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Whodunnit? | 367 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
RSS feeds not updating - PJ?
Authored by: SilverWave on Tuesday, March 19 2013 @ 03:01 PM EDT
groklawstatic.ibiblio.org/backend/GLNewsPicks.rdf
Last Item "Motorola Challenges Judge Posner's Implied "No
Injunctions for FRAND" Ruling ~pj"

view-source:http://groklawstatic.ibiblio.org/backend/GLNewsPicks.rdf
Internet pioneers win engineering prize

---
RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Dad hacks Donkey Kong so daughter can play as Pauline
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, March 19 2013 @ 04:45 PM EDT
youtube

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

after weev - these guys are going to jail...
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, March 19 2013 @ 07:04 PM EDT
Internet Census 2012
Port scanning /0 using insecure embedded devices

Abstract While playing around with the Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE) we discovered an amazing number of open embedded devices on the Internet. Many of them are based on Linux and allow login to standard BusyBox with empty or default credentials. We used these devices to build a distributed port scanner to scan all IPv4 addresses. These scans include service probes for the most common ports, ICMP ping, reverse DNS and SYN scans. We analyzed some of the data to get an estimation of the IP address usage.

All data gathered during our research is released into the public domain for further study.

http://internetcensus2012.bitbucket.org/paper.html

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Should Hacking tools be covered by the second amendment?
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, March 19 2013 @ 07:33 PM EDT
With all the attempts of the last few years (at least in the EU) to criminalize
the hacking tools themselves rather then the (unjust) use of them, I was
wordering if they are (or could be) covered by your Second Amendment.

As attacks can now be done at large distance by online-attacks, should the
software tools to retaliate be covered by the same law as tools to defend you
from physical attacks?

According to Wikipedia, the second amendmend applies only to firearms, but I
think I have read discussions that it covers the use of pepper spray, air-rifles
and electric weapons as well.


But the intend behind the law seems to me the ability to retailliate against
longer-distance agressors, and was initiated after they became publicly
availeble and knives no longer fullfilled it's defensive task.

THe would be some similarity in use as well.
As firearms do not have strictly passive defensive capibilities. (IE: You can
not use them without harming the attacker or risk pissible bystanders), nor
range limitations (bullets do not stop at the edge of your backyard.
When-back-hacking someone that tried to crack your machines, you have some of
these same risks; you can accidently hit some of those the attacker is hiding
behind, and you can do damage to his machines.

Also, hacker tools can be uses to ' protect your property against vandalism',
like when DRM is trying to prevent you from using your legal property within
your own home.


MBB

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

U.S. Said to Look Into Microsoft Bribery Allegations
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, March 19 2013 @ 08:23 PM EDT
Federal authorities are examining Microsoft’s involvement with companies and individuals that are accused of paying bribes to overseas government officials in exchange for business, according to a person briefed on the inquiry.

U.S. Said to Look Into Microsoft Bribery Allegations

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

More reality distortion field concerning EA
Authored by: artp on Tuesday, March 19 2013 @ 11:06 PM EDT

The NY Times has Yet Another Flawed Article about the EA debacle.

Entitled Electronic Arts Chief Resigns, Sending Stock Up, it tells us, with a straight face,

Retail sales are falling — they were down more than a quarter in the first 10 months of last year — as consumers took to less demanding, less time-consuming and less expensive games on their smartphones.

And later, it says, again with a straight face and no disclaimer:

“E.A.’s strategy and future are rock solid,” Mr. Probst wrote on Monday in a post on the company’s blog.

Probst is the CEO before the current resignee, until another scapegoat is found.

And finally:

The company blamed the game’s unforeseen popularity for its trouble because it overloaded its servers. It was forced to offer players a free downloadable game.

“I know that’s a little contrived — kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy,” Lucy Bradshaw, the general manager for Maxis, the game’s developer and a division of E.A., wrote on the Electronic Arts blog.

Who could have known that "unforeseen popularity" would overload the servers on a beta? My mind is boggled that they missed the mark by such a huge margin.

---
Userfriendly on WGA server outage:
When you're chained to an oar you don't think you should go down when the galley sinks ?

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Code.org documentary serving multiple agendas?
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 20 2013 @ 11:51 AM EDT
"'Someday, and that day may never come,' Don Corleone says famously in The Godfather, 'I'll call upon you to do a service for me.' Back in 2010, filmmaker Lesley Chilcott produced Waiting for 'Superman', a controversial documentary that analyzed the failures of the American public education system, and presented charter schools as a glimmer of hope, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-backed KIPP Los Angeles Prep. Gates himself was a 'Superman' cast member, lamenting how U.S. public schools are producing 'American Idiots' of no use to high tech firms like Microsoft, forcing them to 'go half-way around the world to recruit the engineers and programmers they needed.'

So some found it strange that when Chilcott teamed up with Gates again three years later to make Code.org's documentary short What Most Schools Don't Teach, kids from KIPP Empower Academy were called upon to demonstrate that U.S. schoolchildren are still clueless about what computer programmers do. In a nice coincidence, the film went viral just as leaders of Google, Microsoft, and Facebook pressed President Obama and Congress on immigration reform, citing a dearth of U.S. programming talent. And speaking of coincidences, the lone teacher in the Code.org film (James, Teacher@Mount View Elementary), whose classroom was tapped by Code.org as a model for the nation's schools, is Seattle teacher Jamie Ewing, who took top honors in Microsoft's Partners in Learning (PiL) U.S. Forum last summer, earning him a spot on PiL's 'Team USA' and the chance to showcase his project at the Microsoft PiL Global Forum in Prague in November (82-page Conference Guide).

Ironically, had Ewing stuck to teaching the kids Scratch programming, as he's shown doing in the Code.org documentary, Microsoft wouldn't have seen fit to send him to its blowout at 'absolutely amazingly beautiful' Prague Castle. Innovative teaching, at least according to Microsoft's rules, 'must include the use of one or more Microsoft technologies.' Fortunately, Ewing's project — described in his MSDN guest blog post — called for using PowerPoint and Skype. For the curious, here's Microsoft PiL's vision of what a classroom should be." link

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Security awareness training a waste of time ..
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 20 2013 @ 11:58 AM EDT
"Should companies spend money on security awareness training for their employees? It's a contentious topic, with respected experts on both sides of the debate. I personally believe that training users in security is generally a waste of time and that the money can be spent better elsewhere. Moreover, I believe that our industry's focus on training serves to obscure greater failings in security design." link

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Microsoft optimistic over security ..
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 20 2013 @ 12:12 PM EDT
"The information security industry is known for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. We are bombarded with depressive statistics and buzzwords on a daily basis and those can overshadow the real progress that's being made." link

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

MS is desperate...
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 20 2013 @ 12:51 PM EDT
Windows phone ad

Fake like a $300 bill :-)

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Whodunnit?
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 20 2013 @ 02:39 PM EDT
Popular press is full of speculation and inuendo over the mass crash in South Korea. It may take investigators a while to get to the bottom of it. I think it would be hilarious if an Equinox bug hit the popular localised version of MS Windows. Possibly sane sober comment from euronews.com.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

  • Whois Team? - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 20 2013 @ 04:43 PM EDT
Google revives RSS extension for Chrome browser - Good, glad it was just a mistake :-)
Authored by: SilverWave on Wednesday, March 20 2013 @ 03:48 PM EDT
Google revives RSS extension for Chrome browser

Good, glad it was just a mistake, it made then look really mean and petty.

---
RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Back to the distro question
Authored by: cjk fossman on Wednesday, March 20 2013 @ 05:34 PM EDT
Is anyone using the MATE desktop?

I have a machine that's already infested with Unity, Gnome 3 and KDE 4.
Does anyone know of conflicts between any of those and MATE?


[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Windows RT tablet sales continue to disappoint
Authored by: Gringo_ on Wednesday, March 20 2013 @ 05:52 PM EDT

Nvidia disappointed with Windows RT tablet sales

As TG Daily previously reported, Microsoft only managed to sell a little over a million Surface RT tablets since the device hit the market. Indeed, Redmond reportedly ordered three million Surface RT tablets last year, but sales never picked up and Microsoft was forced to scale back the order.

The lackluster figures come as no surprise. Earlier this year it emerged that the RT faced high return rates and very low sell-through, with shipments totalling just 900,000 units in the first quarter of sales. The Surface Pro did not fare any better. It garnered relatively negative reviews and since it is quite a bit pricier than the RT, consumers don’t seem keen to make the leap of faith.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Apple and Intel put the nails in Thunderbolt's coffin
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 20 2013 @ 06:43 PM EDT
Thunderbolt is (almost) dead. Long live to Thunderbolt

Then there is the news that developers are trying to increase the USB 3.0 transfer speeds from 5Gbps to 10Gbps. If this can be achieved, it will eliminate one of Thunderbolt's key advantages. What Intel and Apple should have done, if they wanted the technology to gain any traction, was to subsidise the early work on Thunderbolt until it had a market presence. But Apple was too keen to make an outrageous mark up on Thunderbolt peripherals which only its limited fanbase was stupid enough to pay for.

Wow!

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Warning - You are being linked to a U.S. based website.
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, March 21 2013 @ 12:02 AM EDT
You are being linked to a U.S. based website. Any information you provide at this website will be maintained in accordance with U.S. law.
This warning popped onto my screen yesterday when visiting a Disney site.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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