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Avicennasis - Apply directly to the forehead!

Friday, December 18, 2009

Microsoft unveils Open Source multi core OS

via Hack a Day by Caleb Kraft

group (Custom)

A new operating system, code named Barrelfish is being developed by Microsoft research labs and ETH Zurich in Switzerland. This operating system is being built with multi core operations foremost in priority. It is supposed to be extremely scalable and able to function on a very wide range of hardware. You can download the current snapshot of it on their site and dig into the source code, released under a 3-clause BSD style license. If you would like to learn the primary differences between this OS and Windows or Linux, you can read this PDF.

posted by Avicennasis @ 2:43 AM Comments: 0

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Is Google Public DNS Safe?

via Darknet - The Darkside by Darknet

Google recently launched a public DNS service similar to the popular service over at OpenDNS, you can find it on Googlecode here – http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/. The first obvious reaction for the infosec crowd (with all the recent DNS flaws), is to question the security of the Google DNS service. HD Moore has done some good...

Read the full post at darknet.org.uk

posted by Avicennasis @ 5:50 AM Comments: 0

iFixit licenses manuals under Creative Commons

via Hack a Day by Mike Szczys


iFixit.com announced that they are releasing all of their manuals under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license. The site has long been an abundant source of tear-down photos for hardware and has been gaining momentum as the go-to source for Apple hardware repair information. With the move to Creative Commons, the gates are open to distribute and improve upon the site's content. There are even plans in the works to host user-submitted improvements (something akin to a wiki?) to the guides but there are not yet any details. The news also includes mention of forthcoming support for translated guides around the end of 2010.

The Hackaday crowd would rather fix things than throw them away. As iFixit moves past Apple products to a wider range of repair manuals and starts working collaboratively with users, we hope to see an explosion of detailed tips, tricks, and guides to keep our stuff working better, longer.

posted by Avicennasis @ 5:49 AM Comments: 0

Odroid: all the open, none of the contract

via Hack a Day by Mike Szczys


The Odroid derives its name from the combination of Open and Android. The hardware is aimed at the portable gaming market and runs Android. The specs are amazing, the device is open and begging you to develop for the platform.

The Samsung S5PC100 System-On-A-Chip provides the device with an ARM Cortex-A8 processor running at 833MHz. The usual suspects are all here, a capacitive touchscreen, accelerometer, SDHC slot, and WiFi. What you usually don't expect to see is a serial debugger and 720p HD output. But the best part, we get all of this without a 2 year contract or the hardware being locked down as we're used to with and Android based cell phone.

[Thanks Stillbourne via LinuxDevices]

posted by Avicennasis @ 5:48 AM Comments: 0

Yahoo hires strippers for hackers

Yahoo hires strippers for hackers
via Hack a Day by Caleb Kraft


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Yahoo has issued a public apology for an event that occurred at their recent Hack Day in Taiwan. Apparently they  hired strippers for the event, two years in a row. The girls did their usual bump and grind all over some poor hackers. Poor guys. While there is a part of us that says, "what about the little girls getting into hacking?" the other part of us says, well, you know what it says.  Wow, we're suddenly feeling the urge to use yahoo for all of our services. How peculiar.

[via BoingBoing]

posted by Avicennasis @ 5:47 AM Comments: 0

For Texas Instruments, Calculator Hackers Don't Add Up


In August, Brandon Wilson, a 25-year-old programmer in Johnson City, Tenn., posted a giddy new blog entry on his personal home page. "83+ OS signing key cracked!" his headline read. Wilson is a calculator hacker, and for geeks like him, the news was big. The signing key is a security code that, when unlocked, allows hackers to put their own operating systems on a Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus graphing calculator. While most people picture hackers tinkering with PCs or video games, Wilson belongs to an engineering subculture that is less known but equally passionate. Calculator hackers code games and even get USB peripherals running on their machines. "I reached a point where I could understand all there was to understand about this device," says Wilson. "That's a rewarding feeling. You can try to do that on a computer, but you'll never get there." There's one problem: Texas Instruments doesn't want hackers modifying their calculators. Shortly after Wilson uploaded his post, TI insisted he take down the links from his site leading to the signing key. Wilson reluctantly complied, but the incident raises compelling questions about the boundaries of innovation and collaboration online.

posted by Avicennasis @ 5:45 AM Comments: 0

Baby Soda Bottles


These are good for storing just about anything small you don't want crushed, spilled, or dampened: Batteries, earbud headphones, mini-first aid kit, medicine. They can also be used to carry liquids on a plane, as they hold about an ounce under TSA's 3-ounce limit. I'm currently using one (pictured) as a throw-in-my-bag mini-EDC kit, in case I don't have room for the regular Every Day Carry bag.

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The ones I liberated from my son's Scientific Explorer kit are also sold individually as Tube Vaults by County Comm, but the best deal I've found is 15 for $10 from Steve Spangler Science. According to their site, the Baby Soda Bottles are actually our ubiquitous 2-liter soda bottles before they've been heated and stretched, which explains why the caps are interchangeable with soda bottle caps.

The County Comm site shows video of a truck driving over one, so they are obviously sturdy. While there's a more expensive version with a special cap for threading a carabiner through, I doubt it's worth the extra money.

These food-grade polyethylene test tubes are dishwasher safe, strong, waterproof and, yes, I've used one to hide a geocache!

-- Mike Everett-Lane

Available from Steve Spangler Science

Baby Soda Bottles
$10 for 15 (5.75" x 1" diameter; holds approximately 2 oz. of liqui

posted by Avicennasis @ 5:43 AM Comments: 0

Time Warner Cable Exposes 65,000 Customer Routers to Remote Hacks


A vulnerability in a Time Warner cable modem and Wi-Fi router deployed to 65,000 customers would allow a hacker to remotely access the device's administrative menu over the internet, and potentially change the settings to intercept traffic, according to a blogger who discovered the issue. Time Warner acknowledged the problem to Threat Level on Tuesday, and says it's in the process of testing replacement firmware code from the router manufacturer, which it plans to push out to customers soon. "We were aware of the problem last week and have been working on it since," said Time Warner spokesman Alex Dudley. The vulnerability lies with Time Warner's SMC8014 series cable modem/Wi-Fi router combo, made by SMC. The device is one of several options Time Warner offers to customers who don't want to install their own modem and router to use with the company's broadband service. The device is installed with default configurations, which customers can alter only slightly through its built-in web server. The most customers can do through this page is add a list of URLs they want their router to block.

posted by Avicennasis @ 4:36 AM Comments: 0

Mozilla Labs introduces Raindrop (their answer to Google Wave?)


Today we're introducing Raindrop, an exploration in messaging innovation being led by the team responsible for Thunderbird, to explore new ways to use Open Web technologies to create useful, compelling messaging experiences. We hope to lead and spur the development of extensible applications that help users easily and enjoyably manage their conversations, notifications, and messages across a variety of online services. A central principle behind Raindrop is that messaging should be personal. We want Raindrop to be people-centric both in how we process messages, and in how we can help give people control over their personal data and experiences. When a friend's link from YouTube or flickr arrives, your messaging client should be able to show the video or photos near or as part of the message, rather than rudely kicking you over to a separate browser tab. Notifications from computers and mailing lists should be organized for you, not clutter your Inbox or require tedious manual filter setup. It should be easy to smoothly integrate new web services into your conversation viewer entirely using open web technologies.

posted by Avicennasis @ 4:33 AM Comments: 0

PhoneSnoop turns BlackBerry into remote bugging device


A free software program turns everyday BlackBerry smartphones into remote bugging devices. Dubbed PhoneSnoop by creator Sheran Gunasekera, the software sits quietly on a targeted BlackBerry and monitors the phone number of each incoming call. When it detects a number set up in the program's preferences section, it silently turns on the speakerphone, allowing an attacker to monitor all conversations within earshot of the device. Although programs such as FlexiSPY have long claimed to do much the same thing, Gunasekera said he believes PhoneSnoop is the first software to bring those capabilities to the BlackBerry free of charge.

posted by Avicennasis @ 4:08 AM Comments: 0

NSA to build $1.5B cybersecurity center near Salt Lake City


The National Security Agency (NSA) is setting up a new $1.5 billion cybersecurity data center at the Utah National Guard's Camp Williams near Salt Lake City. The 1-million-square foot center will form the hub of the highly-classified Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI) launched during the Bush Administration. It is not clear, though, whether that is the only purpose that the new data center will serve, or whether it will support other NSA cybersecurity activities. News of the planned center was announced on Friday by Glenn Gaffney, NSA's deputy director of national intelligence for collection, during an address to lawmakers at the Utah state capitol. Joining him at the announcement were Utah Governor Gary Herbert and Sens. Orrin Hatch, (R-Utah), and Bob Bennett, (R-Utah).

posted by Avicennasis @ 4:05 AM Comments: 0

Nigeria Cracking Down on E-Mail Scams


Nigeria's anti-corruption police is working with top computer software companies to halt thousands of fraudulent emails in a crackdown on internet crime in Africa's most populous country, an agency spokesman said. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said Thursday its new project "Eagle Claw," expected to become fully operational within six months, aimed to improve Nigeria's tarnished image as one of the world's top countries for internet crime. "The EFCC is fine tuning security modalities with Microsoft and upon full deployment, the capacity to take down fraudulent emails will increase to 5,000 monthly," said Farida Waziri, the agency's chairwoman, in a statement.

posted by Avicennasis @ 4:00 AM Comments: 0

10 easy steps to secure your Linux machine


Whether you use a single desktop or manage a lab full of servers, with the various threats we all face from hackers these days you simply have to make sure you're running a secure ship. Running Linux gives you some inherent protection from attack, but you still need to take adequate steps to thwart any attempts that people might make to compromise your system. Here are 10 of the best courses of action that you can take.

posted by Avicennasis @ 3:50 AM Comments: 0

Fanboys want to take AT&T down

via Hack a Day by Mike Szczys


A post about Operation Chokehold popped up on (fake) Steve Jobs' blog this morning. It seems some folks are just plain tired of AT&T giving excuses about their network. The straw that broke the camel's back came when AT&T floated the idea of instituting bandwidth limitations for data accounts. Now, someone hatched the idea of organizing enough users to bring the whole network down by maxing their bandwidth at the same time.

We're not quite sure what to think about this. Our friend Google told us that there's plenty of press already out there regarding Operation Chokehold so it's not beyond comprehension that this could have an effect on the network. On the other hand, AT&T already knows about it and we'd wager they're working on a plan to mitigate any outages that might occur.

As for the effectiveness of the message?  We'd have more sympathy for AT&T if they didn't have exclusivity contracts for their smart phones (most notably the iPhone). And if you're selling an "Unlimited Plan" it should be just that. What do you think?

[Thanks Bobbers]

[Headlock photo]

posted by Avicennasis @ 3:08 AM Comments: 0