NotForRent - Slashdot User

New 'USG' Firewalls Protect USB Drives From Malicious Attacks (zdnet.com) 67

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday March 11, 2017 @05:34PM from the sanitizing-your-sticks dept.

A developer has created the USG, "a small, portable hardware USB firewall...to prevent malicious USB sticks and devices laden with malware from infecting your computer." An anonymous reader quotes ZDNet: The problem is that most computers automatically trust every USB device that's plugged in, which means malicious code can run without warning... Cars, cash registers, and some ATMs also come with USB ports, all of which can be vulnerable to cyberattacks from a single USB stick. That's where the USG firewall comes in...a simple hardware serial link that only accepts a very few select number of safe commands, which prevents the device from executing system commands or intercepting network traffic. That means the data can flow from the USB device, but [it] effectively blocks other USB exploits.
The firmware has been open sourced, and the technical specifications have also been released online "to allow anyone to build their own from readily available development boards."

Uber Admits Its Ghost Driver 'Greyball' Tool Was Used To Thwart Regulators, Vows To Stop (usatoday.com) 71

Posted by msmash on Thursday March 09, 2017 @10:00AM from the guilty-as-charged dept.

Uber has admitted it used a tool to thwart city regulators, and announced a review of its controversial Greyball technology. From a report on USA Today: Greyballing, a play on blackballing, was a way for Uber officials to remotely provide ghost driver information to a targeted individual. A March 3 report on the program in The New York Times cited a 2014 example where a regulator in Portland, Ore., a city in which Uber was operating without approval at the time, was unable to hail a car because of his Greyball-powered app. "We have started a review of the different ways this technology has been used to date," Joe Sullivan, Uber's chief security officer, wrote in a blog post. "In addition, we are expressly prohibiting its use to target action by local regulators going forward."

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Launches Its First Rocket 76

Posted by Soulskill on Friday May 01, 2015 @01:01PM from the delivering-books-via-rocketry dept.

Zothecula writes: Billionaires who made their cash in dot-coms from the 1990s successfully launching commercial rockets is officially a trend, now that Jeff Bezos has followed in the footsteps of Elon Musk with Wednesday's successful test flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard space vehicle. "Our 110,000-lbf thrust liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen BE-3 engine worked flawlessly, powering New Shepard through Mach 3 to its planned test altitude of 307,000 feet. Guidance, navigation and control was nominal throughout max Q and all of ascent. The in-space separation of the crew capsule from the propulsion module was perfect. Any astronauts on board would have had a very nice journey into space and a smooth return." Here are the images and video.

Comment Re: Every body's a critic. (Score 1) 138

by NotForRent on Monday February 14, 2011 @06:44AM (#35197766) Attached to: Professor Rejects Camera Implanted In His Head

That’s rejection for you

Chinese Root Server Shut Down After DNS Problem 91

Posted by timothy on Sunday March 28, 2010 @06:50AM from the need-a-new-source-of-ginseng dept.

itwbennett writes "After a networking error first reported on Wednesday last week caused computers in Chile and the US to come under the control of a system that censors the Internet in China, the 'root DNS server associated with the networking problems has been disconnected from the Internet,' writes Robert McMillan. The server's operator, Netnod, has 'withdrawn route announcements' made by the server, according to company CEO Kurt Lindqvist."

Man Sues Neighbor For Not Turning Off His Wi-Fi 428

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday January 12, 2010 @06:27PM from the have-you-never-wondered-why-I-drink-only-distilled-water-or-rain-water-and-only-pure-grain-alcohol dept.

Scyth3 writes "A man is suing his neighbor for not turning off his cell phone or wireless router. He claims it affects his 'electromagnetic allergies,' and has resorted to being homeless. So, why doesn't he check into a hotel? Because hotels typically have wireless internet for free. I wonder if a tinfoil hat would help his cause?"

Comment Maya- more concerned with layout than content... (Score 1) 63

by NotForRent on Saturday April 25, 2009 @08:22AM (#27711491) Attached to: Researchers Critique Today's Cloud Computing

This article is classic self promotion in the vein of:
1. choose concept
2. label evil
3. ???
4. profit!

At the risk of being constructive, if Maya actually spent time looking at what larger enterprises are planning over the next few years they would see the obvious architectural foundations for creating compute/storage/application pools emerging within enterprise data centres.

Extending these across physically or geographically dispersed platforms (eg DR) will be well within our technical capabilities in the timeframes usually discussed. To see these platforms interacting with external third party resources also seems suitable as a destination architecture regardless of, or perhaps because of, its distance. The positive effect such a common architectural goal has on the fragmented deployments I see all the time in Enterprise DCs, cant be a bad thing.

This wont be the only cloud outcome, especially for small and Internet scale, as the majors are massively committed to branded, propriety solutions but enterprise will do their thing, relying on enterprise technologies and this will be of far more import than some bodgie P2P concept from an enterprise perspective.

New Service Aims To Replace Consoles With Cloud Gaming 305

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday March 24, 2009 @09:05AM from the who-needs-new-hardware-anyway dept.

ThinSkin writes "Imagine playing bleeding-edge games, yet never again upgrading your hardware. That's the ambitious goal of OnLive's Internet delivered gaming service. Using cloud computing, OnLive's goal is to 'make all modern games playable on any system,' thanks in large part to OnLive's remote servers that do all the heavy lifting. With a fast enough Internet connection, gamers can effectively stream and play games using a PC, Mac, or a 'MicroConsole,' 'a dedicated gaming client provided by OnLive that includes a game controller.' Without ever having to worry about costly hardware upgrades or the cost of a next-gen console, gamers can expect to fork over about $50 yearly just for the service. If this thing takes off, this can spell trouble for gaming consoles down the road, especially if already-established services like Steam and Impulse join the fray."

Comment There is film of this... (Score 1) 584

by NotForRent on Thursday October 13, 2005 @12:02AM (#13779154) Attached to: Archimedes Death Ray

I recently saw a documentary on Australian TV where an Italian Professor in the 70s lined up a fair number of troops on the shore with polished METAL shields and set fire to a wooden boat below. Did it a couple of times. Seemed pretty straight forward although I'm sure someone who hasn't actually SEEN the film will comeback with a reason why this never actually occurred.

Myth Plausible.

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