OPEN SOURCE DEVELOPMENT NETWORK DAILY EDITION * NEWSLETTER
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Click here to try a free online hosted session. http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;4787263;7673537;a?http://msdn.protier.com/admin/skins/vsdemo/freetrial.aspx?source=OSDN_general_newsletter ---------------------------------------------------------------------- January 23, 2003 Slashdot Headlines AT&T Identifies Widespread Security Hole - In Locks http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/23/0359230 __roo writes "The New York Times has an article [free registration required] about a researcher at [0]AT&T Labs Research who has discovered a little-known [1]vulnerability in many locks that lets a person create a copy of the master key for an entire building by starting with any key from that building, and it requires little more than a file and a few key blanks." Links 0. http://www.research.att.com/ 1. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/23/business/23LOCK.html Produce Organs...From Printer http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/23/055217 [0]Gavinsblog writes "New Scientist reports that [1]researchers have modified desktop printers and filled them with suspensions of cells instead of ink. Apparently the work is a first step towards printing complex tissues or even entire organs. Amazing technology. " Well, I guess this could give a whole new meaning to "watermarking". Links 0. http://www.gavinsblog.com 1. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993292 4-Winged Dinosaur Fossil Found http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/23/0251254 [0]Anonymous Coward writes "Scientists in China say they have found fossilized remains of a dinosaur with four feathered wings that it probably used for gliding, a find they say strengthens the theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs. See the [1]story on CNN [2]or BBC with a cool rendering of what it possibly looked like [3]or at NYTimes (yadda)." Links 0. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 1. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/01/22/coolsc.correct.fourwinged/index.html 2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2684927.stm 3. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/23/science/23DINO.html XBox Chip With Legal BIOS http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/23/0247248 [0]Lours writes "([1]OzChip, an Australian company, has a new Xbox chip which comes preinstalled with the new ([2]Cromwell Linux BIOS. Previous chips came without (or simplistic) BIOS for obvious legal and hardware-related (HD-key) reasons you had to go through a lot of manipulations in order to install a patched version of the original Microsoft BIOS or ask the vendor to do it which obviously he was not willing to do for free (when he was willing to). Since the new Cromwell BIOS is fully open source it can be shipped with the chip without any legal risks, gaining you a lot of time, sweat and money. Plus the chip has a very useful feature: by using software based on Andy Green's -- one of the maintainers of the [3]XBox Linux project -- Raincoat, it lets you [4]flash a new BIOS very easily: burn the BIOS file onto a blank CD, put it in the Xbox, boot and you are done. With such beasts there is not much left in the way of want-to-be Linux Xbox hackers who might have been affraid until now to have to deal with delicate hardware intricacies or reluctant to run the whole town for a vendor willing to mod their Xbox at the smallest fee. With important linux distributions also incoming (Debian and Mandrake are underway if not completed) it won't be long before everyone can write code for (and on!) the machine only a few minutes after receiving the chip in his mailbox. Hopefully we are going to see a zillion things running on the machine that Microsoft would only have dreamt of making (and selling)." Links 0. http://slashdot.org/~Lours 1. http://www.ozxchip.com/ 2. http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=54192 3. http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/ 4. http://www.ozxchip.com/ozxflash.htm Using Redundancies to Find Errors http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/23/0221242 gsbarnes writes "Two Stanford researchers ([0]Dawson Engler and [1]Yichen Xie) have written [2]a paper (pdf) showing that seemingly harmless redundant code is frequently a sign of not so harmless errors. Examples of redundant code: assigning a variable to itself, or dead code (code that is never reached). Some of their examples are obvious errors, some of them subtle. All are taken from a version of the Linux kernel (presumably they have already reported the bugs they found). Two interesting lessons: Apparently harmless mistakes often indicate serious troubles, so run lint and pay attention to its output. Also, in addition to its obvious practical uses, Linux provides a huge open codebase useful for researchers investigating questions about software engineering." Links 0. http://www.stanford.edu/~engler/ 1. http://glide.stanford.edu:8080/yichen/research/ 2. http://www.stanford.edu/~engler/p401-xie.pdf Hilary Rosen Will Step Down As RIAA Head http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/22/2324241 Phoenix666 writes "NYT Business reports [0]Hilary Rosen is leaving. Question is, what head will spring from the Hydra next? Could this signal a shift in the RIAA's tactics? The article reports 'Rosen's departure comes as the organization sought to soften its image among Internet consumers, many of whom viewed the RIAA -- and Rosen personally -- with antipathy over incessant pressure for crackdowns on sharing digital music over the Internet.'" A [1]press release on the RIAA site says that Rosen will leave at the end of this year. Links 0. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Rosen-Resignation.html 1. http://www.riaa.org/PR_story.cfm?id=600 Microsoft to Buy Vivendi Games Division? http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/22/2233227 Unknown Relic writes "While far from confirmed, [0]it is reported that Microsoft is seriously looking into buying, or [1]may have already bought, Vivendi's [2]Games Division. For those who aren't aware, Vivendi owns several prominent gaming companies, including [3]Valve and [4]Blizzard! While no official announcements have been made, one is apparently expected soon. While this would doubtlessly be a great boon to Xbox's library, it could be a shock to other consoles as titles which were originally planned for a diverse release become Xbox exclusives." Links 0. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/r/?page=http://www.computerandvideogames.com/news/news_story.php(que)id=85976 1. http://www.ve3d.com/Comments.aspx?ID=2217&contenttype=1 2. http://www.vugames.com/vug/ 3. http://www.valvesoftware.com/ 4. http://www.blizzard.com/ Elect Steve Jobs President of the United States http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/22/1413238 [0]Will Foster writes "There is a groundswell of support for [1]electing Steve Jobs President of the United States." I'll vote for him if I can write in my vote -- with a Newton stylus! Links 0. http://www.JobsforPresident.org 1. http://www.jobsforpresident.org/ Building a Multi-Channel PVR System? http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/22/2041211 [0]Dr.Ruud asks: "What would be good ways to build a multichannel VCR? Think of a cluster of 4 PCs, each having 4 TV-cards (with MPEG-hardware on each) and (if necessary) a separate harddisk per TV-card, and maybe a 5th PC that controls the others, holds a DVD-writer and any other necessary hardware. Could it be done in a simpler and cheaper way? See also [1]linuxtv.org, [2]linuxmedialabs.com and of course [3]SouceForge-vcr-projects like Freevo." What would be the best way to go about cutting down the number of machines such a cluster would need? Could this be done by building an all-in-one-wonderbox without it getting really expensive? Links 0. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 1. http://linuxtv.org/ 2. http://www.linuxmedialabs.com/ 3. http://sourceforge.net/search/ Lucas Digital Releases OpenEXR Format http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/22/1514201 [0]frankie writes "Although George Lucas may have gone over to the [1]dark [2]side, at least some of his staff prefer Freedom and light. ILM has released [3] OpenEXR, a graphics file format and related utilities, under a [4] BSD-style license. Among other things, it supports the same 16 bit format used by Nvidia CG and the Geforce FX. OpenEXR runs on Linux, Jaguar, and Irix; other platforms are likely to work with a little help from the [5] community." Links 0. http:///~frankie 1. http://www.mpaa.org/ 2. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/05/29/1619219&tid=101 3. http://www.openexr.com 4. http://www.ilm.com/opensource 5. http://savannah.nongnu.org/files/?group=openexr ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe - If you do not wish to subscribe to Slashdot, go to: http://www.osdn.com/newsletters/unsubscribe.shtml ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright (c)1999-2002 Open Source Development Network. All rights reserved.
