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Comment Re:issue people new SSNs every year (Score 1) 505

by gmb61 (#29070385) Attached to: How To Stop Businesses Storing SSNs Indefinitely?
The SSA needs to implement a system that links a password to your SSN. You would be able to go to ssa.gov and generate a temporary password off your SSN that expires in a few days (of course you would have to input a lot of your personal info before it would allow you to generate a password). This password could be given to creditors/businesses along with your SSN for purposes of a credit check and/or establishing identity, and it would do a lot to prevent identity theft. I don't know how difficult or expensive it would be to implement this, but I think the benefits would be well worth it.

Comment Re:Sigh (Score 1) 757

by gmb61 (#27615807) Attached to: Zombie Macs Launch DoS Attack

I can almost hear the words of denial from the Mac Fanboys already. I can't hear the exact words, but I can sense the general whine.

The Mac Fanboys should actually be happy, because this means their OS is finally getting enough market share to make it worth creating a Mac botnet.

Comment Re:Five minutes too long (Score 1) 852

by gmb61 (#27306553) Attached to: Battlestar Galactica Comes To an End
To me, BSG was really a cautionary tale about the implications that technology can have on a society. The show's recurring theme was "all this happened before and all this will happen again." It was necessary to have that last scene of present day Earth and our current advances in robotics technology in order to show that we could be on the same path as the humans that created the Cylons.
Space

Small Asteroid On Collision Course With Earth 397

Posted by kdawson from the big-kaboom dept.
musatov writes "There's talk on The Minor Planet Mailing List about a small asteroid approaching Earth with a 99.8% probability of colliding. The entrance to the Earth's atmosphere will take place October 7 at 0246 UTC (2:35 after this story goes live) over northern Sudan, releasing the energy of about a kiloton of TNT. The asteroid is assumed to be 3-4 meters in size; it is expected to burn up completely in the atmosphere, causing no harm. As a powerful bolide, it may put on quite a show in the sky. For those advanced enough in astronomy to observe, check the MPEC 2008-T50 and MPEC 2008-T64 circulars. NASA's JPL Small Body Database has a 3D orbit view. The story has been already picked up by CNN and NASA."
The Courts

Submission + - Patent Injunction Could Roil Wi-Fi Industry (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Arguendo
Arguendo writes: From the article: "A little-noticed federal court decision on June 15, issuing an injunction against wireless-LAN equipment vendor Buffalo Technology in its patent fight with the Australian science agency CSIRO, could have broad implications for the entire Wi-Fi industry." CSIRO has sued quite a few other major players in the industry (including Dell and Nintendo) in the same district where the patent was already been held valid and infringed. Now with the injunction order, could this be a Blackberry fiasco all over again but with Wi-Fi?
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows Server woos Linux customers (eweek.com)

Submitted by
AlexGr
AlexGr writes: "This is a thought-provoking article by Peter Galli (eWeek): Wooed by compelling application ecosystems, performance and cost, several large enterprise Linux customers have begun slowly migrating back to Windows Server, eWEEK reporting has found. The migrations come after a quarter in which Windows Server revenue grew faster than Linux revenue — the first time that has happened since research company IDC started tracking Linux server spending in 1998. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2149300,00.as p"
Patents

Submission + - New Lightbulb 50% Efficient...Never Burns Out. (ecogeek.org) 1

Submitted by
hankmt
hankmt writes: "Ceravision has just been awarded a patent for a new kind of light. The system is four times more efficient than Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs and it contains now hazardous materials. It basically works by using a microwave emitter to create a high intensity electric field inside a chamber filled with gas. The gas quickly converts to plasma, an the plasma releases more than 50% of it's energy as light.

The device uses components that are all already in mass production, so it could be available relatively quickly. The high directionality of the light makes it perfect for rear projection screens and medical applications, but it could be entering the mass consumer market as a "edison-type" bulb in the next five years."
Security

Submission + - Harry Potter Zero-day exploit released (reuters.com)

Submitted by soccer_Dude88888
soccer_Dude88888 writes: Harry Potter Zero-day exploit released by Insecure.org

A hacker posting on a full disclosure email list run by InSecure.org claims to have obtained a copy of a transcript of the forthcoming book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The self-proclaimed hacker — who calls himself Gabriel — claims to have compromised the PCs of one or more workers at Bloomsbury Publishing, the publisher of the Harry Potter books, by tricking them into visiting a hacker-run website infected with malicious code. Workers who visited the site supposedly became infected with a Trojan which allowed the unnamed cracker to extract a draft copy of the highly anticipated final installment of the Harry Potter series, due out on 21 July.

The claims are unsubstantiated by secondary sources and carry with them the whiff of hackers bragging about their cool skillz rather than authenticity.

Also the supposed motive — revealing the ending to make reading the book "useless and boring" and so prevent youngsters from exposure to "neo-paganism", is a little hard to swallow.

Responses to the post (titled Harry Potter 0day) on the email list has been dismissive. "Who are you people and why should I care? Maybe a new exploit would be more useful," said one unwhelmed punter. ®
Bootnote

The posted message claims to expose the names and ways in which two of the characters die, something that has been the subject of much speculation by fans of author J.K.Rowling and the boy wizard. For those not allergic to potential spoilers (of dubious provenance) the post can be found here.

http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2007/Jun/0380.h tml
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - What to do with lots of old computers? 3

Submitted by talentless geek
talentless geek writes: I recently started a new Network Admin job and came to discover that I have no fewer than 60 old Pentium 2s and Pentium 3s that are doing nothing. It seems to me there has to be something better than filling up land (i.e. take them to the dump) that all these machines can do. I looked into a few donations sites, but I'm not even sure they would take computers this old. I've thought about building a cluster or 2, but I can't come up with any reason why i would want to do that other than the coolness factor (although, the coolness factor is a pretty good reason...). So, i guess my question is, what would you do with 60 really old computers?
Space

Submission + - Subcommittee Stops Human Mars Mission Spending (nasa.gov)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Last weeks House Appropriations Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice, and Science FY08 budget markup would prevent work on programs devoted to human missions to Mars. According to a House Appropriations Committee press release, the markup language states that NASA cannot pursue "development or demonstration activity related exclusively to Human Exploration of Mars. NASA has too much on its plate already, and the President is welcome to include adequate funding for the Human Mars Initiative in a budget amendment or subsequent year funding requests." The Mars Society is already leading an effort to get the language removed.

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