Planned Black Hat demo off the schedule with no explanation given
295837
A planned Black Hat demo of a technique for undermining Trusted Platform Module hardware-based security has been abruptly withdrawn from the schedule. Nitin and Vipin Kumar had provided an abstract for their talk, but they're not saying why they've withdrawn.
612406
(InfoWorld) - The new DST (daylight-saving time) is drawing near. Do you think you're ready? Run down this checklist to be sure. 1. Do a datacenter inventory. You need to know exactly which applications and systems you have running so that you can locate appropriate patches and fixes. 2. Find out what needs to be patched. That could take some time. Fortunately, many of the big-name vendors have prepared (even if you haven't). Below is a list of DST resource sites for various companies. Most, if not all, include lists of solutions that will be affected. Apple BlackBerry Cisco Dell Hewlett-Packard IBM Microsoft McAfee Novell Oracle Palm Red Hat Sun Symantec Also be sure to update your JRE (Java Runtime Engine), as apps running on older versions of JRE may report incorrect times. Info is available here. If one of your vendors isn't listed above, check out their Web site or call their help desk as soon as possible and ask about DST patches. 3. Devise a game plan. Mission-critical, time-sensitive applications should take priority, but also consider software -- such as firewalls -- that isn't time sensitive but that feeds time-sensitive information to other programs, such as security event management products. 4. Deploy patches or, where necessary, manual fixes. Use your centralized software management toolbox such as Microsoft Systems Management Server or Novell ZenWork Patch Management (if you have one). Otherwise, you'll have a lot of manual patching to do. 5. Test your patches and fixes. Be certain you come up with proper times and dates. You also have to check that your applications are interacting properly. 6. Make sure your partners and service providers are prepared. Just because you've done your due diligence and updated your systems doesn't mean one of your critical suppliers, for example, has. 7. Schedule IT personnel to come in on March 11. Try as you might to prepare, it's entirely possible something will slip through the cracks. Have IT staff on hand to check the status of systems, run tests, and fix problems.
302686
Microsoft has decided to cancel its scheduled 2007 Professional Developer's Conference, previously slated to take place in Los Angeles the first week of October. The company says its new developer tools are already available to customers.
408553
Company is considering a gradual exit from processor sales.
504530
Looks like I'll get the drive back soon. First I got a call from the Emeryville store, then I got a call from a person in Apple Executive offices (she gave me her name and number, but I'm not going to publish it here). I'll report back when I have more info. PS: The number of idiotic comments has gone way up.
105995
Microsoft has cancelled its fall developer conference, citing inconvenient timing for the show in light of the launch of important new infrastructure and developer-platform products.
763325
The EU judge in the case against Microsoft calls for an unexpected closed-door meeting. Also: Developing world expected to help revive tech sector....  Finland faces a loss of 3G phones.... and more.
694051
Gabe:  We had our annual Enforcer wrap party on Monday night over at Gameworks. It's a chance for all the Enforcers to get together and relax after the show. It's also a chance for Tycho and I to thank them for all their help. We played a lot of games and heard a ton of great stories. There's so much of the show that Tycho and I miss but the Enforcers see it all and this year they saw some crazy shit.   For example I had no idea that e for all had hired guerrilla marketers to wander the streets in front of PAX with T.V's in their shirts. They were passing out glow sticks and postcards with the e for all logo on them. PAX Enforcers and attendees started a game that involved masking tape and replacing the "for all" with other things the e might stand for.   That's certainly funny but it's not the best story about other exhibitions invading PAX. At one point during the evening a table full of Enforcers told me a tale that was so awesome I just had to pass it along.Late Friday night Amber was called down to the lobby of the convention center to deal with a drunk and belligerent member of the media who was apparently yelling at a couple of our Enforcers. Amber arrived to find the man obviously hammered and harassing our security. She approached him and explained that the show was over (which it wasn't) and that he should just go home and sleep. Upon seeing Amber his behavior changed quite drastically. He stopped arguing with the Enforcers and instead stared hitting on her. He bragged that he'd been out all night drinking with Incubus. Then he suggested the two of them go see a movie, get some drinks and "see where it goes." I think we all know where it goes. Sloppy drunks twice her age really aren't Amber's type so she politely declined the offer while still trying to move him towards the door. He leaned in at this point and said "this Penny Arcade shit is weak!" and then asked her if she wanted to know a secret. He said it would "impress her" and with that he produced his business card.  He pointed at it and slurred "this is where it's at baby."Now we'd seen this guy all weekend taking photos of our game rooms and exhibition hall. Since he was pretending to be media he also interviewed all our Enforcers about how the show was organized and managed. A few of our Exhibitors even complained that he was in the exhibition hall trying to sell them on his convention. Amber took the card and asked him to find her the next day after he had sobered up. She had every right to pull his badge right then but was a little worried about how he might react. The next morning she happened to meet up with him on the escalators in the main hall. "Hey I remember you" he said, "but I don't remember your name." "I'm Amber the event coordinator for PAX and I need you to give me your badge." she replied.He looked around at the group of colleagues around him and laughed. I guess he thought she was joking. Security arrived and she pressed him again for his badge. He tried to apologize for hitting on her but she informed him that while that was certainly inappropriate it was the drunken tirade that we didn't appreciate at PAX. He reluctantly handed over his badge and was escorted out by a group of Enforcers. I was told this story by a dozen or so other Enforcers who witnessed or took part in the event. When they gave me Ed's business card as physical proof of their encounter I couldn't believe it. I was already laughing when I turned the card over and noticed the back.   -Gabe out
256460
THE WRITERS of the MyDoom viruses are encoding job applications into the latest variants of the bug. According to Sophos the plea for work was found when its boffins were stripping the code of the MyDoom-U and MyDoom-V variants.
347403
No sense pointing the finger at Hewlett-Packard anymore; we have Congress and the FBI to do that. But I did want to discuss the âI didnât know what my employees/vendors/executive staff were doingâ defense -- which was, of course, made famous by Enron , so you have to know it just wonât do. Instead of looking backward, I spoke with a couple of experts on governance, privacy, risk, and compliance assessment about how companies can do the right thing in the future.
359233
Following up on yesterday's piece about Demo-like conferences. Eric Norlin proposes that the economics are still out of whack. The people providing the value, the people attending the show, should get in for free. The demoers should pay. He has a point. In my HyperCamp proposal, that is how it works. The premise is that in 2007 everyone who attends is as much press as anyone else (everyone's a blogger) so what's the justification for some people getting in as press (i.e. free of charge) and others paying $2500.
384069
An idea I've been thinking about for a while and looking for an opportunity to do is a "flash conference" along the lines of the flash mobs that were so popular a few years ago.  Here's how it would work... Some event happens that focuses the attention of bloggers, one where there's a lot of ground to cover and at least two or three different ways to view it, one where the combined expertise of 5 or 10 bloggers would make a big difference.  The event would last at most 3 hours, would be webcast live, and be edited into a 1 hour program within 24 hours.  As many of us are waiting for delivery of Leopard, the new Mac OS, it seems that this may be an opportunity for such a conference. We'd have to find a facility in San Francisco that could house this. There would need to be room for 20 or 30 people, and it must also have decent networking. Then the question of who would we turn to for expert opinions. Some ideas... 1. A Mac software developer. 2. A gadget blogger (Engadget, Gizmodo, etc). 3. A creative artist (it is a Mac after all). 4. ??? 5. ??? This is meant to be an instant idea. I have asked the question on Twitter and your comments are welcome here as well. Update: Loic Le Meur has volunteered the offices of his SF startup to host the flash conference. Cooool.
360148
Tycho:  I should have all the science lined up by the end of the week, ready to stuff into the piano black lozenge I've obtained to celebrate my return to personal computing.  Wish me luck; I've never before had the opportunity to fry four processors at once.       I know things.  Specifically, things that may be of interest to you.  For example, I know if playing Eye of Judgment online is an onerous as it might seem.  It is not!  I cannot express my relief.    Well, let's try.  In my last, vast expose, I broke down a card's unique language and expressed some misgivings about online play - ultimately just accepting it, because what they're trying to do is so weird that there's no prior art.  Essentially, you "register" your thirty card deck with the system itself, where it is stored and named for future use.  This process is extremely straightforward:  it is simply a matter of you laying your cards anywhere on the mat, a few at a time.  It will probably take two minutes if you really keep on it.  Then, you jump online, choose what nation you want to play for, and track down a partner.  At this point, the game will "draw" you your five card hand by showing you the card art onscreen.  You get one Mulligan (or redraw), but if you like your hand you move into the game proper.  We laid out our deck by element, face up, and this smoothed the turn to turn process considerably.      In the build we have, and I hope this is changed for release, it shows you these cards in a single file line without their name or text - just the art.  Once you got familiar with these images, slightly modified from their card format, it's pretty quick - but the names should be displayed on this screen.  You can use the controller to pull up the names, but let's be serious - at no point should the player be forced to interact with a mundane controller once the game is underway.     You should know that the game really wants a well-lit environment.  You don't need a flare gun or anything, but we didn't have what we needed before and certain squares would slow down the game flow with partial reads that would only resolve after several attempts and minute card adjustments.  I should state that here in the office, we removed all the overhead lights, installing a single track of illumination that we point at the ceiling, where lights used to be.  We tend to transform any place we live into a cave.  So, our scenario might be somewhat atypical.    Also, I know if playing Rock Band with all the instruments off of a USB hub is onerous.  You will be happy to know that it is not - we played said instruments spread out on an actual stage, and found it more than satifactory.  The reality is that the drum kit already needs its own wire, so it isn't as though the future had actually arrived anyway.  Plus, the mic isn't wireless either. This makes the contrived brouhaha over wired guitars a fairly transparent traffic ploy.    This is a matter quite apart from Microsoft's reticence to play ball with unique, third party hardware.  And when I say "play ball," I'm taking about the shakedown operation they've got going licensing their wireless technology, which either makes products for their system more expensive or (in the salient case of Rock Band) results in them bundling a wired controller for the same price as a wireless one on a competitor's system.  This is the last holiday they can get away with this sort of thing...  right?
251412
Rojo  is trying to hire a few Engineers .  Rojo is an amazing company to work for.  We're working with some really impressive technologies and doing some really cool work.  If you're interested in RSS/Atom, Social Networking, Open Source, Java, Linux, etc then I'd highly recommend that you come and work with us.  If you suggest someone to Rojo, and we hire them, we'll give you a free iPod. At the very minimum its a nice gesture for your help.  Also if you want a free invite to Rojo please let me know.  We'd love to have more feedback.
411001
Company reveals a new performance tidbit, missing from initial materials, as  formal launch party for Barcelona gets under way.
175039
Company hasn't said when the device will be available.
34659
Here's a problem that some investment dollars help solve. Apparently, the TechCrunch 40 conference isn't streaming to the outside world because the Palace Hotel has incredibly lame networking, and they won't allow conference promoters to bring in more wires? This is what I hear, although it's not confirmed. Emails to the conference promoters yesterday were not responded to.  I've also received emails from a number of companies announcing products at the show who want coverage on Scripting News, so my interest is not entirely idle.  So what does it take to establish one hotel in SF as the default tech conference hotel? Networking! Geez, you'd think it's obvious by now. We do things that require networks. Look in any conference room around the world for a clue. And supposedly San Francisco is the central node in the network of technology bringing all this great stuff to the rest of the world. So where is the hotel that gives us the very most basic technology to wire up conferences so that the whole world can participate?  Do we need to move the tech industry to another city? Someone please ask the Mayor or Google or someone in charge when they're going to fix this problem. It should have been solved in 1997, and it's already 2007.  BTW, here's a clue: there are some great business opportunities, beyond conferences, for the first physical location in downtown SF to solve this problem. Just ask Loic.