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Bug

Submission + - Toronto Stock Market Halted due to Technical Issue

Submitted by larry_larry
larry_larry writes: The TSX, Canada's major stock exchange was halted today "due to technical issues with data feeds." This is causing massive disruption for investors.

"We've halted the Toronto stock exchange and TSX Venture Exchange and we will update you as soon as we are able," said Caroline Quick, director of communications at market operator TMX Group Inc.

"It's a technical issue", she added, declining to elaborate.

I wonder what type of technical issue can cause such a mission critical system go down?
Earth

Submission + - Scientists Find Hole in Earth's Magnetic Field (reuters.com)

Submitted by Velorium
Velorium writes:

The Earth's magnetic field has been found to have two large holes that are making Earth's surface vulnerable to solar winds. Despite what scientists originally thought, these holes allow 20 times the normal amount of solar particles through when they are facing away from the sun. This being opposite from what the scientists had originally speculated.
Education

Submission + - What restrictions to place on student laptops?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: We're a school district in the beginning phases of a laptop program which has the eventual goal of putting a Macbook in the hands of every student from 6th to 12th grade. The students will essentially own the computers, are expected to take them home every night, and will be able to purchase the laptops for a nominal fee upon graduation.

Here's the dilemma — how much freedom do you give to students? The state mandates web filtering on all machines. However, there is some flexibility on exactly what should be filtered. Are things like Facebook and Myspace a legitimate use of a school computer? What about games, forums, or blogs, all of which could be educational, distracting or obscene? We also have the ability to monitor any machine remotely, lock the machine down at certain hours, prevent the installation of any software by the user, and prevent the use of iChat. How far do we take this?

While on one hand we need to avoid legal problems and irresponsible behavior, there's a danger of going so far to minimize liability that we make the tool nearly useless. Equally concerning is the message sent to the students. Will a perceived lack of trust cripple the effectiveness of the program?
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Releases Critical IE Vulnerability Fix (microsoft.com)

Submitted by
JeepFanatic
JeepFanatic writes: "Microsoft has released MS08-078 — a critical update to fix the recently discovered vulnerability.

From TFA:

This security update is rated Critical for Internet Explorer 5.01, Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1, and Internet Explorer 7.

The security update addresses the vulnerability by modifying the way Internet Explorer validates data binding parameters and handles the error resulting in the exploitable condition.

Microsoft recommends that customers apply the update immediately.

"
Software

Submission + - Best of FOSS and linux in 2008 (abhishekrane.com)

Submitted by Abhishek
Abhishek writes: 2008 was a really dramatic year for the linux and FOSS world as there were many major releases of softwares and distros which kept changing the ideas of desktop computing.Here are some of the best linux and FOSS stories of 2008.

Comment Re:I think we're already there (Score 1) 187

by JeepFanatic (#25569023) Attached to: Chrome Helping Other Browsers Out, Says Opera CEO
When Chrome came out I had many people who never would have any idea about new browsers come to me and ask for my thoughts on it. Any type of Google related news has a way of making it out into the public. As a result, many discussions get started about the benefits of different browsers and even allowed me to mention other browsers to people that they had never heard of before.
Announcements

Submission + - System Administrator Appreciation Day (sysadminday.com)

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "Friday, July 25th, 2008, is the 9th annual System Administrator Appreciation Day. On this special international day, give your System Administrator something that shows that you truly appreciate their hard work and dedication. Let's face it, System Administrators get no respect 364 days a year. This is the day that all fellow System Administrators across the globe, will be showered with expensive sports cars and large piles of cash in appreciation of their diligent work. But seriously, we are asking for a nice token gift and some public acknowledgment. It's the least you could do. Consider all the daunting tasks and long hours (weekends too.) Let's be honest, sometimes we don't know our System Administrators as well as they know us. Remember this is one day to recognize your System Administrator for their workplace contributions and to promote professional excellence. Thank them for all the things they do for you and your business."
Security

Submission + - Major conflict of interest between Firefox/Google? (news.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Firefox browser may not be as independent as previously thought. However, the open secret in the tech sector is that at the end of the day, Google calls the shots. When a pro-user security feature in the browser threatens Google's business model, it is the feature that is made to compromise — not the search engine. Google provides real-time updated blacklists for the Firefox Phishing Protection system. However, the company has whitelisted all of its own domain names while at the same time refusing to fix major security vulnerabilities reported to it by respected security researcher Robert "RSnake" Hansen. Can Google be trusted to run the phishing blacklists? Should Firefox go ahead with its plans to use Google's anti-malware blacklists in Firefox 3.0, or should the browser switch to the community-generated PhishTank blacklists? CNET has more on the story...
Mozilla

Submission + - Mozilla is recruiting for Operation Firefox. (operationfirefox.com)

Submitted by tradotto
tradotto writes: Enlighten Web users worldwide to the advantages of Firefox. Here's how it works: Submit a plan describing where, when and how you'll install your giant 3.5-foot Firefox FatheadTM sticker (What's this? See it.) Remember, the point is to place stickers in prominent, public places in interesting ways that will make people take notice and check out Firefox. The better your installation, the better our exposure.
Education

Submission + - Grad student suspended after pro-gun-rights e-mail

Submitted by fredklein
fredklein writes: A Minnesota university has suspended one of its graduate students who sent two e-mail messages to school officials supporting gun rights.
"Hamline University also said that master's student Troy Scheffler, who owns a firearm, would be barred from campus and must receive a mandatory "mental health evaluation" after he sent an e-mail message arguing that law-abiding students should be able to carry firearms on campus for self-defense."
When informed that suspending him violated the school's freedom of expression policy, the University changed their tune: Now they claim he's being suspended because of "anonymous allegations" they received, and they can't tell him (or the press) what those allegations are, or who his accusers are. With all the talk of 'Big Brother' throwing people into detention centers without knowing the charges, are we overlooking 'Little Brothers' closer to home?
Enlightenment

Submission + - Tracing IT's Past, Present and Future (cio.com)

Submitted by
Chris Lindquist
Chris Lindquist writes: "CIO.com has posted a collection of stories looking back on 20 years of IT history and predicting what may happen in the coming decades. In the futurist piece, Larry Niven predicts civil rights for applications and Grady Booch anticipates that building software-intensive systems will always be hard. Author Fred Hapgood has also created a two-decade timeline that connects the dots from the IBM's PS/2 to Apple's iPhone."
Microsoft

Submission + - SerNet asks Microsoft to disclose protocol (sernet.de)

Submitted by
Johannes Loxen
Johannes Loxen writes: "Following the Court judgment upholding the European Commission's anti-trust
decision:

SerNet asks Microsoft to disclose protocol definitions
—
In a September 26 letter to Microsoft Germany, SerNet transforms the
September 17 European Court judgment into a specific request:

By this judgment Microsoft is forced to publish protocol definitions for
Windows servers under "reasonable" and "non-discriminatory" terms so that
fully interoperable software can be developed by other parties. The
deadline set by the Court is January 15th 2008. Microsoft accepted this
judgment.

Now SerNet asks Microsoft to disclose the protocol definitions for
use in developing the open source software Samba.

SerNet is the leading service company regarding Samba with offerings to
customers worldwide. The Samba Team is an international association of
software developers, working together on Samba — that is in principle an
implementation of the SMB/CIFS protocol for Linux/Unix and some other
operating systems.

Though relatively successful in achieving some degree of interoperability
with Microsoft Workgroup Server Protocols, Samba Team is still challenged
by
many problems arising from Microsoft's continuing lack of disclosure of
private extensions to the protocols in question. This is to say that Samba
has to improve the interoperability between Samba servers and Windows
servers. There is a project called "samba4AD" with a proposal that can be
accessed via ftp://ftp.sernet.de/pub/samba4AD.

The challenges in this project cannot be solved sufficiently without
protocol specifications from Microsoft. The 2004 Decision of the
Commission, recently upheld largely in its entirety by the Court of First
Instance makes it clear that Microsoft has the obligation to disclose those
protocols and unjustified refusal to do it amounts to an abuse of a
dominant position.

"It is of course crucial that Samba can be developed continuously under the
GPL in version 3," says Johannes Loxen, author of the letter on behalf of
SerNet, "Microsoft's programs MCPP and WSPP are not feasible regarding
Samba."

SerNet asks Microsoft to observe the same time limit as set by the European
Court, January 15th 2008.

While Samba is the most important free software alternative to Microsoft's
windows servers this is the opportunity to verify the result of the trial
by a dedicated request.

about Samba
—
Samba is an Open Source/Free Software suite that provides seamless file
and print services to SMB/CIFS clients. Samba is freely available under
the GNU General Public License, see http://www.samba.org./

about SerNet
—
SerNet is the leading Samba supporter, see http://www.sernet.com/
and http://enterprisesamba.com./

contact: Johannes Loxen
SerNet GmbH, Bahnhofsallee 1b, 37081 Goettingen
phone: +49-551-370000-0, fax: +49-551-370000-9
http://www.sernet.de/ mailto:EUcase@SerNet.DE"
Censorship

Submission + - Bloggers who risked all to reveal Junta in Burma 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Internet geeks share a common style, and Ko Latt and his four friends would not be out of place in cyber cafés across the world. They have the skinny arms and the long hair, the dark T-shirts and the jokey nicknames. But few such figures have ever taken the risks that they have in the past few weeks, or achieved so much in a noble and dangerous cause. Since last month Ko Latt, 28, his friends Arca, Eye, Sun and Superman, and scores of others like them have been the third pillar of Burma's Saffron Revolution. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2563937.ece
Security

Submission + - Deceptive file names under Vista (heise-security.co.uk)

Submitted by
devkhadka
devkhadka writes: "An Attackers can use Unicode character under Vista to conceal filenames and filename extensions. A demonstration by Max Ried makes an executable screen-saver file (.scr) look like a harmless image (.jpg).The display of the false filename is due to the inclusion of Unicode control characters that change the direction of writing. These are required for the Arabic language where writing runs from right to left. Unicode recognizes the control characters (PDF) right-to-left override (RLO, 202E) and left-to-right override (LRO, 202D) to switch the writing direction. more about this:
demonstration here"
The Courts

Submission + - Enderle Explains His Motivations Over SCO Affair (tgdaily.com)

Submitted by
CmdrGravy
CmdrGravy writes: "Anyone following the SCO saga from the beginning will probably be familiar with the writing of Rob Enderle who was in the early days a key supporter of SCOs claims. Now that SCO is heading swiftly towards bankruptcy and their claims have been completely debunked Rob has offered an explanation, if not an apology, of his involvement in this sorry affair.

You can read Robs explanation here yourselves.

What he seems to be saying is that his primary motivation for supporting SCO is a dislike of Linux supporters who attacked one of his articles written at about the same time as the SCO saga kicked off. Despite having some doubts about SCOs claims he felt he needed to stick up for them because on the one hand he though Linux supporters were a bunch of criminals and on the other he thought Groklaw was misleading people and misrepresenting the facts surrounding the case.

Whats missing from the article is any apology at all from Mr Enderle for failing to research his subject and calling the result so wrongly or any apology to Groklaw who were clearly not misrepresenting anything and predicted the actual result of the case perfectly."

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