./linux

Jul 17

Jul 15

Feb 17

Digital Picture Frames Infected by Trojan Viruses

The San Francisco Chronicle is running a story on viruses loaded into digital picture frames, similar to the ones we discussed at the end of last year. The difference is in the virus used: ‘The authors of the new Trojan Horse are well-funded professionals whose malware has ’specific designs to capture something and not leave traces … This would be a nuclear bomb of malware.’ Apparently, a number of regular folks have hooked them up to their home computer and loaded the virus. And if you think you’re too smart to be fooled, apparently the Anti-Virus software makers have not caught up to the threat quite yet.

Feb 17

A Peek Into Tomorrow’s Linux

MadPenguin.org takes a peek into the world of Linux as it looks going forward. “I hear this argument all the time. How companies trying to make Linux more accessible, through any means necessary, so long as they abide by the GPL, are working against the vision of Linux from the beginning. This is asinine. The vision, based on my own interpretation of Linux was always about choice“.

Feb 17

The Future of News

News WirePosted points us to a story discussing the future of news reporting. For over a year, CNN has been accepting user-generated news stories and posting the best of them for all to see. Earlier this week, CNN handed over the reins of iReport.com, allowing unfiltered and unedited content from anyone who cares to participate, provided it adheres to “established community guidelines”. Analysts point to the amateur footage from the Virginia Tech shootings and the Minnesota bridge collapse as an example of the capabilities of distributed reporting. Will this form of user-driven reporting (with which we are well acquainted) come to challenge or supplant traditional new broadcasting?

Feb 12

Linux Kernel 2.6 Local Root Exploit

This local root exploit (Debian, Ubuntu) seems to work everywhere I try it, as long as it’s a Linux kernel version 2.6.17 to 2.6.24.1. If you don’t trust your users (which you shouldn’t), better compile a new kernel without vmsplice.

Here is millw0rm’s proof-of-concept code.

Feb 12

Ubuntu Picks Upstart, KVM

Because the traditional System V init daemon (SysVinit) does not deal well with modern hardware, including hotplug devices, USB hard and flash drives, and network-mounted filesystems, Ubuntu replaced it with the upstart init daemon. Several other replacements for SysVinit are also available. One of the most prominent, initng, is available for Debian and runs on Ubuntu. Solaris uses SMF (Service Management Facility) and Mac OS uses launchd. Over time, Ubuntu will likely come to incorporate features of each of these systems into Upstart. Furthermore, heading in a different direction from its main rivals, Ubuntu Linux will use KVM as its primary virtualization software. Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Novell’s Suse Linux Enterprise Server both use the Xen virtualization software, a ‘hypervisor’ layer that lets multiple operating systems run on the same computer. In contrast, the KVM software runs on top of a version of Linux, the ‘host’ operating system that provides a foundation for other ‘guest’ operating systems to run in a virtual mode.

Feb 12

Haiku OS Resurrects BeOS as Open Source

The Haiku project, which began shortly after the death of BeOS in 2001, aims to bring together the technical advantages of BeOS and the freedom of open source. ‘The project has drawn dozens of contributors who have written over seven million lines of code. Although Haiku is nearly feature-complete, there are still numerous bugs that must be fixed before it is ready for day-to-day use. The design principles behind Haiku are very closely aligned with those of BeOS. The central goal of the Haiku project is to create an operating system that is ideally suited for use on the desktop–this differs significantly from Linux and other open-source operating systems which are intended for use in a diverse range of settings including server and embedded environments.’

Feb 12

6% of Web Users Generate 50% of Ad Clicks

A recent study finds that 6% of Web users generate 50% of the click-throughs. Worse news for advertisers: these clickers are not representative of the population as a whole, most have incomes under $40K, and their clicks are not related to any offline buying. (They are mostly males between 25 and 44 years of age.) The number of clicks on an ad campaign is also not strongly correlated with brand awareness for the ads’ subject, according to the study. This is bad news for ad-supported Web sites and businesses, as rates should drop if the Net economy begins to take these findings seriously.

Feb 7

eBay to Drop Negative Feedback on Buyers

ArsTechnica is reporting that eBay plans to drop negative feedback on buyers. It’s just one of a number of changes eBay will be making in the near future. ‘eBay’s data shows that sellers are eight times more likely to retaliate in kind against negative feedback, a figure that has grown dramatically over the years. In an attempt to mollify sellers, eBay will initiate a handful of seller protections to offset the inability to speak ill of a buyer. Negative and neutral feedback will be removed if a buyer bails on a transaction or if the buyer has his or her account suspended. Buyers will have less time to leave feedback, and won’t be able to do so until three days after the auction ends. eBay is also pledging to step up monitoring and enforcement of its policies around buyers who behave very badly.’

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