430386
story
mamer-retrogamer writes
"On December 17, Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman decertified election equipment used by 64 Colorado counties, including machines made by Premier Election Solutions, formerly known as Diebold Election Systems. A report issued by the Secretary of State's office details a myriad of problems such as lack of password protection on the systems, controls that could give voters unauthorized access, and the absence of any way to track or detect security violations. Manufacturers have 30 days to appeal the decertification."
305497
story
Clown of the month writes
"There's a nasty worm hole in America Online's standalone AIM (instant messaging) software that won't be patched until the middle of October. This vulnerability, first reported to AOL by researchers at Core Security more than a month ago, is caused by the way AIM supports the rendering of HTML content via an embedded Internet Explorer server control. AOL coordinated with Core on the release of an advisory, on the understanding that the flaw was patched in the latest beta version. As security researcher Aviv Raff discovered, the underlying vulnerability was never fixed. In the demonstration, Raff simply sent an IM to trigger the launch of the calculator application. The attack scenario works without the target clicking on a link and only requires that the AIM user is logged on and accepting incoming messages."
305473
story
WiNot writes
"WiMAX's supporters are positioning Mobile WiMAX as an alternative to municipal WiFi networks in the wake of recent cancellation or postponement of muni WiFi projects in Chicago and San Francisco. 'There's no business case for municipal WiFi ... With many municipal WiFi deployments in a holding pattern, it may be Sprint's Xohm WiMAX network will be up and running before muni WiFi can get its act together.' From what Ars saw during its Motorola-sponsored cruise on the Chicago River earlier this week, WiMAX has the potential to deliver the goods in terms of speed, latency, and reliability. If Sprint hits its goal of blanketing metropolitan areas with WiMAX in a timely fashion and prices the service attractively, the kind of expansive municipal WiFi networks once envisioned in Chicago, Houston, and San Francisco could go the way of Pets.com and Flooz."
293847
submission
Cobalt Jacket writes:
The U.S. Department of Defense has announced that Selective Availability (SA) would "no longer be present in the next generation of GPS satellites." (referring to GPS III) Existing satellites have had the feature disabled by President Clinton since 2000, but SA can be activated at any time. SA was one of the principle stated reasons for the European Union and European Space Agency's backing of the Galileo program. This will not affect the GPS IIF spacecraft which will be launched over the next few years, though it is unlikely that SA will ever be utilized on those satellites.
290859
story
Sunnz writes
"The leaner, lighter, faster, and most importantly, BSD Licensed, Compiler PCC has been imported into OpenBSD's CVS and NetBSD's pkgsrc. The compiler is based on the original Portable C Compiler by S. C. Johnson, written in the late 70's. Even though much of the compiler has been rewritten, some of the basics still remain. It is currently not bug-free, but it compiles on x86 platform, and work is being done on it to take on GCC's job."
157053
story
TomSlick writes
"Michael Chu's blog provides a good solution for people migrating their MySQL databases and finding that special characters (like smart quotes) get mangled. He presents two practical solutions to migrating the database properly."
131985
story
kidcharles writes
"The Washington Post reports that in the midst of an investigation by the U.S. Congress into the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys by the Department of Justice, numerous White House e-mails have been lost. Among them are communications from presidential adviser Karl Rove. Parallels are being drawn with the infamous '18 minutes' missing from the Nixon Watergate tapes. Also at issue is the use of Republican National Committee e-mail domains (such as gwb43.com and georgewbush.com) rather than the official White House domain. This is a violation of the Presidential Records Act."
69362
submission
bofh1234 writes:
I subscribe to the dish network top 60 pack and local channels. I have 2 625 dvr receivers, but am only paying for 1 ($5) because they are both hooked to the telephone line 24/7. I am also paying $5.98 for each receiver for the dvr service. The brings the total to over $55 per month. I want to stop paying $17 per month (lose the equipment rental fee and the dvr services). I have 4 tvs.
I like the dvr service, but can I do it on my own? Can I buy a couple of receivers, move the smartcard from the current receivers to the new ones? Can I install a tv distribution system in my home (i.e. something like a hotel setup? satellite comes in, gets decoded, and sent to each room) I already have the wiring just need the equipment (any recommendations?). This would also get rid of the dish network remotes and allow me to go back to using the remotes that came with the tv. Any other ideas?
1486175
story
BenelliShooter writes
"MySpace.Com - Undergoing Maintenance
"hey everyone! there's been a power outage in our data center. we're in the process of fixing it right now, so sit tight. -Tom"
That about says it... I suppose we'll see if they had proper back-ups. " Hah. The site says it was supposed to be back up as of ... 7:40 PST PM. Which was something like close to nine hours ago.
