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Programming

Submission + - AMD will deliver open graphics drivers

Submitted by
derrida
derrida writes: "After Intel's announcement, AMD also announced that they will soon deliver open graphics drivers, as Henri Richard said, at the opening keynote of the Red Hat Summit. Richard, AMD's executive vice president of sales and marketing, promised: "I'm here to commit to you that it's going to get done." He also promised that AMD is "going to be very proactive in changing way we interface with the Linux community.""
Networking

Submission + - Mobile-ID service launched

Submitted by
todspace
todspace writes: "Estonian mobile network operator EMT in-cooperation with AS Sertifitseerimiskeskus has brought to the market a new service — a Mobile-ID. The service allows a person to identify him/herself by using a mobile phone or give a digital signature.

"Since a mobile phone is with a person at all times, it gives greater freedom for performing transactions that require personal identification, like using internet banking services, and also signing documents digitally", said Tõnu Grünberg, Director of Development and Technology with EMT.

General Manager with AS Sertifitseerimiskeskus Ain Järv shows optimism:

"Mobile-ID is a remarkable step in development of Estonia as innovative country — in the world we are at the frontline with this service. Already now, there is a great interest towards this service from different countries, foremost from European experts"
"
Security

Submission + - Build Security In

Submitted by
Aging_Newbie
Aging_Newbie writes: "The Department of Homeland Security working with the Software Engineering Institute's (SEI) well known CERT organization has created a very large and growing resource for software developers and others who are concerned with secure software systems. The result is titled Build Security In (BSI) and is a source of much of what we need to make software more secure.

Every Patch Tuesday there are repeated discussions on Slashdot of how software vulnerabilities have inconvenienced and endangered us. But a quick perusal of the (currently) 173 coding rules identifying exploits in commonly used programming languages should show most any developer that insecure code is everywhere. Moore's law has continued unabated, functionality and power in our systems have grown, and our development methods and disciplines have not kept up.

So, what to do? Most of us are at least familiar with Software Engineering. You know, that is the area that arguably started with NATO in 1968 and, as a professional subject area, has an almost unmatched track record of being both critically important and uniformly ignored. With security, cyber-warfare, and other daily threats and nuisances we are facing yet another circumstance in which the lessons of Software Engineering are about to be experienced again (and again, and again ...) .

Build Security In focuses on a relatively new area called Software Assurance.

"BSI content is based on the principle that software security is fundamentally a software engineering problem and must be addressed in a systematic way throughout the software development life cycle. BSI contains and links to a broad range of best practices, tools, guidelines, rules, principles, and other knowledge that can be used to build security into software in every phase of its development." (from BSI website)

IEEE created the SoftwareEngineering Body Of Knowlege to provide a foundation for the practice of Software Engineering. Similarly, Build Security In is reviewing a similar document, Security in the Software Lifecycle which is just coming out of review but pretty useful in its current version. Even if you just pick a chapter and scan it, it will give you an idea of the scope and solutions to the problem.

Sadly, Software Assurance is already suffering the same fate as Software Engineering. Robust software development processes, secure products, and quality software systems are forced to take a distant second place to speed and cost. Maybe the site's Risk Management articles will help Slashdotters' management understand the problem. Maybe the business justification articles will help. It is worth pursuing because when we develop secure software it just so happens that it is better software too, because we are paying more attention to software quality."
Power

Submission + - SHPEGS: DIY Solar/Geothermal Electricity

Submitted by
rohar
rohar writes: "SHPEGS is an open design not-for-profit project to design and prototype a base load renewable electrical generation system suitable for moderate climates and built from common materials. The design centers around creating a local geothermal source with an efficient solar thermal water heater system and can be scaled from the single residence to the mega-project. The project was recently featured in an in-depth The Future of Things article. The heliostat system used in Europe's First Solar Thermal Plant could be used in a scaled down SHPEGS system with Practical Solar's small scale heliostats."
AMD

Submission + - AMD will deliver open graphics driver

Submitted by
FrankNFurter
FrankNFurter writes: "According to this blog entry, Henri Richard, AMD's executive vice president of sales and marketing announced during his keynote at the Red Hat Summit that AMD will soon deliver open graphics drivers. What is lacking are details about which products will be supported, when the drivers will be available and how open the license will be."
The Courts

Submission + - Student on Myspace Jailed with $1 Million bail

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Slashdot previously covered the story of Allen Lee, the student jailed for writing a violent essay.
In similar events, A University of Southern Mississippi student remains jailed on a one-million dollar bail since April 18th for posting threating remarks to his myspace blog and bulletins. Athorities have been very quiet, and in an update from last week claim to still be collecting evidence.
Privacy

Submission + - Finland wants all Internet discussions moderated

Submitted by appelsiini
appelsiini writes: Finnish state-attorney Mika Ilman has proposed, that there will be a law for mandatory moderation of all web-boards and alike in the Internet taking out "irrelevant" messages. Ilman, who is specialized — hold your laughter — in freedom of speech, says operators and services would be forced to use moderators, and lack of moderation would be punishable by law. Current law states, that if board or newsgroup is not moderated, administrator is not responsible in any way what content messages has. It seems this is now going to change, and it goes the way it's done in People's Republic of China. Operators and services would be held punishable by all content that goes through, so they must filter out content like slandering. Self-censorship to the extreme, call it "Finlandizierung". We may just wait whole EU wide legislation. This kind of a action could also make services like Google Groups illegal, and therefore have to be filtered out from the Internet traffic nationwide. Even Russia will soon have more freedom of speech, than Finland. Article in largest Finnish daily-newspaper Helsingin Sanomat (In Finnish). English article will follow soon(tm).
Music

Submission + - Linn offers non-DRM flac studio masters

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Linn Recordings now offers FLAC versions of all music on the web site including 24 bit 88.2kHz studio masters.

Have a look at the list of recordings available in studio master format.

The press release on FLAC downloads is here http://www.linnrecords.com/news-More-great-feature s-added-to-linnrecords-com.aspx

Unfortunately, the price is a bit high for the studio master download, but they are typically in the 1.2 GByte area as well so it is somewhat understandable that they cost more as well. I think it is a great first step forwards anyway.

Another great thing... Linns site does not care if you are in a different country!

Finally some progress. After 16 years on Internet, many of those in e-commerce and having spent a fair amount of buying things on Internet, I finally bought my first music online today.

I've been waiting for this for a long time.
Patents

Submission + - Meeting with a Digital Rights Management proponent

Submitted by
JoeLinux
JoeLinux writes: "I just had what I thought was going to be a boring meeting with a friend of the family.

It turns out this person is a Senior VP in charge of Rights and Title Administration for Sony Pictures. (Translation: She is in charge of preventing piracy).

Over the course of a half hour, we had a conversation discussing the best way to combat online piracy. This person has obviously been seeing things from the point of view of the movie industry. (I.E. the movie industry exists on a 4-5% profit margin, Canada is to blame for most of the movie piracy, etc.)

They were surprised to learn about some of the indiscriminate lawyering practices of the RI- and MP-AA., but then quickly rallied with, "Well, if the ISPs have the logs, doesn't that prove they were downloading?" They also had no clue as to what DRM is, or its implications (I.E. they are not very geek-oriented).

While I could have argued with them for a good long time, the particulars of the evening did not allow for me to hash it out.

What I am asking for is a concise, non-trollish, "Joe Six-Pack-friendly" explanation of DRM, piracy, with plenty of numbers to back up the claims (No brown numbers please). This is our chance to educate someone in the upper ranks of Sony Pictures with our concerns regarding DRM, why we think its a bad idea, and, most importantly, propose an alternate solution.

Any geek references will have to be explained thoroughly. We are talking to someone of a more upper-management point of view. However, knowing their personally, this person does listen.

Once again, this is for someone who is willing to hear us out. Please do not troll, grief, etc."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Drug of Choice

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Cannabis, Mushrooms, Ecstacy, Speed, LSD, Nicotine, Opiates, Huffing CoywboyNeal's socks.
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Drummer for The Germs arrested for carrying soap

Submitted by
dwrugh
dwrugh writes: "Ah sweet irony:

http://www.ocweekly.com/news/news/don-bolles-keeps -his-nose-clean/27038/
http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_102004047.h tml

A field test indicated positive for GHB, the date rape drug. Using the same test kit, available on the web for $20 for a pack of 10, according to Bolles' attorney on NBC this morning, other soaps tested positive for GHB but of course since it is just soap when you test it in a real crime lab it comes back negative. Makes you wonder what other common household products also test positive; and how many others have been arrested based on faulty test kits who didn't have the resources to defend themselves."
Privacy

Submission + - Man Has 24/7 Video Feed of His Life

Submitted by statemachine
statemachine writes: For almost a month now, "lifecaster" Justin Kan has been broadcasting his life via an Internet feed 24/7. Mostly, it's been mundane, as a lot of the time Justin's camera is looking at the same thing, but you do get to see him go outside, go on dates, and even go to the bathroom. It hasn't been all fun and games, since he's been pranked by viewers who have called 9-1-1 using his phone number causing the police to show up at his apartment with guns drawn. However, not everyone enjoys being on camera as he has been stood up for dates. The video quality is good for what it is, and the connection is a bit wonky because it's a wireless data card (sometimes video freezes for minutes at a time), but I still find it interesting enough for those random idle periods.

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