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Submission + - Russian Telco MTS bans Skype, other VoIP

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: MTS, one of the three largest mobile carriers in Russia, have been buying up smaller cable TV and Internet providers across the country, and besides the GSM/3G cellphone service they now also offer cable TV and home broadband Internet access. And their unified TOS (Russian; mirror) for home broadband now says: "3.4.4. The customer may not use the Services for the purpose of transferring voice over the Internet; Skype and other similar software is forbidden." (screenshot). Really, why would you need to phone over the Internet, comrade, when you have a perfectly good cellphone [from MTS, assumingly]?
Mozilla

Submission + - Mozilla WebAPI cracks Apple's walled garden (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: .. and not just Apple's. The basic idea is to add mobile phone APIs to the growing collection of HTML related standards. If this was to happen an HTML5/JavaScript app could work with the phone's native hardware as easily as a native app — but would work on any phone!
A WebAPI app would be impossible for Apple or Microsoft to control because it doesn't need approval or an app store to be installed. The only way of keeping such apps out would be to not support WebAPI — and hence to not be standards compliant. Mozilla is serious about this as it is hiring enginers to work on the project.
Communications

Submission + - FCC Wants To Shift Phone Subsidy Funds To Broadban (businessweek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: FCC chairman Julius Genachowski revealed plans yesterday to overhaul the U.S. phone subsidy program and shift its focus to providing broadband access. He said, 'Broadband has gone from being a luxury to a necessity for full participation in our economy and society. If we want the United States to be the world’s leading market, we need to embrace the essential goal of universal broadband, and reform outdated programs.' According to BusinessWeek, the program currently 'supports phone service to schools, libraries, the poor and high-cost areas.' Last year it spent $4.3 billion to provide support to over 1,700 carriers in high-cost areas. Genachowski hopes the change will put the U.S. 'on the path to universal broadband service by the end of the decade.'
The Internet

Submission + - ISPs "exaggerate the cost of data" (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by
Barence
Barence writes: "ISPs are wildly exaggerating the cost of increased internet traffic, according to a new report. Fixed and mobile broadband providers have claimed their costs are "ballooning" because of the expense of delivering high-bandwidth services such as video-on-demand. However, a new report from Plum Consulting claims the cost per additional gigabyte of data for fixed-line ISPs is between €0.01-0.03 per GB. The report labels claims of ballooning costs a "myth"."
Java

Submission + - Copyright trolls close Linux time database (joda.org)

Submitted by
Demonoid-Penguin
Demonoid-Penguin writes: "The Linux timezone database was shutdown due to claims it breaches a copyright held by Astralabe, Inc. A civil suit was filed in the Boston Federal court 30th September — the defendant is Arthur Olson who has had to shutdown the ftp server at elsie.nci.nih.gov. Astralabe claim that their recent purchase of ACS Atlas, which is referenced by the tz database, gives them ownership of the information in the database. Microsoft will continue to provide erroneous tz data as they have their own database. Java, Unix, Linux and everybody else that use the tz data will have to find another solution to the problem unless the court decides against Astralabe.
Astralabe, Inc, whose web site has that 1970 built by MS Word look, and may well run on a server built of spit and sticks, won't be feeling any love anytime soon over this move."
Privacy

Submission + - Forensics: "File System Spoofing." (forensicswiki.org)

Submitted by iiiears
iiiears writes: Currently, Casper may select fake root file system image on evidentiary media (e.g. HDD), because there are no authenticity checks performed (except optional UUID check for a possible live file system), and this fake root file system image may be used to execute malicious code during the boot with root privileges.
Android

Submission + - Alien Dalvik 2.0 promises Android apps on iOS (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: If you’re struggling with the decision of whether to get an Android phone or an iPhone, the Myriad Group wants you to be able to have your cake and eat it too. The Alien Dalvik Android emulator, which we told you about earlier this year, is now capable of running on iOS devices in version 2.0. Alien Dalvik takes an Android app’s APK file, and wraps it in its own virtual machine.
Android

Submission + - Android's Big Security Flaw, And Why Only Google C (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "A new approach to patching Android-based handsets is fast becoming a necessity, thanks to the growing number of device makers and carriers that are allowing Android patches to languish, preventing users from ever getting them, InfoWorld reports. 'The Android operating system's patch process poses a quandary for Google and a danger to users. Android's openness allows bugs to be found faster, but that benefit is offset by a longer supply chain in which manufacturers and vendors test patches at a glacial pace. Smartphone manufacturers must first create custom builds of the operating system that include their add-on software, then they test the software. Next, carriers take the firmware update and test it to make sure it does not harm their networks. The end result: Pushing patches out to users' smartphones is slowed.'"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft-Skype Deal Poised to Win EU Approval (pcmag.com)

Submitted by Pigskin-Referee
Pigskin-Referee writes: Microsoft's proposed $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype has earned the approval of the European Union, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

The European Commissioner for Competition, Joaquin Almunia, is expected to rule that the acquisition won't harm competition or turn Skype into a Microsoft-exclusive platform.

The decision ignores accusations that Microsoft is simply bundling services on Windows to drown out smaller competitors, as argued by Italian Skype rival Messagenet last week. Messagenet also urged the Commission to require Microsoft to unbundle Skype from its Windows Office Suite.

The FT reports that Microsoft "promised" the Commission it would keep Skype interoperable and supported on rival operating systems.

"We're committed to the Skype user base," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer back in May, addressing antitrust concerns at the time. "We want to continue to build and engage that base. Part of that commitment is continuing to support Skype on non-Microsoft platforms."
Space

Submission + - European satellite finds ozone on Venus (networkworld.com) 1

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "A European Space Agency satellite has detected a thin ozone layer on Venus that while not produced by live organisms, could help scientist in their search for space life elsewhere.
The discovery by ESA’s Venus Express satellite makes Venus only the third planet in our solar system with an ozone layer with Earth and Mars being the others."
Security

Submission + - Apache Patches Bypass Attack, But Other Web Platfo (darkreading.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An attack that boils down to a missing forward-slash symbol could give hackers access databases, firewalls, routers, and other internal network resources via misconfigured reverse-proxy Web servers. Researchers first spotted the flaw in Apache, which has just issued a patch for it, but other Web platforms are also likely susceptible.

Apache Issues Patch To Stop Reverse-Proxy Bypass Attack
Programming

Submission + - Katayanagi Prizes go to MIT, Stanford profs (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Barbara Liskov, an MIT professor known for her work in programming languages and distributed systems, and Scott Klemmer, a Stanford University associate professor who co-directs the Human-Computer Interaction Group there, have won the fourth annual Katayanagi Prizes in Computer Science. The prizes ($10K & $5K) are presented annually by Carnegie Mellon University in conjunction with the Tokyo University of Technology, and are endowed by Japanese entrepreneur/education advocate Koh Katayanagi. "Barbara Liskov has made many fundamental contributions to computer science, including the development of several important programming languages, new theories of object-oriented programming and important algorithms for managing distributed systems," said Randal E. Bryant, dean of the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science.
The Courts

Submission + - Civil suit filed, involving the time zone database (gmane.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Arthur David Olson, the creator and maintainer of the timezone database used in about every unix/linux platform in use on the planet, just sent the message to the timezone mailing list: — From: "Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E]" Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2011 11:16:02 -0400 Subject: Civil suit; ftp shutdown; mailing list shutdown A civil suit was filed on September 30 in federal court in Boston; I'm a defendant; the case involves the time zone database. The ftp server at elsie.nci.nih.gov has been shut down. The mailing list will be shut down after this message. Electronic mail can be sent to me at @gmail.com. I hope there will be better news shortly. --ado — A Google search does not yet reveal anything about this; does someone know what is going on?
Security

Submission + - SpyEye Trojan Steals Banking Codes (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "Researchers from browser security vendor Trusteer have identified a new variant of the SpyEye Trojan that circumvents mobile SMS security procedures by tricking online banking users into changing the phone numbers associated with their accounts. 'Using a combination of MITB (man in the browser injection) technology and social engineering, fraudsters are not only able to bypass OOBA but also buy themselves more time since the transactions have been verified and fly under the radar of fraud detection systems,' Trusteer's Amit Klein warned."
The Internet

Submission + - Northern Canada in the Dark (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by zentigger
zentigger writes: At approximately 06:36 EDT Thursday, October 6, 2011, Anik F2 satellite experienced an attitude control issue and lost earth lock affecting C, Ku and Ka services. The satellite went into safety mode and moved from pointing to the earth to pointing to the sun.
This has put most of Northern Canada in the dark as all internet and phone services come in over F2.

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