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Security

CCC Create a Rogue CA Certificate 300

Posted by CmdrTaco from the they-even-faked-this-dept dept.
t3rmin4t0r writes "Just when you were breathing easy about Kaminsky, DNS and the word hijacking, by repeating the word SSL in your head, the hackers at CCC were busy at work making a hash of SSL certificate security. Here's the scoop on how they set up their own rogue CA, by (from what I can figure) reversing the hash and engineering a collision up in MD5 space. Until now, MD5 collisions have been ignored because nobody would put in that much effort to create a useful dummy file, but a CA certificate for phishing seems juicy enough to be fodder for the botnets now."
The Almighty Buck

Why a Music Tax Is a Bad Idea 194

Posted by timothy from the let-me-count-the-ways dept.
An anonymous reader writes with a followup to the story posted last week about Warner Music's plan for a music tax for universities. "There's been some debate about this plan and Techdirt has a detailed explanation of why a music tax is a bad idea, noting that it effectively rewards those who failed in the marketplace, punishes those who innovated and sets up a huge, inefficient and unnecessary bureaucracy. Meanwhile, plenty of musicians who are experimenting with new business models are finding that they can make more money and appeal to more fans. So, why stymie that process with a new bureaucracy that simply funds the big record labels?"
Education

Improving Wikipedia Coverage of Computer Science 186

Posted by kdawson from the accused-of-original-research dept.
Pickens writes "MIT computer scientist Scott Aaronson has an interesting post on how to improve Wikipedia's coverage of theoretical computer science. Aaronson writes what while Wikpedia will never be an ideal venue for academics because 'we're used to (1) putting our names on our stuff, (2) editorializing pretty freely, (3) using "original research" as a compliment and not an accusation, and (4) not having our prose rewritten or deleted by people calling themselves Duduyat, Raul654, and Prokonsul Piotrus,' he identifies twenty basic research areas and terms in theoretical computer science that are not defined on Wikipedia, and invites readers to write some articles about them. Article suggestions include property testing, algorithmic game theory, derandomization, sketching algorithms, propositional proof complexity, arithmetic circuit complexity, discrete harmonic analysis, streaming algorithms, and hardness of approximation. One commenter suggests that professors should encourage students to improve the Wikipedia articles about topics they are studying. 'This will help them understand the topic and at the same time improve Wikipedia.'"
Education

Submission + - What makes a good computer society?

Submitted by
dueyfinster
dueyfinster writes: "My college is holding elections for all the positions of the Student Union; and it looks as if I can get chairperson of the Computer Society. At the moment we have a very poor society (admitted to me by the current outgoing Chairperson), with Games the only thing gluing the society together (Call of Duty). Problems we face include lack of funding (any we get needs to have equivalent sponsorship first), low member count. The College has told us that if we get more people away from Games that we will receive more money (but will lose vast amounts of members if we do), doubly so if we can raise money for charity and get our college good PR. So my question for slashdotters is this: What makes a Computer Society worthwhile and one you would want to be part of?"
XBox (Games)

Xbox DRM and the Red Ring of Death 147

Posted by Zonk from the bum-bum-bum dept.
manekineko2 writes "In the latest case warning of the perils of investing in DRM'd media, an owner of an Xbox 360 reports that after his Xbox suffered the infamous Red Ring of Death, it was replaced by a new system with a different serial number. Upon receiving his replacement, he found that he could only access the media he had purchased from a specific account. He also received the run-around for months from customer service before his case was escalated, only to be informed that there is no ETA for a resolution, there is no way to receive status updates on the process, and there is no compensation that will be granted. Given claims that the Xbox 360 defect rate is as high as 1 in 3, has anyone on Slashdot gone through this as well after getting their system exchanged?" Update: 02/14 17:11 GMT by Z : An emailing user noted that the original summary was not very accurate; rephrased to be more in-line with the situation.
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 ..
Power

A New Way To Make Water, And Fuel Cells 107

Posted by Zonk from the it's-in-the-drinking-water dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "You probably know that it is easy to combine hydrogen and oxygen to make water. After all, this chemical reaction is known for more than two centuries. But now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have discovered a new way to make water. As states the UIUC report, 'not only can they make water from unlikely starting materials, such as alcohols, their work could also lead to better catalysts and less expensive fuel cells.' But be warned: don't read the technical paper itself. It could win an obfuscated contest — if such a contest existed for scientific papers." Yet another advance in fuel cell technology; we discussed a different one just the other day.
Patents

Submission + - Microsoft Awarded Voice Recognition Patent (www.rte.ie)

Submitted by
dueyfinster
dueyfinster writes: "Microsoft has been issued with a patent for software that recognises the voice of a caller based on its tone. The patent was awarded to Microsoft developer Andrei Pascovici on Tuesday, and works by analysing the tone of the voice and comparing it to a database of existing recordings to identify the caller.

"A voice input is received from the caller, and the characteristics are applied to a plurality of acoustic models, which includes a generic acoustic model and acoustic models of any previously identified callers, to obtain a plurality of respective acoustic scores."
Is this yet another example of abuse of the patent system with 'obvious' and trivial developments being patented for no good reason?"
Privacy

Submission + - Eavesdropping O.K. says Committee

Submitted by
ShoeUnited
ShoeUnited writes: "I was reading today in the AP about an article that says it is ok for Pres. Bush to use electronic eavesdropping.

To quote the article:
"A White House privacy board has determined that two of the Bush administration's controversial surveillance programs do not violate citizens' civil liberties. After operating mostly in secret for a year, the five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Board is to release its first report to Congress next week.""
Programming

Visual Basic on GNU/Linux 383

Posted by CmdrTaco from the but-why-you-might-ask dept.
jeevesbond writes "The Mono Project announced that it has developed a Visual Basic compiler that will enable software developers who use Microsoft Visual Basic to run their applications on any platform that supports Mono, such as Linux, without any code modifications."
Microsoft

Microsoft Blasts IBM Over XML Standards 323

Posted by Zonk from the dude-i-am-so-telling-mom dept.
carlmenezes writes "Ars Technica has up an article discussing Microsoft's latest salvo against IBM. Microsoft's open letter to IBM adds fresh ammunition to the battle of words between those who support Microsoft's Open XML and OpenOffice.org's OpenDocument file formats. Microsoft has strong words for IBM, which it accuses of deliberately trying to sabotage Microsoft's attempt to get Open XML certified as a standard by the ECMA. In the letter, general managers Tom Robertson and Jean Paol write: 'When ODF was under consideration, Microsoft made no effort to slow down the process because we recognized customers' interest in the standardization of document formats.' In contrast, the authors charge that IBM 'led a global campaign' urging that governments and other organizations demand that International Standards Organization (ISO) reject Open XML outright."
Editorial

Submission + - James Kim... From TechTV, DLTV has died.

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: From http://digitallifetv.com/index.php... "We're deeply saddened to report that the body of James Kim was found Wednesday after an exhausting search through remote sections of Josephine County, Oregon. James was missing for 11 days. His wife and daughters were rescued on Monday afternoon." and KTVU Channel 2 News... http://www.ktvu.com/news/10436601/detail.html "MERLIN, Ore. — James Kim, the heroic father who died in the mountains of Southern Oregon after leaving his family to seek help succumbed to hypothermia and exposure, authorities said after his autopsy report was made public Thursday... Kim, 35, a senior editor, joined CNET Networks Inc. about three years ago and wrote reviews about digital music and audio devices for the technology-themed Web site and a CNET blog about electronics. He also appeared on the company's video segments and on television." We will miss you James...
SuSE

Mark Shuttleworth Tries To Lure OpenSUSE Devs 258

Posted by Zonk from the trolling-for-talent dept.
polar_bear` writes "A lot of developers are angry at Novell for its deal with Microsoft, but is it fair game for other vendors to try to capitalize on dissatisfaction with Novell? Apparently, Mark Shuttleworth thinks so. Shuttleworth sent an invitation to the openSUSE developers list inviting developers 'concerned about the long term consequences' of Novell's deal to participate in Ubuntu Open Week and consider jumping ship to Ubuntu. OpenSUSE and Ubuntu developers are not amused."

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