Four_One_Nine - Slashdot User

Submission + - PHP Security - Soft Hyphen Exploit

Submitted by on Friday February 16, 2007 @03:36PM

An anonymous reader writes: This hack can be used to make two different pieces of text absolutely indistinguishable to humans. Well this isn't actually a "security" threat, it's a threat to trust. Though the names look different to php, they look absolutely the same to the end user. And with a little trouble, a lot of pranksters can make use of this. End result, you can use any exiting members name on forums, etc. And this is just the beginning. this is achieved by using invisible soft hyphens that are not displayed by browsers, while there's no real security danger, it's a threat to digital trust everywhere.

Submission + - Another perspective on intellectual property

Submitted by joejor on Friday February 16, 2007 @03:13PM

joejor writes: With so much controversy over intellectual property rights in software development, it may be instructive (or at least entertaining) to look at another human endeavor that suffers from stolen ideas: stand-up comedy. Radar magazine has an article that describes the long history of cribbing and theft in comedy, by big names and small.

Given the nature of stand-up, where source material has to be broadcast from performer to audience, it often happens that one performer will hear another's bits and incorporate the funniest ones into his own act, without attribution. The perspectives of the comedians interviewed range from enlightened to downright hateful (hmm, sounds familiar).

Choice quote from TFA: "People take plagiarism so seriously in all other forms of media, whether it's music, newspapers, books ... But with comedy, it's like, 'You're on your own.'"

Submission + - Robot snowblower lets Pennsylvania man relax

Submitted by davidwr on Friday February 16, 2007 @03:02PM

davidwr writes: A Pennsylvania man can take it easy while his robot snowblower does all the heavy lifting, er, blowing. It's basically a converted golf cart with a snowblower attachment, gear mods, and a remote-control hack. Is this the "must-have geek do-it-yourself-kit" for geeks in snow country next Christmas? Now if only the guys near Buffalo had a beowulf cluster of these babies last week....
Editor: Change icon to Monty Python Stomping Foot

Submission + - Network Computing Editor Wins RSA Hacking Contest

Submitted by richkarpi on Friday February 16, 2007 @02:56PM

richkarpi writes: Network Computing's security editor won the recent RSA Interactive Testing Challenge, er hacking, contest. Read his blow-by-blow description of the events:

>>I squeaked out a win in the tie-breaking challenge the first day with only a few seconds to spare as my opponent was right behind
>>in the hunt to combine three injectable fields into one long javascript function.

Read all the details: For Hackers, By A Hacker

Submission + - Study: Women are dirtier at work

Submitted by

Noel Coward

on Friday February 16, 2007 @02:54PM

Noel Coward writes: "Women's work areas have three to four times more germs than men's, according to a study at the University of Arizona. http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=8 446"

Submission + - Sequoia Voting Machine for $82

Submitted by nursegirl on Friday February 16, 2007 @02:53PM

nursegirl writes: Princeton computer science professor Andrew Appel bought 5 $5000 Sequoia electronic voting machines from a government auction site for $82 last month. He and his students may be performing the first security analysis by people who hadn't signed non-disclosure agreements with Sequoia Voting Systems. Appel says that thus far, the Sequoia voting machines appear to be more secure than the Diebold voting machines examined by another Princeton professor last year.

From the Article

Appel says the ROM chips inside are in sockets — not soldered to the board — and can be replaced in ten minutes by opening a door on the back of the machines and unscrewing a metal cover. With new chips, the machines could be reprogrammed to misreport votes, he says....Appel says he opened the machines with a key that came with them, and was able to easily access the machines' motherboards and memory chips to swap them out. But even without the key, a student of his was able to pick the lock in seven seconds.

Submission + - New search Feature in Google

Submitted by

Voelspriet

on Friday February 16, 2007 @02:32PM

Voelspriet writes: "Its not perfect, but hey, its new. Google accepts all kind of new search words. Type employees and a name of a company in Google. Now you know: Yahoo has more employees then Google. Says who? Wikipedia. Google recognizes the keywords from the info box on many pages. But thats not all. What was a label of popgroup Queen? Googles answers Queen — Label: Parlophone and links to Amazon in the UK (but it doesnt say sponsored link). Ever wonder what genre Slayer is?

If you want to know what is the religion of India, Google suggests you to visit .. Yahoo for the answer. Ever wondered what my time zone is? The language in Canada? Now you know. The internet TLD of Tokelau? Yup, still .tk. But who says so? Google quotes Arthistoryclub.com, but this site based its information on the CIA World Factbook of 2004.

Sometimes the information is from 2003 or older, sometimes it isnt complete: IBM is there, Indian Railways not. So how does Google decide which source to use? I counted over 100 different sources. It appears Google is simply parsing the "Infobox_Company" from the Wikipedia and other similar templates from other online sources, thanks Frank for pointing this out to me."

Submission + - Microsoft offers 107k Windows Vista licences

Submitted by

carvalhao

on Friday February 16, 2007 @02:08PM

carvalhao writes: "Microsoft has pledged to offer 107 000 (that's right, 107k) Windows vista licences to Portuguese college students, without a copy limit as long as it's for academic/research use (portuguese article here). This offer will be made to scientific, engineering and technology universities across Portugal.

Got a better way to lock the next generation of IT users to your OS?"

Submission + - War of words over Wikipedia ads continues

Submitted by Willis W. on Friday February 16, 2007 @01:51PM

Willis W. writes: Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales reiterates his opposition to advertising in response to reports that Wikipedia needs a major cash infusion. Responding to Jason Calacanis' charges that he 'has a fringe, anti-corporate bent to him' that is 'holding Wikipedia back,' Wales says that running ads on Wikipedia is not his decision to make. 'Though he personally dislikes the idea of advertising on Wikipedia, any decision to utilize ads would have to come from the community. At the moment, he won't rule anything out. "I can't say if I would ever support something like that," he tells Ars, "but I can say that I currently maintain the same position I always have: I am opposed to it."'

Vista Sales Expectations Too High, Office Doing Well 320

Posted by Zonk on Friday February 16, 2007 @01:43PM from the business-of-windowing dept.

PetManimal writes "A comparison of first-week retail sales of Vista compared to first-week sales of XP back in 2001 found that Vista sales were 60% lower. Steve Ballmer has admitted that earlier sales forecasts were 'overly aggressive,' but at least there is some good news for Microsoft: early Office 2007 sales were very strong compared to the early sales of Office 2003, despite almost no advertising or marketing until the retail launch at the end of January."

Submission + - Russian schools abandon Windows?

Submitted by

atamyrat

on Friday February 16, 2007 @01:38PM

atamyrat writes: "http://www.rlhc.net/blog/?p=272

From the article

In a strange twist of events which include former Russian President and Nobel Prize winner, Mikhail Gorbachev, calling Bill Gates and current Russian President Vladimir Putin making comments on software piracy, Russian school may be moving to Linux very soon. It almost sounds like a cold war spy novel. Anyways, the Russian school system is looking to move to ASPLinux, a localized Linux disto, to combat software piracy.
http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn.shtml?2007/02 /05/234178

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37 460"

Submission + - Camcorder piracy overestimated, says Geist.

Submitted by EWAdams on Friday February 16, 2007 @01:13PM

EWAdams writes: The BBC News website has published an article by Internet law professor Michael Geist, in which he argues that the MPAA is overstating the amount of camcorder piracy of movies going on and misrepresenting the economic damage that it causes... or at best, obfuscating the reality of the situation (small surprise). An excerpt:

First, the camcorder claims have themselves involved wildly different figures. For example, over the past two weeks, reports have pegged the Canadian percentage of global camcording at either 40 or 50%. Yet the International Intellectual Property Alliance, a U.S. lobby group that includes the MPAA, advised the US government in late September that Canadians were the source for 23% of camcorded copies of DVDs. Not surprisingly, none of these figures have been subject to independent audit or review. In fact, AT&T Labs, which conducted the last major public study on movie piracy in 2003, concluded that 77 percent of pirated movies actually originate from industry insiders and advance screener copies provided to movie reviewers.

Submission + - Best games of the previous generation?

Submitted by Hatta on Friday February 16, 2007 @01:08PM

Hatta writes: I'm an avid gamer, but the hot new games never appealed to me. In fact, I'm perpetually a generation behind. I figure that games don't get any less fun because they're old. So with the recent release of the xbox 360, PS3, and Wii, it's about time for me to pick up a PS2 or XBOX. What games stand out as classics on each system? I'm particularly interested in RPGs, adventure games, platformers, and anything that's just too unique to miss.

'Daylight Savings Bugs' Loom 403

Posted by Zonk on Friday February 16, 2007 @01:07PM from the crush-those-critters dept.

An anonymous reader writes "ZDNet has front page coverage of the looming daylight savings changeover, and the bugs that may crop up this year. With the extension of daylight savings time by four weeks, some engineers and programmers are warning that unprepared companies will experience serious problems in March. While companies like Microsoft have already patched their software, Gartner is warning that bugs in the travel and banking sectors could have unforeseen consequences in the coming months. ' In addition, trading applications might execute purchases and sales at the wrong time, and cell phone-billing software could charge peak rates at off-peak hours. On top of that, the effect is expected to be felt around the world: Canada and Bermuda are conforming to the U.S.-mandated change, and time zone shifts have happened in other locales as well.'" Is this just more Y2K doomsaying, or do you think there's a serious problem here?

Submission + - Keith Urban vs. Keith Urban

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16, 2007 @12:41PM

An anonymous reader writes: I just noticed this on cnn.com about Keith Urban vs. Keith Urban. It seems to me to be an interesting question. One

Keith Urban is a famous singer (I never heard of him before) and has trademarked his name. The other is an artist and owns the KeithUrban.com web site. The artist never claims to be the singer but never clarifies that he isn't. There are google ads at the top of the page that advertise tickets to the singer's concert which would give the impression this is the singer.

Who should prevail? I'm torn. The artist does not generate the google ads. I've looked at the source code for the page and I don't see anything he generates that is overtly deceptive. I do wonder how common the Urban surname is and if a common name should be allowed to be trademarked.

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