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Slashback: Slammer, Frames, Pop-Ups

Slashback tonight with more on SBC's claim to own patents covering basic Web navigation techniques, an eyebrow-raising look at Slammer's spread, bad news for Ogg streams from the BBC, and more. Read on for the details. Update: 02/04 00:13 GMT by T : And late-breaking good news from SDF regarding its Public Access UNIX System.

FedEx should take notes. nweaver writes "We have completed our preliminary analysis of the Sapphire/Slammer SQL worm. This worm required roughly 10 minutes to spread worldwide, scanning at a peak rate of over 55 million IP addresses per second, making it by far the fastest worm to date and nearly two orders of magnitude faster than Code Red. It infected at least 75,000 victims and possibly considerably more. The remarkable speed was due to the use of a bandwidth-limited scanner. There were also two bugs in the random number generator. Copies of our analysis are available from CAIDA, Silicon Defense, and UC Berkeley."

"Sir, this patent application needs to filled out in ink. Not Crayon." We recently posted that the company SBC was calling in the chips on patents it holds which the company claim cover certain types of navigation links found on many web pages. Dan Gillmor writes "Noticed the link to Cringley's piece. Well, I did ask readers for prior art and got quite a bit, some of which I've posted..."

Speaking of SBC, theodp writes "The SBC Intellectual Property folks are back in the news, this time for donating a $7.3 million virus screening patent to the University of Texas. While patent donations are one of the latest twists on corporate philanthropy, the practice has aroused the curiosity of the IRS as a possible tax avoidance scheme."

I wonder how much they'd feel justified in writing off if they donated their web patent portfolio to the FSF.

Can we call this an on-again, off-again relationship? Albanach writes "It seems the BBC who had pioneered Ogg Vorbis broadcasting on a serious scale have abandoned Ogg indefinitely. They say other work commitments make Ogg support no longer a priority. Their statement can be read here"

What, and let all my pigeons escape? FedeTXF writes "We already love pop-up blocking in Mozilla and some other related browsers, now Blogzilla is reporting a great trick to get rid of embedded ads (banners and iframes) using plain CCS and the always amazing Mozilla flexibility and openness. Go check this page if you are anxious to see how to set it up."

Did you have your video camera trained on Columbia? Finally, Child of Apollo writes ""For anyone who has recorded video or taken photos that they believe may be of aid in the investigation of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident, NASA has established a special location on the Web where Internet users may upload their media files to be reviewed by NASA." Although sad news all around, thanks to pleasant for the link."

Here's the late-breaker. fonixmunkee writes "looks like SDF will return soon. a message stating that they negotiated a new contract graced the single page in the "members area" of the temporary www.lonestar.org, but did not cite who specifically with. a few different ideas were tossed around for hosting, so only time will tell with who. i also just today got an e-mail from the Washington State Attorney General's Office that offered a small ray (read: none) of hope for assistance with SDF's run-in with NWLink. (NWLink breached SDF's contract.) hope all is well soon." This is good news, especially so soon after SDF got the rug yanked from under them.

22 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. And in other news.. by jo_ham · · Score: 5, Funny

    SBC patents patents.

    Other well noted SBC patents include:

    Oxegenating blood by inhalation of atmosphere. Secreting water onto the surface of the skin when hot/tired to assist in heat loss.
    Excretion of urea in solution via a hose type device.

    They'd better clear that last one up quick. I'm dying for a piss but I don't have any change for the SBC lawyer.

    1. Re:And in other news.. by Autonymous+Toaster · · Score: 2, Funny

      Nothing important then. As long as they don't have a patent on "method of modifying carbohydrate chains by application of dry heat", I think we're gonna be OK.

      --
      Could I interest anyone in some toast?
    2. Re:And in other news.. by Dr.Dubious+DDQ · · Score: 2, Funny
      That sounds like the ultimate bathroom key, only instead of a hunk of metal, there are a few lawyers attached to it.

      Ah...and the results when the IP lawyers delay things too long...

      "Oops. Sorry about that. Guess I don't need to get into the bathroom any more. Here's a quarter for the laundry."

      Though afterwards, think what the "what are you in for" conversation the poor guy will have with his cellmate will sound like...

    3. Re:And in other news.. by angst_ridden_hipster · · Score: 4, Funny

      Oh...

      So izzat why they call 'em IP lawyers?

      --
      Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
      www.fogbound.net
  2. Popup code hidden at slashdot pages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
  3. Slammer 1.1 by Lu+Xun · · Score: 5, Funny

    There were also two bugs in the random number generator

    Does that mean someone's going to release a patch for it then?

    --
    That's not a soda... it's a caffeine delivery device!
    1. Re:Slammer 1.1 by AndroidCat · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah don't people know enough not to get infected by version 1.0 software?

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  4. Finally? by GuyMannDude · · Score: 3, Funny

    Did you have your video camera trained on Columbia? Finally, Child of Apollo writes ...

    What's with this "finally" stuff? Have people been holding their breath to hear what Child of Apollo has to say or something?

    GMD

  5. What is /. thinking? by Eros · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did they just seriously link to a page that easily allows the blocking of all banners on Slashdot and other sites?

    If you can't call this website sucide, I don't know what you can call it.

    BTW, for Galeon users, check your preferences under "Rendering" to add a CSS and check the box "Apply by Default" to use the adblocking CSS.

  6. Re:Ah, yes by sqlrob · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do you go to the bathroom during commercials? Do you experience any feelings at all concerning the revenue impacting mode in which you operate?

  7. Ads with noise by EverStoned · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can't stand ads with noise. I listen to music really loudly on headphones. Then all of a sudden I hear "BUY A TOYATA" and blow an eardrum. Thank god I switched to Opera - no more pop ups, but some banner flash ads still get to me.

  8. Here's the late-breaker by AndroidCat · · Score: 4, Funny
    "looks like SDF will return soon.

    Any sign of the Zentraedi following them?

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  9. Re:Nasty worm! by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    "404 fscking bytes! No wonder it clogged the Internet!"

    I'm new to Linux, but how does checking the file system clog the internet?

  10. Re:'Photos Show Odd Images Near Shuttle' by AndroidCat · · Score: 3, Funny

    Throw the camera into the developer solution for three minutes, transfer to the stopbath, and then after a while, move it to the fixer. By golly, I bet a digital camera would show some weird images after that!

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  11. I see a DDoS coming... by emc · · Score: 3, Funny

    Great, first NASA had to watch the Colombia be destroyed...

    Now, countless copies of goatse.cx are going to be uploaded to their server, blinding many of our nations finest...

    My heart is extended to the families of the (soon-to-be) victims.

  12. Re:Ah, yes by The+Bungi · · Score: 2, Funny
    You are a wanker [slashdot.org] for looking at censored websites. Why would you want to look at a website that has been sanitized?

    d00d, if ads make up content for you, may I suggest something different?

    :P

    Ah, I get it. No, I do =)

    However, you are stealing

    Are you a subscriber?.

  13. Re:Ah, yes by aaza · · Score: 3, Funny
    It just happens to be loaded with the OS

    Proof?

    1. Load IE (a fraction of a second)
    2. Load local page (a few more seconds)
    3. Open a new window, which loads the same page (5 - 10 seconds, disk grinding like anything)
    4. ???
    5. profit

    OK, how the hell did steps 4 and 5 get in there? This is a serious post!

    --
    In theory there is no difference between theory and practice.
    In practice, however, there is.
  14. Re:Valid CSS? by rworne · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is cool. So does this mean I can:

    1. Block their crap by not seeing it displayed
    2. Waste advertisers' money by not having a pair of eyeballs see the ad
    3. Block it without anyone being able to tell I'm blocking

    All this for a small price of a bit of my bandwidth? Sign me up!

    --
    I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
  15. Re:Ah, yes by The+Bungi · · Score: 2, Funny

    Who the heck said I like Slashdot??

  16. Re:Mozilla Speed [Re:Ah, yes] by The+Bungi · · Score: 2, Funny
    Your post was beginning to sound interesting when all of the sudden...

    Windoz

    ... I lost you.

  17. Re:'Photos Show Odd Images Near Shuttle' by ctar · · Score: 2, Funny

    "...taken with a Nikon-880 digital camera..."

    "...but it showed up clear and bright on the film when I developed it..."

    Huh?


    Maybe thats why he has orange and electrical looking streaks on the images.

  18. Re:It may be. by 9jack9 · · Score: 2, Funny
    . . . CSS makes me excited every time I learn new things about it, and I'm not that hardcore of a geek...

    And we can play with this stuff in Mozilla. Oh happy day. :)

    Uhhh, if CSS makes you excited then, yeah, you're a geek. If it makes you excited over and over, then that makes you a hardcore geek. If you are unsure, use the "random unknown female test". Walk up to some random unknown female and say, "CSS makes me excited every time I learn new things about it. Does that make me a geek?". If she says, "Oh, I saw CSS on TV last night! That's so cool!", then you aren't a geek. Otherwise you are. Welcome to the brotherhood. ;)