Comment Re:This sux. (Score 1) 344
With you too.
RIP roblimo, thanks for everything.
Submission + - Germany: We Think NSA May Have Tapped Chancellor Merkel's Cell Phone (miamiherald.com) 1
cold fjord writes: The Miami Herald reports, "The German government says Chancellor Angela Merkel has called President Barack Obama after receiving information that U.S. intelligence may have targeted her mobile phone. Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert said Merkel made clear in Wednesday's call that "she views such practices, if the indications are confirmed ... as completely unacceptable" and called for U.S. authorities to clarify the extent of surveillance in Germany." — (Info on Germany's "PRISM" project) — Reuters reports, "President Barack Obama on Wednesday sought to assure German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the United States is not monitoring her communications after Merkel raised the issue with Obama." — This revelation follows allegations of US surveillance of the Presidents of Mexico, and France. Yesterday the LA Times noted, "French authorities are shocked — shocked — to learn that the American government is spying on French citizens. The Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. ambassador to the Quai D'Orsay to inform him that what's going on is "unacceptable," and President Francois Hollande claimed to have issued a stern rebuke to President Obama in a phone conversation. ... it was revealed in 2010 that France conducts its own espionage activities here on U.S. soil. ... France's intelligence agencies have established an electronic surveillance system of their own that monitors their citizens' phone conversations, emails, texts and ... Twitter posts. This is the way things work in the shadowy world we've been learning about from Snowden's leaks ... "
Comment Re:Whitelists mean nothing (Score 3, Insightful) 55
As I said at the end of the summary, this really isn't a complete solution and you're right about a whitelisted applet/RIA being vulnerable. However this is a good piece of 'defense in depth' to prevent random Java crap from executing without authorization if (when) another bug crops and is somehow exploited. If the stuff you're whitelisting has problems, you need to revisit your coding quality checks, or talk to whatever vendor is supplying it to you.
Submission + - Java Update Provides Whitelist Capability to Help Prevent 0-Day Hacks
kylus writes: The Register is reporting that Oracle's new Java 7 update 40 release comes complete with a new 'Deployment Rule Set' capability which allows administrators to define which particular applets and Java Web Start applications ("Rich Internet Applications") are permitted to run on a given machine. Not a complete solution for the recent trend of Java hacks that have cropped up, but good news for enterprises that have to run this in their environment.
Comment Sounds like... (Score 2) 173
...a good security measure for the guy suing Apple for not filtering the porn he was addicted to.
Meteorite Crashes Through Cottage In Oslo 122
First time submitter Mastiff in Norway writes "Famous (in Norway) Norwegian astrophycisist Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard is ecstatic after a meteorite was found in an urban cottage in Oslo this weekend. This is the 14th meteorite that's been found in Norway, and only the second that crashed through a roof. It is not certain when the crash happened, since the cottage hasn't been used all winter, but on the 1st of March a big ball of fire was observed over the southern parts of Norway, and it is thought that this may be one of the pieces from that entry into the atmosphere. Maybe it's time to replace those tin foil hats with helmets?"
Submission + - Newfound Exoplanet is best yet candidate for supporting life (scientificamerican.com)
uigrad_2000 writes: With all the new exoplanets discovered recently with Kepler, it seemed a sure thing that the first exoplanet in the habitable zone of a star would be found soon. It's been found now, but the irony is that Kepler was not involved!
GJ 667Cc, is at least 4.5 times as massive as Earth, and lies in the habitable region of its host star, reports Scientific American. It was discovered by comparing public data from the ESO to recent observations from Hawaii and Chile. As opposed to the stars Kepler is watching, this is only 22 light years away, making it even more interesting.
GJ 667Cc, is at least 4.5 times as massive as Earth, and lies in the habitable region of its host star, reports Scientific American. It was discovered by comparing public data from the ESO to recent observations from Hawaii and Chile. As opposed to the stars Kepler is watching, this is only 22 light years away, making it even more interesting.
Submission + - Apple Loses German Court Bid to Ban Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N, Nexus Phone
chrb writes: Apple has failed to get a patent ban on Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1N and the Nexus phone in Germany. Presiding Judge Andreas Mueller stated "Samsung has shown that it is more likely than not that the patent will be revoked because of a technology that was already on the market before the intellectual property had been filed for protection". The patent in question covered list scrolling and document translation, scaling, and rotation on a touch-screen display. This news follows the recent Appeals court ruling that upheld the original Galaxy Tab 10.1 ban.
Submission + - EU Privacy Rules Enforce Net Neutrality (itworld.com)
jfruh writes: "In a scene familiar to those following the net neutrality debate in the US, a representative of the broadband industry — Cisco, in this case — declared that government intervention in favor of net neutrality removes incentives to invest in high-speed networks. The twist, though, is that the Cisco exec was talking about EU privacy rules. These rules don't explicitly enforce net neutrality, but make it illegal to do the sort of packet inspection that "traffic shaping" requires."
Actor Leslie Nielsen Dies at 84 167
An anonymous reader writes "Famous actor Leslie Nielsen died of pneumonia at a Florida hospital Sunday evening. Leslie was renowned for his comedic roles in dozens of films and TV shows, such as The Naked Gun and Police Squad. His characteristic style and humor was always enjoyable, and he will be sorely missed." Of course you might also remember him from The Forbidden Planet, which is classic sci-fi by any measure.
The Time Travel Paradoxes of Back To the Future 454
brumgrunt sent in a fun little piece to get your brain going on a cloudy monday morning. Despite countless viewings of BTTF I still never thought of a few of these. "Throughout Back To The Future Part III, there has to be two Deloreans in 1885. Also, why don't George and Lorraine recognize their son? Why doesn't the time machine disappear in the alternative 1985? These and more Back To The Future paradoxes explored..."
GOG.com Not Really Gone 276
gspr writes "On Sunday, Slashdot and many others reported that DRM-free games site GOG.com was shutting down. Now the site is back, revealing that it was all a hoax. According to the site: 'Now it's time we put an end to all the speculations once and for all. It's true that we decided that we couldn't keep GOG.com the way it was so we won't. As you probably know by now, GOG.com is entering its new era with an end of the two-years beta stage and we're launching a brand new GOG.com with new, huge releases.' So it was all an advertising stunt."
Letting Customers Decide Pricing On Game DLC 156
An anonymous reader writes "How much should game developers be charging for DLC? It seems that one indie dev has decided to carry out a unique experiment. The latest expansion pack for Gratuitous Space Battles is priced at $5.99 — or is it? It turns out there is both a standard ($5.99) version and a discount version ($2.99). And the difference between them is... nothing. The buyers have been left to make their own decisions on whether or not they should pay full price, and send more money to the developer, or treat themselves to a deserved discount. The buy page even lists comparisons of national incomes, average salaries and even the price of sausages to help buyers make up their minds. Will this catch on? Will Microsoft start asking us whether or not we should get a discount and trust us to answer honestly?"
Doctors Seeing a Rise In "Google-itis" 368
It's one of the fastest-growing health issues that doctors now face: "Google-itis." Everyone from concerned mothers to businessmen on their lunch break are typing in symptoms and coming up with rare diseases or just plain wrong information. Many doctors are bringing computers into examination rooms now so they can search along with patients to alleviate their fears. "I'm not looking for a relationship where the patient accepts my word as the gospel truth," says Dr. James Valek. "I just feel the Internet brings so much misinformation to the (exam) room that we have to fight through all that before we can get to the problem at hand."
Games Workshop Sues Warhammer Online Fansite 182
chalkyj writes "WarhammerAlliance.com (run for the last five years as one of the leading fansites for the MMORPG Warhammer Online) is being sued by Games Workshop for the use of the 'Warhammer' name, 'cybersquatting' and 'unfair competition.' This lawsuit is yet another in Games Workshop's disturbing pattern of suing their fans and hobbyists, this time going after a legitimate fansite for their MMORPG franchise. The full complaint (PDF) has been posted online."
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