Comment: M$ is still around, too (Score 1) 259
M$ is still around, so I failed on that prediction *rueful sigh*
+ - Netflix Gets What It Pays For: Comcast Streaming Speeds Skyrocket->
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jfruh
jfruh (300774) writes "Back in Februrary, after a lengthy dispute, Netflix agreed to pay Comcast for network access after being dogged by complaints of slow speeds from Comcast subscribers. Two months later, it appears that Comcast has delivered on its promises, jumping up six places in Netflix's ISP speed rankings. The question of whether this is good news for anyone but Comcast is still open."
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Link to Original Source
+ - Four In Five Americans Want Data-Sharing Restricted By Law->
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jfruh
jfruh (300774) writes "Some surveys from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project have found, not suprisingly, that Americans are concerned about the privacy and safety of their personal data, worrying about everything from securtiy breaches to corporate misues of it. Perhaps the most striking data point from the survey: 79% of respondents want tighter government regulations that would restrict how their personal data is shared."
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Link to Original Source
+ - Snowden Used the Operating System Designed for Internet Anonymity
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Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com (2995471) writes "When Edward Snowden first emailed Glenn Greenwald, he insisted on using email encryption software called PGP for all communications. Now Klint Finley reports that Snowden also used The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) to keep his communications out of the NSA’s prying eyes. Tails is a kind of computer-in-a-box using a version of the Linux operating system optimized for anonymity that you install on a DVD or USB drive, boot your computer from and you’re pretty close to anonymous on the internet. "Snowden, Greenwald and their collaborator, documentary film maker Laura Poitras, used it because, by design, Tails doesn’t store any data locally," writes Finley. "This makes it virtually immune to malicious software, and prevents someone from performing effective forensics on the computer after the fact. That protects both the journalists, and often more importantly, their sources." The developers of Tails are, appropriately, anonymous. They’re protecting their identities, in part, to help protect the code from government interference. “The NSA has been pressuring free software projects and developers in various ways,” the group says. But since we don’t know who wrote Tails, how do we now it isn’t some government plot designed to snare activists or criminals? A couple of ways, actually. One of the Snowden leaks show the NSA complaining about Tails in a Power Point Slide; if it’s bad for the NSA, it’s safe to say it’s good for privacy. And all of the Tails code is open source, so it can be inspected by anyone worried about foul play. "With Tails", say the distro developers, "we provide a tongue and a pen protected by state-of-the-art cryptography to guarantee basic human rights and allow journalists worldwide to work and communicate freely and without fear of reprisal.""
+ - The Security Of The Most Popular Programming Languages
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Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Deciding which programming language to use is often based on considerations such as what the development team is most familiar with, what will generate code the fastest, or simply what will get the job done. How secure the language might be is simply an afterthought, which is usually too late. A new WhiteHat Security report approaches application security not from the standpoint of what risks exist on sites and applications once they have been pushed into production, but rather by examining how the languages themselves perform in the field. In doing so, we hope to elevate security considerations and deepen those conversations earlier in the decision process, which will ultimately lead to more secure websites and applications."
+ - Linux 3.15 Will Suspend & Resume Multiple Times Faster->
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Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "The Linux 3.15 kernel that is now in its early life will be able to suspend and resume much faster than previous versions of the Linux kernel. Days ago were ACPI and Power Management updates that enable asynchronous threads for more suspend and resume callbacks. Carrying out more async operations leads to reduced time for the system suspend and then resuming. According to one developer it was about an 80% time savings within one of the phases. Merged on Friday was then work so that the kernel is no longer blocked by waiting for ATA devices to resume. Multiple ATA devices can be waked up simultaneously and any ATA commands for the device(s) will be queued until they have powered up. According to an 01.org blog post on the ATA/SCSI resume optimization patches, when tested on three Intel Linux systems the resume time was between seven and 12x faster (not including the latest ACPI/PM S&R optimizations)."
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Link to Original Source
+ - Seven Habits Of Highly Effective Unix Admins->
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jfruh
jfruh (300774) writes "Being a Unix or Linux admin tends to be an odd kind of job: you often spend much of your workday on your own, with lots of time when you don't have a specific pressing task, punctuated by moments of panic where you need to do something very important right away. Sandra Henry-Stocker, a veteran sysadmin, offers some tips on how to best structure your professional life if you're in this job. Her advice includes setting priorities, knowing your tools, and providing explanations to the co-workers who you help."
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Link to Original Source
+ - Big Science, Tiny Microservers: IBM Research Pushes 64-Bit Possibilities->
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Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Four years ago, a friend dropped a Sheeva Plug into the hands of Ronald Luijten, a system designer at IBM Research in Zurich. At the time, neither could have realized the development cycle this simple gift would spark.
Following funding from the Square Kilometer Array Project to help come up with a solution around the exascale capabilities required in a minimal power envelope, Luitjen looked for a tiny, self-serving part with 64-bit capability and found only one chip--this one from Freescale for the embedded market--and got to work building an ecosystem, or at least starting it, by getting an OS and then (!) DB2 up and running.."
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Following funding from the Square Kilometer Array Project to help come up with a solution around the exascale capabilities required in a minimal power envelope, Luitjen looked for a tiny, self-serving part with 64-bit capability and found only one chip--this one from Freescale for the embedded market--and got to work building an ecosystem, or at least starting it, by getting an OS and then (!) DB2 up and running.."
Link to Original Source
+ - 93 Harvard Faculty Members Call on the University to Divest from Fossil Fuels->
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Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey (2647775) writes "One hundred faculty members of the nation's most renowned university have signed an open letter calling on Harvard to divest its holdings in fossil fuel companies. Harvard's is the largest university endowment in the world
For the last few years, a national movement has called on on universities, foundations, and municipalities to divest from fossil fuels. Led by students, as well as organized groups like 350.org, it has seen a number of significant victories—at least nine colleges and over a dozen cities have pulled their investments in companies that extract or burn fossil fuels like coal and oil."
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For the last few years, a national movement has called on on universities, foundations, and municipalities to divest from fossil fuels. Led by students, as well as organized groups like 350.org, it has seen a number of significant victories—at least nine colleges and over a dozen cities have pulled their investments in companies that extract or burn fossil fuels like coal and oil."
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+ - Heartbleed coder: bug in OpenSSL was an honest mistake -> 1
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nk497
nk497 (1345219) writes "The Heartbleed bug in OpenSSL wasn't placed there deliberately, according to the coder responsible for the mistake — despite suspicions from many that security services may have been behind it. OpenSSL logs show that German developer Robin Seggelmann introduced the bug into OpenSSL when working on the open-source project two and a half years ago, according to an Australian newspaper. The change was logged on New Year's Eve 2011.
"I was working on improving OpenSSL and submitted numerous bug fixes and added new features," Seggelmann told the Sydney Morning Herald. "In one of the new features, unfortunately, I missed validating a variable containing a length." His work was reviewed, but the reviewer also missed the error, and it was included in the released version of OpenSSL."
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"I was working on improving OpenSSL and submitted numerous bug fixes and added new features," Seggelmann told the Sydney Morning Herald. "In one of the new features, unfortunately, I missed validating a variable containing a length." His work was reviewed, but the reviewer also missed the error, and it was included in the released version of OpenSSL."
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+ - Ask Slashdot: Linux in the workplace
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Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Recently my boss has asked me about the advantages of Linux as a desktop operating system and if it would be a good idea to install it instead of upgrading to Windows 7 or 8. About ten boxes here are still running Windows XP and would be too old to upgrade to any newer version of Windows. He knows that i am using Linux at work on quite outdated hardware (would have gotten a new PC but never requested new hardware — Linux Mint x64 runs quite well on it) and i always managed to get my stuff done with it. I explained to him that there are no licensing issues with Linux, there is no anti-virus software to deal with and that Linux is generally a bit more efficient on old hardware than operating systems from Microsoft. The boss seems interested. Since i am the only guy with Linux experience I would have to support the Linux installations. Now the problem is what works perfectly fine for me may be a horrible experience for some of my coworkers, and even if they would only be using Firefox, Thunderbird and LibreOffice I don't know if I could seriously recommend using Linux as a desktop OS in a business. Instead I want to set up one test machine for users to try it and ask THEM if they like it. The test machine should be as easy and painless to use as possible and not look too different compared to Windows. Which distro and what configuration should I choose for this demo box?"
+ - Congressman Introduces A Bill Declaring Bitcoin A Currency, Not Property->
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SonicSpike
SonicSpike (242293) writes "Congressman Steve Stockman of the 36th District of Texas is embracing digital currency. He made himself known in the Bitcoin space at the end of last year when he began accepting Bitcoin donations for a Senate campaign.
Last night at the New York City Bitcoin Center, Representative Stockman brought a copy of a bill he’s planning to introduce to the 113th Congress (second session) on the topic of virtual currencies.
Entitled “To change the tax status of virtual currencies from property to currency”, the bill (formally called the Virtual Currency Tax Reform Act) seeks to change how the Internal Revenue Service and other authoritative agencies in the United States views virtual currencies.
As you may recall, the IRS released guidance not long ago indicating that Bitcoin and other virtual currency users classify their holdings as property as opposed to currency. For users, this has become rather problematic primarily because by the rules, users would have to keep track of all of their transactions and calculate gains/losses at the end of the year..."
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Last night at the New York City Bitcoin Center, Representative Stockman brought a copy of a bill he’s planning to introduce to the 113th Congress (second session) on the topic of virtual currencies.
Entitled “To change the tax status of virtual currencies from property to currency”, the bill (formally called the Virtual Currency Tax Reform Act) seeks to change how the Internal Revenue Service and other authoritative agencies in the United States views virtual currencies.
As you may recall, the IRS released guidance not long ago indicating that Bitcoin and other virtual currency users classify their holdings as property as opposed to currency. For users, this has become rather problematic primarily because by the rules, users would have to keep track of all of their transactions and calculate gains/losses at the end of the year..."
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+ - Yahoo Announces Security Improvements->
Submitted
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puddingebola
puddingebola (2036796) writes "From the article, "Alex Stamos, Yahoo!'s recently appointed CISO (chief information security officer), said the internet giant has finished encrypting traffic between its data centres. Stamos also outlined a roadmap for future improvements, including plans to encrypt Yahoo Messenger within months, in a blog post. We implemented the latest in security best-practices, including supporting TLS 1.2, Perfect Forward Secrecy and a 2048-bit RSA key for many of our global properties such as Homepage, Mail and Digital Magazines. We are currently working to bring all Yahoo sites up to this standard," Stamos explains, adding that as a process that requires continuous improvement, the project to improve security at Yahoo! will never be completed..."I'm gonna need to find another company to make fun of now that Yahoo! is taking encryption seriously," said Matthew Green. a cryptographer and research professor at Johns Hopkins University. "Any suggestions?"" Are these security improvements significant?"
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Link to Original Source
+ - Home Routers Abused in DNS Amplification Attacks->
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Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Home and small office routers are the latest jumping off point for DNS-based DDoS amplification attacks. In February, more than five million home routers were used to generate attack traffic; that number represents more than one-fifth of the 24 million routers online that have open DNS proxies, according to Nominum.
The impact hits Internet service providers (ISPs) especially hard because amplification attacks not only consume bandwidth, but also drive up support costs and impact customer confidence in their ISP, Nominum said.
Experts point the finger at open DNS resolvers and urge ISPs to take steps to filter these resolvers against reputation lists."
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The impact hits Internet service providers (ISPs) especially hard because amplification attacks not only consume bandwidth, but also drive up support costs and impact customer confidence in their ISP, Nominum said.
Experts point the finger at open DNS resolvers and urge ISPs to take steps to filter these resolvers against reputation lists."
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+ - Fukushima photo essay: A drone's eye view->
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Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel (2973169) writes "Stunning photos and incredible interactive aerial maps of the devastation, cleanup and reconstruction effort in the region around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. By Adam Klaptocz of Drone Adventures in collaboration with Taichi Furuhashi, researcher at the Center for Spatial Information Science at the University of Tokyo."
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Link to Original Source