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Tuesday, August 06, 2002

Cornell, Dell, Intel and Microsoft in Pact. SEATTLE (Reuters) - Cornell University's research center for advanced computing said on Monday it will get $60 million to develop supercomputers using technology from Dell Computer Corp. (DELL.O), Intel Corp. (INTC.O) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O). By Reuters. [New York Times: Technology]
5:55:45 PM

Microsoft Promises More Disclosures.

icrosoft will disclose more technical information than it ever has before about its Windows operating system to comply with the proposed antitrust settlement it reached last fall with the Justice Department, the company said yesterday.

The move comes as a federal district judge is determining whether the agreement is far-reaching enough to account for the damage done by Microsoft's repeated violation of antitrust laws, and to ensure that the company does not repeat its behavior.

[New York Times: Technology]

5:55:05 PM

Who Needs Paper? Not Iowa College - Wired -"Students at an Iowa college can forget the quintessential experience of pulling all-nighters at the library poring over stacks of books.

For one thing, there's no library. For another, there are no books. "

5:54:01 PM

College Seeks Security in Thumbs - Wired - "It's down with passwords and up with thumbs for a school in Iowa trying to keep its data safe.

While the plan to use thumbprint scanners by the West Des Moines campus of the Des Moines Area Community College might sound like Big Brother to some, students seem unfazed by the idea. Even students at the University of California at Berkeley, with its reputation for protest, shrugged at the thought of logging into a school computer with their thumb.

Of course, it's not happening on their campus.

Problems with students and staff forgetting their passwords and general security concerns prompted officials at the Iowa college to implement computer mice with thumbprint scanners. "

5:52:57 PM

A legal hack? Only in America - Tech News - CNET.com - "Could record and music executives who take advantage of the hacking provisions of a proposed U.S. bill face stiff penalties if they travel to countries that outlaw computer break-ins? Possibly.

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., has pushed a measure that would allow intellectual property owners to use technical measures to prevent copyright infringement. These measures include spoofing--the seeding of file-swapping networks with false versions of songs--and hacking into sharing systems. "

5:46:37 PM

Shattering Windows

Shattering Windows
Posted by timothy on Tuesday August 06, @03:54PM
from the fundamentalism dept.
ChrisPaget writes: "I've just released a paper documenting and exploiting fundamental flaws in the Win32 API. Essentially, they allow you to take control of any window on your desktop, regardless of whether that window is running as you, localsystem, or anywhere in between. The technique has been discussed before, but AFAIK this is the first working exploit. Oh, did I mention it's unfixable?" You may want to read this CNET interview with Microsoft security head Scott Charney to learn even more about "trustworthy computing."

[Slashdot]

5:43:09 PM