maubp - Slashdot User

Submission + - Unremovable DRM Encoding: Be afraid - Very Afraid. (nerds-central.com) 1

Submitted by

Alex Turner

on Saturday July 07, 2007 @12:28PM

Alex Turner writes: "As I have come up with this idea, you can bet your bottom dollar that the music industry guys have to. Hey — if they have not — shame on them. The principle is based on the fact that humans are very good at telling the differences between the shape and tone of sound, but very bad at estimating time. However, computers are awe-inspiringly good at analysing time.

Encoding data into an audio stream in such a way that a human can not hear the encoded data, but a computer can detect, is simply a matter of messing with time. See here for the complete story"

Submission + - Charter ISP hijacking DNS

Submitted by

koalemos

on Thursday July 05, 2007 @10:00PM

koalemos writes: "Charter.net ISP is currently hijacking DNS queries a la Verisign's $100 million dollar bad idea. Any unresolved DNS request, e.g. "abc123.fred", is currently being resolved to Charter's web search feature at 206.112.100.132.

The short term way to fix the DNS hijack is to block access to 206.112.100.132 at your router and then to change your DNS servers from Charter's to more reputable ones, however, Charter's behavior is nonetheless completely dishonest and quite possibly illegal. My question is; how widespread is this practice of ISPs hijacking DNS?"

The Privacy of Email 133

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday June 21, 2007 @07:54AM from the stop-reading-that dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes "A U.S. appeals court in Ohio has ruled that e-mail messages stored on Internet servers are protected by the Constitution as are telephone conversations and that a federal law permitting warrantless secret searches of e-mail violates the Fourth Amendment. 'The Stored Communications Act is very important,' former federal prosecutor and counter-terrorism specialist Andrew McCarthy told United Press International. But the future of the law now hangs in the balance."

Submission + - iTunes store DRM free music sells well says EMI

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 21, 2007 @03:40AM

An anonymous reader writes: "The initial results of DRM-free music are good" said Lauren Berkowitz, a senior vice president of EMI, at a music industry conference in New York. Berkowitz said the early results from iTunes indicate that DRM-free offerings may boost revenue from digital albums as well as individual songs. No surprise!

Submission + - Legality of laptop border searches (wired.com)

Submitted by

Bassman59

on Wednesday June 20, 2007 @03:45PM

Bassman59 writes: "This is something I didn't know they could do ... Apparently, border agents can demand that a citizen returning home must allow searches of the contents of their laptop computers. The good news is that the courts are looking at this."

Submission + - DVD group proposes copy ban (eetimes.com)

Submitted by wilsonjd on Wednesday June 20, 2007 @12:11PM

wilsonjd writes: The DVD Copy Control Association will vote Wednesday (June 20) on an amendment to its bylaws that would explicitly forbid OEMs from selling systems that make copies of movies, even for secure internal storage on a hard disk. The move is seen as a reaction to the group's loss in a key civil suit it brought against startup Kaleidescape earlier this year.

Submission + - Hackers "nuke" the Czech Republic

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 20, 2007 @07:17AM

An anonymous reader writes: This story from IT PRO details how hackers managed to access a webcam that broadcasts scenes from the Czech Republic and insert footage of a local beauty spot being nuked. The video went out live on Czech TV and scared the bejeezus out of the population. There is also a video of the footage on the site as well.

Submission + - DHS acknowledges own computer break-ins (yahoo.com)

Submitted by WrongSizeGlass on Wednesday June 20, 2007 @06:30AM

WrongSizeGlass writes: Yahoo is reporting about the computer security nightmare going on at the Department of Homeland Security. Senior DHS officials admitted to Congress that over a two year period there were 800 hacker break-ins, virus outbreaks and in one instance, hacker tools for stealing passwords and other files were found on two internal Homeland Security computer systems. I guess it's true what they say ... a mechanic's car is always the last to get fixed.

Submission + - 39% of IT Managers Consider Excel to be "Rogue (workforceinabox.com)

Submitted by

Alastair Bathgate

on Wednesday June 20, 2007 @05:41AM

Alastair Bathgate writes: "A Blue Prism survey on enterprise attitudes to Rogue IT has found that 39% of IT managers consider complex Excel spreadsheets to be "Rogue". Topping the league table of Rogues was "Vendor applications installed without IT Knowledge" closely followed by "Installing personal software". However, Microsoft were in the spotlight again with 50% highlighting local Access databases as rogue. The full league table can be found at www.workforceinabox.com"

Submission + - Blackberry ban for the French Cabinet (ft.com)

Submitted by on Wednesday June 20, 2007 @04:24AM

An anonymous reader writes: The Financial times reports that members of the new French cabinet have been told to stop using their BlackBerries because there is "a very real risk of interception" by third parties, i.e. the NSA. Members of some French government departments had still been using the devices in secret despite an earlier ban.

Submission + - Searching for The World's Tallest Trees with LIDAR

Submitted by SoyChemist on Wednesday June 20, 2007 @03:48AM

SoyChemist writes: The Save-the-Redwoods League is leading an effort to map all of Redwood National Park with light detection and ranging equipment. LIDAR simultaneously creates a 3D "point file" of the forest floor and canopy. Calculating tree heights is a simple matter of subtraction. Among other things, the maps will be used to locate immense redwood trees. Hyperion, the tallest known tree in the world, stands 378.1 feet tall and was recently discovered in that same park. The conservationists believe that they will find even taller trees. Wired is running a story that includes pictures and details about the twin-engine 1968 Aero Commander and the LIDAR equipment. Perhaps the coolest thing about this is that all of the map data will be released into the public domain.

Submission + - Engadget reports Dell keylogger a hoax (engadget.com)

Submitted by

mdsolar

on Tuesday June 19, 2007 @10:30PM

mdsolar writes: "The story at the top of the firehose about a hardware keylogger found in a new Dell laptop is reported to be a hoax at Engadget. I voted it up too :-|"

Submission + - spamhouse.org block Austrian Registry nic.at

Submitted by cccc828 on Tuesday June 19, 2007 @02:50PM

cccc828 writes: The german news site heise.de reports, that spam block list spamhouse blocks the mailservers of the Austrian Registry nic.at. In January Spamhouse asked nic.at to delete 15 .at-phishing domians. Nic.at refused to delete the domain, because it was against the law and the registry contract. To raise the preassure on nic.at spamhouse put their e-mail servers on their list as "spam supporters".

Submission + - UK censor bans first game in 10 years (vnunet.com)

Submitted by

pete314

on Tuesday June 19, 2007 @12:16PM

pete314 writes: "The British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) has banned its first computer game in over 10 years. Manhunt 2 was deemed too violent for sale because its "unrelenting focus on stalking and brutal slaying" would be likely to cause harm to those playing it, according to one BBFC member. Manhunt 2 concerns a corrupt businessman who spirits prisoners into a town and films them killing gang members to make snuff films. Players get extra points for more gruesome killings."

Submission + - Keylogger Hardware Embedded in New Dell Laptop (virus.org.ua)

Submitted by

kendbluze

on Tuesday June 19, 2007 @02:39AM

kendbluze writes: "Here's an EE who was doing a simple repair to a nearly-new Dell 600m laptop when he noticed something a bit curious. Turns out he found a hardware keylogger sitting between the keyboard and ethernet controllers! See what Homeland Security didn't have to say about it."

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