cjmt - Slashdot User

Submission + - Plan9 kernel exploit made public

Submitted by

swehack

on Thursday March 01, 2007 @08:30AM

swehack writes: "The month of February saw a very rare case of a kernel exploit for the plan9 operating system made public on the Dailydave mailing list. The author mentions how he kindly waited for Bell Labs to patch the vulnerability but also that the exploit lasted quite a while in private use. One can only speculate what one would do with a private plan9 kernel exploit."

Submission + - Solaris Telnet Worm

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @05:35PM

An anonymous reader writes: The previously discovered Solaris telnet vulnerability is now being used by a worm to spread. In addition, the worm opens up a /bin/sh backdoor and has a payload of sending funny system broadcast messages related to security researchers including one that says "Theo deRaadt SUCKS!" in ASCII art.

Submission + - Need suggestions for a highly portable computer

Submitted by

Asijit Chatterjee

on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @02:13PM

Asijit Chatterjee writes: "Hi folks !

I am a final year electrical engineering undergraduate and am looking forward to passing out in June of 2007.
My computing platform for the last six years (two years of school and four years of engineering education) had been this great Intel 815 based desktop with 256MB RAM.

After graduation, I realize that my computing requirements will change drastically. I will be needing a lot of mobility (and hence a weight of less than a kilogram) since I will be expected to work in the field most of the time. I will not be needing as much firepower or storage as even my current desktop (933MHz Pentium 3 with 3 X 20GB hard drives). I will need a processor with a speed of 20 to 30MHz (triple those figures if it is a RISC processor). And a _flash_ storage capacity of around 2 to 4GB.
The one thing I refuse to compromise on is flexibility. I have been using Linux back since grade 11 and writing code in C since grade 9. I want the same capabilities in this system too i.e. Linux capable and with a C compiler. I do not intend it to run simulation software like PSPICE or MATLAB since my employer is probably going to provide me an entire 16 core Itanium server for that.
I saw the tablet PCs in the market. They provide way more power and storage than I need and cost a fortune.
I also saw the OpenMoko phone but the sad thing about it is that it cannot compile its own programs in the field (forget about typing it out on that touchscreen). It needs an external PC to write code for it.

What I am searching for is something in between. Something that has its own display and a PS/2 or USB port to attach my favourite keyboard and yet is capable of compiling its own programs in the field. Removable flash storage would be nice.
Any suggestions ?

P.S. Please forgive me. I tend to drag things to unnecessary lengths."

Submission + - New FreeBSD ULE 2.0 Scheduler for the win...

Submitted by Sean on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @03:42AM

Sean writes: Now that the goals of the SMPng project are considered complete, FreeBSD has some glory to share for the work that's been done over the last 7 years (ie: post-FreeBSD 4.X): MySQL runs 4x faster on FreeBSD 7 than on Linux 2.6 with 20 or more threads. The FreeBSD performance list archives have the details and graphs for those with inquiring minds. Additional details and patches can be found here.

Submission + - Pirate Bay abandons bid for own nation

Submitted by tomp76 on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @03:21AM

tomp76 writes: Perhaps it was all just a joke. Or perhaps The Pirate Bay, despite being one of the largest bit torrent trackers in the world, isn't really as powerful as its supporters would like to believe. That, at least, is the impression given by one of the founders in this interview. The plans for a copyright-free nation have been scaled down considerably: "We have $20,000 and we are looking at some alternatives. Really we just want somewhere we can name The Pirate Bay, so we can look on Google Maps and find ourselves there."

Submission + - What is the best Media Center software out there?

Submitted by

brm1974

on Monday February 26, 2007 @04:37PM

brm1974 writes: "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_center

For the product by J. River.
A media center is a computer adapted for playing music, watching movies and pictures stored on a local harddrive or on a (in some cases wireless) network, watching DVD movies and often for watching and recording television broadcasts.

Have You guys tried any of those?
What do you think?

* SageTV
* Front Row (Apple)
* GeeXboX (Linux)
* GBPVR (Windows)
* SesamTV (http://www.sesamtv.com)
* MythTV (Linux)
* Freevo (Linux)
* Elisa (Linux) (http://www.fluendo.com/elisa/index.php)
* My Media System (Linux)
* MediaPortal
* TVedia
* Windows XP Media Center Edition
* Xbox Media Center (not to be confused with Windows XP Media Center eXtender)
* Domotix (http://www.mydomotix.com)
* XLobby (windows) http://www.xlobby.com/"

Submission + - Bacteria to protect against quakes

Submitted by

Roland Piquepaille

on Sunday February 25, 2007 @12:41PM

Roland Piquepaille writes: "If you live near the sea, chances are high that your home is built over sandy soil. And if an earthquake strikes, deep and sandy soils can turn to liquid, with some disastrous consequences for the buildings sitting on them. But now, U.S. researchers have found a way to use bacteria to steady buildings against earthquakes by turning these sandy soils into rocks. Today, it is possible to inject chemicals in the ground to reinforce it, but this can have toxic effects on soil and water. On the contrary, this use of common bacteria to 'cement' sands has no harmful effects on the environment. But so far, this method is limited to labs and the researchers are working on scaling their technique. Here are more references and a picture showing how unstable ground can aggravate the consequences of an earthquake."

Submission + - DragonFly BSD to develop own filesystem

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25, 2007 @01:40AM

An anonymous reader writes: Matt Dillon has decided to develop a new filesystem from scratch to support DragonFly's clustering, rather than port an existing one. From his post: "There are currently two rough spots in the design. First, how to handle segment overflows in a multi-master environment. Such overflows can occur when the individual masters or slaves have different historical data retention policies. Second, where to store the regeneratable indexes."

Submission + - BBC Top Gear Launches Reliant Rocket

Submitted by slashmojo on Saturday February 24, 2007 @07:47PM

slashmojo writes: After providing presenter Richard Hammond with a near death rocket car experience, BBC car show Top Gear reached for greater heights and brought new life (briefly) to a Reliant Robin by adding wings and strapping it to a rocket to make what looks remarkably like a space shuttle.

Amazingly it actually launched quite successfully before crashing back to earth spectacularly after a malfunction prevented the car detaching from the rocket for landing. The impressive reliant rocket was constructed in Manchester (UK) and fortunately none of the Top Gear presenters were on board this time as it was flown by remote control. More about the launch here.

Submission + - UK Government Rejects Anti-DRM e-Petition

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @02:44PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "The UK government has rejected an e-Petition calling for a ban on DRM. In a response posted to the e-Petitions site, they claim that DRM gives users "unprecedented choice". BBC News reports on the response: "It said DRM acted as a policeman in that it protected digital content, but, it added, the technology also improved choice and the price consumers wished to pay." The response did, however, recognise that "the needs and rights of consumers must also be carefully safeguarded.""

Submission + - Severe Google Desktop XSS Vulnerability

Submitted by

Tsudohnimh

on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @02:42PM

Tsudohnimh writes: "A new research from Watchfire has revealed a serious vulnerability in Google Desktop.
The attack, which is fully presented in a new Watchfire research paper released today can allow a malicious individual to achieve not only remote, persistent access to sensitive data, but in some cases full system control as well.
The full paper can be found here (1).
A demonstration of the attack flow can be found here(2).
1. http://www.watchfire.com/resources/Overtaking-Goog le-Desktop.pdf
2. http://download.watchfire.com/googledesktopdemo/in dex.htm"

Submission + - Dell gives desktop Linux its "full attention&#

Submitted by on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @02:01PM

An anonymous reader writes: Only days after Dell launched a new user feedback forum called Dell Idea Storm where customers can suggest new ideas for the PC manufacturer, the request for a Linux desktop tops the list with thousands of votes. Emails exchanged with Bob Pearson, Dell's vice president of corporate group communications, indicate that Dell is taking the request seriously. Dell is known for taking risks and with its new found devotion to customer service, Dell just might grant the Linux community's wish.

Submission + - ESR gives up on Fedora

Submitted by dsinc on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @01:42PM

dsinc writes: Dependency hell makes ESR "reach his limit" and give up Fedora: http://enterprise.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/02/2 1/1340237

Submission + - Linux.com | ESR gives up on Fedora

Submitted by JReagan1990 on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @12:08PM

JReagan1990 writes: ESR has left Fedora for Ubuntu: "I have watched Ubuntu rise to these challenges as Fedora fell away from them. Canonical's recent deal with Linspire, which will give Linux users legal access to WMF and other key proprietary codecs, is precisely the sort of thing Red-Hat/Fedora could and should have taken the lead in. Not having done so bespeaks a failure of vision which I now believe will condemn Fedora to a shrinking niche in the future. This afternoon, I installed Edgy Eft on my main development machine — from one CD, not five. In less than three hours' work I was able to recreate the key features of my day-to-day toolkit. The after-installation mass upgrade to current packages, always a frightening prospect under Fedora, went off without a hitch." http://enterprise.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/02/2 1/1340237

Submission + - When IT security gets physical

Submitted by ancientribe on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @02:59PM

ancientribe writes: A social engineering firm is forced to actually steal the laptop of a technology-savvy suspected employee-gone-bad to investigate his actions for a large corporate client, and things get physical — literally, as they wrestle over the machine, according to this column in Dark Reading. Steve Stasiukonis, vice president and founder of Secure Network Technologies, recounts the sting operation that led to a scuffle, as well as getting the goods on the culprit.

http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=117 531&WT.svl=tease3_2

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