Rackspace, Red Hat Win Decisive Patent Victory

Uniloc USA, Inc. filed the complaint against Rackspace in June 2012 in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas. The complaint alleged that the processing of floating point numbers by the Linux operating system violated U.S. Patent 5,892,697. Rackspace and Red Hat immediately moved to dismiss the case prior to filing an answer. In dismissing the case, Chief Judge Leonard Davis found that Uniloc’s claim was unpatentable under Supreme Court case law that prohibits the patenting of mathematical algorithms. This is the first reported instance in which the Eastern District of Texas has granted an early motion to dismiss finding a patent invalid because it claimed unpatentable subject matter. In the ruling released today, Judge Davis wrote that the asserted claim “is a mathematical formula that is unpatentable under Section 101.”

via Rackspace, Red Hat Win Decisive Patent Victory (NYSE:RHT).

MySQL’s creator on why the future belongs to MariaDB

MariaDB was created to be a drop-in replacement for MySQL. Widenius says that as long as MySQL has a larger user base than MariaDB, remaining drop-in compatibility will be essential, in order to make the transition between the databases trivial.

“However, being a drop-in replacement doesn’t stop us from changing the underlying code to make it faster and better or add new features,” he says.

via Dead database walking: MySQL’s creator on why the future belongs to MariaDB – MariaDB, open source, mysql, Oracle – Computerworld.

Defense Companies Cash in on Gov’t Hyped ‘Cyber-Security’ Threat

Bloomberg News reports that within the past two weeks security contractors Lockheed Martin and Raytheon have signed an agreement under the Department of Homeland Security’s Enhanced Cybersecurity Services program providing new revenue streams and, more notably, unparalleled access to personal information classified as “U.S. government data.”

via Defense Companies Cash in on Gov’t Hyped ‘Cyber-Security’ Threat | Common Dreams.

Android Trojan Found in Targeted Attack

After the installation, an application named “Conference” appears on the desktop

via Android Trojan Found in Targeted Attack – Securelist.

Some sort of malware for android is in the wild.  Theoretically any app one loads on any computer can be malicious.  This was spread via email but the next line highlights something:

If the victim launches this app, he will see text which “enlightens” the information about the upcoming event:

Note the highlighted text.  If you don’t want to become a victim don’t launch applications unless you know why they are there.  Here is the extent of damage to this piece of malware:

While the victim reads this fake message, the malware secretly reports the infection to a command-and-control server. After that, it begins to harvest information stored on the device. The stolen data includes:

  • Contacts (stored both on the phone and the SIM card).
  • Call logs.
  • SMS messages.
  • Geo-location.
  • Phone data (phone number, OS version, phone model, SDK version).

A lot of legitimate applications transmit this information back to home base.  I don’t see this piece of malware being that big of a deal.  Rule of thumb:  Don’t install any .apk files from untrusted sources — like random emails.  If you do happen to install a malicious application, don’t open any app unless you know what it is and why it is there.

Honeypot Stings Attackers With Counterattacks

The PHP portion included a field for “members” to enter their “secret code” to enter the “private zone,” he explains. “So it’s a good idea to try a SQL injection attack” there, he says of the lure.

“My script had [a] few checks for some patterns, and when a SQL injection attempt was detected, the script [threw the] Java applet, ‘GUI for member zona. Welcome,'” he says. The Java applet then installed a backdoor on the attacker’s Windows machine, he says.

via Honeypot Stings Attackers With Counterattacks – Dark Reading.

In his research paper (PDF) on the experiment, Sintsov explains it this way: “Obviously, reverse penetration has a number of moral, ethical and legal issues

OpenShot Video Editor

OpenShot Video Editor is a free, open-source video editor for Linux. OpenShot can take your videos, photos, and music files and help you create the film you have always dreamed of. Easily add sub-titles, transitions, and effects, and then export your film to DVD, YouTube, Vimeo, Xbox 360, and many other common formats. Check out the full feature list, view screenshots, or watch videos of OpenShot in action!

via OpenShot Video Editor | About Us.

This installs with the rpm fusion distribution so it was simply `yum install openshot` on Fedora 14.   After running the editor it does seem useful and the GUI is intuitive.   When I have to edit another video I’ll compare it to Avidemux.  It doesn’t run on Windows however.

MultiPath TCP

MultiPath TCP (MPTCP) is an effort towards enabling the simultaneous use of several IP-addresses/interfaces by a modification of TCP that presents a regular TCP interface to applications, while in fact spreading data across several subflows. Benefits of this include better resource utilization, better throughput and smoother reaction to failures. Slides – explaining MultiPath TCP – are available in .pdf and .pptx format. You can also have a look at our Google Techtalk about MPTCP.

via MultiPath TCP – Linux Kernel implementation : Main – Home Page browse.

Scientists Discover New Atomic Technique to Charge Memory Chips

Once the oxide materials, which are innately insulating, are transformed into a conducting state, the IBM experiments showed that the materials maintain a stable metallic state even when power to the device is removed. This non-volatile property means that chips using devices that operate using this novel phenomenon could be used to store and transport data in a more efficient, event-driven manner instead of requiring the state of the devices to be maintained by constant electrical currents.

via IBM News room – 2013-03-21 Made in IBM Labs: Scientists Discover New Atomic Technique to Charge Memory Chips – United States.