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Submission + - Numeral Systems of the World's Languages (eva.mpg.de)

Submitted by labr!nth
labr!nth writes: Linguist Eugene Chan has "successfully collected basic numeral systems and data from about 4,000 languages in the world." He gives a summary of many of these on his website. All sorts of interesting systems are used including various bases (e.g. 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, and 12), body-part tallying, and languages that only distinguish between one and many (c.f. various wikipedia articles on Everett and the Piraha language). The site is ugly and difficult to navigate, but summary boxes at the bottom of specific language pages are informative. Especially interesting are those from indigenous languages from remote areas (c.f. pages for Bella Coola or Kwadi).

Submission + - A new app to hide text messages from prying eyes (safebox.mobi)

Submitted by jolypip
jolypip writes: A new mobile application, called SafeBox, has been launched to let users send and receive private text messages, invisible to anyone taking their phone. The application combines the popularity and mobility of texting with the privacy and security of modern cryptography to give some privacy to the SMS communications.

Stories of intercepted and incriminating SMS texts make the celebrity gossip headlines regularly, whether a prince, a footballer, an actor, a musician, a politician or a golfer, the examples are many where the SafeBox application could have kept those texts private and protected from curious intruders, paparazzi, stalkers and other prying eyes.

Privacy in general has become increasingly important, but especially so in the mobile space, as incidents of SMS spoofing and interception multiply.
SafeBox is a privacy tool that is simple to use, available to everyone around the world, and free to download. The first version has been released with J2ME for Java and Symbian phones and can be used in 7 languages.

Besides text messages, the SafeBox application, also offers other features such as a hidden private contact list, and confidential notes. The application is PIN-protected preventing its content to be seen from the outside without knowledge of the PIN. If the phone is lost, stolen or just gets in the wrong hands for a while, nobody can read the messages sent or received or even see whom they were written to.

For more information about SafeBox or to download the application for free, visit the www.safebox.mobi website from a mobile phone browser or from the web.

Submission + - Body Area Networks To Collect Physiological Data (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: The FCC is considering a request by the healthcare industry to allocate radio bandwidth for the creation of body area networks, which would use small, disposable monitors in the form of patches or bracelets to collect physiological data on critically and chronically ill patients, such as temperature, pulse, blood glucose level, blood pressure and respiratory health. The body area networks would transmit the data to electronic medical records, which could be remotely monitored by care givers and could not only head off heart attacks and strokes but reduce staph infections in hospitals, which kill 200,000 people annually in the U.S.
Security

More Mac Vulnerabilities Than Windows In 2007? 329

Posted by Zonk from the dogs-and-cats-living-together-mass-hysteria dept.
eldavojohn writes "A ZDNet blog reports stats from Secunia showing OSX averaged 20.25 vulnerabilities per month while XP & Vista combined averaged 3.67/month. Is this report card's implication accurate, or is this a symptom of one company turning a blind eye while the other concentrates on timely bugfixes? 'While Windows Vista shows fewer flaws than Windows XP and has more mitigating factors against exploitation, the addition of Windows Defender and Sidebar added 4 highly critical flaws to Vista that weren't present in Windows XP. Sidebar accounted for three of those additional vulnerabilities and it's something I am glad I don't use. The lone Defender critical vulnerability that was supposed to defend Windows Vista was ironically the first critical vulnerability for Windows Vista.'"
Music

Submission + - Next for Apple: Lossless iTunes Store (cnet.co.uk)

Submitted by DrJenny
DrJenny writes: C|net has an interesting piece running at the moment about why Apple developed their own lossless codec, and more importantly that iTunes will become a download store for lossless audio, potentially from all the major labels. This would be a massively positive move for people who spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on hi-fi gear, but refuse to give money to stores that only offer compressed music. It's a big FLAC, DRM, ALAC and GB discussion, but it's a very exciting perspective, and surely one that'll pan out meaning audiophiles will finally be able to take advantage of legal digital downloads.
Security

Submission + - SquirrelMail Repository Poisoned (beskerming.com)

Submitted by
SkiifGeek
SkiifGeek writes: "Late last week the SquirrelMail team posted information on their site about a compromise to the main download repository for SquirrelMail that resulted in a critical flaw being introduced into two versions of the webmail application (1.4.11 and 1.4.12).

After gaining access to the repository through a release maintainer's compromised account (it is believed), the attackers made a slight modification to the release packages, modifying how a PHP global variable was handled. As a result, it introduced a remote file inclusion bug — leading to an arbitrary code execution risk on systems running the vulnerable versions of SquirrelMail.

The poisoning was identified after it was reported to the SquirrelMail team that there was a difference in MD5 signatures for version 1.4.12.

Version 1.4.13 is now available."

Where are Wii? 440

Posted by CmdrTaco from the not-under-my-tree dept.
WirePosted writes "Santa is in trouble, it looks like supplying the Christmas need for a Nintendo Wii game console is in jeopardy as stocks wither under constant and heavy demand. Conspiracy believers suggest this is an orchestrated move on behalf of Nintendo." Since this happens to be what I want for Christmas, I hope they work it out, or my loving wife has already found one.

CSIRO Wireless Patent Reaffirmed In US Court 147

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the i-was-here-first-nyah-nyah dept.
An anonymous reader writes ""The CSIRO has won a landmark US legal battle against Buffalo Technology, under which it could receive royalties from every producer of wireless local area network (WLAN) products worldwide." From the article: "The patent, granted to CSIRO in 1996, encompasses elements of the 802.11a/g wireless technology that is now an industry standard. It stems from a system developed by CSIRO in the early '90s, 'to exchange large amounts of information wirelessly at high speed, within environments such as offices and homes,' said a CSIRO spokeswoman."

Comment Instaload (Score 1) 65

by Xoder (#15769593) Attached to: Gotuit Launches Broadband Video Portal
So, I realize that this is impossible, but I definately noticed almost no lag time (a second at most) both for initial playback and pause-restart. The longest lag point is when the page itself is being loaded. (DSL, highest transfer rate I've ever seen coming down it is 110KBps (Torrent).)

Researcher Jailed for Falsifying Research 195

Posted by Zonk from the nerd-police-blotter dept.
Caldeso writes "For the first time in U.S. history, a researcher has received jail time for falsifying research data to obtain federal grants. Eric Poehlman pled guilty to defrauding the government to the tune of nearly 3 million dollars by changing and making up research and was sentenced to a year in a federal prison work camp and a lifetime ban on further federal grants."

Malware Installed by LiveJournal Ad 199

Posted by CowboyNeal from the egg-on-face dept.
Jamesday writes "LiveJournal recently introduced an ad-supported level. Over the last few days an advertiser used an ad to install the ErrorSafe malware that tried to trick people into believing they had a fault on the computer that needs them to purchase a fix. The ad used a server-side setting and targetted only those outside the US, to prevent LiveJournal's own checks from noticing it. LiveJournal has apologized for the ad and slow response." Even our readers have had to endure more than one browser-crashing ad campaign from time to time. Thanks for sticking around.

Another Robotic Vehicle to Help Soldiers 154

Posted by Zonk from the johnny-five-is-alive dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "There are many teams of U.S. scientists working on robots able to find improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq before they can kill American soldiers. Today, let's look at an effort going on at Florida State University (FSU) to build unmanned ground vehicles that could save soldiers' lives. The researchers are creating complex algorithms to control these robots who will have to integrate many different factors such as the type of ground surface or obstacles that might block the vehicle's path. Some of these robots, which also could be used for civilian missions, are currently being tested at FSU. Read more for additional references and pictures of these robots which will have to navigate among dense obstacles."

Alternatives to Citrix Remote Computing? 93

Posted by Cliff from the other-software-options dept.
Dysfnctnl85 asks: "The company I work for relies heavily on remote computing through a Citrix MetaFrame server. The reliance on this stems from the structure of our accounting software and the fact that we have 2 remote sites that need to access this data all day, everyday. We are investigating alternatives to the Citrix system we currently operate. How do companies of similar structures deal with this type of problem? Is it feasible (or practical) to use Windows Terminal Services to achieve everything Citrix is capable of doing? This includes, but is not limited to, the ability to print from the Citrix session to a user's printer, the ability to access network drives from the Citrix session, access the user's local drives through the session, and the ability to use published apps. The main concern with this type of setup is the ability to print. What alternatives are there to Citrix?"

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