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Journal Journal: 311 Bug Is No Y2K But Still Poses Threats

Journal by indierockcafe
Back in late 1999, there was worldwide paranoia of an impeding Y2K meltdown on Jan. 1, 2000 because of computer bugs that didn't include four spaces for year, meaning 2000, aka "00", would be interrupted by computer networks worldwide as 1900 and everything would come crashing down. Fortunately, that didn't happen and the impact was relatively minimal. This March 11 there will be computer glitches all over the United States when Daylight Savings Time officially arrives three weeks earlier for
Google

Submission + - Google Adsense for Open Source and Charity

Submitted by
Raindeer
Raindeer writes: "It would be great if it would be possible to select in Google Adsense that (part of) the revenue will be sent to charity. This way it will become easy to contribute to open source projects or other good causes. This will increase the income of those charities. It will also become possible for accounts that generate little revenue to send the money that is there to a charity. (And yeah, Microsoft and Yahoo can also implement this idea, but unfortunately for them most of the money is at Google at this moment) I hope Slashdot-readers will help me generate more attention for this idea and come up with ideas to get this idea higher up Google's to-do-list. I have blogged about this and written about in my journal and a Dutch site. The origins of this idea lie in me looking at the enormous amount of $8 on my Adsense account (the payout limit is $100) and wondering if there was something better to do with it, instead of waiting 12 years for the first check."
Education

Submission + - Gates Changes H.S. Horses in Midstream

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes: "A week ago, in his How to Keep America Competitive Op-Ed, Bill Gates touted the Gates Foundation-backed High Tech High as the future of American education. One small problem. Two days earlier, tearful High Tech High Bayarea students — recruited by a Bill Gates video — were told that their school of the future had no future. So would Bill be too embarrassed to lay out his education plan before the Senate Wednesday? Nah. Not too surprisingly though, mentions of High Tech High were MIA in Bill's prepared remarks, which touted Philly's imaginatively named $65M School of the Future, built under the guidance of Microsoft, as the new school of the future. Committee politicians reportedly embraced virtually all of the suggestions made by Gates."
Security

Submission + - Apple Fixes iTunes for Windows Vista

Submitted by
IT071872
IT071872 writes: "According to PC World, Several weeks after rival Microsoft Corp. rolled out Windows Vista to consumers, Apple Inc. has updated iTunes to run on the new operating system — although "a few" problems still remain, Apple said yesterday.

The company also issued a security update for its QuickTime multimedia player software, patching eight vulnerabilities; According the Apple warning, all could be used to execute arbitrary code, a scenario most researchers equate with a critical threat.

More than a month ago, Apple warned Microsoft Corp.'s Vista users to stay away from iTunes — the software for buying music tracks and loading tunes onto iPods — until further notice."
Businesses

Crazy Non-Compete Contracts? 193

Posted by Cliff from the gotta-make-a-living-somehow dept.
JL-b8 asks: "I've just encountered a (from what I know) strange occurrence. A group of friends who work for a small web design firm are being forced to sign a non-compete agreement with a clause that prohibits the employee from working with a competing company for 12 months, after the date of their leaving. The owners claim it's a standardly practiced clause, but I don't see how the hell a web developer/designer is supposed to find work in a city for a year, without moving to a completely different city. I'd like more input as to how this weighs in to the rest of the companies out there. Is this a common thing? If you've signed something like this, and had to switch jobs, how did it affect you?"
Security

Submission + - User-Privilege Flaw Hits Vista

Submitted by
IT071872
IT071872 writes: "According to PC world, A security firm has discovered one of the first security flaws to directly affect Windows Vista, a bug that it claims allows local users to escalate their privileges.

The flaw involves Windows' system for managing user security levels, User Account Control (UAC), which was introduced with Vista. UAC is designed to limit the damage that can be caused by mass attacks such as worms by giving standard users limited privileges, a practice common with other operating systems."
Security

Submission + - IE 7 still not safe enough!

Submitted by
IT071872
IT071872 writes: "According to PC World, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 offers significant security improvements over its deservedly criticized predecessor. But the new IE still does not do enough to protect users. Microsoft has, in IE 7, locked down some of the problem areas in IE 6. The browser will permit a Web site to nag you only once about installing an ActiveX control, for instance. (Some users will approve an installation simply to get rid of the pop-up windows.)"
Businesses

Submission + - How Indian Software pros play the hot job market

Submitted by Anonymous Reader
Anonymous Reader writes: It is very interesting to see a narrative on how software pros in India milk the shortage of qualified manpower in the country. With a lot of software development happening there, good people are in short supply as in any other field in any other country. It is a job seekers market and the writer puts in a funny spin to his poor experience.
Google

Submission + - YouTube bans don't work: Vint Cerf

Submitted by AcidAUS
AcidAUS writes: Dr Vint Cerf, one of the founders of the internet and now a senior executive with Google, has cast doubt on the efficacy of recent attempts to curb cyber bullying by blocking student access to video-sharing sites such as YouTube.
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Steve Jobs against DRM. Pledge or Prank?

Submitted by
Henri Poole
Henri Poole writes: "DefectivebyDesign has just published an open letter to Steve Jobs, requesting that he put actions behind his recent thoughts on DRM and music, published last month on the Apple blog. Just hours after it was published, it had recieved over 1,000 signatures. With DefectiveByDesign's history of theatrics, it will be interesting to see how this is delivered to Jobs on April 1st. Got any fun suggestions?"
Java

Submission + - TopLink: All Major Java ORMs now Open Source

Submitted by Floyd Marinescu
Floyd Marinescu writes: InfoQ.com reports that Oracle is contributing TopLink (one of the first production object persistence engines first launched in 1994), to Eclipse as an open source project. Oracle is proposing that TopLink become the The Eclipse Persistence Platform (tentatively named EclipseLink). Going forward, all production features of TopLink will be available in EclipseLink and Oracle's commercially supported TopLink will only contain an additional thin proprietary integration code layer necessary for some Oracle AppServer and SOA Suite features. TopLink is the last major production Java ORM/persistence engine to go open source. BEA's Kodo engine is also being built off of their contribution of Kodo to the Apache OpenJPA project. Hibernate now has two open source competitors, each with signficant install bases and years of commercial investment.
Media

Submission + - Steve Jobs: Show us your sincerity about DRM

Submitted by
Whiney Mac Fanboy
Whiney Mac Fanboy writes: "Defective by Design have posted an open letter to Steve Jobs in response to Jobs' blog entry about DRM following attempts by European regulators to force Apple to licesnse fairplay. Defective by Design asks Jobs to show his sincerity about DRM in three ways:
1) Drop DRM on iTunes for independent artists.
2) Drop DRM on iTunes for Disney movies and video.
3) Take a public stand against DRM and legislation mandating DRM by funding a campaign to repeal the Digital Millenium Copyright Act's (DMCA) prohibitions."
Microsoft

Microsoft Responds to DOT Ban on Vista, Office, IE 218

Posted by samzenpus from the words-words-words dept.
roscoetoon writes "From the blog of Mary Jo Foley: What's Microsoft's response to the DOT's charges? A corporate spokeswoman sent this statement, via e-mail: (caution: microbrain double-speak ahead) ... "We respect the customer's decision. As with any of our other Federal customers, it's our job to help DOT maximize the value of its Enterprise Agreement through the adoption of our technology. We are engaged with large, strategic customers across government at every level, and are working closely with them on these products through their participation in our Technical Adoption Programs.""

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