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Social Networks

Simple Machine Forum Co-Founder Speaks Out-> 1

Submitted by SMF Friend
SMF Friend writes "It seems there's something going down at SimpleMachines.org, home of the Simple Machines Forum. Within the past week, a new website has cropped up with dozens of former developers and project management in heated discussions over events that transpired last Saturday. A statement has been released by former Developer and Co-Founder Jeff Lewis, which chronicles the life and hardships of SMF and includes a letter from 30 current and former SMF Team Members asking for the removal of three of SMF's Managers.

"Over seven years ago my friend Joseph Fung and I decided the web needed an alternative to the leading PHP forum package out there. We created a PHP fork of perl based YaBB and after working with what we called YaBB SE for a bit, we re-branded as SMF, or Simple Machines Forums, along with a new core of code written by a developer who called himself [Unknown]. After seven years its crumbling but why?"

Other former SMF contributors are already picking up the story (Original German version).

As of writing this, the SMF community has begun banning members who link to blog post on their official forums, including Co-Founder Jeff Lewis."
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The Internet

Google Blogger Beta Ships OpenID Commenting->

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes "Blogger in Draft now lets you enable OpenID-based commenting which means that users of OpenID-enabled services — such as LiveJournal and WordPress — can comment on blogs using their accounts from those sites, rather than with Blogger/Google accounts. This feature is in Draft to to hear feedback about the implementation, and to test it further before moving it to Blogger's main site. Google is also working on functionality to let Blogger's URLs (both Blog*Spot and custom domains) be used for commenting elsewhere on the web."
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Handhelds

Wearing a computer at work 1

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes "The European Union has funded an ambitious project related to wearable technology. This project, named WearIT@work will end in one year and was funded with 14.3 million euros of EU money, even if the total project cost is expected to exceed 23 million euros. For mobile workers, the goal is to replace traditional interfaces, such as screen, keyboard or computer unit, by speech control or gesture control, without modifying the applications. This wearable system is currently being tested in four different fields including aircraft maintenance, emergency response, car production and healthcare. But read more for additional references and pictures showing emergency rescuers and doctors using some of these wearable computers to ease their work."
Google

Google and Privacy

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Was the data that Google uses in their new "My Location" feature gathered illegally? Apparently yes, according to this discussion following this New York Times' article between a user and Barry Schnitt, Google's spokesperson: Check it out, it's very interesting. Looks like this could become a major headaches for Google's lawyers."
Social Networks

Facebook Retreats on Online Tracking->

Submitted by
Nrbelex
Nrbelex writes "Faced with its second mass protest by members in its short life span, Facebook, the enormously popular social networking Web site, is reining in some aspects of a controversial new advertising program .... Late yesterday the company made an important change, saying that it would not send messages about users' Internet activities without getting explicit approval each time."
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Wireless Networking

New way to ID invisible intruders on wireless LANs->

Submitted by Bergkamp10
Bergkamp10 writes "Australia's University of Technology in Queensland (QUT) has created a groundbreaking new system that can detect invisible intruders on wireless LANs. Wireless networks have been almost impossible to thoroughly secure as they possess no clearly defined boundaries, instead they are defined by the quality and strength of the receiving antenna. QUT Information Security Institute researcher Dr Jason Smith has invented a new system to detect eavesdropping on unencrypted networks or active hijackings of computer sessions when a legitimate user who is logged onto the network leaves the connection. Smith has created a series of monitoring techniques that when used together can detect both attackers and configuration mistakes in network devices. According to Smith, ""the strength of the signal travelling in a wireless network and the round trip time of the signal are both monitored because they will change if an intruder enters the network. Separately monitoring the signal and round trip time is unreliable, but correlating them against each other makes the system accurate," he said. Smith goes on to list further features and benefits of the new system and how threats can be responded to."
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The Courts

Oregon AG Seeks to investigate RIAA tactics

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Turning the tables on the RIAA's attempt to subpoena information from the University of Oregon about the identities of the university students, the Attorney General has now filed additional papers requesting permission from the Court to conduct immediate discovery into the RIAA's 'data mining' techniques, such as the use of unlicensed investigators, the turning over of subpoenaed information to collection agencies, the obtaining of personal information from computers. The AG pointed out (pdf) that "Because Plaintiffs routinely obtain ex parte discovery in their John Doe infringement suits.....their factual assertions supporting their good cause argument are never challenged by an adverse party and their investigative methods remain free of scrutiny. They often settle their cases quickly before defendants obtain legal representation and begin to conduct discovery...... and have dropped cases, such as their case against Tanya Andersen, in which their methods and practices have been challenged through counterclaims...... While the University is not a party to the case, Plaintiffs' subpoena affects the university's rights and obligations. Plaintiffs may be spying on students who use the University's computer system and may be accessing much more than IP addresses." As one commentator succinctly put it, "They'll be going bananas in RIAA land" after reading this filing."
The Internet

France Telecom Adds 40-million OpenIDs->

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes "Read/WriteWeb writes, "Orange SA, a subsidiary of France Telecom, announced today at the Digital ID World conference in San Francisco that France Telecom will act as an OpenID server. That means the company will verify the identities of their 40 million users immediately, without the need for another account to be created, for any other site on the web that supports OpenID." Orange appears to also have plans to accept OpenIDs from other providers to access various services and more information can be found (in French) on their website."
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Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.