Slashdot Mirror

reifman links to his thorough and thoughtful review of the experience of reading a newspaper on the Kindle 2. "I've been eager to try The New York Times on the Kindle 2; here's my review with a basic video walk-through and screenshots. I give the Kindle 2 version of The Times a B. Software updates could bring it up to an A-. Kindle designers should have learned more from the iPhone 3G. Unfortunately, my Kindle display scratched less than 24 hours after it arrived. As I detail in the review, Amazon customer service was not very accommodating. Is it my fault — or will Kindle 2 evolve into an Apple 1G Nano-like $22.5M settlement? You can read about Hearst's e-reader for newspapers from earlier today on Slashdot."

reifman links to his thorough and thoughtful review of the experience of reading a newspaper on the Kindle 2. "I've been eager to try The New York Times on the Kindle 2; here's my review with a basic video walk-through and screenshots. I give the Kindle 2 version of The Times a B. Software updates could bring it up to an A-. Kindle designers should have learned more from the iPhone 3G. Unfortunately, my Kindle display scratched less than 24 hours after it arrived. As I detail in the review, Amazon customer service was not very accommodating. Is it my fault — or will Kindle 2 evolve into an Apple 1G Nano-like $22.5M settlement? You can read about Hearst's e-reader for newspapers from earlier today on Slashdot."

jammag writes "Open source advocate Bruce Perens takes a close look at Microsoft's lawsuit against TomTom (discussed here last week), which involves an implementation of the Linux kernel, and calls it essentially a paper tiger. He notes: 'the technologies claimed in the 8 patents involved are so old and obvious that it's fair to say they have a high "Duh!" factor. There's an anti-trust angle to this suit that could blow up in Microsoft's face. And there's a high probability that some or all of the patents involved are invalid, due to recent court decisions.' Although the legal expense for TomTom to defend itself in court could be astronomical — meaning they may be forced to settle — in Perens' view Microsoft is aware its case is weak, yet hopes for a PR victory at limited cost." And reader nerdyH adds speculation from Open Innovation Network CEO Keith Bergelt that Redmond's action could be retaliation for TomTom's spurning a Microsoft acquisition bid in 2006.

theodp writes "In an email sent Friday evening to its Microsoft temp workers, Volt Workforce Solutions asked the techies to 'vote' to agree to a 10% pay cut. From the email: 'We want to support you in continuing your assignment at Microsoft and respectfully ask that you respond by going to the upper left hand corner of this email under the "Vote" response option and select, "Accept'" by close of business Tuesday, March 3, 2009. By accepting you agree to the [-10%] pay adjustment in your pay rate.' Microsoft managed to keep the Feb. 20 email detailing plans to slash rates from leaking while it pitched its Elevate America initiative at the 2009 Winter Meeting of the National Governors Association, touting Microsoft skills as just the ticket to economic recovery."

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "It's been a rough week for the RIAA as massive layoffs are about to cost many employees their job. On top of that, the anti-piracy outfit is being sued in North Carolina for abusing the legal system in its war on piracy, particularly for civil conspiracy, deceptive trade practices, trespassing and computer fraud in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Moursy. Named along with the record companies as defendants on the counterclaims are Safenet (formerly known as MediaSentry) and the RIAA. This case first started out as 'LaFace Records v. Does 1-38' until the court required the RIAA to break it up into 38 separate cases, at which point it morphed into 'SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Doe.' Only after the RIAA finally got its 'expedited' discovery did it become SONY v. Moursy. And from the looks of things, it has a long, long way to go. The RIAA hasn't even filed its answer to the counterclaims yet, but is making a motion to dismiss them on the grounds of legal insufficiency. Sound like a good investment of record company resources, anyone?"

MBCook writes "AppleInsider has posted a great article explaining that Wired's story about Japanese iPhone hate was completely false and has been edited at least twice. The comments in the article were recycled and taken out of context, with those interviewed blogging about the mistakes. The piece then goes on to analyze the iPhone's standing in Japan, as well as some of the major factors working for and against it. At last it points out that the Wall Street Journal tried the same myth of failure just after the phone's launch in Japan, recycled from a myth the year before, pushed by a research company with a possible anti-Apple agenda."

An anonymous reader writes "ZeroPaid has an interesting take on the story of Nicolas Sarkozy being accused of copyright infringement. The irony, of course, is Sarkozy's pushing of a 3-strikes law — disconnecting from the Internet those accused of file sharing — in France and across the EU. The French president had apparently offered to settle the copyright infringement accusation for one Euro, but the band rejected the offer, calling it an insult. The article notes that each year since 2006, a high-profile anti-piracy entity has been on the wrong end of a copyright infringement notice. In 2008, Sony BMG was sued for software piracy. In 2007, anti-piracy outfit BASCAP received a cease and desist order related to pirated software. And in 2006, the MPAA was accused of pirating 'This Film is Not Yet Rated'."

An anonymous reader writes "ZeroPaid has an interesting take on the story of Nicolas Sarkozy being accused of copyright infringement. The irony, of course, is Sarkozy's pushing of a 3-strikes law — disconnecting from the Internet those accused of file sharing — in France and across the EU. The French president had apparently offered to settle the copyright infringement accusation for one Euro, but the band rejected the offer, calling it an insult. The article notes that each year since 2006, a high-profile anti-piracy entity has been on the wrong end of a copyright infringement notice. In 2008, Sony BMG was sued for software piracy. In 2007, anti-piracy outfit BASCAP received a cease and desist order related to pirated software. And in 2006, the MPAA was accused of pirating 'This Film is Not Yet Rated'."

theodp writes "Not to apologize for an industry that charges $27,000 to catch a Chicago Bears game, but will the huge spectrum fees charged by the government block the emergence of low-cost cellular service? In the most recent FCC spectrum auction, carriers paid nearly $20 billion to grab a swath of the 700MHz spectrum. And now under President Obama's proposed budget, wireless carriers would be hit with huge annual fees — eventually reaching $550 million per carrier per year — for the right to hold a spectrum license. Critics say the carriers will simply pass these fees through to consumers."

oliphaunt writes "This week at The Legality, Tracy Frazier has an article discussing the damage that can be done by anonymous online comments. While regulars here are familiar with infamous bits of Net censorship like the Fishman Affidavit fiasco, and everyone has been an anonymous coward at least once or twice, some of you may not know about the conflict between Heide Iravani and AutoAdmit.com. Heide eventually filed a lawsuit because the first result for a Google search on her name brought up anonymous comments on AutoAdmit that accused her of carrying an STD and sleeping her way to the top of her class. The Communications Decency Act was supposed to prevent this kind of thing, but an injunction prevented it from ever being enforced and eventually the Supreme Court killed it. Should the law be changed?" The article links to a proposal from last summer in the New Jersey legislature that would institute a DMCA-like takedown regime for allegedly defamatory content posted on a Web site, and would allow aggrieved parties to demand the identity of anonymous posters without a subpoena. No indication of how that proposal fared. Also linked is a recent North Carolina proposal that would criminalize the act of defaming someone using an electronic medium. This proposal shields Web sites from liability and explicitly does not apply to anonymous speech.

Buzz has been building for the last week about what might be a new data breach at a credit-card processor. No, not Heartland, a different one. Now Computerworld is reporting that Visa claims there was no new breach. Whom to believe? "In actuality, Visa said in a statement issued today, alerts that it recently sent to banks and credit unions warning them about a compromise at a payment processor were related to the ongoing investigation of a previously known breach. However, Visa still didn't disclose the identity of the breached company, nor did it say why it is continuing to keep the name under wraps."

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA's long-running war against Patti Santangelo, her children, and even her children's schoolmates has been 'settled in principle,' with final settlement documents expected to be submitted by March 18th. Patti Santangelo is believed to be the first RIAA defendant to have made a motion to dismiss the RIAA's 'making available' complaint. The case first caught the attention of the Slashdot community back in 2005, when a transcript of Ms. Santangelo's first court appearance became available online. The case attracted national attention in December of 2005. According to the Associated Press report of the settlement, neither side was able to comment on the terms of the settlement."

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA's long-running war against Patti Santangelo, her children, and even her children's schoolmates has been 'settled in principle,' with final settlement documents expected to be submitted by March 18th. Patti Santangelo is believed to be the first RIAA defendant to have made a motion to dismiss the RIAA's 'making available' complaint. The case first caught the attention of the Slashdot community back in 2005, when a transcript of Ms. Santangelo's first court appearance became available online. The case attracted national attention in December of 2005. According to the Associated Press report of the settlement, neither side was able to comment on the terms of the settlement."

An anonymous reader writes "Three months after being awarded $873 million in a lawsuit against Atlantis Blue Capital for violating the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, Facebook earlier this week filed a federal complaint against 'Spam King' Sanford Wallace in San Jose District Court. Las Vegas night club manager Adam Arzoomanian and Scott Shaw are also named as defendants in the suit." These filings do not mark the first time Wallace has faced legal action; last May, MySpace won a $230 million judgment against him.

An anonymous reader writes "Three months after being awarded $873 million in a lawsuit against Atlantis Blue Capital for violating the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, Facebook earlier this week filed a federal complaint against 'Spam King' Sanford Wallace in San Jose District Court. Las Vegas night club manager Adam Arzoomanian and Scott Shaw are also named as defendants in the suit." These filings do not mark the first time Wallace has faced legal action; last May, MySpace won a $230 million judgment against him.

On Wednesday we discussed news that the Authors Guild had objected to the text-to-speech function on Amazon's Kindle 2, claiming that it infringed on audio book copyright. Today, Amazon said that while the feature is legally sound, they would be willing to disable text-to-speech on a title-by-title basis at the rightsholder's request. "We have already begun to work on the technical changes required to give authors and publishers that choice. With this new level of control, publishers and authors will be able to decide for themselves whether it is in their commercial interests to leave text-to-speech enabled. We believe many will decide that it is."

Kristina at Science News writes "A new way to process images reveals an extrasolar planet that had been hiding in an 11-year-old Hubble picture. After ground-based telescopes found three planets orbiting the young star HR 8799, a team took that information and reprocessed some 11-year-old Hubble Space Telescope images. Voila. There was one of the three planets, captured by Hubble but not visible until new knowledge could see the picture in a fresh light. The technique could reveal hidden treasures in many archived telescope images." For reference, the first exoplanet to be (knowingly) directly imaged was 2M1207_b in late 2004.

Mytob notes that sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa is set to close down tomorrow, and the development team has something special planned for the game's final hours. The decision to close the game was made in November, and it went free-to-play a month later, while the developers continued to roll out the new content they had planned. Now, after a round of patches and server merges, the beleaguered MMO has reached its shutdown date. The game's primary enemies, the Bane, are launching an all-out offensive on Allied forces, which will culminate in a battle beginning at 8PM on Saturday and lasting until midnight. All players are being called in as reinforcements in this apocalyptic fight, though the final announcement says, "Penumbra has been informed of the situation and is standing by on the use of their last resort weapon. We can not afford to be complacent or uncertain, but if it is truly our destiny to be destroyed, we are taking them all with us."

Mytob notes that sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa is set to close down tomorrow, and the development team has something special planned for the game's final hours. The decision to close the game was made in November, and it went free-to-play a month later, while the developers continued to roll out the new content they had planned. Now, after a round of patches and server merges, the beleaguered MMO has reached its shutdown date. The game's primary enemies, the Bane, are launching an all-out offensive on Allied forces, which will culminate in a battle beginning at 8PM on Saturday and lasting until midnight. All players are being called in as reinforcements in this apocalyptic fight, though the final announcement says, "Penumbra has been informed of the situation and is standing by on the use of their last resort weapon. We can not afford to be complacent or uncertain, but if it is truly our destiny to be destroyed, we are taking them all with us."

DeviceGuru writes "Having recently constructed the BoxeeBox, DeviceGuru blogger Rick Lehrbaum naturally was eager to check out Neuros Technology's somewhat similar IP-TV set-top box. Lehrbaum's first-impressions review of the Neuros Link describes the device's hardware and Ubuntu-based software, shows screenshots of its functionality, identifies a handful of weak spots, offers some specific suggestions for improvement, and shares a few hacks (including adding an HDD and Boxee). All in all, he concludes, the Link's hardware is more than worth its minimal $300 pricetag."

A few days ago, we discussed Sony's announcement of a slew of new titles for the PSP, part of their plan to reinvigorate the platform. Unfortunately, according to analyst Nicholas Lovell, it may be too late for the PSP to achieve what Sony had hoped. He says gaming on the iPhone and iPod Touch are rapidly expanding to fill that section of the market. Despite this, rumors have been swirling once more that the PSP2 is under development, and while Sony wouldn't confirm or deny, they were at least willing to talk about the rumors. Meanwhile, the App Store is dealing with a flood of titles that shows no sign of slowing, making it somewhat difficult to keep tabs on the higher-quality games. An Apple spokesperson discussed this in an interview with Pocket Gamer, and also mentioned that they'd be OK with a community gaming service similar to Xbox Live, should somebody decide to make one. It's likely that Apple will soon see more serious competition from Android Market; now that a pricing system is going online, the major publishers have more of an incentive to bring games to the platform. The Guardian's games blog recently went over some of the top games available on Android.

Ian Lamont writes "Overlooked in last month's news about Microsoft laying off the entire Flight Simulator dev team is the news that Microsoft's ESP development team has been gutted as well, and the future of the platform is in doubt. ESP is oriented toward industrial use, and lets companies build 3D simulations for flight and other applications. Late last year Microsoft announced big plans to expand ESP to other verticals, such as real estate, city planning, and law enforcement. That looks increasingly unlikely. Even though Microsoft declined to comment on ESP's future, companies which invested in the product are angry, judging by some of the comments on an MSDN thread. As noted by one user, 'my company used it for a solution and invested time and money into getting it approved and purchased. Microsoft sure handed us a raw deal for taking a gamble on their platform.'"

An anonymous reader writes "If you're planning on traveling internationally with a laptop, consider the following: District Court Overturns Magistrate Judge in Fifth Amendment Encryption Case. Laptop searches at the border have been discussed many times previously. This is the case where a man entered the country allegedly carrying pornographic material in an encrypted file on his laptop. He initially cooperated with border agents during the search of the laptop then later decided not to cooperate citing the Fifth Amendment. Last year a magistrate judge ruled that compelling the man to enter his password would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Now in a narrow ruling, US District Judge William K. Sessions III said the man had waived his right against self-incrimination when he initially cooperated with border agents." sohp notes that "the order is not that he produce the key — just that he provide an unencrypted copy."

An anonymous reader writes "If you're planning on traveling internationally with a laptop, consider the following: District Court Overturns Magistrate Judge in Fifth Amendment Encryption Case. Laptop searches at the border have been discussed many times previously. This is the case where a man entered the country allegedly carrying pornographic material in an encrypted file on his laptop. He initially cooperated with border agents during the search of the laptop then later decided not to cooperate citing the Fifth Amendment. Last year a magistrate judge ruled that compelling the man to enter his password would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Now in a narrow ruling, US District Judge William K. Sessions III said the man had waived his right against self-incrimination when he initially cooperated with border agents." sohp notes that "the order is not that he produce the key — just that he provide an unencrypted copy."

An anonymous reader writes "If you're planning on traveling internationally with a laptop, consider the following: District Court Overturns Magistrate Judge in Fifth Amendment Encryption Case. Laptop searches at the border have been discussed many times previously. This is the case where a man entered the country allegedly carrying pornographic material in an encrypted file on his laptop. He initially cooperated with border agents during the search of the laptop then later decided not to cooperate citing the Fifth Amendment. Last year a magistrate judge ruled that compelling the man to enter his password would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Now in a narrow ruling, US District Judge William K. Sessions III said the man had waived his right against self-incrimination when he initially cooperated with border agents." sohp notes that "the order is not that he produce the key — just that he provide an unencrypted copy."

An anonymous reader writes "If you're planning on traveling internationally with a laptop, consider the following: District Court Overturns Magistrate Judge in Fifth Amendment Encryption Case. Laptop searches at the border have been discussed many times previously. This is the case where a man entered the country allegedly carrying pornographic material in an encrypted file on his laptop. He initially cooperated with border agents during the search of the laptop then later decided not to cooperate citing the Fifth Amendment. Last year a magistrate judge ruled that compelling the man to enter his password would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Now in a narrow ruling, US District Judge William K. Sessions III said the man had waived his right against self-incrimination when he initially cooperated with border agents." sohp notes that "the order is not that he produce the key — just that he provide an unencrypted copy."

An anonymous reader writes "If you're planning on traveling internationally with a laptop, consider the following: District Court Overturns Magistrate Judge in Fifth Amendment Encryption Case. Laptop searches at the border have been discussed many times previously. This is the case where a man entered the country allegedly carrying pornographic material in an encrypted file on his laptop. He initially cooperated with border agents during the search of the laptop then later decided not to cooperate citing the Fifth Amendment. Last year a magistrate judge ruled that compelling the man to enter his password would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Now in a narrow ruling, US District Judge William K. Sessions III said the man had waived his right against self-incrimination when he initially cooperated with border agents." sohp notes that "the order is not that he produce the key — just that he provide an unencrypted copy."

Nakeot writes "In the continuing efforts to build faster and smaller components, a group of researchers at MIT have constructed a basic prototype device that folds materials only hundreds of microns across. Mechanical engineer and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering George Barbastathis leads the charge into 'nano-origami' machines involving, the article reads, 'a new technique that allows engineers to fold nanoscale materials into simple 3-D structures' (more details available on MIT's page). The group had worked in 2005 with MIT Associate Professor Yang Shao-Horn to build a single-fold nano-capacitor (PDF, or see Google's HTML version), and this work appears to automate their 2005 process. A comment on the posted video appears to suggests this device is not completely automated yet, however. (This should not be confused with Paul Rothemund's slightly-more-ahead DNA-origami technology.)"

dazza101 writes "For the first time ever, we have witnessed a solar eclipse from the moon. On 10 February 2009 Japan's Kaguya lunar orbiter captured the sight of the Earth eclipsing the sun. The spacecraft also recorded this video showing the Earth surrounded by a glowing ring and briefly forming the classic diamond ring that often occurs during a solar eclipse, as seen from down here on Earth."

Nakeot writes "On Friday, Sony plans to unveil their newest portable fuel-cell technology, aimed at a variety of mobile applications. From the article: "The system contains both a methanol fuel cell and a Li-on battery" and can "intelligently switch between power from the battery, fuel, or even both under high-draw circumstances." Sony intends to show off two models claimed to power your cell for a week or a month, respectively, as well as the latest developments with their sugar-batteries that can now run purely off your favorite cola beverage. This model builds on Sony's 2008 model, their first commercially-demonstratable prototype, and could make waves with Sony's OLED devices, but will Sony be able to avoid another battery recall?"

Nakeot writes "On Friday, Sony plans to unveil their newest portable fuel-cell technology, aimed at a variety of mobile applications. From the article: "The system contains both a methanol fuel cell and a Li-on battery" and can "intelligently switch between power from the battery, fuel, or even both under high-draw circumstances." Sony intends to show off two models claimed to power your cell for a week or a month, respectively, as well as the latest developments with their sugar-batteries that can now run purely off your favorite cola beverage. This model builds on Sony's 2008 model, their first commercially-demonstratable prototype, and could make waves with Sony's OLED devices, but will Sony be able to avoid another battery recall?"

Facetious writes "It seems Microsoft doesn't believe the data from Net Applications regarding Linux any more than Slashdot readers do. In a recent presentation, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showed a slide showing, from Microsoft's internal analysis, that Linux client use is clearly ahead of Apple's."

krou writes "It may not be exactly what people have envisioned or tried over the years, such as the flying car in Bladerunner, or the previously reported Terrafugia Transition, but the BBC is reporting that a flying car (creatively dubbed the Skycar, but different from this Skycar) has flown from London across into Africa. They modified a parajet fan that can fly a man into a bigger fan with a canopy that is capable of flying a car."

An anonymous reader writes "The president of the Authors Guild has launched a rant in the NY Times about how the Kindle 2 provides Text-to-Speech capabilities that, oh the horror, allow the user to have any text on the Kindle read to her. Roy Blunt, Jr. moans that this is copyright infringement of audio books, and that Kindle users should be forced to pay royalties on audio even though they've already paid for the text version of a book! Amazingly he harps on about how TTS technology has become so good that it may replace humans — and then uses this to argue that it's unfair for Kindle to provide TTS! I think the Authors Guild need a new president — someone less of a Luddite, and more familiar with copyright law." (See also the Guild's executive director's similar claims that reading aloud, royalty-free, is an illegal function of software.)

stoolpigeon writes "The geek world is dominated by those of the male persuasion. For those of us working in a technology related field, or who spend a considerable amount of time pursuing high tech leisure, we usually find women to be in the minority. I've seen considerable discussion over the years on how to change this imbalance but I think it is safe to say that right now that it remains. Many women are interested in using technology, they just don't want to dive in to quite the same depth. Or they may not be interested in the way most men approach it. Columnist and tech-writer Christina Tynan-Wood has attempted to come to their rescue with her book How To Be A Geek Goddess." Read below for the rest of JR's review. How To Be A Geek Goddess author Christina Tynan-Wood pages 343 publisher No Starch Press rating 7/10 reviewer JR Peck ISBN 978-1-59327-187-9 summary Practical advice for using computers with smarts and style. I have to say that the title misled me. I picked this book up thinking that it would be perfect for my wife. I wouldn't call her a geek, she doesn't have the same passion for working with tech stuff that I have. But she is knowledgeable and knows quite a bit more about IT than many of my guy friends. She is very comfortable working with vi and has written a decent amount of C over the years for various embedded shops. Unfortunately she found the book to be overly basic and wasn't too interested. This book is about becoming conversant in the very basics, explained with an attempt to frame everything in terms of a woman's perspective. So if you are a woman who is already very comfortable in the IT space, or if you are thinking of buying this for someone like that, you may want to dig through a copy and see if it will be useful. My guess is that it wont.

The other group that may still find this book to be useful, but to a lesser degree than they may like is anyone using any operating system other than windows. The first chapter, which discusses how to purchase a computer frames the operating systems question as "Apple or Windows?" There is no mention of any other option. As far as the options given, the author lands pretty firmly on the side of Microsoft and so when platform plays a role in topics covered later in the book it is pretty much from a Windows perspective. There are plenty of topics covered that are not really OS dependent, such as anything web related (which is a lot of the book) or the non-computer sections covering hardware like digital cameras, monitors and PDAs.

Someone who is an avid computer user and die hard fan of Linux or Apple systems may look at what I've just said and decide that this book is completely useless. And for them that is going to pretty much be the case. That leaves the question of who could use this book. It is quite possible that this could be an absolute God-send to someone who is just about computer illiterate and quite content to stay on the dominant platform of the day. By extension this could become a useful tool for the true Geek that wants off the support treadmill.

There are probably some out there who are really tired of answering questions about what type of PC to buy. Or having to drop by a relative or friend's house to set up wireless or the new printer. It could even be worse, being dragged into Frys Electronics or Best Buy and participating in purchasing a new Vista machine. The solution to busting out of that cycle could be handing over a copy of this book, and if it brings true freedom it could be worth every penny.

The topics covered in the book are dressed up in analogies to what may be considered more traditional female fare. If you find this to be bothersome, don't blame me, I'm just the messenger. Tynan-Wood discusses for instance, building a software "wardrobe." And I'd like to note that within the Windows space she does offer up many free (as in speech and beer) applications including the likes of The Gimp, Pidgin and Audacity. Tech accessories are handled in a section on "The Lust for Luxury Gear". Setting up a new system and getting things dialed in is part of the "housebreaking" process. In fact if you've ever flipped through an issue of Cosmo or Vogue, you should have a decent idea of the tone and style of discourse in this book.

All of the basics are covered including setting up a home network and how to set up proper security. Each section gives basic and practical advice on making decisions on hardware and software, almost always offering multiple options. And while the packaging is different than anything I've ever seen in a tech book, the underlying information is the same. Someone who reads this through will come away knowing the difference between adware, spyware and viruses as well as what a botnet is.

Dispersed amongst the regular text, which is accompanied by many black and white illustrations, are little "Dear Abby" type questions and their accompanying response. These give a good insight into the level of reader the book aims to help. One question answered is the following, "When my sister-in-law emails me files, the filenames always have three letters at the end that mean nothing to me. Files on my own computer don't seem to have them, so I thought it was one of her crazy systems. I deleted the letters and gave the files names I liked. Oops. You are probably laughing at me because I obviously did something stupid. Now my computer can't open any of those files. It gave me a good excuse not to read her novel or look at 2,000 blurry vacation photos but what did I do wrong?" The answer goes on to explain file types, extensions and some basics on managing them in windows.

Along with covering how to purchase and set up hardware the book covers the same for software. There is also information on security, not just local but also how to think about safely navigating the web and what is available there. The last two sections cover the social web and relationships on line, with everything from dating sites to cyber sex. There is also an entire section on watching over children and helping them to use computers safely.

The information is accurate and covers the basics very well, within the parameters I've described above. For the proverbial grandmother or mom at home, this book is probably going to give them all they need and probably just a touch more than they may want. I guess that is the bottom line. I think this book will give a novice a strong sense of confidence and independence. I am sure there are women out there who don't want to rely on anyone else to help them with computer issues but they don't want to really dig deep into highly technical information. This may be exactly what they need.

On the other hand, and I guess this comes from my more cynical side, I've dealt with plenty of men and women who don't know much about computers and they don't want to know. They seem to revel in their ignorance and are quite happy to just rely on others to keep things working for them. Unfortunately I am unaware of any way to make them read this or to make the information their own. Reading books to learn tends to fall into a geek category of its own. Until there actually is a series on this in Cosmo or they find a way to fit into American Idol or something, there will still probably be those who call on us to take care of their gear.

All that said, sometimes I forget that I'm a statistical anomaly. Most people don't run Linux, or OS X for that matter. Even more could care less about why they difference between ogg and mp3. For that mass of folks out there, especially the women, this may be the only computer book they ever find interesting. Someone like that would probably rate it a ten. I found the focus too narrow and the title set up expectations I didn't think it met so I've knocked it down to seven.

You can purchase How To Be A Geek Goddess from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

stoolpigeon writes "The geek world is dominated by those of the male persuasion. For those of us working in a technology related field, or who spend a considerable amount of time pursuing high tech leisure, we usually find women to be in the minority. I've seen considerable discussion over the years on how to change this imbalance but I think it is safe to say that right now that it remains. Many women are interested in using technology, they just don't want to dive in to quite the same depth. Or they may not be interested in the way most men approach it. Columnist and tech-writer Christina Tynan-Wood has attempted to come to their rescue with her book How To Be A Geek Goddess." Read below for the rest of JR's review. How To Be A Geek Goddess author Christina Tynan-Wood pages 343 publisher No Starch Press rating 7/10 reviewer JR Peck ISBN 978-1-59327-187-9 summary Practical advice for using computers with smarts and style. I have to say that the title misled me. I picked this book up thinking that it would be perfect for my wife. I wouldn't call her a geek, she doesn't have the same passion for working with tech stuff that I have. But she is knowledgeable and knows quite a bit more about IT than many of my guy friends. She is very comfortable working with vi and has written a decent amount of C over the years for various embedded shops. Unfortunately she found the book to be overly basic and wasn't too interested. This book is about becoming conversant in the very basics, explained with an attempt to frame everything in terms of a woman's perspective. So if you are a woman who is already very comfortable in the IT space, or if you are thinking of buying this for someone like that, you may want to dig through a copy and see if it will be useful. My guess is that it wont.

The other group that may still find this book to be useful, but to a lesser degree than they may like is anyone using any operating system other than windows. The first chapter, which discusses how to purchase a computer frames the operating systems question as "Apple or Windows?" There is no mention of any other option. As far as the options given, the author lands pretty firmly on the side of Microsoft and so when platform plays a role in topics covered later in the book it is pretty much from a Windows perspective. There are plenty of topics covered that are not really OS dependent, such as anything web related (which is a lot of the book) or the non-computer sections covering hardware like digital cameras, monitors and PDAs.

Someone who is an avid computer user and die hard fan of Linux or Apple systems may look at what I've just said and decide that this book is completely useless. And for them that is going to pretty much be the case. That leaves the question of who could use this book. It is quite possible that this could be an absolute God-send to someone who is just about computer illiterate and quite content to stay on the dominant platform of the day. By extension this could become a useful tool for the true Geek that wants off the support treadmill.

There are probably some out there who are really tired of answering questions about what type of PC to buy. Or having to drop by a relative or friend's house to set up wireless or the new printer. It could even be worse, being dragged into Frys Electronics or Best Buy and participating in purchasing a new Vista machine. The solution to busting out of that cycle could be handing over a copy of this book, and if it brings true freedom it could be worth every penny.

The topics covered in the book are dressed up in analogies to what may be considered more traditional female fare. If you find this to be bothersome, don't blame me, I'm just the messenger. Tynan-Wood discusses for instance, building a software "wardrobe." And I'd like to note that within the Windows space she does offer up many free (as in speech and beer) applications including the likes of The Gimp, Pidgin and Audacity. Tech accessories are handled in a section on "The Lust for Luxury Gear". Setting up a new system and getting things dialed in is part of the "housebreaking" process. In fact if you've ever flipped through an issue of Cosmo or Vogue, you should have a decent idea of the tone and style of discourse in this book.

All of the basics are covered including setting up a home network and how to set up proper security. Each section gives basic and practical advice on making decisions on hardware and software, almost always offering multiple options. And while the packaging is different than anything I've ever seen in a tech book, the underlying information is the same. Someone who reads this through will come away knowing the difference between adware, spyware and viruses as well as what a botnet is.

Dispersed amongst the regular text, which is accompanied by many black and white illustrations, are little "Dear Abby" type questions and their accompanying response. These give a good insight into the level of reader the book aims to help. One question answered is the following, "When my sister-in-law emails me files, the filenames always have three letters at the end that mean nothing to me. Files on my own computer don't seem to have them, so I thought it was one of her crazy systems. I deleted the letters and gave the files names I liked. Oops. You are probably laughing at me because I obviously did something stupid. Now my computer can't open any of those files. It gave me a good excuse not to read her novel or look at 2,000 blurry vacation photos but what did I do wrong?" The answer goes on to explain file types, extensions and some basics on managing them in windows.

Along with covering how to purchase and set up hardware the book covers the same for software. There is also information on security, not just local but also how to think about safely navigating the web and what is available there. The last two sections cover the social web and relationships on line, with everything from dating sites to cyber sex. There is also an entire section on watching over children and helping them to use computers safely.

The information is accurate and covers the basics very well, within the parameters I've described above. For the proverbial grandmother or mom at home, this book is probably going to give them all they need and probably just a touch more than they may want. I guess that is the bottom line. I think this book will give a novice a strong sense of confidence and independence. I am sure there are women out there who don't want to rely on anyone else to help them with computer issues but they don't want to really dig deep into highly technical information. This may be exactly what they need.

On the other hand, and I guess this comes from my more cynical side, I've dealt with plenty of men and women who don't know much about computers and they don't want to know. They seem to revel in their ignorance and are quite happy to just rely on others to keep things working for them. Unfortunately I am unaware of any way to make them read this or to make the information their own. Reading books to learn tends to fall into a geek category of its own. Until there actually is a series on this in Cosmo or they find a way to fit into American Idol or something, there will still probably be those who call on us to take care of their gear.

All that said, sometimes I forget that I'm a statistical anomaly. Most people don't run Linux, or OS X for that matter. Even more could care less about why they difference between ogg and mp3. For that mass of folks out there, especially the women, this may be the only computer book they ever find interesting. Someone like that would probably rate it a ten. I found the focus too narrow and the title set up expectations I didn't think it met so I've knocked it down to seven.

You can purchase How To Be A Geek Goddess from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

nandemoari writes "A new variant of the Conficker/Downadup worm has been detected. The worm opens a backdoor on an infected machine and allows hackers remote control of infected PCs. Dubbed Conficker B++ (and not to be confused with Conficker B), the new variant of the worm opens a backdoor with auto-update functionality, allowing a hacker to distribute malware to infected machines. It's difficult to know exactly how long Conficker B++ has been circulating, but researchers first noticed it on February 6 of this year." If this seems familiar to you, it probably is.

dazedNconfuzed writes "Whatever happened to the 19th IOCCC? The opening thereof was announced over two years ago and the winners' names were posted, but the source code was never released — leaving the results of the 2006 contest unknown as we get well into 2009. Emails to questions@ioccc.org just bounce. Surely the quiet absence of a high point of geekdom becomes news at some point!"

thethibs writes "eWeek is reporting that just as everyone is buzzing about the latest Adobe vulnerability, someone poisoned ads hosted by Ziff-Davis with an older Adobe exploit (affecting versions 8.12 and earlier, and long since patched). Z-D fixed the problem less than 24 hours after its first appearance. The interesting bit of this is that a bunch of people probably got hit with the old Trojan when they browsed to a story about the new one."

thethibs writes "eWeek is reporting that just as everyone is buzzing about the latest Adobe vulnerability, someone poisoned ads hosted by Ziff-Davis with an older Adobe exploit (affecting versions 8.12 and earlier, and long since patched). Z-D fixed the problem less than 24 hours after its first appearance. The interesting bit of this is that a bunch of people probably got hit with the old Trojan when they browsed to a story about the new one."

snydeq writes "Paul Venezia analyzes the four counts San Francisco has levied against Terry Childs, a case that curiously omits the charge of computer tampering, the very allegation that has kept Childs in jail for seven months and now appears too weak to present in court. Count 1 — 'disrupting or denying computer services' — is moot, according to Venezia, as the city's FiberWAN did not go down due to Childs' actions. Venezia writes, 'Childs' refusal to give up the passwords for several days in no way caused a disruption of the normal operation of the FiberWAN. In fact, it could be argued that his refusal actually prevented the disruption of normal network operation.' Counts 2 through 4 pertain to modems Childs had under his control, 'providing a means of accessing a computer, computer system, or computer network in violation of section 502,' according to case documents. As Venezia sees it, these counts too are spurious, as such devices are essential to the fulfillment of admin job requirements. 'If Childs is convicted on the modem charges, then just about every network administrator in the world could be charged with the same "crime,"' Venezia writes. All the authorities would have to do is 'point out that you have a modem or two, and suddenly you're wearing pinstripes of the jailhouse variety.'"

prxi writes "Recently speculation spread that Atlantis may have been located on Google Ocean. Now Google has posted a blog entry, written by two oceanographers, explaining what exactly caused the strange markings off the coast of Africa. The authors also note that we have better maps of the surface of Mars than we do of our own oceans, and go into detail on what would be required to obtain a fine-grained map of the ocean floor. Apparently it's only 200 ship years of work, or around the cost of a modern stadium, give or take."

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "A federal court ruled that the AP can sue competitors for 'quasi-property' rights on hot news, as well as for copyright infringement and several other claims. The so-called 'hot news' doctrine was created by a judge 90 years ago in another case, where the AP sued a competitor for copying wartime reporting and bribing its employees to send them a copy of unreleased news. The courts' solution was to make hot news a form of 'quasi-property' distinct from copyright, in part because facts cannot be copyrighted. But now the AP is making use of the precedent again, going after AHN which competes with the AP, alleging that they're somehow copying the AP's news. The AP has been rather busy with lawsuits lately, so even though the AP has a story about their own lawsuit, we won't link to it."

alphadogg writes "VeriSign has promised to deploy DNS Security Extensions, known as DNSSEC, across all of its top-level domains within two years. DNSSEC is viewed as the best way to bolster the DNS against vulnerabilities such as the Kaminsky bug discovered last year. (Yesterday we discussed the workarounds coming into place until the US government signs the Internet's root zone.) DNSSEC has been deployed on top-level domains operated by Sweden, Puerto Rico, Bulgaria, Brazil, and the Czech Republic. Two larger domains — .org operated by the Public Interest Registry and .gov operated by the US government — are deploying DNSSEC this year."

An anonymous reader writes "I've got an Eee PC 1000HD, and frankly, I can't stand XP. I know it's odd, because I actually like Vista, but XP is such a giant piece of crap on here that I struggle to use it day-by-day. Anyway, my question is this: which Linux distro should I run on it? Plain Ubuntu just doesn't have driver support. I tried Ubuntu-eee, which, to put it bluntly, does not work for me at all (slow, terrible battery life, even worse interface). I've heard that Jaunty Jackalope is going to have better netbook support, but that's all the way in April! Is there a distro out now that will free me from XP's terribleness without being terrible itself?" Getting wireless working on an Eee PC (though in my experience imperfectly) with stock Ubuntu is possible; for me it took some googling, though I've been told with great enthusiasm that it actually works "out of the box." What distros are you running on your netbook, and what problems do you find?

jw3 writes "The NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory scheduled for launch today has failed its mission: the payload fairing failed to separate and the launch managers declared a contingency. George Diller, NASA launch commentator, said, 'It either did not separate or did not separate in the way that it should, but at any rate we're still trying to evaluate exactly what the status of the spacecraft is at this point.'" Update: 02/24 14:17 GMT by T : Reader fadethepolice points out a Reuters report which says that the craft crashed into the ocean just short of Antarctica.

IGN has compiled a list of gaming technology they expect to have a significant effect on this year's products. Leading the list is the 3D technology being pushed in television and films. A number of popular games are already set up to handle this, and more are on the way. They also suggest that improved Blu-ray technology, which allows much more storage, will pave the way for even bigger and better looking games. IGN hopes that brain-computer interfaces, such as Emotiv's headset, will become responsive enough to be taken seriously, and notes that DirectX 11 and a broader adoption for PhysX are on the horizon.

wild_quinine writes "The UK government stated in 2006 that they wished to see 100% of UK consumer broadband ISPs' connections covered by blocking, which includes images of child abuse. 95% of ISPs have complied, but children's charities are calling for firmer action by the government as the last 5% cite costs and concerns over the effectiveness of the system. According to Home Office Minister Alan Campbell, 'The government is currently looking at ways to progress the final 5%.' With a lack of transparency in the IWF list, firm government involvement, and blocking that only 'includes' (but may not be limited to) images of child abuse, it looks like the writing is on the wall for unfiltered, uncensored Internet connections in the UK."

CWmike writes "Sourcefire security researcher Lurene Grenier has published a home-brewed patch for the critical Adobe Reader vulnerability that hackers are exploiting in the wild using malicious PDF files, beating Adobe Systems Inc. to the punch by more than two weeks. Grenier posted the patch on Sunday with the caveats that it applies only to the Windows version of Adobe Reader 9.0 and comes with no guarantees. Also, PhishLabs has created a batch file that resets a Windows registry key to de-fang the hack by disabling JavaScript in Adobe Reader 9.0, giving administrators a way to automate the process."

Stephen Brandon writes "It used to be that to set up a database-backed web site required at least a server guy, a database administrator, a programmer, and a designer. Joomla! and other modern CMS systems have opened the door to allow non-administrators to be able to set up complete e-commerce or informational sites, using great free software and easy-to-find commercial hosting. What then of security? A new book by Tom Canavan, Joomla Web Security, aims to bridge the knowledge gap, introducing Joomla! admins to a set of security tools, and skills sometimes found lacking in the Joomla! community." Read on for the rest of Stephen's review. Joomla! Web Security author Tom Canavan pages 248 publisher Packt Publishing rating 7 reviewer Stephen Brandon ISBN 1847194885 and 978-1-847194-88-6 summary Useful but needs more Joomla! 1.5-specific content Joomla! Web Security is Packt Publishing’s eighth Joomla! title, and they are to be congratulated for providing much-needed documentation for Open Source projects. Written by Tom Canavan and published in October 2008, it can be found under ISBN 1847194885 and 978-1-847194-88-6.

According to the back cover, this book is written for “anyone seriously using Joomla! for any kind of business With this book they will be able to secure their sites, understand the attackers, and more, without the drudging task of looking up in forums, only to be flamed, or not even find the answers.” Prior knowledge of Joomla is assumed, but prior knowledge of securing websites is not.

Why bother with a book on Joomla! security? In my experience, many people come to Joomla! from a design and content perspective. They are not server gurus, just people who know enough about design to select a good-looking template, then organize suitable content to meet the informational and marketing needs of the organization or business for whom they work.

Template – content – web host – the new site is up and running in short order. The first time the site goes down or the site is hacked however, such a site designer/administrator may well be struggling as the back cover quote suggests.

Although this volume is the only current one that I could find concentrating on Joomla! security, the Joomla! team does have a dedicated Security Task Force, and a fair amount of security information starting from http://docs.joomla.org/. The information on joomla.org, while comprehensive, is not as in-depth as most of the information in Joomla! Web Security.

Written in the author’s chatty, easy-to-read style, chapter 1 covers a lot of basics of Joomla! security, from checking that the installation files have not been tampered with, to choosing hosting, some php and apache settings, permissions, and setting up security metrics.

Given that the choice of hosting is one of the most crucial decisions determining site security and uptime, the author chooses to concentrate on some unexpected angles. Granted, the checklist of physical security is comprehensive (“Is there water detection under this raised floor? Do you have a man-trap entrance to the building?”), but the target audience might be better served by a similarly comprehensive checklist of how to choose safer shared hosting. Notable by its absence was any mention of suPHP, PhpSuExec (see tutorial) or any similar scheme for running PHP files under the ownership of the account-holder rather than the standard httpd or nobody user. Without this, any other client on your shared hosting can read your database credentials and almost certainly gain read-write access to your database — with it, clients on shared hosting are much more efficiently segregated, making shared hosting a more viable option for less security-critical installations.

Absent too was mention of Joomla! 1.5’s FTP layer. Whilst in Joomla! 1.0 you needed to set 777 permissions in order to install extensions or upload images and files via Joomla!, the FTP layer allows Joomla! to FTP these files to itself, maintaining a tighter permissions structure in the absence of suPHP or PhpSuExec.

The section “Setting Up Security Metrics” however shows the author’s strengths. This, chapter 2 “Test and Development” and chapter 10, “Incident Management”, prescribe a methodical approach to security, ensuring that you are well-prepared for any eventuality. For the more mission-critical of the sites that I administer, this has prompted me to review my procedures, but I suspect that these are chapters that will be glossed over by a majority of the target audience.

It’s this sort of dichotomy that mars the book slightly for me. What I would like to give to the Joomla! webmasters that I support as part of my day-job is a book that clearly explains common issues in the installation and administration of Joomla!. Joomla! Web Security seems to promise this, but isn’t willing to provide all the detail required by the less-experienced (no mention of what numerical file permissions actually mean, nor how to obtain the MD5 checksum of a file you downloaded), and seems a little too eager to jump up to higher-level management issues, as worthy as these topics are. And why is there a mini-tutorial on how to use the software development management system Lighthouse, when there are barely any step by step instructions with screenshots on specifically Joomla! topics anywhere in the book?

On a positive note, chapter 3’s “Tools” introduced me to some previously-unknown packages as well as some old friends. Every Joomla! administrator should become familiar with these: HISA (J! 1.0 only), the Joomla! Tools Suite (J!1.5 only in legacy mode), Joomla! Diagnostics (some problems on J!1.5), JCheck (J!1.5 only works in cron mode). The obvious issue is that many of these don’t operate fully or at all for Joomla! 1.5. The sections on NMAP, Wireshark, Metasploit and Nessus however are well written and relevant.

If anyone needs convincing that the threats to a Joomla! site are real, point them to the central chapters of this book. Here Tom Canavan lays out “How the Bad Guys Do It”, and details the anatomy of attacks. This is a real eye-opener and should be required reading for any budding site administrator. It’s good to see a checklist of further topics for study (p. 144).

Finally we return to more specifically Joomla! topics. A section of recipes for .htaccess and php.ini files covers such useful topics as apache’s mod_redirect, password protection and access control. The “Log Files” chapter is pleasingly Joomla!-specific and also covers some logfile analysis tools.

Joomla! Web Security is rounded off with an appendix summarizing some of the key points of the book, and listing port numbers, apache status codes and TLD domain codes. The list of critical settings for .htaccess and php.ini is prescriptive and useful in this format.

While writing this review I noticed that the author has written a previous volume on a similar topic: Dodging the Bullets — A Disaster Preparation Guide for Joomla! Based Websites. Critical reviews of that book suggested that it was aimed towards the larger corporate user of Joomla!, and held little for the Joomla! administrator who simply needed to know and understand the settings and tools required for site security. This volume redresses the balance somewhat, with more hands-on advice, and I would recommend it over Dodging the Bullets for the average Joomla! administrator.

Though Joomla! Web Security is a worthwhile addition to a Joomla! bookshelf, my wish would still be for an even more practical guide, particularly one addressing J!1.5 developments and going into much more detail about selecting a hosting partner. Even without this, however, there is a ton of good information here and I recommend the book.

Availability: On the publisher’s web page for this book you will find the TOC, general introduction, a link to the sample chapter, code download, and facilities for on-line purchase. Various discounts and bundles (including Adobe e-book) are offered on the site; hard copies are also available through Barnes and Noble and other usual channels.

Stephen Brandon is author of the popular MetaMod Joomla! module and web manager for an international non-profit organization."

You can purchase Joomla! Web Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.