Comment Re:Apple gave a demo on 2004-07-01 (Score 1) 304
More importantly, this demo was 3 months before the patent was even filed (October 22, 2004). A good example of prior art
Comment Re:Fixed that for ya.... (Score 1) 405
I'd go for: "Government gets it up while economy goes down"
Comment Re:Statistics! (Score 1) 1142
Yes, but if you can't communicate your results, what good are they to the rest of us?
I voted for communication because the state of science journalism compelled me to.
Comment Re:Quis ipsos custodiet custodes? (Score 1) 697
>>>The very reason we HAVE a SCOTUS is to protect the individuals from majority abuse.
But the SCOTUS is part of the U.S. Government. It often acts like a rubberstamp for the Congress and the Executive branches, and when it doesn't rubberstamp, then the president sometimes threatens the court (see FDR and the Court-packing Scandal).
The U.S. Government should not be self-policing itself. That's why it's necessary to have an independent party, i.e. the States, be granted the ability to nullify unconstitutional laws. They created the Constitution - they ought to have at least some power to enforce it and nullify unconstitutional laws - just like any other binding contract.
Submission + - Remus: Xen gets transparent high availability. (cs.ubc.ca)
An anonymous reader writes: The Remus project has just been incorporated into the Xen hypervisor. Developed at the University of British Columbia, Remus provides a thin layer that continuously replicates a running virtual machine onto a second physical host. Remus requires no modifications to the OS or applications within the protected VM: on failure, Remus activates the replica on the second host, and the VM simply picks up where the original system died. Open TCP connections remain in tact, and applications continue to run unaware of the failure. It's pretty fun to yank the plug out on your web server and see everything continue to tick along. This sort of HA has traditionally required either really expensive hardware, or very complex and invasive modifications to applications and OSes.
Submission + - Metasploit Project Sold (darkreading.com)
ancientribe writes: The wildly popular open-source Metasploit penetration testing tool project has been sold to Rapid7, a vulnerability management vendor, paving the way for a commercial version of Metasploit to eventually hit the market. HD Moore, creator of Metasploit, was hired by Rapid7 and will continue heading up the project. This is big news for the indie Metasploit Project, which now gets full-time resources, which Moore says will translate into faster turnaround for new features. Just what a commercial Metasploit product will look like is still in the works, but Rapid7 expects to keep the Metasploit penetration testing tool as a separate product with "high integration" into Rapid7's vulnerability management products.
Submission + - Schneier: We need better un-authentication (threatpost.com)
Trailrunner7 writes: "Bruce Schenier writes on Threatpost.com: In computer security, a lot of effort is spent on the authentication problem. Whether it is passwords, secure tokens, secret questions, image mnemonics, or something else, engineers are continually coming up with more complicated — and hopefully more secure — ways for you to prove you are who you say you are over the Internet. This is important stuff, as anyone with an online bank account or remote corporate network knows. But a lot less thought and work have gone into the other end of the problem: how do you tell the system on the other end of the line that you are no longer there? How do you unauthenticate yourself? My home computer requires me to log out or turn my computer off when I want to unauthenticate. This works for me because I know enough to do it, but lots of people just leave their computer on and running when they walk away. As a result, many office computers are left logged in when people go to lunch, or when they go home for the night. This, obviously, is a security vulnerability."
Comment Re:Running out of cats? (Score 5, Funny) 647
Once OSX becomes more mature, they can release OSX Cougar.
Submission + - Does powerline networking nuke radio hams? (pcpro.co.uk)
Barence writes: "Since writing about the success he's had with powerline networking, a number of readers emailed PC Pro's Paul Ockendon to castigate him for recommending these products, such as HomePlug. They were all amateur radio enthusiasts, claiming the products affect their hobby in much the same way that urban lighting affects amateur astronomers, but rather than causing light pollution they claim powerline networking causes radio pollution in the HF band (otherwise known as shortwave). Paul's follow-up feature, "Does powerline networking nuke radio hams?" documents his investigation into these claims, which found evidence to support both sides of an intriguing debate."
Comment SAS 70 (Score 1) 480
The only main issue with SAS 70 audits is that the company/process being audited defines the scope of the audit. You can choose to not report processes, systems, or users involved, and the auditing company will only cover the scope you've set forth.
IMHO SAS 70 is nowhere close to a comprehensive auditing tool for SOx or HIPAA compliance.
Comment Re:Apple vs. Microsof (Score 1) 475
I always considered them amoral. It's not like they're trying to do wrong, they just don't care.
Comment Re:Profits, but for whom? (Score 1) 624
Are you by chance trading in FCOJ?
Comment Re:Since this probably won't get posted. (Score 1) 2
Agreed. Also, I would make sure to at least look into the less exciting parts of security as well, such as risk assessment and security policy writing. These go a long way towards marketability in pursuing information security as a profession.
Comment MX Revolution (Score 1) 1
The MX Revolution is very sturdy, has good range (for wireless), and has 8 buttons (not counting main scroll wheel). Add-ons to Logitech's SetPoint make setting button functions fairly easy as well.
Only drawback is it's designed for the right hand only.
Submission + - Graphene Could Make Magnetic Memory 1000x Denser (technologyreview.com)
KentuckyFC writes: "The density of magnetic memory depends on the size of the magnetic domains used to store bits. The current state-of-the-art uses cobalt-based grains some 8nm across, each containing about 50,000 atoms. Materials scientists think they can shrink the grains to 15,000 atoms but any smaller than that and the crystal structure of the grains is lost. That's a problem because the cobalt has to be arranged in a hexagonal close packing structure to ensure the stability of its magnetic field. Otherwise the field can spontaneously reverse and the data is lost. Now a group of German physicists say they can trick a pair of cobalt atoms into thinking they are in a hexagonal close packing structure by bonding them to a hexagonal carbon ring such as graphene or benzene. That's handy because the magnetic field associated with cobalt dimers is calculated to be far more stable than the field in a cobalt grain. And graphene and benzene rings are only 0.5 nm across, a size that could allow an increase in memory density of three orders of magnitude."
