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Security

Net Shoppers Bullied Into "Verified By Visa" Program 302

Posted by kdawson from the not-exactly-optional dept.
bluefoxlucid writes "According to The Register, several banks are forcing users to opt-in to the Verified by Visa optional service by locking their cards if and when they encounter a Verified by Visa participating site and fail to opt-in. Register reader Steve says, 'This seems like a strange way to implement a voluntary system. On most of the retailers' websites there is no clue that you are about to be challenged by Verified by Visa until you attempt to complete the transaction. This means that you trigger the "fraud protection" unintentionally. And when you have located a retailer who doesn't require Verified by Visa to complete a purchase, you can't because your account is on hold.' Further, '[I]n some cases resetting the password is all too easy. Fraudsters know this and go after these credentials which, once obtained, make it harder for consumers to deny responsibility for a fraudulent transaction. Phishing scams posing as Verified by Visa sites have sprung up targeting these login credentials.'"
The Courts

Non-Compete Clauses Thrown Out In California 375

Posted by kdawson from the what-thou-wilt dept.
drfuchs writes "If you signed an employment agreement in California, any non-compete clause in it is null & (void*), says the state Supreme Court of California (ruling PDF). Better still, the San Francisco Chronicle opines that the US Federal courts are likely to fall in line with the decision in the way they interpret California law. (Most other states still have non-compete laws on the books and it's not clear this ruling will affect them.) Turns out it wasn't a high-tech case at all, but a CPA who had worked for the accounting firm Arthur Anderson (now disgraced due to their complicity in the Enron case)."
Education

"Last Lecture" CMU Professor Randy Pausch Dies 208

Posted by kdawson from the imagineering-on-the-other-side dept.
Many readers are sending in word that Randy Pausch has died at 47. The charismatic young college professor celebrated life despite a death sentence from pancreatic cancer in a remarkable speech widely known as the "Last Lecture." The video went viral and has been downloaded by over 10 million people.
Caldera

10K Filing Suggests Grim Outlook for SCO 149

Posted by Zonk from the truly-a-stunning-development dept.
dacarr writes "SCO has filed their 10K with the SEC — and according to this, their own assessment of the company's outlook is pretty grim. As usual, PJ of Groklaw has a good synopsis of the filing highlights. In short, it boils down to one thing: unless there's a miracle, even SCO doesn't think they're going to come out of this. 'As a result of the Chapter 11 filings, realization of assets and liquidation of liabilities are subject to uncertainty. While operating as debtors-in-possession under the protection of Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, the Debtors may sell or otherwise dispose of assets and liquidate or settle liabilities for amounts other than those reflected in the consolidated financial statements, in the ordinary course of business, or, if outside the ordinary course of business, subject to Bankruptcy Court approval. In addition, under the priority scheme established by the Bankruptcy Code, unless creditors agree otherwise, post-petition liabilities and prepetition liabilities must be satisfied in full before stockholders are entitled to receive any distribution or retain any property under a plan of reorganization.'"
Announcements

2008 Turing Award Winners Announced 66

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the nobel-of-computing-awards dept.
The Association for Computing Machinery has announced the 2008 Turing Award Winners. Edmund M. Clarke, Allen Emerson, and Joseph Sifakis received the award for their work on an automated method for finding design errors in computer hardware and software. "Model Checking is a type of "formal verification" that analyzes the logic underlying a design, much as a mathematician uses a proof to determine that a theorem is correct. Far from hit or miss, Model Checking considers every possible state of a hardware or software design and determines if it is consistent with the designer's specifications. Clarke and Emerson originated the idea of Model Checking at Harvard in 1981. They developed a theoretical technique for determining whether an abstract model of a hardware or software design satisfies a formal specification, given as a formula in Temporal Logic, a notation for describing possible sequences of events. Moreover, when the system fails the specification, it could identify a counterexample to show the source of the problem. Numerous model checking systems have been implemented, such as Spin at Bell Labs."
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA ordered to divulge expenses-per-download

Submitted by NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: The Court has ordered UMG Recordings, Warner Bros. Records, Interscope Records, Motown, and SONY BMG to disclose their expenses-per-download to the defendant's lawyers, in UMG v. Lindor, a case pending in Brooklyn. The Court held that the expense figures are relevant to the issue of whether the RIAA's attempt to recover damages of $750 or more per 99-cent song file, is an unconstitutional violation of due process.
Caldera

Submission + - Half of SCO's Accountants Quit (groklaw.net)

Submitted by
Groklaw Reader
Groklaw Reader writes: "Apparently, SCO's lawyers were working overtime last Sunday, because they wrote a quick plea to the bankruptcy court for permission to hire accounting temps. Why? Approximately half of SCO's finance department has resigned or been fired. Two who resigned had over ten years of experience each. One can only assume that they know what's about to happen to SCO."
Security

Submission + - Chernobyl to get new steel sarcophagus (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by EWAdams
EWAdams writes: The BBC is reporting that Ukraine has awarded a French company a contract to build a new steel sarcophagus over the destroyed Chernobyl reactor. The existing concrete shell, built just 20 years ago in the aftermath of the world's worst nuclear accident is crumbling. The money is coming from international donors.
Novell

Submission + - SCO Group files for bankruptcy (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by johnnytv
johnnytv writes: The SCO group has filed for Chapter 11 Bankrupcy protection. "We want to assure our customers and partners that they can continue to rely on SCO products, support and services for their critical business operations," Darl McBride, the president and chief executive, said in a statement Friday.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft demands royalties for open-source

Submitted by Tom Doniphan
Tom Doniphan writes: Computerworld is reporting that Linux and other open source software violates 235 software patents, and wants users and distributors to start paying royalties. Microsoft is also taking issue with the new GPLv3, claiming that it "...can harm the desired interoperability and open exchange that we have increasingly seen between proprietary and open source over the past several years." Given the recent deals between MS and Novell (and now Dell), this probably doesn't surprise anyone.
Education

Canadian University Students Taught To Protect IP 174

Posted by Zonk from the they-have-a-few-rights-too dept.
innocent_white_lamb writes "Graduate students at Carleton University (Ottawa) are taking steps to protect their intellectual property, at the same time are insuring that they are being properly recognized for their work. This is in response to the increased commercialization of research done at universities, and high-profile cases of copyright infringement by professors at the University of Toronto and Indiana University. 'The initiative will include workshops and a handbook outlining what would constitute an infraction of students' intellectual property rights, Howlett said. Examples include a student not receiving authorship on written work, or having a professor take credit for their work. "This isn't an indictment of profs at all," said Howlett. "It's just to ensure that students' rights are protected in the case that it does happen."'"
Movies

Submission + - Official Serenity blueprints on sale at QMx

Submitted by
CABridges
CABridges writes: "QMx has released the official Serenity blueprints for sale. The blueprints are 10 18" x 24" full-color prints on heavy-bond paper, displaying every detail of the ship, shuttles, and mule. The set is by Geoff Mandel (graphic designer for "Serenity") and Tim Earls (illustrator for "Firefly" and set decorator for "Serenity") and are more complete and accurate than any other version, official or fan-made. There's only 750 available, signed by the artists. $99."
Novell

Submission + - openSUSE Hobbled by Microsoft Patents

Submitted by
kripkenstein
kripkenstein writes: "openSUSE 10.2 no longer enables ClearType (which improves the appearance of fonts). The reason given on the openSUSE mailing list for not enabling it is:

Note that this feature is covered by several Microsoft patents and should not be activated in any default build of the library.
As reported on and discussed here and here, this matter may be connected to the Microsoft-Novell deal. If so, Novell should have received a license for the Microsoft patents, assuming the deal covered all relevant patents. Does the license therefore extend only to SUSE, but not openSUSE?"

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