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Security

Submission + - Laid-off IT worker accused of hacking, crashing Mi (missoulian.com)

Submitted by steampoweredlawngnom
steampoweredlawngnom writes: When multiple computer servers crashed nearly simultaneously on Nov. 2 at Edulog, the Missoula firm says it sought help from a former information technology administrator who had been laid off about a week earlier.

Now, Missoula County authorities allege it was that man, Vladimir Ivanovich Shved, who hacked into the computers in the first place, took the servers down and erased backup servers.

Charles Stortz, Logistics Vice President, says at no time was the law enforcement client data compromised or in jeopardy.
Earth

Submission + - Has Earth's Sixth Mass Extinction Already Arrived? (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by intellitech
intellitech writes: With the steep decline in the populations of many species, some scientists have warned that Earth is on the brink of a mass extinction like those that have occurred only five times in the past 540 million years. In a study to be published in the March 3 issue of the journal Nature, University of California, Berkeley, paleobiologists assess where mammals and other species stand today in terms of possible extinction, compared with the past 540 million years, and they find cause for hope as well as alarm.
Cloud

China Building City For Cloud Computing 142

Posted by Soulskill from the lando-for-mayor dept.
CWmike writes "First it was China's 'big hole' sighting that brought us the supercomputing race. Now China is building a city-sized cloud computing and office complex that will include a mega data center, one of the projects fueling that country's double-digit growth in IT spending. The entire complex will cover some 6.2 million square feet, with the initial data center space accounting for approximately 646,000 square feet, says IBM, which is collaborating with a Chinese company to build it. A Sputnik moment? Patrick Thibodeau reports that these big projects, whether supercomputers or sprawling software development office parks, can garner a lot of attention. But China's overall level of IT spending, while growing rapidly, is only one-fifth that of the US."
Math

Next Generation of Algorithms Inspired by Ants 106

Posted by samzenpus from the bugs-for-bugs dept.
letsurock writes "Ants' capability to find the shortest route through a maze in an hour, and to find the second shortest route when the first path was obstructed, has inspired researchers creating algorithms for the future. From the article: 'Finding the most efficient path through a busy network is a common challenge faced by delivery drivers, telephone routers and engineers. To solve these optimization problems using software, computer scientists have often sought inspiration from ant colonies in nature — creating algorithms that simulate the behavior of ants who find the most efficient routes from their nests to food sources by following each other's volatile pheromone trails. The most widely used of these ant-inspired algorithms is known as Ant Colony Optimization (ACO).'"
Crime

Submission + - Retailer accused of inflating Google rank arrested (networkworld.com) 1

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: An online retailer who boasted that complaints about his business helped boost its standing in Google search results was arrested Monday.

Vitaly Borker, 34, was arrested at his home in Brooklyn, New York, and charged with fraud, cyberstalking and harassment, the U.S. Department of Justice said. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

According to the complaint http://www.scribd.com/doc/44795865/borkercomplaint against him and a profile that appeared in The New York Times last month, Borker made abusive customer service his signature style. Prosecutors say he shipped counterfeit or defective products and threatened customers with violence if they complained.

It was all part of a scheme to boost his online presence by getting people to discuss and link to his online store. Even if the links came from people complaining about his business it still drove traffic to the website.

Submission + - Comcast hit with second major outage in 8 days (informationweek.com)

Submitted by ctmurray
ctmurray writes: Comcast cut off the upper midwest from the internet last night for 4 hours due to a DNS breakdown (including me). And this was the second outage for the same reason in 8 days, with the east coast going down on Cyber Monday. Apparently I could have surfed if I had known to switch to OpenDNS or Google's DNS, but there was nothing on the TV and Comcast phones were tied up. Not knowing this was widespread I ran through the standard song and dance of unplugging the modem and my wifi unit and waiting for them to reset. I had to call friends and do a survey to determine this was widespread. I know this is old news but I could not find any comments on /. I think the comments by /. ers would be interesting.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Selling source code? 5

Submitted by doesntbyte
doesntbyte writes: I figured a lot of people on Slashdot have probably faced this before: I work as a freelance programmer and, over the years, I've compiled a huge collection of libraries and algorithms that I've developed to make my life easier. Anything from a calendaring application in Java to simple C++ file I/O stuff. It occurred to me: These programs/libraries/whatever are hugely useful for me and, if I cleaned them up a little bit, they'd probably help other programmers too. I thought about OpenSourcing them but, honestly, in this economic climate my finances aren't doing so well either.

So, Slashdot, I was wondering: Is there any way to easily sell source code to other programmers? Some people have pointed me to RentACoder or ScriptLance but they're not quite what I'm looking for since that's (basically) selling future work. Is there anything that's for selling pre-written code? Someone pointed me to SourceSale but that doesn't look like it's got much going on yet. Any other suggestions? I thought of just doing an opensource page with a PayPal donation link, but... That seems like it wouldn't actually result in very significant financial results. Help?
Security

Submission + - Hacking Java from the inside out (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "The final release of JavaSnoop 1.0 came on Monday, after months of revisions and fixes since it was first announced at Black Hat this summer. The tool is the creation of Arshan Dabirsiaghi, director of research at Aspect Security, and it's meant to give developers, researchers and other interested parties the ability to do a number of interesting things with Java applications that normally aren't possible without having the source code at hand.

"The whole idea of JavaSnoop is to turn theoretical vulnerabilities into real vulnerabilities," he said in his presentation at Black Hat. "Theoretical vulns don't really get fixed at the same rate that real vulns do."

Submission + - From: Dr. Dennis Fetko, "Dr. Dog" (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: “How to finally eliminate your dog’s annoying behaviors—and why you may actually be teaching him these behaviorswithout even realizing it!”
If your dog chews up the couch ... jumps on your guests ... barks excessively ... digs up the yard soils indiscriminately ... pulls on a lead ... or exhibits any number of other annoying and destructive behaviors, you will learn here how to eliminate these behaviors without resorting to yelling ... swearing ... hitting ... or jerking (and save yourself a boatload of frustration) once you learn the secrets of “dog talk.”
Censorship

Submission + - Australian web hosts wouldn’t host WikiLeaks (delimiter.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After being dumped by Amazon, Wikileaks mirrors have sprung up all over the world ... except in Australia, where local web hosting companies say they probably wouldn't play host to a mirror of the site due to technical and legal concerns. Is this a valid stance, or should web hosting companies take a braver stance on the issue and remain agnostic about the content they're hosting?
Space

Submission + - Zombie satellite hoses NOAA/NWS weather systems (wattsupwiththat.com)

Submitted by radioweather
radioweather writes: Overnight, the drifting and still transmitting rogue "zombie" Galaxy 15 satellite spewed C band emissions into the satellite data distribution system used by NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS), effectively shutting down data sharing between NWS offices nationwide, as well as weather support groups for the U.S. Air force. Interference from Galaxy 15 affected transmissions of the SES-1 Satellite, which not only serves NOAA with data relay services, but also is used to feed TV programming into virtually every cable network in the U.S. NOAA's Network Control Facility reports that the computer system affected was NOAA's Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) used to issue forecasts and weather bulletins which uses the weather data feed. They also state the problem is likely to recur again this month before the satellite drifts out of range and eventually dies due to battery depletion.

Submission + - Feds Arrest Online Seller Who Scared Customers (nytimes.com) 1

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: Federal law enforcement agents on Monday arrested a Brooklyn Internet merchant who mistreated customers because he thought their online complaints raised the profile of his business in Google searches.

The arrest came eight days after The New York Times published a lengthy account (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28borker.html?scp=1&sq=A%20Bully%20Finds%20a%20Pulpit%20on%20the%20Web&st=cse) of Mr. Borker’s campaign of intimidation against a woman named Clarabelle Rodriguez who had bought a pair of glasses from DecorMyEyes over the summer.
Iphone

Submission + - The white iPhone 4 set for release in Spring 2011 (networkworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Long delayed, it appears that the white iPhone 4 will finally hit stores in the Spring of 2011. Originally expected to launch alongside the black iPhone 4 this past Summer, Apple was forced to delay its launch time again for reasons that always remained somewhat murky. Some reports suggested that iPhone manufacturers were struggling to achieve the exact shade of white demanded by Apple while other reports suggested that the white iPhone 4 let too much light leak in through the glass, resulting in shoddy and perhaps unusable photos. Just a few weeks ago, reports surfaced that Apple was planning to abandon the white iPhone 4 altogether, but signs recently spotted at Apple Stores this past weekend confirm that Apple is planning to ship these elusive white iPhone 4's in Spring of 2011.
Apple

Submission + - iPad 2 to ship by late February 2011 (tekgoblin.com)

Submitted by tekgoblin
tekgoblin writes: Foxconn in Shenzhen, China has been notified recently that they will need to begin shipment of the iPad 2 by the end of February 2011. According to DigiTimes, the plant will ship around 600,000 units at that time. The iPad 2 was originally supposed to be shipped in January according to DigiTimes but was delayed because of firmware issues.

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