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Bug

Stack Overflow Could Explain Toyota Vehicles' Unintended Acceleration 664

Posted by timothy from the go-ahead-ask-your-car-a-question dept.
New submitter robertchin writes "Michael Barr recently testified in the Bookout v. Toyota Motor Corp lawsuit that the likely cause of unintentional acceleration in the Toyota Camry may have been caused by a stack overflow. Due to recursion overwriting critical data past the end of the stack and into the real time operating system memory area, the throttle was left in an open state and the process that controlled the throttle was terminated. How can users protect themselves from sometimes life endangering software bugs?"
Security

Ask Slashdot: How Do You Manage Your Passwords? 445

Posted by Soulskill from the alternate-between-12345-and-54321 dept.
Albus Dumb Door writes "As an IT professional, I've got a problem common to many of you: dealing with a lot of passwords. Memorizing them all becomes harder with age and and an increasing number of passwords. I will forget them eventually. I am obviously unable to use something online, like Last Pass and 1Password. Using a single password for all the systems is also obviously out of the question. I know that there are a few apps for cell phones for managing passwords (like Phone Genie and mSecure), but a cell phone, unless it's kept in offline mode (and even then), is still a security risk and I'm pretty sure my employers wouldn't like me having their passwords on my cell phone. I've also taken a look at things like the YubiKey, but changing the authentication scheme of most of the systems is not an option. The only interesting option I've seen so far is the Pitbull Wallet, but they just started taking pre-orders on IndieGoGo and are not expected to deliver until August. Amazon has some hardware password managers as well, like the RecZone and Logio, but either the price or their reviews scared me away. So how do you guys prefer to manage your passwords and what do you recommend?"
Science

First Liquid Machines Presage Soft Robots 42

Posted by Soulskill from the just-make-sure-we-keep-arnold-close-at-hand dept.
KentuckyFC writes "The technology behind the T-1000 assassin in the Terminator movies might as well be science fiction as far as modern manufacturing is concerned. But we're making progress — thanks to some work by Chinese engineers who have perfected a way to make liquid metals assume various shapes and switch from one to another with the flick of a switch. These guys placed a thin film of gallium-indium-selenium alloy (melting point 10.5 degrees C) in water and applied an electric field. The balance between the surface tension of the metal and the electric forces on its surface then caused the metal to form a ball. They can move the sphere around, combine it with other spheres, and even use it to rotate the water. The engineers say this is the first step toward smart liquid machines that can assume almost any shape. And since the alloy is biologically benign, these machines could be used with, and even inside humans. Their next goal is to create a set of parallel electrodes that cause the metal to form into an undulating worm-shape that can propel itself along."
Censorship

China Calls For Even Firmer Internet Control 119

Posted by Soulskill from the you're-doing-it-wrong dept.
eldavojohn writes "Chinese state media has published a long article detailing why China needs to take even firmer stances on sites like Twitter and the internet as a whole, or risk backlash to the Communist Party from 'Internet opinion.' The commentary warned, 'Unless administration is vigorous, criminal forces, hostile forces, terrorist organizations and others could manipulate public sentiment by manufacturing bogus opinion on the Internet, damaging social stability and national security.' China seized upon the London riots recently to justify tighter internet censorship. The article, of course, ends with the conclusion that 'Clearly, in the future when developing and applying new Internet technologies, there must first be a thorough assessment, adopting even more prudent policies and enhancing foresight and forward thinking in administration.' While this provides China with their Emmanuel Goldstein and his Brotherhood, it should be noted that the People's Daily is often over the top."
Education

How Do You Explain Software Development To 2nd Graders? 430

Posted by samzenpus from the it's-all-about-the-games dept.
First time accepted submitter zimania writes "At the start of every school year, my kids' teachers invariably ask if any parents have any special skills they can present to the students. As a software engineer, I'd like to give a presentation to the classes about developing software. The tricky part is making a presentation fun, inspirational, and easy enough for 2nd and 4th graders to grasp. Has anybody been brave enough to attempted such a thing? Are there kid-tested prepackaged presentations freely available? Would it be best to present the development of a simple game? Web page? Any advice is welcome."
Security

"Apache Killer" Web Server Hole Plugged 48

Posted by samzenpus from the shields-up dept.
CWmike writes "The Apache open-source project has patched its Web server software to quash a bug that a denial-of-service (DoS) tool has been exploiting. Apache 2.2.20, released Tuesday, plugs the hole used by an 'Apache Killer' attack tool. On Aug. 24, project developers had promised a fix within 48 hours, then revised the timetable two days later to 24 hours. The security advisory did not explain the delay."
Crime

Submission + - Hacker Teaches iPhone Forensics to Police

Submitted by
Ponca City, We love you
Ponca City, We love you writes: "The Mercury News reports that former hacker Jonathan Zdziarski has been tapped by law-enforcement agencies nationwide to teach them just how much information is stored in iPhones — and how to get it. "These devices are people's companions today," says Zdziarski. "They're not mobile phones anymore. They organize people's lives. And if you're doing something criminal, something about it is probably going to go through that phone." For example, every time an iPhone user closes out of the built-in mapping application, the phone snaps a screenshot and stores it. Savvy law-enforcement agents armed with search warrants can use those snapshots to see if a suspect is lying about whereabouts during a crime. Even people who don't take pictures or leave GPS coordinates behind often unwittingly leave other trails. "Like the keyboard cache," says Zdziarski, author of "iPhone Forensics" published by O'Reilly Media. "The iPhone logs everything that you type in to learn autocorrect" so that it can correct a user's typing mistakes. Apple doesn't store that cache very securely, so someone with know-how could recover months of typing in the order in which it was typed, even if the e-mail or text it was part of has long since been deleted. "It may look like everything's gone," says Sam Brothers, a cell-phone forensic researcher. "But for anybody who's got a clue, retrieving that information is easy.""
Businesses

GoDaddy Up For Auction 191

Posted by samzenpus from the what's-in-a-name? dept.
An anonymous reader writes "GoDaddy.com, the closely held website that registers Internet domain names, has put itself up for sale in an auction that could fetch more than $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said. The company, which currently has more than 43 million domains under management, is well known for its edgy advertising, including Super Bowl commercials and ads featuring different 'Go Daddy Girls,' including racing car driver Danica Patrick."

Submission + - Child abuse verdict held back by MS Word glitch? (publico.pt)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Last week several defendants including one high-profile TV presenter were sentenced in Portugal to jail sentences in what has been known as the Casa Pia scandal. The judges delivered on Set3 a summary of the 2000 page verdict, which would be disclosed in full only 3 days later. The disclosure of the full verdict has been postponed from Set8 to an yet-to-be-announced date, allegedly because the full document was written in several MS Word files which, when merged together, retained "computer related annotations which should not be present in any legal document". Microsoft specialists were called in to help the judges sort out the "text formatting glitch", while the defendants and their lawyers eagerly waits to access the full text of the verdict.

Submission + - Use for Wisdom Teeth: Making Stem Cells

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: For most people, wisdom teeth are not much more than an annoyance that eventually needs to be removed. However, a new study appearing in the September 17 Journal of Biological Chemistry shows that wisdom teeth contain a valuable reservoir of tissue for the creation of stem cells; thus, everyone might be carrying around his or her own personal stem-cell repository should he or she ever need some. Groundbreaking research back in 2006 revealed that inducing the activity of four genes in adult cells could "reprogram" them back into a stem-cell-like state; biologically, these induced-pluripotent stem cells are virtually identical to embryonic stem cells, opening up a new potential avenue for stem-cell therapy whereby patients could be treated with their own stem cells.
Privacy

Submission + - Judge allows subpoenas for Internet users (skunkpost.com)

Submitted by crimeandpunishment
crimeandpunishment writes: A federal judge has ruled that the company holding a movie copyright can subpoena the names of people who are accused of illegally downloading and distributing the film. The judge ruled that courts have maintained that once people convey subscriber information to their Internet service providers, they no longer have an expectation of privacy.
Robotics

Submission + - Boeing Hummingbird drone crashes in Belize (suasnews.com)

Submitted by garymortimer
garymortimer writes: Still not reported elsewhere, Flight International reports another crash of the Boeing Hummingbird helicopter UAV.

The Hummingbird A160 is in development, but test flights already demonstrate successively greater endurance, higher altitudes, more extensive autonomy, and greater payload. The program has ambitious goals of a 2,500-mile (4,000 km) range, 24-hour endurance, and 30,000 ft (9,100 m) altitude. Flights are largely autonomous, with the aircraft making its own decisions about how to fly itself so as to meet certain objectives, rather than relying on real-time human control. Maximum speeds are over 140 knots. The aircraft is 35 ft (11 m) from nose to tail and has a rotor diameter of 36 ft (11 m).[2] Until recently it was powered by modified Subaru automotive engines, but newer versions fly with the Pratt & Whitney PW207D turboshaft.

Submission + - India's $35 Android 7-in Tablet to Hit in Jan '11 (tomshardware.com) 2

Submitted by indogiree
indogiree writes: Link: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/india-android-tablet-35-indiapad,11255.html

"Engadget reports that India has just awarded the manufacturing contract to HCL Technologies. The first shipment will supposedly only contain the 7-inch model and is set to arrive on January 10. It's unclear if the $35 price has stuck or whether India's been successful in plans to eventually drive the price down to $10 with the help of large orders and government subsidies."

Additional Info: http://nexus404.com/Blog/2010/09/11/sakshat-tablet-from-india-gets-a-release-date-the-cheap-tablet-from-india-will-be-officially-out-by-january-10-2011/

"HCL Technologies plans to initially produce 100,000 units. Among the key features of this India-based tablet include 2GB of RAM, web-conferencing, PDF reader unzip, WiFi, camera and USB connectivity.

The Sakshat tablet will be available in an array of screen sizes. It will come out in 5, 7 and 9 screen sizes."
Security

Best Tool For Remembering Passwords? 1007

Posted by kdawson from the encrypted-plain-text-file-on-a-stick dept.
StonyCreekBare writes "Lately I've been rethinking my personal security practices. Should my laptop be stolen, having Firefox 'fill in' passwords automatically for me when I go to my bank's site seems sub-optimal. Keeping passwords for all the varied sites on the computer in a plain-text file seems unwise as well. Keeping them in my brain is a prescription for disaster, as my brain is increasingly leaky. A paper notepad likewise has its disadvantages. I have looked at a number of password managers, password 'vaults' and so on. The number of tools out there is a bit overwhelming. Magic Password Generator add-in for Firefox seems competent, but it's tied to Firefox, and I have other places and applications where I want passwords. And I might be accessing my sites from other computers that don't have it installed. The ideal tool in my mind should be something that is independent of any application, browser, or computer; something that is easily carried, but which if lost poses no risk of compromise. What does the Slashdot crowd like in password tools?"

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