Tag: open source

Michigan Sues HP Over Decade Long, $49 Million Incomplete Project

itwbennett writes: On Friday, embattled HP was hit with a new lawsuit filed by the state of Michigan over a 10-year-old, $49 million project that called for HP to replace a legacy mainframe-based system built in the 1960s. Through the suit filed in Kent County Circuit Court, the state seeks $11 million in damages along with attorney’s fees and the funds needed to rebid and re-procure the contract. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Continued here:
Michigan Sues HP Over Decade Long, $49 Million Incomplete Project

Apple’s iOS 9 Breaks VPNs

An anonymous reader writes with a report from The Stack that researchers have discovered a crucial security problem in the latest version of iOS 9: it breaks VPN connections to corporate servers. According to the linked piece, “The flaw was first detected in the iOS 9 beta, and has not been fixed in the released version. Neither has the bug been removed in the current iOS 9.1 beta.” The workaround might not be what you want to hear, either, if you’ve happily upgraded to the latest version: it’s to downgrade to iOS 8.4.1. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See more here:
Apple’s iOS 9 Breaks VPNs

Volkswagen Could Face $18 Billion Fine Over Emission-Cheating Software

After getting caught cheating on emissions testing by means of software, Volkswagen could face up to $18 billion in fines, reports USA Today. That number is based on the company being assessed the maximum penalty of $37, 500 per affected vehicle. That’s not the only bad news for Volkswagen, which has halted sales of its 4-cylinder diesel cars; the linked article reports that the violations “could also invite charges of false marketing by regulators, a vehicle recall and payment to car owners, either voluntarily or through lawsuits. Volkswagen advertised the cars under the ‘Clean Diesel’ moniker. The state of California is also investigating the emissions violations.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read more here:
Volkswagen Could Face $18 Billion Fine Over Emission-Cheating Software

Volkswagen Ordered To Recall 500K Vehicles Over Its Own Malicious Programming

Etherwalk writes: The Obama Administration today ordered Volkswagen to recall 500, 000 4-cylinder Volkswagen and Audi vehicles from model years 2009-15. The vehicles were programmed to turn on more thorough emissions control and generate cleaner readings when tested for emissions than they did when in ordinary operation. In effect, the software made everything operate normally when you looked at it, just like any good malware. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See more here:
Volkswagen Ordered To Recall 500K Vehicles Over Its Own Malicious Programming

Re-Analysis of Medical Study Reverses Conclusions — Paxil Unsafe For Teenagers

An anonymous reader writes: The NY Times is covering a new paper in the journal BMJ which re-analyzed data from a 2001 paper, coming to the opposite conclusions of the earlier study. The BMJ paper covers the effectiveness and safety of two antidepressant drugs for adolescent use, and the authors were able to re-analyze the original data after the release of previously confidential documents. The BMJ editors call into question some of the integrity of previous publishing, noting that none of the authors listed on 2001 paper actually wrote the original manuscript, and call for results of clinical trials to be made freely available so the science community can verify and self-correct results. The BMJ has released the study and provided an accompanying press release (PDF). Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Taken from:
Re-Analysis of Medical Study Reverses Conclusions — Paxil Unsafe For Teenagers

D-Link Accidentally Publishes Private Code Signing Keys

New submitter bartvbl writes: As part of the GPL license, D-Link makes its firmware source code available for many of its devices. When looking through the files I accidentally stumbled upon 4 different private keys used for code signing. Only one — the one belonging to D-Link itself — was still valid at the time. I have successfully used this key to sign an executable as D-Link. A Dutch news site published the full story (translated to english with Google Translate). Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See more here:
D-Link Accidentally Publishes Private Code Signing Keys

Finnish Diver Finds German WWII Submarine Near Estonia

jones_supa writes: A wreck of a German submarine, presumed lost more than 70 years ago, has been discovered near the Estonian coast. The submarine, which dates back to the Second World War, was found by Finnish diver Immi Wallin in July. The U-679 was apparently the last lost German u-boat in the Gulf of Finland. It was presumed destroyed by depth charges in January, 1945. However, the wreck was found in its own patrol zone, sunk by an underwater mine. After the wreck was discovered, the first dive down to its 90-metre grave was undertaken by a six-person group on September 10. The mission was to investigate the condition of the submarine and photograph it. Wallin says that she believes the submarine had remained lost due to the great depth at which it was destroyed. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

More:
Finnish Diver Finds German WWII Submarine Near Estonia

Purdue ‘HUSH’ Tool Promises 16% Battery Life Gain For Wasteful Android Phones

MojoKid writes: Researchers from Purdue University have developed a software tool for Android smartphones that purportedly slows down battery drain when handsets enter a sleep state. With the software tool installed, the researchers claim that smartphone battery life can be extended by nearly 16 percent. Called “HUSH, ” the software solution was developed in response to what the researchers say is the first large-scale study of smartphone energy drain occurring from everyday use by consumers. According to their research, apps drain 28.9 percent of battery power while the screen is turned off. HUSH dynamically identifies app background activities that it deems aren’t useful to the user experience on a per-app basis and suppresses those apps when the screen is turned off. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Visit link:
Purdue ‘HUSH’ Tool Promises 16% Battery Life Gain For Wasteful Android Phones

Open Source Router Firmware OpenWRT 15.05 Released

aglider writes: The newest stable iteration of the famous and glorious OpenWRT has just been released in the wild for all the supported architectures. The latest version is 15.05, codenamed “Chaos Calmer” after a cocktail drink, just like all previous ones. Major changes from the official announcements: “Linux kernel updated to version 3.18. Improved Security Features. Rewritten package signing architecture based on ed25519. Added support for jails. Added support for hardened builds. Improved Networking Support. Platform and Driver Support.” For the full details you are welcome on the forums while the firmware itself and extra packages are available from the distribution servers. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Continue reading here:
Open Source Router Firmware OpenWRT 15.05 Released

Benchmark Battle, September 2015: Chrome Vs. Firefox Vs. Edge

An anonymous reader writes: The next browser battle is upon us. Edge has been out for more than a month, and its two biggest competitors have received significant updates: Chrome 45 and Firefox 40. This article puts all three through their paces, and each manages to win a few tests. Edge convincingly won the JetSteam and SunSpider JavaScript benchmarks, while also eking out a victory in Google’s Octane test. Chrome was victorious in Mozilla’s Kraken benchmark for JavaScript performance, while also edging out Firefox in HTML5Test and the Oort Online WebGL test. Firefox won the WebXPRT test that combines HTML5 and JavaScript performance, and also the Peacekeeper test for general browser performance. There’s no clear dominant browser for performance, and none of the three are obvious laggards, either. Browser competition seems to be in a good place right now. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read the article:
Benchmark Battle, September 2015: Chrome Vs. Firefox Vs. Edge