Recent Posts

451

Living Room / Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras 09

« Last post by Ehtyar on March 08, 2009, 04:54 AM »

Hi all.

It's just so rare that something interesting/cool actually happens in .au (other than filtered internet of course) that I think this deserves a post. Last night (March 7th) was the 31st annual Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras parade, attended by hundreds of thousands of gay, straight, bisexual and transsexual party animals. This year's theme was Nation's United, to raise awareness of Gay and Lesbian rights around the world. The parade itself was hosted by Joan Rivers, and included a live performance by Tina Arena, the biggest selling Australian female artist of all time. I'll let the pics and vids tell the rest, enjoy

Pics (snitched from the BBC here):

Colorful, eh?	The aptly named "Dykes on Bikes".
The "Dancing Cadinals".	Nations United.

Videos:
News coverage on Weekend Sunrise
Snippet of the live coverage

Ehtyar.

452

Living Room / Re: Netvibes - What do you think?

« Last post by Ehtyar on March 07, 2009, 07:37 PM »

At the risk of sounding totally retro, I use the Sage extension under Firefox.

-40hz (March 07, 2009, 11:59 AM)

+1

Ehtyar.

453

Living Room / Tech News Weekly: Edition 10-09

« Last post by Ehtyar on March 07, 2009, 05:57 PM »

The Weekly Tech News

Hi all. No meta-news this week guys. Enjoy As usual, you can find last week's news here.

1. Planet-Hunting Space Telescope Blasts Off

Spoiler

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/keplercountdown.html
Video of launch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g44uA8kKwQ
NASA has launched a new space mission with the objective of locating planets similar to Earth.

A new telescope that will be able to detect earth-like planets around other stars launches Friday night from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 10:49 p.m. Eastern time.

The Kepler Space Telescope is the first human tool that will be able to find planets capable of supporting life as we know it.

"It's not just another science mission. This one has historical significance built into it," Ed Weiler of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters said at a press conference Thursday.

2. Child Porn Suspect Ordered to Decrypt Own Hard Drive

Spoiler

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/03/encryption_password_ruling/
A US District Court Judge has ruled that encrypted content on a hard-disk cannot have the fifth-amendment applied to it, thus those involved in a court case are legally required to decrypt the disk's content. The decision is being appealed.

In a move sure to stoke debates over constitutional protections against self-incrimination in the digital age, a federal judge has ordered a child porn suspect to decrypt his hard drive so prosecutors can inspect its contents.

In a ruling issued last month, US District Judge William Sessions in Vermont ruled criminal defendant Sebastien Boucher does not have a constitutional right to keep the files encrypted. The ruling reversed an earlier decision by a federal magistrate that said forcing Boucher to enter his password into his laptop would violate his Fifth-Amendment rights against self incrimination. Boucher's attorney is appealing Sessions's ruling, according to CNET News, which reported the story earlier.

3. Zero-day Adobe PDF Peril Goes Click Free

Spoiler

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/05/click_free_pdf_peril/
Discussion started by Mouse Man: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=17319.0
Adobe's Acrobat Reader is vulnerable to remote code execution without even opening a document.

An unpatched flaw in Adobe Acrobat and Reader might be exploited without even needing to trick a surfer into opening a maliciously constructed file.

Proof of concept demonstrations of this by security blogger Didier Stevens will increase pressure on Adobe to release a fix ahead of schedule.

4. Conficker Gets Upgraded With Defenses

Spoiler

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/07/conficker_upgrade/
Conflicker is being upgraded with a new module that targets anti-virus software and typical investigatory utilities one might use in the hunt for viruses as well as increasing the number of possible update URLs the bot can contact.

Researchers at Symantec have discovered what could be a significant development in the ongoing Conficker worm saga: a new module that is being pushed out to some infected systems.

In a couple of ways, the new component is designed to harden infected machines against an industry consortium that is actively trying to contain the prolific worm. For one, the update targets antivirus software and security analysis tools to prevent them from removing the malware. Not only does it try to disable anti-malware titles, it also goes after programs such as Wireshare and regmon.

5. Asset Smart Complete: AMD Now Two Separate Companies

Spoiler

http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2009/03/asset-smart-complete-amd-now-two-separate-companies.ars
AMD has now complete its split into two seperate commercial entities. One will deal with R&D, and the other with chip fabrication.

Asset Smart is finished. On Monday, March 2, AMD divested itself of certain manufacturing and corporate assets and formed those assets into a second company. Henceforth, the Fabrication Facilities Formerly Known as AMD will be the property of the imaginatively named Foundry Company.

6. First Look: Qt 4.5 Rocks for Rapid Cross-platform Development

Spoiler

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/03/first-look-qt-45-rocks-for-rapid-cross-platform-development.ars
Qt 4.5 has been released, marking the first time Qt is available under an LGPL license, permitting its use in closed source/commercial applications.

Nokia has announced the availability Qt 4.5, a major update of the popular development toolkit. This version is packed with impressive new features and includes significant performance improvements. Nokia has also delivered the first official release of Qt Creator, a lightweight development environment designed to facilitate rapid construction of Qt applications.

Qt is a cross-platform C++ development framework for graphical application development. It is distributed under an open source license and is supported on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and several mobile operating systems. It was originally created by Trolltech, a Norwegian software company that was acquired last year by Nokia. The toolkit is popular on the Linux platform where it serves as the foundation for the KDE desktop environment and software ecosystem. It is also used by some commercial software developers, including Google, Skype, and Adobe.

7. Security Admin, Botmaster Sentenced to Four Years in Prison

Spoiler

http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/03/security-admin-botmaster-sentenced-to-four-years-in-prison.ars
John Schiefer, security administrator by day, black-hat by night, has been setenced to 4 years in prison for his role in the creation and use of a 250,000-node botnet.

One-time security consultant and significant black hat John Schiefer has been sentenced to four years in federal prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of fraud last April. Schiefer's case began in 2007 when he was charged with having installed malware on computers without the consent of the owner. The responsibilities and permissions granted to Schiefer as a security consultant during his day job afforded him ample opportunity to play black hat on the side; Schiefer and his associates were charged with creating a botnet of up to 250,000 zombies. Both the case and today's ruling are the first of their kind in the United States; presiding Judge Howard Matz apparently wanted to send a strong message to anyone engaged in similar activities.

Schiefer's transgressions were standard; the Department of Justice (DoJ) reported in April that "Schiefer’s...malware allowed him to intercept communications sent between victims’ computers and financial institutions, such as PayPal. Schiefer sifted through those intercepted communications and mined usernames and passwords to accounts...Schiefer made purchases...transferred funds...[and] also gave the stolen usernames and passwords, as well as the wiretapped communications, to others."

8. The Return of L0phtCrack

Spoiler

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2737
L0phtCrack will be returning to active development shortly, with news that a new release is planned for the near future.

More than two years after Symantec pulled the plug on L0phtCrack, the venerable password cracking tool is being prepped for a return to the spotlight.

The original creators of L0phtCrack has reacquired the tool with plans to release a new version at next week’s SOURCE Boston conference.

9. Caching Bugs Exposed in Second Biggest DNS Server

Spoiler

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/28/djbdns_cache_poisoning_vulns/
Believed to be the second most commonly deployed DNS server in the world, djbdns is suspected of being susceptible to cache-poisoning.

For years, cryptographer Daniel J. Bernstein has touted his djbdns as so secure he promised a $1,000 bounty to anyone who can poke holes in the domain name resolution software.

Now it could be time to pay up, as researchers said they've uncovered several vulnerabilities in the package that could lead end users to fraudulent addresses under the control of attackers.

djbdns is believed to be the second most popular DNS program, behind Bind. The bugs show that even the most secure DNS packages are susceptible to attacks that could visit chaos on those who use them.

10. Ninth Circuit Rejects Gov't Appeal in Wiretap Case

Spoiler

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/03/ninth-circuit-rejects-govt-appeal-in-wiretap-case.ars
The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the government must turn over a secret document that allegedly details how the government applied warrantless wiretaps to an Islamic organization it claimed was a terrorist group.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected the government's plea to stay a January ruling allowing an Islamic charity that alleges it was subject to illicit warrantless wiretapping to proceed with its lawsuit. But Obama administration attorneys have signaled that they plan to continue fighting tooth and nail to avoid turning over further information.

The one-paragraph decision by the Ninth Circuit reads, in full:

    We agree with the district court that the January 5, 2009 order is not appropriate for interlocutory appeal. The government’s appeal is DISMISSED for lack of jurisdiction. The government’s motion for a stay is DENIED as moot.

11. Jennifer Love Hewitt Pays Magazine $2.2 Million To Run Photos Of Her Baby

Spoiler

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/jennifer_love_hewitt_pays
This one is for those of you who are sick and tired of hearing about million-dollar sums paid to well known public figures for pictures of their new-borns.

Ehtyar.

454

Living Room / Re: OK - lets get to know each other... who are you, what do you do, where from?

« Last post by Ehtyar on March 07, 2009, 12:48 AM »

Muhahaha, the Aussies are taking over!! Welcome guys (including people from those other countries I suppose...)

Ehtyar.

455

Living Room / Re: Tech News Weekly: Edition 09-09

« Last post by Ehtyar on March 04, 2009, 01:18 PM »

My pleasure guys

Re: 6 -- I've been looking for a replacement for some time, but I still haven't succeeded...I wonder if this will help something turn up.

-ewemoa (March 04, 2009, 06:25 AM)

I've spent more time than I care to admit searching for an alternative. At this point, I'm willing to concede that one doesn't currently exist.

Ehtyar.

456

General Software Discussion / Re: VMWare Workstation 6 released today!!

« Last post by Ehtyar on March 03, 2009, 04:18 PM »

IMO Vmware has a great deal of work to do before they can best the free VirtualBox. They can add all the gimmicks they want, but they're going to have to cut down on that sort of junk to appeal to the masses.

Ehtyar.

457

General Software Discussion / Re: First looks at OpenOffice 3.1

« Last post by Ehtyar on March 02, 2009, 05:45 PM »

I haven't tried 3.1. I'm usually a bleeding-edge man, but OOo is unstable enough IMO.

Ehtyar.

458

General Software Discussion / Re: Anal Program Monitor/Firewall

« Last post by Ehtyar on March 02, 2009, 05:44 PM »

Wow, thanks for all the replies guys. I have a freiend who uses the same firewall and will be trying these out sooner than I. I will report back his findings and mine when I get around to Windows 7

Ehtyar.

459

Developer's Corner / Re: Anyone tried Google Code Search?

« Last post by Ehtyar on March 01, 2009, 04:31 AM »

It's reasonable, certainly more helpful than vanilla Google, but that ain't hard. Personally I get the best results from Koders.com.

Ehtyar.

460

DC Gamer Club / Re: Quake Live

« Last post by Ehtyar on March 01, 2009, 04:29 AM »

Crap, sorry. But just for you Deo, try this

Ehtyar.

461

DC Gamer Club / Quake Live

« Last post by Ehtyar on March 01, 2009, 03:44 AM »

Frankly I'm utterly astounded no one has mentioned this here yet, but I daresay most of you who read the Gamer Club forum regularly are already aware of it. Anyway, for those of you who aren't, ID Software have recently released their Quake Live game into public beta. Quake Live is basically full-blown quake...in your browser. It is fully multiplayer, and can also be played in a "practice" mode against the AI called Crush.

When you first sign up you'll have to install software from ID on your machine. Specifically, a somewhat bothersome Punk Buster service (I can't use Quake Live any more becuase Punk Buster is broken on my machine for some reason, it worked for a few days though). Once you restart your browser you'll have to wait for a half dozen files to downloaded into the browser before you can begin (another 40-odd will download over time, but only the first five are necessary to continue to the next step). Once the initial download is complete, your skill is graded based on your performance in a 1v1 first-to-15 match with Crush. Once that's over, you can begin taking on other players in the matches.

My personal experience with the game was reasonably positive. There were a number of crashes here and there (fewer and fewer toward the public beta release), and most notably the Punk Buster failure, but the game itself was absolutely excellent. Unfortunately, those of us living outside of the United States will have to tolerate higher ping times (on 9mb cable here in .au I was at around 230ms) but I managed to top my team a couple of times, so we can't be that disadvantaged.

Anyway, give it a try guys and let us know how you go

Ehtyar.

462

General Software Discussion / Anal Program Monitor/Firewall

« Last post by Ehtyar on March 01, 2009, 03:32 AM »

Hi all.

For a few years now I've been using a discontinued Firewall called Tiny Firewall. Yes yes, I know, using an unsupported non-updated security program bla-bla-bla. Let's just say it served me very well for the past few years.

My problem now becomes the inevitable shift to Vista/Windows 7, and clearly Tiny Firewall won't be able to follow me. What I really liked about Tiny Firewall was that it was extremely anal. It would prompt for use of a potentially dangerous API, access to an important folder/file, access to an important registry key, access to specific internet ports (though you could manually specify port range/individual port/all port access), installation of drivers and BHOs etc, system privileges. It would allow you to permit these actions once, or permit them always.

I'd really like a product with similar capabilities that I can use on Windows 7 and Vista. If anyone has anything they could suggest that might suit me needs I'd really appreciate a reply below. Unfortunately, UAC just doesn't cut it.

Ehtyar.

463

Living Room / Tech News Weekly: Edition 09-09

« Last post by Ehtyar on February 28, 2009, 08:45 PM »

The Weekly Tech News

Hi all. Thanks to 40hz for #10, definately worth the watch. Also, the article titles are no longer clickable anymore, but are still blue because the black looked absolutely awful. It is my hope that Mouse Man will finally get me my javascript on the forum and I can make the titles expand the spoilers and get rid of those hideous buttons. As usual, you can find last week's news here.

1. Attackers Targeting Unpatched Vulnerability in Excel 2007

Spoiler

http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/02/24/Attackers_targeting_unpatched_vulnerability_in_Excel_2007_1.html
A zero-day in various versions of Microsoft Excel are being actively exploited in the wild. According to Symantec, early versions of the exploit are installing Trojan.Mdropper.AC. The next patch-tuesday will not be until March 9.

Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet program has a zero-day vulnerability that attackers are exploiting on the Internet.

A zero-day vulnerability is one that does not have a patch and is actively being used to attack computers when it is publicly revealed. Microsoft said Tuesday that it plans to patch the issue, but did not say when. The company's next set of security patches are set to be released March 9.

"At this time, we are aware only of limited and targeted attacks that attempt to use this vulnerability," wrote Microsoft Spokesman Bill Sisk in a blog posting. "We are developing a security update for Microsoft Office that addresses this vulnerability."

2. Conficker Variant Dispenses With Need to Phone Home

Spoiler

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/23/conficker_variant/
A very nice technical write-up: http://mtc.sri.com/Conficker/
Yet another Conflicker (Downadup) variant, Conficker B++, has been found in the wild. The new update permits the authors of the worm to distribute updates from any website on the internet as opposed to only those on the pre-programmed update site list.

Virus authors have released a new variant of the infamous Conficker (Downadup) worm with enhanced auto-update features.

The changes in the new strain of the malware, dubbed Conficker B++, make it possible for malware authors to push out new code without publishing it on pre-programmed sites, as with earlier variants. The earlier approach has been frustrated by the recent formation of an alliance led by Microsoft geared up to block and take down sites associated with the worm.

3. Unofficial Patch Plugs 0-day Adobe Security Vuln.

Spoiler

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/24/unofficial_adobe_patch/
Thanks to Adobe playing the part of Johnny-come-lately with the latest vulnerability in its Acrobat Reader product, security researchers have come together to publish an unofficial patch which can be applied prior to Adobe releasing an official patch on March 11.

Security researchers have developed an unofficial patch for a zero-day Adobe Acrobat and Reader vulnerability that's become the subject of hacker attacks.

Adobe acknowledged the vulnerability last week but said an official patch wouldn't be available until 11 March.

This three week window of vulnerability before an update becomes available is all the more serious because hackers have created a exploit, Shadowserver reports. Malicious PDF's in circulation exploit a vulnerability in a function call not related to JavaScript. JavaScript is used in the malicious PDF but only to "fill the heap with shellcode" (ie to crank up the attack), Shadowserver explains.

4. Key Backer's Change of Heart Endangers Aussie 'Net Filtering

Spoiler

http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/02/key-backers-change-of-heart-endangers-aussie-net-filtering.ars
Finally, (though he is quite the flip-flop when it suits him) someone has had the sense to call the Australian government on their atrociously ill-advised plan to monitor the internet usage of Australian citizens.

Australia's controversial plan to implement a mandatory ISP filtering system may crash into a big brick wall after a backer effectively changed teams. Senator Nick Xenophon was previously in favor of a system that would run all citizens' Internet connections through a filter for "illegal" content because it might have also blocked access to online gambling sites. As more and more concerns about the workability of the ambitious plan have been raised, however, he has decided that there are too many unanswered questions and now says he will move to block any legislation that comes through.

The Australian government first revealed its filtering initiative in 2007, which was met with widespread public outcry. Despite this, Australia moved forward with its plans and began testing the system in Tasmania in February of 2008. At the time, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said that the filters would be enabled by default and that consumers would have to request unfiltered connectivity if they wished to opt-out of the program.

5. ICANN Report: New GTLD Program Riddled With Problems, Delayed

Spoiler

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/icann-releases-new-gtld-guidelines.ars
ICANN is inching closer to seeing the light, having delayed the implementation of their expanded gTLD program until December.

You know that $185,000 you've been saving up to register .zomgilovearstechnica as your very own generic Top Level Domain (gTLD)? It looks like you'll have to wait a bit longer. On Thursday, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers released a revised version of its draft guide to expanded gTLD applications, along with a lengthy analysis of the voluminous comments and critiques they received in response to the first draft. To give themselves time to process a second round of comments, ICANN will push off implementation of the plan from September to December of this year.

Last year, ICANN's directors voted unanimously to move forward with an ambitious plan to massively expand the Net's system of generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs). The proposal would allow anyone able to fork over a princely application fee, along with annual maintenance charges of $75,000, to add their very own gTLD—such as .arstechnica or .blog or .riverrunpasteveandadams—to the familiar roster of 21 existing domain extensions, such as .com and .org. But ICANN's first-draft guidelines for new domains generated an avalanche of critical comments—not least from the US government. It has released a second draft that seeks to address some of those criticisms, as well as a 154-page analysis of the comments they've received—but some critics say the central problems with the proposal remain.

6. EU Group Aims to Eavesdrop On Skype Calls

Spoiler

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/eu-group-aims-to-eavesdrop-on-skype-calls.ars
It seems Skype is becoming ever more the thorn in Intelligence Agencies sides, prevent them from eavesdropping on calls with it's proprietary encryption and p2p connection system.

As high-tech tools expand the ability of intelligence and law enforcement agencies to sweep up and sort vast quantities of communications traffic, European Union officials worry that encrypted Voice over IP technologies like Skype are leaving criminals with a digital hole in the telecom dragnet. In a statement released this weekend, the Italian arm of the European Union's judicial cooperation agency, Eurojust, announced it would lead an international effort to "overcome the technical and judicial obstacles to the interception of internet telephony systems."

The statement singled out Luxembourg-based Skype as presenting particular problems, because "Skype's encryption system is a secret which the company refuses to share with the authorities." Eurojust officials told reporters that the new initiative comes at the request of Italian authorities concerned that organized crime was resorting to encrypted Skype communications to evade eavesdropping.

7. New Zealand P2P Disconnection Plan Delayed After Outcry

Spoiler

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/new-zealand-p2p-disconnection-plan-delayed-after-outcry.ars
New Zelanders have banded together and forced their government to delay the implementation of their P2P internet cutoff plan.

As an Internet blackout hit blogs across New Zealand today, the government announced that it would postpone the implementation of its hugely controversial "graduated response" law for dealing with (and eventually disconnecting) repeat P2P copyright infringers.

New Zealand's 1984 Copyright Act was last year amended in numerous ways, but the most controversial has certainly been new section 92A. "An Internet service provider must adopt and reasonably implement a policy that provides for termination, in appropriate circumstances, of the account with that Internet service provider of a repeat infringer," it says.

8. Microsoft Suit Over FAT Patents Could Open OSS Pandora's Box

Spoiler

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/02/microsoft-sues-tomtom-over-fat-patents-in-linux-based-device.ars
Discussion thread by Edvard: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=17212
Microsoft have, for the first time, enforced their patent on the FAT filesystem against navigation device maker TomTom. Several of the products involved are Linux-based.

Microsoft has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against navigation device maker TomTom. The suit alleges that several of TomTom's products, including some that are Linux-based, infringe on a handful of Microsoft's patents. Several of the patents in question relate to car computing systems and navigation, but there are also two that cover Microsoft's FAT32 filesystem. If Microsoft begins to systematically enforce its FAT32 patents, it could have broad ramifications for the Linux platform and for mobile device makers.

The lawsuit, which was reported today at Todd Bishop's Microsoft blog, is thought to be the first time that Microsoft has directly targeted Linux with patent litigation. In an interview with Bishop, Microsoft deputy general counsel for intellectual property Horacio Gutierrez claims that this is not the beginning of a broader intellectual property campaign against Linux. Gutierrez characterizes the lawsuit as a last resort option that Microsoft is pursuing after attempting to negotiate a private settlement with TomTom for over a year.

9. Supreme Court Whacks DSL Antitrust Suit Against AT&T

Spoiler

http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/02/supreme-court-whacks-dsl-antitrust-suit-against-att.ars
US ISP AT&T have been saved from an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the company is engaging in price squeesing by charging higher rates to wholesale buyers than retail customers by a Supreme Courty Judge who threw the case out.

The Supreme Court has unanimously rejected a lawsuit against AT&T charging that the telco engaged in "price squeezing" against smaller Internet providers. A group of carriers led by Linkline Communications complained that the DSL giant charges high rates for wholesale access and low rates to consumers, effectively pushing competitors out of the market.

But the Supremes ruled on Wednesday that AT&T had "no duty to deal" with these carriers, at least as far as the Sherman Anti-Trust Act is concerned. The key to this logic is that while the Sherman Act forbids a company from monopolizing trade or commerce, it doesn't force the business to sell its services to other firms.

10. A Mermaid's Tale (Thanks 40hz)

Spoiler

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4203291a6442.html
Video: http://tvnz.co.nz/close-up/a-mermaids-tale-4-50-2502188/video
New Zealand physical effects lab Weta Workshop have created a fully functional Mermaid tail for a double amputee that will be used to allow her to swim.

Ms Vessey approached Weta with the ambition of making a tail that was both practical and beautiful, a task that proved to be a pleasing challenge for our team.

The unique articulated construction of the tail will allow Vessey to propel herself through the water with an undulating movement as if she was a mermaid.

11. The Matrix Runs On Windows (Thanks 40hz)

Spoiler

http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2009/02/27/the-matrix-runs-on-windows/
For those that haven't been watching the silly humour thread (I highly recommend you do), here's one of the best ones so far.

Ehtyar.

464

General Software Discussion / Re: First looks at OpenOffice 3.1

« Last post by Ehtyar on February 27, 2009, 05:17 PM »

In the interest of simplicity, use the portable version of OOo for this as there's some DLL hell that needs to be sorted out which Haller has already done (stupid fsking visual c++ 9).
1. Take the 'App\openoffice' folder from the portable installation and place it where you want your OO installation to be. Rename it if you like.
2. Go into the 'program' folder inside the 'openoffice' folder and delete 'setup.ini'.
3. Open 'bootstrap.ini' and change the line 'UserInstallation=$SYSUSERCONFIG/OpenOffice.org/3' to 'UserInstallation=${OOO_BASE_DIR}/../Settings'.
4. Done Your settings will now live in 'openoffice\Settings'.

Note: This does not take into account use of Java as the way OOo handles finding it is COMPLETE AND UTTER BULLS**T.

Ehtyar.

465

General Software Discussion / Re: First looks at OpenOffice 3.1

« Last post by Ehtyar on February 27, 2009, 03:25 PM »

Once again John Haller had made an application "portable" that can be made so by a few configuration file modifications. If anyone's interested I'll post the instructions. They would remove the delay fenix mentioned because there would be no importing of settings and registry keys.

Ehtyar.

466

Living Room / Re: Incredible photo from Australian wildfires

« Last post by Ehtyar on February 26, 2009, 09:49 PM »

It's not about prevention of the fires, it's about protection of communities in the path of the fires. No one is saying we should run around burning down a third of Australia's bushland annually as that article suggests, we're suggesting the outskirts of rural communities be purged, at times when fire is more controllable, of fuel buildup to prevent the loss of homes and lives.

Ehtyar.

467

General Software Discussion / Re: Why Windows must go open source

« Last post by Ehtyar on February 26, 2009, 04:03 PM »

A lengthy bit of media trawling IMO. This plain and simply is not going to happen, at least on the scale the article promotes.

Ehtyar.

468

General Software Discussion / Re: Another Google WTF moment (or is it just me?)

« Last post by Ehtyar on February 26, 2009, 04:14 AM »

No Google cookies ftw!

Ehtyar.

469

General Software Discussion / Linux on Windows (Sans Cygwin or VM)

« Last post by Ehtyar on February 26, 2009, 12:50 AM »

If you're like me and very much appreciate the Linux philosophy and the endless stream of useful utilities that go hand-in-hand with it, but are stuck on Windows for whatever reason, you'd probably love a way to use common Linux software on Windows. For quite a while now, Cygwin has been available, which provides a near complete port of Linux software to Windows. For some, it's too bloated and heavy, for others too developer-centric, and yet for others is impractical because it requires admin privileges to run and isn't portable.

For some time now I've been using the MinGW gnu toolchain on Windows. gcc may not be the best compiler around, but I believe it does an excellent job given that it's free (you really need the 4.x branch for a lot of the good stuff). Generally speaking, the MSYS environment goes hand-in-hand with MinGW, becuase it allows you to run those painful 'configure' scripts and makefiles that come with a good portion of open source software (at least the cross-platform stuff anyway).

Recently, I've been using Ubuntu on my MSI Wind and have discovered the true depth of the Linux command line. I was ecstatic to find that MSYS as provided by the installer is but a subset of the available utilities. If you get yourself to the download section (two links there) on sourceforge for MinGW you'll find all the most commonly used Linux command line tools available for MSYS, which can be used standalone to provide a Linux-like shell that is fully portable and integrates well with the Windows file system without requiring administrator privileges.

Now, as if this were not enough to keep the geekiest of the geeks happy playing with his new toys for weeks, KDE (K Desktop Environment), being that it's written atop Qt, have begun porting their application suite to Windows (overview). Downloading only those apps considered "stable" by the dev team, I have over 80 KDE apps sitting in my start menu at the moment (don't tell the boss, but 33 of them are games ). It also appears to be portable (though I haven't tested it extensively yet).

Hope you all enjoy, Ehtyar.

470

Developer's Corner / Re: What is the .NET 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5 market share?

« Last post by Ehtyar on February 23, 2009, 04:19 PM »

Indeed there is a member on the irc channel still struggling along on 64k. Is he being stubborn in not installing a 200mb framework?

Ehtyar.

471

Developer's Corner / Re: What is the .NET 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5 market share?

« Last post by Ehtyar on February 23, 2009, 03:56 PM »

All good conversation don't get me wrong, but are there any actual figures on adoption of .net? Perhaps also in comparison to comparable frameworks? I'd be very interested to see some.

Ehtyar.

472

Living Room / Re: Incredible photo from Australian wildfires

« Last post by Ehtyar on February 23, 2009, 03:07 AM »

Another update.

The death toll today officially stands at 210. There are still several fires burning out of control across Victoria continuing to threaten homes having destroyed over 1800 already.

Yesterday was the national day of mourning for those affected by the fires with a mass ceremony held in Melbourne, Victoria's state capital.

Some good appears to have come from the fires, with the announcement of a (long overdue) Royal Commission into the Government's bushfire strategy. In other good news, the Red Cross has raised over $100 million in an appeal for the victims of the bushfires.

However, there has been further bad news revealed in the past few days.

It has been brought to the public's attention that 38 (yes, three - eight) signatures from various individuals/organizations are required to gain permission for but a single controlled burn. On top of that, there have been claims that authorities have come into a habbit of "bartering" with those applying for burns, asking them to reduce the size of the burn in exchange for a swifter approval.

It has also been revealed that a 2003 report into bushfire prevention stated that controlled burns were the most prevalent and effective method fighting bushfires. By the time the final version of the report was published, all mention of controlled burning had been stripped from the document.

Utterly contemptible.

Ehtyar.

473

Living Room / Re: Meme time! Five Things People Don't Know About Me

« Last post by Ehtyar on February 23, 2009, 12:43 AM »

1. I can say the alphabet backward as easily as I can forward.

-Ehtyar (February 20, 2009, 06:39 PM)

Yes, but the question then becomes "how difficult is it for you to say the alphabet forward?"

-Deozaan (February 21, 2009, 01:50 AM)

Lol, I can say the alphabet as well as anyone else I know. i.e. I have no problem saying the alphabet forwards.

2. When eating ice cream from a bowl, I stir it to a paste before eating it. My favorite flavor is mint choc-chip.

-Ehtyar (February 20, 2009, 06:39 PM)

I did this a few times as a kid with vanilla ice cream and food coloring to get red, green, yellow, or blue ice cream. I didn't do it very frequently because I often didn't have the patience with a treat in front of me to wait for it to melt enough to become a paste.

-Deozaan (February 21, 2009, 01:50 AM)

Yeah once or twice that has gotten the best of me, but 99% of the time this is how i eat my icecream from a bowl.

Ehtyar.

474

Living Room / Tech News Weekly: Edition 08-09

« Last post by Ehtyar on February 21, 2009, 05:11 PM »

The Weekly Tech News

Hi all. Nothing funny this week I'm afraid...The Onion seem to have a habbit of producing one awesome video followed some in realy poor taste. Sorry for the screw-up with naming last week's news, you can find it here.

1. SafeNet Demonstrates OMA DRM-compliant Android Smartphone

Spoiler

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/safenet-demonstrates-oma-drm-compliant-android-smartphone,720107.shtml
SafeNet’s DRM Fusion Agent open-standards DRM system has made its way to Android.

SafeNet, Inc., a global leader in information security, today announced the availability of its complete suite of open standards-based Digital Rights Management (DRM) and Mobile TV protection solutions for the Open Handset Alliance’s (OHA) Android platform. A live demonstration of SafeNet’s DRM Fusion Agent, deployed on Android, will be showcased daily at the 2009 Mobile World Congress.

“SafeNet’s DRM Fusion Agent seamlessly integrates with the Android platform and application framework,” said Simon Blake-Wilson, managing director, embedded security solutions, SafeNet. “Pre-integration with today’s leading mobile operating systems, including Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and RTOS-based feature phone platforms, as well as with Windows PCs, continues to make SafeNet’s DRM Fusion Agent the ideal solution for reducing cost and time to market for the world’s leading device and handset manufacturers.”

2. Bot Busts Newest Hotmail CAPTCHA

Spoiler

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9128201
Hotmail's newest CAPTCHA will slow hackers down (20% success), but not by enough.

Spammers have cracked Microsoft Corp.'s latest defense against abuse of its Live Hotmail e-mail service using a sophisticated network of hacked computers that receive encrypted instructions from a central server, a security company has reported.

The botnet, or collection of compromised PCs, can decipher Live Hotmail's CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) registration safeguard in about 20 seconds, said Websense Inc. researcher Sumeet Prasad.

3. Satellite-hacking Boffin Sees the Unseeable

Spoiler

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/17/satellite_tv_hacking/
Confirmation of what most of us would have already known...you can ready anything that's not encrypted sent via satellite with off-the-shelf hardware.

White-hat hacker Adam Laurie knows better than to think email, video-on-demand, and other content from Sky Broadcasting and other satellite TV providers is a private matter between him and the company. That's because he's spent the past decade monitoring satellite feeds and the vast amount of private information they leak to anyone with a dish.

"Looking at what kind of data you can see being broadcast, some of that is quite surprising," he says. "Things you would expect to be secure turn out not to be secure. The most worrying thing is you can just see all this data going by."

4. New In-the-wild Attack Targets Fully-patched Adobe Reader

Spoiler

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/20/adobe_reader_exploit/
Discission thread by Mouser: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=17119
Malicious PDFs are spreading a trojan known as Gh0st RAT through a newly discovered vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat.

Security watchers are warning of a serious unpatched vulnerability in Adobe's Reader program that's actively being exploited to install malware on the PCs of unsuspecting users.

The vulnerability has been confirmed in versions 8.1.3 and 9.0.0 of Adobe Reader running on Windows XP Service Pack 3 and is presumed to work on other versions of Windows as well, according to this advisory from Shadowserver. Adobe for machines running Linux and Apple's OS X were not tested, but may also be vulnerable, Shadowserver's Steven Adair said.

5. State Bill Would Turn RFID Researchers Into Felons

Spoiler

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/20/nevada_rfid_skimming_bill/
Because...you know...prohibition is bound to fix the RFID problem...

The sponsor of a controversial bill before the Nevada legislature has promised to introduce amendments after security experts and civil libertarians warned it would make felons of people studying privacy threats involving RFID, or radio frequency identification.

In its present form, Senate Bill 125 (PDF) would make it a felony for anyone to possess, read or capture the personally identifying RFID information of others without their consent. Without changes, the legislation would prevent the testing and demonstrating of RFID weaknesses in a state that hosts Defcon and Black Hat, the biggest hacker conference and one of the biggest security conferences respectively.

6. New Attacks On IE7 Go Wild

Spoiler

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/17/internet_explorer_attacks_go_wild/
For the techies: http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=5884
An RCE flaw in IE7 is being actively exploited in the wild to steal users data or surreptitiously install software.

Cybercriminals have begun attacking a critical hole that Microsoft patched in its Internet Explorer 7 browser last week, corroborating the company's warning that the vulnerability would be easy to exploit.

The exploit code is spread through a booby trapped Word document that ultimately installs information-stealing malware on unpatched machines, according to researchers. The vulnerability is one of two IE flaws Microsoft patched last week. The company warned at the time that "consistent exploit code" for the remote execution flaws was likely.

7. Wikileaks Forced to Leak Its Own Secret Info

Spoiler

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/02/wikileaks-force.html
Oops, an accidental CC instead of BCC has caused Wikileaks to leak their own donor list to the public.

What's Wikileaks, the net's foremost document leaking site, supposed to do when a whistle-blower submits a list of email addresses belonging to the site's confidential donors as a leaked document?

That's exactly the conundrum Wikileaks faced this week after someone from the controversial whistle-blowing site sent an emergency fund-raising appeal on Saturday to previous donors. But instead of hiding email addresses from the recipients by using the bcc field, the sender put 58 addresses into the cc field, revealing all the addresses to all the recipients.

8. Kiwi "three Strikes" Law Countered With "Internet Blackout"

Spoiler

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/kiwi-three-strikes-law-countered-with-internet-blackout.ars
In protest of the coming "three strikes" law to come into effect February 28, New Zealanders are proposing an "internet blackout" where New Zealand internet users will replace their home pages with a black page.

Perhaps taking a cue from New Zealand rugby team the All Blacks, a group of Kiwi artists and activists are calling for an "Internet Blackout" to protest the country's coming "three strikes" law.

The Creative Freedom Foundation believes that copyright infringement is wrong, but it argues that the proposed penalty (ISP disconnection) doesn't fit the crime, especially since the New Zealand law only relies on evidence and allegations from copyright holders; the law makes no provision for judicial oversight or any other sort of process to contest the evidence of P2P copyright infringement. It goes into effect on February 28.

9. Sun Targets Flash, Brings JavaFX to Mobile Devices

Spoiler

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/02/sun-brings-javafx-to-mobile-devices.ars
An interesting move by Sun sees them competing directly with Adobe on the mobile platform.

Sun is bringing its JavaFX development framework to mobile devices. The latest release of the JavaFX SDK, version 1.1, offers full support for mobile JavaFX development and includes an emulator for testing mobile device compatibility. The move could help Java retain its relevance on handhelds as rival Adobe works to boost the popularity of Flash and AIR for mobile development.

JavaFX, which was first announced in 2007 and rolled out to the public in December 2008, is a framework for building rich Internet applications on top of Java. It includes a scene graph library and a unique scripting language that provides a declarative syntax for constructing sophisticated graphical user interfaces. Its graphics capabilities include support for animation, visual effects, gradients, and translucency.

10. Feds Propose Storing Internet User Data for 2 Years

Spoiler

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/02/feds-propose-st.html
In a stunt one might have expected from the English government, the US government is proposing legislation that would require data associated with any dynamically assigned IP address to be retained for a minimum of two years.

In the name of combating child pornography, federal lawmakers are proposing that internet users' online surfing habits be retained for two years.

The so-called "Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth Act of 2009," or SAFETY Act,  was floated in both the House and Senate on Thursday.

Among other things, it demands: "A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least two years all records or other information pertaining to the identity of a user of a temporarily assigned network address the service assigns to that user."

11. Pirate Bay Joy at Charge Change

Spoiler

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7895026.stm
As many were likely aware, the trial of the administrators of The Pirate Bay began earlier this week. SHortly after the trial began, however, half of the charges have been dropped by the prosecution.

Swedish prosecutors dropped charges relating to "assisting copyright infringement" leaving the lesser charges of "assisting making available copyright material" on trial day two.

Pirate Bay co-founder Frederik Neij said it showed prosecutors had misunderstood the technology.

The music industry played down the changes as "simplifying the charges".

12. How the Feds Shook Hands With an Internet Pedophile

Spoiler

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/20/rise_and_fall_of_digerati/
A rather disturbing insight into the nastier side of plea bargaining, and how knowing the right information can get you out of almost anything. This is a long one guys, and only tech related on the surface, but it was a very good read and is a good alternative to a video ('coz the last two Onions sucked) I think.

As former moderators for an internet relay channel dedicated to hacking, Francine Campbell and Sterlin Ward have seen some of the net's darker quarters. But nothing prepared them for their group's encounter with an internet pedophile who called himself Digerati.

After the hacker repeatedly propositioned channel members as young as 13 to engage in graphic webcam sex, Campbell and Ward alerted the FBI and officials at the University of Pennsylvania, where Digerati attended classes and got his internet access. Digerati - whose real name is Ryan Goldstein - was eventually prosecuted, but the experience left the channel elders - and some law-enforcement experts - critical of what they characterize as a Faustian deal

Ehtyar.

475

Developer's Corner / Re: Beautiful Code: In your opinion, what makes code Beautiful?

« Last post by Ehtyar on February 21, 2009, 03:38 PM »

To me, beautiful code is more about formatting than length/brevity. Improperly indented code is awful. Code with the {{}{}{}}{{}{}}{} syndrome is disgusting (ala tcl). Though I must admit, code like Perl, where you can do the most outrageous ridiculous things on one line is truly fascinating and beautiful to me.

Ehtyar.