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R.I.P. FTP 359

Posted by CmdrTaco from the and-good-riddance-to-ye dept.
Slashdot contributor Bennett Haselton says "Using FTP to administer a website is insecure -- but not for the reasons that you probably think. You yourself can stop using FTP any time you want, but how do we change the landscape Net-wide, to reduce the number of breakins using stolen FTP credentials?" You know what to click on if you want to read the rest.
Education

We Rent Movies, So Why Not Textbooks? 398

Posted by Soulskill from the or-food dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Using Netflix as a business model, Osman Rashid and Aayush Phumbhra founded Chegg, shorthand for 'chicken and egg,' to gather books from sellers at the end of a semester and renting — or sometimes selling — them to other students at the start of a new one. Chegg began renting books in 2007, before it owned any, so when an order came in, its employees would surf the Web to find a cheap copy. They would buy the book using Rashid's American Express card and have it shipped to the student. Eventually, Chegg automated the system. 'People thought we were crazy,' Rashid said. Now, as Chegg prepares for its third academic year in the textbook rental business, the business is growing rapidly. Jim Safka, a former chief executive of Match.com and Ask.com who was recently recruited to run Chegg, said the company's revenue in 2008 was more than $10 million, and this year, Chegg surpassed that in January alone."
Encryption

200-Year-Old Cipher Finally Cracked 141

Posted by timothy from the castle-aaaaaaaagh dept.
Attila Dimedici writes "A code expert just cracked a code used by a friend of Thomas Jefferson in a letter written to Jefferson some 200 years ago. This code is fairly easy to crack using a computer, but extremely difficult without one. I think it would have been much harder if the author had not included an indication as to what code algorithm he used in the letter accompanying the coded message."
Role Playing (Games)

The Essentials of RPG Design 241

Posted by Soulskill from the main-characters-with-a-mysterious-past dept.
simoniker writes "As the latest in his Game Design Essentials series for Gamasutra, writer John Harris examines 10 games from the Western computer RPG (CRPG) tradition and 10 from the Japanese console RPG (JRPG) tradition, to figure out what exactly makes them tick. From the entry on Nethack: 'Gaining experience is supposed to carry the risk of harm and failure. Without that risk, gaining power becomes a foregone conclusion. It has reached the point where the mere act of spending time playing [most RPGs] appears to give players the right to have their characters become more powerful. The obstacles that provide experience become simply an arbitrary wall to scale before more power is granted; this, in a nutshell, is the type of play that has brought us grind, where the journey is simple and boring and the destination is something to be raced to. Nethack and many other roguelikes do feature experience gain, but it doesn't feel like grind. It doesn't because much of the time the player is gaining experience, he is in danger of sudden, catastrophic failure. When you're frequently a heartbeat away from death, it's difficult to become bored.' Harris' Game Design series has previously spanned subjects from mysterious games to open world games, unusual control schemes and difficult games."
Biotech

Japanese Creating "Super Tuna" 280

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the delicious-engineering dept.
motherpusbucket writes "The Telegraph reports that Japanese scientists hope to be breeding a so-called 'Super Tuna' within the next decade or so. They have about 60% of the genome mapped and expect to finish it in the next couple months. The new breed will grow faster, taste good, have resistance to disease and will totally kick your ass if you cross them."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Changing Users Default Search Engine

Submitted by BabyDuckHat
BabyDuckHat writes: Cnet's Dennis O'Reilly caught "Windows Search Helper" trying to change his default Firefox search from Google to Bing. This isn't the first time the software company has been caught quietly changing user's preferences to benefit it's own products.
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - First Fully Programmable Gesture-Recognition Glove (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by
Al
Al writes: "The AcceleGlove from AnthroTronix, is the first fully programmable glove that records hand and finger movements. Other gloves--like 5DT's Data Glove, which is used primarily in virtual reality--normally cost $1,000 to $5,000, but the AcceleGlove costs just $499. The AcceleGlove comes with software that lets developers use Java to program it for any application they wish. AnthroTronix initially developed the glove with the U.S. Department of Defense for robotic control but it could also be used in video games, sports training, or physical rehabilitation."
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - Game Design Essentials: 20 RPGs

Submitted by
simoniker
simoniker writes: "In the latest in his Game Design Essentials series for Gamasutra, which has previously spanned subjects from 'mysterious games', through 'open world games', 'unusual control schemes' and 'difficult games', writer John Harris examines 10 games from the Western computer RPG (CRPG) tradition and 10 from the Japanese console RPG (JRPG) tradition, to figure out what exactly makes them tick. From the entry on Pokemon: "The front-line Pokémon do all the fighting. They are traded back and forth between trainers, even into, effectively, other universes through either a strange link-cable portal or, these days, converted into photons and broadcast through the ether. Do they question the motives of the god-beings who command them? Do they treat their lot philosophically? Do they pine for the pixel-grass in which they spent their childhoods?""
Biotech

Submission + - Japanese are creating Super Tuna (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by motherpusbucket
motherpusbucket writes: Telegraph reports that Japanese scientists will be breeding a so called 'Super Tuna'. They have about 60% of the genome mapped and expect to finish it in the next couple months. The new breed will grow faster, taste good, have resistance to disease and will totally kick your ass if you cross them.
Security

The Hysteria of the Cyber-Warriors 150

Posted by Soulskill from the y2k-is-looking-more-reasonable-by-the-day dept.
Willfro sends in a piece by Evgeny Morozov at the Boston Review about the hyperbole and the reality of "cyber war." Quoting: "At the end of May, President Obama called cyber-security 'one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation.' His words echo a flurry of gloomy think-tank reports. Unfortunately, these reports are usually richer in vivid metaphor — with fears of 'digital Pearl Harbors' and 'cyber-Katrinas' — than in factual foundation. So why is there so much concern about 'cyber-terrorism?' Answering a question with a question: who frames the debate? Much of the data are gathered by ultra-secretive government agencies — which need to justify their own existence — and cyber-security companies — which derive commercial benefits from popular anxiety. Journalists do not help. Gloomy scenarios and speculations about cyber-Armaggedon draw attention, even if they are relatively short on facts."
The Courts

RIAA Victory Over Usenet.com In Copyright Case 289

Posted by Soulskill from the dropping-like-flies dept.
ozydingo writes "The RIAA has scored a victory in a decision on a copyright case that they filed back in 2007. US District Judge Harold Baer ruled in favor of the music industry on all its main theories: that Usenet.com is guilty of direct, contributory, and vicarious infringement. In addition, and perhaps most important for future cases, Baer said that Usenet.com can't claim protection under the Sony Betamax decision stating that companies can't be held liable of contributory infringement if the device is 'capable of significant non-infringing uses.' Bear noted that Usenet.com differed from Sony in that the sale of a Betamax recorder was a one-time deal, while Usenet.com's interaction with its users was an ongoing relationship. The RIAA stated in a brief note, 'We're pleased that the court recognized not just that Usenet.com directly infringed the record companies' copyrights but also took action against the defendants for their egregious litigation misconduct.'"

Comment The problem . . . (Score 1) 143

by Chihuahuabot (#27031237) Attached to: Hearst To Launch E-Reader For Newspapers
. . . isn't the technology but the people in suits. They really need two things to make e-readers work. 1) Open standards. Investing in a given proprietary format is risky to the consumer. What if future devices won't support current formats? When my reader breaks and I want to buy a new one from a different manufacturer, how can I move my library? Self-publishing? Open standards addresses all this. I will not buy one until I can really own my e-books. 2) Aggregation with value added service. A virtual news stand where you can pick out magazines and newspapers cafeteria style with different levels of subscription. For example, the basic would be two monthly magazine and one daily paper. The next level would be three magazines, two daily papers and an annual. I could pick out a variety of publications but only have to pay one bill. For an example of a value added service, consider a magazine like Time or a newspaper such as the New York Times making their archives available online to subscribers. Under this model there are definite advantages to subscription. I'd have the entire "paper" and the archives (or other value added service) rather than an abbreviated online version. I'd have it all on a device that I can take into my living room and stretch out on the couch and enjoy my coffee. Just my two cents.

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