Tag: open source

MenuetOS, an Operating System Written Entirely In Assembly, Hits 1.0

angry tapir writes: MenuetOS, a GUI-toting, x86-based operating system written entirely in assembly language that’s super-fast and can fit on a floppy disk, has hit version 1.0 — after almost a decade and a half of development. (And yes, it can run Doom). The developers say it’s stable on all hardware with which they’ve tested it. In this article, they talk about what MenuetOS can do, and what they plan for the future. “For version 2.0 we’ll mostly keep improving different application classes, which are already present in 1.00. For example, more options for configuring the GUI and improving the HTTP client. The kernel is already working well, so now we have more time to focus on driver and application side.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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MenuetOS, an Operating System Written Entirely In Assembly, Hits 1.0

Firefox 38 Arrives With DRM Required To Watch Netflix

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from VentureBeat: Mozilla today launched Firefox 38 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Notable additions to the browser include Digital Rights Management (DRM) tech for playing protected content in the HTML5 video tag on Windows, Ruby annotation support, and improved user interfaces on Android. Firefox 38 for the desktop is available for download now on Firefox.com, and all existing users should be able to upgrade to it automatically. As always, the Android version is trickling out slowly on Google Play. Note that there is a separate download for Firefox 38 without the DRM support. Our anonymous reader adds links to the release notes for desktop and Android. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Firefox 38 Arrives With DRM Required To Watch Netflix

Verizon, Sprint Agree To Pay Combined $158 Million Over Cramming Charges

mpicpp sends news that Verizon has agreed to pay $90 million (PDF), and Sprint another $68 million (PDF), to settle claims that they placed unauthorized charges on their customers’s bills. The process, known as “cramming, ” has already cost T-Mobile and AT&T settlements in the tens of millions as well. Most of the settlement money will go towards setting up refund programs, but Verizon and Sprint will be able to keep 30% and 35% of the fees they collected, respectively. In response to the news, both companies issued vague statements about “putting customers first.” They are now banned from charging for premium text message services and must set up systems to ensure informed consent for third-party charges. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Verizon, Sprint Agree To Pay Combined $158 Million Over Cramming Charges

$9 Open Source Computer Blows Past Crowdfunding Goal

An anonymous reader writes: A team of engineers and artists has launched a Kickstarter campaign for C.H.I.P., a small computer that costs $9. The campaign met and far exceeded its $50, 000 goal on the first day. The device runs an R8 ARM CPU clocked at 1 GHz, 512 MB of RAM, and 4GB of storage. It has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and runs a version of Debian. The price was enabled by two things: super-cheap Chinese tablets pushing down processor costs, and support from manufacturer Allwinner to make it even cheaper. The team is also building breakout boards for VGA and HDMI connections, as well as one with a tiny LCD screen, keyboard, and battery. Importantly, “all hardware design files schematic, PCB layout and bill of materials are free for you the community to download, modify and use.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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$9 Open Source Computer Blows Past Crowdfunding Goal

MacKeeper May Have To Pay Millions In Class-Action Suit

jfruh writes: If you use a Mac, you probably recognize MacKeeper from the omnipresent popup ads designed to look vaguely like system warnings urging you to download the product and use it to keep your computer safe. Now the Ukranian company behind the software and the ads may have to pay millions in a class action suit that accuses them of exaggerating security problems in order to convince customers to download the software. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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MacKeeper May Have To Pay Millions In Class-Action Suit

Self-Destructing Virus Kills Off PCs

mpicpp sends word about particularly bad virus making the rounds. “A computer virus that tries to avoid detection by making the machine it infects unusable has been found. If Rombertik’s evasion techniques are triggered, it deletes key files on a computer, making it constantly restart. Analysts said Rombertik was ‘unique’ among malware samples for resisting capture so aggressively. On Windows machines where it goes unnoticed, the malware steals login data and other confidential information. Rombertik typically infected a vulnerable machine after a booby-trapped attachment on a phishing message had been opened, security researchers Ben Baker and Alex Chiu, from Cisco, said in a blogpost. Some of the messages Rombertik travels with pose as business inquiry letters from Microsoft. The malware ‘indiscriminately’ stole data entered by victims on any website, the researchers said. And it got even nastier when it spotted someone was trying to understand how it worked. ‘Rombertik is unique in that it actively attempts to destroy the computer if it detects certain attributes associated with malware analysis, ‘ the researchers said.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Self-Destructing Virus Kills Off PCs

Chrome Passes 25% Market Share, IE and Firefox Slip

An anonymous reader writes: In April 2015, we saw the naming of Microsoft Edge, the release of Chrome 42, and the first full month of Firefox 37 availability. Now we’re learning that Google’s browser has finally passed the 25 percent market share mark. Hit the link for some probably unnecessarily fine-grained statistics on recent browser trends. Have your browser habits shifted recently? Which browsers do you use most often? Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Chrome Passes 25% Market Share, IE and Firefox Slip

Hacking the US Prescription System

An anonymous reader writes: It appears that most pharmacies in the US are interconnected, and a breach in one leads to access to the other ones. A security advisory released [Friday] shows how a vulnerability in an online pharmacy granted access to prescription history for any US person with just their name and date of birth. From the description linked above: During the signup process, PillPack.com prompts users for their identifying information. In the end of the signup rocess, the user is shown a list of their existing prescriptions in all other pharmacies in order to make the process of transferring them to PillPack.com easier. … To replicate this issue, an attacker would be directed to the PillPack.com website and choose the signup option. As long as the full name and the date of birth entered during signup match the target, the attacker will gain access to the target’s full prescription history. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Hacking the US Prescription System

NASA Gets Its Marching Orders: Look Up! Look Out!

TheRealHocusLocus writes: HR 2039: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act for 2016 and 2017 (press release, full text, and as a pretty RGB bitmap) is in the House. In $18B of goodies we see things that actually resemble a space program. The ~20, 000 word document is even a good read, especially the parts about decadal cadence. There is more focus on launch systems and manned exploration, also to “expand the Administration’s Near-Earth Object Program to include the detection, tracking, cataloguing, and characterization of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects less than 140 meters in diameter.” I find it awesome that the fate of the dinosaurs is explicitly mentioned in this bill. If it passes we will have a law with dinosaurs in it. Someone read the T-shirt. There is also a very specific six month review of NASA’s “Earth science global datasets for the purpose of identifying those datasets that are useful for understanding regional changes and variability, and for informing applied science research.” Could this be an emerging Earth Sciences turf war between NOAA and NASA? Lately it seems more of a National Atmospheric Space Administration. Mission creep, much? Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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NASA Gets Its Marching Orders: Look Up! Look Out!

Unnoticed For Years, Malware Turned Linux Servers Into Spamming Machines

An anonymous reader writes: For over 5 years, and perhaps even longer, servers around the world running Linux and FreeBSD operating systems have been targeted by an individual or group that compromised them via a backdoor Trojan, then made them send out spam, ESET researchers have found. What’s more, it seems that the spammers are connected with a software company called Yellsoft, which sells DirectMailer, a “system for automated e-mail distribution” that allows users to send out anonymous email in bulk. Here’s the white paper in which the researchers explain the exploit. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Unnoticed For Years, Malware Turned Linux Servers Into Spamming Machines