Feed New Scientist: Men with younger women have more children (pheedo.com)
Couples in which a man is several years older than a woman have the most children, according to an analysis of Swedish birth records
FBI's Unknown Eavesdropping Network 362
An anonymous reader writes "Building off the design mandates of CALEA, the FBI has constructed a 'point-and-click surveillance system' that creates instant wiretaps on almost any communications device. A thousand pages of restricted documents released under the Freedom of Information Act were required to determine the veracity of this clandestine project, Wired News reports. Called the Digital Collection System Network, it connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators, internet-telephony providers and cellular companies. It is intricately woven into the nation's telecom infrastructure. From the article: 'FBI wiretapping rooms in field offices and undercover locations around the country are connected through a private, encrypted backbone that is separated from the internet. Sprint runs it on the government's behalf. The network allows an FBI agent in New York, for example, to remotely set up a wiretap on a cell phone based in Sacramento, California, and immediately learn the phone's location, then begin receiving conversations, text messages and voicemail pass codes in New York. With a few keystrokes, the agent can route the recordings to language specialists for translation.'"
Bookmark SPAM: Free computer wallpaper
Submission + - New theory on 5,000-year-old Iceman's death (www.ctv.ca)
CmpEng writes: ROME, Italy — Researchers studying Iceman, the 5,000-year-old mummy found frozen in the Italian Alps, have come up with a new theory for how he died, saying he died from head trauma, not by bleeding to death from an arrow.
Just two months ago, researchers in Switzerland published an article in the Journal of Archeological Science saying the mummy — also known as Oetzi — had died after the arrow tore a hole in an artery beneath his left collarbone, leading to massive loss of blood, shock and heart attack.
Submission + - Canadian villagers petition for cell phone ban (www.ctv.ca)
CmpEng writes: ""NEW DENVER, B.C. [Canada] — To some residents of New Denver, the greatest threat to their way of life is not terrorism, but cellphones.
Citing concerns over health and a change of culture, about 250 people — roughly half the population of the southeastern B.C. village — are petitioning against Telus's plan to install an antenna and bring cellphone service to the community.
'People come here because in New Denver it feels like you're living 50 years ago and we would lose that if we had an influx of cellphones. Our teenagers would all start using them,' said Julia Greenlaw, chairwoman of the Healthy Housing Society.""
Submission + - Sun changes stock symbol to JAVA
_damnit_ writes: The wounded ship that was once SUNW is now JAVA. CEO Jonathan Schwartz announced on his blog that they will change their NASDAQ stock symbol to try and capitalize on the success (?) of Java. For a long time people have been waiting for Sun to monetize Java. Having JAVA as one of NASDAQ's most active doesn't really address that issue but Jonathan is thinking outside the box I guess. Now if they could just gain revenue they could stop laying off staff.
Submission + - No, I'm not giving you my Google password (venturecake.com)
Nailer writes: A year after Google released their account authentication system, why are sites still asking for passwords that most users don't even give their loved ones?
Comment Re:VMkernel is a kernel... (Score 1) 443
Apparently the argument goes as follows:
>> 1) A Linux kernel is used to boot the VMWare kernel.
Yes, through a binary blob loaded by a driver, that does not run on any kernel other than Linux.
>> 2) This makes the VMWare kernel a "derived work."
According to Linux logic, and Christoph Hellwig, yes.
>> 3) The Linux kernel source used to boot the VMWare kernel is not available.
Er no. You made that up. The article doesn't say that anywhere.
The issue is that the source for vmkernel is not available.
>> 4) Therefore we can't tell if the VMWare kernel is a "derived work" or not.
Er no. You made that up too. The article doesn't say that anywhere.
The vmkernel would be considered derived unless it has been ported from another Operating System (proving it does no requite Linux to function). VMware could prove this without giving away the code.
>> 5) And if the Linux kernel source for the kernel used to boot the VMWare kernel is not available, it's a violation of the GPL on its own.
Er no. You made that up again. The article doesn't say that anywhere.
The source for the Linux kernel used to start VMware is available from the VMware website. The source for vmkernel is not.
If you need to lie to prove your point, you clearly don't have one.
>> 1) A Linux kernel is used to boot the VMWare kernel.
Yes, through a binary blob loaded by a driver, that does not run on any kernel other than Linux.
>> 2) This makes the VMWare kernel a "derived work."
According to Linux logic, and Christoph Hellwig, yes.
>> 3) The Linux kernel source used to boot the VMWare kernel is not available.
Er no. You made that up. The article doesn't say that anywhere.
The issue is that the source for vmkernel is not available.
>> 4) Therefore we can't tell if the VMWare kernel is a "derived work" or not.
Er no. You made that up too. The article doesn't say that anywhere.
The vmkernel would be considered derived unless it has been ported from another Operating System (proving it does no requite Linux to function). VMware could prove this without giving away the code.
>> 5) And if the Linux kernel source for the kernel used to boot the VMWare kernel is not available, it's a violation of the GPL on its own.
Er no. You made that up again. The article doesn't say that anywhere.
The source for the Linux kernel used to start VMware is available from the VMware website. The source for vmkernel is not.
If you need to lie to prove your point, you clearly don't have one.
Submission + - Kernel devs say VMware violates Linux copyrights (venturecake.com)
Nailer writes: Bloomberg believe VMware's IPO today may the largest technology offering since Google. But doubts have been cast over the company's supposedly proprietary ESX product, as top 10 Linux contributor Christopher Hellwig claims the software violates Linux kernel copyrights.
Submission + - How the iPhone will Change the Mobile Industry (venturecake.com)
Nailer writes: The initial release of the iPod wasn't great. But its long-term effect were huge: a massive 10% (and rapidly growing) chunk of music is now sold digitally to the iPod and its competitors. So what will the iPhone's long-term effect on the cell phone industry be? VentureCake looks at why a 2G device will stir 3G adoption, the effects for Mobile Content providers, iPod clane manufacturers, Flash developers, Opera, Microsoft and Blackberry.
Submission + - PowerDVD private key is out too !
Ren writes: "PowerDVD private key is out too! Comes right on the heels of WinDVD key.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=122969"
Toshiba Touts 51GB HD DVD 236
srizah writes to mention that Toshiba plans to launch a 51 GB HD DVD, with a 1 GB advantage over Sony's Blu-ray disc. From the article: Toshiba has submitted a triple-layer, 51GB HD DVD-ROM disc to the standard's overseer in the hope the technology will be adopted as a standard by the end of the year. If approved, it allow the format to exceed the 50GB storage capacity of rival medium Blu-ray Disc. The HD DVD standard currently defines single- and dual-layer discs capable of holding 15GB and 30GB of data, respectively."
Bush Claims Mail Can Be Opened Without Warrant 714
don_combatant writes to note that President Bush claimed new powers to search US mail without a warrant. He made this claim in a "signing statement" at the time he signed a postal overhaul bill into law on December 20. The signing statement directly contradicts part of the bill he signed, which explicitly reinforces protections of first-class mail from searches without a court's approval. According to the article, "A top Senate Intelligence Committee aide promised a review of Bush's move."
PHP Security Expert Resigns 386
juct writes "PHP security holes have a name — quite often it was Stefan Esser who found and reported them. Now Esser has quit the PHP security team. He feels that his attempt to make PHP safer "from the inside" is futile. Basic security issues are not addressed sufficiently by the developers. Zeev Suraski, Zend's CTO of course disagrees and urges Stefan to work with the PHP development team instead of working against it. But given the number of remote code execution holes in PHP apps this year, Esser might have a point. And he plans to continue his quest for security holes in PHP. Only that from now on, he will publish them after reasonable time — regardless if a patch is available or not."
Update: 10/30 12:57 GMT by KD : Zeev Suraski wrote in to protest: "I'm quoted as if I 'point fingers at inexperienced developers,' and of course, there's no link to that — because it's not true! The two issues — security problems in Web apps written in PHP, and security problems in PHP itself — are two distinct issues. Nobody, including myself, is saying that there are no security problems in PHP — not unlike pretty much any other piece of software. Nobody, I think, argues the fact that there have been many more security problems at the application level, then there were at the language level. I never replied to Stefan's accusations of security problems in PHP saying 'that's bull, it's all the developers' fault,' and I have no intention to do it in the future."
