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Security

Submission + - How to scan your office for rogue WI-FI devices?

An anonymous reader writes: I've just started working for a financial institution, and I've been assigned to finding ways (procedures/technology) to defend our offices against rogue wi-fi devices. After an incident, one has identified the risk that an attacker could place a sniffing or other malicious device in the network, that transmits data to outside our offices, over a wi-fi networking interface.
The company I work for has sought the help of consultants, but I have found both their approach and solutions less than satisfying. They have proposed that someone walks around the office with a scanning device, searching for unregistered wi-fi devices. This approach is very time-consuming (if you have several offices to scan, on a regular basis), it won't find devices that will only transmit data at night, and the scan itself is complicated by the fact that it also will find devices in nearby buildings.
Other things to consider:
— Performing a physical search of our offices is not an option.
— Putting the office in a Faraday cage is not an option either, as it would block cell phone traffic as well.
— The complete ban on wi-fi is probably going to be lifted. Higher management just loves wi-fi...
— I've been considering the introduction of IPv6, so that one could more easily assign IP addresses to bona fide wi-fi devices, and control wi-fi access. But that would still require additional measures.

What would you do to prevent and/or detect rogue wi-fi devices?
Microsoft

Submission + - New anti trust complaint against Microsoft

Twisted Willie writes: The European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) has file a new anti trust complaint against Microsoft. This time it's directed against Vista, and the OOXML and XAML that comes with it.

"With XAML and OOXML Microsoft seeks to impose its own Windows-dependent standards and displace existing open cross-platform standards which have wide industry acceptance, permit open competition and promote competition-driven innovation. The end result will be the continued absence of any real consumer choice, years of waiting for Microsoft to improve — or even debug — its monopoly products, and of course high prices," said Thomas Vinje, counsel to ECIS and spokesman on the issue.
GUI

Submission + - Inventing appearance for abstract data

happycorp writes: One problem with current user interfaces is that they do not make much use of our strong visual skills. While the desktop metaphor was intended to engage our visual brains, it only partially succeeded because too many things "look the same". Recently researchers at U. Southern California, MIT, and U.C. Riverside have demonstrated that automatically generated icons (link2, link3) allow people to employ their visual skills over working data, providing faster search than is possible by scanning filenames. Now Don Park and others have produced practical implementations (with source code) of simple automatically generated icons, called Identicons.
Operating Systems

Submission + - Universal filesystem for removable drives

Cap'n Crax writes: As external USB and FireWire hard drives are becoming more and more common, I often wonder how I can use one for native read and write access between Win, Mac, and Linux systems. As far as I have been able to research, Windows can read and write NTFS and FAT32, but cannot handle HFS or HFS+ systems, nor any Linux EXT systems. Mac can read and write HFS and HFS+ of course, but only read NTFS. Linux it seems has good read support, but dodgy write support for both. All systems, it seems, have good support for FAT32, but it has major limits, expecially the 4GB file size limit.

Is there any modern filesystem that all major OS's today can effectively use on external drives, especially for large files? Is anyone even working on this?
Businesses

Submission + - Greg KH Offers Free Linux Driver Development!

QuantumG writes: "Kernel hacker Greg KH has made a public offer to develop Linux drivers, for free, to any vendor that is willing to release hardware specifications or make available "an engineer that is willing to answer questions every once in a while." The offer is made in conjunction with the OSDL/TLF Tech Board who are providing a legal framework for managing any NDA requirements that vendors may have. The announcement has been made in the hope that vendors will be more inclined to label their products as "Linux Ready" by reducing developer workload."
Media

Submission + - Wikipedia founder's Open Source collaboration tips

destinyland writes: "In a new interview Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales acknowledges his debt to Richard Stallman's Free Software Foundation and discusses his new open source search project. He applauds the way Open Source developers work around their ideological differences, acknowledges that he's an Ayn Rand objectivist who's skeptical of the wisdom of crowds, and blames Slashdot for his grandstanding comment that Wikipedia would bury Encyclopedia Brittanica within five years."
Announcements

Submission + - British e-Voting Pilots Announced

rimberg writes: "The Department for Constitutional Affairs has announced it is going to trial Electronic voting using the internet and/or telephone. Bridget Prentice, Elections Minister at the department said "We need to make sure that people can vote in more convenient ways consistent with a modern lifestyle." "More and more people, and particularly young people, are using the internet everyday. We need to see if we can use this to encourage people even more to participate in the democratic process."
The Open Rights Group (Think British EFF) have responded by saying "E-voting threatens the integrity of our elections and we oppose its use in our democracy." If you want to find out more come along to one of the e-voting events starting 6th February with a screening of the superb Hacking Democracy."
Education

OSSDI to Distribute OpenOffice.org in Schools 133

Xampper writes to tell us that the OSSDI (Open Source Software Distribution Initiative) is a new organization that has cropped up to help not only spread the word about Open Source Software, but to help distribute the OpenOffice.org office suite starting with less fortunate school districts. The OSSDI describes their current status as still being in its "infancy as an organization. Because of this, all of our current resources are focused on gaining supporters, raising funds, and recruiting volunteers. Plans are under-way for our first software distribution, but we must first cover our operating costs. We are also interested in becoming a registered not for profit corporation so that donors will receive tax breaks for their gifts, but the registration process can also be very costly and time-consuming."
Microsoft

Microsoft Retracts Patent 182

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has retracted their recent controversial patent application. The story was first brought to light by Slashdot on Saturday. Today, Jane Prey of Microsoft announced the retraction on the SIGCSE (Special Interest in Computer Science Education) mailing list. 'Many thanks to the members of the community that brought this to my attention — and here's the latest. The patent application was a mistake and one that should not have happened. To fix this, Microsoft will be removing the patent application. Our sincere apologies to Michael Kölling and the BlueJ community.'"
Microsoft

Submission + - Hotmail to start charging for use

KindredHyperion writes: "The BBC has an article on Microsoft's apparent intent to start charging it's users for the use of the service. From the article: " Microsoft's UK managing director told the Independent on Sunday that fees could be introduced within 12 months. Any move by MSN to start fee-charging would pave the way for its competitors yahoo.com and aol.com to follow suit.""
Windows

Submission + - Windows XP Activation in the Future?

bigredswitch writes: Now we're on the verge of Vista being released, how are we going to activate XP when Microsoft drop support, either when performing a reinstall or resurrecting old hardware? It's not going to be a problem now or for the next few years, sure, but what's the future going to be like (flying cars aside)? Getting an older machine back into action to pull files off, run machine automation, etc., is easy with Win2k and everything that went before (I've worked at places running Gem on 286s still for in-house stuff) but is this at an end with XP and onwards? How are other people looking to handle this?
Security

Submission + - Spyware Coming to a Mac Near You

Clarke writes: Is spyware really coming to Macs? With programs like MacScan offering anti-spyware solutions and free updated definitions is this a sign Macs getting more attention? I've seen many more keyloggers and even proof of concepts for privledge escalation. With the month of apple bugs there is proof security is a concern but how much should we care?
Music

Submission + - Music Industry in a Jam with Subscription Services

Infonaut writes: "AOL Music Now and Virgin Digital are toast. Yahoo's subscription music service isn't doing well, nor is MTV Urge. Rhapsody and Napster are hovering at around a million subscribers, but they're having a difficult time adding customers. Could it be that the music execs actually don't want to see the subscription model succeed? Seems they can't find a business model they like. They're scared of Apple, they're scared of even the Zune, and they're scared of subscription services."
Microsoft

Submission + - MS responds to BlueJ Patent Issues

twofish writes: "In his blog, Dan Fernandez, the lead project manager for Visual Studio Express, responded to the flurry of messages and blog postings that circulated since Michael Kolling first blogged about Microsofts patten application that threatened BlueJ, an educational tool used to teach OO. (See slashdot here or blueJ here)

Dan has gone so far as to offer an apology to Michael Koumllling and the BlueJ community. "We can officially say that the patent application was a mistake and one that should not have happened. To fix this, Microsoft will be removing the patent application in question."

Additionally, the Product Unit Manager is investigating how and why the application was made."
Announcements

Submission + - Epson and Fujitsu develops next-gen FRAM tech

Vinit writes: "Since June 2005, when the joint development project on next generation FRAM technology was announced, Epson and Fujitsu has made a lot of progress in the non volatile memory segment. Recently they announced the result of their project which was successfully completed. FRAM is a non-volatile memory that uses a ferroelectric film as the capacitor for data retention. Their scientists has developed technology for forming, processing and evaluating a new ferroelectric (PZT) film and created FRAM memory core process technology that is highly integrated (four times the level of conventional FRAM), features high performance (read/write speeds over three times faster than conventional FRAM) and boasts high reliability (capable of more than one hundred trillion read/write cycles). The ferroelectric process is suitable for the development of mass production technologies because it can be easily added to existing CMOS logic processes. Both the companies plans to manufacture their own memory based on the result of this project. http://www.pclaunches.com/epson_and_fujitsu_develo ps_nextgen_fram_technology.php"

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