] MANCHESTER, New Hampshire -- A security flaw at a website
] operated by the purveyors of penis-enlargement pills has
] provided the world with a depressing answer to the
] question: Who in their right mind would buy something
] from a spammer?

Wired News: Swollen Orders Show Spam's Allure

] A widely publicized project to transform a man-made
] platform off the coast of England into a haven for
] controversial Web businesses has failed due to political,
] technical and management problems, one of the project's
] founders said.

Has 'haven' for questionable sites sunk? | CNET News.com

] jim nieken^H^H^H^H^H^Htantalo, our fearless leader, doesn't
] want to put forth the effort to throw the [Rubi]con anymore.

] however, he also apparently considers the con his fanatical pet
] project, and won't pass off leadership to any other competent
] interested parties. funny, being that rubicon is the only con
] in the last few years whose figurehead has absolutely _no_
] tenure or acumen with the tech-security/underground community.

] jim's facetious little fairytale about the imaginary litigious
] feud between vegas/seattle and detroit is completely unwarranted,
] not to mention somewhat immature. there would have been numerous
] better ways to handle this.

Well we all knew this was coming.

Rubi-Con Hoax

bucy wrote:
] ]
] ] Novell said Wednesday that NetWare 6.5 will include
] ] features for business continuity, open source, Web
] ] application services and "virtual office" capabilities to
] ] reduce network costs and complexity while giving users
] ] around-the-clock access.
]
] I guess I knew that they hadn't folded but I didn't realize
] that they were still doing active development. Up until NT4
] or so, Netware was king ... who uses it now?
]
] And it still seems to be their same, old, expensive licensing
] scheme...

I enjoying bursting this type of bubble. Since the release of Netware 6, Novell has changed to a new licensing scheme that is far far better than their old one. Their previous scheme is what Microsoft currently uses. Each user must have a license for each server, so if you have 200 users and three servers you will have to have 600 licenses to function. Novell now uses 1 license per connection no matter how many servers. So using the same model we would only need 200 licenses.

I actually got to see the virtual office product in action this past weekend. Many people will see it like the online class system inside of the Blackboard web application. It holds a forum for the members of the virtual team, a java chat application similar to IRC, access to your email, a shared calendar and shared bookmarks.

Also they have revamped a product called "Branch Office" server. It uses rsync and a few other open source utilities to maintain a remote office server. Holding a copy of the files on the remote server on the main network server. There is a good deal more information on the Novell web site.

RE: Internet Week : NetWare : Novell Preps NetWare For Linux Future : July 24, 2003

] Josh Pfluger and his scouting pals went into his Rockford
] garage and hammered out a shoe-scanning device now in
] daily use at O'Hare International Airport. His goal at
] the time was simply to polish off his Eagle Scout
] requirements.
]
] Looks like the project passed muster.
]
] Pfluger's homemade invention %u2014 a box with a metal
] detector that travelers step onto before they reach the
] security gate %u2014 are an optional, preliminary step to
] let passengers know whether their shoes will trigger
] alarms at the gate.
]
] That can speed up lines by tipping passengers off they
] may need to remove their shoes and send them through
] X-ray machines %u2014 and maybe even encourage people to
] leave footwear with metal eyelets behind on future trips.
]
] "It's obviously not a certified machine, but it does
] initially help in the screening process," said Monique
] Bond, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Aviation at
] O'Hare. "It's a unique idea ... giving the Boy Scouts an
] opportunity to demonstrate their merit."

Teenager's Eagle Scout project used to ease waits at O'Hare airport security

] "AOL is divesting itself of something that was a bad
] decision in the first place. They found that the time,
] effort and money required to develop their own browser
] was just insurmountable in a world where the vast
] majority of Internet users use Internet Explorer," Smiley
] said.

I really hate to see this. I have been a netscape user since version 1. I guess I will have to start using Mozilla straight from the community from now on.

InfoWorld: AOL layoffs take Netscape browser to deathbed: July 16, 2003: By : Application Development

] British scientists are lobbying to build the world's most
] powerful microscope, an instrument so advanced that it
] can see individual atoms moving.
]
] The European Spallation Source (ESS) -- a type of
] instrument known as a matterscope -- would allow them to
] look at the growth of protein molecules in living human
] tissue or at the stresses deep within the wheel of a
] train or the wing of an aircraft.
]
] "This is on par with the Hubble telescope, but it's for
] looking at inner space," said Professor Bob Cywinski of
] Leeds University, which is backing the one billion pound
] (US $1.6 billion) project.
]
] A disused World War Two airfield in North Yorkshire has
] been earmarked for the matterscope's kilometer-long
] concrete tunnel and neutron research laboratories.
]
] "To look at it, you'd just see a mound of grass growing
] over the top and sheep wandering around," said Cywinski.

Big science! w00t!

Kilometer-long microscope in the works

] Samsung is trying to bridge the gap with the first DVD
] player aimed specifically at HDTV owners. According to
] the company, the $299 player optimizes standard DVD video
] performance to make better use of the capabilities of new
] high-definition displays. In short, it brings DVD video
] closer to high-definition clarity.
]
] Ordinary DVD players and all basic TV sets
] use what's called standard definition video, which splits
] the image into 480 horizontal lines. The Samsung is the
] first DVD player to use a smart digital imaging chip to
] fine-tune the image and to "upconvert" the video to 720
] or 1,080 lines, both of which are considered
] high-definition. It's a technological cheat, though,
] because the chip is adding resolution that doesn't exist
] on the disc.
SNIP
] But how does the Samsung stack up to full high-definition
] TV? I compared a DVD copy of Star Wars, Episode II:
] Attack of the Clones with an HBO HD broadcast, and the
] player performed admirably.
]
] Make no mistake, the HD broadcast was superior. In
] Amidala's and Anakin's sappy frolic in the field, I could
] make out individual weed stalks in the foreground that
] were lost in the DVD video. But the DVD player held its
] own, and, to many eyes, would appear close enough to HDTV
] to make it worthwhile.
]
] Of course, a new format for true high-definition DVD
] discs will arrive eventually. But today's DVDs are likely
] to remain the format of choice for years to come. This
] player and its successors will help you get
] the most out of them.

This is VERY good news for us video philes. I was afraid that todays DVDs; a format facing obsolesence thats less than 10 years old ("What do you mean I have to purchase all new copies of my DVD's?") would be the biggest hurdle in getting consumers to adopt the new Hi-Def format. To see just how bad of a "problem" this would have been, go into an appliance store and view a HD program next to an NTSC (current television format). Those 480 lines of resolution your brain has been "filling in" all these years, suddenly become apparent, don't they? While pixel interpolation like this is, as he says, no substitute for true high definition media, this should bridge the gap until the old DVD's are phased out.

Laughing Boy

Higher-definition DVD player: A resolutionary idea

Elonka wrote:
] ] Welcome to N2H2's URL Checker. This web-based tool will
] ] allow you to easily identify how a specific Web site is
] ] categorized within N2H2's Internet Categorization
] ] Database.
]
] Evidently my personal site, http://elonka.com , has somehow
] gotten into the filter databases as a site which contains
] nudity (which it doesn't). So, for example, anyone trying to
] access my site from the Tennessee School System is blocked and
] told that elonka.com is a pornographic site!
]
] I have no idea how my site got on the list, and I didn't find
] out about it until a couple people contacted me and told me
] about the block. If you're interested in checking your own
] domain, here's a database where you can type in the URL to see
] how it's listed.

I got a screenshot of the warm fuzzy elonka is neked message.
http://gallery.wilpig.org/screenshots/elonka

RE: N2H2 Filtering Categories Database

Elonka wrote:
] ] On each level you will be presented a form asking you to
] ] authenticate. You do not know the user and the password,
] ] the goal is to bypass the authentication mechanism.
]
] The goal of the game is to bypass all 10 levels of Web
] Authentication security. From the stats page, over 20,000
] people have tried it since May 2002, with about 750 getting
] through all the levels.

Nifty!

RE: Security Technologies Game