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Australia

Australian Gov't Claims Internet Filter Legislation Still In Play 98

Posted by timothy from the too-slightly-good-to-be-true dept.
Dracophile writes "Contrary to yesterday's article about The Australian's report that the Australian government had put on the back burner plans to introduce Internet filter legislation before the next election, The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the government rejected claims that it had abandoned such plans, and that 'a spokeswoman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the government remained committed to the policy.' Unless the Australian Labor Party abandons the plan altogether, will the timing make any difference to voters?"

Comment Re:Responsible Disclosure (Score 4, Interesting) 220

by hawkeye_82 (#30727744) Attached to: Firm To Release Database, Web Server 0-Days

This is like punishment.

The irresponsible party in this case, is the software vendor. If the vendor can't clean up their act, and at least work on fixing 0-day exploits, then public disclosure/humiliation is probably a good way to get at least some vendor to sit up, take note and do the right thing the next time around.

This sounds like a good case for establishing a procedure.

1. Contact vendor about exploit, with an expiry date.
2. Release information about exploit once date has expired, irrespective of whether bug is fixed, and the fix deployed.

Is there perhaps a clearing house for such things?
Education

Open Textbooks Win Over Publishers In CA 216

Posted by CmdrTaco from the now-put-them-in-a-wiki dept.
Unequivocal writes "Recently California's Governor announced a free digital textbook competition. The results of that competition were announced today. Many traditional publishers submitted textbooks in this digital textbook competition in CA as well as open publishers. An upstart nonprofit organization named CK-12 contributed a number of textbooks (all free and open source material). 'Of the 16 free digital textbooks for high school math and science reviewed, ten meet at least 90 percent of California's standards. Four meet 100 percent of standards.' Three of those recognized as 100% aligned to California standards were from CK-12 and one from H. Jerome Keisler. None of the publisher's submissions were so recognized. CK-12 has a very small staff, so this is a great proof of the power of open textbooks and open educational resources."
NASA

Endeavour's Launch Once More Delayed 65

Posted by timothy from the shh-they're-building-suspense dept.
schleprock63 writes "NASA has delayed the launch of Endeavour due to inclement weather, mostly lightning. According to NASA, 'Cumulus clouds and lightning violated rules for launching Endeavour because of weather near the Shuttle Landing Facility. The runway would be needed in the unlikely event that Endeavour would have to make an emergency landing back at Kennedy. Endeavour's next launch attempt is 6:51 p.m. EDT Monday. NASA TV coverage will begin at 1:30 p.m.'"
X

Moblin Will Run X Server As Logged-In User, Not Root 205

Posted by timothy from the such-a-little-thing-makes-such-a-big-difference dept.
nerdyH writes "An architect of the Moblin Project has announced that Moblin 2.0 for netbooks and nettops is the first Linux distribution to run the X server as the logged-in user, rather than SUID'd to root. The fix to this decades-old security liability comes thanks to 'NRX' (No-root X) technology reportedly developed by Intel, Red Hat, and others in the X community, and the Moblin-sponsored 'Secure X' project. Besides making Linux netbooks a lot more snoop-proof, it seems like this could lead to an X-hosting renaissance of sorts, since you wouldn't be risking the whole system just to open up a specific user's account to remote X servers."
User Journal

Journal Journal: a**hole is Boss

Journal by hawkeye_82

When the body was first made, all the parts wanted to be Boss.

The brain said, "I should be boss because I control the whole body's responses and functions."

The feet said, "We should be Boss as we carry the brain about and get him to where he wants to go."

The hands said, "We should be the boss because we do all the work and earn all the money."
Biotech

Submission + - Stem Cells Shown to Protect Dying Motor Neurons

Submitted by
Penguinshit
Penguinshit writes: "Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal, progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by rapid loss of muscle control and eventual paralysis due to the death of large motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Growth factors such as glial cell line derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) are known to protect motor neurons from damage in a range of models. Human cortical neural progenitor cells derived from fetal tissue (ie. stem cells) can be expanded in culture for long periods and survive transplantation into the central nervous system, in some cases making large numbers of GFAP positive astrocytes. They can also be genetically modified to release GDNF and thus act as long-term 'mini pumps' in specific regions of the brain. In this study a team at UW-Madison's Waisman Center genetically modified human neural stem cells to release GDNF and transplanted them into the spinal cord of rats with mutant SOD1. Following unilateral transplantation into the spinal cord of the rats there was robust cellular migration into degenerating areas, efficient delivery of GDNF and remarkable preservation of motor neurons at early and end stages of the disease within chimeric regions.

This work is especially important to me, as I have been living with ALS for almost three years."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - ICE cracks down on mod chips (ice.gov) 1

Submitted by rifter
rifter writes: Today US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) led a massive raid over 16 states in order to arrest people who were allegedly engaged in the importation, installation, sale, and distribution of mod chips and swap discs for Sony's Playstation 2, Microsoft's XBOX and XBOX 360, and Nintendo's Wii.

I did not find a link to the CNN story but the talking heads there were claiming that just having or installing a mod chip was a felony punishable by 5 years in jail and a $500,000 fine, presumably due to the claim that these activities violate the DMCA, as stated on ICE's site. The best news of all is that there is more to come. ICE says this is part of an expanding program of IP enforcement. As they say:

"Illicit devices like the ones targeted today are created with one purpose in mind, subverting copyright protections," said Julie L. Myers, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "These crimes cost legitimate businesses billions of dollars annually and facilitate multiple other layers of criminality, such as smuggling, software piracy and money laundering."

Obviously the many legitimate reasons for using the MOD chips (backups, foreign titles, etc.) are ignored here. So remember, kids, when you mod your Xbox the terrorists win! I guess it's a good thing for the US arm of Hezbollah they focus on fake Viagra and cigarettes. Dealing in modchips might get them caught more often.

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