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Security

Walmart Photo Keychain Comes Preloaded With Malware 224

Posted by timothy from the caveat-maxima-emptor dept.
Blowit writes "With the Christmas holidays just past and opening up your electronic presents may get you all excited, but not for a selected lot of people who got the Mercury 1.5" Digital Photo Frame from Walmart (or other stores). My father-in-law attached the device to his computer and his Trend Micro Anti-virus screamed that a virus is on the device. I scanned the one I have and AVAST did not find any virus ... So I went to Virscan.org to see which vendors found what, and the results are here and here." Update: 12/29 05:44 GMT by T : The joy is even more widespread; MojoKid points out that some larger digital photo frames have been delivered similarly infected this year, specifically Samsung's SPF-85H 8-inch digital photo frame, sold through Amazon among other vendors, which arrived with "W32.Sality.AE worm on the installation disc for Samsung Frame Manager XP Version 1.08, which is needed for using the SPF-85H as a USB monitor." Though Amazon was honest enough to issue an alert, that alert offers no reason to think that only Amazon's stock was affected.

Comment Re:Are there many high level PT jobs anywhere? (Score 1) 396

by mike_sucks (#26187403) Attached to: Is Finding Part Time Work In IT Unrealistic?

Yeah, this is the problem. While it is certainly possible to get part time employment as a software engineer (I've been doing it for some years now), it's impossible to rise out of the ranks of code monkey. You might make it to senior code monkey but would never become a project leader, for example.

I think this is mainly because the more senior positions need to be across the whole project, available for whenever a decision/problem/whatever comes up and if you're only the 0.5 or 0.6 of the time, you're not going to be very useful.

As noted elsewhere, consulting is perhaps a little different but that has its own pitfalls.

/Mike
Software

Google Native Client Puts x86 On the Web 367

Posted by timothy from the which-can-then-be-virtualized-ad-infinitum dept.
t3rmin4t0r writes "Google has announced its Google native client, which enables x86 native code to be run securely inside a browser. With Java applets already dead and buried, this could mean the end of the new war between browsers and the various JavaScript engines (V8, Squirrelfish, Tracemonkey). The only question remains whether it can be secured (ala ActiveX) and whether the advantages carry over onto non-x86 platforms. The package is available for download from its Google code site. Hopefully, I can finally write my web apps in asm." Note: the Google code page description points out that this is not ready for production use: "We've released this project at an early, research stage to get feedback from the security and broader open-source communities." Reader eldavojohn links to a technical paper linked from that Google code page [PDF] titled "Native Client: A Sandbox for Portable, Untrusted x86 Native Code," and suggests this in-browser Quake demo, which requires the Native Code plug-in.

Comment Re:Quickly, bash microsoft. (Score 2, Informative) 503

by mike_sucks (#25932209) Attached to: MS Says Windows 7 Will Run DirectX 10 On the CPU

Actually, the whole point of OpenGL was to provide software- and hardware- vendor agnostic API for writing applications that perform 3D rendering. You've clearly been living in a monoculture too long if you can't see that.

Software fallback is nice to have but, it's certainly not the reason OGL exists.

/Mike

Comment Re:Wrong analysis (Score 1) 684

by mike_sucks (#25863711) Attached to: How to Deal With an Aging Brain?

Geekiness IS about remembering.

Rubbish! if you could remember the signature of every POSIX function, would that make you a good UNIX geek? No. Knowing what to do with them and having something to do with them does.

Man pages are there for a reason - so we don't have to remember what the 14 parameters for XmbufCreateStereoWindow(3) are.

Few people need to have the same level of mental agility as a geek involved with creating something useful out of a few wispy ideas, uncertain laws of computing and foggy requirements specifications. On top of that they need a set of toolkits, one for say algorithms, one for good coding practice, one for all the calls and defines in this application, one for each language being coded and one for project management. AND they have to flip between all of them all the time. AND, even within the realm of a bit of straight code there will be nests of issues, side-effects, diversions and breakpoints.

Whatever you elitist notions of what a geek are - none of the above has anything to do with remembering where you put your underwear.

This isn't the sort of thing that goes on the hard driver or internet.

Right - it's called "experience", it's not about remembering where you put your underwear.

However there are two ways to mitigate the undoubted problem of brain ageing and mental fatigue: (1)Do less. (2)Restructure, or apply a structure where before you could busk-it, tasks - typically making notes or checklists to suit.

Ahahah ahahahaha hahah ha ha. Oh man, nice troll. You had me going there.

Look up any psyc paper about aging and cognitive function and you'll see that people who do more experience less of a decline as they get older. This is why for example, politicians academics and business leaders tend to still be going strong well past retirement.

My advice to the OP is (a)work in an environment that is distraction-free as possible. (b) Recognise there are some times it is best to go for a walk and try again an hour later. (c) When you get a really good session going, ask yourself what could be the influencing factors.

Wow, that's even less helpful than "wear sunscreen".

/Mike

Comment Wrong problem (Score 3, Insightful) 684

by mike_sucks (#25861565) Attached to: How to Deal With an Aging Brain?

Remembering stuff isn't what makes you a geek - remembering stuff is what your hard drive and the Internet is for. Being a geek is all about applying your one-eyed devotion to [hardware|software|cameras|games|knitting|etc] to the fullest extent and doing nifty things with it.

It's pretty well known that young people are better at raw ability where older people are better at anything that requires experience. So don't worry about forgetting stuff too much, concentrate on kicking arse with your experience.

If you are forgetting stuff, write it down. But keep on being a geek and stay fit, because mental and physical activity are two primary factors in retaining cognitive ability in old age.

/Mike

PS: wear sunscreen
Graphics

NVIDIA Releases New Video API For Linux 176

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the finally-starting-to-play-ball dept.
Ashmash writes "Phoronix is reporting on a new Linux driver nVidia is about to release that brings PureVideo features to Linux. This video API will reportedly be in nVidia's 180 series driver for Linux, Solaris, and *BSD. PureVideo has been around for several nVidia product generations, but it's the first time they're bringing this feature to these non-Windows operating systems to provide an improved multimedia experience. This new API is named VDPAU, and is described as: 'The Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix (VDPAU) provides a complete solution for decoding, post-processing, compositing, and displaying compressed or uncompressed video streams. These video streams may be combined (composited) with bitmap content, to implement OSDs and other application user interfaces.'"
GNU is Not Unix

Bringing OSS Into a Closed Source Organization? 427

Posted by kdawson from the teaching-a-stone-to-talk dept.
Piranhaa writes "At the major corporation I work for, there is currently a single person who decides what software to approve and disapprove within the organization. I've noticed that requests from users for open source Windows programs get denied, nearly instantaneously, on a regular basis. Anything from Gimp, to Firefox, even to Vim don't make the cut due to the simple fact that they are open source. Closed source programs from unknown vendors have a much better chance at approval than Firefox does. The whole mentality here is that anybody can change the source of a project, submit it, and you never know what kind of compiled binary you're going to get. I'm a firm believer in open source code, but I also know closed source has its place. So what would be the best way for me to argue, with all the facts, to allow these people to come to their own conclusion that open source is actually good? Would presenting examples of other big companies moving to open source work, and if so what are some good examples? Or can you suggest any other good approaches?"
Power

McCain Backs Nuclear Power 1563

Posted by CmdrTaco from the all-it-takes-is-peak-oil dept.
bagsc writes "Senator John McCain set out another branch of his energy policy agenda today, with a key point: 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030." So it finally appears that this discussion is back on the table. I'm curious how Nevada feels about this, as well as the Obama campaign. All it took was $4/gallon gas I guess. When it hits $5, I figure one of the campaigns will start to promote Perpetual Motion.

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