Hello and welcome HPR listeners to another short episode on news about or surrounding the GNU/Linux world, the Free and Open Source world, and frankly anything i find of interest. I'm your host finux
First up,
Gmail announces multiple attachment upload capabilities to its email service. On February 25th users may have noticed that now they can upload multiple attachments rather than the one at a time as before.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Gmail-Multiple-Attachments-Upload-Capabil...
Over in the UK, British Telecom has began its Firmware upgrade to all its business customers. The upgrade marked attention due to it enabling it BT's OpenZone service. The upgrade in a nutshell add's a second Access Point to the business hub that OpenZone users can connect to. It has been enabled by default for 20'000 business customers, and 200'000 will be upgraded over the next few months.
Many claims of BT in essence charging twice for the same bandwidth have been heard, once to the BT Business customer and again to the OpenZone customer. The two ap's share the same bandwidth, customers do have the option to turn it off, however many customers are wondering how. My advice would be to call BT Technical Helpdesk on 0800 800 154, and ask them to show you how to turn it off. The other point that i may be wrong about here, but i also think that the OpenZone AP is protected by the same weak WEP 64bit key as the BT Business customers wireless router, so in theory hackers could attack the OpenZone wireless network and gain the weak WEP key.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/27/bt_business_fon/
Also in the UK, UFO hacker Gary McKinnon once again had is hopes dashed by British prosecutors over his extradition to the US, to answer charges of hacking.
UK prosecutors decided that there was not enough evidence to support a conviction in the UK, even though his defence team had sent a signed confession from McKinnon. I like many other British citizens are wondering why a signed confession isn't enough to guarantee a conviction, however i'm sure they'll be some suitably complicated answer to that by the Crown Prosecution Service.
McKinnon's four year fight against extradition has seen wide spread support for him to be tried under UK law, included in his backers is 8 British MPs and the London Mayor Borris Johnson, with pleas that any prison time given to McKinnon be served in a UK jail, where at least his family could visit him. His case has also picked up a lot of support due to his recent diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome, and many autism experts are arguing that he shouldn't be serving any jail time anywhere.
A judicial review has been scheduled for sometime in march
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/26/mckinnon_uk_trial_rejection/
for more information on the case and the circumstances relating to it, then you can visit freegary.org.uk
TomTom are in the brown stuff again, but this time its Microsoft who are after them. The satnav makers have had a patent infringement case filled against them in US district court in Washington, it is alleged that tomtom have used MS's FAT Long File Name patents without license, and have refused to sit down with MicroSoft to negotiate a settlement.
In October 2004 TomTom where in trouble with the GPL Violations project, and in the end made its modifications to the Linux Kernel public.
And finally Hacking Scholarship announced by EC-Council,
The EC-Council announced on the 28th of February that it will be donating a $100'000 US Dollars to help in the fight against cyber-crime. The EC-Council are well known in the security industry for their security certification products, such as the Certified Ethical Hacking qualification and their Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator qualification.
The president and co-founder of EC-Council said "While the nuclear arm’s race is a logical threat, it is limited to nations and certain organizations that posses the technology and massive resources. The cyber arm’s race is open to anyone and everyone that posses the right knowledge. Therefore, we must empower cyber defenders to stop the escalation of cyber terrorism, and we hope that this action of EC-Council will also be a timely way of investing in the future of young leaders that will be pioneers to defend the nations globally through the new frontiers.” For more information on the scholarship visit http://www.eccouncil.org/secureaid/ The closing date for the application is June 30, 2009.
Its also worth noting that the fund can be used for other qualifications outwith the EC-Council structure such as CISSP, CISM, CISA,
http://www.pr.com/press-release/135377
Events,
As usual if anyone wants their user group meeting or event annonunced or if you have a story you want me to mention then please could drop me a email at finux@thelinuxsociety.org.uk.
the UK's Unix & Open Systems User Group UKUUG's annual Large Installation Systems Administration (LISA) conference Park Crescent Conference Centre, London 24th to 26th March www.ukuug.org/events/spring2009 [if it's feasible to give URLs on-air]
I would also like to give a shout out to these people this week,
Zero Signal, Knight Wise, Three Thirty,
Thank you for your kind words they are gratefully accepted.
That's all and i hope you all have a enjoyed listening and catch you all again soon on HackerPublicRadio
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