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Self-Regulating SSL Certificate Authority?
bcg asks: "It has come that time again to renew some of my SSL certificates and part with substantial amounts of cash. This has got me thinking - why should we pay large amounts of cash for authorized certs when so little is done by the companies issuing them? Sure they get you to send them a copy of a business certificate but how does this prove the character of those running the SSL server? What ideas can we come up with for a self-regulating certification authority? Could we set something up along the lines of the many free DNS servers around but use it to authenticate SSL certs?"
We last touched on this subject in October, when someone was searching for cheap
SSL certs. We've also discussed why certs are so expensive. Why not take it one step further and discuss ways of making and authenticating our own certs for free...or as close to free as possible?
More than 1.1 billion trolls are killed worldwide each year. For no reason.
Trolls are an unhealthy food source. Most people who eat trolls also have access to other, non-meat foods.
Trolls are some of the most intelligent beings on our planet. Why do we kill them by the billions? Just to enjoy the transient pleasure of tasting their flesh?
Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate. Ex-O'Reilly/MIT employee, now a full-time Google employee.
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Ask Slashdot: Self-Regulating SSL Certificate Authority?
EncryptionPosted by Cliff on Tuesday January 21, @05:05PM
from the doing-it-on-our-own dept.
bcg asks: "It has come that time again to renew some of my SSL certificates and part with substantial amounts of cash. This has got me thinking - why should we pay large amounts of cash for authorized certs when so little is done by the companies issuing them? Sure they get you to send them a copy of a business certificate but how does this prove the character of those running the SSL server? What ideas can we come up with for a self-regulating certification authority? Could we set something up along the lines of the many free DNS servers around but use it to authenticate SSL certs?" We last touched on this subject in October, when someone was searching for cheap SSL certs. We've also discussed why certs are so expensive. Why not take it one step further and discuss ways of making and authenticating our own certs for free...or as close to free as possible?
( Read More... | Ask Slashdot )
Your Rights Online: Verizon Loses Suit Over Subpoena of Subscriber Info
PrivacyPosted by michael on Tuesday January 21, @04:17PM
from the riaa-now-knows-if-you're-a-dog dept.
Brian Golden writes "As a result of a suit filed by the RIAA, the identity of a Verizon customer with a penchant for mp3's was ordered to be released. Man, how many people are now sweating bullets trying to remember what they downloaded?" News.com.com also has a story. If you've forgotten about this case, see our earlier story. Verizon wasn't making any sort of principled stand to protect its users' privacy, it just wanted to avoid the costs of complying with the (many) subpoenas it will now receive.
( Read More... | 202 comments | Your Rights Online )
Developers: Remote Root Exploit in CVS
BugPosted by michael on Tuesday January 21, @03:20PM
from the checking-out dept.
RenHoek writes "Security expert Stefan Esser from E-matters discovered a bug in CVS version 1.11.4 and lower, that can give malignant users remote root access. The exploit was confirmed on BSD, but other OS's like Linux, Solaris and Windows are vulnerable too. A security advisory can be found here and there is also a patch available. CVS version 1.11.5 which is fixed can be downloaded as well."
( Read More... | 140 comments | Developers )
Phantom Game Console
GamesPosted by michael on Tuesday January 21, @02:17PM
from the jokes-are-almost-too-easy dept.
jasoncart writes "In a bold move newly formed US technology company Infinium Labs Corporation have announced the release of a new gaming console. They promise that it will be faster than any other console on the market, and have a huge games catalog (32k+ games apparently) available over broadband. Can they take on the big boys? Is broadband pentration high enough? Only time will tell - prototypes are promised in March." There's also an interview with their PR spokesdrone. *cough*Indrema.*cough*
( Read More... | 339 comments )
Plan for Spam, Version 2
SpamPosted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday January 21, @01:17PM
from the bayesian-filtering-for-a-quieter-inbox dept.
bugbear writes "I just posted a new version of the Plan for Spam Bayesian filtering algorithm. The big change is to mark tokens by context. The new version decreases spams missed by 50%, to 2.5 per 1000, even though spam has gotten harder to filter since the summer. I also talk about how spam will evolve, and what to do about it."
( Read More... | 321 comments )
Businessweek Covers Linuxworld
Linux BusinessPosted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday January 21, @12:22PM
from the places-to-be dept.
MadFarmAnimalz writes "BusinessWeek has coverage of Linuxworld up, and it makes interesting reading in places. Amongst things touched upon are the open-source business model, how vendors will be tempted into locking in customers into their offerings, and other things." I'll be out there tomorrow for the Golden Penguin Bowl, as well as judging exhibitors. Busy day.
( Read More... | 98 comments )
Book Reviews: F'd Companies
The Almighty BuckPosted by timothy on Tuesday January 21, @11:30AM
from the naughty-word dept.
Alex Moskalyuk writes "Philip J. Kaplan's F'd Companies is a compilation of famous and not so well-publicized dot-com flameouts. Most of the companies that are described in the book do not exist today, for some others the domain names are being used for similar businesses, but the original management and business plans are gone. Even though F'd Companies presents several chapters in the table of contents, it's better viewed just as compilation of dot-com mishaps, with about one or two pages dedicated to each company." Read on for more Schadenfreude.
( Read More... | 4994 bytes in body | 178 comments | Book Reviews )
Peephole Displays
HandheldsPosted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday January 21, @10:35AM
from the now-isn't-that-clever dept.
benh57 writes "A student at Berkeley has come up with a novel approach for navigating small handheld displays. In effect the display is a "peephole" into a much larger information area. You see different parts of the display by moving the handheld around - no more tiny scrollbars. Check out the DiVX movies to see it in action. It even works in 3D!"
( Read More... | 259 comments )
Linux in Enterprise Environments
Linux BusinessPosted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday January 21, @09:52AM
from the putting-on-your-tie dept.
watzinaneihm writes "Eweek has an Article about how Linux is getting accepted in Enterprises.IBM is releasing Tivoli for Linux. CA released Unicenter for Linux a few months ago.I got rumours about rumours that HP might do something similar with Openview. " One for those of you who dress nicer than me.
( Read More... | 170 comments )
Credit Card sized 5GB HD to arrive late this year
NewsPosted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday January 21, @09:07AM
from the here's-hoping dept.
An anonymous reader writes "PC World reports in this article: "The card actually has moveable parts inside its thin shell," says Bill Heil, vice president of StorCard. A spinning wheel made of Mylar is engaged when the card is inserted into a StorReader, a USB-connected drive or PC Card that reads and writes to the StorCard. The reader is expected to retail for under $100 and the cards for under $15 each, Heil says. The StorCard and StorReader are scheduled to become available in the second half of 2003."
( Read More... | 290 comments )
11 Digit Dialing Comes Home to New York
TechnologyPosted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday January 21, @08:23AM
from the isn't-that-a-pain dept.
Traicovn writes "The NY Times (free registration, yadda yadda) is carrying an article about 11 digit dialing coming to the city of New York for all phone calls, including inner city calls. Yes, that means even to dial across the street you will have to dial 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx. Eventually as the phone number system fills up because of more people having cellphones/pager/fax and a home/office phone line we may see this happening in more cities across the nation or the NANPA may have to intervene by making phone numbers longer in general."
( Read More... | 615 comments )
Review Of Upcoming Projection Keyboards
HandheldsPosted by timothy on Tuesday January 21, @05:59AM
from the easier-than-fingernail-implants dept.
malpern writes "I've written a review of upcoming virtual keyboards based on published reports. There are pictures, descriptions, and details for each of the four major manufactures (Virtual Devices, Developer VKB, Canesta, and Senseboard Technologies)."
( Read More... | 204 comments )
Slackware Forums Alive Again!
LinuxPosted by timothy on Tuesday January 21, @02:21AM
from the bad-apples-turned-to-sauce-free dept.
HappySlacker writes "Looks like the forums from slackware.com that Patrick Volkerding (Slackware's daddy) had to take down because of massive trolling are fully active again after 2 years of hibernation as read-only at userlocal.com."Update: 01/21 19:23 GMT by T: Jeremy from LinuxQuestions.org points out the forums on that site, which is recommended on Slackware's links page.
( Read More... | 174 comments )
South African Gov't Declared An Open Source Zone
Linux BusinessPosted by timothy on Monday January 20, @10:57PM
from the nice-to-own-what-you-pay-for dept.
fungai writes "The Business Day reports that the South African government has decided to adopt open source software and develop support programs with local research institutes and universities. The CIO of the State IT Agency says: 'The logic for open-source is so compelling that after a year of debates we decided to stop talking and declare government an open-source zone.'"
( Read More... | 504 comments )
BSD
FreeBSD 5.0 Available
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FreeBSD Kernel Leak
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The NetBSD Organization
MicroBSD 0.6RC2 Released
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Book Reviews
Need something to read? Slashdot's book review section is full of reader-submitted reviews of books you should know about.
* Brook Conner reviews War of Honor, "Sometimes turgid and complex political sci-fi," with a "CD-ROM worth the cover price by itself."
* Danny Yee reviews The Neanderthal's Necklace, "a nice introduction to the Neanderthals."
* David Kennedy reviews Questioning Extreme Programming, "A critical but fair re-examination of all of XP."
* Spencer Marks reviews Java Development with Ant, which explains "how to use Ant to meet all (or most of) your poject's software configuration needs."
* Stella Daily reviews Science Askew: A Light-Hearted Look at the Scientific World: "Geeks poking fun at themselves, with mixed success."
* Liam reviews Professional Apache Tomcat, a "comprehensive guide to Apache's Tomcat server."
* ianb104 reviews Behind Deep Blue: Building the Computer that Defeated the World Chess Champion, "a real-life historic triumph of the nerds."
* stern reviews Electronic Life: How to Think About Computers, which he describes as "a curiosity, not worth buying at a garage sale unless you are a Crichton completist.
* czarneki reviews Empire of Dreams and Miracles, "a good science fiction anthology of new authors."
* Spencerian reviews Teach Yourself UNIX System Administration In 24 Hours, which he calls a "rosetta stone for beginning or intermediate UNIX sysadmins."
* Rob ("robo") Oostendorp reviews the beginner-friendly SQL Fundamentals, "a crash course in the basics of SQL; of limited but real use to those who already are familiar with SQL."
Add your name to this list! Submitting your own review for consideration is easy. Just read the Slashdot book review guidelines, and then use the web submission form.
Update: 20021122 11:15 by timothy
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(BTW, it was a funny post.)