Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

Submission + - Linux Vendors Push for Open-Source in Hybrid Datacenter Clouds (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: Linux vendors Red Hat and SUSE are pushing to make sure Linux-based virtual machines are an important part of datacenter-based hybrid clouds. The two are taking significantly different tacks toward the same destination, however. SUSE is using the visibility and cloud hype of VMware by extending its partnership with the virtualization provider to promote its SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware as an alternative operating system for virtual machines running on VMware’s vCloud Hybrid Service. Red Hat is happy to include VMware in its plans, but isn’t limiting itself either to VMware-based clouds or, in fact, the idea that a Linux vendor has to tag along with a cloud- or virtualization developer to find its place in mixed infrastructures. “We do not buy into the premise that a private or a hybrid platform based on one vendor’s technologies and products is the answer,” wrote Bryan Che, general manager of Red Hat’s Cloud Business Unit. More than 25 percent of customers want clouds or datacenter infrastructures using virtualization products from more than one vendor, according to a buyers’ guide published in August by market researcher IDC.

Submission + - Confirmed: ChromeCast will be able to play local content (muktware.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: As you all know about the story that ChromeCast update disabled the playback of local content. Many though, including me that Google is going Apple's path. But Google has confirmed that it will allow every kind of content. Google Statement: We’re excited to bring more content to Chromecast and would like to support all types of apps, including those for local content. It's still early days for the Google Cast SDK, which we just released in developer preview for early development and testing only. We expect that the SDK will continue to change before we launch out of developer preview, and want to provide a great experience for users and developers before making the SDK and additional apps more broadly available. So no need to fear!

Submission + - Shades of Jack Ryan: altering text in eBooks to track pirates (wired.com)

Submitted by wwphx
wwphx writes: German researchers have created a new DRM feature that changes the text and punctuation of an e-book ever so slightly. Called SiDiM, which Google translates to “secure documents by individual marking,” the changes are unique to each e-book sold. These alterations serve as a digital watermark that can be used to track books that have had any other DRM layers stripped out of them before being shared online. The researchers are hoping the new DRM feature will curb digital piracy by simply making consumers paranoid that they’ll be caught if they share an e-book illicitly.

Seems like I recall reading about this in Tom Clancy's Hunt for Red October when Jack Ryan used this technique to identify someone who was leaking secrets to the Russians. It would be so very difficult for someone to write a little program that, when stripping the DRM, randomized a couple of pieces of punctuation to break the hash that the vendor is storing along with the sales record of the individual book.

Submission + - Facebook and Microsoft Disclose Government Requests for User Data (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: Facebook and Microsoft say they received thousands of requests for information from US authorities last year but are prohibited from listing a separate tally for security-related requests or secret court orders related to terror probes. The two companies have come under heightened scrutiny since word leaked of a vast secret Internet surveillance program US authorities insist targets only foreign terror suspects and is needed to prevent attacks. Facebook said Friday it had received between 9,000 and 10,000 requests for user data affecting 18,000 to 19,000 accounts during the second half of last year and Microsoft said it had received 6,000 to 7,000 requests affecting 31,000 to 32,000 accounts during the same period.
Biotech

Submission + - Salt linked to autoimmune diseases (nature.com) 1

Submitted by
ananyo
ananyo writes: "The incidence of autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes, has spiked in developed countries in recent decades. In three studies published today, researchers describe the molecular pathways that can lead to autoimmune disease and identify one possible culprit that has been right under our noses — and on our tables — the entire time: salt. Some forms of autoimmunity have been linked to overproduction of TH17 cells, a type of helper T cell that produces an inflammatory protein called interleukin-17. Now scientists have found sodium chloride turns on the production of these cells. They also showed that in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis, a high-salt diet accelerated the disease’s progression."
Desktops (Apple)

Submission + - Steam For Linux Adoption Closes In On Mac (thepowerbase.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Valve has just released its February, 2013 Steam Hardware & Software Survey, and the results are absolutely mind blowing. Linux is now standing strong as a legitimate gaming platform. It now represents 2.02% of all active Steam users.

Submission + - Torvalds clarifies Linux's Windows 8 Secure Boot position (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: No one, but no one, in the Linux community likes Microsoft's mandated deployment of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Secure Boot option in Windows 8 certified PCs. But, how Linux should handle the fixes required to deal with this problem remains a hot-button issue. Now, as the debate continues hot and heavy, Linus Torvalds, Linux's founder and de facto leader, spells out how he thinks Linux should deal with Secure Boot keys.

Submission + - SPAM: SCO wants to destroy business records

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: SCO, now calling itself TSG, has just filed a motion [PDF] with the bankruptcy court in Delaware asking it to authorize "the abandonment, disposal, and/or destruction of certain surplus, obsolete, non-core or burdensome, property, including, without limitation, shelving, convention materials, telecommunications and computer equipment, accounting and sales documents, and business records."
Link to Original Source
Piracy

Submission + - WTO Approves Antigua's Pirate Website (torrentfreak.com) 1

Submitted by hydrofix
hydrofix writes: On Thursday TorrentFreak broke the story (verified by BBC) that the government of Antigua and Barbuda, a tiny island nation on the Caribbean, was planning to launch a legal "pirate" website selling movies, music and software without paying a penny to U.S. copyright holders. Now, the World Trade Organization has given its final approval for the Antigua government to launch the website. The decision follows from long-running trade dispute between the countries, related to online gambling, which was ruled in Antigua's favor in 2005. After the United States refused to compensate, the WTO granted Antigua the right to "suspend" U.S. copyrights for up to $21 million annually.

Submission + - Scientology on Trial in Belgium (theatlanticwire.com)

Submitted by dgharmon
dgharmon writes: "After a years long legal battle, federal prosecutors in Belgium now believe their investigation is complete enough to charge the Church of Scientology and its leaders as a criminal organization on charges of extortion, fraud, privacy breaches, and the illegal practice of medicine .. The Belgian government won't charge Scientology for being a cult — authorities are focusing on prosecuting it as a criminal organization" ...
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows 8 proving less popular than Vista (kitguru.net) 5

Submitted by NettiWelho
NettiWelho writes: Data from Net Applications shows that Windows 8 is less popular than Windows Vista, the operating system that proved unpopular with the enthusiast audience.

Windows 8 usage uptake has slipped behind Vista’s in the same point in its release. Windows 8 online usage share is around 1.6% of all Windows PC’s which is less than the 2.2% share that Windows Vista commanded at the same two month mark after release.

Net Applications monitor operating system usage by recording OS version for around 40,000 sites it monitors for clients.

The slowdown for Windows 8 adoption is a bad sign for Microsoft who experienced great success with the release of Windows 7.

Data was measured up to the 22nd of December, so there is still time by the end of the month for Windows 8 to claim a higher percentage of the user base.
The Internet

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What is the best way to become a rural ISP? 1

Submitted by
hawkeyeMI
hawkeyeMI writes: "I live in a small, rural town nestled in some low hills. Our town has access to only one DSL provider, and it's pretty terrible. However, a regional fiber project is just being completed, and some of the fiber is in fact running directly past my house.

Currently, there are no last-mile providers in my area, and the regional project only considers itself a middle-mile provider, and will only provide service to last-mile providers. Assuming this will not be my day job, that the local populace is rather poor, and that because of the hills, line-of-sight service will be difficult, how could I set myself up as an ISP? I have considered WiFi mesh networking, and even running wires on the power/telephone polls, but the required licensing and other issues are foreign to me. What would you do?"

Submission + - US congress rules Huawei a 'security threat' (brisbanetimes.com.au)

Submitted by dgharmon
dgharmon writes: Chinese telecom company Huawei poses a security threat to the United States and should be barred from US contracts and acquisitions, a yearlong congressional investigation has concluded.

A draft of a report by the House Intelligence Committee said Huawei and another Chinese telecom, ZTE, "cannot be trusted" to be free of influence from Beijing and could be used to undermine US security.

Submission + - Supreme Court to decide if Monsanto GMO patents are valid (wsj.com) 2

Submitted by tomhath
tomhath writes: The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear an Indiana farmer's appeal that challenges the scope of Monsanto Co.'s patent rights on its Roundup Ready seeds.

Mr. Bowman bought and planted "commodity seeds" from a grain elevator. Those soybean seeds were a mix and included some that contained Monsanto's technology.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case over the objections of the Obama administration, which had urged the justices to leave the lower court rulings in place.

Slashdot Top Deals

"If value corrupts then absolute value corrupts absolutely."

Close