Submission + - Slashdot is dying according to Fox News (foxnews.com)
An anonymous reader writes: According to FOX news slashdot is on it's way out. Hopefully they are incorrect.
Submission + - RealNetworks crushes Dutch webmaster for hyperlink (pcadvisor.co.uk)
suraj.sun writes: RealNetworks has sued the owner of a website in The Netherlands for displaying a hyperlink to a competing freeware package. As the company seeks compensation for its claimed losses, the 26-year-old man is borrowing money from family to survive.
The case started in 2010 when RealNetworks demanded that the computers belonging to Hilbrand Edskes and his family be confiscated. A Dutch judge granted this in an ex-parte ruling, based on an alleged violation of copyright law and trademark law. The company claims that Edskes was hosting the infringing software. The move to secretly obtain the order was meant to ensure that evidence wasn’t deleted.
Edskes has a website, Codecpack.nl, that links to a wide variety of freeware programs. One of these is "Real Alternative", a competitor of the mediaplayer RealPlayer from RealNetworks.
However, Edskes wasn’t hosting the software, but just redirected to other sites for the actual download. The complaint turned out to be based on a hyperlink to the software. To date there have been two court sessions, and in December Edskes will have to testify under oath.
PC Advisor: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/tech-industry/3299285/realnetworks-crushes-dutch-webmaster-for-hyperlink/
The case started in 2010 when RealNetworks demanded that the computers belonging to Hilbrand Edskes and his family be confiscated. A Dutch judge granted this in an ex-parte ruling, based on an alleged violation of copyright law and trademark law. The company claims that Edskes was hosting the infringing software. The move to secretly obtain the order was meant to ensure that evidence wasn’t deleted.
Edskes has a website, Codecpack.nl, that links to a wide variety of freeware programs. One of these is "Real Alternative", a competitor of the mediaplayer RealPlayer from RealNetworks.
However, Edskes wasn’t hosting the software, but just redirected to other sites for the actual download. The complaint turned out to be based on a hyperlink to the software. To date there have been two court sessions, and in December Edskes will have to testify under oath.
PC Advisor: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/tech-industry/3299285/realnetworks-crushes-dutch-webmaster-for-hyperlink/
Submission + - Scariest IPv6 attack scenarios (networkworld.com)
alphadogg writes: Experts are reporting a rise in the number of attacks that take advantage of known vulnerabilities of IPv6, a next-generation addressing scheme that is being adopted across the Internet. Salient Federal Solutions, a Fairfax, Va., IT engineering firm, is reporting real-world incidents of IPv6 attacks based on the emerging protocol's tunneling capabilities, routing headers, DNS broadcasting and rogue routing announcements. The No. 1 attack that Salient Federal is seeing is the result of so much IPv6 traffic being tunneled across IPv4 networks, particularly using the Teredo mechanism that is built into both Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7. This vulnerability with IPv6-over-IPv4 tunneling has been known for at least five years, but it is still being exploited.
Submission + - Steve Jobs, 16 Revolutions Per Career (macobserver.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Beyond all the brooha about Steve Jobs' retirement, I thought it might be interesting to count up the number of game changing developments he helped bring about. I counted 16. Thought it might be a nice walk down memory lane.
Submission + - Hurricane Irene Threatens Northeast; Protect Your (itworld.com)
jfruhlinger writes: "Hurricane Irene is bearing down on the heavily populated U.S. Northeast Corridor. If you work in IT, you know that there are few things that are worse for electronics than water; so, what's your plan? Tom Henderson has come up with a checklist, which sensibly includes backing everything up, twice; not that you have time for it now, but for future reference you might want to consider just moving your whole data center to a location that's been conveniently pre-hardened, like a water tower or a boiler room."
Submission + - Simple Machine Forum Co-Founder Speaks Out (lewisonline.ca) 1
SMF Friend writes: It seems there's something going down at SimpleMachines.org, home of the Simple Machines Forum. Within the past week, a new website has cropped up with dozens of former developers and project management in heated discussions over events that transpired last Saturday. A statement has been released by former Developer and Co-Founder Jeff Lewis, which chronicles the life and hardships of SMF and includes a letter from 30 current and former SMF Team Members asking for the removal of three of SMF's Managers.
"Over seven years ago my friend Joseph Fung and I decided the web needed an alternative to the leading PHP forum package out there. We created a PHP fork of perl based YaBB and after working with what we called YaBB SE for a bit, we re-branded as SMF, or Simple Machines Forums, along with a new core of code written by a developer who called himself [Unknown]. After seven years its crumbling but why?"
Other former SMF contributors are already picking up the story (Original German version).
As of writing this, the SMF community has begun banning members who link to blog post on their official forums, including Co-Founder Jeff Lewis.
"Over seven years ago my friend Joseph Fung and I decided the web needed an alternative to the leading PHP forum package out there. We created a PHP fork of perl based YaBB and after working with what we called YaBB SE for a bit, we re-branded as SMF, or Simple Machines Forums, along with a new core of code written by a developer who called himself [Unknown]. After seven years its crumbling but why?"
Other former SMF contributors are already picking up the story (Original German version).
As of writing this, the SMF community has begun banning members who link to blog post on their official forums, including Co-Founder Jeff Lewis.
Submission + - Busybox Developers Respond to Andersen/SFLC Suits (perens.com)
Bruce Perens writes: "I'm the creator of the Busybox program. I have released a statement on the past and current Busybox lawsuits, which do not represent my interest."
Ads To Offset Cost of Unlocked Google Phone? 161
CWmike writes "Google isn't talking publicly about reported plans to sell a powerful Android-based smartphone called the Nexus One directly to consumers next year, but the idea is already raising eyebrows with analysts. The chief concern is that selling an unlocked phone directly to consumers, probably online, could be twice as expensive as buying one through a carrier. The unlocked approach has largely failed in the US, with the world's biggest phone manufacturer, Nokia, doing poorly with the concept. Nokia recently announced that its two direct-sales stores in Chicago and New York will close early next year, while online sales of unlocked devices will continue. Conceivably, Google could offer its phone at a price comparable to a subsidized phone from a carrier — as long as customers agree to receive mobile ads on the devices. Since advertising is central to Google's revenue model, that approach might make some sense, analysts said. 'Google doesn't want to be in the phone business or the mobile carrier business, so this must be about something else, and that's the advertising business, since Google is in the business of selling ads,' said Kevin Burden, an analyst at ABI Research. In one mobile advertising model being tested in Germany, users agree to receive a certain number of ads on their phones to reduce their monthly cellular and texting rates, although reducing the up-front cost of the actual device is relatively novel. Reinforcing the idea of using mobile advertising with direct sales of unlocked phones, Google bought AdMob in November."
Submission + - Freenode under DDoS attack (freenode.net)
Craig Maloney writes: According to freenode's announcement, "We are currently experiencing heavy DDoS against several locations at which we've got servers hosted. The attack is ongoing and cause a lot of disruption, both to users of the network and unfortunately to projects/companies/individuals whos infrastructure is hosted at the same locations as us. Our sponsors and our sponsors' upstreams are working hard to try curb the attacks as best they can".
Project Honey Pot Traps Billionth Spam 118
EastDakota writes "Project Honey Pot today announced that it had trapped its 1 billionth spammer. To celebrate, the team behind the largest community sourced project tracking online fraud and abuse released a full rundown of statistics on the last five years of spam. Findings include: spam drops 21% on Christmas Day and 32% of New Year's Day; the most spam is sent on Mondays, the least on Saturdays; spammers found at least 956 different ways to spell VIAGRA (e.g., VIAGRA, V1AGRA, V1@GR@, V!AGRA, VIA6RA, etc.) in mail received by the Project; and much more."
What Is the State of Linux Security DVR Software? 112
StonyCreekBare writes "I am wondering what slashdotters have to offer on the idea of Linux based security systems, especially DVR software. I am aware of Zoneminder, but wonder what else is out there? Are there applications that will not only monitor video cameras, but motion sensors and contact closure alarms? What is state of the art in this area, and how do the various Linux platforms stack up in comparison to dedicated embedded solutions? Will these 'play nice' with other software, such as Asterisk, and Misterhouse? Can one server host three or four services applications of this nature, assuming CPU/memory/disk resources are sufficient?"
Submission + - Want a first-time driver's license? Not Today! (statesman.com)
pbarnhart writes: "Texas Department of Public Safety officials said (Wednesday, April 15, 2009) a virus that has entered the agency's computer system is making it impossible for workers to issue first-time driver's licenses at offices across the state.
DPS spokeswoman Lisa Block said officials are still trying to determine the origin of the virus. She said she did not know when the system would be operating again but that they were hoping to repair it today.
"We regret any inconvenience that this is causing people," she said. "But we are working to fix it."
City of Austin officials also reported computer problems that affected e-mail servers this morning. Those problems have since been repaired, officials said."
DPS spokeswoman Lisa Block said officials are still trying to determine the origin of the virus. She said she did not know when the system would be operating again but that they were hoping to repair it today.
"We regret any inconvenience that this is causing people," she said. "But we are working to fix it."
City of Austin officials also reported computer problems that affected e-mail servers this morning. Those problems have since been repaired, officials said."
Comment Going for a shit (Score -1, Redundant) 468
On the subject of Apple (piece of shit), I'm confirming my need to go take a shit.
I will be back shortly with a complete report.
I will be back shortly with a complete report.
Submission + - Clinton Would Crack Down on Computer-Generated Sex (wired.com)
Cabal writes: Clinton reveals today that she sees the affair as a victory for child safety. She describe her introduction of the doomed Family Entertainment Protection Act as a response to the "illicit" sexual content in San Andreas, and says, as president, she'd support regulation of the gaming industry.
Submission + - Xbox Live Outage? (engadget.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Engadget is reporting a large service outage
for XBox Live. If the comments are to be believed (use large grain of salt, perhaps 50lb?) then this outage (or at least issues) started last night and has affected gamers in the U.S. and Europe.
The Google News, it says nothing. No independent confirmation, although some claim that MS has confirmed "minor issues" by telephone.
