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The Internet

Massive Disruption Of PayPal Subscription Service

Submitted by
hausmasta
hausmasta writes "Since August 30, there are massive problems with PayPal subscriptions. The atomatic renewal of subscriptions stopped that day, causing headaches for lots of web site owners that rely on this kind of revenue. The problem is global, as this thread in the PayPal Developer Community shows. PayPal hasn't shown any reaction yet, so it is unclear whether they are working on it or even, if they are aware of the problem.

https://www.paypaldeveloper.com/pdn/board/message? board.id=basicpayments&thread.id=11355"
Security

Symantec confirmation emails include passwords 1

Submitted by zmal
zmal writes "I recently purchased a new Vista system (necessary for work), which came with a free subscription to the Norton suite of security tools. As part of the installation, Symantec has you set up a "Norton Account". The confirmation email sent back from Symantec on creating a new account includes a link with the username and password for the new account in plaintext:

Received: from excu-mxob-1.symantec.com (excu-mxob-1.symantec.com [198.6.49.12])
        by XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (Postfix) with ESMTP
        for ; Thu, 30 Aug 2007 23:28:38 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from cup2opsmtapin02.ges.symantec.com (cup2opsmtapin02.ges.symantec.com [155.64.1.103])
        by excu-mxob-1.symantec.com (8.14.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id l7V6Rml6031676
        (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO)
        for ; Thu, 30 Aug 2007 23:27:48 -0700
Received: from excu-dns-1.symantec.com ([198.6.49.190])
        by cup2opsmtapin02.ges.symantec.com with esmtp (Exim 4.67)
        (envelope-from )
        id 1IQzyu-0004NQ-30
        for XXXXXXXX@XXXXXXXXXX; Thu, 30 Aug 2007 23:27:48 -0700
Received: from nav1drmmtacl02.conxion.com ([206.204.54.213])
        by excu-dns-1.symantec.com with esmtp (Exim 4.52)
        id 1IQzyt-00008C-WB
        for XXXXXXXX@XXXXXXXXXX; Thu, 30 Aug 2007 23:27:48 -0700
Received: from ussj-ebeapppdcl01.ges.symantec.com ([192.168.78.132] helo=ussj-ebeapppdcl01)
        by nav1drmmtacl02.conxion.com with esmtp (Exim 4.52)
        id 1IQzyt-00037r-Ub
        for XXXXXXXX@XXXXXXXXXX; Thu, 30 Aug 2007 23:27:47 -0700
Message-ID: 2107168635
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 06:27:47 +0000 (GMT)
From: NortonAccount@symantec.com
To: XXXXXXXX@XXXXXXXXXX
Subject: One final step to confirm your Norton Account (Message-ID=2107168635)

(message contents...)

href="https://www.mynortonaccount.com/?email=XXXXX XXX%40XXXXXXX.com&password=XXXXXXXX"

I've included the message headers to show that the message is indeed coming out of Symantec, up to the point where it reaches my ISP's mail servers.

I expect better from all companies that do business on the Internet, but especially from security companies registering account details for security products. I tried to email Symantec about this, but mail to the contact addresses I found all bounced as undeliverable."
Google

Will Google lose its trademark? 1

Submitted by 140Mandak262Jamuna
140Mandak262Jamuna writes "Once upon a time, Google was the new kid on the block in the search engine arena. Then it became the big kahuna of that area. There was a time when using google as a verb would have brought a smile. But now every body and his brother and even the prim and proper, stiff upper lip and what not types like the Deputy Attorney General Ronald Smetana are using it as a verb. The quotes have been dropped, the capitalization still persists as some vestigial token acknowledging it as a neologism.

Already a number of dictionaries define google as a plain English word. If OED or some such big name dictionary includes it, would Google lose its trademark? Does Google have lawyers who assiduously take steps to protect its trademark and not allow it to become a generic word to mean "search the internet"? Didn't Xerox lose its trademark or came close to losing it? Imagine a world where Microsoft Live could be branded as "Microsoft Live Google"!"
Music

New Royalty Rates Could Kill Internet Radio

Submitted by FlatCatInASlatVat
FlatCatInASlatVat writes "Kurt Hanson's Radio Internet Newsletter has an analysis of the new royalty rates for Internet Radio announced by the US Copyright Office. The decision is likely to put most internet radio stations out of business by making the cost of broadcasting much higher than revenues. From the article: "The Copyright Royalty Board is rejecting all of the arguments made by Webcasters and instead adopting the "per play" rate proposal put forth by SoundExchange (a digital music fee collection body created by the RIAA)...[The] math suggests that the royalty rate decision — for the performance alone, not even including composers' royalties! — is in the in the ballpark of 100% or more of total revenues." Clear Channel, in the meantime, pays nothing. So long Radio Paradise, and all the other wonderful internet stations."
Security

Flash 9 Plugin Vulnerability

Submitted by
Aristotle's Fearless
Aristotle's Fearless writes "The current Flash Player 9 plugin for IE and Firefox on Windows (9.0.28.0) has a serious bug. Certain bitmap draws using the BitmapData class in ActionScript 3 cause immediate page faults and close both IE and Firefox on all flavors of Windows.

This writer has isolated a proof of concept code fragment in AS3 and submitted a bug report to Adobe. Details are being withheld pending a reply from Adobe because of concerns this may be exploitable by buffer overrun code injection.

See this page for the proof of concept SWF. Be warned: your windows browser will exit with a page fault upon clicking the link on this page."
Bug

Redefining Avogadro's number

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Have you ever asked questions like What went first, the universal gas constant or the Boltzmann's constant? In this article. the ultimate definitions for mass, time, and distance are discussed; and the authors propose a new operative definition (i. e. not based on references to physical objects) for both mole and mass units. Maybe it is the final improvement the SI needs to be completely reproducible."
Music

Digital technologies creat classical music hoax

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes "The classical music world is in a tizzy today, as it turns out that a recently-lauded pianist — Joyce Hatto — most likely did not play on any of the albums with here name on them. The late pianist, who died in June 2006, had become something of a star in the limited world of small-label classical releases, but some listeners questioned how she could have recorded so many CDs, and how here styles sounded different from one disc to the other. It turns out that some — if not all — of her discs were mere copies of other discs, with occasional digital tweaks, such as speed changes or EQ changes, to make them sound a bit different.

Many critics were fooled, and a minor Hatto-mania ensued following some of the more recent releases, but the digital music CSI teams have proven that some of the discs are simply copies of other recordings.

http://www.mcelhearn.com/article.php?story=2007021 6113905156"
Privacy

Judge Restricts New York Police Surveillance

Submitted by
berberine
berberine writes "In a rebuke of a surveillance practice greatly expanded by the New York Police Department after the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal judge ruled today that the police must stop the routine videotaping of people at public gatherings unless there was an indication that unlawful activity may occur. Nearly four years ago, at the request of New York City, the same judge, Charles S. Haight Jr., had given the police greater authority to investigate political, social and religious groups."

"First things first -- but not necessarily in that order" -- The Doctor, "Doctor Who"