Cludge - Slashdot User

Older = Wiser? Positive effects of aging on memory-> 1

Submitted by Cludge on Thursday January 28 2010, @08:24AM

Cludge writes "The news service of the University of Toronto reports a study on changes in memory skills that occur with age. Apparently, older brains have a weakened ability to filter out irrelevant information. But this may actually give aging adults a memory advantage over their younger counterparts. In computer-based memory tasks, in which words were paired with pictures, "The older adults showed a 30 per cent advantage over younger adults in their memory" for the paired words and pictures. "As this type of knowledge is thought to play a critical role in real world decision- making, older adults may be the wiser decision-makers compared to younger adults...""
Link to Original Source

OS X iBotnet: Zombie Macs Launch DOS Attack 0

Submitted by

Cludge

on Thursday April 16 2009, @06:21PM

Cludge writes "ZDNet has a story (and several related articles) about how Symantec has discovered evidence of an all-Mac based botnet that is actively involved in a DOS attack. Apparently, security on the exploited Macs (call them iBots?) was compromised when unwary users bit-torrented pirated copies of iWork 09 and Photoshop CS4 that contained malware. From the article: "They describe this as the "first real attempt to create a Mac botnet" and notes that the zombie Macs are already being used for nefarious purposes." Read the story here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=3157"

Mac Trojan prowls porn sites-> 0

Submitted by

Cludge

on Thursday November 01 2007, @02:36PM

Cludge writes "As evidence that malware writers are taking more interest in Macs, a new Trojan has been spotted on porn sites. The trojan changes the Mac's DNS (Domain Name System) settings to redirect users to alternate or spoofed sites. From the article:

"The whole Trojan is relatively simple and works almost exactly the same as its brother for Windows," said Bojan Zdrnja, an analyst at Internet Storm Center (ISC) in a warning posted early Thursday. The DNSChanger exploit is well-known to Windows Trojan watchers. The bad guys are taking Mac seriously now," Zdrnja added. "This is a professional attempt at attacking Mac systems, and they could have been much more damaging.""
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:So (Score 1) 52

by Cludge on Tuesday October 02 2007, @03:51PM (#20828741) Attached to: Slashdot Anniversary: Toronto, ON, CA

I will be there! Just moved up from the states. Glad to see an active Slash community here. I work in a department at U of T where no one's heard of Slashdot! It's pretty lonely for a programmer/geek!