time in history with the proper knowledge, and with only tools and materials found in the wilderness of New Jersey.'"
Study Shows Babies Think Friendly Robots Are Sentient 159
seanonymous writes "A study from University of Washington claims that babies think robots are human, so long as the robots are friendly. No word on what evil robots are thought to be. From the article: 'At 18 months old, babies have begun to make conscious delineations between sentient beings and inanimate objects. But as robots get more and more advanced, those decisions may become harder to make. What causes a baby to decide a robot is more than bits of metal? As it turns out, it takes more than humanoid looks — babies rely on social interaction to make that call.'"
Red Hat Settles Patent Case 76
darthcamaro writes "Red Hat has settled another patent case with patent holding firm Acacia. This time the patent is US Patent #6,163,776, 'System and method for exchanging data and commands between an object oriented system and relational system.' While it's great that Red Hat has ended this particular patent threat, it's not yet clear how they've settled this case. The last time Red Hat tangled with Acacia they won in an Texas jury trial. 'Red Hat routinely addresses attempts to impede the innovative forces of open source via allegations of patent infringement,' Red Hat said in a statement. 'We can confirm that Red Hat, Inc and Software Tree LLC have settled patent litigation that was pending in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas.'"
Comment Just get the junk food out of the cafeterias. (Score 1) 425
I don't know whether school lunch programs actually increase student performance or not. It is unconscionable that children go hungry while others eat in front of them, so I consider the programs necessary.
The three of my four kids who are in school take a lunch box. One of them is overweight, and we found out he was spending his allowance on a la carte junk food in the cafeteria line, particularly ice cream bars.
Frankly, there isn't any reason for the junk food to be there in the first place. I was astonished to find out that the school policy is to not enforce parents' requests to not allow children to buy junk food in the cafeteria.
It's not realistic for most parents to be with their kids all the time. It takes a village to raise a child. I don't think secret PIN numbers are necessary to help kids eat better in school. I think we just need to get the junk food out of the cafeteria. If parents *want* their kids eating crap, put it in the lunch box, but don't try to sell it to my kids while I'm not looking. I don't think we should expect teachers or lunch workers to be food police. Get the bad food out so they don't have to deal with it and parents don't have to worry about it.
Military Personnel Weigh In On Being Taliban In Medal of Honor 171
SSDNINJA writes "This is a feature from gamrFeed that interviews nine US service members about playing as the Taliban in the upcoming Medal of Honor. One soldier states that games like MoH and Call of Duty are 'profiteering from war.' Another says, 'Honestly, I don't really see what the whole fuss is about. It's a game, and just like in Call of Duty, you don't really care about what side you're taking, just as long as you win. I don't think anyone cares if you're part of the Rangers or Spetznaz, as long as you win.' An excellent and interesting read."
