Comment VMs are more than good enough (Score 1) 239
There may be reasons to run Windows or Linux natively on a Mac, but for me VMware Fusion does the job. Much better together than apart.
Comment A Career Highlight (Score 1) 172
DEC was ten great years of my life. Ken built a company from nothing into something huge, then ran it into the ground. Technological highlights like networking (including a mobile pre-cursor to WiFi), StrongARM, and Alpha; marketing tragedies like "Unix is snake oil" and an unswerving allegiance to VMS. Let's not remember him for funding the VAX 9000.
Ken built an international engineering-driven culture of people that firmly believed in "doing right for the customer" and would go out of their way to get it done. You could pick up the phone and dial strangers for help and more often than not they would come through without politics or me-first posturing - an attitude that came straight from the top. I really miss it.
The architecture lives on at http://simh.trailing-edge.com/
Submission + - Soundminder Android Trojan Hears Credit Cards (thinq.co.uk)
Blacklaw writes: A team of security researchers has created a proof-of-concept Trojan for Android handsets that is capable of listening out for credit card numbers — typed or spoken — and relaying them back to the application's creator.
Once installed, Soundminder sits in the background and waits for a call to be placed — hence the access to the 'Phone calls' category. When triggered by a call, the application listens out for the user entering credit card information or a PIN and silently records the information, performing the necessary analysis to turn it from a sound recording into a number.
Once installed, Soundminder sits in the background and waits for a call to be placed — hence the access to the 'Phone calls' category. When triggered by a call, the application listens out for the user entering credit card information or a PIN and silently records the information, performing the necessary analysis to turn it from a sound recording into a number.
Submission + - OSI, FSF Collaborate Against Patent Threat To FOSS (thinq.co.uk) 1
Blacklaw writes: The Open Source Initiative and the Free Software Foundations — two organisations fighting for the same cause, but traditionally in very different ways — have joined forces in an attempt to prevent Novell patents falling into Microsoft's hands.
Novell, which ended months of speculation by announcing its acquisition by Attachmate in November of last year, made $450 million by selling 882 patents to a consortium known as CPTN — a group of technology companies including Apple, EMC, and Oracle, headed up by Microsoft — a move which the pair claim "represents a serious threat to the growing use of free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) throughout business, government, academia, and non-profit organizations worldwide."
Novell, which ended months of speculation by announcing its acquisition by Attachmate in November of last year, made $450 million by selling 882 patents to a consortium known as CPTN — a group of technology companies including Apple, EMC, and Oracle, headed up by Microsoft — a move which the pair claim "represents a serious threat to the growing use of free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) throughout business, government, academia, and non-profit organizations worldwide."
Submission + - Federal Judge: N.S.A.'s Wiretapping is illegal (nytimes.com)
mdl4 writes: WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the National Security Agency’s program of surveillance without warrants was illegal, rejecting the Obama administration’s effort to keep shrouded in secrecy one of the most disputed counterterrorism policies of former President George W. Bush.
In a 45-page opinion, Judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled that the government had violated a 1978 federal statute requiring court approval for domestic surveillance when it intercepted phone calls of Al Haramain, a now-defunct Islamic charity in Oregon, and of two lawyers representing it in 2004. Declaring that the plaintiffs had been “subjected to unlawful surveillance,” the judge said the government was liable to pay them damages.
In a 45-page opinion, Judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled that the government had violated a 1978 federal statute requiring court approval for domestic surveillance when it intercepted phone calls of Al Haramain, a now-defunct Islamic charity in Oregon, and of two lawyers representing it in 2004. Declaring that the plaintiffs had been “subjected to unlawful surveillance,” the judge said the government was liable to pay them damages.
Submission + - Germany Warns Web Users To Stop Using Firefox (eweekeurope.co.uk)
jee4all writes: The German Government has warned web users to switch browsers until Mozilla patches a security flaw in its Firefox browser
Submission + - Senate Votes to Replace Aviation Radar With GPS (reuters.com) 1
plover writes: The U.S. Senate today passed by a 93-0 margin a bill that would implement the FAA's NextGen plan to replace aviation radar with GPS units. It will help pay for the upgrade by increasing aviation fuel taxes on private aircraft. It will require two inspections per year on foreign repair stations that work on U.S. planes. And it will ban pilots from using personal electronics in the cockpit. This just needs to be reconciled with the House version and is expected to soon become law. This was discussed on Slashdot a few years ago.
Submission + - Hidden RFID Tags Could Mean End Of Bar-Codes (gizmag.com)
ElectricSteve writes: Researchers from Rice University working in collaboration with a team led by Gyou-jin Cho at Sunchon National University in Korea, developed the new technology which is based on a carbon-nanotube-infused ink for ink-jet printers first developed in the Rice lab of James Tour. The ink is used to make thin-film transistors, a key element in radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags that can be printed on paper or plastic.
Submission + - $99 Moby Tablet as textbook alternative (engadget.com) 1
Taco Cowboy writes: Marvell's Moby tablet will be an "always-on, high performance multimedia tablet" capable of full Flash support and 1080p HD playback and supporting WiFi, Bluetooth, FM radio, GPS and both Android and Windows Mobile platforms for maximum flexibility.
Marvell's Moby tablet could eliminate the need for students to buy and carry bound textbooks and an array of other tools.
Actual size and weight vary by configuration, but Marvell's ultra thin and light Moby tablet is expected to hold a full year's worth of books but weigh less than half of one typical textbook.
Read it all at :
http://armdevices.net/2010/03/18/marvell-announces-99-moby-tablet-to-revolutionize-education/
and
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/marvell-drives-education-revolution-with-99-all-in-one-moby-tablet-designed-for-the-worlds-students-88376967.html
Marvell's Moby tablet could eliminate the need for students to buy and carry bound textbooks and an array of other tools.
Actual size and weight vary by configuration, but Marvell's ultra thin and light Moby tablet is expected to hold a full year's worth of books but weigh less than half of one typical textbook.
Read it all at :
http://armdevices.net/2010/03/18/marvell-announces-99-moby-tablet-to-revolutionize-education/
and
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/marvell-drives-education-revolution-with-99-all-in-one-moby-tablet-designed-for-the-worlds-students-88376967.html
Submission + - Microsoft Cries Uncle, Lifts XP Mode Hardware Reqs (blogspot.com)
An anonymous reader writes: This week, Microsoft published a patch that allows Windows XP Mode to run on PCs without hardware assisted virtualization. Which begs the question: Why the bizarro requirement in the first place? Was it an honest attempt to deliver an "optimal" user experience? Or simply a concession to the company's jilted lover, Intel Corporation?
Submission + - VirnetX wins $105.6M in patesuit against Microsoft (santacruzsentinel.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A federal jury in Texas awarded VirnetX, a small, publicly held company in Scotts Valley, $105.75 million Tuesday in a patent infringement case against Microsoft Corp.
The 12-person company was founded in 2005 to commercialize a patent portfolio derived from a Central Intelligence Agency security project. The company's patents relate to virtual private networking, technology that allows Internet users to securely communicate and collaborate over the Internet. The company holds over 48 U.S. and international patents and pending applications which it intends to use in the development of a licensing program and new software products.
The 12-person company was founded in 2005 to commercialize a patent portfolio derived from a Central Intelligence Agency security project. The company's patents relate to virtual private networking, technology that allows Internet users to securely communicate and collaborate over the Internet. The company holds over 48 U.S. and international patents and pending applications which it intends to use in the development of a licensing program and new software products.
Submission + - Google loses Nexus One trademark to Integra Teleco (oregonlive.com)
suraj.sun writes: Google's bid for a trademark on its Nexus One smartphone has been denied by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which concluded last week that the name is too similar to a trademark held by Portland-based Integra Telecom.
"Registration of the applied-for mark is refused because of a likelihood of confusion with the mark in U.S. Registration No. 3554195," the trademark office wrote in its March 9 ruling.
That trademark has been held since 2008 by Integra, which provides phone, Internet and other telecom services to small and midsized businesses. According to Integra's filing, it registered the term "NEXUS" to describe a series of calling services, excluding those offered to "participants in the physical oil industry."
OregonLive.com : http://blog.oregonlive.com/siliconforest/2010/03/google_loses_nexus_one_tradema.html
"Registration of the applied-for mark is refused because of a likelihood of confusion with the mark in U.S. Registration No. 3554195," the trademark office wrote in its March 9 ruling.
That trademark has been held since 2008 by Integra, which provides phone, Internet and other telecom services to small and midsized businesses. According to Integra's filing, it registered the term "NEXUS" to describe a series of calling services, excluding those offered to "participants in the physical oil industry."
OregonLive.com : http://blog.oregonlive.com/siliconforest/2010/03/google_loses_nexus_one_tradema.html
Submission + - Windows or Linux Dual Monitors
An anonymous reader writes: I am currently running a dual monitor setup dual booted with Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux. Try as I might, I cannot find a good program of any sort to control the dual monitors, i.e. put a full taskbar on both, etc. I have my larger monitor as my main for gaming and movies, but this creates a problem when switching between them as everything wants to open on the main monitor. I was wondering about potential solutions or helpful program suggestions from other Slashdotters. I know I can't be the only one with this problem!
Submission + - US Military Shuts Down CIA's Terrorist Honey Pot
Hugh Pickens writes: "Ellen Nakashima has an interesting story in the Washington Post about US military computer specialists, who over the objections of the CIA, mounted a cyberattack that dismantled an online "honey pot" monitored by US and Saudi intelligence agencies to identify extremists before they could strike after military commanders said that the site was putting Americans at risk. The CIA argued that dismantling the site would lead to a significant loss of intelligence while the NSA countered that taking it down was a legitimate operation in defense of US troops. "The CIA didn't endorse the idea of crippling Web sites," says one US counterterrorism official. The agency "understood that intelligence would be lost, and it was; that relationships with cooperating intelligence services would be damaged, and they were; and that the terrorists would migrate to other sites, and they did." Four former senior US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified operations, said the creation and shutting down of the site illustrates the need for clearer policies governing cyberwar. When is a cyberattack outside the theater of war allowed? Is taking out an extremist Web site a covert operation or a traditional military activity? Some experts say that dismantling Web sites is ineffective — no sooner does a site come down than a mirror site pops up somewhere else. "You can't really shut down this process for more than 24 or 48 hours," said Evan F. Kohlmann, a terrorism researcher. "It seems difficult to understand why governments would interrupt what everyone acknowledges now to be a lucrative intelligence-gathering tool.""
Submission + - Secret Space Shuttle ready to launch (wesh.com) 1
shanmoon writes: It looks like someone at Astrotech leaked out the news of a new secret Space Shuttle, the X-37, which will be launching next month.
Hmmm...this reminds me of when the US Air Force "just happened" to have a spare habitat module when the International Space Station needed one. Secret US Space Program, anyone? Why do I think military astronauts have places explosives on communication satellites of enemy nations just in case of armed conflict....
Hmmm...this reminds me of when the US Air Force "just happened" to have a spare habitat module when the International Space Station needed one. Secret US Space Program, anyone? Why do I think military astronauts have places explosives on communication satellites of enemy nations just in case of armed conflict....
