Come join us in Columbus Ohio for the Ohio LinuxFest - 40 Years of UNIX
celebration. There on September 26, Dr Doug McIlroy, the genius behind C
and UNIX, will keynote. From netbooks to telephones, from high performance
clusters to the very webserver that thinkgeek.com uses: Linux is everywhere.
Be part of history. Free registration is on our website.
http://p.sf.net/sfu/ohiolinux
======================================================================
Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* Bootstrapping a New Technology?
* HR 3200 Considered As Software
* The Case For Mandatory Touch-Typing In High School
* Copyright Troubles For Sony
* What the DHS Knows About You
* Intel Lynnfield CPU Bests Nehalem In Performance/Watt
* Windows 7 Reintroduces Remote BSoD
* SA's Largest Telecomms Provider vs. a Pigeon
* Snow Leopard Snubs Document Creator Codes
* DRM Take II — Digital Personal Property
* Apple Pulls C64 Emulator From the App Store
* The Magicians
* Why Anonymized Data Isn't
* Does Your College Or University Support Linux?
* US Nuclear Power Industry Poised For a Comeback
* Microsoft, Cisco Finally Patch TCP DoS Flaw
* Intellectual Ventures' Patent Protection Racket
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Bootstrapping a New Technology? |
| from the research-in-motion dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday September 07, @22:03 (Input Devices) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/09/07/223248/Bootstrapping-a-New-Technology |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]djk1024 writes "I've just filed for a patent on a new approach to
motion capture that is simple, cheap, easy, accurate, and portable. It's
RF-based, accurate to 1 mm, and simple enough that a sophisticated
hobbyist could build one in a couple weekends from plans and standard
electronics. So now what? I quit my job and have been working on this
full-time for the past couple of years; now I'm out of money so can't
continue development on my own. I'm also not an electrical or RF guy so I
can't carry out my own independent development on the electronics. I'm
quite frustrated at this point. I've been in the software development
field for over 30 years and have gone through a large number of startups,
but always just as the head techie, and always as part of a team. This
doing it alone sucks. I would love some advice on how best to go
forward."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/07/223248
Links:
0. mailto:dennis@hivenw.com
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| HR 3200 Considered As Software |
| from the needs-configuration-management dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 08, @00:15 (Government) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/09/08/0255214/HR-3200-Considered-As-Software |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]bfwebster writes "Independent of one's personal opinions regarding the
desirability and forms of government-mandated health care reform, there
exists the question of how well [1]HR 3200 (or any other legislation)
will actually achieve that end and what the unintended (or even intended)
consequences may be. There are striking similarities between crafting
software and creating legislation, including risks and pitfalls ��� except
that those risks and pitfalls are greater in legislation. I've written an
article (first of a three-part series) [2]examining those parallels and
how these apply to HR 3200."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/08/0255214
Links:
0. mailto:bwebster@bfwa.com
1. http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3200/text
2. http://brucefwebster.com/2009/09/07/hr-3200-from-a-systems-design-perspective-part-i/
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Case For Mandatory Touch-Typing In High School |
| from the quick-brown-fox dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 08, @02:27 (Education) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/09/07/2115202/The-Case-For-Mandatory-Touch-Typing-In|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Hugh Pickens writes "With the perspective of forty-plus years since my
graduation, I would say the single most useful course I took in high
school was a business class in touch-typing that gave me a head start for
writing and with computers that I have benefited from my entire life. So
it was with particular interest that I read Gordon Rayner's essay in the
Telegraph proposing that [1]schools add a mandatory course in touch
typing to the cornerstones of education: reading, writing and arithmetic.
'Regardless of the career a child takes up when they leave school, a high
percentage of them will use a keyboard in their daily work, and all of
them are likely to use a keyboard in their leisure time,' writes Rayner.
'Touch-typing would help every child throughout their lives ��� so why are
our schools so blind to this?'"
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/07/2115202
Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/debates/6139246/Why-arent-children-taught-to-touch-type-at-school.html
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Copyright Troubles For Sony |
| from the billion-here-billion-there dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 08, @05:19 (It's funny. Laugh.) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/09/07/2148227/Copyright-Troubles-For-Sony |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
ljaszcza writes "Daily Tech brings us a story about [0]Sony's run-in with
the Mexican police. (Billboard [1]picked up the story as well.) It seems
that they raided Sony's offices and seized 6,397 music CDs after a
protest from the artist, Alejandro Fernandez. Fernandez had signed a
seven-album deal with Sony Music; he completed that commitment and then
left for Universal. During the time with Sony, he recorded other songs
that did not make it into the agreed-upon seven albums. Sony Music took
it upon themselves to collect that material and release it as an eighth
album. Fernandez claims that he fulfilled his contract with Sony, and
residual material belongs to him. Hmm. Precedent from the Jammie Thomas
infringement and distribution case gives us $80K per song. Sony vs. Joel
Tenenbaum gives $22.5K per song. So 6,397 CDs at an average of 8 songs/CD
is 51,176 infringing songs, with (IMHO) intent to distribute. The damages
to Fernandez should be $1,151,460,000 using the Tenenbaum precedent or
$4,094,080,000 using the Thomas precedent. Seems very straightforward to
me."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/07/2148227
Links:
0. http://www.dailytech.com/Sony+Music+in+Mexico+Raided+by+Police/article16177.htm
1. http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i418c5bc24c7b68c55ff2356aef63ae05
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| What the DHS Knows About You |
| from the shirt-size-and-toothbrush-color dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 08, @08:13 (Government) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/09/07/234251/What-the-DHS-Knows-About-You |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Sherri Davidoff writes "Here's a real copy of [1]an American citizen's
DHS Travel Record, retrieved from the US Customs and Border Patrol's
Automated Targeting System and obtained through a FOIA/Privacy Act
request. The document reveals that the DHS is storing: the traveler's
credit card number and expiration; IP addresses used to make Web travel
reservations; hotel information and itinerary; full airline itinerary
including flight numbers and seat numbers; phone numbers including
business, home, and cell; and every frequent flyer and hotel number
associated with the traveler, even ones not used for the specific
reservation."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/07/234251
Links:
0. http://philosecurity.org/
1. http://philosecurity.org/2009/09/07/what-does-dhs-know-about-you
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Intel Lynnfield CPU Bests Nehalem In Performance/Watt |
| from the when-ndas-expire dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday September 08, @09:08 (Intel) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/09/08/1251240/Intel-Lynnfield-CPU-Bests-Nehalem-In-P|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Vigile writes "Not many people have debated that Intel's [0]Nehalem
architecture is the fastest available for consumer desktop computers
since it was [1]released last year, but quite a few have complained about
the cost of the platform. Intel [2]just released new Lynnfield-based
processors under both the Core i7 and Core i5 names and tests are showing
the new CPUs beating Nehalem in both [3]performance-per-watt and
performance-per-dollar tests to a startling degree. And while raw
performance probably still goes to the Nehalem-based Core i7 CPUs, the
lower prices of motherboards and memory for Lynnfield processors will
likely more than make up for it." Update: 09/08 14:03 GMT by [4]T : There
are more eye-wateringly exhaustive examinations of the new chips all over
the Web; here's [5]HotHardware's version, and [6]Tom's Hardware's.
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/08/1251240
Links:
0. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Nehalem_(microarchitecture)
1. http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/17/2026220&tid=52
2. http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=776
3. http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=776&type=expert&pid=13
4. http://www.monkey.org/~timothy/
5. http://hothardware.com/Articles/Intel-Core-i5-and-i7-Processors-and-P55-Chipset/
6. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i5,2410.html
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Windows 7 Reintroduces Remote BSoD |
| from the no-such-thing-as-perfect-security dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday September 08, @09:59 (Microsoft) |
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/09/09/08/1345247/Windows-7-Reintroduces-Remote-BSoD |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]David Gerard writes "Remember the good old days of the 1990s, when you
could [1]teardrop attack any Windows user who'd annoyed you and
bluescreen them? Microsoft [2]reintroduces this popular feature in
Windows 7, courtesy the rewritten TCP/IP and SMB2 stacks. Well done,
guys! Another one for the [3]Windows 7 Drinking Game."
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/08/1345247
Links:
0. http://notnews.today.com/
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teardrop_attack#Teardrop_attacks
2. http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2009/Sep/0039.html
3. http://notnews.today.com/2009/09/04/microsoft-arranges-spontaneous-house-parties-for-windows-7-launch/
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| SA's Largest Telecomms Provider vs. a Pigeon |
| from the may-the-best-bird-win dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Tuesday September 08, @10:56 (It's funny. Laugh.) |
| https://idle.slashdot.org/story/09/09/08/1414248/SAs-Largest-Telecomms-Provider-vs-a-Pigeon|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
dagwud writes "Just a few days after [0]this Slashdot article, South
Africa's largest telecoms provider, Telkom (which has been taking flak
for years for its shoddy and overpriced service), is being [1]pitted
against a homing pigeon to see which can deliver 4GB of call centre data
logs quickest over a distance of around 80km (50 miles). According to
[2]the official website, the race is set to take place September 10."
Discuss this story at:
http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/08/1414248
Links:
0. http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/1934251/Pigeon-Protocol-Finds-a-Practical-Purpose
1. http://www.henriska.com/blog/?p=615
2. http://pigeonrace2009.co.za/
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Snow Leopard Snubs Document Creator Codes |
| from the mind-the-new-mantrap-in-the-living-room dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday September 08, @11:46 (OS X) |
| https://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/09/08/1519215/Snow-Leopard-Snubs-Document-Creator-Codes|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]adamengst writes "In this TidBITS article, Matt Neuburg explores how
Mac OS X 10.6 [1]Snow Leopard changes how the operating system handles
preferred application bindings, dropping support for the creator codes
that have been part of the Mac OS from the early days. He also explains
how to work around the problem, if you want, for instance, text documents
created with BBEdit to open in BBEdit even when TextEdit is the default
handler for text files."
Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/08/1519215
Links:
0. http://www.tidbits.com/adam/
1. http://db.tidbits.com/article/10537
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DRM Take II — Digital Personal Property |
| from the shhh-you're-disturbing-my-metaphors dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday September 08, @12:33 (Encryption) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/09/08/1613243/DRM-Take-II-mdash-Digital-Personal-Property|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Diabolus Advocatus writes "Ars Technica has an article on a new form
of DRM being considered by the IEEE. It's called [1]Digital Personal
Property and although it removes some of the drawbacks of conventional
DRM it introduces new drawbacks of its own. From the article: 'Digital
personal property (DPP) is an attempt to make consumers treat digital
media like physical objects. For instance, you might loan your car to a
friend, a family member, or a neighbor. You might do so on many different
occasions and for different lengths of time. But you are unlikely to
leave the car out front of your house with the keys in it and a sign on
it saying, "Take me!" If you did, you might never see the vehicle again.
It's that ability to lose control over property that is central to the
DPP system. DPP files are encrypted. They can be freely copied and
distributed to anyone, but here's the trick: anyone who can view your
content can also "steal" it irrevocably. The simple addition of a way to
lose content instantly leads consumers to set up a "circle of trust" that
can be as wide as they like but will not extend to total strangers on the
Internet.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/08/1613243
Links:
0. http://slashdot.org/~Diabolus+Advocatus/
1. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/goodbye-drm-hello-stealable-digital-personal-property.ars
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Apple Pulls C64 Emulator From the App Store |
| from the brief-shining-moment dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 08, @13:24 (Cellphones) |
| https://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/09/08/1714205/Apple-Pulls-C64-Emulator-From-the-App-Sto|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Rob Hearn sends in a piece up at PocketGamer.co.uk on why [1]Apple
suddenly pulled Manomio's C64 emulator soon after [2]finally approving it.
(El Reg [3]has coverage too.) "It was a glorious few moments for retro
gamers when Manomio's C64 emulator was finally approved by Apple and
released to the eager, nostalgic iPhone public. Then, calamity! It was
gone again. Apparently some wily users figured out how to access the
Commodore 64 BASIC system that was originally packaged with the emulator
��� something that Apple wasn't too happy with, given the nature of the
interpreter's code. By setting the keyboard to 'always on', launching a
game and restarting BASIC, players got into the 'empty shell' of their
C64 emulator."
Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/08/1714205
Links:
0. mailto:rob@pocketgamer.co.uk
1. http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/C64/news.asp?c=15432
2. http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/09/07/1556224&tid=509
3. http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/09/08/c64_app_store_no_show/
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Magicians |
| from the potter-by-any-other-name dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Tuesday September 08, @14:10 (Book Reviews) |
| https://books.slashdot.org/story/09/09/08/1325253/The-Magicians |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]stoolpigeon writes "The popularity of web site [1]Will It Blend? is
indicative of how people enjoy mashing things together. Of course this
kind of sharing and combining has been going on in the arts for quite
some time. The new Lev Grossman novel, The Magicians asks 'will it
blend?' of two rather popular fantasy series, J.K. Rowling's world of
Harry Potter and the tales of Narnia from C.S. Lewis. Grossman's thoughts
on both are tossed on top and then the author begins to play a symphony
across the full range of buttons from stir to liquefy. What comes out is
not children's fantasy but at times a rather bitter mix." Keep reading
for the rest of JR's review.
This story continues at:
https://books.slashdot.org/story/09/09/08/1325253/The-Magicians
Discuss this story at:
http://books.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/08/1325253
Links:
0. http://geekbook.org/
1. http://www.willitblend.com/
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Why Anonymized Data Isn't |
| from the can't-keep-good-PII-down dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 08, @15:01 (Data Storage) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/09/08/1629226/Why-Anonymized-Data-Isnt |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Ars has a review of recent research, and a summary of the history, in the
field of [0]reidentification ��� identifying people from anonymized data.
Paul Ohm's [1]recent paper is an elaboration of what Ohm terms a central
reality of data collection: "Data can either be useful or perfectly
anonymous but never both." "...in 2000, [researcher Latanya Sweeney]
showed that 87 percent of all Americans could be uniquely identified
using only three bits of information: ZIP code, birthdate, and sex. ...
For almost every person on earth, there is at least one fact about them
stored in a computer database that an adversary could use to blackmail,
discriminate against, harass, or steal the identity of him or her. I mean
more than mere embarrassment or inconvenience; I mean legally cognizable
harm. ... Reidentification science disrupts the privacy policy landscape
by undermining the faith that we have placed in anonymization."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/08/1629226
Links:
0. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/your-secrets-live-online-in-databases-of-ruin.ars
1. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1450006
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Does Your College Or University Support Linux? |
| from the country-and-western dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 08, @15:52 (Education) |
| https://linux.slashdot.org/story/09/09/08/1729258/Does-Your-College-Or-University-Support-L|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
yuna49 writes 'Lately I've been visiting colleges with my daughter, who
is a senior in high school. Every school has proudly announced that they
support both Windows and Macs, and most of these schools report having
about a 50-50 split between the two. However we've been a Linux household
for many years now, and my daughter routinely uses a laptop running
Kubuntu 9.04. Sometimes I would ask the student tour guide if Linux was
supported and was usually met with a blank stare. We're obviously not
concerned about whether she can write papers using OpenOffice and Linux.
Rather we've been wondering about using other computing services on
campus like classroom applications, remote printing, VPNs, or Wi-Fi
support (nearly all these campuses have ubiquitous Wi-Fi). Given the
composition of Slashdot's readership, I thought I'd pose the question
here. Does your school support Linux? Have you found it difficult or
impossible to use Linux in concert with the school's computing services?'
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/08/1729258
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| US Nuclear Power Industry Poised For a Comeback |
| from the do-not-want dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 08, @16:41 (Earth) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/09/09/08/1746226/US-Nuclear-Power-Industry-Poised-For-a-Com|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]ThousandStars sends us to The Wall Street Journal for a report that
[1]momentum for nuclear energy is waxing in the US. "For the first time
in decades, popular opinion is on the industry's side. A majority of
Americans thinks nuclear power, which emits virtually no carbon dioxide,
is a safe and effective way to battle climate change, according to recent
polls. At the same time, legislators are showing renewed interest in
nuclear as they hunt for ways to slash greenhouse-gas emissions. The
industry is seizing this chance to move out of the shadow of Three Mile
Island and Chernobyl and show that it has solved the three big problems
that have long dogged it: cost, safety and waste."
Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/08/1746226
Links:
0. http://www.seliger.com/
1. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409904574350342705855178.html
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Microsoft, Cisco Finally Patch TCP DoS Flaw |
| from the who-needs-a-botnet dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 08, @17:30 (Microsoft) |
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/09/09/08/1839258/Microsoft-Cisco-Finally-Patch-TCP-DoS-Flaw |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Trailrunner7 writes "Today vendors are finally [0]releasing patches for
the TCP vulnerabilities first publicized nearly a year ago that affect a
huge range of networking products, including any device running a version
of Cisco's IOS software, and a number of Microsoft server and desktop
operating systems. Both Microsoft and Cisco released fixes for the
vulnerabilities today. The Microsoft Patch Tuesday release included the
[1]fix for the TCP flaw, which affects Windows Server 2003 and 2008, as
well as Windows Vista, both the 32-bit and 64-bit editions, and Windows
2000 SP4, for which no fix is coming. The TCP flaws were identified
several years ago and were made public last year by two researchers at
Outpost24, Jack C. Louis and Robert E. Lee. Louis, who has [2]since died,
developed a tool called [3]Sockstress that tested for the flaw and was
able to maintain extremely long-term TCP connections with remote machines
using very little bandwidth."
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/08/1839258
Links:
0. http://threatpost.com/blogs/microsoft-cisco-issue-patches-tcp-dos-flaw-108
1. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms09-048.mspx
2. http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/08/2010223&tid=76
3. http://sockstress.com/
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Intellectual Ventures' Patent Protection Racket |
| from the know-people-who-know-people dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 08, @18:18 (Businesses) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/09/08/1731257/Intellectual-Ventures-Patent-Protection-Rac|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]David Gerard writes "Nathan Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures doesn't
sue people over patents, because that would be patent trolling! No,
instead they just threaten to sell the patent to a known litigious patent
troll. So that's all right then. Timothy Lee details how [1]using patents
to crush profitable innovation works in practice, and concludes: 'In
thinking about how to reform the patent system, a good yardstick would be
to look for policy changes that would tend to put Myhrvold and his firm
out of business.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/08/1731257
Links:
0. http://notnews.today.com/
1. http://timothyblee.com/?p=781
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