Volume 12, Issue 20        Atari Online News, Etc.       May 14, 2010   
                                                                           
                                                                              
                  Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2010
                            All Rights Reserved

                          Atari Online News, Etc.
                           A-ONE Online Magazine
                Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
                      Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
                       Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor


                       Atari Online News, Etc. Staff

                        Dana P. Jacobson  --  Editor
                   Joe Mirando  --  "People Are Talking"
                Michael Burkley  --  "Unabashed Atariophile"
                   Albert Dayes  --  "CC: Classic Chips"
                         Rob Mahlert  --  Web site
                Thomas J. Andrews  --  "Keeper of the Flame"


                           With Contributions by:

                                Fred Horvat



      To subscribe to A-ONE, change e-mail addresses, or unsubscribe,
                log on to our website at: www.atarinews.org
                       and click on "Subscriptions".
      OR subscribe to A-ONE by sending a message to: dpj@atarinews.org
          and your address will be added to the distribution list.
      To unsubscribe from A-ONE, send the following: Unsubscribe A-ONE
    Please make sure that you include the same address that you used to
                              subscribe from.

        To download A-ONE, set your browser bookmarks to one of the
                              following sites:

                http://people.delphiforums.com/dpj/a-one.htm
                               Now available:
                          http://www.atarinews.org


                 Visit the Atari Advantage Forum on Delphi!
                   http://forums.delphiforums.com/atari/



                                  =~=~=~=



A-ONE #1220                                                 05/14/10

   ~ Big Plans for Firefox 4 ~ People Are Talking!    ~ Facebook New Security!
   ~ Web Addresses Run Low!  ~ Cut Class Via Facebook ~ Valve Releases Steam!
   ~ Four Nerds vs Facebook! ~ MS Launches New Office ~ Passwords, Be Careful!
   ~ Fastest Broadband? Who? ~ 'Pixels' & Big Screen? ~ Get Stranded Offline?

                  -*  Obama Bemoans "Diversions"  *-
               -* New Attack Bypasses AV Protection!  *-
           -* U.S. Struggles with Evolving Cyber Threat! *-



                                  =~=~=~=



->From the Editor's Keyboard              "Saying it like it is!"
  """"""""""""""""""""""""""



Another one of those long weeks, for numerous reasons.  I had some more
tests and doctor visits this week, and so far, things are not as bad as
they could have been as far as my health is concerned.  It seems that I
did not suffer a minor heart attack, as a radiological exam showed no
damage to my heart.  Earlier blood tests had a few significant abnormal
results, which can indicate heart attacks, but the echo cardiogram showed
otherwise.  My blood pressure is still high, so I'll have to be on some
medication, and it was highly suggested that I change some dietary and
other habits.  That will take some work, but I guess it's something that
I'll have to try to endure.  And, more tests coming up to keep checking
out what's going on, and what might have happened to me a couple of weeks
ago.  Not fun, but I guess that's just a fact of life when we get older.

So, all of that stuff took care of a lot of my "spare" time this week.
Hopefully my time will be a little better manageable in the coming weeks
because I'll be reducing my hours at one job, and returning for some part
time hours at the golf course.  I'll have to see how this goes, and I hope
that I'll be able to manage both jobs and be less physically challenged
for the summer.  At least I'll be outside, enjoying some nice New England
weather for awhile!  And maybe, I'll get a chance to actually get in a
round of golf once in awhile!

So, while I start to work on getting myself back on track medically,
let's get back on track a little bit with another issue of A-ONE!

Until next time...



                                  =~=~=~=



                             PEOPLE ARE TALKING
                          compiled by Joe Mirando
                             joe@atarinews.org



Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Well, another week has come and gone and
again there aren't enough messages on the UseNet to put in a column. As a
matter of fact, the 'best' thread is about Nolan Bushnell joining "the new
Atari", cheese and french fries. Not stellar column fodder.

Our friend Fred Horvat emailed me about last week's column where I talked
about everything in 'gopherspace' being available in one large archive
file, telling me that OmniWeb, a browser for Apple's OS X, adding support
for Gopher. Sounds like something that Atari would be doing if they were
still in the computer market, don't it?

Yeah, I thought so.

Well, since there really isn't anything Atari-related going on, I want to
talk about this "Times Square Bomber" guy.

Am I the only one left scratching my head over this guy? I mean, even the
law of averages would seem to dictate that he'd be right at least a
LITTLE. But he made the absolute wrong decision each time. Let's break it
down...

He BOUGHT a vehicle to use as a car bomb? He BOUGHT one? Like bombing a
busy Times Square and possibly killing dozens of people was acceptable but
STEALING a car was just plain wrong?? Ohhhhhh-kay.

He got three cylinders of the most explosive stuff he could get without
arousing suspicion (propane), but left the cylinders sealed in the back of
the SUV.

He had 2 five gallon containers of gasoline in the central part of the
car, but from what I can puzzle out, left them capped or at least had no
spillage in the car.. gotta be neat, ya know.

He used two alarm clocks as a timer? Two? I have no idea what the
advantage to this might be, but I'm guessing it was to try to keep this
master spy from accidentally blowing himself up. Probably the only good
call he made in the whole process.

He somehow used these timers to ignite a bunch of fire crackers in
something akin to a coffee can in hopes of igniting the gasoline. We
now know that this didn't work. Thankfully, the fire crackers just went
off and alerted a nearby street vendor that something was strange.

And from what I can gather, he also tried to make it a 'fertilizer bomb'
like the Oklahoma City bomb by having a sealed box of fertilizer in
proximity. Well, that'll make a nasty bomb alright... IF you have the right
kind of fertilizer mixed with something like diesel fuel or heating oil and
have something to ignite it. But this poor boob didn't do any of that
right. My understanding is that he had the wrong fertilizer (what he had
won't explode or burn or ignite no matter what), had it 'pristine'...
nothing added to it to make it a bomb... and had it sealed in a box so that
it was very unlikely that anything would go 'boom' regardless.

Now I've got no experience as a terrorist or bomber whatsoever, but I can
come up with at least half a dozen things that this guy could have done to
increase his chances of 'success'. Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly
grateful that he failed, but it boggles my mind that even an average
person... and this guy DID seem to be at least average... could make so
many mistakes. And he may not be an Einstein, but he didn't seem to be a
dribbling idiot either.

So once he set the plan in motion, he left the SUV running, the hazard
lights flashing, and activated his "bomb'. He walked away and headed for
his 'getaway car', but guess what, friends and neighbors, he left his keys
in the trunk lock of the SUV so he had to take the train home. Yeah, James
Bond had better watch his step... there's a new kid in town, and heeeee's
packin'.

I don't know. Maybe the guy just wanted to prove to his wife that he was a
tough guy... a freedom fighter... a manly man. Well, I don't know what the
Arab equivalent of Walter Mitty would be, but I think this guy comes
close. Maybe he wanted to make a splash. Maybe he wanted his wife to be
sorry she'd gone back home to Pakistan, maybe he wanted to make her proud
of him. Maybe he figured she'd be sorry when he was gone... if he'd
figured that he was going to be caught and either killed or incarcerated..
a 'martyr to the cause'.

Who knows? But none of this makes sense to me. I'm not saying that they guy
was a patsy, that he had nothing to do with it, or that he was led into it
by someone who wanted him to do as bad a job as possible, but things just
don't click, ya know? I mean, it's like a joke. "Did you hear the one
about the guy who said he wanted to plot to blow up Times Square so badly?
That's exactly how he plotted it... soooo badly."

I've also heard people make much of the fact that, once caught, he hasn't
stopped talking. Now, I don't know exactly what that means. It could mean
that he's telling authorities about every step he'd taken, or it could mean
that he's making up stories about actually being trained by the Taliban in
Pakistan when in fact he didn't "make the cut" in the first place. Or it
could be that he's giving the authorities actual names and places and
dates. There seems to be some hubbub about people sending him money to
finance things... although I fail to see how much money it would be.. 10
gallons of gasoline, 3 cylinders of propane, some garden fertilizer, some
commercial firecrackers and a used vehicle from Craigslist. Hardly high
finance, even if you factor in his living expenses.

I guess my problem is that I can't figure out how someone who isn't a
complete idiot could make so many bad decisions, make so many missteps... I
mean, even with no training, wouldn't you think that it would occur to
someone that an OPEN propane cylinder would be a better bet for explosion
than a closed one? That gasoline all over the inside of a vehicle would be
a better choice for starting a fire and/or explosion than gasoline neatly
sealed in two five gallon jugs? That's the kind of thing that mystifies me.

Well, just add it to the list, I guess. There are plenty of things that
mystify me these days. I'll tell you about some more of them next week if
you come back.

So let's meet up next week, same time, same station, and be ready to
listen to what they are saying when...


PEOPLE ARE TALKING



                                  =~=~=~=



->In This Week's Gaming Section  - Free Games Lure New Players!
  """""""""""""""""""""""""""""    10 Years Ago, Lynx Launches!
                                   'Pixels' to the Big Screen?
                                   


        
                                  =~=~=~=



->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News   -  The Latest Gaming News!
  """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""



    Gameworld: Free Games Lure New Players Including Women, Elderly


The video game industry has weathered the economic slowdown better than
most industries, but there could be a reason - free games with new figures
showing up to a third of gamers don't pay to play.

More people are getting into gaming through free titles like Zynga's
"Treasure Isle" played online through social networking sites like
Facebook, downloading free games like ngmoco's "Godfinger" on mobile
devices like iPhone and iPad, or sitting on a friend's couch to play
multiplayer maps with titles like Activision Blizzard's "Call of Duty:
Modern Warfare 2."

New research from video game tracking firm Newzoo found every existing
video game platform from mobile to console has an audience of at least
30 percent of non-paying players.

"The shift toward online business models servicing a broader range of
target groups started before the recession and has resulted in continued
growth through the rough economic times in terms of revenues," said
Peter Warman, managing director and founder of Newzoo.

"The platforms offering free-to play-gaming options like massively
multiplayer online (MMO) games, mobile games and casual game portals
lare successfully converting players to payers."

PopCap.com, a leading game maker in the $3 billion casual games industry,
offers free versions of its games like "Bejeweled Blitz" on Facebook, as
well as its own site.

"Our belief is that by allowing customers to experience our games for
free it's a good way to guarantee customer satisfaction, as they have
been able to play the game pre-purchase with the promise of lots more
fun to come," said Paul Breslin, general manager, Popcap.com.

The "Newzoo Games Market Report" said one-third of the $25.3 billion
that U.S. gamers spent on video games in 2009 came from online revenues
(MMOs, game portals and mobile devices) and the digital distribution of
console and PC games.

The U.S. currently leads the world in online business revenues, but
Warman believes the EU and other territories will continue to grow
gaming revenue in this arena moving forward.

"These free options are definitely broadening the appeal of video games
among older and female demographics, and a lot of these consumers don't
actually consider themselves gamers at all," Michael Cai, vice president
of video game research, Interpret.

"Without casual gaming portals like Pogo, Real Networks, and Big Fish
Games, many older female gamers would have never paid for gaming content."

Interpret discovered that 21 percent of the U.S. population, or over
46.1 million Americans, play social network games. Over 11 million
Americans only play social network games. The median age for social
network gamers is 38.8, versus 30.9, which is the median age of console
gamers.

Cai found that 12 percent of these social network gamers plan on buying
a Wii, which would be their first game console.

More console game makers are offering consumers free play, including
downloadable game demos through Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade and Sony's
PlayStation Network Store. "Handing over free content to gamers can be
tremendously beneficial to developers and publishers, even if it comes
in the form of a short playable demo of a game that's not spectacular,"
said Patrick Shaw, features editor, GamePro Magazine.

"Often times a small taste of a game is all it takes to entice the
player to purchase the full game."



                                  =~=~=~=



->A-ONE Gaming Online       -       Online Users Growl & Purr!
  """""""""""""""""""
 


                  This Day in History: The Atari Lynx Launches


On this day in 1990, Atari announced the official launch of the Lynx, the
company's first and only portable console.

Though the console had been test marketed in "select retail outlets" going
back to the previous holiday season, May 7 is the day it officially became
available nationwide.

At the time, Atari was struggling to sell its 7800 console and, believe it
or not, was still marketing the Atari 2600, which was over 12 years old at
that point. Both were marketed as low-cost alternatives to the Nintendo
Entertainment System, but judging by the company's financial reports that
year, consumers weren't biting.

Atari's fiscal 1989 revenue of $1.5 million was less than half of the $3.3
million generated in fiscal 1988. The decline was specifically blamed on
the aged home consoles.

The Lynx, featuring the first full-color screen in any portable game
console, was meant to make Atari a home videogame superpower once more. Its
thunder was stolen by Nintendo's Game Boy which, despite its technically
inferior hardware, had more games and was in more stores that Christmas.

In the end, Atari managed to sell fewer than 500,000 Lynx consoles before
giving up in 1994. By comparison, Nintendo sold 118,700,000 Game Boys
during its lifetime, or 237 for every one Lynx.

The original press release announcing the Lynx's national launch is
reproduced below.

    ATARI LINKS UP NATION WITH HANDHELD LYNX VIDEO GAME SYSTEM

    SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 7 /PRNewswire/ - Atari has announced the
    national availability of Lynx, the world's first color handheld
    video entertainment system, previously sold only in select retail
    outlets.

    Slightly larger than a videocassette, the 1-pound Lynx took the home
    entertainment industry by storm last holiday season with its
    full-color,     high-definition graphics, fast action and four-channel
    sound effects that put the excitement of video arcade games in the
    palms of players' hands.

    Lynx is the first game of its kind that allows more than two players to
    compete simultaneously. Featuring ComLynx cables, Lynx can connect up
    to eight players, depending on the software.

    This spring, Atari makes another breakthrough with the introduction of
    a new game card for Lynx, entitled "Gauntlet the Third Encounter," the
    first-ever four-player game for a handheld video system. Similar to the
    popular arcade version, the multi- player adventure game is available in
    retail and department stores where Lynx is sold.

    Ideal for summer vacations and family road trips, the portable Lynx
    features a 3.5-inch color LCD screen with backlighting, which not only
    reduces eye strain, but also enables players to use Lynx anywhere - from
    outdoors to the back seat of a car at night.

    Priced at $179.99, every Lynx includes an AC adaptor, a ComLynx cable
    and "California Games," an action-packed game that lets players control
    the movement of a surfer, skateboarder, BMX rider and foot bag juggler.

    Other game titles available for Lynx include "Blue Lightning,"
    "Electrocop," "Gates of Zendocon" and "Chip's Challenge." Each game
    retails from $34.99 to $39.99.

    In addition, a Lynx carrying case and car cigarette lighter adaptor will
    be available by early June.

    Atari is a registered trademark and Lynx and ComLynx are trademarks of
    Atari Corp. Other products are trademarks of their manufacturers.



                   Adam Sandler Taking "Pixels" to Big Screen


"Pixels," the much-buzzed-about short film featuring 1980s video game
characters attacking New York City, is heading for the big-screen.

The French filmmaker behind "Pixels," Patrick Jean, has teamed up with
Adam Sandler's production banner Happy Madison to develop a big-screen
take. The team is in talks with Columbia, where Happy Madison has its
first-look deal, to set up the project at the studio.

The project is still in the early stages and no writer is on board, but
the plan is to make a "Ghostbusters"-style action comedy in which
characters come out of a video game to wreak havoc in the real world.

"Pixels," abetted by a thumbs-up from filmmaker Edgar Wright, became a
viral hit in April with its pixilated versions of Tetris, Space
Invaders, Frogger, Pac-Man and others invading NYC first, then the world.



                                  =~=~=~=



                           A-ONE's Headline News
                   The Latest in Computer Technology News
                       Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson



                 Obama Bemoans 'Diversions' of IPod, Xbox Era


US President Barack Obama lamented Sunday that in the iPad and Xbox era,
information had become a diversion that was imposing new strains on
democracy, in his latest critique of modern media.

Obama, who often chides journalists and cable news outlets for obsessing
with political horse race coverage rather than serious issues, told a
class of graduating university students that education was the key to
progress.

"You're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with
all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of
which don't always rank all that high on the truth meter," Obama said at
Hampton University, Virginia.

"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, - none of which I
know how to work - information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a
form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than
the means of emancipation," Obama said.

He bemoaned the fact that "some of the craziest claims can quickly claim
traction," in the clamor of certain blogs and talk radio outlets.

"All of this is not only putting new pressures on you, it is putting new
pressures on our country and on our democracy."

Obama, who uses the handful of Commencement addresses that he delivers
each year to meditate on societal developments broader than the minutiae
of everyday politics, warned the world was at a moment of "breathtaking
change."

"We can't stop these changes... but we can adapt to them," Obama said,
adding that US workers were in a battle with well-educated foreign workers.

"Education... can fortify you, as it did earlier generations, to meet
the tests of your own time," he said.

Hampton University is a historically black college, and Obama noted the
huge disparity in educational achievement between African Americans and
other racial groups in the United States and the world.

But he urged the graduates to take inspiration from the example of
Dorothy Height, a civil and women's rights icon who died, aged 98, last
month, who fought racial prejudice to secure a college education.

"A black woman, in 1929, refusing to be denied her dream of a college
education," Obama said, reprising Height's life story.

"Refusing to be denied her rights, refusing to be denied her dignity,
refusing to be denied... her piece of America's promise."

Obama argued that from the days of the pioneer politicians who founded
the United States, until the modern day, education and knowledge had
been the key to progress and US democracy.

He drew a line between Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the
Declaration of Independence, and today's challenges.

"What Jefferson recognized... that in the long run, their improbable
experiment - called America - wouldn't work if its citizens were
uninformed, if its citizens were apathetic, if its citizens checked out,
and left democracy to those who didn't have the best interests of all
the people at heart.

"It could only work if each of us stayed informed and engaged, if we
held our government accountable, if we fulfilled the obligations of
citizenship."



               White House: Obama Was Joking About iPod, iPad


This past Sunday, President Obama delivered a commencement speech to the
graduating class at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia; during
which he mentioned popular consumer electronics and their potential
effect on digital media.

The statement that caught our eye and others in the digital media was as
follows:

"And meanwhile, you're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that
bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of
arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter.
And with iPods and iPads; and Xboxes and PlayStations - none of which I
know how to work - (laughter) - information becomes a distraction, a
diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment,
rather than the means of emancipation. So all of this is not only
putting pressure on you; it's putting new pressure on our country and on
our democracy." (The full transcript can be found on whitehouse.gov,
while the video is available on YouTube.)

By themselves, the President's comments seem ambiguous and could hint
that he's interest in adding more government regulation to the Internet
which is currently being played out in Washington. The FCC is considering
re-classifying broadband Internet connections; a move that has not been
made without criticism.

Also, it leaves the door open to wonder if he truly didn't know how to
use those products; especially since President Obama has conveyed a
tech-savvy image which stemmed way back to the beginning of his campaign
for President. Some of the most buzz worthy stories include one from
2008 in which he shared his iPod playlist with Billboard Magazine and in
2009 he fought to become the first president to be permitted to carry a
BlackBerry. His tech-conscious image was a particularly stark contrast from
his 72-year-old opponent, John McCain, who admitted he was technically
inept by making comments like "I don't e-mail. I've never felt the
particular need to e-mail."

Our editor-in-chief, Lance Ulanoff, reached out to the White House for a
comment; they responded yesterday evening with the following:

"While the President joked that his level of tech savvy was wanting, his
point was that technology offers this generation limitless opportunities
and it is up to the individual if they will use these advancements
simply for entertainment or as tools of empowerment that, when combined
with their educations, will keep America at the forefront of
technological advancement in the 21st century," Moira Mack, a White
House spokesperson, said.

The comment was a bit too late. Many media outlets took Obama's original
comments and ran some of the following headlines, such as Fox News's
story: "Tech-Savvy Obama Now Says He Doesn't Know How to Use an iPod,"
and The New York Post's story, " iPad is iBad for democracy, Obama
tells graduates".

Not all stories focused on the President's tech inexperience; cable news
star Bill O'Reilly weighed in, stating, "President Obama and me both agree
that high-tech gizmos could hurt the country."



            U.S. Struggles To Ward Off Evolving Cyber Threat


The United States is losing enough data in cyber attacks to fill the
Library of Congress many times over, and authorities have failed to stay
ahead of the threat, a U.S. defense official said on Wednesday.

More than 100 foreign spy agencies were working to gain access to U.S.
computer systems, as were criminal organizations, said James Miller,
principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy.

Terrorist groups also had cyber attack capabilities.

"Our systems are probed thousands of times a day and scanned millions of
times a day," Miller told a forum sponsored by Ogilvy Washington, a
public relations company.

He said the evolving cyber threat had "outpaced our ability to defend
against it."

"We are experiencing damaging penetrations - damaging in the sense of
loss of information. And we don't fully understand our vulnerabilities,"
Miller said.

His comments came as the Obama administration develops a national
strategy to secure U.S. digital networks and the Pentagon stands up a
new military command for cyber warfare capable of both offensive and
defensive operations.

The Senate last week confirmed National Security Agency Director Keith
Alexander to lead the new U.S. Cyber Command, which will be located at
Ft. Meade, Maryland, the NSA's headquarters.

Miller suggested the new organization, which is expected to be fully
operational in October, had its work cut out for it.

Among its challenges are determining what within the spectrum of cyber
attacks could constitute an act of war.

Miller said the U.S. government also needed to bolster ties with private
industry, given potential vulnerabilities to critical U.S.
infrastructure, like power grids and financial markets.

Hackers have already penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and have stolen
intellectual property, corporate secrets and money, according to the
FBI's cybercrime unit. In one incident, a bank lost $10 million in cash
in a day.

"The scale of compromise, including the loss of sensitive and
unclassified data, is staggering," Miller said. "We're talking about
terabytes of data, equivalent to multiple libraries of Congress."

The Library of Congress is the world's largest library, archiving
millions of books, photographs, maps and recordings.

U.S. officials have previously said many attempts to penetrate its
networks appear to come from China.

Google announced in January that it, along with more than 20 other
companies, had suffered hacking attacks that were traced to China.
Google cited those attacks and censorship concerns in its decision to
move its Chinese-language search service from mainland China to Hong Kong.

Miller took an example from the Cold War playbook to explain how the
United States military would need to prepare for fallout from a cyber
attack, which could leave cities in the dark or disrupt communications.

In the 1980s, the Pentagon concluded that the military needed to prepare
to operate in an environment contaminated by the use of weapons of mass
destruction.

"We have a similar situation in this case. We need to plan to operate in
an environment in which our networks have been penetrated and there is
some degradation," he said.

One of the challenges Miller singled out was the development of enough
U.S. computer programmers in the future.

"In the next 20 to 30 years, other countries including China and India
will produce many more computer scientists than we will," he said. "We
need to figure out how to not only recognize these trends but take
advantage of them."



               New Attack Bypasses Virtually All AV Protection


Bait, switch, exploit!

Researchers say they've devised a way to bypass protections built in to
dozens of the most popular desktop anti-virus products, including those
offered by McAfee, Trend Micro, AVG, and BitDefender.

The method, developed by software security researchers at matousec.com,
works by exploiting the driver hooks the anti-virus programs bury deep
inside the Windows operating system. In essence, it works by sending them
a sample of benign code that passes their security checks and then, before
it's executed, swaps it out with a malicious payload.

The exploit has to be timed just right so the benign code isn't switched
too soon or too late. But for systems running on multicore processors,
matousec's "argument-switch" attack is fairly reliable because one
thread is often unable to keep track of other simultaneously running
threads. As a result, the vast majority of malware protection offered
for Windows PCs can be tricked into allowing malicious code that under
normal conditions would be blocked.

All that's required is that the AV software use SSDT, or System Service
Descriptor Table, hooks to modify parts of the OS kernel.

"We have performed tests with [most of] today's Windows desktop security
products," the researchers wrote. "The results can be summarized in one
sentence: If a product uses SSDT hooks or other kind of kernel mode
hooks on similar level to implement security features it is vulnerable.
In other words, 100% of the tested products were found vulnerable."

The researchers listed 34 products that they said were susceptible to
the attack, but the list was limited by the amount of time they had for
testing. "Otherwise, the list would be endless," they said.

The technique works even when Windows is running under an account with
limited privileges.

Still, the exploit has its limitations. It requires a large amount of
code to be loaded onto the targeted machine, making it impractical for
shellcode-based attacks or attacks that rely on speed and stealth. It
can also be carried out only when an attacker already has the ability to
run a binary on the targeted PC.

Still, the technique might be combined with an exploit of another piece
of software, say, a vulnerable version of Adobe Reader or Oracle's Java
Virtual Machine to install malware without arousing the suspicion of the
any AV software the victim was using.

"Realistic scenario: someone uses McAfee or another affected product to
secure their desktops," H D Moore, CSO and Chief Architect of the
Metasploit project, told /The Register/ in an instant message. "A
malware developer abuses this race condition to bypass the system call
hooks, allowing the malware to install itself and remove McAfee. In that
case, all of the 'protection' offered by the product is basically moot."

A user without administrative rights could also use the attack to kill
an installed and running AV, even though only admin accounts should be
able to do this, Charlie Miller, principal security analyst at Independent
Security Evaluators, said.



             How An Unfixed Net Glitch Could Strand You Offline


In 1998, a hacker told Congress that he could bring down the Internet in
30 minutes by exploiting a certain flaw that sometimes caused online
outages by misdirecting data. In 2003, the Bush administration concluded
that fixing this flaw was in the nation's "vital interest."

Fast forward to 2010, and very little has happened to improve the
situation. The flaw still causes outages every year. Although most of
the outages are innocent and fixed quickly, the problem still could be
exploited by a hacker to spy on data traffic or take down websites.
Meanwhile, our reliance on the Internet has only increased. The next
outage, accidental or malicious, could disrupt businesses, the
government or anyone who needs the Internet to run normally.

The outages are caused by the somewhat haphazard way that traffic is
passed between companies that carry Internet data. The outages are
called "hijackings," even though most of them are not caused by
criminals bent on destruction. Instead the outages are a problem borne
out of the open nature of the Internet, a quality that also has
stimulated the Net's dazzling growth.

"It's ugly when you look under the cover," says Earl Zmijewski, a
general manager at Renesys Corp., which tracks the performance of
Internet data routes. "It amazes me every day when I get into work and
find it's working."

When you send an e-mail, view a Web page or do anything else online, the
information you read and transmit is handed from one carrier of Internet
data to another, sometimes in a long chain. When you log into Facebook,
your data might be handed from your Internet service provider to a
company such as Level 3 Communications Inc., which operates a global
network of fiber-optic lines that carry Internet data across long
distances. It, in turn, might pass the data to a carrier that's
connected directly to Facebook's server computers.

The crux of the problem is that each carrier along the way figures out
how to route the data based only on what the surrounding carriers in the
chain say, rather than by looking at the whole path. It's as if a driver
had to get from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh without a map, navigating
solely by traffic signs he encountered along the way - but the signs
weren't put up by a central authority. If a sign pointed in the wrong
direction, that driver would get lost.

That's essentially what happens when an Internet route gets hijacked.
Because carriers pass information between themselves about where data
should go - and this system has no secure, automatic means of verifying
that the routing information is correct - data can be routed to some
carrier that isn't expecting the information. The carrier doesn't know
what to do with it, and usually just drops it. It falls into a "black
hole."

On April 25, 1997, millions of people in North America lost access to
all of the Internet for about an hour. The hijacking was caused by an
employee misprogramming a router, a computer that directs data traffic,
at a small Internet service provider.

A similar incident happened elsewhere the next year, and the one after
that. Routing errors also blocked Internet access in different parts of
the world, often for millions of people, in 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008
and 2009. Last month a Chinese Internet service provider halted access
from around the world to a vast number of sites, including Dell.com and
CNN.com, for about 20 minutes.

In 2008, Pakistan Telecom tried to comply with a government order to
prevent access to YouTube from the country and intentionally
"black-holed" requests for YouTube videos from Pakistani Internet users.
But it also accidentally told the international carrier upstream from it
that "I'm the best route to YouTube, so send all YouTube traffic to me."
The upstream carrier accepted the routing message, and passed it along
to other carriers across the world, which started sending all requests
for YouTube videos to Pakistan Telecom. Soon, even Internet users in the
U.S. were deprived of videos of singing cats and skateboarding dogs for
a few hours.

In 2004, the flaw was put to malicious use when someone got a computer
in Malaysia to tell Internet service providers that it was part of Yahoo
Inc. A flood of spam was sent out, appearing to come from Yahoo.

"Hijacking is very much like identity theft. Someone in the world claims
to be you," said Todd Underwood, who worked for Renesys during the
Pakistan Telecom hijacking. He now works for Google Inc., trying to
prevent hijacking of its websites, which include YouTube.

In 2003, the Bush administration's Critical Infrastructure Protection
Board assembled a "National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace" that
concluded that it was vital to fix the routing system and make sure the
"traffic signs" always point in the right direction.

But unlike Internet bugs that get discovered and fixed relatively
quickly, the routing system has been unreformed for more than a decade.
And while there's some progress being made, there's little industry-wide
momentum behind efforts to introduce a permanent remedy. Data carriers
regard the fallibility of the routing system as the price to be paid for
the Internet's open, flexible structure. The simplicity of the routing
system makes it easy for service providers to connect, a quality that
has probably helped the explosive growth of the Internet.

That growth has also increased the risks exponentially. Fifteen years
ago, maybe 8,000 people in the world had access to computers that use
the Border Gateway Protocol, or BGP, which defines how carriers pass
routing information to each other. Now, Danny McPherson, chief security
officer at Arbor Networks, believes that with the growth of Internet
access across the world and the attendant increase in the number of
carriers, that figure is probably closer to 1 million people.

Peiter Zatko, a member of the "hacker think tank" called the L0pht, told
Congress in 1998 that he could use the BGP vulnerability to bring down
the Internet in half an hour. In recent years, Zatko - who now works for
the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - has said the
exploit would still work. However, it would likely take a few hours
rather than 30 minutes, partly because a greater number of Internet
carriers would need to be hit.

Plenty of solutions have been proposed in the Internet engineering
community, going back as far as 1995. The U.S. government has supported
these efforts, spurred in part by the Bush administration's 2003
strategy statement. That has resulted in some trials of new technology,
but adoption by data carriers still appears distant. And the federal
government doesn't have any direct authority to force changes.

One reason is that the weaknesses in the system are in the routing between
carriers. It doesn't help if one carrier introduces a new system 
 every one it connects with has to make the change as well.

"It's kind of everybody's problem, because it impacts the stability of
the Internet, but at the same time it's nobody's problem because nobody
owns it," says Doug Maughan, who deals with the issue at the Department
of Homeland Security.

The big Internet carriers seem willing to accept the status quo.
Spokesmen at AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., two of the
largest, world-spanning carriers of Internet traffic, said they were
unable to find anyone at their companies who could discuss the issue of
routing reform.

Pieter Poll, the chief technology officer at Qwest Communications
International Inc., says that he would support some simple mechanisms to
validate data routes, but he argues that fundamental reform isn't
necessary. Hijackings are typically corrected quickly enough that they
don't pose a major threat, he argues.

One fix being tested would stop short of making the routing system fully
secure but would at least verify part of it. Yet this system also
worries carriers because they would have to work through a central
database.

"My fear is that innovation on the Internet would slow down if there's a
need to go through a central authority," Poll says. "I see little
appetite for that in the industry."

Jeffrey Hunker, a former senior director for critical infrastructure in
the Clinton administration, says he's not surprised that little has
happened on the issue since 2003. He doesn't expect much to happen in
the next seven years, either.

"The only thing that's going to drive adoption is a major incident,
which we haven't had yet," he says. "But there's plenty of evidence out
there that a major incident would be possible."

In the meantime, network administrators deal with hijacking an
old-fashioned way: calling their counterparts close to where the
hijacking is happening to get them to manually change data routes.
Because e-mails may not arrive if a route has been hijacked, the phone
is a more reliable option, says Tom Daly, chief technical officer of
Dynamic Network Services Inc., which provides Web hosting and other
Internet services.

"You make some phone calls and hope and pray," Daly says. "That's about
it."



                  How One Keystroke Can Bury Your Investments


With so many people counting on their investments and 401(k)s for
retirement, its frightening how just one technical glitch can bring
everything tumbling down.

According to market analysts, Thursdays stock market free-fall may have
been triggered by human error. A trader for Citigroup, the nations
third-ranked bank company, reportedly hit 'B' for 'billion' in a trade
instead of 'M' for million. At time of press, Citi claimed it had no proof
of the bad trade, but an investigation has been launched.

After what appeared to be a massive sell-off by the bank, the market
tumbled further - but it happened automatically. A series of program-driven
trades kicked in as soon as the initial drop hit. From there, the program
trading continued as trigger point after trigger point was reached.

But officials at the New York Stock Exchange insist the technical glitch
cant be solely blamed for the catastrophe. Spokesman Ray Pellecchia said
that NYSE has a 'speed bump' program built in to it that slows down trades
if there are inexplicable drops in stock prices. The system then determines
whether or not a trading error snowballed into something bigger.

Pellecchia also noted that while this 'speed bump' kicks in, traders can
still go to other markets to sell - and thats exactly what happened.

Whether the blame is ultimately placed on the technical system itself or
worried traders, one things still clear: It wasnt a good day for
investments.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 6% of its value in mere minutes,
though it recovered to a loss of 346.51 points (3.2%) at the markets close.
All told, the drop cost the market more than $500 billion (yes, 'B' as in
'billion').



         Mozilla Outlines Plans for Firefox 4 To Overtake Chrome


Mozilla gave developers a heads-up Monday on its plans to release a new
version of Firefox featuring advanced HTML5 capabilities. Reacting to
the recent market-share success of Google's lightning-fast Chrome
browser, Mozilla said one of the priorities for its forthcoming Firefox
4 release is to make the next-generation browser "super-duper fast."

With Firefox 4, the ultimate aim for Mozilla is to develop a technology
base that is fast, secure and optimized, noted Firefox Director Mike
Beltzner. "For users, we want to build a product that is fast, friendly
and empowering," Beltzner told the Mozilla developer community on
Monday. "For developers, we want to give them tools for capable, fast
Web access."

However, it's not just the next version of Firefox that needs to be
fast. The Firefox development team needs to hustle because Chrome growth
in the global browser market has been outpacing all its rivals for the
past several months.

According to the latest data from Net Applications, Chrome increased its
market share to 6.7 percent in April - which is about five percentage
points higher than it was a year ago. Moreover, Google Chrome has been
the major beneficiary of Microsoft's weakness in the browser market over
the course of the past 12 months, a role that Firefox used to enjoy.

The global market share held by Internet Explorer hit a 12-month low of
59.95 percent at the end of April, and over that period Chrome received
the lion's share of Microsoft's percentage slide. Meanwhile, Mozilla's
share of the browser market in April continued to hover at 23.8 percent,
up only slightly from April 2009.

Beltzner hopes the addition of advanced capabilities to Firefox 4 like
HTML5, 64-bit computing support, and reduced I/O operations on the main
thread will help. However, none of these advancements will do anything
to help Mozilla counter one of Chrome's major strengths apart from sheer
speed - the advertising and web-promotion power of Google.

With Firefox 4, the product's development team aims to deliver a sleeker
and simpler user interface as the default, performance optimizations,
and faster navigation. To speed things along for users, Firefox 4 will
add dedicated application tabs. Users also will be able to install
add-ons without having to restart the browser.

Mozilla's plan right now is to have Firefox 4 available in a beta
release next month and as a release candidate by October. However,
Beltzner cautioned that both the new features and milestone dates for
Firefox 4 are fluid and likely to change.

"As with past releases, we use dates to set targets for milestones, and
then we work together to track to those targets," Beltzner wrote in a
blog. "We always judge each milestone release against our basic criteria
of quality, performance and usability, and we only ship when it's ready."

A major new browser release is no guarantee that Firefox will be able to
return to the market growth it enjoyed until Google Chrome started
picking up steam. If past results are any indication, the release of
Firefox 4 will likely be market-share neutral, according to Net
Applications Vice President Vince Vizzaccaro.

"I just did a quick review of Firefox major release dates, and the
browser usage market share before and after those release dates,"
Vizzaccaro said. "There appears to be no correlation between Firefox
major releases and changes in usage market share."



            Microsoft Launches New Office, Duels Google Online


Microsoft Corp launched an updated version of its Office software on
Wednesday, aiming to keep its grip on the hugely profitable business
application market while countering the challenge of free online
alternatives from Google Inc.

The world's largest software company is upgrading its popular Word, Excel,
Outlook and PowerPoint applications and rolling out its own online versions
to keep up with the new class of mobile, Web-connected users that has
emerged since the last upgrade in 2006.

Microsoft announced several improvements on Wednesday, such as editing
photos in Word, using video in PowerPoint, collaborating on documents
and connecting email contacts to Facebook information.

But the biggest change is Microsoft's move into the "cloud" - allowing
users to manipulate documents stored on remote servers from anywhere -
where Google has been setting the pace.

Corporate buyers of Office will have immediate access to Microsoft
Office Web Apps - online versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel
programs for Internet-connected phones and PCs - but will pay more to
use them.

Ordinary consumers will be able to use online versions free from next
month through Microsoft's Windows Live service, which the company is
hoping will entice customers to pay for the full software, which will
cost between $100 and $500, depending on the level of features.

The online strategy marks a major shift for the Windows franchise -
with 500 million users according to Microsoft - which has so far relied
on software installed on PCs.

It brings Microsoft into direct competition with Google Docs,
stripped-down alternatives to Microsoft's core programs, which are
available over the Internet with no need to download software. They are
free for personal users and $50-per-user per year for companies. Google
says it has picked up 25 million users since launching Docs almost four
years ago.

Some analysts worry that the cost of offering online versions will put a
dent in the profit of one of Microsoft's two great profit engines.

Margins will fall, but overall revenue and profit will rise as Microsoft
grabs a bigger slice of companies' tech budget, said Stephen Elop, head
of Microsoft's Business Division, in an interview at an Office launch
event in New York.

"Margins are lower as a percentage of revenue because we are purchasing
hardware and providing services that involve people," said Elop. "But
most importantly, the absolute profit is expected to go up as a result
of cloud computing."

Microsoft's business division, which gets 90 percent of its sales from
Office, averages around $2.8 billion profit per quarter. That is 47
percent of Microsoft's total profit so far this fiscal year, second only
to Microsoft's core Windows operating system franchise.

Elop said he hopes customer adoption for Office 2010 will be the
quickest ever, as companies start to replace aging machines this year
and may decide to upgrade to the new Windows 7 system and Office 2010 at
the same time. He said 8.6 million people are already using Office 2010
in test versions.

According to the latest data from tech research firm Forrester, 81
percent of companies are running Office 2007, compared with only 4
percent using Google's online equivalent.

A Forrester poll indicates almost a third of existing Office users plan
to upgrade to Office 2010 within 12 months.



                  Facebook Rolling Out New Security Features


Facebook's millions of users are a lucrative target for Internet criminals
looking to steal passwords and more. To combat malicious attacks, phishing
scams and spam, the online social network is rolling out new security
features.

You can ask to be notified by e-mail or text message when your account
is accessed from a computer or mobile device you haven't used before.
The log-in attempt may be legitimate when you're traveling, but if you
haven't left home in a week, you probably ought to change your password.

Facebook is also adding roadblocks when it notices unusual activity,
such as simultaneous log-ins from opposite sides of the planet. For
example, you might be shown a photo with your friends tagged, and be
asked to correctly identify who they are before the second log-in goes
through.

Users will also be able to check where the latest log-ins have come
from. This is similar to a feature Google Inc. offers on its Gmail
service, where users can view the date, time and location of the most
recent log-ins to their account. Gmail also states whether the account
is open on another computer at the same time.

Some of these changes are already available, while others are still
being tested and will launch over the next few weeks. Facebook typically
rolls out changes over several days, if not weeks, so not all users will
see them at the same time.

The new features come as Facebook faces growing criticism over the way
it handles users' privacy. It has been pushing them to share more about
themselves with one another and with the outside world. The security
upgrade is a sign the company is working to keep its users' trust in the
way it handles the private data they post, even as it fends of
complaints from privacy advocates, users and politicians.

Hemanshu Nigam, former chief security officer at Facebook rival MySpace,
said Facebook has many incentives to be mindful of privacy complaints.

"A little thing like this can turn into a big thing, and could turn into
an advertiser saying, 'Well, I can take my dollars elsewhere,'" said
Nigam, who now runs online security firm SSP Blue but still consults for
MySpace. "The moment a lawsuit or government investigation begins,
advertisers get very nervous of that."

Facebook already has automated systems in place that detect when users
access the site in a way that "doesn't make sense," said Jake Brill,
product manager at Facebook. This can include sending out an avalanche
of messages or logging in from different countries at the same time.

The secondary account verification system that Facebook is rolling out
makes sure that when people log in from elsewhere, they are authorized
to do so. Many websites try to do this by asking people to type words
displayed in an image to prove they are human, rather than a computer
seeking automated access. But this only helps keep those software robots
out, not people, Brill said.

The requirement to enter information that only you would know - such as
the identity of your friends - can help stop unauthorized access should
your password somehow become compromised.

To get notified when someone accesses an account from a new computer or
device, you have to turn that feature on. To do this, go to "account
settings," scroll down to "account security," then click "change."
There, you can choose to be notified of log-ins by e-mail or text message.

Facebook is asking users to activate, or "opt-in" to, the security
setting, even as it takes an "opt-out" approach with some of its
marketing and personalization features. With opt-out, participation is
automatic unless the user takes action.

Without giving an exact figure, Facebook says only a tiny percentage of
its users have their accounts compromised. But a small percentage of 400
million can still be sizable.

The site's users are a good target for cybercriminals because of the
implicit trust people place in Facebook. They are more likely to respond
to scams and other messages that appear to come from real friends, but
are actually sent by hackers able to game the system.



      It's Official: Valve Releasing Steam, Source Engine For Linux!


Valve Corporation has today rolled out their Steam Mac OS X client to the
general public and confirmed something we have been reporting for two
years: the Steam content delivery platform and Source Engine are coming to
Linux. This news is coming days after we discovered proof in Steam's Mac
OS X Client of Linux support and subsequently found more Linux references
and even the unreleased Steam Linux client. The day has finally come and
Linux gamers around the world have a reason to rejoice, as this is the
biggest news for the Linux gaming community that sees very few tier-one
titles.

Those enthusiasts within the Phoronix community even managed to get the
unreleased Steam Linux client running up to a partially drawn UI and other
modifications, but now that work can stop as Valve is preparing to
officially release the Steam Linux client from where they will start to
offer Linux native games available for sale. For all those doubting our
reports that Source/Steam would be coming to Linux, you can find
confirmation in the UK's Telegraph and other news sites. An announcement
from Valve itself is imminent.

Found already within the Steam store are Linux-native games like Unreal
Tournament 2004, World of Goo, and titles from id Software such as Enemy
Territory: Quake Wars and Doom 3. Now that the Source Engine is officially
supported on Linux, some Source-based games will be coming over too. Will
we finally see Unreal Tournament 3 surface on Linux too? Only time will
tell, but it is something we speculated back in 2008. Postal III is also
being released this year atop the Source Engine and it will be offering up
a native client. We have confirmed that Valve's latest and popular titles
like Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, and Team Fortress 2 are among
the first of the Steam Linux titles, similar to the Mac OS X support. The
released Linux client should be available by the end of summer.

Similar to Valve's strategy with Mac OS X, it's expected that they too will
be providing Linux game releases on the same day as Windows / Mac OS X for
their new titles and that there will be first-rate support across all
platforms. Portal II should mark the first of these efforts.

This is terrific news considering the last major tier-one game release with
a native Linux client was Enemy Territory: Quake Wars back in 2007. There
was also supposed to be Unreal Tournament 3 for Linux with claims of it
still being worked on, but two years later that has yet to see the light of
day, except now it could with the release of the Steam middleware. In the
past few years there has just been less-known game releases like
Shadowgrounds: Survivor via Linux Game Publishing (LGP) and then the
community-spawned open-source games like Alien Arena 2009, Nexuiz, and
Sauerbraten, but what Valve has just done should prove to forever
revolutionize the Linux gaming scene.

Our friends at Unigine Corp though will now face greater competition in the
area of developing the best game engine that is supported on Linux. The
Unigine developer is quite visually advanced (and at the same time, very
demanding on the hardware) while their developers are quite friendly towards
Linux, but to this point besides a couple of great OpenGL benchmarks (found
in the Phoronix Test Suite), they have yet to really touch any Linux gamers
- but that will change once Primal Carnage and other titles are released.

We are so grateful that Valve has finally publicly confirmed via the
Telegraph (and another pending announcement is likely) that they are
bringing Steam and the Source Engine to Linux as this should provide a huge
opportunity for the Linux distributions and other Linux stakeholders to
prove their viability against Windows and can begin attracting gamers if
successfully leveraged. We have already shown that in terms of OpenGL
performance, Ubuntu 10.04 is on par with Windows 7 for ATI/AMD and NVIDIA
graphics and that Linux is a faster gaming platform to Mac OS X.

Stay tuned for plenty more coverage. Of the six years that Phoronix has
been around providing many exclusive news stories and Linux
hardware/software coverage, Valve's move with the Steam Linux client/Source
engine will likely prove to be the most significant event and opportunity
that the Linux desktop has been provided at least since the time of the
initial Linux netbook push, if not since the entire time we've been around.
Only time will tell though if Linux vendors and stakeholders will fully
capitalize upon the opportunity that has the potential of greatly expanding
the Linux desktop 
user-base.



                 Four Nerds and a Cry to Arms Against Facebook


A few months back, four geeky college students, living on pizza in a
computer lab downtown on Mercer Street, decided to build a social network
that wouldnt force people to surrender their privacy to a big business.
It would take three or four months to write the code, and they would need
a few thousand dollars each to live on.

They gave themselves 39 days to raise $10,000, using an online site,
Kickstarter, that helps creative people find support.

It turned out that just about all they had to do was whisper their plans.

"We were shocked," said one of the four, Dan Grippi, 21. "For some strange
reason, everyone just agreed with this whole privacy thing."

They announced their project on April 24. They reached their $10,000 goal
in 12 days, and the money continues to come in: as of Tuesday afternoon,
they had raised $23,676 from 739 backers. "Maybe 2 or 3 percent of the
money is from people we know," said Max Salzberg, 22.

Working with Mr. Salzberg and Mr. Grippi are Raphael Sofaer, 19, and Ilya
Zhitomirskiy, 20 - "four talented young nerds," Mr. Salzberg says - all of
whom met at New York Universitys Courant Institute. They have called their
project Diaspora* and intend to distribute the software free, and to make
the code openly available so that other programmers can build on it. As
they describe it, the Diaspora* software will let users set up their own
personal servers, called seeds, create their own hubs and fully control the
information they share. Mr. Sofaer says that centralized networks like
Facebook are not necessary. "In our real lives, we talk to each other," he
said. "We dont need to hand our messages to a hub. What Facebook gives you
as a user isnt all that hard to do. All the little games, the little
walls, the little chat, arent really rare things. The technology already
exists."

The terms of the bargain people make with social networks - you swap
personal information for convenient access to their sites - have been
shifting, with the companies that operate the networks collecting ever more
information about their users. That information can be sold to marketers.
Some younger people are becoming more cautious about what they post. "When
you give up that data, youre giving it up forever," Mr. Salzberg said.
"The value they give us is negligible in the scale of what they are doing,
and what we are giving up is all of our privacy."

The Diaspora* group was inspired to begin their project after hearing a
talk by Eben Moglen, a law professor at Columbia University, who described
the centralized social networks as "spying for free," Mr. Salzberg said.

The four students met in a computer room at N.Y.U., and have spent nearly
every waking minute there for months. They understand the appeal of social
networks.

"Certainly, as nerds, we have nowhere else to go," Mr. Salzberg said.
"Were big nerds."

"My social life has definitely collapsed in favor of maintaining a decent
GPA and doing this," Mr. Sofaer said.

A teacher and digital media researcher at N.Y.U., Finn Brunton, said that
their project - which does not involve giant rounds of venture capital
financing before anyone writes a line of code - reflected "a return of the
classic geek means of production: pizza and ramen and guys sleeping under
the desks because it is something that it is really exciting and
challenging."

And the demand for a social network that gives users control is strong,
Mr. Brunton said. "Everyone I talk to about this says, Oh my God, Ive
been waiting for someone to do something like that. "

There have been at least two other attempts at decentralized networks, Mr.
Brunton said, but he thought the Diaspora* group had a firmer plan. Its
quick success in raising money, he said, showed the discontent over the
state of privacy on the social sites. "We will have to see how widely this
will be adopted by the non-nerds," Mr. Brunton said. "But I dont know a
single person in the geek demographic who is not freaked out" by large
social networks and cyber warehouses of information.

The Diaspora* crew has no doubts about the sprawling strengths and
attractions of existing social networks, having gotten more than 2,000
followers of 'joindiaspora' on Twitter in just a few weeks.

"So many people think it needs to exist," Mr. Salzberg said. "Were making
it because we want to use it."

 


                        Internet Running Out of Addresses


The world will soon run out of Internet addresses as the number of devices
connected to the Web explodes unless organizations move to a new Internet
Protocol version, the head of the body that allocates IP addresses said.

Rod Beckstrom, chief executive of ICANN, said only 8 or 9 percent of
ipv4 addresses were left, and companies needed to switch to the new
standard of ipv6 as quickly as possible.

"We are running out," he told Reuters in an interview. "That move really
needs to be made, we're seeing this scarce resource run down."

Ipv4, used ever since the Internet became public in the 1980s, was
created with space for only a few billion addresses, whereas ipv6 has
trillions.

A multitude of gadgets including cameras, music players and video-game
consoles are joining computers and mobile phones in being connected to
the Web, and each needs its own IP address.

Hans Vestberg, the chief executive of telecoms equipment maker Ericsson,
predicted earlier this year there would be 50 billion connected devices
by 2020.

Beckstrom said: "It's a big management task and network operations
task... but it's going to have to happen because we humans are inventing
so many devices that use the Internet now."

Beckstrom was in Moscow to officially hand over the first international
domain name in the Cyrillic alphabet to Russia. Instead of having to use
the Latin domain .ru, Russian organizations will now be able to use the
Cyrillic equivalent.

ICANN approved the gradual introduction of internationalized domain
names last year. Nations can now apply for country-level domain names in
other scripts, such as Arabic or Chinese, but eventually this will be
expanded to all Internet address names.

So far, as well Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
have won ICANN approval to use their national language scripts on the
top-level domain, or last part of the address after the dot.

"It's a very big move. The Internet's been around roughly for four
decades and this is the first time that domain names are opening up to
people's native tongues and scripts," Beckstrom said.

He said ICANN had received about 21 requests so far for international
domain names (IDNs) from countries.

Beckstrom said it had taken 11 years of technical work to find a way to
bring in other languages.

"When the Internet was invented and when the standards were initially
developed they wanted to have it available for all scripts but there
wasn't a standard back then so they used ASCII or Latinate characters as
a standard," he said.

ASCII is an encoding scheme that translates letters of the Latin
alphabet, numbers and other symbols into the 1s and 0s that computers
can understand.

"The Internet's been accessible to a lot of young people who are
comfortable learning new languages or other characters but there are
many people who aren't that comfortable working in other languages and
character sets," said Beckstrom.

"We see it really opening up to all of the world and actually the
Internet becoming more truly global."



                         10 Most Easily Stolen Passwords


Are any of your users choosing these common password combinations?

A recent study by data security firm Imperva looked at 32 million exposed
passwords and revealed the 10 most common:

   1. 123456
   2. 12345
   3. 123456789
   4. Password
   5. iloveyou
   6. princess
   7. rockyou
   8. 1234567
   9. 12345678
  10. abc123

Many other stolen passwords used common slang words, adjacent keyboard keys
and names presumably important to the user (such as family members).

Warn the folks in your company to avoid those common password practices. It
may be common sense to IT pros, but as the report shows, many users fail to
understand the importance of choosing complex passwords.



                      Which State Has The Fastest Broadband?


Not all Internet access is created equal. What part of the country has the
best connections?

That would be the Northeast, according to CDN vendor Akamais latest State
of the Internet report. Of the ten states with Internet connections
averaging 5Mbps or higher, six are located in that region: Vermont
(5.8Mbps), Massachusetts (5.7Mbps), New Hampshire (5.6Mbps), Rhode Island
(5.4Mbps), New York (5.4Mbps) and Connecticut (5.4Mbps).

But which state has the highest overall average? That would be Delaware,
with 7.6Mbps.

Overall, though, the U.S.s Internet speeds lag behind much of the globe,
with its 3.8Mbps average placing it 22nd on the list.



            Judge Nixes Facebook Groups by Class-Cutting Kids


A judge in Argentina has ordered Facebook to close all groups set up by
minors, after thousands of middle-schoolers used the social media website to
organize an unauthorized day off school, according to a court source.

A ruling by judge Alfredo Dantiacq Sanchez in the western province of
Mendoza ordered "the immediate closure of groups created or to be
created by minors" which "promote truancy without the permission of
their parents or the school system."

About 11,000 middle school students heeded a call posted on Facebook to
cut classes and get together in a town square.

The event was so popular it spawned copycat class-cutters also using
Facebook to launch their own events.



                                =~=~=~=




Atari Online News, Etc. is a weekly publication covering the entire
Atari community. Reprint permission is granted, unless otherwise noted
at the beginning of any article, to Atari user groups and not for
profit publications only under the following terms: articles must
remain unedited and include the issue number and author at the top of
each article reprinted. Other reprints granted upon approval of
request. Send requests to: dpj@atarinews.org

No issue of Atari Online News, Etc. may be included on any commercial
media, nor uploaded or transmitted to any commercial online service or
internet site, in whole or in part, by any agent or means, without
the expressed consent or permission from the Publisher or Editor of
Atari Online News, Etc.

Opinions presented herein are those of the individual authors and do
not necessarily reflect those of the staff, or of the publishers. All
material herein is believed to be accurate at the time of publishing.
