06.25.04
Posted in forum archive at 3:20 pm by
Major security firms are encouraging web users to stay offline. It has been discovered that many high profile websites have been compromised, and that these sites will download spyware to your computer when just viewing them.
“We won’t list the sites that are reported to be infected in order to prevent further abuse, but the list is long and includes businesses that we presume would normally be keeping their sites fully patched,” the group stated on its Web site.
The group also pointed out that the malicious program uploaded to a victim’s computer is not currently detected as a virus by most antivirus software. With no patch from Microsoft, that leaves Internet Explorer users vulnerable. A representative of the software giant was not immediately available for comment on when a patch might be available.
Researchers believe that attackers seed the Web sites with malicious code by breaking into unsecured servers or by using a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft’s Web software, Internet Information Server (IIS). When a victim browses the site, the code redirects them to one of two sites, most often to another server in Russia. That server uses the pair of Microsoft Internet Explorer vulnerabilities to upload and execute a remote access Trojan horse, RAT, to the victim’s PC. The software records the victim’s keystrokes and opens a back door in the system’s security to allow the attacker to access the computer.
Currently fingers point to Russian organized crime. There currently is no patch from Microsoft and no predicted date one will be out. In the meantime, set your intenet explorer settings to high, or better yet, use an alternative browser (FireFox (from Mozilla) or Opera).
This would be one argument for why the Windows API needs to stick around and a big downer for using the browser api for apps.
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06.24.04
Posted in forum archive at 11:52 am by
Proving that Utah leads the nation in deranged song-writing politicians, Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah is pushing for a bi-partisan bill that would ban P2P networks.
“In the film ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,’ the leering ‘Child Catcher’ lured children into danger with false promises of ‘free lollipops,’” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. “Tragically, some corporations now seem to think that they can legally profit by inducing children to steal; that they can legally lure children and others with false promises of ‘free music.’”
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An early version of the IICA seen by CNET News.com was called the Inducement Devolves into Unlawful Child Exploitation Act, or Induce Act. The final version appears to be identical.
[size=18:0edb2deb6b]Think of the children!![/size:0edb2deb6b]
As fun as a story like this could be, the broad support it has through congress really scares me. Even the homeboy, Tommy Daschle, D-S.D (representin’ East River Yo) is backing it.
The implecations of the bill might also extend beyond P2P:
Critics were assailing the measure even before it was introduced, saying that in addition to outlawing peer-to-peer networks, it could imperil products like ReplayTV and even the VCR. Jessica Litman, a professor at Wayne State University who specializes in copyright law, said the language was “worded so broadly” that it would put Web sites such as Tucows, which hosts peer-to-peer clients like the Morpheus software, at risk for “inducing” infringement.
How much in royalties does Hatch think induced children are stealing from him?
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Posted in forum archive at 9:43 am by
When I checked this morning I discovered that I now have 6 Gmail accounts that I can dole out to interested parties. Given the way traffic is on this board I’m not sure I’ll even get 6 people to peer inside this post. However, those regular mutednoise posters who want them, got them on a first come, first serve basis.
Let me know.
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06.23.04
Posted in forum archive at 11:04 pm by
Pressured by Google’s Gmail (and to a lesser degree, Yahoo’s move), Hotmail will boost its free 2MB mail accounts to 250MB starting in July. So, for the forseeable future, anybody can have all the storage they need.
The problem for Hotmail, however, is that just boosting storage isn’t enough. A larger account just means more clutter. While Gmail’s 1 Gig account sized grabbed attention, the searching and sorting is where the true power of Gmail shines.
Still – 250MBs. Isn’t technology and private competition great? 
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Posted in miscellaneous at 10:59 pm by
Knowing how space enthusiast this crowd is, you’ve probably already heard about Space Ship One. If you haven’t here’s the skinny:
Monday, the first commercial rocket with a civilian astronaut successfully traveled to space, high above the California desert. The men behind the milestone, designer Burt Rutan and investor Paul Allen, say it marks the start of an era of private space travel. However, some obstacles remain as the California team, and more than two dozen others, compete for a $10-million incentive called the X Prize.
One of the greatest things about this whole story, to me, was the signifigance of the human element:
The 63-year-old pilot became the first civilian astronaut, a fact confirmed by Patti Grace Smith of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. “I am very pleased and honored to present for the very first time these FAA commercial astronaut wings to Mike Melvill in recognition of this tremendous achievement,” he said.
Ok. Forget digerati-MMOG-rockstar. I want to be a civilian astronaut.
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Posted in forum archive at 10:52 pm by
In what is just another reason not to use AOL as an ISP, a former AOL employee has been accused of selling 92 million names to a spammer.
Mr. Smathers, who has since been fired, used his computer skills and his inside knowledge of AOL to gain access to the customer list in the spring of 2003, then sold it to Mr. Dunaway, the United States attorney said. Mr. Dunaway used the list to promote his own gambling enterprise, then sold the list in turn to other spammers, Mr. Kelley said.
What I can’t figure is how Mr. Smathers thought he could possilby get away with it.? Is $100,000 worth the ire of 92 million people?
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Posted in forum archive at 10:47 pm by
800,000 tracks in one week – not bad for the European branch of the very successful iTunes music service.
“In the UK alone, iTunes sold more than 450,000 songs in the last week — 16 times as many as OD2, its closest competitor,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs says in a statement.
;;;;;;;;;; for a digital music done right!
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Posted in forum archive at 10:43 pm by
This will probably get much more discussion because of the sensational headlines possible. Honestly, however, if the bandwagon is a fun thought process, why not join in? So, with that said, Microsoft has apparently patented using your skin as a battery for electronic devices.
The tech giant has secured the patent for technology that will allow human skin to conduct power and transmit data.
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Take, for example, scientific experimentation into tiny fuel cells that could convert your body’s glucose (sugar) into power. According to The New York Times, such sugar-powered fuel cells have been inserted into and powered by grapes. It also gave an example of where the technology could go: plugged into a soldier who could eat an Oreo cookie in order to power up his radio.
You can experience this right now if you have a car with remote keyless entry. Next time you’re in the parking lot see how far away you have to be to unlock your doors the ‘normal way’. Then, after the doors are locked, step back between 15-30 feet (so that the normal way doesn’t unlock the doors anymore). Press the transmitter part firmly into that soft spot underneath your chin and between your jaw bone. Because your body is effectively acting like a larger antenna, the remote keyless entry now has expanded range.
After you’ve done all of that put a quarter in an envelope and send it to Redmond, WA. After all, with the patent, you have illegally used their intellectual property and owe them. 
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Posted in Uncategorized at 10:36 pm by
In an interesting thought process, J Orwant of IBM talks about the creation of EGGG, or the Extensible Graphical Game Generator. It’s software that seperates the ‘hard software’ (how to display stuff) with the ’soft software’ (the game rules). Oh, and its programmed in perl.
EGGG, the Extensible Graphical Game Generator, is an experiment in automated programming. By concentrating on a particular domain—games—EGGG allows users to create applications with a minimum of programming effort. We codified the similarities among games and game programs into reusable software components that decouple the rules of a game from its implementation. As a consequence, users can create games merely by describing the rules to EGGG, which then generates a fully functioning game program. In this paper, we survey the design and implementation of EGGG and provide some examples of games that can be created with the system.
Interesting reading and really spurs the imagination at what might be possible.
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Posted in forum archive at 11:58 am by
It’s been announced that there is a security flaw in several versions of the Unreal engine. This flaws might allow a hacker to take over a person’s computer with a clever buffer overrun attack.
Games affected by the flaw include five versions of “Unreal,” all of which are secured by patches released last week, plus shooting games “Postal 2″ and “Deus Ex,” also fixed by recent patches.
The flaw was discovered by independent security researcher Luigi Auriemma, whose work has played a major role in publicizing online gaming as a possible vector for security threats. Auriemma discovered several flaws in software used by GameSpy, a popular online game-hosting service, and fought with the company to publicize the holes.
I know there’s quite a few fans of the Unreal franchise on here – patch, baby, patch! 
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