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Windows

Windows Genuine Advantage Gets More Lenient 228

Posted by kdawson from the you-may-already-be-a-pirate dept.
Troglodyte writes in with word that Microsoft is revamping its Windows Genuine Advantage program so that it labels fewer users pirates. WGA now has a third category besides "genuine and "not genuine," called "not sure." Quoting: "[I]t's quite obvious what is going on here: Microsoft has added 'not sure' as a way of cutting down on the number of false positives associated with WGA. As many as one in five PCs were failing WGA checks, but this new setting should both reduce this and give Microsoft the chance to investigate further the kinds of things that are landing folks in the 'not sure' category."
Bug

IE and Firefox Share a Vulnerability 207

Posted by kdawson from the upload-with-daring-and-whimsy dept.
hcmtnbiker writes with news of a logic flaw shared by IE 7 and Firefox 2.0. IE 5.01, IE 6, and Firefox 1.5.0.9 are also affected. The flaw was discovered by Michal Zalewski, and is easily demonstrated on IE7 and Firefox. The vulnerability is not platform-specific, but these demonstrations are — they work only on Windows systems. (Microsoft says that IE7 on Vista is not vulnerable.) From the vulnerability description: "In all modern browsers, form fields (used to upload user-specified files to a remote server) enjoy some added protection meant to prevent scripts from arbitrarily choosing local files to be sent, and automatically submitting the form without user knowledge. For example, '.value' parameter cannot be set or changed, and any changes to .type reset the contents of the field... [in this attack] the keyboard input in unrelated locations can be selectively geared toward input fields by the attacker."
Software

Submission + - Announcing Crystal Space 1.0

Submitted by
Jorrit
Jorrit writes: "After nearly 10 years of development we finally release version 1.0 of Crystal Space. Crystal Space is an Open Source and portable 3D engine framework which runs on GNU/Linux, Windows, and MacOS/X. It is fully featured with support for vertex and fragment shaders, dynamic lighting and lightmaps, skeletal animation, physics, 3D sound, terrain engine, python support and much more.

Together with Crystal Space 1.0 we also release Crystal Entity Layer 1.0. This is a game layer on top of Crystal Space which makes it easier to develop games. Crystal Entity Layer is heavily oriented towards scripting (but also works in plain C++) and adds features like customizable third person camera, movement system, quest system, rule system, path finding and so on.

We would also like to announce a relatively new project called CELstart. To use Crystal Space and Crystal Entity Layer effectively you need to make your own C++ programs. If you download CELstart then you can start making full powered Crystal Space games by using only XML and/or Python scripts. It is by far the easiest way to make 3D games using Crystal Space.

Interested? Check us out at http://www.crystalspace3d.org/"
Sci-Fi

Journal Journal: Transporting A-Bombs 3

Journal by hcg50a

I have a question about Star Trek.

In both the tee vee shows and the movies, they often transport people and objects to and from spacecraft with transporters.

When they are fighting Klingons, how come they never transport an a-bomb into the bridge (or some other vulnerable point) of the opponent?
Math

Journal Journal: Hard-wired for geometry

Journal by hcg50a
Hard-wired for geometry 12:44 Friday 20 January 2006 Pending

I submitted this article. Let's see how long it takes for someone to deal with it, and reject or accept it.

Update: It was published at 8:28am PST on 21 January, 2006.

I still have an outstanding article (a poll) pending:

Best funeral for a head of state 11:18 Monday 04 April 2005 Pending

User Journal

Journal Journal: Signatures 4

Journal by hcg50a
Ash nazg durbatuluk, ash nazg gimbatul,
Ash nazg thrakatuluk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.

HCG 50a = 2MASX J11170638+5455016
11h17m06.4s +54d55m02s
It's funny. Laugh.

Journal Journal: *BSD is dying

Journal by hcg50a

It is now official. Netcraft confirms: *BSD is dying

Music

Journal Journal: Jazz giant Artie Shaw dead at 94

Journal by hcg50a

I'm not a big fan of big band swing (although I like that music), and I'm not a big fan of the clarinet.

The only reason I even know about Artie Shaw is that, as a child in the late 50s, I had a set of 78rpm records (as distinguished from "LP 33s") which was a musical adaptation of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. I used to play it quite a bit on a record player.

The story was kind of interesting, but I really liked the music. It was Artie Shaw playing clarinet.
It's funny. Laugh.

Journal Journal: Being silly

Journal by hcg50a
Check this out.

It's a mildly amusing thread I participated in last Monday. I did it anonymously. Mine is the second comment. I actually got modded up.

I generally think that people who write "Mod parent up" or "mod parent down" are boofheads, although sometimes those comments have been right on.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Finding a relative

Journal by hcg50a
I just found my nephew here. He has a prestigious low Slashdot userid, from which I gather that he registered about 4 years ago. I wonder how many other acquaintances of mine are here?
News

Journal Journal: Captain Kangaroo dead at 76

Journal by hcg50a

I grew up with him. I've always wondered why I never see re-runs of his show -- I'm sure that I remember it being much, much better than it actually was.
It's funny. Laugh.

Journal Journal: Nerds and geeks 1

Journal by hcg50a
Miss Marvel wrote in her journal:

...nerds and geeks. I may live to regret this, but I'm willing to try anything at least once.

I have to say that I am just really disappointed that Miss Marvel seems to be calling me, and a lot of other people, including one of my friends, a nerd and a geek.

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"And remember: Evil will always prevail, because Good is dumb." -- Spaceballs

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