M&Mâs World Headlines: Jan 23, 2009
NSA warrantless wiretapping targeted non-terrorists, including journalists by willing Telco’s MSNBC
MSNBC video on the NSA whistleblower, Russel Tice, says that the Bush administration’s illegal spying campaign was even worse than suspected: the administration specifically targeted “non-terrorist” groups for special surveillance, including journalists. With Bush now gone Russel Tice speaks. It can also be read here.
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Cellphone manufacturers use locked software to stifle competition and restrict consumers EFF
The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation, eff.org) has put up this online petition found at the above URL.
Hundreds of thousands of cellphone owners have modified their phones to connect to the network or run the software of their choosing, and many more would like to. But the Digital Millennium Copyright Act poses a legal threat to phone users, even though the law was supposed to protect copyright owners and distributors of digital music and movies. This threat of litigation has driven consumers underground, stifling innovation and competition.Now, you can support EFF’s request that the Copyright Office grant an exemption to the DMCA that will protect phone users. Sign below to add your name to EFF’s request to the copyright office. Then, on the next page, you can share a story about how these restrictions have affected you personally.
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Court tells Kentucky ‘no dice’ on seizing gambling domain names EFF
Kentucky officials must return 141 gambling domain names they seized last year in a bid to block internet betting within state borders, an appeals court panel ordered on Tuesday… The reversal is a victory for civil-liberties advocates who argued that the laws of an individual state shouldn’t trump the rights of others to access sites that are perfectly legal elsewhere. In friend-of-the-court briefs filed in November, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky argued the decision would pave the way for Kentucky to take control of any domain name if it pointed to sites that were deemed illegal in that state.
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Microsoft Plans to Lay Off 5,000 Workers New York Times
Microsoft stunned its investors on Thursday, announcing the first broad layoffs in its history and offering a pessimistic forecast for the second half of its fiscal year. We will continue to manage expenses and invest in long-term opportunities to deliver value to customers and shareholders, and we will emerge an even stronger industry leader than we are today, said Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft`s chief executive. We are planning for economic uncertainty to continue through the remainder of the fiscal year, almost certainly leading to lower revenue and earnings for the second half relative to the previous year, said Christopher P. Liddell, the company`s chief financial officer.
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Iranian bloggers on Obama victory BBC
A glimpse of how some Iranian bloggers inside and outside Iran have responded to Barack Obama’s election victory. Barack Obama’s promise of ‘change’ reminds many Iranians of their own optimism when they elected the reformist Mohammad Khatami as president in a landslide victory in 1997. Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s letter congratulating Mr Obama on his victory has divided opinion in the Iranian parliament, according to one representative. Mohammad Alikhani describes Mr Ahmadinejad’s decision to send the letter as not only “unprecedented” in the Islamic Republic’s 30 year history, but also “strange”.It has created differences among the country’s various political parties and groups….”.
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Ancient Persians ‘gassed Romans’ BBC
Ancient Persians were the first to use chemical warfare against their enemies, a study has suggested. The study shows that the Persians dug a mine underneath the wall in order to enter the city. They also ignited bitumen and sulphur crystals to produce dense poisonous gases, suggested Simon James, an archaeologist at the University of Leicester. “The Roman assault party was unconscious in seconds, dead in minutes.”
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Calls for open source government BBC
The secret to a more secure and cost effective government is through open source technologies and products. The claim comes from one of Silicon Valley’s most respected business leaders Scott McNealy, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems. He revealed he has been asked to prepare a paper on the subject for the new administration. “It’s intuitively obvious open source is more cost effective and productive than proprietary software,” he said. “Open source does not require you to pay a penny to Microsoft or IBM or Oracle or any proprietary vendor any money.”
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Pardon bid for Australian author BBC
The Australian government has asked Thailand’s royal family to pardon an Australian author who was jailed for three years for defaming the monarchy. Harry Nicolaides was sentenced by Bangkok’s criminal court on Monday for defaming the king and crown prince in a 2005 novel. The court said a passage about the book’s fictional prince caused “dishonour” to the royals.
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Sex shop suspect nabbed. Blow-up dolls now safe cairns AU
The man allegedly smashed his way into the shop, had sex with blow-up dolls and discarded them in an alley. On two occasions, a doll named “Jungle Jane” was allegedly stolen from the Laneway Adult Shop. The alleged crimes, revealed by The Cairns Post earlier this month, http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2009/01/07/22431_local-news.html made headlines across the world, with dozens of newspapers and blogs as far away as the UK, US, Canada, India and Jamaica featuring the story.
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Plumber Makes Mammoth Find MSNBC
A part-time plumber who regularly prowls a Riverside County riverbed found what is believed to be the 4-foot-long tusk of an Ice Age mammoth or mastodon. Experts say the tusk could date back 16,000 to 2 million years. Greg Riecke discovered the tusk in the flood channel behind his Perris home about 60 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
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Mac OS X research warns of stealthier attacks Security Focus
A computer security researcher has discovered a new way to inject hostile code directly into the memory of machines running Apple’s OS X operating system, a technique that makes it significantly harder for investigators to detect Mac attacks using today’s forensics practices. The technique, which Italian researcher Vincenzo Iozzo plans to detail at the Black Hat security conference in Washington next month, makes it possible to carry out stealthy Mac attacks that until now have not been possible. The in-memory injection approach allows unauthorized software to be installed on a Mac without leaving traces of the attack code or other tell-tale signs that the machine has been compromised.
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New Security Services Land In Home Routers Infosec
Home router security is getting a makeover with free security services aimed at simplifying and streamlining the protection of home users’ computers, gaming, and other systems. OpenDNS, which offers a free recursive Domain Name Service (DNS) service with Web content filtering and phishing protection, has so far teamed with Netgear and 2Wire to roll its DNS, Web filtering, and antiphishing services into the vendors’ home networking devices. Netgear earlier this month announced it will offer OpenDNS for free with several of its Wireless-N router models, and 2Wire said it would do the same with its new HomePortal GEM gateways for wireless networks, cordless phone DECT base stations, home control interfaces, and intelligent home servers.
»»»Former Netscape attorney may be named DOJ antitrust chief Beta News
A name floated this morning by The Wall Street Journal as a likely choice by President Obama to head the Justice Dept.’s antitrust division, may not exactly be the choice Microsoft would have preferred. Christine Varney, a former Federal Trade Commission member in the Clinton administration, and an attorney in the high-visibility firm of Hogan & Hartson in Washington, DC since then, appears to be the leading candidate for appointment to a deputy attorney-general’s post in the Justice Dept.’s Antitrust Division, according to a WSJ report this morning. During the US Microsoft antitrust trial, but following her tenure with the FTC, Varney was an outspoken critic of Microsoft, especially since she was on the team representing Netscape, the company that was most wronged by Microsoft’s actions at that time.
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Alleged Oasis attacker faces bumped up charge The Star
The man accused of attacking Noel Gallagher of Oasis at a local concert has been charged with a more serious crime. Daniel Sullivan, 47, of Pickering, was represented in court this morning by his lawyer, Taragh Bracken, when the initial assault charge was withdrawn and replaced by a count of aggravated assault. The new charge carries a maximum sentence of 14 years, as opposed to the initial charge, which had a maximum sentence of five years. Sullivan’s next court date is scheduled for March 6. The charge stems from an incident at the Toronto stop of the Virgin Festival last September, where Gallagher, the lead guitarist of British band Oasis, was tackled by a man who jumped on stage. The altercation left the musician with two broken ribs, and forced the band to cancel their subsequent tour stop in London, Ont. The video of the 2008 attack can be seen here, http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=nKzvjYu14tA
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Recall of peanut products hits Canada Globe & Mail
Fallout from the salmonella outbreak linked to six deaths and nearly 500 illnesses in the United States has crossed the border into Canada. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced a recall yesterday of nine varieties of snack bars amid fears they may be contaminated with tainted peanut butter or peanut paste. The affected products include snack bars from popular brands Clif, Larabar, Nature’s Path Organic and Hebert’s Fully Loaded. Canadian officials warn more products may be pulled off shelves as they continue their investigation and identify other companies that may have used the contaminated spreads. Health officials in the United States have already warned Americans to avoid any cookies, ice cream, snack bars and other products containing peanut butter.
January , 2009
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