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Internet Explorer

+ - UK Government Browser Modernisation Attitude Fail 1

Submitted by Tetch
Tetch writes "The UK Government has now responded to the e-petition calling on it to upgrade its web services so as to enable staff and citizens to use a better browser than Internet Explorer 6.

Unfortunately the response leaves a lot to be desired — here's a precis :

"In response to the concerns of many people regarding the security of Internet Explorer 6 and the use of this software by Government Departments the Cabinet Office can confirm that the Government takes internet security very seriously.
....
It is not straightforward for HMG departments to upgrade IE versions on their systems. Upgrading these systems to IE8 can be a very large operation, taking weeks to test and roll out to all users. To test all the web applications currently used by HMG departments can take months at significant potential cost to the taxpayer. It is therefore more cost effective in many cases to continue to use IE6 and rely on other measures, such as firewalls and malware scanning software, to further protect public sector internet users."

Sounds more like MBA spin than a professional and responsible attitude .. sigh"

+ - Slower Transmission of DNA through Nanopores

Submitted by eagledck
eagledck writes "In an innovation critical to improved DNA sequencing, a markedly slower transmission of DNA through nanopores has been achieved by a team led by Sandia National Laboratories researchers.Solid-state nanopores sculpted from silicon dioxide are generally straight, tiny tunnels more than a thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. They are used as sensors to detect and characterize DNA, RNA and proteins. But these materials shoot through such holes so rapidly that sequencing the DNA passing through them, for example, is a problem."
Linux

+ - Open Source Toolchains for Linux Sysadmins->

Submitted by
Arthur Digsby Sellers
Arthur Digsby Sellers writes "Sysadmins have to do a lot of repetitive tasks install software, edit configuration files and run back-ups. In celebration of Systems Admin Appreciation Day, The Linux Foundation is launching a new series titled "SysAdmin Toolbox" aimed at providing SysAdmins with all the resources needed to do their important work including how to automate the management of Linux servers from installation to monitoring to self-healing systems using open source software. This first in the series talks about integrating things like Puppet, Chef, Cobbler and Zenoss Core to automate the installation, configuration and monitoring of Linux servers."
Link to Original Source
It's funny. Laugh.

+ - Who Is Downloading the Torrented Facebook Files?->

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes "Aside from the obvious answer of everyone on Slashdot, Gizmodo's got an interesting scoop on a list of IPs acquired from Peer Block revealing who is downloading the Facebook user data torrented this week. Apple, Church of Scientology, Disney, Intel, IBM and several major government contractors just to name a few. The article notes that this doesn't mean it's sanctioned by these companies or even known to be happening but the IP addresses of requests coming to one of the users' machines match to lists of IP blocks for each company."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Tough time for a fanboy (Score 2, Insightful) 764

by the_last_rites (#33083492) Attached to: To Ballmer, Grabbing iPad's Market Is 'Job One Urgency'
I have never seen a research division that is so awesome and also, at the same time, seemingly at odds with their market strategies which are unimaginative and trivial sounding. I sincerely hope the rumors about Ballmer being on the way out, have some truth to them. At the same time, I also hope that the rumors about Ozzie leaving have no truth to them whatsoever.
Google

YouTube Granted Safe Harbor From Viacom 107

Posted by timothy
from the can't-they-all-merge-and-then-shut-up? dept.
eldavojohn writes "It's an old case, but there was an interesting development today when a judge ruled that YouTube is protected from Viacom by the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA, since YouTube helps rights owners manage their rights online and works cooperatively with entities like Viacom. Google's calling it a victory, but I'm not sure if Viacom will take this without a fight."

+ - AT&T Accidentally Shares 114,000 Ipad Email Ad->

Submitted by jlibuszowski
jlibuszowski writes "In what is one of the largest email breaches in recent history, nearly 114,000 Ipad 3G Email addresses have been compromised. The breach was carried out by a group calling themselves Goatse Security (http://security.goatse.fr/), who claimed to have been able to carry out the compromise of emails of some high ranking Military and Corporate officials. So how was Goatse Security able to get their hands on this enormous amount of data? Well each Ipad device has a unique ICC-ID, an internal chip that corresponds with the sim number of the device. The group was able to harvest a large group of ICC-ID's, by guessing the algorithm based on known ID's from iPad pictures posted online. And apparently AT&T left a script open on their public website, which when handed an ICC-ID (Integrated Circuit Card Indentifiers) would reply back with the email address of the individual subscriber. Even more troubling before notifying AT&T about the breach, they shared the exploit with several individuals, so there is no knowing how many people got their hands on the affected data.

Some of the individuals whos email addresses were compromised included; White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Diane Sawyer of ABC News, Janet Robinson CEO of the New York times and countless other CEOs, CFO's, CTO's, CIO's and military personal.

How did Goatse get this treasure trove of data? Apparently AT&T left a script on their public website, which when handed an ICC-ID would respond back with the email address of the subscriber. This apparently was intended for an AJAX-style response inside AT&T's web apps.

Further details can be found on Gawkers website at http://gawker.com/5559346/apples-worst-security-breach-114000-ipad-owners-exposed?skyline=true&s=i"
Link to Original Source
Google

New Google Search Index 50% Fresher With Caffeine 216

Posted by CmdrTaco
from the sipping-my-first-cup-now dept.
Ponca City, We love you writes "When Google started, it would only update its index every four months. Then, around 2000, it started indexing every month in a process called the 'Google dance' that took a week to 10 days and would provide different results when searching for the same term from different Google data centers. Now PC World reports that Google has introduced a new web indexing system called Caffeine, which delivers results that are closer to 'live' by analyzing the web in small portions and updating the index on a continuous basis. 'Caffeine lets us index web pages on an enormous scale,' writes Carrie Grimes on the official Google Blog. 'Caffeine takes up nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database and adds new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of gigabytes per day.' Now not only does Caffeine provide results that are 50% fresher than Google's last index, adds Grimes, but the new search index provides a robust foundation that will make it possible for Google to build a faster and more comprehensive search engine that scales with the growth of information online."

Comment: Re:No problem (Score 0) 215

by the_last_rites (#30315250) Attached to: Novelists On the E-Book Experience
Astak EZReader 5" Pocket Pro Battery Life : 8000 pages or around there DRM Formats : Yea they're there, but there's no lockdown like in the case of Amazon, Sony or any of the other biggies. They're just additions to many formats like RTF,DOC,TXT,HTML,PDF(reflow),EPUB. The support for LIT and CHM is spotty at best and you'd best avoid them on the PocketPro. Then again, other than Pocketbook, chm support sucks across most readers in the market now. Price : $199
Microsoft

First Look At Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 236

Posted by ScuttleMonkey
from the you-mean-there-are-people-who-don't-use-vi? dept.
snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Martin Heller takes VS2010 Beta 1 for a test drive and finds the upgrade promising, particularly with regard to improved thread debugging and a revamped UI. But the biggest enhancements have to do with parallel programming, Heller writes. 'I'm not sure that I've completely grasped the power of the new .Net Framework and native C++ support for task and data parallelism in VS2010, but what I've seen so far is impressive.' Heller points to intriguing parallel programming samples posted to CodePlex and offers numerous screenshots of VS2010 Beta 1 functionality. He also notes that the beta still lacks support for ASP.Net MVC, smart devices, and the .Net Micro Framework."

Nobody knows what goes between his cold toes and his warm ears. -- Roy Harper

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