Topics

151

Living Room / Smartphone Jailbreaking and Video Remixing Rights

« on: November 03, 2012, 07:34 PM »

EFF Wins Renewal of Smartphone Jailbreaking Rights Plus New Legal Protections for Video Remixing

EFF won renewal of critical exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in a new ruling, including the upholding of jailbreaking rights for smartphones as well as new and significantly expanded legal protections for video remixing. However, the Copyright Office declined to expand the jailbreaking exemption to tablets and video game consoles, arguing that the category of "tablets" is not well defined and that jailbreaking video game consoles might lead to more copyright infringement.

https://www.eff.org/...al-protections-video

152

Living Room / Windows 8 Guide From MicroSoft

« on: November 03, 2012, 07:06 PM »

From Lockergnome

Microsoft is aware of the struggle that some may experience when first attempting to navigate this new operating system, and has taken peremptory action by offering a free Windows 8 guide for IT Professionals. This guide covers many of the features that you most likely will be using, and is available for all versions of Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows Enterprise, and Windows RT. In addition, the manual offers some tips and tricks as well as revealing some of the hidden features as it guides you through the new operating system.


http://download.micr...Free_Preview_PDF.pdf

153

Living Room / First Time With Win 8

« on: November 03, 2012, 07:02 PM »

Hilarious.  Users first time with Windows 8

154

Living Room / Win 8 Zero-Day Exploit

« on: November 03, 2012, 06:48 PM »

VUPEN Researchers Say They Have Zero-Day Windows 8 Exploit

Controversial bug hunters and exploit sellers VUPEN claimed to have cracked the low-level security enhancements featured in Windows 8, Microsoft's latest operating system.

http://threatpost.co...ows-8-exploit-110112

155

Developer's Corner / FundaGeek

« on: November 03, 2012, 04:31 PM »

Have a new software idea? FundaGeek wants to help fund it.

This brand-new crowdfunding platform is targeted specifically at software developers.

http://www.pcworld.c...to-help-fund-it.html

156

Living Room / History of CP/M

« on: November 02, 2012, 08:39 PM »

  I've had this CP/M History file since the 80's.  For you old pharts like myself that remember the CP/M days, you may or may not find this interesting.  But it does show just how underhanded MS was in it's stolen code and the eventual death of CP/M, which was by far superior to MS's OS at the time.  Unfortunately this file got trashed long ago, and when I recovered it the first headers that gave credit to the author were munged, and it's been so long ago that I can't remember where I got it.  But I do know it was from a credible source, originating from a magazine.  Happy reading...

If many people today know of CP/M at all, they think of it as "the predecessor to DOS". Here's the real story of the birth, life and death of this once dominant operating system.

Birth

"Necessity is the mother of invention" the old saying goes. And its true; but as we all know it takes two to make a baby and in the case of CP/M the father was a man named Gary Kildall, who in 1975 was working as a consultant to Intel (inventors of the 8080 chip which at that time powered the majority of non-Apple microcomputers).

Kildall's task at Intel that year was to design and develop a language called PL/M for the 8080 chip, to be used as a systems development language. At the time, the chips themselves barely existed and Intel was just then starting to design a computer system that used the 8080. The plan was for Gary to use the 8080 emulator Intel had running on their big PDP-10 minicomputer, but he preferred to work directly on the 8080 itself, in part because by working on his own machine at home he could avoid the 50 mile drive to Intel to work every day. The only 8080-based computer Intel had available was called "Intellec-8", but it didn't have any software or disk storage attached to it. So Kildall obtained a used test floppy drive free from Shugart Associates, attached it to the Intellec-8 with a controller designed by his friend John Torode, and wrote a primitive operating system for it which he called CP/M.

CP/M was developed on Intel's 8080 emulator under DEC's TOPS-10 operating system, so naturally many parts of CP/M were inspired by it, including the eight character filenames with a three-character extension that every MS-DOS/Windows 3.X user still lives with today.

Developing and debugging an operating system is a tough job, and it always takes longer than you thought it would (probably because if you were realistic about estimating the true time and effort it will take, you wouldn't have the heart to begin). By the end of 1975, Kildall at last had CP/M version 1.0 ready and had started on PL/M, but Intel was no longer interested in the systems development language by that time. Gary offered CP/M to them, but the company saw no potential in it and declined to market it.

By 1976, the world was moving onward and upward. Intel was so busy selling bucketloads of 8080 chips to the many small and growing computer manufacturers that it didn't miss a dubious opportunity to get into the software business one bit. Many of these new companies had neither the time nor expertise to write their own proprietary operating systems (as the first pioneers in the field, or tried to do, with little success). A company called IMSAI, which built a very successful 8080-based system, had just started marketing their own floppy disk system, and needed some software to use it -- fast. They heard about Kildall and his CP/M, and contacted him.

They wanted it, and he wanted to sell it, but the trouble was CP/M was written to only use "standard" IBM-compatable soft-sectored floppy disks. IMSAI had a different, incompatible flavor of floppy. At this point, most ordinary programmers would simply have changed the operating system to use the different format and sold it, but Gary Kildall had a better idea. What he did was separate out the parts of CP/M version 1 that addressed the specific format of the diskettes, and placed them in a separate module he called the BIOS, for Basic Input/Output System. That way, the system could easily be adapted to new hardware without having to rewrite or even revise the complex heart of the software.

His decision to "do it right", even though it took extra time and effort, led to the establishment of CP/M as the first cross-platform operating system. Other new hardware startups need not write their own software, they could buy CP/M and adapt it themselves to their unique hardware. Further, because CP/M operated the same way on every 8080-based computer, other software developers were also relieved of the necessity of adapting their software products to each new machine -- they could write to be compatable with CP/M, and let it take care of the details of doing the I/O.

Kildall was an engineer, not a businessman, but he could recognize a gold mine when he saw one. He rapidly formed his own company, called Intergalactic Digital Research, to market and further develop CP/M and other products such as his abandoned PL/M.

Life

The company's seminal product was CP/M 2.0, which fully separated the three components of the operating system into logical pieces: the CCP (console command processor); the BDOS (Basic Disk Operating System); and the BIOS. Only the BIOS need be provided by anyone to get CP/M running on a new machine, the CCP and BDOS would be unchanged. CP/M 2.0 was quite buggy, and was quickly followed by 2.1 as a fix-up release. However, 2.1 was limited in its internal capacity to small floppy drives, and by 1977, hard drives were coming on the scene. CP/M version 2.2 added expanded disk formatting tables which could allow access to up to 8 (eight) megabytes per drive in up to 8 (eight) total drives. It was version 2.2 that became the megahit that dominated microcomputing almost from its outset.

It was CP/M's adaptability that gave it appeal and launched it on the road to success, but any operating system that had that characteristic might have succeeded in a similar way, given the right timing and some luck. But CP/M was more than just lucky -- it was good. It packed a surprizing amount of power in a tiny package, and did so in a simple, clean logical way. Many of its critics bemoaned its sometimes cryptic commands (rightly) and also its lack of powerful features. But it must be remembered that CP/M was designed in an age when it was a rare, high-end computer owner that could afford the thousands of dollars it took to fill up the whole 64K of the 8080's address space. The entire operating system took only 8K of the computer's memory, and would run in a mere 16K of total memory with room left over for any of its system development utilities to run. More features would have swelled the system to the point where decently featured applications would have had no room to execute.

And it was the applications that moved this operating system out of the realm of the computer enthusiasts and into the hands of "real users" (people who don't care if their computers are powered by hamsters, so long as they run their necessary applications reliably). The first real "killer app" for CP/M was probably WordStar, a word processing program that became very widely used. Also famous was the first microcomputer database application, dBASE II. These and many, many other applications and utilities eventually made CP/M a useful tool for a wide range of ordinary people.

By 1978, CP/M 2.2 had been ported to nearly every 8080 and Z80 based microcomputer built. In the end, more that 500,000 computers would be sold with CP/M as their operating system. It so dominated the microcomputer world by 1980 that it seemed hardly conceivable that any other operating system would ever be used on Intel-based computers.

Death

By 1981, the apogee of the CP/M orbit, a new generation of Intel microprocessors was on the horizon -- the 8086 and 8088 16-bit chips, which could address an incredible 1 megabyte of memory. This seemed at the time more than anyone could ever figure out a use for, so Digital Research focused much of their attention on producing CP/M 3.0 for the dominant 8080/Z80 platform. There were plans of course to port CP/M to the new 16-bit chips with a version called CP/M-86, but it was not a priority at the time.

But IBM planned on entering the microcomputer market in a serious way in 1981, and the computer giant had its own priorities and a great deal of money and marketing power to back them up. IBM chose the new 8088 chip as the heart of their new PC, and of course they needed an operating system to run on it. Instead of writing their own, as they generally did with a new machine, time and the demands of the market led them to Digital Research's door to license the ubiquitous CP/M for the new IBM-PC.

As the now-famous story goes, Gary Kildall was not there to open that door when IBM came calling -- an avid amateur pilot, he was flying his private plane on a business trip to the Bay area. His wife and business partner, confronted with IBM's imposing code of secrecy and nondisclouse agreements, refused to sign even enough for talks to begin. Rebuffed by what they considered arrogance, the IBMer's went elsewhere -- to Seattle and another small young software firm called Microsoft. A deal was struck there, and as they say, the rest is history.

While DR did finally announce CP/M 3.0, a more full featured successor to the successful 2.2, the upgrade was only for 8080/Z80 based systems which were no longer seen as the coming thing by the public. And CP/M-86 was ported to the IBM-PC, but by that time IBM was practically giving away the new PC-DOS operating system. Except for a diehard core of those that loved it for what it was, CP/M began rapidly to vanish from the land of living operating systems.

But like a ghost from the past, CP/M refuses completely to die. It's familar A> prompt is echoed in the MS-DOS prompt, which is still a part of the Windows and OS/2 DOS boxes today. At a deeper level, the first 36 DOS system calls mirror their CP/M counterparts with a strange concurrance. There were and still are rumors that the original code of MS-DOS 1.0 was copied from CP/M by its designer (who worked for a company called Seattle Computer Products from which it was purchased by Microsoft). Long after the dust had settled, Gary Kildall himself told several interviewers "Ask Bill [Gates] why the string in function 9 is terminated by a dollar sign. Ask him, because he can't answer, only I know that.".

157

Living Room / Win 8 Patent Lawsuit

« on: November 01, 2012, 08:24 PM »

Microsoft’s major new operating system release, Windows 8, is hit by a patent lawsuit. But don’t make the mistake of assuming this is just a patent troll trying to grub some candy.

http://www.zdnet.com...t-lawsuit-7000006713

158

Developer's Corner / FTC to give $50,000 for robocall solution

« on: November 01, 2012, 07:57 PM »

FTC Wants to Give You $50,000 to Stomp out Cellphone Robocalls

 Tired of unsolicited calls using up your cellphone minutes? Do you find yourself running short before the month is over due to them? Do you have what it takes to develop a technology that would prevent robocalls and thereby prevent these type of phone calls from disturbing the recipients? If so, the FTC Director of Consumer Protection believes that the winner could become a national hero with the additional incentive of $50,000 being offered by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) for their efforts. Though the term national hero may be somewhat of an exaggeration, the problem of robocalling is for real. In fact, it continues to flourish despite regulations and legal attempts to stomp out the problem. However, one must know that there are exceptions to the rules, laws, and regulations -- such as the main one, which is designed to protect those individuals who actually opt-in to receive such solicitation. So, while the exceptions are few, telemarketers whose livelihood depends on making phone contact with the public as well as scam artists continue to bombard the public with unwanted calls -- some even disturbing us in the middle of the night.

http://www.lockergno...cellphone-robocalls/

159

Living Room / Ubuntu Linux Amazon Integration & EFF

« on: November 01, 2012, 07:46 PM »

Ubuntu Linux's Amazon integration gets a thumbs-down from the EFF
Online search results should be disabled by default, the advocacy group says.

http://www.pcworld.c...wn-from-the-eff.html

160

Living Room / Early Politicians

« on: October 30, 2012, 08:11 PM »

  And now it's official....

161

Living Room / Data Breach Lawsuits

« on: October 28, 2012, 08:30 PM »

Attorneys Warn of Increased Risk of Big Data Breach Lawsuits
Two attorneys for a prominent law firm warn that courts are starting to look more favorably on class-action lawsuits brought by data breach victims, who historically have had trouble proving actual damages from the thefts.

http://threatpost.co...each-lawsuits-102512

162

Found Deals and Discounts / GOM Media Player Free

« on: October 25, 2012, 07:29 PM »

  Came across this today, sounds like a real nice program.....

Review: GOM Media Player (Free) plays just about anything

GOM Media Player can play back almost any audio or video file, and looks good doing so. This free player is well worth a look.

http://www.pcworld.c...-about-anything.html

163

Living Room / Presidential Campaigns Mining Your Data

« on: October 19, 2012, 08:40 PM »

Presidential Campaigns Mining Your Personal Lives

The New York Times reports that both the Obama and Romney campaigns are mining voters' personal data "at a scale never before imagined."

https://www.nytimes....to-get-out-vote.html

164

Living Room / Warrantless Wiretapping

« on: October 19, 2012, 08:27 PM »

EFF Opposes US's State Secrets Claim (Again) in Warrantless Wiretapping Case

EFF filed its latest brief in the Jewel v. NSA case, aiming to stop the government from engaging in mass warrantless collection of emails, phone calls, and customer records of ordinary Americans. The matter is set for hearing on December 14, 2012 in federal court in San Francisco, on the question of whether these Americans will get their day in court.

https://www.eff.org/...te-secrets-jewel-nsa

165

Living Room / Fusion Centers Useless

« on: October 19, 2012, 08:23 PM »

Senate Report: "Fusion Centers" Invade Innocent Americans' Privacy and Don't Stop Terrorism

The Department of Homeland Security's 70 counterterrrorism "fusion centers" produce "predominantly useless information," "a bunch of crap," while "running afoul of departmental guidelines meant to guard against civil liberties" and are "possibly in violation of the Privacy Act." These may sound like the words of EFF, but in fact, these conclusions come from a new report issued by a US Senate committee.

https://www.eff.org/...sm-centers-dont-stop

166

Living Room / Tracking Brainwaves to Protect Our Borders

« on: October 15, 2012, 08:23 PM »

Surveillance: Tracking Brainwaves to Protect Our Borders

 Ever wonder what it would be like if the person who you are talking to could suddenly read your true thoughts? I know I have and have been very thankful that my thoughts were my own private treasure trove not open for public scrutiny. Well, that one private area of our lives that we have often thought untouchable by others may become a target of our war on terrorism. One might wonder why this is necessary since it seems that Homeland Security has done a fairly good job, since 9/11, of securing our borders. In fact, it seems that our nation is employing an increasingly vigilant military personnel as well as private contractors equipped with the latest in cameras and sensors to actively watch our borders.

http://www.lockergno...tracking-brainwaves/

[I guess the next thing on the agenda is "The Dream Police", and I'm not talking about Cheap Trick either....]

167

Living Room / SOPA Virus

« on: October 13, 2012, 06:36 PM »

SOPA reincarnates to hold your computer hostage

  A new virus is on the loose, don't get fooled.

http://www.zdnet.com...r-hostage-7000005684

168

Living Room / Six Strikes Plan - U.S.

« on: October 12, 2012, 03:31 PM »

Tell ISPs: No Punitive "Six Strikes" Plan -- Or We'll Take Our Business Elsewhere

Here it comes: After months of secret negotiations with the players who pushed SOPA, the major Internet Service Providers on the verge of implementing their "Six Strikes" plan to fight "online infringement".  With essentially no due process, AT&T, Cablevision Systems, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon will get on your case if you're accused of violating intellectual property rights -- and eventually even interfere with your ability to access the Internet.  (You can contest accusations -- if you fork over $35.)

http://act.demandpro...letter/six_strikes/?

169

Living Room / Do Not Track

« on: October 11, 2012, 08:32 PM »

The Do Not Track standard has crossed into crazy territory
The advertising industry wants to change the definition of Do Not Track into something Orwell would be proud of. One influential member of the W3C working group says he's lost the energy to go on. Is it time to kill Do Not Track?

http://www.zdnet.com...territory-7000005502

170

Living Room / U.S. Voucher Program

« on: October 07, 2012, 07:04 PM »

[  Trying to clean up lobbying and the almighty dollar from our politicians....  Methinks it has a snowballs chance in hell of making it through our money-hungry politicians, but just maybe with enough people fighting for it, it will happen...]
 
Time is short: The Supreme Court will take this case up later this month.
Please help us pressure Obama to stand up for consumers before the court takes up this case. 

Ebay, Craiglist, and even yard sales are in the crosshairs.

If you're already on Facebook, click here to share with your friends.
http://facebook.com/...e_obama/%3Fsource=fb

If you're already on Twitter, click here to tweet about the campaign.
http://twitter.com/s...p;via=demandprogress

Or, just email the link to your friends:

http://act.demandpro...IO&source=auto-e

Here's a sample email you can send to your friends:


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friends,

I'm writing to ask you to help make our country a truer democracy. Congressman John Sarbanes (D-MD) just introduced the Grassroots Democracy Act. It's the most ambitious set of ideas for “Citizen Funded Campaigns” that we have seen in many years.

Will you click here to read more and ask your member of Congress to sign on as a co-sponsor?

http://act.demandpro...&source=auto-taf

One of the most interesting aspects of the bill is the creation of what we're calling "Democracy Vouchers". Every voter would get a modest amount of money, in the form of a voucher, to designate to candidates who opt into a public financing system. These candidates would only be allowed to receive small-dollar donations and Democracy Vouchers.

Voters would get to choose which candidates to support with their vouchers, thereby keeping politicians reliant on ordinary Americans for their campaign funds -- not on the wealthy individuals and corporate interests that usually back campaigns.

Please click here to tell your member of Congress to co-sponsor this Democracy Voucher program and the broader Grassroots Democracy Act:

http://act.demandpro...&source=auto-taf

Democracy Vouchers would do so much to empower Internet activists like yourselves: Using forums like Reddit, thousands of Demand Progress members could band together to support a slate of candidates who were dedicated to causes like Internet freedom, civil liberties, and government reform.

These thousands of activists could designate their hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in aggregate vouchers to that slate of candidates, funding the bulk of their campaigns. They'd be accountable to all of you instead of to the less than .2% of Americans and the corporations who usually max-out to candidates -- and call in favors after they get people elected.

These fights are never easy, but the overwhelming majority of Americans -- both progressives and Tea Partiers -- recognize that Washington has been corrupted by the influence of big money. Democracy Vouchers are the sort of plan that we should all be able to get behind -- and if we do, we'll have reclaimed government from the narrow, wealthy interests that we know run Washington today.

Please click here to show your support:

http://act.demandpro...&source=auto-taf

171

Living Room / Promised Land

« on: October 07, 2012, 06:33 PM »

 Over five thousand years ago, Moses said to the children of Israel, "Pick up your shovels, mount your donkeys and camels, and I will lead you to the Promised Land.

Nearly 75 years ago, Roosevelt said, "Lay down your shovels, sit on your donkeys, and light up a Camel. This is the Promised Land."

Today, Congress has stolen your shovels, taxed your donkeys, raised the price of Camels and mortgaged the Promised Land.

That realization is quite depressing. I was so depressed last night thinking about health care plans, the economy, the wars, lost jobs, lost savings, Social Security and retirement funds I called a suicide hotline.

 I had to press 1 for English. I was connected to a call center in Pakistan. I told them I thought I was suicidal. They got excited and asked if I could drive a truck. Folks, we are in deep trouble.

A few closing thoughts:

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.

You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.

   Election day is coming. I’m just sayin’….

____________________________________________

Behind the Pine Curtains is a series of anedotes compiled and edited by Herald-Press Publisher Gary Connor.

172

Living Room / Hunting Badware

« on: October 04, 2012, 08:43 PM »

Security often is discussed in super-serious terms, using metaphors and analogies from the military or medical communities to underscore the gravity of the situation. But the truth is, some of this stuff is pretty funny, and the folks at StopBadware.org know this. To explain the way that attackers use compromised Web sites to infect unsuspecting visitors with malware, the group put together this video featuring actual human people dressed as Web sites.

http://threatpost.co...nting-badware-100312

173

Living Room / Warrantless Spying Increased

« on: October 03, 2012, 09:25 PM »

Justice Department’s warrantless spying increased 600% in the last decade
The Justice Department use of warrantless internet and telephone surveillance methods known as pen register and trap-and-trace has exploded in the last decade, according to government documents the American Civil Liberties obtained via a Freedom of Information Act claim.

http://www.wired.com...-surveillance-stats/

174

Living Room / NSA’s Warrantless Wiretapping Program

« on: October 03, 2012, 09:17 PM »

New Book Details the NSA’s Warrantless Wiretapping Program, As Government Moves to Avoid All Accountability in Court
Former New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald’s new book provides yet more details about how the the NSA’s unconstitutional warrantless wiretapping program came about, and confirms that even top Bush Administration lawyers felt there was a “strong argument” that the program violated the law.

https://www.eff.org/...ment-moves-avoid-all

175

Living Room / New software uses smartphone camera for spying

« on: October 03, 2012, 09:16 PM »

But the gov't says they don't do that.  Compliments of the U.S. Navy...

http://www.washingto...phone-camera-spying/