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Apogee writes "A number of german news websites, like n-tv, or the german yahoo news site (courtesy of the german press agency, lending this some credibility) (web sites in german) report that the programmer of the Sasser worm has been arrested by German police. The Sasser author is an 18-year-old man who was arrested on Friday in Rotenburg, Germany. With the Sasser worm being the latest among worms that spread like wildfire among unpatched windows boxes, and apparently also caused serious computer outages and cost to the economy, how will this be transformed into an indictment?" Update: 05/08 18:41 GMT by T : SexySas writes "As the German news site heise reports, the 18-year-old author of Sasser is responsible for Netsky, too. The German police is talking about 'a milestone in war against cybercrime'."

grooveFX points to this CRN article which starts "After a year of tackling the Windows security nightmare, Microsoft has killed its Next-Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB) project and later this year plans to detail a revised security plan for Longhorn, the next major version of Windows, company executives said..." grooveFX writes "Glad to see they actually listen to the gripes from the media and users." Update: 05/05 19:13 GMT by T : phil reed writes "Oops. According to this article on Microsoft Watch, Microsoft really isn't giving up on NGSCB (aka 'Palladium') after all. Microsoft spent much of Day 2 of its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) here refuting a published report claiming the company has axed its Next Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB) security technology."

spike-288 writes "According a press release, Turbolinux is the first major Linux distributor to license and ship a media player capable of streaming Windows Media audio and video. The new product, "Turbolinux 10 F..." is based on Turbolinux 10 Desktop but will also include licensed versions of Macromedia Flash, legal commercial DVD playback (via Cyberlink's PowerDVD player), RealPlayer 8, commercial Kanji fonts and iPod support via gtkpod (including enhanced functionality)." Update: 04/28 02:33 GMT by T : Prostoalex adds "The Windows Media codecs for Linux will be available for download for $64, the complete TurboLinux OS will cost $150 in Japan and the United States."

nazarijo writes "I look at packets for a living. I generate them, I capture them and dissect them, and I try and make sense of them as quickly as possible. Sniffers and protocol analyzers are part of my bread and butter, and I'd be foolish to not use Ethereal. Tcpdump for a quick capture, but I use Ethereal when I need detailed information in a better, more navigable fashion. Because of that, I was pretty interested to see a book on Ethereal coming out." Read on for Jose's review of Ethereal Packet Sniffing from Syngress. Ethereal Packet Sniffing author Angela Orebaugh with Greg Morris and Ed Warnick pages 468 publisher Syngress rating 7 reviewer Jose Nazario ISBN 1932266828 summary Solid coverage of an excellent networking tool. Offers value beyond free documentation, insight available nowhere else, and plenty of handy tips and tricks.

I've used the tool for years, and I've read the docs a bit, so I felt comfortable with the tool. Still, I wanted to learn something new with it, and I wanted to see if this book could offer what I was hoping for. The book delivers, and does a pretty good job. One of the big tests for me about any book that covers an Open Source project is "Does this book offer more than the existing documentation?" If it fails to, the book isn't worth the money, I'll stick with free docs. While the book comes out favorably for me, I'll start with the things I didn't like, first.

One of the big things that is missing from this book is any coverage of Ethereal on OS X. Given how many people are migrating to OS X (from UN*X or from Windows), and the coverage of Ethereal on Windows, I would have expected some mention of it. Luckily it's available in both Darwin Ports and the Fink project, but some mention of any of the quirks people may encounter would have been welcome. Amy (from Syngress) tells me that they will have a paper in their Solutions center on Ethereal on OS X, which would be great to see.

Another annoyance with the book is the repeated coverage in some sections of various aspects of Ethereal. One that stands out is the coverage of the additional tools which are installed alongside Ethereal, like Editcap and Text2pcap. They are covered in chapter 2 for a bit and then more completely in chapter 6. Covering these tools only once would have sufficed, but it does let chapter 2 stand on its own. Amy tells me that they do this intentionally, because it makes some chapters stand on their own as "units" for others to use. That makes sense.

A final bit of the book I didn't like was the choice of screenshots: quite a number of the screenshots were full screen dumps when only one or two elements of the page really mattered. Either trimmed or annotated screenshots would have been more welcome. A lot of information gets dumped in Ethereal, helping people navigate the UI with a static, black-and-white image would have been welcome.

Now, on to the real strengths of the book. Like I said earlier, The book offers more coverage than the existing, free docs on Ethereal provide, or at least in a more manageable form. Obviously, with the source code in front of me I could dissect the tool and learn everything about it, but that's hardly efficient. Simply put, the book introduces network sniffing and troubleshooting well. How can you place a sniffer to get coverage, what can a sniffer tell you during troubleshooting (and what can it not?), and of course how to get and install Ethereal (on UN*X and Windows).

The next chapter covers exactly what you would expect it to, how to use Ethereal. Ethereal's main use is as a GUI protocol analyzer, so you have menus, panes and windows to navigate. This chapter tells you what they are and how they present and format the data you're looking at. The next chapter deals with four tools that come with Ethereal: Tethereal (very similar to tcpdump), Editcap, Mergecap, and Text2pcap (all useful for managing pcap files).

Chapter 7 is one of those handy things to read. Ethereal is typically used to read pcap files, but it can also read snoop files, Microsoft Network Monitor files, EtherPeek files, NAI's Sniffer files, and HPUX's nettl files, all of which you'll find around. It's handy that you can see how to integrate Ethereal with these other products.

Chapter 8 brings it all together with real world packet captures, many of which are also on the included CD. These files include scans, Trojan uses, and even worm traffic. All of these are useful for learning how to use Ethereal and highlight the power of the tool. You can go from novice to a pretty decent network protocol junkie if you dilligently study the resources in this chapter and on the CD.

Chapter 9 will be useful to a small subset of people, but quite useful. This chapter gives you a tour of how to develop for and extend Ethereal. Ethereal's main strength is a huge number of decode routines, such as sFlow and MPLS (in addition to the standard ones like DNS, DHCP, and the like). Using this information you can extend Ethereal for your own needs and maybe even contribute back to the project.

Either the developer's angle or the detailed discussions and examples of the filter syntax are my favorite parts of the book. They contribute significant value for everyday use, and I found them useful in a recent task at work.

The book is going to run the risk of becoming quickly out of date, given the development pace of Ethereal. However, it relies more on underlying core concepts and principles inherent in Ethereal, so it should stay useful for longer than you may think.

All in all I would say this is probably worth picking up if you're looking at becoming a network operator or network security junkie. You'll learn a lot about a powerful tool, how to integrate it into your use, and even how to dissect real traces of traffic. I give it a 7 out of 10 for the above weaknesses, but that shouldn't stop you from strongly considering it.

You can purchase Ethereal Packet Sniffing from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page

Sander Sassen writes "Following months of heated discussion and rumors about the performance of Nvidia' new NV4x architecture, today their new graphics cards based on this architecture got an official introduction. Hardware Analysis posted their first looks at the new GeForce 6800 Ultra and takes it for a spin with all of the latest DirectX 9.0 game titles. The results speak for themselves, the GeForce 6800 Ultra is the new king of the hill, beating ATI's fastest by over 100% in almost every benchmark." Reader egarland adds "Revews are up on Firing Squad, Toms Hardware, Anandtech and Hot Hardware." Update: 04/14 16:54 GMT by T : Neophytus writes "HardOCP have their real life gameplay review available."

An anonymous reader submits "Forbes.com has what looks to be the first hands-on review of Google's forthcoming Gmail service. Aside from the 1-gigabyte storage, the searching features sound pretty useful for what the writer calls 'email packrats' which I think fits me pretty well. But I can't say I agree with the writer's opinion that privacy fears, as discussed this Slashdot thread, about the Gmail service are 'overblown.' Still and all, I'm curious to try it myself and see what I think." Update: 04/13 00:55 GMT by T : notEA writes "A California state senator is drafting legislation to block Google from releasing Gmail. Seems kind of silly, since all anti-spam filters read your messages anyway."

terradyn writes "Over at iPodlounge they've discovered that the iPod mini's have a major issue with their headphone jacks. It looks like the jacks connection to the main system board is extremely poorly engineered and so normal use will wear it out and cause lots of static after around 35-40 days... If any pressure on your iPod Mini results in crackling and static, you should return your iPod immediately to an Apple store for a free replacement. They're also theorizing over in the forums that the iPod Mini shortage may be a cover for this problem..." Update: 04/12 01:08 GMT by T : billybob writes "Someone in the forum thread originally linked to has posted pictures of the iPod taken apart, demonstrating the problem."

The Original Yama writes "Ars Technica takes a look inside the GNOME 2.6 Desktop & Developer Platform, due for release any minute now. It builds upon an earlier review of the GNOME 2.5 development series and their own examination of GNOME 2.4." darthcamaro writes "internetnews.com is running a story about the release of GNOME 2.6 today. They actually got a hold of Miguel de Icaza who had some real interesting stuff to say about it and the Linux Desktop in general. 'de Icaza told internetnews.com that a simpler interface has been the goal of GNOME since at least version 2.0.'" Update: 03/31 21:59 GMT by T : sn0wman3030 was one of many submitters to link to the GNOME 2.6 start page, including links to screenshots, documentation, and source downloads.

Sir Pallas writes "Intel settled a patent infringement suit over SSE and Hyperthreading for $225mil with Intergraph. Furthermore, Dell, also named in the suit, claims that their indemnity agreement with Intel applies in this case and requires Intel to take any bullets headed Dell's way." Update: 03/31 17:49 GMT by T : philthedrill writes "The Intel/Intergraph article title is incorrect. Technically," (according to this story at out-law.com), "Intel/Dell and Intergraph settled a longstanding suit which dealt with Itanium (not SSE/Hyperthreading). Another company, MicroUnity, is now suing Intel and Dell over SSE and Hyperthreading."

Digitus1337 writes "Wired has the scoop on a new type of rice that was just approved for production by a narrow vote. 'Ventria believes growing drugs that produce proteins like lactoferrin and lysozyme in rice could be a cheaper way to develop drugs than building and maintaining expensive manufacturing plants... Opponents say growing the crops in open fields endangers organic and conventional crops, as well as human health...'" Update: 03/30 23:15 GMT by T : That should probably read "growing rice that produces proteins like lactoferrin and lysozyme."

Balinares writes "NewsForge reports that Novell has settled for Qt as its Linux desktop development environment, casting more light on their strategy to unify KDE and GNOME. This ought to be interesting. The prospect of using Mono to code against Qt makes me drool in advance. Maybe programming will suck no longer!" Update: 03/30 00:01 GMT by T : Sounds like that story doesn't quite hold water; Nat Friedman writes in this Slashdot comment that "We have not decided that we are standardizing on Qt for the desktop. ... We support development with a variety of toolkits, and our internal development is done using the right tool for the right problem. This includes Qt, Gtk, VCL, XUL and others, depending on the application."

An anonymous reader writes "Looks like the GNOME site (both web and FTP) is back up and running again (from a replacement system). The restoration work is still going on, and dynamic content does not work yet. Bugzilla should be up by tomorrow (it is already in testing mode). More details are available in this announcement. Kudos to the GNOME sysadmin team for such a rapid recovery." However, blurzero writes "GNOME 2.6 was scheduled to be released sometime today, however after evidence of possible intrusion on the web server, the release has been delayed by one week, until March 31st." Update: 03/24 14:08 GMT by T : An anonymous reader points to this story on the delay at ZD Net Australia.

An anonymous reader writes "A new Internet worm wriggled across the entire Internet in the span of a few hours Saturday morning to all computers running several recent versions of firewall software from Internet Security Systems, including BlackICE and RealSecure, according to this story at Washingtonpost.com. The flaw that Witty exploited was discovered Wednesday by eEye Digital Security. The worm overwrites data on the first few sectors of the victim's hard drive, making the machine virtually ubootable and potentially destroying much - if not all - of the victim's data." Update: 03/21 02:18 GMT by T : Reader Jeff Horning points out that eEye actually disovered the worm on the 8th of March, and came up with a fix the next day.

Phoe6 writes "'Google's goal is to connect searchers with the information they need whether it's halfway around the world or in their neighborhood,' said company co-founder Sergey Brin, as Google is unveiling its location-based search tool local.google.com. This is going heads on with Yahoo, as it put its SmartView content on its maps." Phoe6 also points to this AP story carried by the Houston Chronicle about "Verizon Communications' SuperPages.com, overhauled to deliver more useful local results." Google's service seems to work pretty well -- I've just located a few coffee shops with free wireless within easy walking distance. Update: 03/17 18:33 GMT by T : Here's a no-reg link to the same AP story.

eoyount writes "Wired has an interesting story about a really simple idea I wish I had thought of. Transferring large files across the Internet isn't easy for your average joe, but a combination of RSS and BitTorrent technology might just make it easier - Slashdot ran a previous story on the theoretical blending last year." (LegalTorrents is run by the strangely familiar simoniker, who wrote a short piece on the O'Reilly Network about how it was set up, and offers observations on how well the combination fares.) Update: 03/17 21:45 GMT by T : Ernest Miller submits two related postings he's written on RSS+BitTorrent, a combination he calls "broadcatching."

the.jedi writes "With the release of GTK+ 2.4, and Gnome 2.6 due out some time next week, it seems of some the Gnome developers are looking at how they'll be coding Gnome and the rest of the Linux desktop. Havoc Pennington of Planet Gnome has written a short blog pondering and analyzing the available options as coders move towards high-level languages like java and C#. He gives a good overview and assessment of technologies like mono, OO.org's UNO framework, as well as other ways of tying new languages to the existing code base. An extremely interesting read for desktop linux hackers everywhere." Update: 03/17 14:44 GMT by T : Speaking of the future of Gnome, aeneas writes with a list of Gnome 2.6 release parties around the world (linked from gnome.org/start/2.5).

An anonymous reader writes "North Carolina researchers have developed an Internet protocol, subsequently tested and affirmed by Stanford, that hums along at speeds roughly 6,000 times that of DSL. The system, called BIC-TCP, beat out competing protocols from Caltech, University College London and others. The results were announced at IEEE's annual communications confab in Hong Kong." Update: 03/16 04:46 GMT by T : ScienceBlog suggests this alternate link while their site is down.

joestar writes "The new Mandrakelinux 10.0 Community has just showed up on Mandrake's FTP mirrors and through Bittorrent. MandrakeClub Members benefit from extra CDs downloads and even a DVD ISO for Corporate Memberships! Another good news for the Mandrake community is an announce from Mandrakesoft that due to the stock resumed trading on Euronext on last Monday, with a nice increase of +10.00% in three days." Update: 03/11 06:23 GMT by T : Cheap ISOs are also available from merchants like OSDisc.com and CheapBytes.

unassimilatible writes "Wired reports that Wisconsin has decided to join a controversial interstate antiterrorism database that holds billions of records of ordinary Americans' activities known as the MATRIX, or Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange. Is your state next?" Update: 03/10 19:05 GMT by T : Thanks to reader philthedrill for a correction: according to an article in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Daily Cardinal, Wisconsin has backed out of the Matrix, effective yesterday.

Stop Or I'll Noop writes "Paul Starzetz writes, "A critical security vulnerability has been found in the Linux kernel memory management code inside the mremap(2) system call due to missing function return value check. This bug is completely unrelated to the mremap bug disclosed on 05-01-2003 except concerning the same internal kernel function code." Full scoop here." Update: 03/07 20:53 GMT by T : This vulnerability (and fixes) were mentioned briefly in an update to this earlier posting.

nazarijo writes "Avi Rubin, a well regarded Johns Hopkins computer science professor and leading critic of e-voting, has written an account of his experience as an election judge on super tuesday. Maryland was experimenting with e-Voting machines. Rubin puts it this way, 'this was one of the most incredible days in my life.' He wrote his experiences immediately after the day was over, capturing his perspective on the subject. A very interesting read."

An anonymous reader writes "News.com reports that SCO has filed the first (of two) soon to be infamous lawsuits. This one is aimed against car part retailer AutoZone, a multi-billion, Fortune 500 company according to the site. Who's next?" Another reader excerpts from SCO's posted claim: 'AutoZone violated SCO's UNIX copyrights by running versions of the Linux operating system that contain code, structure, sequence and/or organization from SCO's proprietary UNIX System V code in violation of SCO's copyrights.' Update: 03/03 16:28 GMT by T : njan writes with the news that SCO just announced during their ongoing conference call another lawsuit, this one "to be filed against Daimler-Chrysler, alleging that they are infringing SCO's copyright by using code relating to 'core operating system functionality' of SCO System 5."

sundling writes "There are interesting articles here(1) and here(2) on software espionage against the Soviets. In the Ronald Reagan era, a Soviet spy network (Line X Network) was looking to steal software to run oil pipelines. The CIA found out what they were trying to steal and fed them bogus versions. This is of course not the only time the CIA has done this. ... An article on the ethics of programming mentions this very topic and the moral implications." Update: 03/02 09:22 GMT by T : Oops -- this is a dupe.

gfilion writes "Microsoft has released a draft specification for Caller-ID for email, 'to address the widespread problem of domain spoofing' - the concept is similar to SPF, but is using XML. There's already an Caller-ID to SPF converter in the works. A few weeks ago, Microsoft discussed compatibility between the projects with Meng Weng Wong (SPF's project leader), but most SPF users are against using XML, so nothing has come of it thus far." We recently covered a brief article mentioning Microsoft's anti-spam work, though this is a clearer indication of their intentions. Update: 02/26 21:36 GMT by T : NewsForge is carrying a brief article with FSF counsel Eben Moglen's take on the draft; Moglen says it is "encumbered with unclear and unnecessary patent license claims."

hussar writes "Qwest is expected to announce today its plan to delink telephone service from its DSL offering. Given some comments I have seen in /. discussions of broadband issues, the plan, nicknamed 'naked DSL,' should be a welcome change." Update: 02/25 13:55 GMT by T : cpfeifer points to the Wall Street Journal's coverage.

K Tanmay writes "A team of Astronomers have found a natural lens capable of resolving details as fine as 10 microarcseconds across - equivalent to seeing a sugar cube on the Moon, from Earth. The lens comprises of a cloud of interstellar gas, and works on the principle of scintillation; where the clumpiness inside a cloud of gas creates a density change thus bending and focusing the light. This technique, dubbed 'Earth-Orbit Synthesis', will be first used to study black holes in distant quasars, so don't expect spectacular wallpaper replacing images. There's also an interview with Dr. Hayley Bignall, an astronomer from the Joint Institute for Very Long Baseline Interferometry in Europe (JIVE), where she discusses the concept of using interstellar scintillation to get observations that we could never measure from here on earth." Update: 02/22 18:23 GMT by T : That wikipedia link had led to the wrong place; here's the definition for arcsecond if you still want to read it.

justinarthur writes "At 04:36 UTC, Linux kernel version 2.6.3 has been made available. As is typical, downloaders are advised to utilize a mirror upon file availability. There are many changes from version 2.6.2, including recent ALSA patches, XFS fixes, and updates in many other areas." Update: 02/18 14:15 GMT by T : Peter Willis points out that kernel 2.4.25 (changelog) was also released, and writes "Incidentally, a security advisory dated today states there is an exploit in kernels up to 2.4.24 and 2.6.2, but the two releases today don't seem to reflect any changes, so get ready to patch up as soon as a patch pops up. More details on the vulnerability here."

Lord Prox writes "Jabber Ticket Authentication is a method of authenticating with HTTP servers using your jabber identification. This allows you to login to websites using your jabber address in a single sign-on fashion similar to .NET Passport, but unlike .NET Passport is not locked into a single authentication provider. Tickets also mean the jabber ticket provider and the web server do not need to be tightly integrated for authentication to work, also because its not tightly integrated it means webmasters do not need to setup their own jabber server to provide tickets, they can use a third party provider even a central "tickets.jabber.org". Also because tickets are not tightly integrated it makes it far easier for webmasters to integrate with Jabber, it also makes web farms far more scalable and reliable." Update: 02/11 19:22 GMT by T : The link to jabber.org has been fixed; thanks to reader Laurence Withers.

hkfczrqj writes "Knoppix has two more children. The first, 3.3-2004-02-09, an update with kernel 2.4-24-xfs, KDE 3.1.5, Mozilla 1.6, XFree 3.4. Also, and more important I guess, Knoppix 3.4 c't edition is out (torrent here). It is supposed to have kernel 2.6!" And it does. If you're looking for a way to test your setup with a 2.6 kernel without trashing a current install, this is a good way -- but note that the ct edition Knoppix boots into German (Shift-0 gets you an =, as in "lang=us") and kernel 2.4; you'll need to type "knoppix26" at startup to boot the new kernel. (You may find the excellent forums at knoppix.net helpful, too.) Update: 02/10 01:03 GMT by T : Note that the XFree version is really 4.3, not 3.4.

robyn217 writes "Hey, KBs and mice aren't the most glamorous hardware in your system but there's no reason for them to be dull. I spent the last month testing out a new keyboard and mouse every day; covering everything from strange one-handed KBs to cool gesture-sensing pads to tacky ball-based mice. Check it out if you're thinking about trading up." Strictly one-paragraph blurbs here (I wish she'd talked about each keyboard's tactile feedback, and long-term comfort on the oddball designs), but if you need to do a visual scan of current offerings (many wireless), you can work toward a new mouse by clicking your way through. Update: 01/21 21:58 GMT by T : Errr, Robyn's a He, not a She -- many apologies. That hasn't happened in years!

wrenhunt writes "The Speak Freely site has this: 'On January 15th, 2004, Speak Freely will be discontinued and removed from this Web site. Existing users may continue to use the program as long as they wish, but no further releases will be forthcoming. For details and the reasons why Speak Freely is being discontinued, please see the full end of life announcement.'" The reasons are various and interesting; it's graceful of the author to provide an explanation of why a piece of software is going away. Update: 01/11 19:22 GMT by T : As reader pi_rules points out, this story is a duplicate -- my apologies.

NoahsLinuxArk2K3 writes "For those of you who may not be familiar with PCLinuxOS, it's a Linux distro derived from Mandrake Linux 9.2, developed by none other than Texstar from PCLinuxOnline (best known for his RPM work for the same distro). The new distro is primarily a Live CD, but can also be installed to the hard drive. It is still in preview release, but at 306 hits per day, it's already #8 on the DistroWatch charts. This review is the first of its kind to surface and it is looking very promising." Update: 12/30 03:18 GMT by T : A semi-anonymous reader writes "For those who dont have a high speed connection, PCLinuxOS 2K4 Preview 4 is available from OSDisc.com for a few bucks." Probably soon it will be at cheapbytes, too.

Elektroschock writes "KDE, the leading *nix desktop environment, is translated to Farsi (=Persian). Now native language KDE can be used in Iran as well. Farsi is written from left to right. Full story at Dot KDE. Arash Zeini (KDE Farsi) wrote an intresting article about FLOSS in Iran. His view: "It is not a secret anymore that FLOSS is gaining momentum all over the world. We witness an international move and acceptance of FLOSS in the private as well as in the public sector."" Update: 12/29 16:37 GMT by T : That should read "Farsi is written from right to left." (Thanks to Thomas Zander for pointing that out.)

noims writes "Sunday is the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of John Von Neumann, the man with one of the strongest claims to the title of Father of Modern Computing. Although, as noted at the time by Mark Stanley of Freefall, several sources indicate that it may have been December 3rd." Update: 12/28 01:07 GMT by T : deja206 writes "Today (December 28, CET) also is Linus Torvalds' 34th birthday. Now we probably wouldn't be here talking about all this stuff if it weren't for him. Thank you for Linux, happy birthday!"

An Anonymous Reader writes "If you recently set up a new PC with Windows XP, or if you had the pleasure to do a 'reinstall from scratch,' you probably found that many XP systems as they are shipped today are not patched against common issues like Blaster. Given that these worms are still going strong, it doesn't take long for a new system to be infected. In particular, if you have to connect it to the Internet to download all the patches. Well, help is in sight. The SANS Institute released a paper entitled Windows XP: Surviving the First Day." (Read on below.) Update: 12/24 17:59 GMT by T : Thanks for reader Bill Curnow for the updated link. Update: 12/24 19:15 GMT by T : Besides the workaround suggested below, Roblimo has a good suggestion on avoiding the first-day-of-Windows altogether.

"With many screen shots, it will walk you through the procedure to enable the XP firewall and downloading the patches without getting infected while doing so. This could be the (free) stocking stuffer that may save Christmas for your folks ;-). Given that its probably to late now to start downloading your favorite Linux distro."

But if you do have the time and bandwidth, and you're stuck on Windows, a nice live-CD distro like Knoppix or Mepis means you can download patches without racing the worms, and install your patches while offline. (And if you have time to download 50MB, you have time to grab Damn Small Linux.)

An Anonymous Reader writes "If you recently set up a new PC with Windows XP, or if you had the pleasure to do a 'reinstall from scratch,' you probably found that many XP systems as they are shipped today are not patched against common issues like Blaster. Given that these worms are still going strong, it doesn't take long for a new system to be infected. In particular, if you have to connect it to the Internet to download all the patches. Well, help is in sight. The SANS Institute released a paper entitled Windows XP: Surviving the First Day." (Read on below.) Update: 12/24 17:59 GMT by T : Thanks for reader Bill Curnow for the updated link. Update: 12/24 19:15 GMT by T : Besides the workaround suggested below, Roblimo has a good suggestion on avoiding the first-day-of-Windows altogether.

"With many screen shots, it will walk you through the procedure to enable the XP firewall and downloading the patches without getting infected while doing so. This could be the (free) stocking stuffer that may save Christmas for your folks ;-). Given that its probably to late now to start downloading your favorite Linux distro."

But if you do have the time and bandwidth, and you're stuck on Windows, a nice live-CD distro like Knoppix or Mepis means you can download patches without racing the worms, and install your patches while offline. (And if you have time to download 50MB, you have time to grab Damn Small Linux.)

Dan writes "FreeBSD Release Engineering Team's Scott Long announces the availability of FreeBSD 5.2 RC2 which fixes a number of bugs, specifically the one in which users experienced system panics during install and dynamic library problems in the 'fixit' environment. Scott is asking everyone to test this release over the holidays. You can download it from one of your preferred mirror sites." Update: 12/24 23:01 GMT by T : Dan writes with more info: "Scott Long has also laid out a roadmap for future FreeBSD 5.3 releases now that FreeBSD 5.2-RC2 is getting close to release quality."

Rogue-Lion.com writes "Take a time out to remember the accomplishments of two bicycle shop owners who changed the world immeasurably, 100 years ago today. The Telegraph is running a story about a recreation of the Wright's (and world's) first heavier-than-air powered flight. President Bush will be in attendance at the event." Setting aside even more exotic theories, rod writes with an alternative point of view: namely, that man's first flight took place in New Zealand, on March 31, 1902. "I admire the U.S.A and the Wright brothers,but there are facts to consider today, 17/12/03, on the centenary of Kitty Hawk." Update: 12/17 13:44 GMT by T : Or was it a Brazillian invention? (Thanks, Anderson Silva.)

AntiPasto writes "According to this Yahoo! News article, RSS and BitTorrent could be set to join in a best-of-both-worlds content management system for the net. Possible?" Update: 03/17 21:39 GMT by T : Thanks to Steve Gillmor, here's the original story on eWeek to replace the now-dead Yahoo! link.

costela writes "LWN points out that the Gentoo project fired out an alert about one compromised rsync server." From the message itself: "However, the compromised system had both an IDS and a file integrity checker installed and we have a very detailed forensic trail of what happened once the box was breached, so we are reasonably confident that the portage tree stored on that box was unaffected." Update: 12/03 22:54 GMT by T : One more damage report: gibson writes "The Free Software Foundation recently discovered that its software host site was compromised a month ago. The compromise appears to be the same as the recent attacks on the Debian servers. The site is shut down until Friday while they install replacement hardware and verify the authenticity of the hosted source code."

Alien54 writes "Well, more exactly, be advised that if you are giving a Dell for Xmas, not only will it probably come preloaded with spyware, but their tech support lines will refuse to tell users how to remove it, and will not give people advice on where to find some good tools to remove it. As seen in the latest newsletter from SpyWareInfo, Dell sent an internal memo to its tech support minions which says in part: 'NOTICE: Use of spyware removal software may conflict with user license agreements of other applications installed on your system. Please consult your user license agreements for further information. Dell does not endorse the use of spyware removal software and cannot provide support on these products.' This means we do not take callers to download.com or doxdesk.com, nor do we recommend spyware removal programs, nor do we advise callers on the use of spyware removal programs. This includes using phrases "We don't support the removal of spyware, but I use..."'" (Read on below.Update: 12/03 06:36 GMT by T : And for an update, too.) "Now isn't that just nifty. Several folks in the antispyware/antivirus community have signed an open letter to Dell Inc. asking them to retract this possibly foolish and misguided policy. That letter is located at here." Update: 12/03 06:36 GMT Mike Healan, editor of spywareinfo.com, writes "The original posting is misleading. Dell is absolutely not installing or preinstalling spyware and the headline gives the impression that it is."

code_rage writes "This article in the San Francisco Chronicle attacks the zealous use of computers in grade school. In a time of teacher layoffs, San Francisco schools are buying 450 new computers with federal and state grants. The effects on education go beyond the initial costs: educational methods are suffering, as children are learning PowerPoint and teachers are becoming unpaid SysAdmins and content censors. This article is a well-written and brief update to Cliff Stoll's book High Tech Heretic: Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom." Update: 12/01 00:40 GMT by T : Ooops II-- "Classroom" is now correctly spelled.

Ridgelift writes "PDALive's got an article on a port of Frodo, the free Commodore 64 Emulator for your Palm Pilot. I can't wait to get this running so I can play M.U.L.E. on the road!" Update: 12/01 02:41 GMT by T : An anonymous reader writes "I thought I should point out that there's also a really great Atari ST emulator for Palm called 'CaSTaway.' You can find it here. It's free and released under GPL :)"

Rathumos writes "The network security world has been waiting patiently for a definitive study of internet worms and defenses against them. Defense and Detection Strategies against Internet Worms by Dr. Jose Nazario has arrived to fill that space with a clear and concise analysis of the current state of worm defense." Read on for the rest of Rathumos' review. Defense and Detection Strategies against Internet Worms author Jose Nazario pages 322 publisher Artech House rating 10 reviewer Duncan Lowne ISBN 1580535372 summary This book provides a solid approach toward detection and mitigation of worm-based attacks.

Publishing a book on a subject as dynamic as internet worms can never result in a complete volume. The near-weekly outbreaks of modified versions of old worms and completely new designs is enough to frustrate the efforts of even the most prolific anti-virus software developers, let alone those who try to provide an overview of their study.

Nevertheless, Nazario accomplishes a clear and concise summary of the state of worms today. Seeded by a paper ('The Future of Internet Worms', Nazario, Anderson, Connelly, Wash) written in 2001, Defense and Detection Strategies against Internet Worms encourages the reader to focus on the directions worm development might take in the future, with a specific view toward anticipation of, and prepartion for, future attacks.

The book begins with a discussion of the departure worms take from traditional computer virii. An outline of the benefits for the black-hat toward a worm-based attack, as well as a brief analysis of the threat model posed by worms, provide ample reason for the computer security professional to take the study of internet worms very seriously.

Beyond this introduction, the book is laid out in four major sections. The first introduces to the reader some background information crucial to the study of worms. The author discusses the history and taxonomy of past worm outbreaks, from their sci-fi origins (think John Brunner's Shockwave Rider) through modern-day outbreaks. A thorough analysis of various worms' traffic patterns is presented, with data broken down by infection rates, number of infected hosts, and number of sources probing specific subnets. Finally, the construction and lifecycle of worms are presented, with particular attention paid to the interaction between the worms' propagation techniques and the progression of their lifecycles.

The second section of the book (ch. 6 - 8) studies the trends exhibited by past worm outbreaks. Beginning with an examination of the processes and mechanisms of infection, it progresses on to a survey of the network topologies generated by a worm's distribution. Specific infection patterns are examined, along with case studies of worm outbreaks that have exhibited such patterns. Further, this section examines the common characteristics of vulnerable targets, from older UNIX and VMS mainframes through desktop systems onward to infrastructure equipment and embedded systems. A discussion of the payload transmission methods that have made recent worm attacks so devastatingly effective, and an explaination of why liberal use of a clue-hammer on users is not by itself enough to control and prevent further outbreaks, complement chapter nine's analysis and speculation of the future of internet worms.

Section three (ch. 9 - 11) focuses on worm detection strategies, and is more distinctly aimed at the already-overworked network security professional. Effective methods of detecting scans and analyzing a worm's scan engine are presented with a focus on timely and efficient protection from further infection. Monitoring techniques for quickly recognizing, analyzing and responding to worm outbreaks leads into a detailed description of well-placed honeypots and dark network monitors ("black holes"). Discussion of the (so-far) most effective method of worm detection, signature analysis, completes the section, and covers host-based and logfile signatures, along with a brief overview of analyzing logfiles using commonly available utilities.

The final section of the book (ch. 12 - 16), per the book's namesake, aims at defense strategies against worm outbreaks. Beginning with the obvious first steps which anyone reading the book ought to have implemented (firewalls, virus detection software, sandboxing, and patching-patching-patching), the section progresses into less widely used but equally important proxy-based defense methods, and continues on to cover slowing down infection rates and fighting back against existing worm networks. For the sake of thoroughness, an overview of the legal implications of attacking worm nodes receives its fair share of attention simply to alert the reader of the potential pitfalls of proactive defense.

Defense and Detection Strategies against Internet Worms is decidedly aimed at the experienced network security professional, but holds a much broader appeal than most technical books. With its thorough historical analysis of worm progression over the past thirty years, anyone with even a remote interest in the past, present or future of the only network security issues to consistently make headlines in the mainstream press will find this both an entertaining and enlightening read. Overall, it makes a valuable addition to any geek's bookshelf.

You can purchase Defense and Detection Strategies against Internet Worms from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

EverLurking writes "Well, I'm a sucker for slick-looking new toys. The Altec Lansing inMotion speakers did look like they would fill a need I had for compact portable speakers to go with my iPod while traveling. Below is a review, but in summary: I'd give it a 7/10, mainly because it's a bit overpriced at $149 (it'd be an 8 if it was, let's say, $75). Pros: Surprisingly loud and full sound reproduction (with the right EQ settings), its looks compliment the iPod, good battery life, sturdy, compact and travels well. Cons: Distortion when turned up too loud, poor stereo separation, requires 2 different AC adapters, a bit overpriced." Read on for EverLurking's more detailed impressions. Update: 11/13 00:57 GMT by T : Turns out, the AC adapter issue was overstated; details below.

Audio: First of all, understand that you are not going to get fantastic full-range audio from a speaker system that uses 2 pairs of 1" drivers. It's just not physically possible. This is not for audiophiles; it is just for travel/convenience listening. However, the inMotions use an interesting trick to make up for the lack of low frequency/bass response: they reproduce the higher frequency harmonics (which the little speakers can reproduce) that the lower bass registers would produce in real life if played over larger speakers. The resulting bass can sound a bit hollow and artificial at times, but it is impressive the degree I perceive it to be present is given how small the drivers are. You do distinctly perceive a fair amount of bass without any actual low-frequency thumping or movement of large amounts of air -- pretty cool.

The high-end response is good, as expected from the small drivers, and the midrange response is better than most small micro/travel speakers that use only one pair of 1" (or smaller) drivers. The simulated bass is surprisingly effective but subject to noticeable distortion if your EQ settings over-amplify the lower frequencies or if the unit is turned up too loud. I have found the "Acoustic" EQ settings seem to work well for the inMotions, luckily, on the iPod you have many EQ settings to play around with.

This bass-enhancement circuitry and/or the built in amplifier does add a bit of noise. You can hear it when you max out the volume w/o the iPod connected. It is not really noticeable at normal listening levels, though.

Because the speakers are located close together and cannot be angled outwards, stereo separation is limited, and music sounds somewhat "mono" and clock radio-like. However, putting a hotel menu or hard cover book opened to 90 degrees with the apex pointed at the midpoint between the speakers helped to spread the audio out a little.

Overall a good sounding set of speakers for less "bassy" music (great for guitar rock, jazz, acoustic and vocal pieces; not so good for techno/dance) at moderate to quiet listening levels. These would be great for Audio Books. Distortion becomes a problem when you turn the speakers up beyond what is reasonable for such small drivers, but you can provide surprisingly full and loud sound to fill a good-sized hotel room (try using the Bass Reducer EQ setting if you have to turn them up really loud).

Hardware/Build: The base station and speaker assembly are fairly well built, but still a bit cheap feeling for something that costs $149. The whole thing folds open/closed much like an oversized audio tape case to protect the drivers. The side arms are made of a brushed aluminum complementing the look of the iPod.

The docking connector for 3G iPods is exposed, and could use a cover of some sort. However, I have one from the firewire cable that came with the iPod that will do just fine, assuming it doesn't fall off and get lost too fast. There is a spacer that comes with the inMotion that is supposed to give a better fit with the 10 and 15/20GB models, as the slot has been made to fit the thicker 30/40GB iPods. I found that the spacer wasn't needed for the thinner iPod to fit well, so I suspect the thicker iPods will have a rather tight fit.

The volume buttons are a -/+ affair to the left of the iPod with a slider switch for power on the right and a power indicator. There is no volume level indicator and since the audio signal is taken from the line-out pins on the 3G connector, you cannot use the iPod's on-board volume selector/indicator. Not really a problem -- the non-amplified line-out's on the iPod reduce distortion to the signal that the inMotions have to work with anyhow.

Connections: On the back of the inMotions are line-in and line-out connections, both 1/8" headphone jack connectors. The line-in port is used for 1G and 2G iPods which don't have the new connectors to dock with. A short dual-male 1/8" cable is included for hooking up the iPod's headphone jack to the line-in port. There is also a little rubber platform that covers the 3G dock connector and recess so that an older iPod has a place to sit between the speakers. The little rubber thing didn't stay in too well, but it was a nice thought.

There is a connector for the included DC 9V/1.6A wall-wart power supply. Unfortunately, the sucker is a bit large and it would have been nicer if the prongs on the AC adapter collapsed for better stowing. Also present is a connector for the special firewire cable that came with the iPod, so you can recharge the iPod while it is still sitting in the inMotion.

However, plugging in the firewire cable with Apple's 12V/1A AC adapter (which is nice and small, and has collapsable prongs) does not also power the inMotion. It would have been a cleaner solution if the inMotion could have been powered off the Apple AC adapter so you wouldn't have to carry around 2 AC adapters, and it would also have meant less of a cable mess behind the thing.

Battery Life: The manufacturer claims 12 hours, this will be very dependent on the volume levels you select. I have not run the 4 AA's down completely yet, but it has lasted as long as the iPod's internal batteries have so far. And no, it does not re-charge the iPod from its 9V AC adapter when docked, nor does it charge the iPod from the 4 AA batteries it uses. That would have been nice too.

Summary: Actually pretty good sound reproduction for such little speakers, certainly much better than my TiBook's speakers. No more hotel clock radios for me, but bring a good pair of headphones/in-ear monitors for really critical listening. If you're willing to run on batteries alone, it is a nice compact way to go.

The inMotions are a bit overpriced and could use larger speaker drivers (it looks like there is still enough room to mount larger speakers) that better yet could be angled outwards for better stereo dispersion. Also, there could be better integration of the Apple AC adapter (maybe someone out there is handy with a soldering iron? :) ) so you wouldn't need to carry around quite so many cables/AC adapters.

I'm glad I got these, as they'll make my already indispensable iPod more useful when traveling.

An update from EverLurking:

I noticed that another review of the inMotions stated that the power adapter that comes with it does in fact recharge the iPod. I went and checked it out, and Yes, the included power adapter will power the speakers and recharge the iPod at the same time. My mistake; I guess my iPod was fully charged at the time I first briefly tested the inMotion's adapter, and I didn't notice that the iPod was drawing power from the inMotion. It does not recharge the iPod while running off of the batteries (which is reasonable, as this would drastically shorten the life of the batteries for driving the speakers).

So you only have to carry around one adapter -- Good. I still think using Apple's little white iPod adapter would have been nicer though. The sucker now gets a 7.5 rating in my book, 8.5 if it was priced near $75.

lems1 writes "Start compiling the excuses you will tell your boss to upgrade your cell phone now. Motorola has opted to use Trolltech's Qtopia to power up the next generation of SmartPhones. Get the scoop/specs from here and a nice high-res picture from this other link. The phone will have 'digital camera, video player, MP3 player, speakerphone, advanced messaging, instant Internet access and Bluetooth wireless technology' capabilities. On top of being Linux-based of course." Update: 11/12 00:44 GMT by T : Yep, this is the same phone mentioned a few weeks ago.

blamanj writes "As reporters and researchers depend more and more heavily on the Internet as a research tool, manipulation of the net becomes a serious problem. A recent Slashdot article discussed this in regard to the White House. Now, The Memory Hole has noticed that Time magazine has pulled an article by Bush, Sr. on why it was a bad idea to try and overthrow Saddam. How can we keep corporate America honest?" Update: 11/11 22:16 GMT by T : Declan McCullagh (former Time, Inc. employee, among other things) writes in with the non-conspiracy explanation for the change, below.

Declan writes "It is silly to claim that Bush Sr. and Scowcroft would strong-arm Time Inc. into removing an article from time.com -- when that article was an excerpt from their book that you can buy today from Amazon.com for $21.

Another explanation is more likely. And, yes, a quick search turns up a May 2003 article from Slate that debunks this rumor. It turns out that Time Inc. only had permission from the publisher to post the content for a limited time."

shelleymonster writes "The Matrix Revolutions was released worldwide at 9 AM EST today. With a running time of 2 hr. 9 min., I'm expecting the /. reviews to start pouring in around 11:30. Since critics are saying things like, "Matrix finale could put you back in a coma," and, "The final episode is a slam-bang, dreary mess," I'm curious to hear some real fans' reactions." Many readers have pointed to the BBC's review; they were not amused. Were you? Update: 11/05 17:17 GMT by T : Read on for one reader's (spoiler-free) first impression. wickedweasel writes "Just came from one of the first showings of Matrix: Revolutions (Germany, don't know why, but it started 2:30 pm here) and came by to drop some comments (no spoilers). To cut it short: not even close to the first one, and honestly spoken way worse than the second one (which wasn't _that_ bad). The ones looking for cool action will hardly find any, neither will the ones who came for the story (like me) be satisfied. Only a few good scenes in and around Zion, some quite big plot holes and unfinished threads and, most important, an unsatisfying end, to say the least. I guess I'll be flamed for my opinion by the die-hard-fans, but hear this: I once considered myself one too until I saw this."

securitas writes "Intel is contemplating using metal instead of silicon in future chips for the 'transistor gate, which controls whether a transistor is on or off' and the 'dielectric, an insulating layer below the gate,' which are respectively made of silicon atoms and silicon dioxide. 'Millions of minuscule switches that make up silicon chips leak electricity when they're supposed to be shut off. To compensate, engineers have increased the current, driving up power consumption, decreasing battery life for portable devices and generating more heat.' AMD has also experimented with metal instead of silicon. By moving to metal AMD and Intel expect to reduce electricity leakage. More from AP via SeattlePI and the Miami Herald." Update: 11/05 15:25 GMT by T : Read on below for some information from Intel on why this is a good thing.

gManZboy writes "Following up on the Intel news that about using metal in chips -- here's an explanation from Shekhar Borkar (Intel Research Fellow) about why heat, power, and sub-threshold leakage, not transistor size, are the real challenges to Moore's law. Apparently, in order to make chips much faster, we're going to have to pump more electricity in then anything else in our houses -- and they'll soon be as hot as a nuclear reactor -- no, really."

An anonymous reader writes "An important paper that re-examines historical climate data was published on 28 October in the respected journal Energy & Environment. (The paper is also available here.) According to an article in Canada's National Post, the paper shows that a "pillar of the Kyoto Accord is based on false calculations, incorrect data and an overtly biased selection of climate records." (USA Today also has a story.) This paper will undoubtedly be controversial and should stir a vigourous data review." Update: 11/05 14:54 GMT by T : newyhouse points out a similarly contrarian 2001 Economist article by Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist .