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Community-Developed Projects Play Key Role in Growing Influence and Meeting Demand for Innovative Open Source Technologies

What would happen if Mozilla's Firefox suddenly became the browser that everyone was running? What would happen if it was as big a target for hackers and for virus and spyware authors as Internet Explorer is now. How would Firefox's reputation for security hold up? One has to wonder how secure a default Firefox installation is, and if there are things that can be done to make a Firefox deployment more secure?

[ED: Oh, the horror - well this really is more about the lack of Windows IE security than the supposed object of interest. In physics scattering probability from a given nucleus is measure in terms of "barns" that if compared to the content here would be strictly proportional to the physical size and packing density, i.e. size of the program and how dense the number of targets in use on the internet. In nuclear physics and here too on a more mundane topic the interactions are much more complex than simple a priori probability. To be a worthwhile target in the case of a browser it must allow a pathway to either control or damage the target system, hence, even were the numbers reduced the integration of IE directly to the OS makes it still a more tempting target. Moreover, being more easily compromised just adds to its inherent attractiveness.

So if you like to read why IE, Windows are not inherently at fault, this is a simple minded article for you - HC]

Advocates for transparency in electronic voting systems praise North Carolina's Public Confidence in Elections law that requires rigorous review of the code used in the state's certified elections software. They just wish North Carolina elections officials would adhere to the legislation.

The SCX-4200 is compatible with Windows (98/ME/2000/XP) and Linux (Red Hat, Caldera, Mandrake, Slackware, SUSE and Turbo Linux) operating systems. The Samsung SCX 4200 is available in March 2006 for $199 ESP.

Linux Australia has announced Pascal Klein as the inaugural winner of the organisation's People's Choice Community Member of the Year award.

Klein, a sixteen year old student from Canberra, was selected from a field of over fifteen candidates nominated by the Linux Australia community. His prize consists of a complimentary ticket to the world's premier technical open source software (OSS) conference, linux.conf.au (LCA), and money to help cover travel and accommodation expenses. This year's linux.conf.au is being held at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Robert David STEELE Vivas, CEO of OSS.Net, the principal international proponent for Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) since 1988, a period of eighteen years, announced today the awards to be presented 17 January 2006, at the Global Information Conference that takes place annually.

PRWeb, the Internet’s leading press release distribution newswire, has announced the beta launch of PRWeb Photowire, the Internet’s first free news and PR image wire service.

PRWeb Photowire allows users to upload their own high-resolution news photos and images, providing a stand-alone resource for quickly delivering news images to the media. In addition, the new service enables images to be tagged with keywords using Open Source AJAX technology.

Today, really smart but non-tech-savvy business types are founding companies that either sell open source software or make heavy use of it, or both. The interesting part is that, in many cases, these smart guys seem to be trying to hide the fact that they are not well-versed in the technicalities and usage of the very open source software they're selling. Why hide it? Surely the "open source community" has matured enough to appreciate and welcome those who want to promote FOSS without crucifying them because they aren't hackers.

  LXer Feature: 13-Jan-06

Linux News raises questions about Microsoft's alleged $6 billion per year investment in R&D. Is it money well spent, or are they just throwing it away?

Digg Story

Teron writes: I recently rented the film Aliens vs. Predator.
Haven't watched it yet, don't know if it's cr*p or not.
But, when I put the DVD to my PS2 to watch it, up jumps a commercial.
It was that commercial that made me write this.

"You wouldn't steal this, you wouldn't steal that. You wouldn't steal a movie, right? Movie piracy is stealing. Stealing is against the law. Piracy is a crime."

Maybe the title should have been "Does Microsoft Use the DOJ as a Shill Against Linux and any other competitive threats?"

Sadly this story carries over into the events taking place in Massachusetts, where raw intimidation of the worst kind was used to send a most chilling messages into a critically important marketplace of government information management systems.

Related to:
Does the DoJ Use Microsoft as a Shill Against Linux?

In a rush to arrange an interview just as the holidays rapidly approached at the end of 2005 a series of mis-communications has resulted in a more interesting set of questions and answers than might have been otherwise expected.

SFN writes: I knew I shouldn't have read this but I guess I just can't help myself. As usual, MS - this time throwing it's voice through ventriloquist dummy Martin Gregory - is presenting us with ideas that run the gamut from baseless opinion to bald face lie. Let's take each point one at a time.

Related to:
Microsoft's open source point man

  LXer News Story: 10-Jan-06

The Bible Desktop Project released Bible Desktop 1.0, a Java-based Bible study program, on Saturday. Thanks to a committed, responsive development team, Bible Desktop is maturing into a solid Bible study tool.

Diggable

In response to The Boston Globe In Agony Over Peter Quinn?, Gary writes: Big media is corrupt and long ago lost the trust of their readership... Where's the Department of Justice? Or how about Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly? Talk about being asleep at the switch! And it's not just the reprehensible array of intimidation, FUD, and outrageous corruption of democratic processes to further their own business needs that should cause us all to shout loudly that Microsoft be immediately hauled back in the docket.

This is the second part of my series on the Internet in China. I recently returned from a year teaching at a Chinese University. During my time in China, I had the pleasure of getting to know the state of the Internet in China, both directly and indirectly, through my own use of the Internet and the classes. In my last article, The Butterfly Effect: Microsoft, Security, and the Developing World, I dealt with the effect of pirated software and security and its impact on development. In this article, I would like to cover my experience of the Chinese Firewall from the inside and the way we contribute to censorship in China.

It's nearly time folks, are you excited? That's right, the "new" version of Windows is almost upon us and down at Redmond the coffers are being readied. Microsoft are getting ready to collect another pile of money from your children, your governments, your hospitals and your paycheck.

If Microsoft's a crocodile, Steve Gibson's its version of the Crocodile Hunter. The Gibson Research chief claims somebody on the Windows crew installed the WMF vulnerability as a backdoor. Redmond vehemently disagrees. But they both agree on one thing:

The growing influence of open source movement – the collaborative effort by which developers freely contribute and distribute software codes — has caught up with the local education sector as five tertiary institutions made a deal to promote the technology in their curriculum.

With all the recent comments and stories posted by the self-satisfied realists, where they insist any idealistic endeavor is doomed to fail, this is a very telling antidote: "Mr Graham Hosty, of Huddersfield, has discovered a nova with nothing more to help him than an O-Level in astronomy, keen eyesight, one half of a broken pair of binoculars that cost him £10, and an observatory housed in a wooden shed in the yard of his back-to-back house."