Comment Re:You are missing the point. (Score 2, Funny) 739
J&J is going up against the Geneva Convention and International law. They are is not going to win this.
That's easy one. J&J is going to declare ACR as enemy combatant.
Submission + - Sun Releasing 8-Core Niagara 2 Processor
An anonymous reader writes: Sun Microsystems is set to announce its eight-core Niagara 2 processor next week. Each core supports eight threads, so the chip handles 64 simultaneous threads, making it the centerpiece of Sun's "Throughput Computing" effort. Along with having more cores than the quads from Intel and AMD, the Niagara 2 have dual, on-chip 10G Ethernet ports with crytopgraphic capability. Sun doesn't get much processor press, because the chips are used only in its own CoolThreads servers, but Niagara 2 will probably be the fastest processor out there when its released, other than perhaps the also little-known 4-GHz IBM Power 6.
Submission + - british gov't rejects copyright extension proposal (boingboing.net)
pimpimpim writes: As mentioned by BoingBoing:
"...the British government has rejected a proposal to extend music recording copyrights from 50 to 95 years ...
This is the first time that I know of, in the history of the world, that any country has given up on extended copyright terms."
hurray!
"...the British government has rejected a proposal to extend music recording copyrights from 50 to 95 years
This is the first time that I know of, in the history of the world, that any country has given up on extended copyright terms."
hurray!
Submission + - Google Apps Buggy Lately?
An anonymous reader writes: I administer two unrelated domains that use Google Apps for e-mail (thats where you basically use G-mail but with your own domain name) and over the last week I've received an alarming number of reports from users that the service appears to be broken. Upon going to their Start page, the users get the message "Information is temporarily unavailable" under E-mail and when they try click on the E-mail link they get taken to a vanilla G-mail login page (which doesn't support logging in with a Google Apps accounts). Did Google upgrade the Apps with broken software or something? Either way, I've seen the problem myself and it doesn't appear to be going away.
Submission + - Computer waste fuels toxic trade (itmanagersjournal.com)
nanday writes: "Do you know what happens to your used computer equipment after it has been discarded? The answer may surprise you. Even if you have tried to recycle it, your old hardware often gets shipped to a developing nation in direct violation of international law. Useful components are then extracted — without safety precautions — by locals earning pennies a day and who are exposed to a range of hazardous toxins that include lead, beryllium, mercury, cadmium, and brominated flame retardants.
Though slated to be banned over a decade ago, the practice continues and seems to be growing. North America, Japan, and South Korea are among the worst offenders. Solutions exist, and free software is a small part of them, but implementing them remains a painfully slow process."
Submission + - Mozilla admits Firefox is flawed just like IE (computerworld.com) 1
jdelator writes: In a public mea culpa, Mozilla Corp.'s chief security officer acknowledged today that Firefox includes the same flaw that the company called a "critical vulnerability" in Internet Explorer during a two-week ruckus over responsibility for a Windows zero-day bug.
"Over the weekend, we learned about a new scenario that identifies ways that Firefox could also be used as the entry point," said Window Snyder of Mozilla. "While browsing with Firefox, a specially crafted URL could potentially be used to send bad data to another application.
"We thought this was just a problem with IE," Snyder continued. "It turns out, it is a problem with Firefox as well."
"Over the weekend, we learned about a new scenario that identifies ways that Firefox could also be used as the entry point," said Window Snyder of Mozilla. "While browsing with Firefox, a specially crafted URL could potentially be used to send bad data to another application.
"We thought this was just a problem with IE," Snyder continued. "It turns out, it is a problem with Firefox as well."
Submission + - UK Government rejects copyright term extension (culture.gov.uk) 1
e6003 writes: "The UK Government has responded to a report from the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee which (inter alia) had backed the extension of phonographic performance copyright from its present 50 years. The Government response [PDF document] notes (in response to paragraph 28 on page 15 of the PDF) that the Gowers Report considered the call for a term extension on economic and moral grounds but rejected all the arguments in favour of term extension, as did an EU Commission report. The Response concludes, "Taking account of the findings of these reports, which carefully considered the impact on the economy as a whole, and without further substantive evidence to the contrary, it does not seem appropriate for the Government to press the [European] Commission for action at this stage." Pleasingly, the Response also notes "The Government will undertake a public consultation this Autumn about making an exception to copyright legislation to allow format-shifting for private use." It's technically an infringement of copyright in the UK to rip CDs to your iPod and even the music industry has agreed something needs to be done about this."
Submission + - Intel open-sources multicore programming toolkit (arstechnica.com) 1
Doctor Memory writes: Intel has recently open-sourced their previously closed-source TBB 2.0 (Thread Building Blocks) C++ library. The library provides parallel algorithm templates for "task-based parallelism", emphasizing logical tasks instead of physical threads. The web site (osstbb.intel.com) hosts an FAQ, a forum link, and a download page to get the latest version of the source. Licensed under GPLv2, Intel will continue to sell a commercial version of the library which will include engineering support. There's a more in-depth overview over at Ars Technica.
Submission + - By 2048 all seafood species projected to collapse (scitizen.com)
Undead_Kangaroo writes: "Boris Worm, an Assistant Professor in Marine Conservation Biology at the Biology Department of Dalhousie University in Halifax is reporting that as of last year, 29% of fish and seafood species had collapsed, that is, their catch had declined by 90%, and that all fish and seafood species were projected to collapse by 2048.
This finding was reported in the 3 November issue of the journal Science."
Submission + - Canonical releses Landscape a sysadmin tool (canonical.com)
Bengt writes: Canonical have relesed a new sysadmin tool, Landscape. IT professionals face demands from their businesses for complex IT set-ups with more inter-dependancies and consequently the management issues this brings. Technologies such as virtualisation and SOA mean that IT environments are likely to become more complex, which is a challenge to manageability and maintenance. Landscape aims to to make the management of Ubuntu systems simple and effective. Whether managing a few desktop machines or a full data-centre of servers, Landscape aims to make Ubuntu easy to deal with.
Landscape helps Canonical provide outstanding support for Ubuntu. Support technicians can view a customer's system and its history. Working with the customer they can provide guidance more effectively and solve issues quicker. This feature will also be of use to partners who look after Ubuntu systems.
Submission + - Westpac accepts no blame in security breach (zdnet.com.au)
dolphinboy writes: Westpac has admitted that the details of around 1,400 Virgin credit card customers were exposed last week when its system security was breached, but Australia's fourth largest bank has washed its hands of any blame.
Submission + - MySQL CEO says open source is unstoppable
StonyandCher writes: Despite a growing acceptance of open-source software, MySQL CEO Marten Mickos, said Monday in a keynote speech at the first-ever Ubuntu Live Conference, that there are also ongoing threats to open source development. Those threats, he told attendees, come from proprietary software companies such as Microsoft, which can spread criticism and doubt — backed by their legal and economic might — to push proprietary products.
"Microsoft can use [its] money in other ways to threaten free and open-source software, and I'm sure that they have," Mickos said. "But I think we will see less of that in the future because they've done it and it hasn't helped them."
"...I'm not too worried," Mickos said. "This open source movement is so strong that nothing can stop it anymore."
"Microsoft can use [its] money in other ways to threaten free and open-source software, and I'm sure that they have," Mickos said. "But I think we will see less of that in the future because they've done it and it hasn't helped them."
"...I'm not too worried," Mickos said. "This open source movement is so strong that nothing can stop it anymore."
Submission + - Linux fed up with FSF
An anonymous reader writes: Linus rants continue...
I'm damn fed up with the FSF being the "protector of freedoms", and also
feeling that they can define what those freedoms mean.
http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0706 .1/2214.html
Submission + - New AACS "fix" hacked in a day
VincenzoRomano writes: "ArsTechnica has just published an update to the neverending story about copy protection used in HD DVD and Blu-ray discs and hacker hefforts against it. Quoting the original article:
It seems it'll be a long way to an effective solution ... if any.
One could also argue whether all those money spent by the industry in this reace will be worth the results and how long it would take for a return on investment."
The article proposes a simple description of the protection schema and a brief look back at how the cracks have slowly chipped away at its effectiveness.The ongoing war between content producers and hackers over the AACS copy protection used in HD DVD and Blu-ray discs produced yet another skirmish last week, and as has been the case as of late, the hackers came out on top.
The hacker "BtCB" posted the new decryption key for AACS on the Freedom to Tinker web site, just one day after the AACS Licensing Authority (AACS LA) issued the key.
It seems it'll be a long way to an effective solution
One could also argue whether all those money spent by the industry in this reace will be worth the results and how long it would take for a return on investment."
Submission + - The first war in cyberspace.
An anonymous reader writes: The New York Times has an interesting article on the digital war on Estonia following the removal of a Russian war memorial.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/technology/29est onia.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th
Russia is blamed for launching the war and there are even tracks to Putin.
Interesting description of the attacks and countermeasures that the Estonians took which appear to have been fairly sophisticated. Now that Russia is back in the war business, I think we can expect to see more of this... welcome to the future.
Russia is blamed for launching the war and there are even tracks to Putin.
Interesting description of the attacks and countermeasures that the Estonians took which appear to have been fairly sophisticated. Now that Russia is back in the war business, I think we can expect to see more of this... welcome to the future.
