Yah The Storm Worm is being reduced to a squall! article from slashdot.org:

IT: Storm Worm Being Reduced to a Squall

Posted by Zonk on Sunday October 21, @01:23PM
from the blood-pressure-lowering-sight-returning dept.

Rumours of financial schemes surrounding the botnet aside, PC World has an article that should lower the blood pressure of some SysAdmins. The Storm Worm botnet is apparently shrinking. A researcher out of UC San Diego who has been tracking the network has published a report indicating it is now only 10% of its former size. “Some estimates have put Storm at 50 million computers, a number that would give its controllers access to more processing power than the world’s most powerful supercomputer. But Enright said that the real story is significantly less terrifying. In July, for example, he said that Storm appeared to have infected about 1.5 million PCs, about 200,000 of which were accessible at any given time. Enright guessed that a total of about 15 million PCs have been infected by Storm in the nine months it has been around, although the vast majority of those have been cleaned up and are no longer part of the Storm network.”

There is still a lot of clean up to do now though.

Here is a great story from Slashdot.org:

IT: Apple Adds Memory Randomization To Leopard

Posted by kdawson on Thursday October 18, @08:37AM
from the shuffling-the-wormholes dept.

.mack notes a ZDNet blog outlining some of the security features added to OSX Leopard (10.5). Here’s Apple’s brief description of all 11 new security features. “Apple has announced plans to add code-scrambling diversity to Mac OS X Leopard, a move aimed at making the operating system more resilient to virus and worm attacks. The security technology, known as ASLR (address space layout randomization), randomly arranges the positions of key data areas to prevent malware authors from predicting target addresses. Another new feature coming in Leopard is Sandboxing (systrace), which limits an application’s access to the system by enforcing access policies for system calls.”

Wow Super PS3 Computer? Article from slashdot.org

Games: Eight PS3 ‘Supercomputer’ Ponders Gravity Waves

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday October 17, @10:50AM
from the because-you-can dept.

Jamie found a story about a inexpensive supercomputer being used by an astrophysicist to research gravity waves. The interesting bit is that the system is built using 8 PS3s. Since nobody is actually playing games on the system, it makes sense to use them for research projects like this, but I really wonder now what is defining ‘Supercomputer’… I mean, a hundred PS3s sure, but 8? I think we are de-valuing the meaning of the word ‘super’

Dun dun duh….. this article from slashdot.org is probably what some people need to hear about”

Your Rights Online: Phone Companies Refuse to Give Congress Data on Spy Program

Journal written by JohNNy1+4 (1174329) and posted by Zonk on Tuesday October 16, @11:22AM
from the would-be-unamerican dept.

JohNNy1+4 writes “Several US telephone communications firms are refusing to answer the questions of a congressional panel about spying on American citizens. The panel is making an inquiry into Bush administration tactics in the years since 2001, but has been stymied by the administration’s claim that releasing that information would be illegal. As a result Verizon, AT&T, and Qwest have declined to answer the panel’s queries. ‘”Our company essentially finds itself caught in the middle of an oversight dispute between the Congress and the executive relating to government surveillance activities,” AT&T Inc. General Counsel Wayne Watts said in a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee that was released today by the panel.’”

From Slashdot.org, Michael Dell says Linux Server Sales are UP! That is good for the Linux Community and for Dell.

Linux: Michael Dell says Linux Server Sales are Up

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday October 15, @09:31AM
from the nobody-wants-vista dept.

00_NOP writes “Linux is growing faster in the server space than Windows says the Dell CEO ‘On the server side Linux continues to grow nicely, a bit faster than Windows. We’re seeing a move to Linux in critical applications, and Linux migration has not slowed down.’”

Wow!  (article from slashdot)

Posted by Zonk on Friday October 12, @02:02PM
from the fight-for-your-right-to-unlock dept.

Billosaur writes “Wired is reporting that the California Supreme Court has refused to review two lower court decisions involving a class-action lawsuit against T-Mobile over their policies regarding early termination and phone unlocking. The Court rejected the reviews without comment, opening the door to the lawsuit, which aims to block T-Mobile from collecting a $200 early termination fee from users. Also on the table: an order for T-Mobile to disclose the types of phone-locking technology that may be in use on customer’s phones. The ramifications if the lawsuit is successful would be to allow phone users in California to unlock their phones, and might lead to further lawsuits nationwide.”

Here is the link to the page:

Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon RC

Wow Thank you Microsoft! (article from http://slashdot.org )

Linux: How Microsoft Inadvertantly Helps To Fund FOSS

Posted by kdawson on Thursday October 11, @11:16AM
from the i-has-ur-monies-kthxbye dept.

christian.einfeldt writes “The State of California sued Microsoft for anti-trust violations, and now the proceeds of the settlement of that case are being used to fund the acquisition of computers for any school district in California. The terms of the settlement allow every school district in California to be reimbursed a set dollar amount for the purchase of computers with the software of their choice. Microsoft probably anticipated that school districts would mainly use the settlement to buy more Microsoft products, with a few Apple purchases sprinkled in here and there. But now that Free Open Source Software is being commercialized by hardware vendors such as Dell, System76, EmperorLinux, Zareason.com, and TechCollective.com, acquiring computers powered by FOSS is straightforward. I’m a volunteer sysadmin at a northern California public charter school and in my Slashdot journal I detail the step-by-step process for using Microsoft’s money to pay for the Linux purchases of your school’s choice.” And then there’s the Ubuntu team in Belgium that is raising funds by auctioning off a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate that a Microsoft rep gave them at a trade show. So far the bidding is up to 101.76 Euros, about $144.

Yah this is great.

Wow a Pluto Probe made a discovery at jupiter? article from slashdot.org:

Pluto Probe Makes Discoveries at Jupiter

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday October 10, @09:18AM
from the only-wears-red-spot-on-special-occasions dept.

Riding with Robots writes “No, it’s not an accident due to a metric-to-English-units error. In February, the New Horizons probe passed through the Jupiter system on its way to Pluto, and we saw some spectacular pictures. Now, the science teams have published detailed scientific results, along with new images and movies. The probe’s instruments saw clouds form from ammonia welling up from Jupiter’s lower atmosphere, and heat-induced lighting strikes in the polar regions, and fresh eruptions on the volcanic moon Io. New Horizons also captured the clearest images ever of the tenuous Jovian ring system, where scientists spotted clumps of debris that may indicate a recent impact inside the rings, or some more exotic phenomenon.” I bet Neil DeGrasse Tyson will be on 7 Discovery channel specials talking about these new discoveries inside of the week. Hope he’s nicer than he was to poor Pluto

I hope that these weren’t photoshopped.

Oh no! Just in from PCworld: Microsoft blogger accidentally leaks Office Mobile upgrade. Here is some of the article:

A Microsoft Corp. employee on Thursday accidentally blogged about an upgrade to Office Mobile that shouldn’t be available for another couple of weeks.

The upgrade, when it becomes available, should solve an incompatibility issue that left Windows Mobile 6.0 users unable to read Office 2007 file formats.

Oh thats not good that there was an office 2007 incompatibility. Lets read on:

  Jason Langridge, who works in Microsoft’s Windows Mobile group in the U.K., wrote that Office Mobile 6.1 was available and he included a link to the download page. But a representative with Microsoft’s external public relations firm said that the upgrade was put up on the site initially for internal testing and was accidentally made available to the public.

The new version of Office Mobile is expected to become available very soon, probably within the next two weeks, he said.

Langridge has not yet removed the post from his blog.

Well hopefully what the post on his blog says is true.

For the Full article go here