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Submission + - Collar-bomber tracked by Gmail accesses (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by RockDoctor
RockDoctor writes: Reports are that a suspect has been arrested in the Australian "collar bomb" hostage/ extortion case. The allegation is that the suspect had set up a Gmail account, through which he (allegedly) planned to communicate with the extortion victims and arrange delivery of the payment.

Unfortunately for him, sufficient records have been kept that the location and time that the account was set up can be identified, and also for a number of accesses. This information combined with "CCTV footage and motor vehicle records" allowed the police to put an identity to the suspect, and arrange for his arrest and to start extradition proceedings.

So, if you're planning an extortion, don't drive your car to the internet cafe, don't set up the account from an airport, wear anonymous clothes (like Jason Bourne does?) and do all your accesses through hacked shell accounts somewhere in Outer Mongolia.

But this being Slashdot, everyone knew that already.

Submission + - Skype protocol has been reverse engineered (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Skype has been in the news a lot recently, mainly due to rumors of it being acquired a few months before a planned IPO. We thought Facebook and Google may pounce on the company for as much as $4 billion, but then Microsoft turned up, put $8.5 billion on the table, and walked away with their very expensive prize.

Now Microsoft own the most popular VoIP service out there, and surely plans to make it an integral part of their operations and products going forward. At the same time, one researcher has decided he wants to make Skype open source by reverse engineering the protocol the service uses.

In fact, he claims to have already achieved that reverse engineering feat on a new skype-open-source blog. The source code has been posted for versions 1.x/3.x/4.x of Skype as well as details of the rc4 layer arithmetic encoding the service uses.

While his intention may be to recreate Skype as an open source platform, it is doubtful he will get very far without facing an army of Microsoft lawyers. Skype is not an open platform, and Microsoft will want to keep it that way. Posting reverse engineered code online is not going to go down well in Redmond and this is surely a blog that will disappear shortly.
Data Storage

Best Format For OS X and Linux HDD? 253

Posted by timothy from the cross-the-beams dept.
dogmatixpsych writes "I work in a neuroimaging laboratory. We mainly use OS X but we have computers running Linux and we have colleagues using Linux. Some of the work we do with Magnetic Resonance Images produces files that are upwards of 80GB. Due to HIPAA constraints, IT differences between departments, and the size of files we create, storage on local and portable media is the best option for transporting images between laboratories. What disk file system do Slashdot readers recommend for our external HDDs so that we can readily read and write to them using OS X and Linux? My default is to use HFS+ without journaling but I'm looking to see if there are better suggestions that are reliable, fast, and allow read/write access in OS X and Linux."
Bug

Microsoft Plans Largest-Ever Patch Tuesday 341

Posted by timothy from the 24-hours-but-bigger-minutes dept.
CWmike writes "Microsoft said it will deliver its largest-ever number of security updates on Tuesday to fix 13 flaws in every version of Windows, as well as Internet Explorer (IE), Office, SQL Server, important developer tools and Forefront Security client software. Among the updates will be the first for the final, or release to manufacturing, code of Windows 7, Microsoft's newest operating system. The 13 updates slated for next week, eight of them pegged 'critical,' beat the previous record of 12 updates shipped in February 2007 and again in October 2008." Update Reader Kurt Seifried writes to correct the math a bit, pointing to Microsoft's Advance Notification page for the release, which says that rather than 13 flaws, this Patch Tuesday involves "13 bulletins (eight critical and five important), addressing 34 vulnerabilities ... Most of these updates require a restart so please factor that into your deployment planning."

Comment Re:What is this thing called Boxee? (Score 1) 335

by Flooded77 (#26814055) Attached to: Build a BoxeeBox and Wean Yourself From Cable
I've been using Boxee for a few months and as far as I can tell, registering with site allows you to add friends and rss audio and video feeds that are then populated in the boxee menu. The forums don't require an account unless you want to post.

I don't really utilize the social aspect of it, but it's nice to manage my feeds in one location rather than on each box in the house.

You don't need to register to add the repositories or download binaries (you can find links to them on the internets) and I haven't received any email from boxee, so I think the registration is purely for managing rss feeds and friends.

Comment Re:Just Like When He Led Microsoft (Score 1) 841

by Flooded77 (#26739247) Attached to: Bill Gates Unleashes Swarm of Mosquitoes

This is a beautiful illustration if the Liberal mindset. Rather than trying to raise the poor by eliminating mosquitoes he's trying to equalize everyone by lowering the wealthy.

Liberal mindset? How was he 'lowering the wealthy' by reminding them that when it comes to mosquito-borne illness, they are just as susceptible as the poor? When it comes to malaria, everyone is equal - mosquitoes couldn't care less about your politics or taxable income. As long as you've got blood in your veins, you're susceptible. Bill was just reminding them of that fact.
Television

XBMC 'Atlantis' Beta 1 Released, Now Cross-Platform 169

Posted by timothy from the let-a-thousand-flowers-bloom dept.
An anonymous reader writes with a welcome followup to last year's promise of XBMC being made available for Linux: "The first cross-platform Beta version[s] of XBMC Media Center for Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, and Xbox have now been released in preparation for an upcoming stable release, code named 'Atlantis.'" Now, though, there are binaries available for download through the XBMC Media Center site, though only for the non-Xbox versions.
Software

An Early Look at OpenOffice.org 3.0 369

Posted by CmdrTaco from the remember-the-future dept.
ahziem writes "With the final release 167 days away and an alpha version available, it's time to look at OpenOffice.org 3.0's new features: view multiple pages in Writer, notes in the margin, Microsoft Office 2007 file format support, Solver in Calc, new visual theme in Calc, native tables in Impress, more columns in Calc, error bars in charts, performance improvements, real native Aqua Mac support, and more."
Wii

How Wii Is Creaming the Competition 377

Posted by Zonk from the my-favorite-flavour-of-competition dept.
CNN has a report on the Wii's success in the games marketplace right now, referring to their sales dominance as 'creaming the competition'. The article tries to break down exactly why Nintendo's console has sold so successfully, discussing the system's marketing, engineering, and philosophy. "Next, engineers settled on a new approach for the Wii's looks. Just as the DS shunned the Game Boy name to appeal to a broader audience, the Wii would adopt a sleek white exterior instead of the toylike loud colors used on the GameCube. Even CEO Iwata got involved in the design process; at one point he handed engineers a stack of DVD jewel cases and told them the console should not be much bigger. Why so small? To work with the motion-sensitive wireless controller Nintendo planned, Iwata reasoned, the console would have to sit directly beside the TV. Make it any larger and customers would hesitate to leave it there. " Their sales strategy is working in spades. CVG reports that at least one analyst thinks that Wii demand won't be met until 2009. This past weekend Chris Kohler had an interesting comment on the 'ambassador programs' Nintendo ran in advance of the Wii's launch, and how that might tie in to the system's financial success.
The Courts

RIAA Admits ISPs Have Misidentified "John Does" 271

Posted by kdawson from the record-keeping dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA has sent out a letter to the ISPs telling them to stop making mistakes in identifying subscribers, and offering a 'Pre-Doe settlement option' — with a discount of '$1000 or more' — to their subscribers, if and only if the ISP agrees to preserve its logs for 180 days. Other interesting points in the letter (PDF): the RIAA will be launching a web site for 'early settlements,' www.p2plawsuits.com; the letter asks the ISPs to notify the RIAA if they have previously 'misidentified a subscriber account in response to a subpoena' or become aware of 'technical information... that causes you to question the information that you provided in response to our clients' subpoena'; it notes that ISPs have identified 'John Does' who were not even subscribers of the ISP at the time of the infringement; and it requests that ISPs furnish their underlying log files, not just names and addresses, when responding to RIAA subpoenas."
Privacy

Submission + - Congress wants to monitor emails, IMs, etc.

Submitted by
Josh Nelson
Josh Nelson writes: "A bill introduced last week by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) is beginning to raise eyebrows.

[It] would require ISPs to record all users' surfing activity, IM conversations and email traffic indefinitely. The bill, dubbed the Safety Act by sponsor Lamar Smith, a republican congressman from Texas, would impose fines and a prison term of one year on ISPs which failed to keep full records. (emphasis mine)
This is a terrifying development and it must be stopped before it gains any significant momentum. Background, Action items and contact information at this link."

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