47295579
submission
mvar writes:
According to kotaku, a hacker named SuperDaeE who breached multiple gaming companies (Valve, Sony, MS to name a few) has released a 1.7TB treasure trove file for download. The file which contains source code for older titles plus development kits for the PS4 and Xbox One consoles, is encrypted and SuperDaeE claims that it is his insurance in case gets arrested. Good luck with that.
45674297
submission
mvar writes:
Various sources report that a few days ago at CinemaCon Disney announced their plan to release, following the 2015 JJ Abraams Episode VII, a new star wars movie every 1 (one, uno, une) year. Yeap, get your stomachs ready because that's a lot of Jar Jar Binks.
43241059
submission
mvar writes:
It seems that a company in the UK is trying to trademark the "Python" term for all-things-computing and the PSF (Python Software Foundation) is asking for help. According to the PSF, they contacted the company in order to settle the matter but "They blew us off and responded by filing the community trademark application claiming the exclusive right to use "Python" for software, servers, and web services — everywhere in Europe. ". They now seek help from the community in several ways: By sending a letter to the EU council if you happen to work on a company that uses the Python programming language, by providing EU-published material regarding the Python language (articles etc) and/or financially supporting the PSF in the upcoming legal battle.
28068640
submission
mvar writes:
After a meeting held last Monday regarding Mozilla Firefox ESR (Enterprise Support Release), the new version was announced yesterday in a post on Mozilla's official blog: "We are pleased to announce that the proposal for an Extended Support Release (ESR) of Firefox is now a plan of action. The ESR version of Firefox is for use by enterprises, public institutions, universities and other organizations that centrally manage their Firefox deployments. Releases of the ESR will occur once a year, providing these organizations with a version of Firefox that receives security updates but does not make changes to the Web or Firefox Add-ons platform."
25092074
submission
mvar writes:
The Linux Foundation today released technical guidance to PC makers on how to implement secure UEFI without locking Linux or other free software off of new Windows 8 machines. The guidance included a subtle tisk-tisk at Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky for suggesting that PC owners won't want to mess with control of their hardware and would happily concede that to operating system makers and hardware manufacturers.
24498464
submission
mvar writes:
Dtrace co-author Adam Leventhal writes on his blog about Dtrace for Linux:
Yesterday (October 4, 2011) Oracle made the surprising announcement that they would be porting some key Solaris features, DTrace and Zones, to Oracle Enterprise Linux. As one of the original authors, the news about DTrace was particularly interesting to me, so I started digging.
Even among Oracle employees, there’s uncertainty about what was announced. Ed Screven gave us just a couple of bullet points in his keynote; Sergio Leunissen, the product manager for OEL, didn’t have further details in his OpenWorld talk beyond it being a beta of limited functionality; and the entire Solaris team seemed completely taken by surprise.
Leunissen stated that only the kernel components of DTrace are part of the port. It’s unclear whether that means just fbt or includes sdt and the related providers. It sounds certain, though, that it won’t pass the DTrace test suite which is the deciding criterion between a DTrace port and some sort of work in progress.
19534548
submission
mvar writes:
Red Hat has changed the way it ships the source code for the Linux kernel. Previously, it was released as a standard kernel with a collection of patches which could be applied to create the source code of the kernel Red Hat used. Now though, the company ships a tarball of the source code with the patches already applied. This change, noted by Maxillian Attems and LWN.net, appears to be aimed at Oracle, who like others, repackage Red Hat's source as the basis for its Unbreakable Linux. Although targeted at Oracle, the changes will make work harder for distributions such as CentOS, the community built Linux distribution also based on Red Hat's sources.
19074548
submission
mvar writes:
On Feb. 6th, NASA's twin STEREO probes moved into position on opposite sides of the sun, and they are now beaming back uninterrupted images of the entire star—front and back. "For the first time ever, we can watch solar activity in its full 3-dimensional glory," says Angelos Vourlidas, a member of the STEREO science team at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, DC. NASA released a 'first light' 3D movie on, naturally, Super Bowl Sunday.
19022954
submission
mvar writes:
A bill to reduce the likelihood of massive damage awards in patent disputes took a step forward with approval by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee voted 15-0 to back the legislation that would give judges a major role in determining how important a particular patent is to a product, so that infringing minor patents would not lead to huge damages. The bill also gives patents to the first inventor to file, rather than the first to invent, making the patent application process easier for companies who apply for patents in multiple countries. This year, Microsoft, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Biotechnology Industry Organization support the patent legislation, while Dell, Cisco and others oppose it.
18976282
submission
mvar writes:
Whistle-blower site WikiLeaks has been nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize by a Norwegian politician who cited its role in freedom of speech, news agency NTB reported Wednesday. "WikiLeaks is one of this century's most important contributors to freedom of speech and transparency," parliamentarian Snorre Valen said in his nomination. Valen cited WikiLeaks role in disclosing the assests of Tunisia's former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his nearest family, contributing to the protests that forced them into exile.
18924838
submission
mvar writes:
The source code of an older version of "Kaspersky Internet Security" has been circulated on the internet. The code was created in late 2007 and was probably stolen in early 2008. Names contained in the sources indicate that the stolen code was probably a beta version of the 2008 software package – the current release is Kaspersky Internet Security 2011. According to a Russian language report by CNews (Google translation), the code was copied by a disgruntled ex-employee. The thief has reportedly been trying to sell the code on the black market for some time, and Kaspersky says that the code archive already appeared in various private forums last November. The thief has reportedly already been sentenced to three years imprisonment with a probation period of three years.
18730642
submission
mvar writes:
A woman in the US is able to speak for the first time in 11 years after a pioneering voicebox transplant. Brenda Jensen said the operation, which took place in California, was a miracle which had restored her life. Thirteen days after the surgery she said her first words: "Good morning, I want to go home". It is the first time a voicebox and windpipe have been transplanted at the same time (image) and only the second time a voice box has ever been transplanted. In October, surgeons at the University of California Davis Medical Centre removed the larynx (voicebox), thyroid gland and 6cm of the trachea (windpipe) from a donor body. In an 18-hour operation this was transplanted into Ms Jensen's throat and the team connected it to her blood supply and nerves. Thirteen days later she was able to speak her first croaky words and is now able to talk easily for long periods of time.
18710068
submission
mvar writes:
While his Black Hat DC Conference demonstration was not flawless, a University of Luxembourg student on Wednesday did show that it's possible to trick iPhone users into joining a fake GSM network. Ralf-Philipp Weinmann showed how to cobble together a laptop using open-source software OpenBTS and other low-cost gear to create a fake GSM transmitter base station to locate iPhones in order to send their owners a message. A number of iPhone users in the room expressed surprise that they had gotten a message asking them to join the network. "You want to get phones not just used by the teenage crowd but executives," said Weinmann, adding that it is possible to "have complete control of the phone." Part of the reason these fake GSM network attacks are possible is because the code base used in smartphones such as the iPhone, which is Infineon-based, goes back to the 1990s.
18393254
submission
mvar writes:
Working through the year-end best/worst movie lists can be a feat of Olympic proportions, but there's one list which is so damn cool you'll definitely want to give it a whirl. NASA and the Science and Entertainment Exchange (their website is a great read) have compiled a list of the "least plausible science fiction movies ever made," and they ranked the disastrous (in more ways than one) ''2012' as the most "absurd" sci-fi flick of all time.
