Bee.Bits.News

This week in 1959: Heralding a Triumph

2009-04-30T21:05:00.023-07:00

Here, The Engineer reports on the birth of an icon. Designed by an Italian and built in Coventry by the Standard-Triumph company, the Triumph Herald is one of those classic cars that is loved and derided in equal measure. However, the number of vehicles still on the road almost 40 years after it rolled off the production line for the last time is testament to its enduring appeal, if not its design.

The Engineer wrote that one of the primary objectives in the development of the vehicle was 'redressing the increase in the cost of upkeep compared to the cost of original manufacture that has occurred in recent years'.

Hence, the Herald had a separate chassis rather than being of monocoque construction. 'The new car is not of integral construction but has a backbone frame onto which the sections of the body are bolted,' the magazine reported. 'The cost of accident repairs also should be reduced by the construction of the body in sections, which are bolted to each other and the frame: six out of seven body sections are common to both saloon and fixed head coupé.'

'In addition, those parts of the body which, in the absence of bumpers are most likely to suffer damage, are arranged to be accessible and can if necessary be removed by drilling out the spot welds securing them.'

The article continued that the use of a new universal joint packed with enough lubrication to last through its service life means that routine repair should be less costly since the car would only require servicing every 12,000 miles.

Jon Excell

This week in 1959: Heralding a Triumph

2009-04-30T21:05:00.021-07:00

This week in 1959: Heralding a Triumph

2009-04-30T21:05:00.019-07:00

This week in 1959: Heralding a Triumph

2009-04-30T21:05:00.017-07:00

This week in 1959: Heralding a Triumph

2009-04-30T21:05:00.015-07:00

This week in 1959: Heralding a Triumph

2009-04-30T21:05:00.013-07:00

Tech giants form open cloud standards group

2009-04-30T21:05:00.011-07:00

A major systems-management standards body has formed a group dedicated to developing open management standards for cloud computing.

The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), whose board includes representatives from companies such as VMware, IBM, Microsoft, Citrix and HP, announced the creation of the Open Cloud Standards Incubator (OCSI) group on Monday.

"Cloud computing will have a major impact on IT management," said DMTF president Winston Bumpus in a statement. "With the DMTF's track record for leading the industry in the development of proven standards for management interoperability, along with its extensive network of Alliance Partners, this Open Cloud Standards Incubator provides an ideal setting for initiating work on specifications to enable interoperable cloud management."

Cloud computing is a field of technology where resources, ranging from application platforms to processing power, are remotely provided over the internet. The field takes in public cloud providers, such as Amazon, and private clouds such as those that might be deployed within an enterprise, but there are currently no standards for interoperability between the two. It is this lack of standards that the OCSI is seeking to address.

The group will also try to develop specifications for cloud service portability and management consistency across cloud and enterprise platforms, the DMTF said in its statement.

Companies sitting on the OCSI leadership board include AMD, Cisco, Citrix, EMC, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat, Savvis, Sun and VMware. Many of these companies were also signatories to a recent Open Cloud Manifesto, with Microsoft being the notable exception.

Amazon and Salesforce.com both major cloud players have not yet signed up to either initiative.

"For many years, IBM has advocated common, open and consensus-based technology standards from reputable standards bodies, and cloud computing is no exception," Erich Clementi, IBM's general manager of enterprise initiatives, said in the statement. "Open technical standards are integral to enabling the delivery of everything from healthcare to business services and consumer entertainment. IBM is committed to working with its industry peers to make it easier for clients to manage emerging cloud environments that include technology from multiple vendors."

In the statement, AMD's general manager of servers and workstations, Pat Patla, said open cloud standards would aid IT managers who "like to take advantage of new technologies to benefit their companies [but] also need to contain datacenter management complexity and IT costs".

Simon Crosby, Citrix's chief technology officer for virtualization and management, said in the statement that the OCSI group's work would be "crucial for ensuring interoperability and management consistency across cloud platforms".

According to the OCSI charter document, the group will "develop a suite of DMTF informational specifications that deliver architectural semantics to unify the interoperable management of enterprise computing and cloud computing".

"This may include extensions to existing DMTF specifications including the Common Information Model (CIM), Open Virtualization Format (OVF), WBEM Protocols, member submissions and investigation of opportunities for collaboration with other industry standards bodies," the charter continues. "The scope of this activity is focused on mainly cloud resource-management aspects of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) with some work touching on platform-as-a-service (PaaS) including SLAs, QoS, utilization, provisioning and accounting and billing."

This article was originally posted on ZDNet UK.

Tech giants form open cloud standards group

2009-04-30T21:05:00.009-07:00

A major systems-management standards body has formed a group dedicated to developing open management standards for cloud computing.

The group will also try to develop specifications for cloud service portability and management consistency across cloud and enterprise platforms, the DMTF said in its statement.

Amazon and Salesforce.com both major cloud players have not yet signed up to either initiative.

This article was originally posted on ZDNet UK.

Tech giants form open cloud standards group

2009-04-30T21:05:00.007-07:00

A major systems-management standards body has formed a group dedicated to developing open management standards for cloud computing.

The group will also try to develop specifications for cloud service portability and management consistency across cloud and enterprise platforms, the DMTF said in its statement.

Amazon and Salesforce.com both major cloud players have not yet signed up to either initiative.

This article was originally posted on ZDNet UK.

Tech giants form open cloud standards group

2009-04-30T21:05:00.005-07:00

A major systems-management standards body has formed a group dedicated to developing open management standards for cloud computing.

The group will also try to develop specifications for cloud service portability and management consistency across cloud and enterprise platforms, the DMTF said in its statement.

Amazon and Salesforce.com both major cloud players have not yet signed up to either initiative.

This article was originally posted on ZDNet UK.

Tech giants form open cloud standards group

2009-04-30T21:05:00.003-07:00

A major systems-management standards body has formed a group dedicated to developing open management standards for cloud computing.

The group will also try to develop specifications for cloud service portability and management consistency across cloud and enterprise platforms, the DMTF said in its statement.

Amazon and Salesforce.com both major cloud players have not yet signed up to either initiative.

This article was originally posted on ZDNet UK.

Tech giants form open cloud standards group

2009-04-30T21:05:00.001-07:00

A major systems-management standards body has formed a group dedicated to developing open management standards for cloud computing.

The group will also try to develop specifications for cloud service portability and management consistency across cloud and enterprise platforms, the DMTF said in its statement.

Amazon and Salesforce.com both major cloud players have not yet signed up to either initiative.

This article was originally posted on ZDNet UK.

Researchers develop micro-robot

2009-04-11T14:02:00.001-07:00

A flying micro-robot has been developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario.

A research team lead by professor Mir Behrad Khamesee manipulated magnetic fields to levitate and move a robot weighing less than one gram around three axes, according to a paper seen by ZDNet UK MechMN: Design and Implementation of a Micromanipulation System using a Magnetically Levitated MEMS Robot.

An array of electromagnets is used to create a three-dimensional parabolic magnetic field. The robot is magnetized itself and sits on top of the parabola, supported by the interaction between its own magnetic field and that created by the electromagnets. Altering the flow of current in the electromagnet distorts the field and moves the robot, Khamesee told ZDNet UK in an email interview on Thursday.

"We develop a focal point of a magnetic field in space, which the microrobot hangs on," wrote Khamesee. "By changing the location of the focal point (through current control in several coils), the micro-robot is consequently moved."

The micro-robot has pincers which can be opened by heating them with a laser. When the laser is turned off, the pincers cool and close. Lasers are also used to detect the position of the robot, Khamesee said. "There are three sets of laser sensors for detecting the position of the microrobot in three-dimensional space. The robot is an obstacle for the laser beam in space, and its position can be read."

The robot is monitored by the laser sensors and a camera, which create a feed-back loop to a computer. When the robot grasps an object, the magnetic field is automatically adjusted so the robot can maintain its position while supporting the weight of the object.

Khamesee wrote that the micro-robot could be used in clean rooms or hazardous environments.

"Since there is no wiring, and the robot freely floats in air, it can operate in an enclosed chamber while the whole setup is outside," wrote Khamesee. "It can work in hazardous environments, toxic chambers, and it can be used to conduct bio-hazardous experiments. Also, since there is no mechanical linkage, it has a dust-free operation, suitable for clean room applications."

The research team, which includes Khamesee and graduate students Caglar Elbuken and Mustafa Yavuz, submitted the paper to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for consideration for publication in September last year.

This article was originally posted on ZDNet UK.

Hydro-electricity schemes

2009-03-13T14:56:00.003-07:00

British Waterways has inked an agreement with The Small Hydro Company to generate 210,000 MWhours of renewable energy per yearfrom its 2,200-mile waterway network.

The initiative will invest around £120m of private capital over the next three years to develop approximately 25 small-scale hydro-electricity schemes generating enough power for around 40,000 homes.

Backed by Climate Change Capital’s Ventus Fund, the process of gaining consents for the first five hydro schemes alongside river weirs will begin later this month.

The partnership with The Small Hydro Company follows British Waterways’ announcement in October 2008 of an agreement with Partnerships for Renewables to bring forward wind turbines on canal-side land over the next five years.

Income that British Waterways generates from both initiatives will be reinvested towards maintaining the nation’s historic waterways.

Energy and climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, said: 'By committing to build small hydro power stations and wind turbines, British Waterways is playing an important role in generating renewable energy from the UK’s natural resources.'

The Small Hydro Company funds and develops small-scale hydro-electric generation installations making use of the available energy in lowland rivers and tidal estuaries. The objective of the company is to harness this source of renewable energy at suitable locations, providing direct benefit to land owners and sustainable long-term benefits to the wider community.

The company will now start to discuss its proposals with local communities as it seeks the necessary environmental and planning consents for the schemes.

Microsoft gives discounts on software licenses

2009-03-13T14:56:00.001-07:00

Microsoft has cut the price of leasing software by as much as 25 percent.

Companies can sign up for discounts on SQL Server, SharePoint and other Microsoft software, or two bundles of client-access licenses, according to notices posted on the Microsoft Incentives website.

One special promotion is 'Simplify and Save', which offers savings of 15 percent for those who consolidate at least two existing license agreements into an Open Value agreement. Microsoft said the discount will run for the entire length of a three-year license deal.

Another offer is for between 15 percent and 25 percent off the price of the licence and the Software Assurance costs of running Exchange Server, Office Communications Server, SQL Server, Office SharePoint Server, Visual Studio, Office Project and other Microsoft software.

It is a condition of some Microsoft licence agreements that companies take out schemes such as Microsoft Software Assurance in order to keep their software properly licensed, and therefore eligible for upgrades and promotions. Industry estimates suggest this situation can add as much as 100 a year per PC to the cost of running applications.

The cuts are similar to those that Microsoft has made on the cost of licensing specific products. The Microsoft Office Project Assurance Pack's price has been cut by 25 percent, and Microsoft Project Server 2007 has seen a similar price fall.

According to one analyst, when it comes to special offers, Microsoft does not tell enough people about them. "This is good news for users but Microsoft should be shouting about offers like this," said Tony Lock, analyst with Freeform Dynamics. "Software Assurance is not widely recognized and deals like this, which seems pretty much across the board of Microsoft software, should be better known."

Lock said that, while Microsoft has good market share, it is "not nearly as good as it could or should be, given offers like this".

This article was originally posted on ZDNet.co.uk.

HP services go ala-carte to beat downturn

2009-02-11T13:58:00.001-08:00

SINGAPORE--Hewlett-Packard has announced a new service initiative that it claims provides flexibility to customers during the current economic climate.

The company unveiled Proactive Select on Tuesday, a new component in its strategy to help midsize and large businesses keep their systems and technology running. Under this initiative, customers purchase pre-defined levels of credits and customize the services they require from a menu of 85 mission-critical services including those tied to security, software and virtualization.

Proactive Select customers will also have access to a dedicated account support manager to help assess business objectives and then translate them into IT objectives and deliverables. These HP agents hold HP mission-critical certification on top of ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) certification. Globally, HP employs more than 5,000 HP mission-critical experts and some 12,000 ITIL-certified professionals.

Proactive Select provides value to HP customers given the current economic climate, Romel Papali, director for enterprise server and storage mission-critical services in HP Asia-Pacific and Japan's Technology Solutions Group, said in a media briefing Monday. "In tough times like these, one of the things that typically happens is businesses will try to protect their margin. So what they do is, they knock off capital expenditure.

"But they do have a need to run their business on their existing infrastructure, and they need to change to [meet] the dynamic market [conditions]," he added. "So what they need are services.

Even though customers have to buy credits upfront for Proactive Select, the option is still more attractive than making capital investments, said Papali.

The menu of services, which covers not only technology but people and processes, is based on standardized methodologies and can be replicated worldwide with the same consistency, Papali noted. The broad offerings, he added, were necessary as research from Gartner, had indicated that 20 percent of unplanned downtime on average is due to hardware failure, but 80 percent is due to people and processes.

Customers can purchase 30, 60 or 180 credits with a validity of up to five years. A performance analysis measurement for Windows systems is equivalent to 10 credits, a data migration for open systems would take up 43 credits, and 120 credits would provide a comprehensive thermal assessment for data centers with a floor area of less than 10,000 sq feet.

According to Papali, customers can top up or roll-over credits and even change the services they require. Organizations that choose to purchase 30 credits can expect to pay about US$9,000 in the United States, but rates will be localized within the region, as labor rates for example, differ.

HP hopes the initiative will lead the company to the "next 10 percent of addressable market" in the region, Papali noted, but declined to provide a market size.

OCZ Apex 120GB SSD

2009-02-09T19:08:00.005-08:00

Manufacturer:OCZ
UK Price (as reviewed):£344.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$376.99 (ex. Tax)

With SSDs looking like they’re on the rise this year, it’s certainly starting to get a whole lot more interesting in the world of storage. While most of us will continue to stick with cheaper and more voluminous mechanical drives like Samsung’s excellent Spinpoint F1 1TB hard drive for the time being, those looking for the speed boost that an SSD can bring to the general use of your PC now have a lot more options.

The new generation of SSDs based on Samsung MLC NAND flash memory and using dual drive controller chips, such as the G.Skill Titan 256GB drive we looked at a few weeks ago, are really shaking things up. So far, we've been impressed by these drives, as they offer excellent read, write and copy speeds while finally packing in reasonable amounts of storage – Intel’s X25-E might have been fast, but 32GB is a laughable amount of storage for a modern system.

The threat from these new Samsung MLC NAND flash based drives is obviously being taken pretty seriously by Intel, who has since dropped prices of its line of SSDs in recent days from wallet destroying to merely wallet melting.

Click to enlarge
It’s another of the recent crop of Samsung NAND based MLC drives we’re looking at today in the form of OCZ’s Apex 120GB. Boasting read performance of up to a heady 230MB/s and write speeds of up to 160MB/s, let’s see if the Apex is able to further build on what seems to be a very solid SSD platform.

Just like the G.Skill Titan 256GB drive, the OCZ Apex 120GB uses dual JMicron drive controller chips to significantly increase performance above and beyond the previous generation of disappointing Samsung based SSDs, without the need for companies to research their own expensive in house drive controller as Intel has done.

Click to enlarge - On the inside the drive is almost identical to the G.Skill Titan we looked at a few weeks ago
In fact, cracking the 2.5" drive open reveals an almost identical PCB to that of the G.Skill. There are the exact same twin JMicron JMF 602 drive controller chips, connected to the same JMB390 SATA multiplier to produce a setup that’s similar in approach to a traditional RAID0 array. Physically the only real difference between the two PCBs is the size and number of NAND flash chips, with the OCZ Apex 120GB dividing the storage between sixteen 7.5GB NAND flash chips on the top and underside of the PCB.

Click to enlarge - Yet despite the similar hardware, the drive's firmware changes the way each handles data, with the G.Skill Titan on the left and the OCZ Apex on the right
However, what is different here is the drive’s firmware and the way it handles the distribution and access of data, although it’s only really noticeable if you compare HD-Tach graphs. As you can see above, there’s a big difference between the speed of data access across each drive, despite the near identical architecture and hardware in use.

We’re a little concerned though, at the price currently being asked for the OCZ Apex 120GB. At £345, or £2.87/GB it’s only £127 cheaper than the G.Skill Titan 256GB, yet offers less than half the amount of storage. It’s also worth remembering that that £345 can net you four Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB drives with plenty of change left over, although four mechanical drives will obviously draw more power, have a higher failure rate, create more heat and be much noisier . Let’s hope the OCZ Apex 120GB's performance is enough to justify this hefty price tag.

OCZ Apex 120GB SSD

2009-02-09T19:08:00.003-08:00

Report: China's IT spending remains strong

2009-02-09T19:08:00.001-08:00

Boosted by government initiatives and green spending, China's IT market in 2009 will only be minimally affected by the global economic slowdown, according to a new report from Springboard Research.

IT spending in the country will reach US$51.2 billion in 2009, a year-on-year growth of 11 percent, the research firm said in a statement Friday. This is only 2 percent shy of Springboard's previous estimate of 13.1 percent growth, or US$52.1 billion.

China's IT market growth, noted Springboard, has largely been protected by the financial crisis as its export industry, the country's worst hit sector, is not a key buyer of technology. China's huge domestic market and its "almost closed financial system" also play a part in helping the country cope with the market conditions, said Bryan Wang, Springboard's country manager for Greater China.

"Moreover, a strong government investment plan will boost spending in various economic quarters and help the Chinese IT market sustain its place as a shining star in the Asia-Pacific region in 2009," he added.

Last November, the Chinese government announced a RMB 4 trillion (US$585.2 billion) stimulus package, which includes plans to invest over US$290 billion on railway network expansion from 2009 to 2011. This, Springboard noted in its report, highlights the market opportunity for IT products.

IT expenditure in key verticals such as government, education and telecoms will grow on the back of the government stimulus package, said Wang. According to the report, government-driven infrastructure spending will bolster a large portion of investment in the country in 2009, while IT expenditure relating to 3G wireless networks will also be a big area of spend for telecom operators in China in 2009. The banking and finance sector's IT spending will remain firm, but IT planners will exercise more caution in their purchases.

In addition, green IT will be fast-growing in China--the market for green IT products and services is expected to have a five-year compound annual growth rate of 71 percent to reach US$447 million in 2011.

"Springboard Research believes the green data centers and related green IT services will become a hot area for these organizations in 2009," the report noted. "Enterprises will look to rapidly build out investments in green-field data centers, and this will also bring out the concept of virtualization and recycling with existing infrastructure, which is increasingly becoming a critical part of the investment moving forward.

Outsourcing hardest hit
Players in the business process outsourcing (BPO) market, particularly small and midsize independent software vendors, may be the most affected by the global financial crisis, Springboard said in its report.

Many Chinese BPO companies located in cities including Dalian and Shenzhen, have a majority of their businesses from overseas banking and financial institutions, it explained, adding that these providers' businesses would be impacted in 2009 as a result of "very few" contracts secured in the second half of 2008.

Hong Kong and Taiwan, having been part of the global financial system for decades, would also be more affected by the global slowdown, Springboard added. The impact on Taiwan's IT expenditure would be more severe, as Hong Kong is expected to gain financial support from mainland China.

According to Springboard, the Chinese government's plans and policies will lead to a more stable IT market from the second quarter of 2009.

This article was originally published on ZDNet Asia.

BFG Tech GeForce GTX 285 OCX 1GB

2009-01-30T15:19:00.011-08:00

Manufacturer:BFG Tech
UK Price (as reviewed):£367.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$405.99 (ex. Tax)

Core Clock: 702MHz
Shader Clock: 1,584MHz
Memory Clock: 2,664MHz (effective)
Memory: 1GB GDDR3
Warranty: Ten years (parts and labour) in Europe

Just a few short weeks ago, Nvidia launched the GeForce GTX 285 and while it’s the fastest single GPU-based graphics card we’ve ever tested, we felt that it was priced in a rather awkward manner. Nvidia set its price point at not that much less than the flagship GeForce GTX 295, which means there isn’t that much wiggle room for partners.

Nevertheless, board partners whose bread and butter is delivering factory overclocked parts have taken the GeForce GTX 285 with open arms and today we’ve got another one in the labs from BFG Technologies. The BFG Tech GeForce GTX 285 OCX is the US-based board partner’s flagship GTX 285 and it comes with some fairly impressive frequency increases as you’d normally expect from a card carrying the OCX label.

Click to enlarge
The stream processor clock – the defining performance characteristic for the G80-derrived GPUs like GT200b – has been boosted by over 100MHz and represents a seven percent increase in shader throughput. The memory has also had a seven percent clock speed increase as well and while that doesn’t sound impressive, when you consider the raw frequencies, it really is.

The memory on this card is humming along at over 1,330MHz (2,660MHz effective), which equates to more than 170GB/sec of memory bandwidth combined with the GTX 285’s 512-bit memory bus.

As for the card itself, it is understandably a reference design card with a sticker on the heatsink shroud. Don’t let that distract you though because the cooler is effective and quiet – something that we’ve come to expect from Nvidia in recent times. Moreover, the down-sized GT200b GPU is much more frugal than the 65nm version when it comes to power consumption and heat – this is part of the reason why BFG Tech has managed to crank the memory clock so high.

Click to enlarge
It’s worth noting that the whistling problems we encountered during our original review were still apparent on the two BFG Tech GeForce GTX 285s we’ve got (we’ll be looking at GTX 285 SLI performance very soon). According to Nvidia, the problem is only apparent on 220V mains connections and there will be a fix for this – in the form of a cable attachment – coming soon, but we don’t have an official ETA for it yet.

In the bundle, there is a DVI-to-HDMI converter, a DVI-to-VGA dongle, a single six-pin PCI-Express supplementary power connector, an HDTV breakout adapter and an S/PDIF cable. There's also a driver CD, a quick install guide and a couple of case stickers. It's disappointing that BFG Tech has only included the one PCIe power adapter, but we understand why these days – just about every power supply in the last four years includes at least one six-pin PCI-Express power connector.

Click to enlarge
It also comes as no surprise to see that there's no game bundled with the card – BFG hasn't done that on any of its recent cards, and it chooses to instead focus on providing a better warranty for its customers. Overall, the bundle is characteristically light and follows what we’ve come to expect from BFG Tech. That’s fine though, because the major attraction to BFG Tech’s cards is not its bundle – instead, it is the warranty.

Warranty

The company offers a ten year warranty on its products in Europe (because of EU legislation) and a lifetime warranty across the Atlantic in the USA and Canada. The only downside is that the warranty does require activating directly with BFG within 30 days of purchase in order to get the full term, otherwise you'll just be limited to a statutory one-year warranty – that's a fair shake in our opinion, but it's something you need to be aware of.

In addition, BFG also offers its customers free 24/7 technical support via a free 1-800 number, (it's a USA number, you'll need to use SkypeOut to call it free of charge from elsewhere), or via email. The RMA process itself is all handled by UK/USA based RMA centres, so don't worry, you won't have to pay for a FedEx to the States should you have problems with your card.

BFG Tech also has a 100-day trade up programme, but it's only available in the United States at the moment. We're told that it is coming to Europe, but when, we don't know – it’s been talked about for a long time and we haven’t had an update on progress recently. All we know is that the logistics of the programme are still being worked out for the European market.

Flaw exposes Chrome, Firefox to clickjacking

2009-01-30T15:19:00.009-08:00

Security researchers have discovered a flaw affecting Google's Chrome browser that exposes it to clickjacking where an attacker hijacks a browser's functions by substituting a legitimate link with a link of the attacker's choice.

Google has acknowledged the flaw and is working towards a patch for Chrome versions 1.0.154.43 and earlier when running within Windows XP SP2 systems, according to SecNiche security researcher Aditya K Sood.

Sood disclosed the flaw on January 27 and has since posted a proof of concept on the Bugtraq vulnerability-disclosure forum. "Attackers can trick users into performing actions which the users never intended to do and there is no way of tracing such actions later, as the user was genuinely authenticated on the other page," Sood said within the disclosure.

While Google is working on a fix, a spokesperson for the Australian arm of the company pointed out that clickjacking affected all browsers, not just Chrome.

"The [clickjacking] issue is tied to the way the web and web pages were designed to work, and there is no simple fix for any particular browser. We are working with other stakeholders to come up with a standardized long-term mitigation approach," they said.

However, chief executive of Australian security consultancy Novologica, Nishad Herath, told ZDNet.com.au that after running Sood's proof of concept he found that Internet Explorer 8 (release candidate 1 and beta 2 versions) and Opera 9.63 (the latest version) were not exposed to the flaw. But, like Chrome, Firefox 3.0.5 was exposed.

Google's security researchers had not found any attacks in the wild that exploited the specific vulnerability, said Google's spokesperson.

Clickjacking is a relatively new type of browser attack. The attack broadly fits within the category of cross-site scripting forgery, where an attacker uses maliciously crafted HTML or JavaScript code to force a victim's web browser to send an HTTP request to a website of their choosing.

"Clickjacking means that any interaction you have with a website you're on, for example like clicking on a link, may not do what you expect it to do," said Herath.

"You may click on a link that looks like it's pointing to a picture on Flickr, but in reality, it might first direct you to a drive-by-download server that serves malware. These types of attacks can be used to make you interact with web services you're already logged on to in ways that you would never want to, without you even knowing that it has happened."

Credit: Chrome, Firefox get clickjacked was originally published on ZDNet Australia.

BFG Tech GeForce GTX 285 OCX 1GB

2009-01-30T15:19:00.007-08:00

Warranty

Flaw exposes Chrome, Firefox to clickjacking

2009-01-30T15:19:00.005-08:00

While Google is working on a fix, a spokesperson for the Australian arm of the company pointed out that clickjacking affected all browsers, not just Chrome.

Google's security researchers had not found any attacks in the wild that exploited the specific vulnerability, said Google's spokesperson.

"Clickjacking means that any interaction you have with a website you're on, for example like clicking on a link, may not do what you expect it to do," said Herath.

Credit: Chrome, Firefox get clickjacked was originally published on ZDNet Australia.

Postal 2 displayed in Nobel Museum

2009-01-30T15:19:00.003-08:00

Controversial developer Running with Scissors has announced that Postal 2 is to be included in a new art exhibit at the Nobel Museum in Sweden that will focus on free speech.

According to MTV the gory and totally-NSFW game will be included in an exhibit about free speech titled How Free is Free?

Postal 2 attracted much attention when it was first released, giving players the chance to stalk and torture passers-by, as well as urinate on enemies (or allies). The game was also heavily negative in it's portrayal of Muslims and was full of swearing and exorbitant gore. Postal 2 featured weapons like anthrax-filled cows heads and machine guns that could be silenced by putting live kittens over the barrel.

As such the game is being included in the exhibit, asking the question of "What happens when freedom of expression is used as protection to spread prejudices and messages of hate?"

"Having something something of a heavy crush on freedom of speech ourselves, RWS was only too happy to co-operate," the developer said in a statement, adding that they'd worked closely with the Nobel Museum on the exhibit.

Running with Scissors is current hard at work on a third title in the Postal series, which will this time be a third person shooter and include new weapons like rabid badgers strapped into harnesses. The franchise has also been adapted into a film directed by Uwe Boll.

The exhibit opens in Stockholm on the 12th of February - let us know in the forums if you're going to pop along.

BFG Tech GeForce GTX 285 OCX 1GB

2009-01-30T15:19:00.001-08:00