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Security

Submission + - 4chan finds Linux kernel flaw for attacks (zdnet.com.au) 3

Submitted by mask.of.sanity
mask.of.sanity writes: Online activists have said that they have unearthed a zero-day Linux Kernel vulnerability which they intend on using in pending attacks against anti-pirate organisations. One activist said that the exploit had been discovered by Goatse Security member Weev and provides hackers with root administration access to Linux servers.

The new kernel vulnerability has already been used to hack and deface the website of the ACAPOR, a Portuguese anti-piracy agency that had become a target of the group's Operation Payback campaign in which the group had launched coordinated Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against several copyright enforcement agencies.

KISS frontman Gene Simmons is the latest victim to have his website attacked by a DDoS attack under the Operation Payback campaign, following his statements at a media event that users who infringe copyright should be sued.

Submission + - Milky Way Is Square(ish), According To New Map (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by KentuckyFC
KentuckyFC writes: The structure of the Milky Way is notoriously difficult to work out because we see our galaxy edge on. That means nearer clouds and stars are superimposed on more distant ones and telling them apart is hard. However, astronomers have unveiled a new map based on velocity measurements made on 870 clouds of carbon monosulphide. This has revealed a number of new features of the Milky Way including a previously unknown spiral arm, some 30,000 light years from the galactic core. But the most surprising finding is that some of our galaxy's spiral arms are straight rather than curved, giving the Milky Way a distinctly square look. That's not quite as outrageous as it sounds. Astronomers know of a number of other galaxies with straight arms, such as the pinwheel galaxy M101. So ours probably looks something like this.
Space

Baumgartner's Daredevil Parachute Jump From Space Put On Hold 248

Posted by timothy from the not-a-satisfying-reason dept.
Velcroman1 writes "For years, an Austrian daredevil named Felix Baumgartner has been planning to take a 23-mile plunge from the edge of space — and in the process, become the first parachutist to break the sound barrier, plummeting toward the ground at 760 miles per hour. The engineers and scientists behind The Red Bull Stratos project, an effort to break the record for the highest freefall ever, billed the jump as more than a stunt. The leap from 120,000 feet was to yield volumes of data that would have been used to develop advanced life support systems for future pilots, astronauts, and even space tourists. But a promoter feels that the jump was his idea, and filed a lawsuit in April to prevent the event from taking place. And now Red Bull has pulled the plug on the project, FoxNews.com reports. 'Due to the lawsuit, we have decided to stop the project until this case has been resolved,' Red Bull said."
Social Networks

Submission + - Life, the Universe, and Everything Day! (artisantech.com)

Submitted by
ryrw
ryrw writes: "Depending on where in the world you live, the date may already be 10/10/10. Aside from being an interesting pattern, this date in binary numbers is the number 42. Made famous in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , the number 42 is the answer to "life, the universe, and everything." In the now-infamous book, the masses waiting on the most powerful computer in the galaxy to computer this profound answer were disappointed upon receiving "the answer" to find that they are missing the question. A new computer system was set up to calculate the question—a very complex computer system—and you might be part of it (SPOILER ALERT!). If so, perhaps we can expect the question to arrive on this auspicious date! Here's hoping. But in either case, we should be especially watchful today for any looming Vogon spaceships intending to destroy the Earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass."
Sci-Fi

Ridley Scott Returns to PKD 99

Posted by timothy from the hard-to-get-right dept.
Krau Ming quotes from a report at Sneakpeek.ca "Ridley Scott's Scott Free Productions will produce a 4-hour TV adaptation of author Phlip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle, based on a script by Howard Brenton. The original 1962 novel was a science fiction 'alternate history' that won a sci fi Hugo book award in 1963. Premise of the book, about daily life under totalitarian Fascist imperialism, occurs in 1962, fourteen years after the end of the Second World War in 1948. The victorious Axis Powers, Japan and Germany, conduct intrigues against each other in North America, specifically in the former US, which surrendered to them, after the Axis conquered Eurasia and destroyed the populaces of Africa." Adds Krau Ming: "Hopefully this will fall in the category of well-done PKD adaptations (though I'll leave it up to the slashdotters to determine which of the previous movies should be categorized as such)."
Graphics

Submission + - AMD Radeon HD 6870 exposed (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Stoobalou
Stoobalou writes: Several Chinese websites published today leaked reference sheets and a photo to what looks like a genuine Radeon HD 6870 graphics card.

The photo and the info on the reference sheets seem to give a very complete description of the stuff you'd usually catch on a sales document, the product webpage or even on the backside of the retail box.
Graphics

Submission + - Market conditions 'forced' Nvidia into retail (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Stoobalou
Stoobalou writes: Graphics chip firm Nvidia has penned a retail deal with the US chain of tech stores, Best Buy, which will have it selling Nvidia-branded graphics cards.

The move is a departure for the firm which traditionally relies on board-making 'partners' to sell cards based on its GPUs. The immediate thought that crossed everyone's mind is that of "What about the partners?"

You could almost hear the air raid sirens going off at Nvidia's partners' HQs.
IBM

Watch the 1st American Newsreel of Sputnik Launch 133

Posted by timothy from the pronounced-spoot-nick dept.
MMBK writes with this snippet from motherboard.tv: "Fifty three years ago this week, the Russians won the space race – or one of its laps – by successfully launching the Sputnik satellite into orbit. This newsreel, the first to report on the launch, recycles older animation about geosynchronic orbits, since all film footage was kept secret (note the very un-Soviet IBM logo on one of the massive computers)."
Canada

Submission + - No right to lawyer during questioning, SCC rules (www.ctv.ca)

Submitted by ZDRuX
ZDRuX writes: Canadian suspects of serious crimes do not have a constitutional right to have a lawyer present during questioning by authorities, the Supreme Court of Canada said today. .....In the central case, the court ruled 5-4 that Canadians have no right to have a lawyer sit in during an interrogation.

The official ruling can be found here: http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/2010/2010scc35/2010scc35.html
Advertising

DMCA Takedown Notice Leveled Against Ohio Congressional Race Ad 130

Posted by timothy from the jeff-gannon-is-my-stage-name dept.
Ponca City, We Love You writes "EFF reports that after Ohio Congressman John Kasich put out a commercial featuring a man dressed as a steelworker discussing Governor Ted Strickland's record, Strickland's campaign folks apparently realized that the 'steelworker' was really a paid actor, and put together their own video, mixing in clips of some of the actor's other work to make fun of Kasich. Now the DMCA has been used to send a takedown demand to YouTube that it remove Stricrkland's video for at least 10 days because it uses short clips from the actor's movies." The video has since been restored, some of the reasons for which are listed below.

Submission + - !@#$%Office in

Submitted by jjohn_h
jjohn_h writes: So it is official in the meantime: Oracle is not going to co-operate with The Document Foundation:

http://practical-tech.com/development/the-openoffice-fork-is-officially-here/#more-3153

That's fine, Oracle, good riddance. But how is the successor to OpenOffice going to survive with a name like !@#$%Office in the namespace of this universe? You can see, I even refuse to spell it out. The recent Slashdot discussion has certainly shown that everybody and his cat dislike the name.

So what can be done about it? Well, let's start a Slashdot contest for an appealing name to the product. And also let's ask The Document Foundation and have the bright guys who came up with that name explain what they are expecting from it.

It is urgent. Another couple of weeks and the chance for a new name to a real free office suite will have passed (free as in freedom). Yes, Slashdot, please, you can give me bad karma but let this post run.
Open Source

Submission + - Get More Out Of Your Home Wireless Setup With Open (ostatic.com)

Submitted by Thinkcloud
Thinkcloud writes: Want better performance out of your home Wi-Fi setup? Most of us are now so dependent on Wi-Fi around the house that we do want that, but not everybody realizes that there are open source tools that can help improve your wireless experience. Since we last covered them here, dd-wrt and Tomato have both come to support for more routers and added functionality. They're open source firmware replacements for the intelligence built into routers, and they can juice your wireless performance and extend your range, in addition to other features.
Businesses

French ISP Refuses To Send Out Infringement Notices 302

Posted by timothy from the finest-bureaucratic-tradition dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Last month it was clear that French ISPs were not at all happy about the whole three strikes Hadopi process in France. Now that the 'notice' process has started, with Hadopi sending out notices to 10,000 people per day, it's hit a bit of a stumbling block. The French ISP named 'Free' has apparently figured out a bit of a loophole that allows it to not send out notices and protect its subscribers. Specifically, the law requires ISPs to reveal user info to Hadopi, but it does not require them to alert their users. But, the law does say that only users who are alerted by their ISP can be taken to court to be disconnected. In other words, even if Free is handing over user info, so long as it doesn't alert its users (which the law does not mandate), then those users cannot be kicked off the internet via Hadopi."
Idle

Submission + - 'Yodabat' discovered in New Guinea (mongabay.com) 2

Submitted by rhettb
rhettb writes: Researchers have discovered a trove of 200 previously unknown species during a 60-day expedition in a remote part of New Guinea. Half of the new species were spiders, but the team also found two new mammals, nine new plants, two dozen frogs, and multitude of insects. One of the most interesting finds was a still undescribed bat that looks somewhat like "Yoda".
Government

'The Laws Are Written By Lobbyists,' Says Google's Schmidt 484

Posted by Soulskill from the bought-and-paid-for dept.
An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from The Atlantic: "'The average American doesn't realize how much of the laws are written by lobbyists' to protect incumbent interests, Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Atlantic editor James Bennet at the Washington Ideas Forum. 'It's shocking how the system actually works.' In a wide-ranging interview that spanned human nature, the future of machines, and how Google could have helped the stimulus, Schmidt said technology could 'completely change the way government works.' 'Washington is an incumbent protection machine,' Schmidt said. 'Technology is fundamentally disruptive.' Mobile phones and personal technology, for example, could be used to record the bills that members of Congress actually read and then determine what stimulus funds were successfully spent." We discussed a specific example of this from the cable industry back in August.

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