Prometheus 6

Sorry, y'all may not care about this but I do, and it's Independence Day, right?

How to beat AVG's fake traffic spew
A header to save the internet
By Cade Metz in San Francisco
Published Wednesday 2nd July 2008 05:20 GMT

Bundled with AVG's newest anti-virus engine, AVG 8, and used by roughly 20 million people worldwide, LinkScanner checks search engine results for malware before you on click them. If you type a keyword into Google, for instance, it automatically visits each address that appears on Google's results page.

This has caused an enormous spike in traffic on sites across the web, including The Register, and many webmasters may not realize where these hits are coming from. Hoping to fool malware writers, LinkScanner mimics real live human clicks. At least in part.

When scanning pages, LinkScanner employs the IP addresses of those 20 million people who use the product, and as of last week, it sends the same user agent as Microsoft's IE6 browser.

At the moment, there is a way of filtering AVG traffic from log files. But it's unclear whether this method would bag legitimate traffic as well. And Thompson suggests that - in the name of high security - AVG may make changes that prevent such filtering.

That could destroy web analytics as we know it.

"A situation like this where there is in effect false traffic, where something is generating what is bogus data, leads to wrong budget decisions and marketing activities," says Barry Parshall, director of product management at WebTrends, a popular web analytics firm. "I completely get the value proposition [of LinkScanner], but it would be responsible of them to identify themselves, with agent code or whatever it might be, so legitimate businesses can serve their customers properly."

AVG scanner blasts internet with fake traffic
By Cade Metz in San Francisco
Published Friday 13th June 2008 20:05 GMT

Exclusive Early last month, webmasters here at The Reg noticed an unexpected spike in our site traffic. Suddenly, we had far more readers than ever before, and they were reading at a record clip. Visits actually doubled on certain landing pages, and more than a few ho-hum stories attracted an audience worthy of a Pulitzer Prize winner. Or so it seemed.

As it turns out, much of this traffic was driven by the new malware scanner from AVG Technologies.

No Google source code for Viacom, just 12TB of YouTube data
By Nate Anderson | Published: July 03, 2008 - 01:15PM CT

As part of the discovery process in its $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube, Viacom asked for an astonishing array of information: the source code for the search functions that power Google and YouTube, the source code for YouTube's new "Video ID" program, a complete set of every video ever removed from the site, databases containing information on every video ever hosted at YouTube, and a copy of every private video. The judge has now ruled, saying no, no, yes, yes, and no. Even with the limited discovery, some poor drone at YouTube can now look forward to weeks of copying information onto Viacom-provided hard drives. ...

Keepping the "no"s, the "yes"s are:

The order also requires Google to turn over copies of all videos that it has taken down for any reason.

Viacom also requested YouTube's source code, the code for identifying repeat copyright infringement uploads, copies of all videos marked private, and Google's advertising database schema.

Judge Orders YouTube to Give All User Histories to Viacom
By Ryan Singel
July 02, 2008 | 7:16:54 PM

Google will have to turn over every record of every video watched byYouTube users, including  users' names and IP addresses, to Viacom, which is suing Google for allowing clips of its copyright videos to appear on YouTube, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Viacom wants the data to prove that infringing material is more popular than user-created videos, which could be used to increase Google's liability if it is found guilty of contributory infringement.

The nature of the fold in a molecule determines its shape and function, he explained. Natural catalysts reconfigure themselves over and over again in response to different chemical cues -- as enzymes do in the body, for example....

"It's not uncommon to have to synthesize dozens of different catalysts before you get the shape you're looking for," Parquette said. "Probably the most important contribution this research makes is that it might give scientists a quick and easy way to get the catalyst that they want."

Synthetic molecules emulate enzyme behavior for the first time
Published: Wednesday, July 2, 2008 - 10:57

When chemists want to produce a lot of a substance -- such as a newly designed drug -- they often turn to catalysts, molecules that speed chemical reactions. Many jobs require highly specialized catalysts, and finding one in just the right shape to connect with certain molecules can be difficult. Natural catalysts, such as enzymes in the human body that help us digest food, get around this problem by shape-shifting to suit the task at hand. Chemists have made little progress in getting synthetic molecules to mimic this shape shifting behavior -- until now.

The study can be viewed at http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0060159. 

New map IDs the core of the human brain (7/2/2008)

An international team of researchers has created the first complete high-resolution map of how millions of neural fibers in the human cerebral cortex -- the outer layer of the brain responsible for higher level thinking -- connect and communicate. Their groundbreaking work identified a single network core, or hub, that may be key to the workings of both hemispheres of the brain.

A bunch of specifically anti-Obama bloggers were blocked from their sites by Blogger the other day. Google's explanation is right along the lines I guessed at.

“It appears that our anti-spam filters caused some Blogger accounts to be blocked from creating new posts,” a Google spokesman, Adam Kovacevich, said in a statement. “While we are still investigating, we believe this may have been caused by mass spam e-mails mentioning the ‘Just Say No Deal’ network of blogs, which in turn caused our system to classify the blog addresses mentioned in the e-mails as spam. We have restored posting rights to the affected blogs, and it is very important to us that Blogger remain a tool for political debate and free expression.” 

In a way this reminds me of the absolutely hysterical case of Tyson Homosexual.

That, or they're deputizing them all, and are going to search every machine for evidence of terrorist activity or facilitating undocumented immigration.

New Computer Repair Law Affects Both Company Owners and Consumers
Every repair technician in Texas must have private investigator's license
Licenses are obtained with criminal justice degree or 3 year apprenticeship
Violators can face up to a 4K fine and 1 year in jail
by Pelpina Trip

KDAF33 News at Nine Intern

June 26, 2008

A new Texas law requires every computer repair technician to obtain a private investigator's license. Violators can face a $4,000 fine and one year in jail, as well as a $10,000 civil penalty.

Unlicensed computer shops will have to close down until they obtain a private investigator's license.

A private investigator's license can be obtained by acquiring a criminal justice degree or by getting a three-year apprenticeship under a licensed private investigator.

UK gives third hybrid embryo ok
Posted by Megan Scudellari

British biologists have received government approval to create the world's first human stem cells from hybrid embryos, part pig, part human.

The Warwick Medical School team, led by Justin St. John of the Clinical Sciences Research Institute, was granted the country's third animal-human embryo license from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which goes into effect today (July 1).

The team plans to use a new technique that, if it works, could provide a well of human embryonic stem cells without the use of human embryos. They will fuse human adult skin cells into empty pig eggs, resulting in embryos with mostly human DNA and some pig mitochondrial DNA. Then, stem cells taken from the embryos will be chemically treated to destroy the pig DNA, which could impair cell function when interacting with human mitochondrial DNA.

Check this.

You want to download the video game?

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) presents Immune Attack™, an educational video game that introduces basic concepts of human immunology to high school and entry-level college students. Designed as a supplemental learning tool, Immune Attack aims to excite students about the subject, while also illuminating general principles and detailed concepts of immunology.

To learn more about the game visit the Teacher Guide, Game Guide and System Requirements.

Remember this ?

Well, add this 3-D, no goggles, everyone in the room sees it display to the mix.

.confusion: ICANN opens up Pandora's Box of new TLDs
By Jacqui Cheng | Published: June 26, 2008 - 12:11PM CT

By next spring, businesses and other organizations will be able to apply for any top-level domain they can possibly think of, like arstechnica.awesome or google.thegoogle. Joking aside, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted today in Paris on a measure that significantly expands the scope of generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), allowing organizations to apply for almost any domain suffix they can dream up.

Unfortunately, high-speed communications and bold initiative do not always go hand in hand. With such an abundance of information available simultaneously at all levels, micromanagement can creep unnoticed into the chain of command and pull it apart.

IT vs. initiative: The Internet age comes to the battlefield
Tyler Boudreau
06.25.2008

On a late summer night of 2004 in al Anbar province, Iraq, just south of Abu Ghraib, an observation post (OP) of four Marines was shot at briefly from the shadows. The Marines made out two silhouettes in the distance, returned fire, and pursued them into the darkness. One of the Marines said to the others as they searched the area, "I think I got one!" But no sign of them was found. Moments later, in a small tent several miles away, I read their report on my computer delivered by email.

Internet Provider Halts Plan to Track, Sell Users' Surfing Data
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 25, 2008; D01

Charter Communications, the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States, announced yesterday that it has backed off a plan to monitor customers' Internet transmissions.

The company had been planning to harvest the stream of data from each Internet customer for clues to their interests and then make money from advertisers who would use the information to target online pitches.

The data-collection effort would have protected personal information, Charter officials said in describing the plan, but critics likened the practice to wiretapping.

Murdoch fumes as Facebook overtakes MySpace
8:25AM, Monday 23rd June 2008

Facebook has overtaken rival social network MySpace for the first time - provoking an angry outburst from the man who paid $580m for MySpace only three years ago.

Facebook had 123m unique visitors in May, an increase of 162% on May 2007, according to the latest Comscore figures.

By contrast, MySpace drew 114.6m uniques, with visitors growing by only 5% since May 2007.

It's the first time Facebook has managed a significant lead over its chief rival, after the pair were almost level-pegging in Comscore's April figures.

The news hasn't gone down well with News Corp boss, Rupert Murdoch, whose company bought MySpace back in 2005. He claims Facebook has "done a great job of being flavour of the month the last six months of last year," but that Facebook isn't a real social network, claiming the site is "just a directory".

P6 will go into maintanance mode tonight for a hour or so, probably around midnight EST but things happen so it might be earlier.

Citibank Hack Blamed for Alleged ATM Crime Spree
By Kevin Poulsen
June 18, 2008 | 7:08:08 PM

A computer intrusion into a Citibank server that processes ATM withdrawals led to two Brooklyn men making hundreds of fraudulent withdrawals from New York City cash machines in February, pocketing at least $750,000 in cash, according to federal prosecutors.

The ATM crime spree is apparently the first to be publicly linked to the breach of a major U.S. bank's systems, experts say.

"We've never heard of PINs coming out of the bank environment," says Dan Clements, CEO of the fraud watchdog company CardCops, who monitors crime forums for stolen information.

Credit card and ATM PIN numbers show up often enough in underground trading, but they're invariably linked to social engineering tricks like phishing attacks, "shoulder surfing" and fake PIN pads affixed to gas station pay-at-the-pump terminals.

MPAA Says No Proof Needed in P2P Copyright Infringement Lawsuits
By David Kravets
June 20, 2008 | 3:24:09 PM

The Motion Picture Association of America said  Friday intellectual-property holders should have the right to collect damages, perhaps as much as $150,000 per copyright violation, without having to prove infringement.

"Mandating such proof could thus have the pernicious effect of depriving copyright owners of a practical remedy against massive copyright infringement in many instances," MPAA attorney Marie L. van Uitert wrote Friday to the federal judge overseeing the Jammie Thomas trial.

Just build the damn network we were promised as part of telecom deregulationlo, these many years ago. After all, we customers have already paid for it.

ISPs experimenting with new P2P controls
P2P traffic management methods debated at big NXTComm telecom show
By Brad Reed , Network World , 06/19/2008

Peer-to-peer traffic management was a hot topic at this year's NXTcomm convention in Las Vegas, as keynote speakers and telecom industry panelists highlighted new methods for handling P2P traffic crunches.

ISPs' methods for managing P2P traffic have come under intense scrutiny in recent months after the Associated Press reported last year that Comcast was actively interfering with P2P users' ability to upload files by sending TCP RST packets that informed them that their connection would have to be reset. Because the RST packets did not appear to be sent directly from the company, critics accused Comcast of deceiving its customers and actively blocking their ability to share files online. Although Comcast has said it doesn't actively block any P2P protocols and merely "delays" P2P uploads during times of heavy congestion, the company has agreed to change its P2P traffic management policies and stop targeting traffic such as that of BitTorrent.

And just ignore the socket at the base of your skull.

"The idea of this project is to build a visual device that is attentive, that can do the kind of low-level visual processing that your eyes do naturally," Hasler said in an e-mail to The Baltimore Daily Record. "You would see a certain picture in your field of view, but the device would actually be looking over a much wider space — and if it found something interesting it would present you with that picture as well."

"You need to present the soldier with many images and then use the person's brain to figure out what is of interest," said Sensics CEO Yuval Boger.

Northrop Grumman to Develop Brain-Wave Binoculars
Friday , June 20, 2008

The prototype has six joints in its arms and neck so it can point the way and make gestures while giving you directions and screaming things like "Watch out!" Pat it on the head and it'll tell you where you are. It's even got optical sensors to remind you that it's dark and you should turn on your headlights.

Robotic Navi-Bear as Annoying as It Is Cute
By Doug Newcomb
June 18, 2008 | 7:00:00 AM

In-car navigation systems with nagging voices  have officially gone too far. IXs Research has developed a talking robotic teddy bear that not only gives you directions, it'll tell you when you've had too much to drink.

The prototype navi-bear features an alcohol-detection sensor embedded in its neck. If it catches a whiff of the one you had for the road, it'll ask, "You haven't been drinking, have you?" Accelerate too hard or brake too quickly and it yells, "Watch out!"

That would be enough to warrant tossing navi-bear straight out the window, but it's got one thing going for it -- not only does it tell you how to get where you're going, it points the way.

CamSpace Creates a Wii For Everyone (Minus the Nintendo Console)
Roi Carthy

It’s a Wii without the $250 console. It’s virtual Pong and so much more. Any object is now an input device, even your fingers. Bang, bang! But there’s no better way to introduce you to CamSpace than by letting you watch the demo video below:

CamTrax’s core technology is a pure software solution that allows nearly any ordinary PC webcam (95% are supported) to track up to four objects—even as small as 5mm—in real-time and with very high accuracy and reliability. (It works only on Windows). Locking and tracking (X, Y, and Z axes and angle) are all automatic. Yaron Tanne, founder & CEO of CamTrax Technologies, the company behind CamSpace, has been developing the technology practically single-handedly for three years in his apartment in Tel-Aviv.

As far as I can see there is no useful information you can gather by looking at your software project this way. It's just so damn cool.

code_swarm
An experiment in organic software visualization.

I've been studying software projects for a while now. Not the programming, but the people -- the way they interact with each other through collaboration and communication. My investigations have always been visual: I've built applications that create pictures of what is happening within software projects. But they have always had a rigid structure to them. Organic information visualization, coined by Ben Fry, is a different approach to information visualization. It eschews traditional data confinement in space and lets the elements play together in freeform and unpredictable ways.