Massive botnet 'indestructible,' say researchers News June 29, 2011 04:19 PM ET Computerworld - A new and improved botnet that has infected more than four million PCs is "practically indestructible," security researchers say. "TDL-4," the name for both the bot Trojan that infects machines and the ensuing collection of compromised computers, is "the most sophisticated threat today," said Kaspersky Labs researcher Sergey Golovanov in a detailed analysis Monday. "[TDL-4] is practically indestructible," Golovanov said. Others agree. "I wouldn't say it's perfectly indestructible, but it is pretty much indestructible," said Joe Stewart, director of malware research at Dell SecureWorks and an internationally-known botnet expert, in an interview today. Golovanov and Stewart based their judgments on a variety of TDL-4's traits, all which make it an extremely tough character to detect, delete, suppress or eradicate. But that's not TDL-4's secret weapon. "Each time a botnet gets taken down it raises the bar for the next time," noted Schouwenberg.
Biz Break: For Apple, other Silicon Valley tech stocks, a midyear checkup By Frank Michael Russell frussell@mercurynews.com Posted: 06/30/2011 01:34:53 PM PDT0 Comments|Updated: 3 years ago Today: Apple and the tech-heavy Nasdaq are up so far this year, but Apple has declined since reaching a record close in February. Plus: A new partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Midyear stocks: Tech-heavy Nasdaq risesIt's the last day of June - and the last stock-trading day of the first half of 2011.After a turbulent few months, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index (a favorite here in tech-heavy Silicon Valley) finished 4.5 percent higher than its closing level at the end of 2010.Several of Silicon Valley's largest tech stocks by market value also are in positive territory for 2011 - including Apple, Oracle and Intel. The blue chip Dow Jones industrial average (home to tech blue chips Cisco Systems, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and IBM) was up 7.2 percent for the first half of the year. Solar power: The U.S. The conditions of the loan guarantees weren't disclosed.
Applied Materials reveals breakthrough in chip manufacturing Applied Materials, the largest maker of chip making equipment, announced what it called a “breakthrough” technology in manufacturing chips that could become critical for continued technological progress in electronics for years to come. The advance comes in a category of chip-making equipment called “rapid thermal processing,” or RTP. That involves heating a chip material to levels of heat similar to that of jet engine within a very short period of time. “This represents multiple divisions in the company coming together to create a revolutionary technology,” said Sundar Ramamurthy (pictured at top), vice president and general manager in a division at Applied Materials. Applied has been making RTP machines for 15 years and nearly every chip manufacturer has one of its machines. The variation in manufacturing, caused by a breakdown in the ability to create exactly uniform chips, makes it much harder for chip makers to create cheap semiconductors.
How nonprofits can use crowdsourcing to work smarter and save money Greenfunder funds socially responsible projects and businesses. Target audience: Nonprofits, social enterprises, NGOs, foundations, businesses, educators. This is part one of a two-part series on crowdsourcing. By Lindsay Oberst Socialbrite staff High-quality work at a low cost. Crowdsourcing refers to harnessing the skills and enthusiasm of those outside an organization who are prepared to volunteer their time contributing content or skills and solving problems, sometimes for free, sometimes for a fee. Crowdsourcing, a bit of a catch-all term, can be used to gather information, solicit advice, save money or get stuff done. We’ve seen the rise of community crowdsourcing with the advent of social media, but it’s always been part of the way society works. Here are a few quick, low-key ways crowdsourcing works Say you’re a nonprofit looking to improve your services. Or take blog posts. 3 examples of nonprofits using crowdsourcing Samasource The second is what he calls “curated crowdsourcing.”
Why you can't print counterfeit money on a color laser printer | Printers | Macworld Could you print counterfeit money, certificates, or other official documents on a color laser or LED printer? Some current printer models are indeed capable of creating reasonable facsimiles. The authorities, however, have already taken steps to thwart such activity. Print any nontext image on your printer, and take a very close look at it under bright light: You might just be able to make out a subtle pattern of yellow dots covering the page. Those dots are a microscopic code that allows government agencies to trace the page back to the printer that created it--making the person who pressed the Print button pretty easy to find. How is the code printed, and what data does it contain? As color laser printers become affordable enough for small or home offices, this tracing technology is coming closer to where we all live. Consumers who discover the dots are understandably surprised. What does all of this mean for you and your beloved color laser or LED printer?
Mark Suster: Understanding the Changes in the Software & Venture Capital Industries The venture capital industry has changed over the past 5 years in ways that I believe will be lasting rather than temporal change. We are in the process of our own creative destruction with new market entrants and new models of innovation at the precise moment that our industry itself is contracting. When the dust settles, although we will have fewer firms, each type well end up more focused on traditional stage segments that cater to the core competencies of that firm. The trend of funding anything from the first $25,000 to funding $50 million at a $1 billion-plus valuation is unlikely to last as the skills and style to be effective at all stages are diverse enough to warrant focus. I will argue that LPs who invest in VC funds will also need to adjust a bit as well. Rewind When I built my first company starting in 1999 it cost $2.5 million in infrastructure just to get started and another $2.5 million in team costs to code, launch, manage, market & sell our software. Enter Amazon. Amazon.
Page 2. >> Make Your Own Moleskine-Like-Notebook Now comes the fun part. Measure off a length of upholsery thread equal to the number of signatures multiplied by the height of one spine. For instance this project has 8 (signatures) with a spine that measures 5 1/2" so; 8 x 5.5 = 44". Pick up one of your signatures and open it a little to the center. Pull the thread until all the slack is out of the signature while holding the short piece of thread at the bottom. Place another signature next to your first one and push the needle into the corresponding top hole of the second signature. I've noticed two things that happen to me when sewing signatures: I feel like I have only thumbs and I lose track of where I started. Okay, where were we? Place your third signature next to the first two and sew in and out like you did before, making sure to sew into the second signature. Here's a diagram of how the sewing goes throughout the eight signatures. This is called a kettle stitch and it's used to tie each new signature to the one before it.
Cisco Systems embraces “media company” concept with launch of The Network | Business Posted on June 28, 2011 8:18 am by Shel Holtz | Business | Media | Social Media Cisco Systems may be under seige by investors—including no less than Ralph Nader—but at nobody can blame the company’s communications team of failing to do its part. Earlier this month, Cisco relaunched its corporate news site with a new name— The Network—and a new approach to sharing news and information. “A piece of content that is shared with a friend, or friends, or followers, or the world is the ultimate measurement of its success,” according to social media team leader John Earnhardt, writing on the Cisco blog, The Platform. The Network (whose name was selected as the result of a vote by more than 180,000 of Cisco’s followers) is the latest effort by a company to expand beyond traditional content and assume the characteristics of a media company. The idea is to produce sharable content that’s worth sharing. Cisco isn’t even mentioned in the article.
The Power of Negative Gossip: Coloring How We See the World, One Rumor at a Time | Artful Choice Gossip: you can’t avoid it. And maybe, you shouldn’t want to. Scientists have argued that gossip is an important tool for social cohesion and information transmission, allowing us to function more effectively in an ever-larger society. Moreover, it’s an important tool for affective learning: it can give us a sense of who would make a good ally—or who we should avoid—even in the absence of direct contact. But can gossip influence our minds on a more profound level? Recent findings presented in this month’s Science suggest that yes, it can. How gossip affects our actual perception of the world In the study, researchers used a typical paradigm used to study visual processing, binocular rivalry. In this case, subjects saw neutral faces, with exactly the same visual properties. What happened? The consequences of focusing on the negative So, gossip—especially of the nasty kind—not only influences our perceptions in a more abstract sense (Who do we like? Is this a good thing?