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27 January 2012, 9:33 pm |
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karin gerd [ mail: karin.gerd[at]strengkatholisch.de | homepage: karin.strengkatholisch.de ]
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When Viruses Infect Worms |
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An anonymous reader writes "Bitdefender reports that there exist viruses which, when they encounter other viruses, will merge and combine effects so that they create a new virus. 'A virus infects executable files; and a worm is an executable file. If the virus reaches a PC already compromised by a worm, the virus will infect the exe files on that PC — including the worm. When the worm spreads, it will carry the virus with it. Although this happens unintentionally, the combined features from both pieces of malware will inflict a lot more damage than the creators of either piece of malware intended. While most file infectors have inbuilt spreading mechanisms, just like Trojans and worms (spreading routines for RDP, USB, P2P, chat applications, or social networks), some cannot replicate or spread between computers. And it seems a great idea to “outsource” the transportation mechanism to a different piece of malware (i.e. by piggybacking a worm).'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.  |
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27 January 2012, 8:51 pm |
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waltraud rgaed [ mail: waltraud.rgaed[at]brasei.de | homepage: waltraud.brasei.de ]
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The ACTA Fight Returns: What Is At Stake & What You Can Do |
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An anonymous reader writes "The reverberations from the SOPA fight continue to be felt in the U.S. and elsewhere, but it is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement that has captured increasing attention this week. Several months after the majority of ACTA participants signed the agreement, most European Union countries formally signed the agreement yesterday (notable exclusions include Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, Cyprus and Slovakia). Michael Geist has a full rundown on what is at stake and what you can do, wherever you live."Read more of this story at Slashdot.  |
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27 January 2012, 8:29 pm |
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alfred eevst [ mail: alfred.eevst[at]streng-katholisch.de | homepage: alfred.streng-katholisch.de ]
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Bill Gates Gives $750M To AIDS Fund |
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redletterdave writes "Microsoft chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates pledged $750 million to the troubled global AIDS fund on Thursday and urged governments to continue their support to save lives. Since the fund was launched 10 years ago, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given $1.4 billion to the charity, having already contributed $650 million prior to the latest donation. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria accounts for around a quarter of international financing to fight HIV and AIDS, as well as the majority of funds to fight TB and malaria."Read more of this story at Slashdot.  |
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27 January 2012, 8:08 pm |
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susanne hoike [ mail: susanne.hoike[at]hamgang.de | homepage: susanne.hamgang.de ]
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FBI Building App To Scrape Social Media |
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Trailrunner7 writes "The FBI is in the early stages of developing an application that would monitor sites such as Twitter and Facebook, as well as various news feeds, in order to find information on emerging threats and new events happening at the moment. The tool would give specialists the ability to pull the data into a dashboard that also would include classified information coming in at the same time. One of the key capabilities of the new application, for which the FBI has sent out a solicitation, would be to 'provide an automated search and scrape capability for social networking sites and open source news sites for breaking events, crisis and threats that meet the search parameters/keywords defined by FBI/SIOC.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.  |
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27 January 2012, 7:24 pm |
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jürgen eirak [ mail: jürgen.eirak[at]an-neuss.de | homepage: jürgen.an-neuss.de ]
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Russian Rocket Fleet Grounded Again |
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Velcroman1 writes "Failed pressure chamber tests have forced Russia to postpone two manned launches to the International Space Station — echoing a 2011 situation that left the country's space transport vehicles grounded and led to speculation that scientists may be forced to abandon the orbiting space base. Six astronauts are currently aboard the ISS including two Americans: Commander Dan Burbank and Flight Engineer Don Pettit. 'There is plenty of margin for the current space station crew to stay onboard longer, if necessary, and plenty of margin in our manifest for upcoming launches,' a NASA spokeswoman said. But Soyuz issues are scary nonetheless. 'This re-entry capsule now cannot be used for manned spaceflight,' an unnamed source told Interfax."Read more of this story at Slashdot.  |
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27 January 2012, 7:01 pm |
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eva mchaoji [ mail: eva.mchaoji[at]bongfaschist.com | homepage: eva.bongfaschist.com ]
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Mars Rover Opportunity Turns 8 |
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New submitter el borak writes
"Never mind all the talk about the revival of the American auto industry. What may be the greatest car the U.S. has ever built is currently a tidy 78 million miles (125m km) away from this world — resting on the edge of Endeavour crater in the southern hemisphere of Mars. It was on January 25, 2004 that the rover Opportunity bounced down on Mars for a mission designed to last a minimum of three months and a maximum of just a year or two."Read more of this story at Slashdot.  |
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27 January 2012, 6:41 pm |
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viola fledra [ mail: viola.fledra[at]el.oberstufenhaus.de | homepage: viola.el.oberstufenhaus.de ]
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ReDigi Defends Used Digital Music Market |
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NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "ReDigi has fired back, opposing Capitol Records's motion for a preliminary injunction. In his opposition declaration, ReDigi's CTO Larry Rudolph explains in detail (PDF) how the technology employed by ReDigi's used digital music marketplace effects transfer of a music file without copying, but by modifying the record locator in an 'atomic transaction,' and how it verifies that only a single instance of a unique file can enter the ReDigi cloud system. ReDigi's opposition papers also point out plaintiff's own admissions that mp3 files are not 'material objects' or 'phonorecords' under the Copyright Act, and therefore not subject to the Copyright Act's distribution right, and defend ReDigi's used digital music marketplace and cloud storage system (PDF) on a number of grounds, including the First Sale exception to the distribution right applicable to a 'particular' copy, the Essential Step exception to the distribution right applicable to a copy essential to the running of a computer program, and Fair Use space shifting."Read more of this story at Slashdot.  |
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27 January 2012, 6:00 pm |
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samuel aiknr [ mail: samuel.aiknr[at]jasmin-wagner-fans.com | homepage: samuel.jasmin-wagner-fans.com ]
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Man Who Downloaded Bomb Recipes Jailed For 2 Years |
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chrb writes "Asim Kauser, a 25-year-old British man, has been jailed for two years and three months for downloading recipes on how to make bombs and the toxin ricin. Police discovered the materials on a USB stick Asim's father gave to them following a burglary at the Kauser family home. Asim pled guilty and claimed that he only downloaded the materials because he was curious. A North West Counter-Terrorism Unit spokesman said, 'I also want to stress that this case is not about policing people's freedom to browse the Internet. The materials that were downloaded were not stumbled upon by chance — these had to be searched for and contained very dangerous information that could have led to an explosive device being built.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.  |
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27 January 2012, 5:18 pm |
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samuel hnadeirrt [ mail: samuel.hnadeirrt[at]about-warren.com | homepage: samuel.about-warren.com ]
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AT&T Threatening To Raise Rates After Merger Failure |
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An anonymous reader writes "In the quarterly earnings call following the defeat of his attempted acquisition of T-Mobile, AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson was quick to lash out at the FCC, claiming that because his company was unable to acquire more spectrum to handle the explosion of mobile data users, AT&T would be forced to raise prices and take additional action against the highest data users. PCMag looked into the other side of the story, finding that 'The FCC spokesman ... pointed out that the FCC has approved more than 150 commercial mobile transaction applications in the past year and more than 300 in the past two years, "facts [that] were completely ignored in the [AT&T] conference call," he said.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.  |
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27 January 2012, 4:35 pm |
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lisbeth anhne [ mail: lisbeth.anhne[at]strengkatholisch.de | homepage: lisbeth.strengkatholisch.de ]
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America's Future Is In Software, Not Hardware |
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New submitter tcjr2006 writes "Obama's State of the Union focused on the return of manufacturing jobs to America. This New Yorker story makes the case that the manufacturing jobs aren't going to come back, and he should be focusing on software. Quoting: 'Yes, there are industries where manufacturing jobs can be brought back to America through proper tax incentives and training programs. But maybe he should have talked more about the things that he could do to keep software jobs here. He spoke of federal funding for university and scientific research. But a real pro-software agenda would also include reforming patent law to stop trolling (and perhaps eliminating software patents altogether); increasing H-1B visas for highly skilled coders; stopping Congress from defunding DARPA, whose research helped create Siri, the iPhone’s talking assistant; and opening up the unused, federally owned wireless spectrum. That agenda wouldn’t bring Apple’s manufacturing jobs back, but it would help to keep the company’s coding jobs here. And it would certainly help develop "an economy that’s built to last."'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.  |
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27 January 2012, 3:52 pm |
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jürgen gorre [ mail: jürgen.gorre[at]hamgang.de | homepage: jürgen.hamgang.de ]
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Iwata Confirms Nintendo Network, New Wii U Controller Functions |
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New submitter DeanCubed writes "In a Nintendo investor meeting, CEO Satoru Iwata confirmed a new Nintendo Network for the company's 3DS and upcoming Wii U game systems. This includes multiple user accounts per console (not tied to hardware, a first for Nintendo) and digitally distributed retail software releases for their online store. Iwata also noted that the Wii U's tablet controller will feature NFC (Near Field Communication) functionality, allowing the ability to use figurines and cards to input visual data to the console. They are hoping to use this to make micro-transactions for paid DLC easier."Read more of this story at Slashdot.  |
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27 January 2012, 3:12 pm |
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oscar umnded [ mail: oscar.umnded[at]brasei.de | homepage: oscar.brasei.de ]
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Graphene Membranes Superpermeable to Water |
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Dr Max writes "Not only is graphene the strongest, thinnest and best conducting material known to man, it is now shown to have superpermeability with respect to water as well. This allows a membrane made with graphene to pass water right through it (PDF), while another atom or molecule (even helium) gets blocked. 'The properties are so unusual that it is hard to imagine that they cannot find some use in the design of filtration, separation or barrier membranes and for selective removal of water,' said one of the researchers."Read more of this story at Slashdot.  |
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27 January 2012, 2:30 pm |
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claudia rldmiaiw [ mail: claudia.rldmiaiw[at]jasmin-wagner-fans.com | homepage: claudia.jasmin-wagner-fans.com ]
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Judge Denies Dismissal of No-Poach Conspiracy Case |
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theodp writes "Testifying before Congress in 2007, Google's HR chief stated: 'We make great efforts to uncover the most talented employees we can find.' But according to the U.S. Dept. of Justice, Google actually went to some lengths to avoid uncovering some of tech's most talented employees, striking up agreements with Apple, Intel, and other corporations to avoid recruiting each other's employees. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh ruled that Google, Apple, Intel, Adobe, Disney, Pixar, Intuit and Lucasfilm must face a lawsuit claiming they violated antitrust laws by entering into no-poaching agreements with each other. 'I don't want to see any obstruction on discovery,' Koh told lawyers during a hearing. According to the head attorney representing the plaintiffs, the total damages could exceed $150 million if just 10,000 entry-level engineers were affected."Read more of this story at Slashdot.  |
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27 January 2012, 1:47 pm |
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willy thrlao [ mail: willy.thrlao[at]spermageile-schlampe.de | homepage: willy.spermageile-schlampe.de ]
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Scientists Organize Elsevier Boycott |
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An anonymous reader writes "The academic publisher Elsevier has attracted controversy for its high prices, the practice of bundling journals for sale to libraries and its support for legislation such as SOPA and the Research Works Act. Fields medal-winning mathematician Tim Gowers decided to go public with a blog post describing how he'll no longer have anything to do with Elsevier journals, and suggesting that a public website where mathematicians and scientists could register their support for an Elsevier boycott would further the cause. Such a website now exists, with hundreds of academics signing-up so far. John Baez has a nice write-up of the problem and possible solutions."Read more of this story at Slashdot.  |
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