Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Oracle

Submission + - Zero-day bug hangs over Oracle database

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Security researchers warn that Oracle 10g databases may be open to attack as a result of an unpatched vulnerability.
                                          A buffer-overflow flaw in the XDB.XDB_PITRIG_PKG.PITRIG_DROPMETADATA procedure allows hackers to load malware onto targeted systems. The vulnerability is reported to affect Oracle database version 10g Release 2, with patches updated as far as February 2007. Other versions of the database may also be affected.
Programming

Submission + - Kaleidoscope: Implementing a Language with LLVM (llvm.org)

Submitted by
sabre
sabre writes: "The LLVM Compiler System is being used for all sorts of interesting things these days. It basically provides an extremely modular and easy to use set of open source (BSD-licensed) compiler libraries that can be used to build various applications from. Despite this, many people don't really understand it, and are scared away by the breadth of the project or by compilers in general.

The Kaleidoscope tutorial starts out from scratch and slowly builds up a simple language to show how LLVM can help out with this. We end up with a JIT compiler for a fairly interesting little language with less than 700 lines of code. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, once you start with LLVM, there are all sorts of things you can do."
Software

Submission + - Dojo 1.0 has been released (dojotoolkit.org)

Submitted by
achillean
achillean writes: "The all-purpose Dojo JavaScript framework has just turned 1.0! Visit the official press release or checkout a brief run-down of the major features that the newest version offers. Most notably, the new release finally includes the replacement for the FilteringTable widget, now called the Grid Widget. Other features of interest include better performance, 2D and 3D charting, a11y, i18n and much more. But enough talking, why not just give it a whirl?"
Power

Submission + - A boost for fuel cells

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "Researchers at the University of Houston (UH) have developed a new platinum-based catalyst for fuel cells that is at least four times more efficient and cheaper than existing catalysts. This discovery in fuel cell research may ease reliance on gasoline. According to the researchers, the active phase of the catalyst consists of nanoparticles with a platinum-rich shell and a core made of an alloy of copper, cobalt, and platinum. But it's not enough for this new catalyst to be more efficient and cheaper than a pure platinum one. It also needs to work for a long time — say, the life of a car. So far, the preliminary results look promising, but longer-term testing is needed before this kind of fuel cells can be used to power your car. But read more for additional references and a picture of a catalyst material being tested for use in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells."
Security

Submission + - Norton AntiVirus makes Mac OS X less secure.

Submitted by NAVwatch
NAVwatch writes: Symantec has known about a vulnerability in NAV for more than nine months now that allows any local program on Mac OS X to gain root access without any of the usual password prompts Mac OS X presents for gaining super-user access thus allowing worms to be installed undetected. Attempts to get Symantec to simply fix permissions on their application directories have largely resulted in Symantec saying other vendor's have insecure software too.
Programming

Submission + - Write REST services using Java

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This tutorial discusses the concepts of REST and the Atom Publishing Protocol (APP) and shows how they apply to services. It also shows how to use Java technology to implement REST/APP-based services. If you are not familiar with ATOM, you can take a look at this Getting to know the Atom Publishing Protocol article, that explores the significants of the new ATOM standard for content publishing and management.
Security

Submission + - Picture Passwords More Secure than Text 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "People possess a remarkable ability for recalling pictures and researchers at Newcastle University are exploiting this characteristic to create graphical passwords that they say are a thousand times more secure than ordinary textual passwords. With Draw a Secret (DAS) technology, users draw an image over a background, which is then encoded as an ordered sequence of cells. The software recalls the strokes, along with the number of times the pen is lifted. If a person chooses a flower background and then draws a butterfly as their secret password image onto it, they have to remember where they began on the grid and the order of their pen strokes. The "passpicture" is recognised as identical if the encoding is the same, not the drawing itself, which allows for some margin of error as the drawing does not have to be re-created exactly. The software has been initially designed for handheld devices such as iPhones, Blackberry and Smartphone, but could soon be expanded to other areas. "The most exciting feature is that a simple enhancement simultaneously provides significantly enhanced usability and security," says computer scientist Jeff Yan."
Input Devices

Submission + - Mind-Controlled Video Games (wired.com)

Submitted by
achillean
achillean writes: "Destroying people with a thought has never been so easy. The other inhabitant of NeuroSky's game-like 3D world collapses, dead, flattened by my psychic powers. O.K., so it isn't psychic, exactly. It is merely a count of electrical activity in my brain, output by the company's head-mounted brainwave measurer, then translated into virtual physical action. Read on for more information about the latest in geek gaming gadgets and check out a video of it in action."
Google

Submission + - Google phone platform due out in mid 2008 (macworld.com)

Submitted by dnormant
dnormant writes: Google will come out in mid-2008 with a mobile phone platform that incorporates a variety of Google online services and lets outside developers create applications, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The goal is to make Google applications and services as easily accessible on mobile phones as PCs, so that the company can extend its advertising business to cell phones and other wireless devices. Google may announce its mobile platform within weeks, according to the Journal.
PHP

Submission + - Building your first Zend, symfony, and CakePHP app

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This article walks you through creating a sample application in each of the three major PHP frameworks. You'll do it all from scratch, learning the basics of developing a simple application in the Zend Framework, symfony, and CakePHP. This short webcast about Rich Internet Applications powered by Zend Core is also a great way to learn more about the Zend Framework.
Software

Submission + - HowTo send logs to a DB using a virtual filesystem (itauth.com)

Submitted by achillean
achillean writes: If you've ever wanted to directly save log data in a database then you should checkout LoggerFS. It's a virtual file system based on FUSE that allows you to store log info directly in a MySQL or PostgreSQL database. It creates virtual files that use regex to parse the incoming log data and then transfers the extracted information to a defined database/ table. It was originally made to work alongside Squid, but has regex-patterns included for other common software such as apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Syslog. Why not give it a shot and see whether you can't consolidate all those polling-scripts.
Programming

Submission + - Valve's Steam API uncovered (myg0t.com)

Submitted by
Anonymous User
Anonymous User writes: "Programmers from the internet harassment group known as "myg0t" have recently released a source code to the public exposing some sensitive "hidden material" in the Steam.exe and steam_api.dll, this hidden content includes Steam's billing interface, utility interface, client interface, user interface and many login exports from steam.

In the news post it states:
"This is a 100% complete Steam API hooking base written by [myg0t]s0beit. It will allow you access to several well hidden interfaces inside the Steam application and some games as well. Here is a short run-down of the basic interfaces it will allow you to completely hook:

ISteamFriends — the steam friends and community class
ISteamUser — user information on the steam client
ISteamClient — client information
ISteamBilling — steam billing information
ISteamUtils — misc steam utilities

It's important to mention that while this is 100% fully functioning, it is outdated as of the release of TF2; they use several new interfaces inside the game and have moved other interfaces into the Steam application itself or vice-versa. That said, the current updated base will not be released anytime soon if ever, if you can understand this release well enough then this should be a non-issue for you.

We must insist that you use this proof of concept code only for non-harmful, peaceful, education purposes only and that it not be discussed anywhere outside of our news forum. myg0t does not and has never condoned illegal activity of any kind or activities with otherwise malicious intent. This is a learning tool so please use it responsibly, as we have for the last year."

No doubt this is something Valve must take seriously, hopefully they will fix this soon."
Graphics

Submission + - Gimp 2.4 released

Submitted by ColeonyxOnline
ColeonyxOnline writes: Gimp 2.4 was released today. Among the many improvements are the new user interface, new tools, support for a few more file formats, and better printing support.

Slashdot Top Deals

"Experience has proved that some people indeed know everything." -- Russell Baker

Close