Slashback: Quinn, InfoCards, McKinnon 103
Globe's Ombudsman silent no longer. Andy Updegrove writes "For two months, the ombudsman of the Boston Globe has been silent on the reporting that helped bring about Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn's resignation. Last night, in response to an entry pointing out that silence at the Standards Blog, ombudsman Richard Chacon at last responded, admitting to "lingering questions over why the [Quinn travel investigation] story was allowed to run without comment from Eric Kriss," but standing by "the initial reasons for looking into the story." Chacon also promises to report back with further observations after contacting Peter Quinn."
Microsoft continues push for 'InfoCards'. FrankieBoy writes "Bill Gate kicked off the RSA computer conference in San Jose, CA by unveiling a few more details about their new 'InfoCard' system in the upcoming IE7. With InfoCards people could save personal information on virtual cards on their computers which websites would recognize removing the need for many different internet passwords."
Gary McKinnon extradition hearing reopened. earthlingpink writes "BBC News is reporting that the extradition hearing has reopened for Briton Gary McKinnon who is accused by the US of hacking into military computers. The damages he has caused is estimated at £370,000 (about $640,000 today) and he is said to face more than 45 years in prison. The original story and audio interview were both covered by Slashdot in June of last year."
Bugs to help kick oil addiction. Mr. Ghost writes "Bugs such as certain species of termites and fungi such as Trichoderma reesei may be the key to effectively and cheaply generate ethanol from cellulose. Small companies like Iogen and large international energy companies like Royal Dutch Shell are putting more and more money into this research. This type of technology may even be a way for the American automobile industry to gain back market share from its competitors."
Nice. (Score:5, Insightful)
Ethanol the answer to the US auto industry (Score:1, Insightful)
Passport The Standard? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Nice. (Score:2, Insightful)
Why, yes, yes it will.
Aren't you sleeping soundly, Citizen?
Trust the Computer: The Computer is Your Friend.
yes they can, without that much trouble. (Score:3, Insightful)
They can do that now, depending on what tools you use to store your information. All of the better browsers have some kind of password memory. If you took Bill's bait, you are using passport, the one password to rule them all. Of course, any of the keyloggers that propagate by M$ born worm will remember your passwords without telling you and Microsoft's "fast find" has kept a log of everything you type since 98. The real thing to worry about is the system being compromised from afar. Someone who knows what they are doing does not have to steal your laptop to get what they want out of it. Non Microsoft tools have taken local and remote attack into consideration but all bets are off with silly stuff like fast find.
Things are better on non M$ platforms.
InfoCard and Passport (Score:4, Insightful)
US auto industry, not US oil industry (Score:1, Insightful)
Technology which could lower the price of fuel would reverse or at least negate this effect, allowing the U.S. car industry to recover.
Lowering oil prices would also benefit Japanese carmakers, of course, but who cares? Economics is not a zero-sum game. It's possible for something to benefit both American carmakers and foreign carmakers.
Re:Biofuels are great! (Score:3, Insightful)
If you think about it why would they let themselves go out of business? Who is to say they wont buy out bio firms and farms working on alt fuels? Trust me, one day driving by exxon and shell farms producing the raw material for ethanol and bio diesel.
Because its a crime stupid. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:yes they can, without that much trouble. (Score:1, Insightful)
The way it works is information such as passwords are stored in an encrypted storage system that can only be unlocked by the encryption key associated with a Windows account. If someone steals your laptop, as long as they don't know your Windows password they can't access that information. I don't know why you mention Passport as it has nothing to do with this, except that the storage system can be configured to remember Passport account information as well. Or not.
I have no idea what you mean by "fast find".
Hope that's slightly educational - spreading FUD about Microsoft is no different than crying when they do the same to us. Please leave the advocacy to those of us who actually understand the enemy. Blabbering "M$ is teh sux" on Slashdot all day might be a nice way to fill your time but is not helpful.
Ombudsman didn't get it either (Score:3, Insightful)