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Living Room / Re: Gadgets that make you look like a jerk
« Last post by Ehtyar on January 23, 2009, 02:07 PM »Can we drop the "accessories" from "Ipod accessories"? 
Ehtyar.
Ehtyar.
Recent Posts
#1: your link to MS08-067 is broken and I'm too lazy to google it myself.Thank you, fixed.-Deozaan (January 18, 2009, 02:46 PM)
#10: Live-streaming a trial? Seems interesting, but what's the purpose?The purpose is simply to expose the hypocrisy and pointlessness of the RIAA piracy lawsuits.-Deozaan (January 18, 2009, 02:46 PM)
#11: I don't get the joke.I'll pretend I didn't read that-Deozaan (January 18, 2009, 02:46 PM)
| Hi all. Keep an eye out for No. 1 everyone, looks like it could get out of hand pretty quickly. Enjoy this week's news As usual, you can find last week's news here. |
A worm that spreads through low security networks, memory sticks, and PCs without the latest security updates is posing a growing threat to users.
The malicious program, known as Conficker, Downadup, or Kido was first discovered in October 2008.
Although Microsoft released a patch, it has gone on to infect 3.5m machines.
The latest Windows release will be available to everyone after a surge in demand crashed the Microsoft website on 9 January, the original release date.
In response, the company has lifted a planned limit on the number of copies of the Windows 7 Beta available for download.
Microsoft delayed the launch by one day to add "more infrastructure and servers" to cope with demand.
The U.K. Ministry of Defence is in the midst of an electronic fight with a computer virus that rapidly spread through its computer networks starting Jan. 6.
The virus infected computers throughout the military, including those used by the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, and is one of the most severe attacks the organization has ever faced, according to a Ministry of Defence spokeswoman.
A team of security researchers have developed a technique for automatically purging the remnants of the Storm worm infection from the internet. But the approach - which involves turning the botnet's command and control system against itself - could run foul of computer hacking laws in Germany and elsewhere, which ban the modification of computer systems without consent.
Nonetheless, the work of the team from Bonn University and RWTH Aachen University have advanced knowledge about how botnets (networks of compromised zombie PCs) are established and maintained that could advance the development of more acceptable tracking and take-down techniques.
Research in Motion (RIM) has published a patch that fixes a pair of critical flaws in the way BlackBerry servers handle malformed PDF files.
The two related security updates address vulnerabilities in the PDF Distiller of the BlackBerry Attachment Service for BlackBerry Unite and BlackBerry Enterprise Server, respectively. As a result of the bugs, hackers might be able to inject hostile code onto computer systems running the BlackBerry Attachment Service, providing they can trick the user of a BlackBerry smartphone into opening a maliciously crafted PDF attachment, contained in an email message sent to them.
Microsoft started 2009 by fixing just one security flaw in its software; this month's Patch Tuesday only had a single security bulletin, MS09-001.
The security update kills three birds with one stone: two privately reported vulnerabilities and one publicly disclosed vulnerability. This is possible since all three problems, which could allow remote code execution and give an attacker full user rights, are found in the Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has begun a new campaign to get the public to complain to lawmakers about the limitations of locked mobile phones. The new site, FreeYourPhone.org, encourages citizens to sign a petition going to the US Copyright Office in support of the EFF's recent push for an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which it hopes will offer legal protection to phone users who have jailbroken or unlocked their devices.
The EFF submitted the exemption request back in December as part of the Copyright Office's triennial DMCA exemption reconsideration. In addition to phone jailbreaks and unlocks, the EFF asked for exemptions from the DMCA for YouTube's "remix culture," and university libraries across the country asked for more rights for using DVDs in classroom settings.
For millions of Apple fans, Steve Jobs is irreplaceable. But if there's one man Jobs himself trusts to stand in his shoes, it is his second in command, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook.
With Jobs on medical leave until June, Cook will be leading the team at Apple. And it is likely that when Jobs leaves Apple, it will be Cook he will anoint as the new CEO of the company.
"Tim runs Apple," says Michael Janes, the first general manager of Apple's online store and now co-founder of ticketing search engine FanSnap, "and he has been running Apple for a long time now."
The incoming Obama administration will vigorously defend congressional legislation immunizing U.S. telecommunication companies from lawsuits about their participation in the Bush administration's domestic spy program.
That was the assessment Thursday by Eric Holder, President-elect Barack Obama's choice for attorney general, who made the statement during his confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. A court challenge questioning the legality of the legislation is pending in U.S. District Court in San Francisco -- where the judge in the case wanted to know what the Obama administration's position was.
A federal judge has agreed to a novel request: streaming parts of an upcoming file-sharing trial over the Internet. Judge Nancy Gertner has granted the request of Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson and students to put the gavel-to-gavel footage on the Internet for any non-commercial use, over the RIAA's objections. But only on a one-time basis.
Joel Tenenbaum's first strategy for dealing with an RIAA settlement letter wasn't real helpful: he called them up and offered $500 instead of $3,500. His offer was rejected. When the case actually went to court, Tenenbaum tried to settle again, this time for $5,000, but by then the RIAA wanted $10,500.