[Quote:]

Cyber-crooks are not only exploiting security flaws in popular software in order to steal from vulnerable and innocent users. Independent Security Consultant Dancho Danchev describes how vulnerabilities in unpatched releases of the Zeus crimeware kit are being exploited by hackers in order to steal resources from their fellow criminals.

The security researcher has come across an interesting posting made by a botnet runner, who asks for help to secure his infrastructure after being compromised several times by other hackers. According to his own account, someone hijacked his botnet, composed of over 100,000 compromised computers, by exploiting a vulnerability in the Zeus kit, which allowed remotely injecting a high-level account into the administration panel of the crimeware.

[Quote:]

Didn’t the John McCain/Letterman snafu teach people anything?

Years ago, the expression was “Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel” (meaning newspapers).  The modern, updated version is “Never pick a fight with people who have ascerbic, award winning comedy writers, a broad TV reach, and a strong internet presence…”

The Daily show is really hammering all the media, though:

Best quote, I think:

“Isn’t the DOW Jones Industrial average just a short-twitch numerical representation of a bunch of guesses about other people’s assumptions about the financial well-being of an arbitrarily chosen group of 30 out of tens of thousands of possible companies?”

Here’s how you do funny interview that is damned informative as well:

More

[Quote:]

This is scary:

Sir David Omand, the former Whitehall security and intelligence co-ordinator, sets out a blueprint for the way the state will mine data — including travel information, phone records and emails — held by public and private bodies and admits: “Finding out other people’s secrets is going to involve breaking everyday moral rules.”

In short: it’s immoral, but we’re going to do it anyway.

From the comments:

If as a potential terrorist you know that this data is being collected is it going to stop you becoming a terrorist?

The answer is of course no.

The next question is,

As a terrorist if you know that this data is being collected is it going to stop you communicating with your superiors / equals / subordinates.

The answer is still no even if less obviously so.

You can keep asking these sorts of question and the answers will quickly tell you that the purpose of collecting the data is not to fight terrorism.

Which gives rise to what it’s real purpose is.

[Quote:]

GE debt is trading like it is not going to make it.

It costs $7 million to insure $10 million in GE Capital debt for ten years. GE Capital credit default swaps require a $2 million up front payment, followed by $500,000 a year for ten years.

Got that? If you own a ten year GE debt instrument, over ten years it will cost you $7 million in insurance, through credit debt swaps, to guarantee you will get your $10 million back.

[Quote:]

The way to make a program faster is to never let it get slower.

Rules for optimization of software:

1. Don’t do it!
2. (for experts only) Don’t do it yet!

And before you think you can follow rule 2, make sure you are an expert. Here’s a quick test to see if you qualify.

Microsoft Research is one of the main authors of RCF3484, which relates to DNS resolution in IPV6.

Vista is one of the first operating systems to follow it to the letter. The problem is that it also does so in IPV4, and in cases where it doesn’t make sense. And as a result, redundancy for internet servers suddenly is far more difficult.

[Quote:]

AT&T was forced to recall the Quickfire GTX75 (made by UTStarcom) after reports of the handset overheating when improperly connected to the AC charger.

Well, what would you expect from a product called Quickfire?

[Quote:]

A lawmaker in California wants to force Google Earth and similar services to blur images of so-called “soft targets” like schools, hospitals, churches and government buildings to protect them from terrorists. Assemblyman Joel Anderson, a San Diego Republican, said he decided to introduce his bill after reading reports suggesting that terrorists used online map imagery to plan attacks in Mumbai and elsewhere.

So if blurring the map prevents the terrorists from finding the places, why not bur the terrorist training camps instead, that way the problem will solve itself just nicely….

[Quote:]

Software that for the first time lets users run native copies of the Windows operating systems on a mainframe will be introduced Friday by data center automation vendor Mantissa.

The company’s z/VOS software is a CMS application that runs on IBM’s z/VM and creates a foundation for Intel-based operating systems.

[Quote:]

Intensive harvesting of the largest fish over many decades, while leaving the small fish behind, may have unintentionally genetically reprogrammed many species to grow smaller, said lead author Dr. David O. Conover, Professor and Dean of the Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences in Long Island, New York. Although Charles Darwin showed 150 years ago that evolution equips life forms to be better adapted to prosper in their environment, unnatural evolution caused by man’s size-selective fishing is causing fish to be smaller, less fertile, and competitively disadvantaged. This has also been a loss for commercial fishers who seek big fish for their livelihoods, recreational anglers in pursuit of trophy fish, and seafood consumers who desire large portions on their plates.

This study demonstrates for the first time ever that detrimental evolution in fish can be reversed, and pokes a gaping hole in theoretical models suggesting that genetic changes are impossible to “undo.”

[Quote:]

A 9-year-old girl who was carrying twins, and whose stepfather is suspected of raping her, underwent an abortion on Wednesday despite complaints from Brazil’s Roman Catholic Church. The stepfather has been jailed since last week, the police said. Abortion is illegal in Brazil, the country with the most Roman Catholics, but judges can make exceptions if the mother’s life is in danger or the fetus has no chance of survival. Fatima Maia, director of the public university hospital where the abortion was performed, said the pregnancy, which was in its 15th week, posed a serious risk to the girl, who weighs 80 pounds. But Marcio Miranda, a lawyer for the Archdiocese of Olinda and Recife in northeastern Brazil, said the girl should have carried the twins to term and had a Caesarean section. “It’s the law of God: Do not kill,” he said in comments reported by the newspaper O Globo.

So in order to not ruin a life, the Church is perfectly happy to ruin a life. Right.