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Programming

The State of Ruby VMs — Ruby Renaissance 89

Posted by Soulskill from the take-your-pick dept.
igrigorik writes "In the short span of just a couple of years, the Ruby VM space has evolved to more than just a handful of choices: MRI, JRuby, IronRuby, MacRuby, Rubinius, MagLev, REE and BlueRuby. Four of these VMs will hit 1.0 status in the upcoming year and will open up entirely new possibilities for the language — Mac apps via MacRuby, Ruby in the browser via Silverlight, object persistence via Smalltalk VM, and so forth. This article takes a detailed look at the past year, the progress of each project, and where the community is heading. It's an exciting time to be a Rubyist."

Comment Well... (Score 1) 440

by katterjohn (#25970791) Attached to: Losing My Software Rights?
Tell them you feel strongly about retaining your rights over your software and see if they maintain that it's required to transfer rights to them. Get the facts from them. If they say you have to, but you really don't want to, don't take the job. Of course, make sure you get it in writing.
Networking

Submission + - Wireshark 1.0 Released 1

Submitted by
katterjohn
katterjohn writes: "After almost 10 years of work, Wireshark 1.0 has been released. Wireshark is the award-winning protocol analyzer, formerly known as Ethereal, that has taken the packet sniffers to a whole new level. A list of all the goodies is here."
Software

Submission + - iPhone 2.0 OS Already Hacked

Submitted by katterjohn
katterjohn writes: The Beta version of the iPhone 2.0 operating system has already been cracked by the iPhone Dev Team.

"Apparently, this time it's final. Previous hacks have been tied to a specific version of the iPhone OS, meaning that the hackers were playing a cat-and-mouse game with Apple: the cracks, jailbreaks and unlocks were broken with each new update.

This latest crack actually bypasses the iPhone bootloader (the software which loads the OS when a computer is switched on) and allows unsigned code to be written to and run on the iPhone. Think of it as like finding the keys to a house, and the owner can't change the locks."
Space

Probe Captures Avalanche on Mars 69

Posted by Zonk from the not-a-recommended-vacation-spot dept.
mdekato writes "MSNBC reports that NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured an avalanche on Mars' surface as it happened. Very good still images show what must have been an awesome sight. 'The full image reveals features as small as a desk in a strip of terrain 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) wide and more than 10 times that long, at 84 degrees north latitude. Reddish layers known to be rich in water ice make up the face of a steep slope more than 2,300 feet (700 meters) tall, running the length of the image. Mars' north pole is covered by a cap of ice, and it even snows there. The scientists suspect that more ice than dust probably makes up the material that fell from the upper portion of the scarp.'"
Security

Submission + - FBI Warns of Exploding Pregnant Bellies

Submitted by
katterjohn
katterjohn writes: ""The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are warning US law enforcement agencies to keep a sharp look-out for "a new type of terrorism" in which apparently-pregnant women suddenly go bang due to the fact they aren't really mums-to-be at all, but cold-hearted suicide bombers packing explosives inside a swelling prosthetic belly."

Talk about baby boomers..."
Security

Submission + - Metasploit 3.1 released

Submitted by
katterjohn
katterjohn writes: "Version 3.1 of the Metasploit Framework — the cross-platform development platform for testing and creating new security tools and exploits — has been released. Project manager H D Moore says "Metasploit 3.1 consolidates a year of research and development, integrating ideas and code from some of the sharpest and most innovative folks in the security research community."

From the release notes: "The latest incarnation of the framework includes a bristling arsenal of exploit modules that are sure to put a smile on the face of every information warrior. Notable exploits in the 3.1 release include a remote, unpatched kernel-land exploit for Novell Netware, written by toto, a series of 802.11 fuzzing modules that can spray the local airspace with malformed frames, taking out a wide swath of wireless-enabled devices, and a battery of exploits targeted at Borland's InterBase product line."

The Metasploit Framework can be downloaded here."
Censorship

Submission + - Yahoo caught censoring Open Source (theinquirer.net) 5

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Amanda Kerik responded to a problem that a user was having with their Windows machine that since they had to do a re-install they might as well install Ubuntu Linux.

She got a message back from Yahoo claiming that such a comment was in violation of its Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. It deleted her answer and warned her not to post anything like that again ..
Security

Submission + - Nmap 4.50 Released in its 10th Birthday (insecure.org)

Submitted by
buanzo
buanzo writes: "After nearly two years of work since the 4.00 release, Insecure.Org is pleased to announce the immediate, free availability of the Nmap Security Scanner version 4.50 from http://insecure.org/nmap/ . Nmap was first released in 1997, so this release celebrates our 10th anniversary! Major new features since 4.00 include the Zenmap cross-platform GUI, 2nd Generation OS Detection, the Nmap Scripting Engine, a rewritten host discovery system, performance optimization, advanced traceroute functionality, TCP and IP options support, and nearly 1,500 new version detection signatures. Dozens of other important changes — and future plans for Nmap — are listed in the release announcement. We recommend that all current Nmap users upgrade."
Security

Submission + - Nmap hits the Silver Screen (Again)

Submitted by
Devil's BSD
Devil's BSD writes: "Some of you probably remember a few years ago when Nmap was used in Matrix Revolutions to take down a power grid. Now, Nmap has hit the big screen again, this time in the Bourne Ultimatum. Although it probably flashed by too fast for most of us in the theater, it's clearly visible in the DVD releases. Video stills at http://insecure.org! Also, bash is clearly visible as the shell of choice here. Were they trying to make a subtle connection to the Bourne-Again Shell?"
Privacy

Submission + - All Danish citizens under surveillance (information.dk)

Submitted by Snaller
Snaller writes: Unfortunately I can find no English news sites reporting this, so i guess it may never go beyond your eyes (or ours), but at least one American (I'm assuming) will have read it then:

During this weekend the real big brother put his foot down on the country of Denmark, in Europe, in the name of fighting terrorism the government has ordered all Internet providers and telcos to log: who you call on your phone, who calls you, the addresses of the calling parties and for cell phones where you are when you make/receive the call. Times of messages you send and receive on your phone. Internet providers must log who a user connects to via his computer, this includes the users IP address, the destination IP address, what port numbers are used on the sending end, and port numbers used at the receiving end, and the duration of the communication. They must log the identity of the user initiating the communication and the precise geographic location of the user. In addition to this they must log the email address of people the user sends email to, and the email address used to send from, and the time of the email transmission. By law these loggings must be carried out for every single citizen who uses the Internet or the phone system, and these logs must be kept for one year, to be made available to the police if it is found relevant for an investigation. A judge needs sign of on it, however apparently the secret Danish police does not need that — they can simply demand to see it.

Some Danes are pragmatically pointing out that there is a bit of a hole in the law since libraries are currently not included, hotels are confused since they are included but not sure if they need to write down the names of all of their guests who try to use the Internet or just that the hotel computer was used, while others are outraged at what they consider a gross violation of their privacy, but apparently, and unfortunately, many seem to accept it when the blonde minister of justice opinions that only people who plan on doing crime could object to these measures.

This is the full text of the law (in Danish) http://147.29.40.91/DELFIN/HTML/B2006/0098805.htm

And a couple of articles about the subject (alas, in Danish)

Newspaper Information
News paper Arbejderen
Newspaper Politiken and here
Newspaper Jyllands Posten
And The Danish Library Agency
Power

Submission + - Inflatable, Affordable Electric Car (pesn.com) 3

Submitted by
Sterling Allan
Sterling Allan writes: "XP Vehicles(TM) announced on Thursday that it's Whisper(TM) electric car is being developed for online direct ship distribution at sub $5000.00 price-points. This would be the world's first crash-proof, long range, flat-pack vehicle. A baffled pressure tube system provides the supporting and protective structure of the vehicle, making it so safe that the engineers for the Whisper are confident you can drive it off a 25-foot cliff without serious injury to its passengers."

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