[Slashdot] Stories for 2007-06-01 ======================================================================
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======================================================================

Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
    * P2P Networks Supplement Botnets
    * First Nations Want Cellphone Revenue
    * Google Gears is Launched
    * Mass Deletion Leads To LiveJournal Revolt
    * Sci-fi Writers Join War on Terror
    * Spammer Robert Soloway Arrested
    * Hijacking Firefox Via Insecure Add-Ons
    * Next Windows To Get Multicore Redesign
    * Doctor Who To Be Axed, Again
    * Syncing Music Players In Linux?
    * Jobs and Gates Chat Amicably
    * Fedora 7 Released
    * Pitting a Mac Plus Against an AMD Dual Core
    * Shutting Down Annoying Recruiters?
    * Germany Declares Hacking Tools Illegal
    * A Look at BSD Rootkits
    * Democracy Player Receives $100K Grant From Mozilla
    * Microsoft Sees No Conflicts With Patent Initiatives
    * A Look Beneath the 'Surface'
    * MLB Says Slingbox Illegal, CEA Thinks Otherwise
    * The IT Department as Corporate Snoop?
    * Flawed Survey Suggests XP More Secure Than Vista
    * City Almost Loses 450K to Keylogger

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| P2P Networks Supplement Botnets                                    |
|   from the share-you-bot dept.                                     |
|   posted by samzenpus on Wednesday May 30, @20:58 (The Internet)   |
|   http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/003207            |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

stuckinarut writes "Peer to peer file sharing network popularity is at an
all time high, with hundreds of thousands of computers connected to a
single P2P network at a given time. [0]These networks are increasingly
being used to trick PCs into attacking other machines, experts say. In
fact, some reports indicate that peer-to-peer may actually exceed web
traffic. Computer scientists have previously shown how P2P networks can
be subverted so that several connected PCs gang up to attack a single
machine, flooding it with enough traffic to make it crash. This can work
even if the target is not part of the P2P network itself. Now, security
experts are warning that P2P networks are increasingly being used to do
just this. "Until January of this year we had never seen a peer-to-peer
network subverted and used for an attack," says Darren Rennick of
internet security company Prolexic in an [1]advisory released recently.
"We now see them constantly being subverted.""

Discuss this story at:
    http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/003207

Links:
    0. http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=dn11949&feedId=online-news_rss20
    1. http://www.prolexic.com/news/20070514-alert.php


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| First Nations Want Cellphone Revenue                               |
|   from the the-great-spirit-wants-his-cut dept.                    |
|   posted by samzenpus on Wednesday May 30, @22:12 (Communications) |
|   http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/30/235203               |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Peacenik45 writes "The CBC is reporting that First Nations in Manitoba
want [0]compensation for every cell phone signal that passes through
their land because it violates their airspace. The Assembly of Manitoba
Chiefs recently resolved to negotiate revenue sharing with Manitoba
Telecom Services. Ovide Mercredi of the Grand Rapids First Nations says
"When it comes to using airspace, it's like using our water and simply
because there's no precedent doesn't mean that it's not the right thing
to do." This move may inspire First Nations in other provinces to follow
suit."

Discuss this story at:
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/30/235203

Links:
    0. http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/05/30/manitoba-cellphone.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Google Gears is Launched                                           |
|   from the google-google-google dept.                              |
|   posted by samzenpus on Wednesday May 30, @23:34 (Google)         |
|   http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/017216    |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Mister Inbetween writes "Google is rolling out a technology designed
to overcome the major drawback faced by all web-based applications: the
fact that they don't work without an internet connection. [1]Google Gears
is an open source technology for creating offline web applications that
is being launched today at Google's annual Developer Day gatherings
around the world."

Discuss this story at:
    http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/017216

Links:
    0. mailto:shutch@gmail.com
    1. http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/gears-puts-google-in-the-drivers-seat/2007/05/31/1180205350391.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Mass Deletion Leads To LiveJournal Revolt                          |
|   from the we're-not-gonna-take-it dept.                           |
|   posted by samzenpus on Thursday May 31, @01:13 (Censorship)      |
|   http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/0329200          |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Green Monkey writes "LiveJournal has been [1] suspending accounts
suspected of promoting incest ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ except that many of them were communities
for survivors of abuse and people discussing Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.
Even after being informed of the problem, LiveJournal apparently refuses
to reinstate the banned accounts. LiveJournal's official news blog has
[2]filled up with hundreds of complaints protesting the decision, so we
could have another Digg-style user rebellion brewing." Update: 05/31
11:50 GMT by [3]KD : [4]strredwolf writes to let us know that in their
offical blog [5]LiveJournal admits to botching the suspension, saying "We
made a mistake and now we are going to try to fix it."

Discuss this story at:
    http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/0329200

Links:
    0. http://www.lakupo.com/fritz/
    1. http://news.com.com/Mass+deletion+sparks+LiveJournal+revolt/2100-1025_3-6187619.html?tag=st.numpermanently
    2. http://news.livejournal.com/98960.html?page=6#comments
    3. http://slashdot.org/~kdawson/
    4. mailto:slashdot@stalag99.net
    5. http://news.livejournal.com/99159.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Sci-fi Writers Join War on Terror                                  |
|   from the lie-detecting-phase-shifting-terrorist-hating-alien-monk|
|   posted by samzenpus on Thursday May 31, @04:23 (It's funny.  Laug|
|   http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/0338210     |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

yoyoq writes "Homeland Security is looking for [0]suggestions from sci-fi
writers. "Looking to prevent the next terrorist attack, the Homeland
Security Department is tapping into the wild imaginations of a group of
self-described "deviant" thinkers: science-fiction writers." Here's a
suggestion: 9-11 could have been prevented with locks on the cockpit
door."

Discuss this story at:
    http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/0338210

Links:
    0. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-05-29-deviant-thinkers-security_N.htm?csp=34


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Spammer Robert Soloway Arrested                                    |
|   from the that-should-fix-it dept.                                |
|   posted by samzenpus on Thursday May 31, @08:00 (Spam)            |
|   http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/0332220           |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Mike writes "Yahoo is reporting that US prosecutors [1]captured Robert
Soloway, a prolific Internet marketer responsible so much junk e-mail
they called him "Spam King." Soloway was arrested in Seattle, Washington,
a week after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of
identity theft, money laundering, and mail, wire, and e-mail fraud.
Soloway is accused of using botnets to disguise where e-mail originated
and of forging return addresses of real people or businesses for his mass
mailings. If convicted as charged, Soloway will face a maximum sentence
of more than 65 years in prison and a fine of 250,000 dollars."

Discuss this story at:
    http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/0332220

Links:
    0. http://quicktrivia.com/
    1. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070530/tc_afp/usarrestinternetspam_070530205449


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Hijacking Firefox Via Insecure Add-Ons                             |
|   from the update-me-please dept.                                  |
|   posted by kdawson on Thursday May 31, @08:42 (Security)          |
|   http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/1226222           |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Many makers of extensions or add-ons for
Firefox are [0]introducing ways for bad guys to hijack the Web browser,
new research suggests. A great many add-ons are updated over insecure
(non https://) connections, providing an avenue for attackers to replace
the extension with an evil update. Google's add-ons are particularly
vulnerable, because they update automatically without notifying the user.
>From the story: '[I]f an attacker were to hijack a public Wi-Fi hot spot
at a coffeehouse or bookstore ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ a fairly trivial attack given the myriad
free, point-and-click hacking tools available today ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ he could also
intercept this update process and replace a Firefox add-on with a
malicious one.'" Here is security researcher Chris Soghoian's
[1]description of the vulnerability and a [2]video of a simulated
takeover.

Discuss this story at:
    http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/1226222

Links:
    0. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2007/05/bungled_addon_updates_endanger.html
    1. http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2007/05/remote-vulnerability-in-firefox.html
    2. http://www.cs.indiana.edu/~csoghoia/google-mitm.mov


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Next Windows To Get Multicore Redesign                             |
|   from the racing-to-the-next-deadlock dept.                       |
|   posted by kdawson on Thursday May 31, @09:22 (Operating Systems) |
|   http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/1257231   |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]eldavojohn writes "A Microsoft executive announced that the [1]next
Windows will be fundamentally redesigned to handle the numerous cores of
present and future processors. The article notes that the NT technology
underneath Vista has been able to take advantage of multiple processors
since 1993, and can now handle 32 or 64 cores. And since Microsoft
completely rewrote the 20-year-old GDI/GDI+ model for Vista, what more
can (or should) they parallelize? It will be interesting to see how
Microsoft tackles the race conditions and deadlocks that come with
pervasively multithreaded software and in the past complicated attempts
(like that of BeOS) to utilize multiple CPUs. Do you think it's it a
smart move to further complicate an operating system to take advantage of
multiple cores, or should Microsoft stick to its knitting while
applications take advantage of (possibly) more resources?"

Discuss this story at:
    http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/1257231

Links:
    0. http://barsukmusic.blaireau.net/menomena/
    1. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070529-microsoft-exec-next-version-of-windows-to-be-fundamentally-redesigned.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Doctor Who To Be Axed, Again                                       |
|   from the who-gets-the-scarf? dept.                               |
|   posted by kdawson on Thursday May 31, @10:02 (Sci-Fi)            |
|   http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/1314230              |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]twofish writes "According to UK tabloid The Sun, hit BBC sci-fi
program Doctor Who will reportedly [1]end next year after its fourth
season. Producer Russell T. Davies has decided to bring the hit sci-fi
show to a close ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ to 'go out at the top' ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ so he can concentrate on other
projects, according to the article. Davies and other senior staff are
feeling the strain of the heavy workload imposed by the show, nine months
a year of 16-hour days, and plan to resign en-masse in 2008. Davies, a
long-time fan of Doctor Who, relaunched the series in 2005, 16 years
after the original series was axed." Update: 05/31 16:36 GMT by [2]KD :
Reader palewook points out that the UK Guardian [3]sets this story
straight: "But there isn't any way it would be axed even if [Davies]
left. He loves the show and he does feel that maybe it would benefit from
some new blood."

Discuss this story at:
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/1314230

Links:
    0. http://www.twofish-music.com/
    1. http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2001320029-2007250185,00.html
    2. http://slashdot.org/~kdawson/
    3. http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,2092376,00.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Syncing Music Players In Linux?                                    |
|   from the keeping-it-consistent dept.                             |
|   posted by kdawson on Thursday May 31, @10:41 (GNOME)             |
|   http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/1327204          |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Daengbo writes "I recently sold my old laptop to a friend, and she
asked me to keep Ubuntu on it rather than installing Windows for her. To
help her with the transition, I wrote two [1]intro [2]lessons for her,
but we've hit a stumbling block. The iRivier Clix (4GB) she's been using
syncs with Windows Media Player. My research shows that the model has
both an MTP for the sync and a UMS mode which acts as a mass storage
device. Rhythmbox's 'Scan Removable Media' doesn't pick up anything from
the USB mass storage device, and although [3]Syncropated claims to
support these types of devices, it doesn't find any supported devices.
Unless you use an iPod, this appears to be a real weak point in the Linux
desktop. Do you sync your mass storage devices and music players? What do
you use?"

Discuss this story at:
    http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/1327204

Links:
    0. http://daengboampgmailcom/
    1. http://ibeentoubuntu.blogspot.com/2007/05/lesson1-introducing-your-new-ubuntu.html
    2. http://ibeentoubuntu.blogspot.com/2007/05/menu-in-depth-applications-programs.html
    3. http://syncropated.garage.maemo.org/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Jobs and Gates Chat Amicably                                       |
|   from the sittin'-in-a-tree dept.                                 |
|   posted by kdawson on Thursday May 31, @11:23 (Microsoft)         |
|   http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/1422229        |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]circletimessquare writes "As [1]noted, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs met
at the D conference yesterday. AllThingsD has [2]video of the entire
convivial and historic meeting ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ check the [3]highlights clip. When a
reporter asked if their rivalry was overblown, Jobs offered up this joke:
'We've kept our marriage secret for over a decade' ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ to an apparently
flummoxed Gates. Other tidbits: 'His mother loves him!' said Gates about
PC Guy in the famous series of commercials. 'And we love them because
they're all customers!' said Jobs about Microsoft employees working on
Zune who use the iPod. [4]Read [5]more about the event, which also
covered a lot of serious ground, such as Apple's iPhone, at CNN and the
Times Online."

Discuss this story at:
    http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/1422229

Links:
    0. mailto:circletimessquare@gma%5B%5Dcom%5B'il.'ingap%5D
    1. http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/25/1238248&tid=109
    2. http://d5.allthingsd.com/
    3. http://d5.allthingsd.com/20070531/video-steve-jobs-and-bill-gates-highlight-reel/
    4. http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/31/technology/gates_jobs.reut/
    5. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article1865221.ece


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Fedora 7 Released                                                  |
|   from the get-yer-fresh-bits dept.                                |
|   posted by kdawson on Thursday May 31, @12:04 (Red Hat Software)  |
|   http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/1439202        |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

fedoraman writes "[0]Fedora 7 has been released. With Xorg 7.3, KDE
3.5.6, GNOME 2.18, and version 2.6.21 of the Linux kernel Fedora 7 comes
with all the latest and greatest open source desktop software. Fedora 7
drops the traditional 'Core' nomenclature, since it includes both what
used to be termed the Core and Extra components by default. Fedora 7 is
also the first release to be constructed with Fedora's revolutionary new
build system, which is designed to improve the ease of developing
derivatives and Fedora-based software appliances. As usual, extensive
documentation and [1]release notes are available. [2]Torrents are also
available and [3]ISO images can be downloaded from mirrors around the
world."

Discuss this story at:
    http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/1439202

Links:
    0. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070531-fedora-7-released.html
    1. http://docs.fedoraproject.org/release-notes/f7/en_US/
    2. http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/
    3. http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/Fedora/7/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pitting a Mac Plus Against an AMD Dual Core                        |
|   from the computing-through-the-ages dept.                        |
|   posted by kdawson on Thursday May 31, @12:44 (It's funny.  Laugh.|
|   http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/1546213              |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

In the Age of Computer Bloat someone has decided to do a [0]performance
comparison between a 1986 Mac Plus and a 2007 AMD Dual core, each running
appropriate software. Computer Bloat does not fare so well. "In order to
keep the hoots and hollers of 'unfair comparison' at a minimum, we
designed the tests to be as fair and equitable as possible. We focussed
on running tests that reflect how the user perceives the computing
experience... And no, we didn't include processing-heavy modern software
like Photoshop or Crysis! We selected very basic everyday functions that
were performed equally by the 1980's and the 2007 Microsoft
applications."

Discuss this story at:
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/1546213

Links:
    0. http://hubpages.com/hub/_86_Mac_Plus_Vs_07_AMD_DualCore_You_Wont_Believe_Who_Wins


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Shutting Down Annoying Recruiters?                                 |
|   from the make-it-stop dept.                                      |
|   posted by kdawson on Thursday May 31, @13:21 (Businesses)        |
|   http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/1333256          |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "My company is under attack by the leeches and
bottom-feeders of the IT recruiting world. They call into our company
phone directory constantly ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ hundreds of calls per day ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ trolling for
names, hawking their job candidates, and refusing to hang up or stop
calling, even if we curse their mothers. Our attorney says the calls are
perfectly legal: there is no 'do not call' list for US corporations, and
it's not harassment. Through education, we've gotten our engineering
group to stop answering the calls or hang up, but I was wondering if the
Slashdot community has any ideas for more creative solutions to make this
stop, either through technology, US law, trickery, etc."

Discuss this story at:
    http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/1333256


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Germany Declares Hacking Tools Illegal                             |
|   from the hack-the-planet-leave-germans-alone dept.               |
|   posted by Zonk on Thursday May 31, @14:03 (Security)             |
|   http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/1629259           |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

dubbelj writes "Germany has updated their computer crime law to
[0]declare 'hacking tools' illegal. This will place most of the
professionals in the network admin and computer security fields in a sort
of legal grey area. 'The new rules tighten up the existing sanctions and
prohibit any unauthorized user from disabling or circumventing computer
security measures to access secure data (see the law, sections 200 and
following [in German]). Manufacturing, programming, installing, or
spreading software that can circumvent security measures is verboten,
which means that some security scanning tools might become illegal.' We
discussed [1]a similar measure in January when Australia considered the
same kind of legislation. How will this affect Linux distribution in
Germany, as most standard Linux distributions come with these kind of
'hacking tools' installed by default?"

Discuss this story at:
    http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/1629259

Links:
    0. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070528-germany-adopts-anti-hacker-law-critics-say-it-breeds-insecurity.html
    1. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/07/07/0132226&tid=95


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A Look at BSD Rootkits                                             |
|   from the under-the-devil's-horns dept.                           |
|   posted by Zonk on Thursday May 31, @14:43 (Security)             |
|   http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/187219            |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]blackbearnh writes "Windows has a reputation for being easily
exploited by rootkits, but just because you're using Linux or BSD doesn't
mean you're safe from infection. In an interview on O'Reilly's ONLamp
site, Joseph Kong (author of [1] Designing BSD Rootkits ), talks about
[2]how to build and defend against Rootkits under BSD. 'I know a lot of
people who refer to rootkits and rootkit-detectors as being in a big game
of cat and mouse. However, it's really more like follow the leader ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ with
rootkit authors always being the leader. Kind of grim, but that's really
how it is. Until someone reveals how a specific (or certain class of)
rootkit works, nobody thinks about protecting that part of the system.
And when they do, the rootkit authors just find a way around it. This is
what I meant earlier when I said rootkit hunting is hard ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ as you really
have to validate the integrity of the entire system.'"

Discuss this story at:
    http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/187219

Links:
    0. http://www.onlamp.com/
    1. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593271425/
    2. http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2007/05/31/defending-against-rootkits-under-bsd.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Democracy Player Receives $100K Grant From Mozilla                 |
|   from the friendly-dinosaur-in-our-midst dept.                    |
|   posted by Zonk on Thursday May 31, @15:21 (Mozilla)              |
|   http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/1811232        |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

puntloos writes "The Open Source Internet TV Platform '[0]Democracy' has
just received [1]a $100,000 Grant from the Mozilla Foundation. Democracy
is a combination of ways to view and download media to your desktop in an
intuitive way, built on top of the ever-popular VLC video player. Seth's
blog has details: 'The Mozilla Board agreed to support them for the
following reasons: 1. Their mission to ensure the continued rise of open
source & open standards aligns with the Mozilla mission to encourage
choice & innovation on the web. 2. They're building something that can
have influence on the way users browse web content, rich media, and
desktop UI -- and it's based on Mozilla technology. 3. PCF is another
example of that leverage we are looking for...they don't have any venture
backing, they're running on a very lean budget, and they continue to seek
creative resources to make a big difference in the way their users access
content on the Web.'"

Discuss this story at:
    http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/1811232

Links:
    0. http://www.getdemocracy.com/
    1. http://blog.mozilla.com/seth/2007/05/29/mozilla-grant-to-pcf/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Microsoft Sees No Conflicts With Patent Initiatives                |
|   from the maybe-they-should-look-again dept.                      |
|   posted by Zonk on Thursday May 31, @16:05 (Microsoft)            |
|   http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/1933243        |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]AlexGr writes "According to Eweek's Peter Galli, [1]Microsoft sees no
contradiction between its open-source community building efforts and the
more-than-thinly-veiled legal threats at Linux and other projects.
Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's vice president of intellectual property
and licensing, actually states: 'One makes the other possible, especially
at a time like this, when interoperability is so important. Microsoft
recognizes the importance of interoperability, which is why we are doing
the things we are in our products, why we created the Interoperability
Executive Customer Council, and why we are listening to customers.'"

Discuss this story at:
    http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/1933243

Links:
    0. mailto:alexgr@verizon.net
    1. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2138970,00.asp


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A Look Beneath the 'Surface'                                       |
|   from the just-don't-crack-the-surface dept.                      |
|   posted by Zonk on Thursday May 31, @16:44 (Microsoft)            |
|   http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/1928251     |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Hajsky writes "Ars Technica takes a closer look at Microsoft's new
"Surface" tabletop device. Turns out that Surface [0]isn't actually a
touchscreen at all, but uses five cameras located in the table's base to
record movement and touch. 'The five cameras are near-infrared devices,
but that's not because they are trying to read heat signatures from
fingertips (or other body parts) on the table. Instead, it's because the
entire surface of Surface is bathed in light; by illuminating the top of
the table, the cameras can easily see when things are placed on it.
Shining colored light across the surface of the table would spoil the
effect that Microsoft wants, so near-infrared light is used for invisible
illumination.' The whole setup runs on a Core 2 Duo and off-the-shelf
hardware, and can handle 52 simultaneous touches." jfanning wrote with a
link to an overview of similar technology [1]used in the Helsinki
'CityWall'. The article she provides discusses the unique public display,
and has an in-depth video on the way these kinds of setups work.

Discuss this story at:
    http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/1928251

Links:
    0. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070530-what-lurks-below-microsofts-surface-a-qa-with-microsoft.html
    1. http://citywall.org/pages/about


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MLB Says Slingbox Illegal, CEA Thinks Otherwise                    |
|   from the media-ing-on-the-fly dept.                              |
|   posted by Zonk on Thursday May 31, @17:25 (Television)           |
|   http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/2121206              |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

The Tie Guy writes "Sling Media's Slingbox allows consumers to watch and
control their home television programs from a remote PC or smartphone ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ a
process called '[0]placeshifting'. Content owners are typically edgy when
it comes to the placeshifting topic. However, most don't view Slingbox as
an imminent threat that will destroy the commercial broadcast model.
[1]Major League Baseball is going against the grain by saying that
Slingbox owners who stream home games while traveling are breaking the
law because it allows consumers to circumvent geographical boundaries
written in to broadcast deals. This has sparked a huge debate that has
the MLB, baseball fans, and the CEA up in arms. CEA President Gary
Shapiro doesn't agree, and is coming to the defense of Sling Media and
place-shifting in general."

Discuss this story at:
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/2121206

Links:
    0. http://www.dvrplayground.com/article/12849/What-is-Placeshifting-/
    1. http://www.slingcommunity.com/blog/137/22582/MLB-Says-Slingbox-IllegalCEA-Thinks-Otherwise/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The IT Department as Corporate Snoop?                              |
|   from the like-penny-in-inspector-gadget dept.                    |
|   posted by Zonk on Thursday May 31, @18:01 (Security)             |
|   http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/2129247           |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]coondoggie writes with a link to a NetworkWorld article about [1]the
dangers of IT department snoops. A study released today is likely to
exacerbate the trend of failing trust in employees; it shows that one in
three IT employees poke through systems and prod at confidential
information while on the job. The survey was done by a firm specializing
in password security, so some salt might be required for this particular
article. "The survey found that more than one-third of IT professionals
admit they could still access their company's network once they'd left
their current job, with no one to stop them. More than 200 IT
professionals participated in the survey with many revealing that
although it wasn't corporate policy to allow IT workers to access systems
after termination, still almost 25% of respondents knew of another IT
staff member who still had access to sensitive networks even though
they'd left the company long ago."

Discuss this story at:
    http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/2129247

Links:
    0. http://networkworld.com/
    1. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/15731


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Flawed Survey Suggests XP More Secure Than Vista                   |
|   from the no-knee-jerking-here dept.                              |
|   posted by Zonk on Thursday May 31, @18:43 (Windows)              |
|   http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/2130244           |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

SkeeLo writes "One of Vista's big selling points is security, but a
[0]report from CRN concludes that Vista offers little in the way of
security advancements over Windows XP. Ars Technica [1]analyzed the
report and found some methodological problems. 'The report faults Vista
for "providing no improvement in virus protection vs. XP," but of course
Windows Vista does not ship with antivirus software ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ something the
reviewer fails to mention. Faulting an AV-less Vista for not stopping
viruses is a bit like faulting a door without a lock for opening when the
handle is twisted.' That's not all: 'It was also disappointing to see CRN
completely ignore the issue of buffer overflows, which has been addressed
well in Vista by most accounts. This was a major weak spot with XP, and
so far, Vista looks strong in this area, strong enough that Vista may
never get its own "SQL Slammer." Why CRN didn't address this is a
mystery, as it is no minor matter.'"

Discuss this story at:
    http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/2130244

Links:
    0. http://www.crn.com/software/199701019
    1. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070530-windows-vista-no-more-secure-than-xp-report.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| City Almost Loses 450K to Keylogger                                |
|   from the never-too-safe dept.                                    |
|   posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday May 31, @19:31 (Security)       |
|   http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/2236236           |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]SierraPete writes "The city of Carson, California (a suburb of Los
Angeles) was the target of a 6-digit theft of cash. The LA Times reports
that information taken from a keylogger was [1]used to attempt to steal
$450K from the city's treasury. Quick work by the city froze most of the
funds, but it drives home the importance of keeping good anti-spyware and
anti-virus software updated on both corporate systems as well as systems
being used from home."

Discuss this story at:
    http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/31/2236236

Links:
    0. http://www.picturesfromiceland.com/
    1. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hackers1jun01,0,2083352.story?coll=la-home-local



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