Submission + - God Tells Me Things (godtellsmethings.com)
An anonymous reader writes: God came to me and told me to build a site...
Submission + - German government seeks ban on Scientology (cnn.com)
An anonymous reader writes: CNN reports that the German government is seeking to ban Scientology, considering it "threatening the peaceful democratic order" of the country and "in conflict with the principles of the nation's constitution" by "limiting or rescinding basic human rights". Is this move a step in the right direction or an infringement upon the freedom of religion?
Submission + - MICROSOFT drops support for OOXML! (polishlinux.org) 1
michuk writes: "Multi-trade International Corporation for Research of Office Software Open Format Technologies (MICROSOFT) has announced their surprise decision, that they cease to support OOXML document format (Office Open XML), acknowledging at the same time, that the ANSI-developed & supported TXT format will be a better, universal, solution.
Got it Microsoft? Got it Jasow Matusow? Any misread acronym can make sensational headline."
Submission + - Symantec Screwup Is 'Worse Than Any Virus' (pcmag.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Symantec posted an update to their antivirus product that has disabled Internet access for thousands of users.
More proof that no antivirus software in infallible...
Here's the PC Mag article.
Submission + - Free and Freeware Data Recovery Resources (blogspot.com)
socrtwo writes: "So about 5 years ago another technician brought me a corrupt file and asked if they thought I could do anything with it. A quick look on Google led me to try to open the Excel File in Open Office Calc. It worked, and I was hooked. I have my own website of several hundred links of freeware and free resources for recovering data lost to file corruption, unwanted deletion, failing disks and lost passwords. The link I'm reporting here goes to the blog which as the most up to date links."
Submission + - What MS Engineers are working on right now
tqft writes: "Original source as best I can find
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com.au/topics/article.asp?DocID=6100986
"security researcher Beau Butler showed us how Microsoft's completely half-arsed fix of a known issue — problems with Windows Proxy Autodiscovery — could be used by the more evil among us to seize control of vast numbers of workstation"
"You'll be hearing more on this, but in the mean time it would make sense to configure a wpad server in your organisation to stop Microsoft's silly software from seeking proxy configuration files from evil hackers outside your organisation."
http://business.theage.com.au/flaw-leaves-microsoft-looking-like-a-turkey/20071123-1cfu.html
"The software giant confirmed the issue was serious and asked The Age not to publish the details over fears they could be used by cyber criminals to seize control of workstations.
Microsoft's engineers in Australia and the US scrambled to replicate and confirm the issue, with the security team working over this week's Thanksgiving holiday to begin work on a fix."
"The problem affects all versions of Windows, including the company's most recent release, Vista software. However, it does not affect every Windows computer, Mr Stathakopoulos said. It depends on how it is configured.
Mr Butler said he tried to alert Microsoft to the problem by email before going public with his research. "I didn't get any reply — I assumed they were aware of the issue," he said.""
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com.au/topics/article.asp?DocID=6100986
"security researcher Beau Butler showed us how Microsoft's completely half-arsed fix of a known issue — problems with Windows Proxy Autodiscovery — could be used by the more evil among us to seize control of vast numbers of workstation"
"You'll be hearing more on this, but in the mean time it would make sense to configure a wpad server in your organisation to stop Microsoft's silly software from seeking proxy configuration files from evil hackers outside your organisation."
http://business.theage.com.au/flaw-leaves-microsoft-looking-like-a-turkey/20071123-1cfu.html
"The software giant confirmed the issue was serious and asked The Age not to publish the details over fears they could be used by cyber criminals to seize control of workstations.
Microsoft's engineers in Australia and the US scrambled to replicate and confirm the issue, with the security team working over this week's Thanksgiving holiday to begin work on a fix."
"The problem affects all versions of Windows, including the company's most recent release, Vista software. However, it does not affect every Windows computer, Mr Stathakopoulos said. It depends on how it is configured.
Mr Butler said he tried to alert Microsoft to the problem by email before going public with his research. "I didn't get any reply — I assumed they were aware of the issue," he said.""
Submission + - Man tasered to death at Vancouver Airport (theglobeandmail.com)
Mantaar writes: Yesterday security forces tasered a Polish man to death at Vancouver Airport. The victim was obviously irritated and angry after his ten-hour-detention. He was unable to communicate with other passengers or the security personel because he did not speak English.
Submission + - Skype encryption stumps police (nzherald.co.nz)
TallGuyRacer writes: "German police are unable to decipher the encryption used in the internet telephone software Skype to monitor calls by suspected criminals and terrorists, Germany's top police officer, Joerg Ziercke, said. "The encryption with Skype telephone software ... creates grave difficulties for us... We can't decipher it. That's why we're talking about source telecommunication surveillance — that is, getting to the source before encryption or after it's been decrypted.""
Submission + - Sexes perceive inflation figures very differently
TallGuyRacer writes: "Men and women communicate differently, act differently and have different emotional needs. Manifestations of these innate differences aren't confined to the sexes' relationship with one another. Instead, they infuse perceptions and expectations in the outside world, even when it comes to something with no obvious male/female bias: inflation.
"That men and women occasionally see things differently is not a remarkable observation," says Michael Bryan, economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. "But that the sexes could report vastly different perspectives on the rate at which prices are rising over a long period of time is astonishing.""
Submission + - First Armed Robots on Patrol in Iraq
An anonymous reader writes: Robots have been roaming Iraq, since shortly after the war began. Now, for the first time — the first time in any warzone — the 'bots are carrying guns. The SWORDS robots, armed with M249 machine guns, "haven't fired their weapons yet," an Army official says. "But that'll be happening soon." The machines have actually been ready to a while, but safety concerns kept 'em off the battlefield. Now, the robots have kill switches, so "now we can kill the unit if it goes crazy," according to the Army. I feel safer already.
