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Media

Submission + - Daily Tech hunts payola among tech review sites

Submitted by cheesecake23
cheesecake23 writes: How often have you read a hardware review and thought: "no way was that an honest opinion, the reviewer was bought"? Well, the Daily Tech has gone undercover to find out whether or not payola is accepted among the 35 largest online English-language hardware review sites. Questions asked and answered:
  • How many sites would take money (or sell ads) in exchange for a product review? [Answer: 20 percent]
  • How many sites would additionally consider selling an Editor's Choice award? [Answer: none]
  • Were any world regions more "corrupt" than others? [Answer: no, 20-25% almost everywhere]
  • Does it depend on the size or age of the site? [Answer: read TFA]
Although no "bad guys" were explicitly revealed, the article contains enough information to make a white list of quite a few good guys. Let's see what Slashdotters can come up with. Let the finger-pointing begin!
Wireless Networking

Submission + - Making your hot car a wireless network node (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "With all of the electronic gadgets and components in cars and trucks these days is it possible they could become mobile wireless network nodes too? That's the idea behind a project at UCLA that uses about $1,000 of wireless technology deployed in cars which enables them to act as nodes in a truly mobile network. UCLA Engineering's Network Research Lab is looking at using cars to form a communications network based on the principles of technology known as a mobile ad-hoc networking platform, or MANET. The MANET platform lets moving vehicles within a range of 100 to 300 meters of each other to connect and, car by car, create a network with a wide range. As cars fall out of range and drop out of the network, other node-equipped cars can join in to receive or send signals. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1586 1"
Security

Submission + - Hacked server and all I have is an IP address...

Submitted by
allebone
allebone writes: "Hi there I'm an IT engineer in London. Last Thursday I was called out to a client who I had never been to before. They were having some major server problems. After poking around a bit it transpired that their server had been hacked. Whoever had got in had created himself a user account with domain admin privileges and inserted a virus on the server which ran as "2footninja.exe" or something like that. I spent most of the day locking down the server so it couldn't be repeated. However, I then began checking the logs to see if I could find anything about who had hacked this server. I subsequently found that whoever had hacked this server did so from the IP address 82.165.182.119. After doing a quick whois on the ptr record it seemed that this was a "one and one internet" customer (I assume this is a broadband provider in the US). More than that I cannot tell. I then did some portscans and found 3389 and ftp open. I also managed to login via anonymous ftp and located the virus he used to infect my server in a file "foot.zip" I then left and went home, that night I ran tsgrinder against his terminal server port but came up with nothing — no doubt my dictionary attack would have been ineffective against someone who knew what he was doing anyway. I was hoping if I could log into his server I might be able to find out his name or email address... Other files I located on his server of interest was a directory "artexpo 2007" which seemed to have been files perhaps taken from another company. I tried contacting the person Kim who was listed on the bottom of some of the documents via email but got no reply. My question is this: Have I reached the end of my detective work? Is there nothing more I can learn about this person? Has he escaped forever without me being able to (at least) send him an angry email? Any thoughts/comments would be interesting. Pete"
Displays

Submission + - class action against apple for MB, MBP displays

Submitted by
doppiodave
doppiodave writes: "a court filing out of san diego today alleges that Apple (when still Computer Inc) was lying through its teeth when it claimed its new MB and MBP displays supported millions of colors (http://images.appleinsider.com/apple_macbook_laws uit.pdf). the complaint filed by two citizens accuses Apple of deceptive advertising, unfair competition, violation of the CLRA, and misrepresentation, and asks for a declaratory judgment — and a jury trial. the complainants allege not only that Apple uses a trick (6 bits per channel plus dithering) to achieve apparent 24-bit color — but also that Apple has stonewalled thousands of its customers. however this works out, it's a sad day for all concerned — esp those who've supported the company through thick and thin over the last 15 years."
Enlightenment

Submission + - Interactive Fiction: Not Dead Yet

Submitted by
Riley Munoz
Riley Munoz writes: "Hey Slashdot, Game Almighty turns back the pages of gamer lore and re-encounters the age of text adventures. Now known as Interactive Fiction, this brain-busting old school way of gaming still possesses enough addictive gameplay and puzzles galore to lose you in the many worlds it creates. Game Almighty gathers a few gripping titles so you can start pulling you hair out . Sample paragraph: "We played everything Infocom made, from Zork to Suspended, Wishbringer, Deadline, Planetfall and one of the hardest games of all time, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy....Considered by many, including myself, as one of the most difficult and infuriating games of all time, if for no other reason than the puzzle solutions will sap your brain of precious neurons." http://www.gamealmighty.com/story-individual/story /Interactive_Fiction_Not_Dead_Yet/ Thanks for any links! Riley Munoz -Community Manager riley@gamealmighty.com www.GameAlmighty.com"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft, Bungie Drop the Ball for Halo 3 Beta

Submitted by
portege00
portege00 writes: "I got up this morning thinking that I'd be able to play Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta on my day off because I purchased Crackdown. Guess not. Apparently Microsoft and Bungie really screwed up. While those that managed to secure a code through the rule of three program are happily playing away, the rest of us are left in the dark waiting without any answer as to when it will be available."
Enlightenment

Submission + - "Web site" term eludes judge

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: LONDON (Reuters) — A British judge admitted on Wednesday he was struggling to cope with basic terms like "Web site" in the trial of three men accused of inciting terrorism via the Internet. Judge Peter Openshaw broke into the questioning of a witness about a Web forum used by alleged Islamist radicals. "The trouble is I don't understand the language. I don't really understand what a Web site is," he told a London court during the trial of three men charged under anti-terrorism laws. Prosecutor Mark Ellison briefly set aside his questioning to explain the terms "Web site" and "forum." An exchange followed in which the 59-year-old judge acknowledged: "I haven't quite grasped the concepts."
Education

Submission + - BBC Micro: Britain's First PC Hit

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: North American children grew up with the Apple II. Across the Atlantic, the BBC gave its blessings to the unreleased Acorn Proton (another 6502 micro) and it became the standard in education and home for almost a decade as the BBC Micro, even though there were cheaper, more capable machines on the market. Read about how Acorn won the lucrative contract and slowly disintegrated after their RISC home computer (released in 1987) failed to catch on.
Media

Submission + - Digital 'Fair Use' Bill Introduced In Congress

Submitted by
d3ac0n
d3ac0n writes: "From the Washington Post: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2007/02/di gital_fair_use_bill_introduc.html

Today, Reps. Rich Boucher (D-Va.) and John Dolittle (R-Calif.) introduced what they call the "Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship" (or FAIR USE) Act they say will make it easier for digital media consumers to use the content they buy.
A refreshing bipartisan effort to return Fair Use to it's rightful place as the law of the land. (for media content, anyway)"
Graphics

Submission + - ATI R600: The rumours so far

Submitted by
janp
janp writes: "The launch of ATI's R600 (or Radeon X2900) graphics card has been postponed once again. Hardware.Info has compiled all the rumours so far, tried to verify most of them and combined them in one article. It includes some screenshots from AMD/ATI's secret documentation for partners, proving the power consumption to be 280 Watt per card!"
Security

Submission + - PGP cracked?

Submitted by rosydreams
rosydreams writes: Guys, I cannot believe that: it seems that russian hackers were able to http://software.techrepublic.com.com/download.aspx ?docid=239052crack PGP !!! I'm using this program (PGP of course, not this cracker!) for years (from very old DOS version) and trusted it, so that shocked me to death :((( I'm not a crypro guru but as I understand they're using the distributed network (probably from KGB? :) and may be some advanced cracking algorithms. Btw this program is able to crack not only PGP but also Micro$oft Word, Excel, PDF, Windows logon passwords and a few others (actually, I don't care this, but really worry about PGP). Whether such software is legal? Are they allowed to distribute (sell!) password crackers?? I remember there were some Russian hackers that were jailed in the U.S. a few years ago after cracking Adobe e-books — why we cannot do the same with those ones? And after all are there any other encryption programs that are more reliable than PGP?
Announcements

Submission + - Rockstar announces Manhunt 2

Submitted by
njkid1
njkid1 writes: "Because there is a video game god, albeit a sick and twisted one, Rockstar will bring Manhunt 2 to the PlayStation 2, PSP and strangely enough, Nintendo's Wii. Rockstar London and North will develop the PS2 and PSP version, while Rockstar Toronto handles the Wii edition. The game will debut this summer. http://www.gamedailyxl.com/2007/02/06/rockstar-ann ounces-manhunt-2?&ncid=AOLGAM000500000000006"

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