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Journal Journal: Microsoft Rushes out patch for .ANI hack 1

Journal by sharper56 on Monday April 02, 2007 @06:27AM

In the words of Nelson "Ha! Ha!", this article in Computerworld.uk brings us news that Microsoft is pushing out patch for all windows OSes for the animated cursor exploits that have been crossing the internets this weekend. The buried lede is Microsoft had been notified of this problem back in Decemeber 20006, so there goes the commitment to security meme.

Submission + - Metasploit Framework 3.0 RELEASED!

Submitted by

Metasploit

on Monday April 02, 2007 @05:49AM

Metasploit writes: "We are pleased to announce the immediate free availability of the Metasploit Framework version 3.0. Metasploit is a development platform for creating security tools and exploits. Version 3.0 contains 177 exploits 104 payloads 17 encoders and 3 nop modules. Additionally 30 auxiliary modules are included that perform a wide range of tasks including host discovery protocol fuzzing and denial of service testing.

HD Moore also gave an interview to Securityfocus to discuss what's new in release 3.0, the new license of the framework, plans for features and exploits development, and the links among the bad guys and Metasploit and the law. Here's a quote: "In the US, exploit regulation would kill research and lead to a degrading state of security for all US companies. Vendors patch because exploits are available, without "above ground" exploits that anyone can access, there is no motivation to patch flaws.""

Submission + - Numenta - Has Artificial Intelligence Arrived?

Submitted by

ReadWriteWeb

on Tuesday March 27, 2007 @07:24AM

ReadWriteWeb writes: "Jeff Hawkins is speaking at the ETech conference today about Numenta, a company dedicated to developing the algorithms and software based on the ideas put forward in his book On Intelligence. This spring Numenta released its first product, an experimental software aimed at researchers and advanced developers.

Have Jeff Hawkins and his researchers at Numenta invented Artificial Intelligence? The answer is yes and no. It is likely that some future version of their system is going to be able to pass the famous Turing Test, but hardly anyone would mistake the Numeta creation for a human being. In fact the very beauty of this creation is that it decouples intelligence from other human qualities. Jeff and his colleagues invented an algorithm that mimics typical computation which occurs in our brains, but it is far from being a complete artificial intelligence.

However Jeff's invention has paved the road to a new, brain-like computing paradigm. It is possible that the long-awaited promise of neural networks and cellular automata is finally being delivered."

Submission + - Burnout in IT: what do you do to prevent it?

Submitted by Wizfinger on Tuesday March 27, 2007 @06:38AM

Wizfinger writes: I've been a computer enthusiast since 1982 and working in IT as a systems developer for about 10 years now. Long hours and nightly sessions with pizzaboxes and Jolt are no stranger to me. But about a year ago, disaster struck. I burned out psychologically. Aches and muscular stress in my neck and head rendered me useless in front of a terminal, and I could no longer think logically, concentrate or indeed do any programming. Crying and screaming became my new daily activity. I'm 35 and I've been a useless wreck for about a year now. So I ask Slashdot: what do you do to prevent any of this and what can I do do get back behind that terminal?

Submission + - Inside Apple's Leopard Server OS

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 27, 2007 @06:31AM

An anonymous reader writes: Mac expert John Welch, author of the widely read OS X versus Vista comparison, delves into Apple's Leopard Server OS, with a deep dive into what's known so far about OS X Server 10.5, which will be showcased at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June. He weighs in on Leopard's iCal, Wiki, file, Quicktime, and mail services, along with Xgrid 2, Open Directory 4, and 64-bit capabilities. What does it all add up to? His assessment: Apple probably isn't aiming at "big" enterprises. But has says Leopard Server is shaping up to be a great SMB (small and mid-sized business) product. Welch writes: "For about a thousand bucks on existing hardware, or for the cost of an Xserve, you get a really solid server, able to support Web services, collaboration, groupware, IM, and file services. You can run it with its own directory service, or as part of an Active Directory implementation out of the box. It provides some features that due to pricing and/or setup requirements, have traditionally been reserved for "big" enterprises — in particular clustering of both email and calendaring servers." Do you agree that, with Leopard, Apple has probably has something that's unmatched in terms of bang for the buck, at least on the server front?

Submission + - Six year old girl hacks UK Parliament

Submitted by on Tuesday March 27, 2007 @06:21AM

An anonymous reader writes: http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1368.html A BBC investigation shows how a six year old girl was able to circumvent security in one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the UK, the House of Commons, and hack the computer of an MP.

Submission + - Vista: more than just a pretty face

Submitted by cristarol on Tuesday March 20, 2007 @10:31AM

cristarol writes: Ars Technica has an in-depth look at the major changes in Vista, including API changes, the window manager, Media Foundation, WinFX, and Windows Presentation Foundation. 'Even though WPF drags Windows GUI development kicking and screaming into the 21st century, it's not the powerful features — Direct3D-accelerated vector graphics and simple programming model, for instance — that really set it apart from other APIs on other platforms. The really unusual feature is that the new API depends heavily on managed code. That is to say, the native, standard way of using it is through .NET.' It's an informative look at many of the technologies underlying Vista and goes a long way towards explaining why Microsoft made some of the choices it did with Vista.

Submission + - No such thing as a constant constant?

Submitted by

Matthew Sparkes

on Tuesday March 20, 2007 @10:16AM

Matthew Sparkes writes: "Feynman called alpha, "one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics: a magic number". One puzzle is whether this constant of nature has always had the same value. A signal from the early universe could answer that. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have suggested measuring the 21-cm line from about 400,000 years after the big bang, when neutral hydrogen formed, to about 150 million years later when the first stars flared up, to see if alpha has changed in that time."

Journal Journal: Relationships among scientific paradigms 163

Journal by Alien54 on Tuesday March 20, 2007 @10:02AM

Presenting a giant chart mapping relationships between scientific paradigms, as published in the journal Nature. This map was constructed by sorting roughly 800,000 published papers into 776 different scientific paradigms (shown as pale circular nodes) based on how often the papers were cited together by au

Submission + - Applied Evolution to combat malaria

Submitted by thrawn_aj on Tuesday March 20, 2007 @04:36AM

thrawn_aj writes: Dr Mauro Marrelli and his colleagues from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland have gengineered a strain of mosquito that is resistant to the malaria parasite AND has better survivability than the regular Anopheles. The gene that controls this resistance is passed down through generations and it was found that after only 9 generations, an initially equitable (50-50) distribution of regular Anopheles and the GM strain tipped toward the latter, standing at 30-70! The researchers ingeniously differentiated between the strains by also including a gene that makes the GM strain have fluorescent green eyes. (In other news, Martians file lawsuit for trademark infringement). It is hoped that further research could turn this into a tool to finally eradicate malaria, which is responsible for a million deaths worldwide.

BBC news link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6468381. stm

PNAS link to abstract and full text: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/060980910 4v1

Submission + - Open Office - what's the downside?

Submitted by

cclangi

on Tuesday March 20, 2007 @02:46AM

cclangi writes: "Hi. I'm a current MSOffice user. I run a small business as a consultant (mining). I've read about Open Office and all the good things about it, but what about the downside? As a small business owner and semi-literate in things computer-ese (as a user, not as a developer or administrator), what support limitations are there for Open Office. I'm particularly interested in/concerned with compatability of software for reports, spreadsheets and database apps that I might need to send to/receive from clients, etc. As I've said, I've read the good stuff, and "how easy it is", but what are things I need to be aware of before considering switching completely to Open Office. Comments and experiences would be welcomed. Regards, Chris"

Submission + - "The Secret" Tested

Submitted by

PhilBowermaster

on Monday March 19, 2007 @10:12AM

PhilBowermaster writes: "As of this morning, The Secret is the #2 ranked book on Amazon.com, lagging behind only the new Harry Potter. As featured recently on Oprah and spoofed even more recently on SNL, The Secret purports to reveal the long-guarded principle that lies behind all human achievement.

Here we assert that a widespread test of The Secret has already taken place, with somewhat disappointing results."

Submission + - Is Daylight Savings Shift Really Worth It?

Submitted by Krishna Dagli on Monday March 12, 2007 @05:13AM

Krishna Dagli writes: Two Ph.D. students at the University of California at Berkeley says that Daylight Savings Shift will not do any good or energy saving. We are already spending money for software upgrades in the name of saving energy and after reading following article I wonder has congress really studied the impact of DST shift?

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/print?id=2938715

Submission + - Defense Contractor Halliburton Moving HQ to Dubai

Submitted by

theodp

on Monday March 12, 2007 @03:33AM

theodp writes: "Much-maligned defense contractor Halliburton is moving its corporate headquarters from Houston to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Dubai's friendly tax laws will add to Halliburton's bottom line. Last year, it earned $2.3B in profits. Sen. Patrick Leahy called the company's move 'corporate greed at its worst.' Halliburton, once headed by VP Dick Cheney, has received contracts valued at an estimated $25.7B for its work in Iraq."

Submission + - Linspire to be based on Kubuntu

Submitted by

FliesLikeABrick

on Monday March 12, 2007 @03:05AM

FliesLikeABrick writes: "The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter has unveiled that Linspire announced that they will be switching to base their distribution off Ubuntu. With their polished KDE desktop this makes Linspire the latest in the impressive list of operating systems based off Kubuntu.

It was also announced that Linspire's Click and Run install programme would be added to the Ubuntu archive, giving users of all Ubuntu distributions easy access to a large range of free and proprietary software."

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