Did I miss something yesterday ?
My sister came back from France last night, and I had to wish her welcome back at the airport... And then it was time to celebrate (kind of
)... The paper had to wait
Experts: Don't trust your PDA
Handheld computers are increasingly vulnerable to hacker attacks and should not be trusted to store "any critical or confidential information," security experts warned Thursday. Peiter Zatko, chief scientist and a vice president of @Stake, a Cambridge, Mass.-based security-engineering firm, and Joe Grand, an @Stake research scientist, noted that the growing business use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) raises concerns about security. Security firms have been making similar warnings for some time. "PDAs were designed for personal use but are now being used more for business," Zatko told a computer security conference here. "There's a security boundary that's being crossed."
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02
Study: Java to overtake C/C++ in 2002
Developers using Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java programming language will outnumber those using the C/C++ languages by next year, the findings of a series of studies conducted by Evans Data Corp. and released late Wednesday show. Presenting the firm's research findings at IBM's Solutions technical developers conference here on Wednesday afternoon, Janel Garvin, vice president of research at Evans, said that more than half of North American developers use Java today, with that number expected to rise by 10 percent next year. The research also shows that Java usage has been rising at the expense of Visual Basic and C/C++. "This means that, for the first time, more North American developers will be using Java than Visual Basic or C/C++ next year," Garvin said. "Java usage is even stronger outside North America, with almost 60 percent of developers expecting to spend some part of their programming time using Java."
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02
Microsoft tightens reins on software security
In an effort to address growing concerns over bugs and viruses that target its software, Microsoft on Thursday released a new patch for its Web server software and said it plans two new tools for customers to assess the security level of their Microsoft software. The Microsoft Network Security Hotfix Checker, or Hfnetchk tool, made available on Wednesday, allows business users of the company's software to assess the status of security patches for the Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 operating systems, as well as fixes for Internet Information Server 4.0 and 5.0 (IIS), SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000, and Internet Explorer 5.01 and later, according to Microsoft. The tool scans and monitors the status of all machines on a network, checking for the presence or absence of security patches.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02
Professor unveils anti-copying flaws 
A talk billed as the "presentation the RIAA does not want you to see" went ahead Wednesday, as encryption researcher Edward Felten addressed security experts as planned at a conference in Washington, D.C. Felten, who earlier this year was threatened with legal action by the Recording Industry Association of America if he gave a speech on cracking digital watermarks, proceeded with his presentation at the USENIX 2001 Security Symposium after entertainment industry officials assured him they wouldn't sue. Cases such as Felten's may have a chilling effect on other programmers, who fear they too may come under legal fire for presenting their research.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02
Case shines light on tech injuries 
A worker fired over injuries that prevented her from typing cannot sue her former employer under federal anti-discrimination law, an appeals court has ruled. Wednesday's decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals casts a spotlight on disability protections for computer use, an issue that is of burgeoning concern in the workplace. So-called repetitive stress injuries (RSI) affect workers in a wide range of industries, ranking as one of the top causes of absenteeism, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The decision marks what employee attorneys say is a sobering trend, particularly in technology workplaces where long stretches of computer keyboard use are as much an ordinary part of the workday as the morning cup of coffee. Workers compensation lawyers say RSI claims can take up as much as 60 percent or 70 percent of their workload, with a large and growing number of these resulting solely from computer use.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=tp_pr
The Industry Standard to stop publishing 
The Industry Standard has ceased publication and will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to an editor at the magazine. The magazine will continue to publish its Web site for the time being, according to Cory Johnson, editor at large. Employees are on a mandatory vacation this week. At the company's San Francisco offices, a note on the door says, "The Standard will be closed the week of Aug. 13. We will reopen at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 20." Johnson was interviewed in front of the company's San Francisco offices. Investors including majority owner IDG and venture capital group Flatiron Partners were not immediately available for comment. Calls to publisher Standard Media International were not returned. "This is a shame. We put out some great magazines," Johnson told CNET News.com.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd
Microsoft slaps back at Sun in Java spat
The long-running battle between Microsoft and Sun Microsystems over the Java programming language escalated Thursday, as Microsoft issued a terse response to a Sun ad campaign that ran last week. Microsoft released a statement to the press late Thursday explaining the reasons for its removal of support for Java in its upcoming Windows XP operating system. Sun took out full-page ads in three newspapers last week asking consumers to "demand that Microsoft include the Java platform in their XP operating system." In April, Microsoft removed its 4-year-old version of Sun's Java Virtual Machine (JVM) from testing versions of the Internet Explorer 6 browser, which is integrated into Windows XP. The JVM will be an optional 5MB download the first time a user accesses a Web page requiring Java support.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd
HP software users urged to patch hole
Security experts are warning information technology administrators to patch a newly discovered vulnerability in Hewlett-Packard's OpenView and NetView software to prevent a repeat of Code Red. Systems running HP's OpenView Network Node Manager version 6.1 or Tivoli NetView versions 5.x and 6.x have been found to contain a hole that could allow an intruder to gain complete administrative control of a machine. The vulnerability has been reported by the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), and security experts are anxious for system administrators to install HP's patch. "In (the) wake of Code Red, it has never been more important to install the patch," said Graham Cluely, senior technology consultant for antivirus company Sophos. "Hackers are often on these mailing lists, so system administrators need to be ahead of the game."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd
Hands-free phones can steer drivers astray 
A study released Thursday suggests that simply talking on a cellular phone while behind the wheel -- whether using a hands-free or hand-held device -- slows a driver's response time and diverts attention more than other common in-car distractions. With 120 million cell phone subscriptions in the United States, and an estimated 60 percent of cell-phone use happening on the road, automakers and cellular companies have been racing to sell phone services built into vehicles, such as General Motors' OnStar. But the report by four scientists at the University of Utah adds to a growing body of research that suggest calling and driving poses a danger to motorists, regardless of the type of phone they use.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200...html?tag=mn_hd
More news later on
