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Submission + - NIST Investigating Mass Flash Drive Vulnerability (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: A number of leading manufactures of encrypted flash drives have warned their customers of a security flaw uncovered by a German company. The devices in question use the AES 256-bit encryption algorithm and have been certified using the FIPS 140-2, but the flaw appears to circumvent the certification process by uncovering the password authentication code on host systems. The National Institute of Standards and Technology said it's investigating whether it needs to modify its standards to include password authentication software on host systems. Security specialist Bruce Schneier was blunt in his characterization of the flaw: "It's a stupid crypto mistake and they screwed up and they should be rightfully embarrassed for making it."

Submission + - Acer Recalls 22,000 Notebooks Due to Burn Hazard (aviransplace.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Acer, today announced a voluntary recall of 22,000 Notebook computers. Acer has received three reports of computers short circuiting, resulting in slight melting of the external casing. No incidents occurred in the United States. No injuries have been reported.
Transportation

Honda Makes Motorcycle Talk To Oncoming Cars 146

Posted by timothy from the ground-traffic-control dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The system generates warnings to riders and drivers of other vehicles by continuous exchange of positioning data from satellite GPS sources. This is particularly relevant as road users approach intersections, alerting them to other vehicles that are potentially on a collision course, allowing avoidance manoeuvres."
Google

Submission + - Google Ordered To Reveal Blogger's Identity (aviransplace.com)

Submitted by
Aviran
Aviran writes: "Israeli court ordered Google to reveal the identity of a blogger that uses Google's own blogging platform, Blogger.
The blogger accused a Shaarei Tikva comity member of illegal acts all through his blog posts. Google objected to the request claiming freedom of speech, however the court sided with the plaintiff and said that since the plaintiff is a public figure running for reelection, he is allowed to confront his accuser and clear his name."
OS X

Submission + - Java 6 available on OSX thanks to port of OpenJDK (bikemonkey.org)

Submitted by LarsWestergren
LarsWestergren writes: Many Mac users have been upset that Apple has not made Java 6 available on the platform. Landon Fuller posts that there is a developer preview release available of Java JDK6 on Mac OSX, Tiger and Leopard. It is based on the BSD port of Sun's Java 6 and is made available under the Java Research License. Charles Nutter posts about impressive JRuby performance gains using Java 6 on his Mac.
Space

Submission + - New Earth-like planet is likely forming

Submitted by
Aviran
Aviran writes: "An Earth-like planet is likely forming 424 light-years away in a star system called HD 113766, say astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Scientists have discovered a huge belt of warm dust — enough to build a Mars-size planet or larger — swirling around a distant star that is just slightly more massive than our sun. The dust belt, which they suspect is clumping together into planets, is located in the middle of the system's terrestrial habitable zone. This is the region around a star where liquid water could exist on any rocky planets that might form. Earth is located in the middle of our sun's terrestrial habitable zone."
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - Apple warns iHacks may wreck phones (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
Christopher Blanc
Christopher Blanc writes: "IPhone owners who have unlocked their handsets so they could use carriers other than AT&T Inc. may end up with a phone that doesn't work after the company's next software update, Apple Inc. warned Monday. Apple executives say they have discovered that many of those unauthorized unlocking programs cause some software damage to iPhones.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070925/ap_on_hi_te/apple_iphone

Dear Slashdot, what is "software damage"? And a re-install cannot fix it?"
Editorial

Submission + - Blurring the line between blogger and Journalist (blogspot.com)

Submitted by __aahplg8815
__aahplg8815 writes: Brave New Journalism

By Dirk Hanson

Lately I have been thinking about the death of — or deconstruction of, depending on your point of view — the news business, so-called. Journalism, in a word. What I was trained for in college. Gone the way of the buffalo in the form in which I learned it, from the people who taught and practiced it in that fashion. A gone dead train, that one. For the better? For the worse? All I know is, I'm pretty much out of work.

I mean paying, short-range work. If you like writing researched articles for three dollars per 600 word article, I can show you where to go on the web for that kind of thing. Otherwise, online publications tend to pay in a form of specie known as "link density." They will trade you links, or more specifically, something on the order of link options — or perhaps the better term would be link propensities — in return for you writing articles for, basically, nothing.

Well. But you can't just automatically get steamed about the people offering up this kind of work, since their ability to pay rests on the online advertising dollars they attract, which, in the splintered blogosphere, amounts to generally very few. So, unless you think the editors of blog magazines ought to pay you out of their own pockets, and with all due haste, the matter of no-to-low pay will not be solved anytime soon, and probably not in my lifetime, if my usual luck holds.

I imagine that scholars of the history of journalism can point to parallels from the world of print, such as the profusion of New York newspapers in the early years of the 20th century. Or something. These examples never seem all that reassuring. If the first rule of the New Thing That is Digital News is that digital news has almost nothing in common with the production and delivery of news in printed form — then we have to ask ourselves just exactly why there are supposed to be any valid historical comparisons in the first place. Now that the line between amateur and professional writer has been muddied beyond recognition, further subdivisions, or should we say subdomains, containing job descriptions such as "content provider," not to mention "SEO optimizer," which, if I understand rightly, would translate as "Search Engine Optimization Optimizer," abound.

One thing I can say for certain is that I have no idea what any of this means, or how it will turn out down the road. All the routes to solace seem a little sour. But why not be optimistic? Maybe that fierce blizzard of self-reference known as the blogosphere will sort itself out with the passage of time. I guess you have to admit it's getting better. It can't get no worse.

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"Look! There! Evil!.. pure and simple, total evil from the Eighth Dimension!" -- Buckaroo Banzai

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