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Comment Re:The Price of Reliability (Score 1) 167

Reliability doesn't simply mean older kernels. In addition to the usual requirements of not having the thing throw a fit under normal conditions, reliability also means consistency and longevity of API and ABI. In other words, not only do you want the thing not to break itself, you don't want it to break other applications. Because of Red Hat's commitments to API and ABI stability, it requires them to backport newer features and fixes into older versions.

Government

ISP To FCC: Using The Internet Is Like Eating Oreos (consumerist.com) 229

New submitter Rick Schumann shares with us a report highlighting an analogy presented by an ISP that relates Double Stuf Oreos to the internet. Specifically, that Double Stuf Oreos cost more than regular Oreos, and therefore you should pay more for internet: The Consumerist reports: "Ars Technica first spotted the crumbly filing, from small (and much-loathed) provider Mediacom. Mediacom's comment is in response to the same proceeding that Netflix commented on earlier this month. However, while Netflix actually addressed data and the ways in which their customers use it, Mediacom went for the more metaphor-driven approach. The letter literally starts out under the header, 'You Have to Pay Extra For Double-Stuffed,' and posits that you, the consumer, are out for a walk with $2 in your pocket when you suddenly develop a ferocious craving for Oreo cookies." Of course their analogy is highly questionable, since transmitting data over a network doesn't actually consume anything, now does it? You eat the cookie, the cookie is gone, but you transmit data over a network, the network is still there and can transmit data endlessly. Mediacom's assertion that the Internet is like a cookie you eat, is like saying copying a file on your computer somehow diminishes or degrades the original file, which of course is ridiculous.

Comment misleading & likely incorrect (Score 5, Interesting) 85

This whole article smacks of some CISSP pouring over BGP looking glass router logs and having a sophomore Eureka moment. BGP MITM is not practically possible because of the return path problem: the last router that dumped you the traffic believes you are the legitimate endpoint for that traffic and therefore is not going to forward it to the ACTUAL target once you're done doing nefarious things to it. The article tries to explain this away with the following:

"The traffic was likely examined and then returned on a “clean path” to its destination—all of this happening in the blink of an eye."

If the 'clean path' of the internet thinks Mallory is Bob, Mallory's theoretical egress 'Clean Path' will make the same assumption. Perhaps Alice's first hop AS was compromised? If so this is an isolated vendor network problem, not an 'internet at large' problem. Maybe Mallory's 'clean path' is a point to point to Bob? If so Bob's an idiot for signing a peering agreement with a known Hooligan.

This was likely a misconfigured customer router connected to an irresponsible ISP that doesn't filter the routes it accepts, just like the Pakistan/Youtube Incident. The author either doesn't understand the technical impossibility of the attack they're dreaming about or does and is willing to lose credibility in exchange for ad traffic.

The Almighty Buck

White House Proposes "Wealthy Tax" 2115

President Obama is proposing a new tax rate for people making over $1m a year. The new rate is part of a larger plan which seeks to bring in $1.5 trillion in new tax revenue and is sure to meet opposition in congress. From the article: "The core of the president's plan totals just more than $2 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years. It combines the new taxes with $580 billion in cuts to mandatory benefit programs, including $248 billion from Medicare." GOP Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said, "Class warfare may make for really good politics but it makes for rotten economics."
Crime

Wardrivers Target Seattle Businesses 138

angry tapir writes "Seattle police are investigating a group of criminals who they say have been cruising around town in a black Mercedes stealing credit card data by tapping into wireless networks belonging to area businesses. The group has been at it for about five years, according to an affidavit signed by Detective Chris Hansen, a fraud investigator with the Seattle Police Department."
Music

Astronaut Sues Dido For Album Cover 264

An anonymous reader writes "Astronaut Bruce McCandless is suing Dido for her album cover that uses a famous NASA photograph of a tiny, tiny, tiny McCandless floating in space. McCandless doesn't own the copyright on the photo, so he's claiming it's a violation of his publicity rights ... except that he's so tiny in the photo, it's not like anyone's going to recognize him."
Classic Games (Games)

GOG.com Not Really Gone 276

gspr writes "On Sunday, Slashdot and many others reported that DRM-free games site GOG.com was shutting down. Now the site is back, revealing that it was all a hoax. According to the site: 'Now it's time we put an end to all the speculations once and for all. It's true that we decided that we couldn't keep GOG.com the way it was so we won't. As you probably know by now, GOG.com is entering its new era with an end of the two-years beta stage and we're launching a brand new GOG.com with new, huge releases.' So it was all an advertising stunt."
Cellphones

Apple Patents Remotely Disabling Jailbroken Phones 381

An anonymous reader writes "Apple yesterday applied for a patent to allow remotely disabling electronic devices when 'unauthorized usage' is detected. The patent application covers using the camera to take pictures of the unauthorized user and using GPS to determine location, and it involves ascertaining whether the phone has been hacked or jailbroken, using those as criteria for detecting 'suspicious behavior.' The patent would allow the carrier or any other 'authorized' party to disable or restrict the functionality of the device. Is this Apple's latest tool to thwart jailbreaking?"

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