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Desktops (Apple)

Boonana Trojan Horse for Mac OS X Spreads->

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes "SecureMac has discovered a new Trojan horse in the wild that affects Mac OS X, including Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6). The trojan horse, trojan.osx.boonana.a, is spreading through social networking sites, including Facebook, disguised as a video. The Trojan is currently appearing as a link in messages on social networking sites with the subject "Is this you in this video?" When a user clicks the infected link, the trojan initially runs as a Java applet, which downloads other files to the computer, including an installer, which launches automatically. When run, the installer modifies system files to bypass the need for passwords, allowing outside access to all files on the system."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Source Code Available Here (Score 5, Informative) 151

by AgentOJ (#29255765) Attached to: Skype Trojan Can Log VoIP Conversations

It appears that a guy named Ruben Unteregger published the source code on his site at http://www.megapanzer.com/source-code/#skypetrojan

According to his site, he removed a plugin system from the source as well as code to bypass firewalls, but he'll add it back in at a later date.

From looking at the source, this is heavily geared toward Windows, so the current iteration of the source doesn't affect OS X at this time.

Real Time Strategy (Games)

Emergent AI In an Indie RTS Game 146

Posted by Soulskill
from the no-path-found dept.
x4000 writes "My recent RTS game uses a new style of AI that hybridizes rules-based AI with emergent AI logic. As a disclaimer, I'm really not an AI programmer at all — my background is in databases, financial modeling, etc. But it just so happens that database experience, which often involved distilling data points from multiple sources and then combining them into suggested decisions for executives, also makes a great foundation for certain styles of AI. The approach I came up with leans heavily on my database background, and what concepts I am familiar with from reading a bit about AI theory (emergent behavior, fuzzy logic, etc). The results are startlingly good. Total development time on the AI was less than 3 months, and its use of tactics is some of the best in the RTS genre. I'm very open to talking about anything and everything to do with the design I used, as I think it's a viable new approach to AI to explore in games, and I'd like to see other developers potentially carry it even further."

Comment: Can't trust Roper (Score 1) 12

by AgentOJ (#27987581) Attached to: <em>Champions Online</em> Delayed Until September

I'm sorry, but after the abomination that was Hellgate: London, it will take a very, very long time for Bill Roper to earn my trust again. That game was a prime example of what NOT to do in an MMORPG. I just feel bad for all the people who blew their money on a "lifetime" subscription which ended basically being an extended beta masquerading as a finished game, full of broken promises, missed release dates, glitchy content, and eventually a slow death. I hope he's learned his lesson, but I'll let other people test the water before I'd be willing to jump in; I'm not ready to get burned by Roper again.

Comment: Re:Dies the Fire (Score 1) 145

by AgentOJ (#26965417) Attached to: First Evidence of Supernovae Found In Ice Cores

That entire series is excellent, but having read all of the books in the series that have been published up to this point makes the wait until next fall for a new hard! Be sure to read the other series that starts with Island in the Sea of Time by S.M. Stirling as it ties in with the event in Dies the Fire.

Comment: Mod Parent Up (Score 1) 387

by AgentOJ (#25452691) Attached to: The State of Piracy and DRM In PC Gaming

Parent poster is absolutely spot on with their comments on World of Goo. Not only is the game a real gem, it comes with absolutely no copy protection or DRM at all. Even though 2D Boy is an indie outfit, and not a huge corporation, those who slam DRM in games (an boycott games such as Spore) should put their money where their mouth is and support games like this. Perhaps the success of a DRM-less game (in terms of sales) will have some impact on the market as a whole.

Sony

EverQuest 2 developer leaks exploits to guild->

Submitted by Sage Gaspar
Sage Gaspar writes "An EverQuest 2 developer was caught forwarding a player-submitted bug report containing an exploit to his personal guild and offering to "look the other way". The exploit made one of the hardest raid encounters in the game into a relative pushover, granting easy access to epic weapons, one of this expansion's most-hyped features. This comes on the heels of another scandal involving developers inside a top raiding guild providing detailed information about the final encounter of this expansion, enabling that guild to bring the encounter down first, within hours of when it was patched to be killable.

Also of controversy is the method by which the developer abuse was revealed: the administrator of the EQ2Flames message board digging through the developer's private messages, a violation of his own policies. This comes in reaction to the EQ2 Community Manager's decision to completely withdraw from interaction with EQ2Flames, the largest EQ2 fansite and a rough-and-tumble free speech zone. The admin claims that the community team participated in slander and reneged on an agreement for an exclusive preview of upcoming content, leading him to engage in the Wild West-style community justice for which the website is infamous."
Link to Original Source
News

Steve Fossett Declared Dead 221

Posted by CmdrTaco
from the rest-in-peace dept.
Parallax Blue writes "Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who risked his life seeking to set records in high-tech balloons, gliders and jets, was declared dead Friday, 5 months after he vanished while flying in an ordinary small plane. The self-made business tycoon, who in 2002 became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon, was last seen Sept. 3 after taking off in a single-engine plane from an airstrip near Yerington, Nev., heading toward Bishop, Calif. He was 63."
Enlightenment

Three Unforgivable Usability Sins 1

Submitted by Esther Schindler
Esther Schindler writes "It's hateful when a developer takes a "shortcut" that saves that individual a couple of minutes, but thereafter causes extra effort from every single user. Awful as they are, these application design errors—all the fault of lazy developers—are entirely too common."
Toys

Flying Humans 330

Posted by kdawson
from the that-trick-never-works dept.
mlimber sends us to the NYTimes for a story about flying people who jump from planes or other high locations wearing a wing suit akin to a flying squirrel's. Their efforts have potential military and Xtreme sports applications. The story profiles, with video, one guy who wants to be the first to jump from a plane and land without a parachute (and live). Here's a YouTube video of another of these fliers skimming six feet above skiers in the Swiss Alps. Quoting: "Modern suit design features tightly woven nylon sewn between the legs and between the arms and torso, creating wings that fill with air and create lift, allowing for forward motion and aerial maneuvers while slowing descent. As the suits, which cost about $1,000, have become more sophisticated, so have the pilots. The best fliers, and there are not many, can trace the horizontal contours of cliffs, ridges and mountainsides."
The Military

How PALS Help Secure Nuclear Weapons 136

Posted by Zonk
from the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The BBC reported last week that until 1998 no code or dual key system was required to arm British nuclear weapons. Bombs were armed by inserting a bicycle lock key (video) into the arming switch and turning it 90 degrees. Permissive Action Links (PALs) were introduced in the 1960s in America to prevent a mad General or pilot launching a nuclear war on their own and to control nuclear weapons that were at least partially controlled by other nations but as late as 1974, when an armed quarrel broke out between two members of NATO, Greece and Turkey, the Secretary of Defense learned that many tactical nukes were still not equipped with PALS. It has been reported that PALs have been installed on Pakistan's nuclear weapons to disarm or disable their triggering mechanism if the wrong code is entered or if the bomb is tampered with in any manner."
Privacy

WordPress 2.3 Does Not Spy On Users [UPDATED] 229

Posted by kdawson
from the if-you-don't-like-it-fork-it dept.
Marilyn Miller writes "Popular open-source blogging engine WordPress has been upgraded to 2.3 — with some unexpected nasties in the mix. As of version 2.3, WordPress now periodically (every 12 hours) sends personally identifying information (blog name & URI) to the mothership, along with an alarming amount of information including $_SERVER dumps, a list of installed plugins, and your current PHP/MySQL settings. Most unfortunately, it does not provide any way of disabling this functionality, and WordPress does not have any privacy policy protecting this information. In a thread about the issue, lead developer Matt Mullenweg defends his actions and staunchly refuses to add an opt-in interface, telling users to 'fork WordPress' if they aren't willing to put up with this behavior." Update: 09/25 17:52 GMT by KD : This article is misleading enough to be called "just wrong." Matt Mullenweg writes: "As mentioned in our release announcement, the update notification sends your blog URL, plugins, and version info when it checks api.wordpress.org for new and compatible updates. It does not include $_SERVER dumps, or any settings beyond version numbers (for checking compatibility), or your blog name, or your credit card number. We do provide a way of disabling this feature; in fact I link to one of the plugins in the release announcement and in my original response to Morty's thread."

"Tell the truth and run." -- Yugoslav proverb