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IBM

Submission + - IBM claims breakthrough in chip manufacturing

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: IBM and its partners, which include tech heavyweights Advanced Micro Devices, Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, and others, have developed a key material that reduces the cost of manufacturing next-generation 32-nanometer microprocessors. The proprietary material based on the chemical element hafnium makes it possible for chipmakers to design products that follow the same manufacturing process flow used in building conventional chips. Keeping the manufacturing steps the same means fewer expensive modifications in fabrication plants.
Security

Submission + - Russian flirt-bots are coming to steal your data 1

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: Security firms are warning of a new software program developed in Russia, which flirts with people seeking relationships online in order to collect their personal data. The software, dubbed CyberLover, is supposed to be able to conduct fully automated flirtatious conversations with users of chat-rooms and dating sites to lure them into a set of dangerous actions such as sharing their identity or visiting websites with malicious content. According to its creators, CyberLover can establish a new relationship with up to 10 partners in just 30 minutes and its victims cannot distinguish it from a human being. According to PC Tools the CyberLover software can operate within several profiles ranging from 'romantic lover' to 'sexual predator' and is designed to recognise the responses of chat-room users to tailor its interaction accordingly.
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Apple wins Best PC award in Australia tech survey

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: Apple has been awarded the "Best PC" award in Australia's biggest ever consumer technology survey. Conducted by consumer tech magazine, PC Authority, the 2007 Reliability & Service Awards were compiled with the participation of over 14,000 respondents who filled out surveys detailing their satisfaction levels of over 93,000 items of hardware and 100,000 items of software, worth over $50,000,000. Showing that you don't have to be a 'PC' to be taken seriously by consumers, Apple scored top marks across all survey categories, followed closely by Dell in second place and Lenovo in third. HP and Optima rounded out the top five.
Patents

Submission + - IBM charges ASUS with patent infringement

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: IBM has filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission against ASUSTeK for infringing three IBM patents. IBM said it made repeated attempts to reach a licensing agreement with ASUS before it filed the complaint. In a release, IBM said, "IBM's position has been — and remains — that ASUSTek either must license or stop using IBM's patented technology." IBM listed three alleged offending patents: U.S. Patent No. 5,008,829, Personal computer power supply; U.S. Patent No. 5,249,741, Automatic fan speed control; and U.S. Patent No. 5,371,852, Method and apparatus for making a cluster of computers appear as a single host on a network.
Supercomputing

Submission + - IBM breakthrough heralds laptop-size supercomputer

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: IBM says it has made a breakthrough in converting electrical signals into light pulses that brings closer the day when supercomputing, which now requires huge machines, will be done on a single chip. In research published on Thursday in the journal Optics Express, IBM said it had produced electro-optic modulators 100 to 1,000 times smaller than comparable silicon photonics modulators and small enough to fit on a processor chip. A video of the modulator can be seen here. The company claims that a breakthrough by its scientists uses pulses of light through silicon, rather than electrical signals on wires, to send information between multiple cores or 'brains' on a chip.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft wants OLPC system to run Windows XP

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: In a move sure to provoke controversy, Microsoft wants the designers of the XO laptop to add a port through which the storage capacity required by Windows XP can be added to the system. Making the laptop compatible with XP would give students in poor countries access to "tens of thousands of existing educational applications written for Windows," said James Utzschneider, a Microsoft general manager, in a blog post Wednesday. Utzschneider says a shrunken version of Windows XP could potentially run on 2 Gbytes of flash memory. The XO, however, can only hold 1 Gbyte. As a result, Microsoft wants the XO's designers to add a slot through which more memory can be added via a secure digital (SD) card, Utzschneider said. Microsoft's renewed interest in participating in OLPC might be viewed by skeptics as an admission that a rival offering for developing markets called Classmate — which uses an Intel processor on Microsoft software — has failed to catch on.
Security

Submission + - Security giants fail VB100 virus test

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: Researchers at Virus Bulletin have released the results of the latest VB100 computer security test, highlighting failures at a number of leading security vendors. The December edition of the VB100 test subjected security software to 100 Windows 2000 viruses collected from labs and websites. In order to pass the test, vendors needed to identify 100 malware samples as well as avoid reporting false positives on clean samples. Kaspersky failed the test by missing one virus from the list, while Sophos missed eight. Trend Micro missed four virus samples, failing VB100 certification for the fourth time in five tests.
Security

Submission + - Microsoft using inkblots for password generation

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: Microsoft thinks the fact that no two people look at an inkblot the same way can be used to help generate more secure computer passwords. The company has set up a Web site that shows users a series of Rorschach-style inkblots — of the sort used in psychological profiling — and then asks them to write down the first and last letters of each word they associate with the pictures. Ultimately, the users are asked to combine the letters into a password. Microsoft hopes the approach will help overcome a major flaw inherent in systems that ask users to make up their own passwords: those that are difficult to crack are hard to remember, and those that are easy to remember are also easy for hackers to guess.
Windows

Submission + - Vista users hit with 'Purple Screen Of Death' 1

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: While most users of Microsoft Windows-based PCs have seen their systems lockup and display the dreaded 'blue screen of death,' a new, lavender-hued variant of the problem has emerged. The so-called "purple screen of death" occurs when there's a conflict between certain system drivers and Windows Vista's Desktop Window Manager, according to researchers at NeoSmart — a nonprofit technology tracking firm that first spotted the issue. When the glitch occurs, windows on the Vista desktop turn purple and become unresponsive, according to NeoSmart. "It's caused by a low-level problem in the kernel, and it does make you want to restart your PC," NeoSmart researchers said in a blog post on the subject. NeoSmart concedes that the problem is rare, and that most Vista users probably haven't encountered it. "It's something to do with the way the Windows Vista kernel handles a certain exception in the graphics driver subsystem."
Wireless Networking

Submission + - BBC rules that Wi-Fi radiation findings were wrong 1

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: A Panorama programme claiming that Wi-Fi creates three times as much radiation as mobile phone masts was "misleading", an official BBC complaints ruling has found. The team involved in the research came under fire from the school where the "investigations" were held for scaremongering, but now the BBC has come out with an official ruling.

"The programme included only one contributor (Professor Repacholi) who disagreed with Sir William, compared with three scientists and a number of other speakers (one of whom was introduced as a former cancer specialist) who seconded his concerns," the ruling said. "This gave a misleading impression of the state of scientific opinion on the issue." Stewart claimed in the programme to have found evidence that low-level radiation from devices such as mobile phones and Wi-Fi could damage health, and called for a review. The claims prompted a council body in north London to call for Wi-Fi use to be suspended in schools until an investigation had been carried out.
Education

Submission + - New York police recruits use iPods to study

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: The New York Police Department is handing out iPods to academy recruits for the first time to allow them to listen to and watch coursework on the subway. The iPods are "fully loaded" with subject matter including criminal procedure, New York State Penal Law, warrants, ethics and community policing, the department said on Monday. "Now a recruit can watch a class on 'search and seizure' while going home on the subway," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement.
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Klausner sues iPhone for $360M over voicemail

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: Klausner Technologies said on Monday the company had filed a $360 million suit against Apple and AT&T over voicemail patents that Klausner claims the Apple iPhone infringes. New York-based Klausner said the lawsuit also names Comcast, Cablevision Systems and eBay's Skype as infringing its patent for "visual voicemail." The plaintiff seeks an additional US$300 million from the three. The suit alleges asserts that the defendants' Internet-based voicemail products and services violate a Klausner patent. It seeks damages and future royalties estimated at $300 million, according to the press release.
Security

Submission + - USAID server hacked to serve pornography

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provides economic, developmental and humanitarian assistance around the world in conjunction with the foreign policy goals of the United States. It also provides porn, or so it appeared as of 2:00 pm PST on Friday. The hacked server was associated with USAID's Tanzania subdomain: Tanzania.usaid.gov.

Those accessing the affected pages get presented with a fake error message indicating that updated video software is required. Interacting with the dialog menu, accepting it or canceling it, is likely result in the installation of the Zlob Trojan. Infected machines were then at risk of being conscripted to serve in some cyber criminal's bot army.
The Internet

Submission + - Mac hack attack exposed as a PR stunt

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: A McAfee security researcher Tuesday warned that a self-proclaimed Mac user had hacked and defaced two Mac fan sites for... excessive fandom. A screen shot of the hack reads, "This site has been flagged for excessive Apple fanboism, and has been taken down for 24 hours." The image depicts green Apple riddled with worms. Take that, AppleMatters.com and iPhoneMatters.com.

"This is possibly the first time a hacker is targeting Mac-related Web sites," said McAfee security researcher Harish Garg in a blog post on Tuesday. "This is interesting month for the Mac user base, with multiple Trojans/malware appearing along with a horde of security updates from Apple itself. Things are definitely heating up in Mac Land!" But the AppleMatters.com hack turned out to be nothing of the sort and before Tuesday came to a close, founder, publisher, and editor-in-chief Hadley Stern was doing his best to dispel the suggestion that EllisLab's ExpressionEngine software, used to publish AppleMatters.com, might be vulnerable to attack. "When I was first approached me about the hoax I thought it was a little harmless fun," Stern said in a blog post on Tuesday. "I am literally shaking right now because I did not fully understand the impact of this, so lesson learnt. Again, Apple Matters, running on ExpressionEngine, was in no way hacked. It was a joke publicity stunt that I thought would be funny to attract attention."

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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