Hirdyz Emporium
Technological News
The Windows XP F1 Bug: Hijacking Computers One Help Menu At A Time [Security]
Mar 3rd
So there’s this tiny unpatched bug in VBScript that lets sneaky websites run malicious code on machines running
Internet Explorer on
Windows XP. It’s triggered when you try to Read more ...
Fake Cyber Terrorist Attack Will Get Real Government Response Next Week [Security]
Feb 12th
Next week, for the first time, the public will be able to see how our government might respond to a full-fledged act of cyber terrorism, in a simulation that will include top intelligence and security officials.
On February 16, the Bipartisan Policy Center-hosted event, dubbed Cyber ShockWave, will assemble many top officials in the “White House situation room”—recreated by set designers in a conference room at the Mandarin Hotel—to respond to a Read more ...
Remainders – The Things We Didn’t Post: Tricky Tricky Edition [Remainders]
Feb 9th
In today’s Remainders: tricks of all sorts. Wisair cuts some cords with their wireless display adapters; Netflix warns the FCC of potential loopholes in the Comcast/NBC merger; the inimitable BrussPup plays with our heads (and ping pong balls); and more.
Air Ball
I’m all for eliminating cords and wires whenever possible, so I was excited to hear that Wisair’s wireless display adapters were coming to Macs by the end of March Read more ...
Man Sells Hacked Comcast Modems to FBI, Gets Up to 20 Years in Prison [Crime]
Jan 29th
Matthew Delorey’s business idea was to sell hacked Comcast modems which allow free Internet access. He just forgot to avoid FBI agents, conspiracy, wire fraud, and $250,000 fines. Now he may get 20 years in prison to rethink things.
Delorey wasn’t doing anything insanely difficult. He was just modifying modems’ MAC addresses to match those of modems whose owners were old-fashioned and actually paying for Internet access. He would’ve probably gotten away with selling them for a while longer had some of his buyers not been undercover FBI agents. Whoops.
The resulting conspiracy and wire fraud charges held up in federal court and a Read more ...
Linux Owns 1/3 of the Netbook Marketshare [Linux]
Dec 8th
Lots of people use Linux. That’s known. But usually those people are computer science majors flipping major corporations the bird (before they sell out to said corporations after graduation), not consumers buying systems with Linux preloaded.
According to a new report by Jeff Orr, an analyst at ABI, Linux preinstalls represent 32% of the 35 million netbooks shipping this year (a number consistent with Dell’s own reports). And it makes sense. Pretty much an variation of Linux is lighter weight than Windows (even the Read more ...
