Google Storage

Google is starting a service, which will provide more storage for different Google services, including Gmail. So for $20 a year, you’ll get 6 GB that can be used to store photos in Picasa Web Albums and to send or receive messages in Gmail. It’s unclear whether Google intends to add other services, but Google Docs and Page Creator are possible candidates.

You can manage your storage options from this page. Here are the current plans for upgrade:

* 20 GB ($20.00 per year)

* 40 GB ($75.00 per year)

* 150 GB ($250.00 per year)

* 400 GB ($500.00 per year)

(Note: Initially, the price for the 6 GB option was $1, but Google quickly changed it to $20.)

Google Body

Information search giant Google, Inc. announced Thursday the release of Google Body, a search service aiming to index the internal and external anatomy of every living creature on the planet. "Google has long been dedicated to making information both useful and universally accessible," notes Google VP of Product Development Eric Hind. "We're happy now to extend search to information about human bodies, mine and yours, inside and out, from the number of follicles on my head to the length of the President's toenails."
The project, known as Google Body, sees the company partnering with public transportation systems, libraries, and motor vehicle departments to place scanning equipment in high-traffic doorways and public thoroughfares. Though details of the agreements are scarce and reportedly subject participating city and state officials to strict non-disclosure terms, Google's announcement confirmed that the project is active in several major U.S. population centers, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City, with agreements with at least 16 other cities in late-stage negotiation. "We've passed proof-of-concept at this point," adds Hind, "and now our focus is scalability and rolling this thing out nationwide."

The service, which has been available for some three months to invitation-only beta testers, enables users to search for aggregate information about the anatomy of user-defined groups. "The service is a boon to the medical research community," says Dr. Jennifer Guns of the Johns Hopkins Clinic for Specialism. "Nothing will replace truly controlled trials, but the ability to get a snapshot of, say, the blood pressure of men between 50 and 65 on New York's Upper East Side, can certainly give companies an idea of where they might best spend their research dollars."

Early testers have remarked upon a fuzzy-logic "match my organ" feature, which helps users get in touch with the nearest, most suitable donor for multiple organ systems. "We think of Body as way to bring people together," remarks Google's Hind. The most common searches among testers, however, exploited the service's ability to produce three-dimensional images of the bodies of individual subjects. "I was shocked when I saw it," exclaims Larry Blender of Carson City. "I mean, one, where did they get a 3-D rendering of my ass, and, two, does my ass really look like that? I admit that I satisfied some of my curiosity about a few of my neighbors and co-workers before I thought to search for myself, but I was still really shocked to see it up there."

The service has understandably raised concerns among privacy activists, who point to reports that early users include some well-known insurance companies and two prominent executive recruiting firms. "You know what the top two search terms are, after 'ass'?" asks David Deerfield of People and Privacy, a privacy-focused community outreach group. "They're 'aorta' and 'arterial plaque.' Who do you think is conducting those searches? There's no doubt in my mind that there are insurance company bots scouring this thing and we think it should stop."

Responding to criticism from privacy groups, Google's Hind pointed to the program's opt-out policy. "We are very concerned about user privacy, and that's why we will not make publicly available any information about anybody who let's us know they do not want to participate by wearing an Opt-Out headband when in public. Google archives information about those individuals, but does not make it searchable." The yellow and black vinyl headbands can be requested free of charge by writing to the company at its Mountain View headquarters.

Ref. Link h3r3

How to record others' VoIP conversations

"A software is able to monitor multiple Voice-over-IP (VoIP) call streams, listening in and recording them for remote inspection as .wav files. All that the criminal would need would be to infect a single PC inside the network with a Trojan incorporating these functions, although the hack would work at ISP level as well. The program can index 'IP-tapped' calls by caller - using SIP identity information - and by recipient, and even by date."

Software is Called SIPTAP link h3r3

The program can index 'IP-tapped' calls by caller - using SIP identity information - and by recipient, and even by date. Running from August this year until the most recent tap on November 21st, SIPtap had no problems in extracting enough information on the test network to prove that call recording of any and every VoIP call at a hypothetical company was now a trivial exercise.

SIPtap demonstrates that the worst-case nightmares of VoIP vulnerability are now well within the capabilities of organised crime, which could use such a program to steal confidential data from companies, governments and even the police.

The demonstrator is the work of UK-based VoIP expert, Peter Cox, who co-founded and was CTO of firewall vendor BorderWare, before leaving the company last summer to start his own VoIP consultancy, due to be up and running by Spring 2008. He was inspired to write the software after conversations with encryption guru Phil Zimmermann, creator of Zfone, the latter designed to protect against SIPtap-like hacking by using VoIP call encryption.

"We are in the early days of VoIP, but there is a knowledge gap," said Cox, lamenting the naivety about VoIP's inherent security weaknesses among the mostly telecoms-oriented engineers building such systems. "Companies using VoIP internally think they are protected."

"The threat is that an attacker engineers a Trojan and has it sit there passively [on a network], recording calls from anywhere on the Internet," says Cox.

His advice was simple. "Apply the same vigour when building a VoIP network you would when building a website."

Cox is currently running a series of workshops on VoIP threats in conjunction with SIP Services Europe, and has published his own Video podcast on the topic.

Software Link is here
Video Podcast on the topic

All Linux Security Distros

This is a list of Security related/specific Linux Distros /Distributions that I have been through.
I did not try all of them, but I'm trying them more extensively these days, as currently participating in on of this as maintainer and wanted conduct a research on the features of every one of them to polish harden the one I'm working on it currently.

Please add your comments and any distro that you know about

They are 29 Distributions in count

1) Knoppix STD --> link is h3r3
2) BackTrack --> link is h3r3
3) Damn Vulnerable Linux (DVL) --> link is h3r3
4) DEF (Digital Evidence & Forensic Toolkit) --> link is h3r3
5) grml --> link is h3r3
6) Hakin9 --> link is h3r3
7) Helix --> link is h3r3
8) KCPentrix --> link is h3r3
9) Knoppix-NSM --> link is h3r3
10) nUbuntu --> link is h3r3
11) NST (Network Security Toolkit) --> link is h3r3
12) OWASP LabRat --> link is h3r3
13) Protech --> link is h3r3
14) Arudius --> link is h3r3
15) Auditor (Called now BackTrack) --> link is h3r3
16) Fire --> link is h3r3
17) INSERT --> link is h3r3
18) LAS (Local Area Security) --> link is h3r3
19) Frenzy --> link is h3r3
20) NavynOs --> link is h3r3
21) Operator --> link is h3r3
22) PLAC --> link is h3r3
23) Sentinix --> link is h3r3
24) Talos --> link is h3r3
25) ThePacketMaster --> link is h3r3
26) Trinux --> link is h3r3
27) WarLinux --> link is h3r3
28) Whoppix --> link is h3r3
29) Astaro --> link is h3r3

Firefox 3 Beta 1 Released

Firefox 3 Beta 1 is now available for download. This is the ninth developer milestone focused on testing the core functionality provided by many new features and changes to the platform scheduled for Firefox 3. Ongoing planning for Firefox 3 can be followed at the Firefox 3 Planning Center, as well as in mozilla.dev.planning and on irc.mozilla.org in #granparadiso.

New features and changes in this milestone that require feedback include:

• Improved security features such as: better presentation of website identity and security, malware protection, stricter SSL error pages, anti-virus integration in the download manager, and version checking for insecure plugins.
• Improved ease of use through: better password management, easier add-on installation, new download manager with resumable downloading, full page zoom, animated tab strip, and better integration with Windows Vista and Mac OS X.
• Richer personalization through: one-click bookmarking, smart search bookmark folders, direct typing in location bar searches your history and bookmarks for URLs and page titles, ability to register web applications as protocol handlers, and better customization of download actions for file types.
• Improved platform features such as: new graphics and font rendering architecture, major changes to the HTML rendering engine to provide better CSS, float-, and table layout support, native web page form controls, colour profile management, and offline application support.
• Performance improvements such as: better data reliability for user profiles, architectural improvements to speed up page rendering, over 300 memory leak fixes, and a new XPCOM cycle collector to reduce entire classes of leaks.

Amazon Kindly - eBook Reader oh ya -

It is super, Amazon Released ebook reader in a press conference..
It will hold up to 200 books for a price of $399. It comes ready for wireless downloads and uses a cellular connection rather than WiFi and can download Amazon’s version of WiFi feeds (for a charge).





Original Post h3r3

FreeNAS 0.686b2 is Released

Using this Project FreeNAS you can build your own storage box at Work or home easily, realiably.

FreeNAS is a free NAS (Network-Attached Storage) server, supporting: CIFS (samba), FTP, NFS, AFP, RSYNC, iSCSI protocols, S.M.A.R.T., local user authentication, Software RAID (0,1,5) with a Full WEB configuration interface. FreeNAS takes less than 32MB once installed on Compact Flash, hard drive or USB key.

You can run it from USB key and leave your hard drives to be used as NAS, nevertheless you can make a partition dedicated to FreeNAS OS and application and use the rest as NAS.

I did not have the chance to test it , but last time it was good enough to use it.

The minimal FreeBSD distribution, Web interface, PHP scripts and documentation are based on M0nowall.

FreeNAS project caould be found h3r3

Ubuntu JeOS Released

The Ubuntu development team has announced the inaugural release of Ubuntu JeOS (pronounced "juice"), a customized Ubuntu operating system layer designed for VMware virtual appliances: "Canonical Ltd., the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, announced the availability of its Ubuntu JeOS (Just Enough Operating System) edition.
Ubuntu JeOS (pronounced "Juice") is an efficient variant of the popular desktop and server operating system, configured specifically for virtual appliances. ISVs looking to develop virtual appliances will have a compelling platform in Ubuntu JeOS, an OS optimised for virtualisation that greatly reduces the complexity and maintenance overhead normally associated with general purpose operating systems. Ubuntu JeOS Edition has been tuned to take advantage of key performance technologies of the latest virtualisation products from VMware."

Link at Ubuntu Site h3r3

HTC and the Future of hand held one device fits all

HTC for retailers is a considerably new name, but for OEM is well known.

HTC is hitting the retail market with new devices that are defining a new era of portable devices that can do anything you may imagine.
I have been through HTC Advantage X7501, it is a super device,unbelievable fast , even was able to open MS-Office 2007 word document - LOL-
The HTC Advantage runs Windows Mobile 6, and glad to tell that there are Ubuntu ports for this device, so you can buy it and through the installed windows and install Ubuntu.
There is another model that runs Vista Business edition -;))))))))))!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I would rate HTC line as a Mini-Laptop, I find it better and faster than any other wareable computer I have been through or experienced.

HTC Advantage comes with a neet keyboard that you use it to type and to position the HTC advantage in a comfort position for reading and writing and they are using magnet to attach the tiny keyboard to the HTC Advantage.
still you can use the Keyboard as a screen cover if you are not using the leather carrying case
It has a single cable that can virtually be used for anything (VGA,Composite Vide,Audio,USB).
It has internal flash based storage of 8GB, there is another model that has 30GB flash based storage.
We were able to plug a 4GB flash pen with no pain, read and writes were amazingly fast, although that we did not find a unmount/eject all over but it worked perfectly.
This New device comes in a very sleek package.

Specs.

Processor	624 MHz CPU with ATi™ Graphic Chip W2284
Operating System	Microsoft® Windows Mobile® 6 Professional
Memory	ROM: 256 MB RAM: 128 MB SDRAM
Dimension	133.5 mm (L) x 98 mm (W) x 16 mm (T) Thickness with keyboard: 20 mm
Weight	359g (with battery)
Display	5” transmissive TFT-LCD with backlight LEDs, touch-sensitive screen
Network	HSDPA/UMTS (2100 MHz for Europe, 850/1900 MHz for USA) Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz (The device will operate on frequencies available from the cellular network)
Device Control	5-way Navigation Control HTC VueFLO™ motion sensor assisted browsing experience
Keyboard	Dual usage QWERTY keyboard for text input and display protection
Connectivity	Bluetooth® 2.0 Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g HTC ExtUSB™(11-pin mini-USB and audio jack in one) HTC proprietary 16-pin combined port (USB 1.1 host/VGA and TV Out)
Camera	3 mega-pixel camera with autofocus and flash light
Audio	Built-in/Dual, Hands-free (microphone and speaker) Headphone: AMR/AAC/WAV/WMA/MP3 codec
Battery	Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery Capacity: 2200 mAh Standby time: Up to 300 hours (for GSM/UMTS) Talk time (Screen off): Up to 5.5 hours for GSM Up to 4.5 hours for UMTS
Expansion Slot	miniSD™ (Hot swap and SDHC compatible)
AC Adapter	Voltage range/frequency: 100 - 240V AC, 50/60 Hz DC output: 5V and 1A

Link to HTC devices

Datacenter in an old Mine

Japan and Sun build a Datacenter in an old mine to which in return reduced the cost of colling.
The report states that is the first Datacenter in a min, but I dont agree , because when I worked with Volvo IT - and their schools project - their datacenters were all in old mine.

The coolant will be ground water and the site's temperature is a constant 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit) all year, meaning no air-conditioning will be needed outside the containers. This reduces the energy required for the water chillers, used with surface-level Blackbox containers.

The group estimates that up to $9 million of electricity costs could be saved annually if the centre were to run 30,000 server cores.

Sun is working with eleven other companies, including Internet Initiative Japan - an ISP, BearingPoint, Itochu Techno-Solutions and NS Solutions. They will form a joint venture with Sun. NTT Communications and Chuo University are also involved.

The disused coal mine is located in the Chubu region on Japan's Honshu island. Sun will build 30 Blackbox self-contained datacentres containing a total of 10,000 servers (cores). This can be increased to 30,000 cores if there is the demand for it.

The containers will be lowered 100m into the mine and linked to power, water cooling and network lines via external connectors.

Sun has been developing its Blackbox concept for three years and a typical one has 250 servers mounted in seven racks inside a standard 20-foot shipping container. Sun says that With T-series processors, a single Blackbox can hold up to 2,000 cores, providing 8,000 simultaneous processing threads.

Such a subterranean datacentre will be easier to secure against unauthorised entry and terrorist attacks. The Blackbox containers are robust enough to withstand earthquakes, being capable of withstanding a quake of magnitude 6.7 on the Richter scale. The Nihonkai-Chubu earthquake shook the region in 1983.

The project has been initially costed at $405 million and the site should start offering datacentre services to public and private sector customers in April, 2010.

TOR , the Truth

Quite an interesting research on TOR (the Anonymizer)

Link h3r3

University Sues Google Over Patent

Google has been sued by a university and a start-up company in the U.S. for allegedly infringing on a patented technology to run its online search service.
The suit was filed by Boston's Northeastern University and by Jarg, a private company in Waltham, Mass., that specializes in distributed search technologies and one of whose cofounders, Kenneth Baclawski, is an associate professor at Northeastern.The suit accuses Google of using a distributed database technology developed by Baclawski in its online service. The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and an injunction to prevent Google from further infringing on the patent, as well as royalty payments and damages.

The patent describes a distributed database system that breaks search queries into fragments and distributes them to multiple computers in a network to get faster results. The patent was assigned to Northeastern University, which licensed it exclusively to Jarg, according to the lawsuit, filed last Tuesday with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

"The invention relates to a distributed computer database system which includes a front end computer and a plurality of computer nodes interconnected by a network," the patent states. "The combination of computer nodes interconnected by the network operates as a search engine."

The patent, number 5,694,593, is dated Dec. 2, 1997, and can be viewed by searching the Web site of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

Google also uses a distributed database system that breaks queries into multiple parts for faster processing, the lawsuit states. It notes that Google makes 99 percent of its revenue from search advertising, and that the success of its business depends partly on the speed of its search results.

Jarg learned of the alleged infringement from a Boston-area lawyer who thought Google's search technology resembled that covered by the patent, said Jarg's president, Michael Belanger, according to a reportin Saturday's Boston Globe newspaper. The lawyer's firm would not take up the case unless it was paid in advance, and it took Belanger two and a half years to find a company willing to pursue the case on a contingency basis, the Globe reported.

Google said it was aware of the complaint and considers it to be "without merit," according to the report. Neither Google nor the plaintiffs could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday.

The Marshall Division of the Texas district court, where the suit was filed, is seen as a friendly venue for patent litigators. Although none of the actors in the case are based there, the lawsuit argues it is an appropriate venue for the case because Google provides services there.

No trial date has been set. The next stage will be for Google to respond to the lawsuit and for the court to decide whether a trial is warranted.

Northeastern is a private university known for its cooperative education program, in which students do vocational work as part of their degree. Jarg develops an intellectual property suite called the Semantic Knowledge Indexing Platform, which it markets to life sciences and health care companies through a subsidiary, Semantx Life Sciences.

Original Post h3r3

Hard Disk Contains Trojan horse

Large-capacity hard disks often used by government agencies were found to contain Trojan horse viruses, Investigation Bureau officials warned
By Yang Kuo-wen, Lin Ching-chuan and Rich Chang
STAFF REPORTERS
Sunday, Nov 11, 2007, Page 2

Portable hard discs sold locally and produced by US disk-drive manufacturer Seagate Technology have been found to carry Trojan horse viruses that automatically upload to Beijing Web sites anything the computer user saves on the hard disc, the Investigation Bureau said.

Around 1,800 of the portable Maxtor hard discs, produced in Thailand, carried two Trojan horse viruses: autorun.inf and ghost.pif, the bureau under the Ministry of Justice said.

The tainted portable hard disc uploads any information saved on the computer automatically and without the owner's knowledge to www.nice8.org and www.we168.org, the bureau said.

The affected hard discs are Maxtor Basics 500G discs.

The bureau said that hard discs with such a large capacity are usually used by government agencies to store databases and other information.

Sensitive information may have already been intercepted by Beijing through the two Web sites, the bureau said.

The bureau said that the method of attack was unusual, adding that it suspected Chinese authorities were involved.

In recent years, the Chinese government has run an aggressive spying program relying on information technology and the Internet, the bureau said.

The bureau said this was the first time it had found that Trojan horse viruses had been placed on hard discs before they even reach the market.

The bureau said that it had instructed the product's Taiwanese distributor, Xander International, to remove the products from shelves immediately.

The bureau said that it first received complaints from consumers last month, saying they had detected Trojan horse viruses on brand new hard discs purchased in Taiwan.

Agents began examining hard discs on the market and found the viruses linked to the two Web sites.

Anyone who has purchased this kind of hard disc should return it to the place of purchase, the bureau said.

The distributor told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper) that the company had sold 1,800 tainted discs to stores last month.

It said it had pulled 1,500 discs from shelves, while the remaining 300 had been sold by the stores to consumers.

Seagate's Asian Pacific branch said it was looking into the matter.

Original Link h3r3

Home Made MiniComputer that Runs Minix Linux

Magic-1 is a completely homebuilt minicomputer. It doesn't use an off-the-shelf microprocessor, but instead has a custom CPU made out of 74 Series TTL chips. Altogether there are more than 200 chips in Magic-1 connected together with thousands of individually wrapped wires. And, it works. Not only the hardware, but a full software stack. There's a ANSI C cross-compiler for Magic-1 (retargeted LCC), a fully multi-user, multi-tasking port of the Minix 2 operating system. a TCP/IP stack and hundreds of programs.

Except when he is working on it, Magic-1 is connected to the net. It serves web pages at http://www.magic-1.org, and by clicking here you can telnet in and play Original Adventure or run a few other old classics such as Eliza, Conway's Life or Hunt the Wumpus. To log in, use the id "guest" and the password "magic". Before the Minix port was completed, Magic-1 was running a very simple homebrew operating system. It also had a simple guestbook program. Many thousands of people have telnetted into Magic-1 from around the world, and between 2004 and the summer of 2007 they left 1388 guestbook messages. I've preserved the messsages here.

This web site has served as the development repository for the project, and contains lots of pictures documenting the construction, as well as full documentation and diaries stretching back to the project's beginning in 2001. You can also find a few videos of Magic-1 running, including the first time it worked.
Pic of the home built PC


The Project site h3r3

Other Projects from the same Geek h3r3

RedHat Enterprise 5.1 Released with Better Virtualization

Red Hat has released Enterprise Linux 5.1 with integrated virtualization. This release provides the most compelling platform for customers and software developers ever, with its industry-leading virtualization capabilities complementing Red Hat's newly announced Linux Automation strategy. It offers the industry's broadest deployment ecosystem, covering standalone systems, virtualized systems, appliances and web-scale “cloud” computing environments.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux's deployment flexibility uniquely allows customers to deploy a single platform, virtual or physical, small or large, throughout their enterprise. By providing one platform that spans the broadest range of x86, x86-64, POWER, Itanium and mainframe servers, regardless of size, core count or capacity, customers can gain dramatic operational and cost efficiencies when compared to proprietary solutions. And fully integrated virtualization, included at no additional cost, amplifies these benefits. Notably, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 provides enhanced support for virtualization of Microsoft Windows guests, providing significant performance improvements for Windows XP, Windows Server 2000, 2003 and Windows 2008 beta guests.

“With Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtualization, customers can easily deploy any application, anywhere at anytime,” said Paul Cormier, executive vice president, Worldwide Engineering at Red Hat. “Other virtualization products don't scale to support large numbers of cores or CPUs, which limit customers' ability to utilize their infrastructure, or force customers to deploy multiple virtualization platforms. With Red Hat Enterprise Linux, customers enjoy a flexible yet consistent application environment for all of their virtualization requirements: from small servers to mainframe-class systems, for Linux and Windows servers and for even the most demanding workloads.”

Users deploying Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 and utilizing Virtualization Technology can experience even greater gains. “Red Hat and Intel have worked together in delivering a high-performance platform for virtualization,” said Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president, general manager, Intel Digital Enterprise Group. “Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 allows customers to scale up their virtual infrastructure to run high-performance virtual machines that utilize Intel Virtualization Technology and all the processing power of the Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors and high-end Itanium servers, without the overhead seen in traditional virtualization environments.”

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is also available on Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), a web service that provides resizeable compute capacity in the cloud. This collaboration makes all the capabilities of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, including the Red Hat Network management service, world-class technical support and over 3,400 certified applications, available to customers on Amazon's proven network infrastructure and datacenters.

The combination of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Amazon EC2 changes the economics of computing by allowing customers to pay only for the infrastructure software services and capacity that they actually use. Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2 enables customers to increase or decrease capacity within minutes, removing the need to over-buy software and hardware capacity as a set of resources to handle periodic spikes in demand.

RedHat Enterprise h3r3
RedHat Enterprise Virtualization h3r3
RedHat Enterprise Features
RedHat Enterprise Certified Hardware

NGO and Open Source

This Post explains how an NGO may benefit and use Open Source blocks easily.
it is 8 pages document in PDF format has all the open source applications that an NGO may use from my point of view with the URL of each.

Link h3r3

Open Source Linux Mobile Phone

Google and 33 other companies have announced an ambitious industry alliance that will maintain a completely open source mobile phone stack. The Open Handset Alliance (OHA) says phones based on its Linux-based "Android" stack will reach market in as soon as eight months.
he Android stack is based on "open Linux kernel," the group says. It also includes a full set of mobile phone application software, in order to "significantly lower the cost of developing and distributing mobile devices and services," OHA said.
In taking on not only the Linux kernel and middleware layer, but also the application stack, the OHA appears to have more ambition than earlier industry groups, such as the kernel-oriented LiMo Foundation, and the middleware-oriented LiPS (Linux Phone Standards Forum) and OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) initiatives, among others. In terms of its licensing and scope, the OHA's Android stack may more closely resemble Trolltech's Qtopia Phone Edition and FIC's OpenMoko projects.

OHA founders include:

• Aplix
  
• Ascender Corporation
  
• Audience
  
• Broadcom
  
• China Mobile
  
• eBay
  
• Esmertec
  
• Google
  
• HTC
  
• Intel
  
• KDDI
  
• LivingImage
  
• LG
  
• Marvell
  
• Motorola
  
• NMS Communications
  
• Noser Inc.
  
• NTT DoCoMo
  
• Nuance
  
• Nvidia
  
• PacketVideo
  
• Qualcomm
  
• Samsung
  
• SiRF
  
• SkyPop
  
• SONiVOX
  
• Sprint Nextel
  
• Synaptics
  
• TAT (The Astonishing Tribe)
  
• Telecom Italia
  
• Telefonica
  
• Texas Instruments
  
• T-Mobile
  
• Wind River

Google CEO Eric Schmidt stated, " Our vision is that the powerful platform we're unveiling will power thousands of different phone models."

Wind River CEO Ken Klein stated, "As a Linux commercialization partner for the Alliance, we've made significant contributions to ensure an optimized Linux distribution, and to provide the Linux services necessary for OEMs to quickly create Android-based handsets."

In a brief discussion with LinuxDevices, MontaVista CTO Jim Ready confirmed that the OHA's Android stack should work with MontaVista's recently refreshed Mobilinux OS and tools, while CEO Tom Kelly added, "We have supplied the OS for 90 percent of Linux phones. I'm sure we will join the OHA."

Meanwhile, Wind River CMO John Bruggeman told LinuxDevices, "[Wind River has] done two dozen or more phone wins in the last twelve months, and you will see those announced in 2008. Some will be LiMo based, some OHA based, some Celunite based, some Access based."

Bruggeman added, "The group that really understands how to build the phone is LiMo. Google knows how to build a developer community, and excite innovation. Wouldn't it be cool if somehow there was a compatible foundation? Well, the common thread would have to be at Linux."

Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo, stated, "The LiMo Foundation welcomes the news of Google's mobile initiative. We believe Google's entry into the mobile industry and the launch of the Open Handset Alliance further validate mobile Linux as the foundation technology enabling convergence within and beyond mobile."

The new organization's website is here.

Ubuntu Upgrade Problem with Windows WIFI Drivers

If you upgraded from Ubuntu 7.0.4 to Ubuntu 7.10 with the upgrade utility like me , you may expect troubles with your Windows WIFI driver loaded through NDISWRAPPER.

As the upgrade may cause Ubuntu dropping one or more of your loaded NDISWRAPPER loaded driver although it keeps their modprobe extension.

To correct this issue , please use the command Prompt/Shell to remove the current loaded driver and add it again (at least that solved the problem for me), as using the GUI of NDISWRAPPER to remove the driver and adding it again did not work for me.

Shell command should loook like that
root# ndiswrapper -l
the above command lists the loaded drivers
root# ndiswrapper -r
the above command to remove the listed driver
root# ndiswrapper -i
the above command to load the Windows driver for your WIFI card again
root#ndiswrapper -m
to write modprobe module
reboot
you should be able to use your WIFI again

Google Adsense Routine Maintenance

10 November as Google AdSense Team sent will have couple of hours routine maintenance.

The exact mail is below
"
Tomorrow, November 10th, our engineers will be performing routine site maintenance. Although you won't be able to log in to your account between 10 am and 2 pm PST, we'll continue to serve ads to your pages and track all earnings in your account as usual.

Our international readers can expect the maintenance to start at the following times:

London - 6 pm Saturday
Kiev - 8 pm Saturday
Chennai - 11:30 pm Saturday
Manila - 2 am Sunday
Melbourne - 5 am Sunday

Some of you have been curious about what our engineers are up to during these maintenance periods. As you can imagine, running the system reliably requires constant nurturing. Some maintenance tasks are more fundamental to the way the system operates and are not easily done on the fly -- as a result, it's most efficient and helpful for us to take the system offline for a few hours. With that in mind, our engineers line up these tasks in advance and implement them during our regularly scheduled downtimes. We hope that these maintenance periods aren't too much of an inconvenience, and we appreciate your understanding.

Posted by Arlene Lee - AdSense Publisher Support

Internet Neutrality - Open Source efforts-

The Network Neutrality Squad (NNSquad) is an open-membership, open-source effort, enlisting the Internet's users to help keep the Internet's operations fair and unhindered from unreasonable restrictions.

The project's focus includes detection, analysis, and incident reporting of any anticompetitive, discriminatory, or other restrictive actions on the part of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or affiliated entities, such as the blocking or disruptive manipulation of applications, protocols, transmissions, or bandwidth; or other similar behaviors not specifically requested by their customers.

Other key aspects of the project are discussions, technology development and deployment, and associated activities -- fostering cooperation and mutually agreeable methodologies whenever possible -- aimed at keeping the Internet a maximally unhindered, useful, competitive, fair, and open environment for the broadest possible range of applications and services.

Link to Internet Neutrality Squad h3r3

World Community Grid Computer - You Can Change the world -

Donate the time your computer is turned on, but is idle, to projects that benefit humanity! They provide the secure software that does it all for free, and you become part of a community that is helping to change the world. Once you install the software, you will be participating in World Community Grid. No other action must be taken; it's that simple!
To learn more and join, click h3r3
How Grid Computer works link h3r3
Again, Remember that you can change the world, contribute for You , Me and better human tomorrow.
The mission of Help Conquer Cancer is to improve the results of protein X-ray crystallography, which helps researchers not only annotate unknown parts of the human proteome, but importantly improves their understanding of cancer initiation, progression and treatment.

Decades of cancer research into just two years by using the power of a global PC grid

Canadian researchers have promised to squeeze "decades 162 years" of cancer research into just two years by harnessing the power of a global PC grid..

The scientists are the first from Canada to use IBM's World Community Grid network of PCs and laptops with the power equivalent to one of the globe's top five fastest supercomputers. The team will use the grid to analyze the results of experiments on proteins using data collected by scientists at the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute in Buffalo, New York. The researchers estimate that this analysis would take conventional computer systems 162 years to complete."

Please contribute on World Community Grid Computers link h3r3

Linux Game Company Opens Doors

The Sixth Floor Labs, LLC is a company devoted to improving the Linux gaming scene through the development of solid, fun, and intriguingly games.
the First Project is called Alexandria link h3r3
Project: Alexandria is a top-down shooter with an inertia-based physics model, like Asteroids. The first set of levels is already available on their website.
Characters of the Game link h3r3
download Game release version 1.1 h3r3

Super Geek Toy

In General, it is a kinda of multi-purpose toy that rungs Linux and has it own SDK, so you can program it to do anything. It has GPS,Camer,Wifi,USB,Touch Screen,....

To know more and understand how this super toy works , go h3r3
Full Report about Buglabs toy is here

Gmail SCAM,phishing, Please dont submit your password

Never get trapped, dont submit your password. I just received the blow mail now.
they want to collect as much password as they can
The mail was from : Team Team "team.messagedatas1 @ gmail. com"
Please Gmail ppl take the necessary actions to suspend this mail account, to avoid trapping ppl

Team Team

show details

12:58 pm (2 minutes ago)

G MAI L BETA VERIFY YOUR FREE G MAI L ACCOUNT NOW !!! Dear G ma il Account Owner, This message is from Gmail messaging center to all Gmail free account owners and premium account owners. We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail account center. We are deleting all unused Gmail account to create more space for new accounts. To prevent your account from closing you will have to update it below so that we will know that it's a present used account. CONFIRM YOUR IDENTITY BELOW Gma il! ID : .......... Password : ........... Date of Birth : ...... Country or Territory : ........... Enter the letter from the Security Image : ........ 859304 Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her account within Seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently. Thank you for using Gmail ! Warning Code:VX2G99AAJ Thanks, The Gmail Team G MAI L BETA

Complete HD Image Backup, Acronis Open Source alternate

This Post to complete on Ghost Open Source alternate.
It is called SNAP Backup, Snap backup makes a complete backup of your HD to a central server, it support incremental,differential.
List Of Features
One Click to Perform a Backup
Configurable Settings
Runs on Most Platforms (Including: Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, and Windows)
Supports Multiple Languages
Support all Operating Systems

I may say that is is Aconis Open Source Alternate
Screen Shot of the Client


Link for SNAP Backup Utility h3r3

Ghost Open Source Alternative

As we know Ghost is a software used to image your Windows installation, in other words it help you to have a complete backup of a PC for later restore or replication in environment such as School,University, Computer Training lab, and so on.
The good thing about "FOG" that it stores the images in a local server that you easily build through the installer with We based Admin Interface to control your backup and restore operations.

There is an Open Source Alternative called "FOG" Free Open Source Ghost,FOG is good for anyone running Windows XP and Vista with a single partition. Right now FOG can only handle a single partition on the hard disk. FOG is currently being used by many schools and small businesses who can't afford the licensing of commercial products like Ghost.

What makes FOG different?

• FOG is easy for end user. The end user no longer needs to worry about NIC drivers to image a computer, this is all handled by the kernel. FOG management is done via an easy to use web GUI.
  
• FOG is centralized. Most of tasks done on FOG don't require the user to visit the client PC. For example if you imaging a computer all you need to do is start the task. After the task is started WOL will turn the computer on if it is off, PXE will load the OS, DHCP will give it an IP address, FOG will tell the server it is in progess, and PartImage will image your computer. Then when imaging is done FOG will tell PXE not to boot the machine to the fog image and your computer boots up. After the computer is booted, if the FOG service is installed, FOG will change the computer's hostname and that computer is ready to use!
• FOG is easy to access. All you need is a web browser to image a computer, no client software required. We have heard of organizations using FOG who image computers from an iPOD touch or iPhone.
• FOG is Powerful. With features like memory testing (comming in version 0.05), disk wiping, testdisk, and file recovery, FOG does more than just imaging.
• FOG can grow with you. The FOG server can be broken down and run across multiple machines. For example, your NFS, apache, PXE, and DHCP services can all run on different servers to maximize performance.
• FOG is community driven. Is a feature missing in FOG that you would really love to see? If so, let us know and we will do our best to include it in FOG.
  
• FOG is Open Sorce Whether you have 2 computers or 20,000 computers in your organization, FOG is Open Source
  

Project page h3r3

Linux Services the complete list

List of Linux services/daemons that you can use, with Description and whether it is mandatory or not, and with explanation

Alphabetical Listing of Services
Service Name	Required [Yes/No]	Description	Comments
acon	No	Language support	Specifically for the right to left written languages: Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew
acpi	No	Power Management	laptop battery fan monitor
acpid	No	Listening daemon	This listens for and dispatches acpi events from the kernel
adsl	No	Internal ADSL switch control	Use this only if you have an internal adsl switch for your internet connection.
alsa	No	Advanced Linux Sound Architecture	The only sound system actually included in the kernel
anacron	No	Periodic Command Scheduler	a task scheduling tool
apmd	No	Power Management	Laptop power management
apmiser	No	Power Management	Yet another laptop battery extender
arpwatch	No	Ethernet ip address pairing monitor	monitors and logs remote ip addresses with hostnames.
atd	No	Periodic Command Scheduler	a task scheduling tool
autofs	No	Automount services	one of the several automounting of file systems on demand services. Some of which are distro specific, if the distro you are using has its own automount system, do not use this one.
bluetooth	No	The core of Bluetooth	For all Bluetooth services.
bootparamd	No	boot server	old means for booting diskless clients / thin clients, the newer method is the zeroconf system.
canna	No	Japanese conversion engine
capi4linux	No	Basic CAPI subsystem
cpqarrayd	No	Hardware Service	Compaq Raid Array Monitor
cpufreq	No	Hardware Service	Probes and configured CPU frequency daemon modules
cpufreqd	No	Hardware Service	This one will automatically scale cpu frequency to reduce overheating. Should be useful for over-clocking.
crond	Yes	Periodic Command Scheduler	THE task scheduling tool.
cups-lpd	No	Enables older Linux and commercial Unix systems to connect to cups server	Useful only if you have to allow older systems access to the printers
cups	Yes	Common Unix Printing System	A must have to enable printing
cvs	No	Concurrent Versioning system	For managing multi user documents.
devfsd	No	System Maintenance	This service only cleans up dynamic desktop directories; it is not needed unless your system crashes often.
dhcpd	No	The DHCP server	Is your network large enough that static IPs are a pain, then this will make it easier, giving you DHCP IP configuration for your network.
diald	No	Smart auto dialer for dialup networking	This service will connect to the network on demand, as in you type an email and hit send, it will connect you, send the email and disconnect you.
dkms	No	Autoinstall Boot for DKMS	Distro specific tool, for OEM style installations. This allows for a first boot setting of root password and user name password for regular use. the final configuration of the system.
dm	Yes	Display Manager	The core of the x-server, required for using any GUI.
dnbc	No	Digital Network Bind Chrooter	This is a simple bash script that puts a BIND server in a chroot jail. Install BIND, launch the script, and restart named
drakxtools_http	No	Miniserve administration server	Distro specific tool for remote system administration
dund	No	Bluetooth Dialup networking
fam	No	File system Alteration Monitor	Logger for all changes to a file system.
finger	No	Remote access of data.	This server will allow remote access of user login data, last login date and time. useful for monitoring employee work habits when you are not in the office, major breach of security, in that you are effectively publishing confidential company data online
freshclam	Yes	ClamAV updater	Automatic updates for ClamAV
gpm	Yes	Mouse	Console mode mouse driver
haldaemon	No	Hardware Monitoring System	This monitors for hardware changes, will alter you to new or altered hardware.
harddrake	No	Hardware Service	Distro specific hardware detection and configuration
heartbeat	No	High Availability services	This is intended to increase the priority of critical servers and services
hidd	No	Bluetooth H.I.D. Server
hplip	No	HP Linux Printing and Imaging	Older version of HP supplied drivers for their all in one products
hpoj	No	Pital?init, HP office jet printer drivers	Older drivers for HP office jet, newer drivers are included with cups drivers for the printers
httpd	No	Apache Web server	There are two reasons for this to be on a system, one is it is to be used as a Web server, the other it will be a Web site development machine. If neither is true, do not install Apache and this won't be here.
hylafax?server	No	Enterprise Fax?modem service	This works for class 1 and class 2 fax modems only. This must be running if you intend to use hylafax to send a fax through the modem. This is not the only fax tool available.
ibod	No	ISDN MPPP bandwidth on demand	Useful with dialup networking, this will connect as needed to the network.
identd	No	Identification through TCP connection
imaps	No	secure IMAP server
imaps	No	IMAP server
iplog	No	Logs TCP, UDP, ICMP connections with hostname of remote host	Useful network monitoring tool.
ipop2	No	POP2 mail server
ipop3	No	POP3 mail server
ipsec	No	Encrypted and Authenticated communications	KLIPS is the kernel half, PLUTO is the user space half. very useful for remote access situations
iptables	Yes	kernel based Packet Filtering firewall	All good Linux firewalls are based on this service.
ipvsadmin	No	Linux Kernel IP virtual server	This is one of the oldest networking systems in Linux, not used very much any more.
irda	No	Infra Red Device Interface	Older wireless device support
keytable	Yes	keyboard map	This tells the system exactly which keyboard you are using.
kheader	No	Boot Services	This automatically regenerates the kernel header in /boot
lads	No	Login Anomaly Detection System	A tool to track login attempts and warn of attempted intrusion.
laptop?mode	No	Power Management	A tool to reduce power consumption, extending the life of the laptop battery
leafnode	No	NNTP service for X?INETD
lisa	No	LAN information server
lmsensors	No	Hardware health monitor	This requires that the mainboard of the system supports and has monitoring systems in place, such as the CPU temperature and voltage monitors.
mailman	No	GNU Mailing List Manager	A commonly used mailing list tool, with a Web interface for administration, written in Python. It allows list members to communicate by sending an email to one address, and replying to the same address. Can also be used to send out newsletters / product updates to those that requested such
mandi	No	Interactive Firewall	Special service to allow for temporary wireless access to the system, will open the iptables firewall for current session only access for wireless devices, on user approval only, not automatically.
mdadm	No	Monitoring Service for software raid	This also is a management tools for said software raid volumes.
mdnsresponder	No	Zeroconf DNS configuration tool
messagebus	Yes	Event monitoring service	This one sends broadcast messages to all users when needed, like the server is going down for reboot.
mon	Yes	System Monitoring daemon	A lot of system services require this in order to function
mysqld	No	MySQL server	If you don't need this database, why turn it on?
named	No	BIND server	yes, the infamous name server.
netplugd	No	Network Card daemon	This service monitors the network interface, turning it off or on depending on signal, used mainly for laptops that may not always be connected.
network	Yes	Networking	This turns the network card on, or powers the modem.
nfs	No	Network File Share	This enables the clients to access NFS shares, it is required for the client machines in an NFS system.
nfsfs	No	The Network File Share Server	This should only be active on the network server
nfslock	No	NFS file locking	This should only be active if you are using NFS networking / file share functionality.
nifd	No	Howl Client	This provides ipv4 link?local services for zeroconf networks / systems
nscd	No	Password and group lookup service	This works for slow protocols like N.I.S/Y.P. nist, ldap and hesiod. It is designed to have a longer timeout specifically for these protocols
ntpd	No	Version 4 of the NTP server
numlock	No	number lock light control	This will keep the Numlock activated, turning the keyboard number pad on.
oki4daemon	No	compatibility daemon for OKI4 and compatible winprinters	only useful if you have one of these printers
pand	No	Bluetooth Personal Area Networking	For home area Bluetooth based networking.
partmon	Yes	Partition Monitoring	This service keeps track on free space on mounted partitions. used by most file system browsers for calculating free space on a given partition.
pcmcia	No	Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
pg_autovacum	No	PostgreSQL maintenance	This will automatically run the vacuum needed by PostgreSQL to reduce disk space, pulling temp tables from the db as well as deleting temp files created by PostgreSQL.
pop3s	No	Secure POP3 server	SSL enabled POP3 server
portmap	No	RPC support	Support for those rare apps that use rpc.
Postgresql	No	The Postgresql Database Engine	You only need this if you are either running a postgresql db drives application or are developing one.
postfix	No	email server	asendmail compatible email server, newer than sendmail itself, becoming more commonly used than sendmail.
pptp	No	Shutdown service for ppp	A clean shutdown service for PPP tunnels, used when on ups to avoid lock file problems when power returns to the system.
prelude	No	IDS	Intrusion Detection system
psacct	No	Process Accounting	A Tracker of active processes, a waste of resources really
rawdevices	Yes	Assigns rawdevices to blocks for use	This is needed for DVDS, and oracle DBMS among other things
rsync	No	Remote Synchronization	A server to enable remote synchronization of files in a specified directory tree. Commonly used for maintaining mirror sites, can also be used to keep company files current for backup purposes.
saned	No	Network Scanner Service	To provide access to your scanner from any workstation in the network.
shorwall	Yes	Firewall	A very good IPTables based firewall.
smartd	No	Self Monitor Service	For OS access to smart enabled devices, this will allow Linux to tell you if the device is starting to go bad, but relies on the device smart feature for accuracy.
smb	No	Samba Network Services	This provides the samba services to enable Windows network compatibility.
snmpd	No	Simple Network management Protocol	For use in a small [ home office ] network
sound	No	Sound System	This is the core of the Linux sound system, nice for desktops, a waste of resources on a server
squid	No	Caching Tool	Used to cache Web pages and DNS entries
ssh?xinetd	No	OpenSSH server for x?inetd	a run on demand version of OpenSSH
sshd	No	OpenSSH server	Only turn this on if you require SSH access to your system, and are not going to use the x?inetd version.
subversion	No	Concurrent Versioning system	New alternative to CVS
swat	No	Samba Web Administration Tool	Web based Samba administration
syslog	Yes	System Logging	A Required service, it controls all logging on the entire system.
tmdns	No	Multicast dns responder	For use in zeroconf environments
ultrabayed	No	ThinkPad tool	This detects the presence of the ultrabay for your IBM ThinkPad and starts / stops the IDE interface as appropriate.
upsd	No	NUT daemon and drivers	An uninterrupted power supply monitoring and reporting tool. This tool reports to a central site to generate a database on ups statistics.
upsmon	No	Monitoring tool for UPS	This will monitor the status of the ups, and shut the system down when it's running low.
vncserver	No	Server for Virtual network computing	Very useful for using VNC in projects.
Webmin	No	Remote Administration tool	Distro Agnostic Remote administration tool. Useful for when the machine will not be physically accessible at all times; such as Web server farm.
winbind	No	Samba Name Server	Required for samba networking to function. This maps user and group data from the windows network to the Linux workstation
wine	No	Wine Is Not an Emulator	This enables running MS Windows executables in Linux. WINE is a limited version of the commercial product Crossover Office.
wlan	No	Control Daemon	This Controls services, it is not commonly used as the services are generally controlled through the init process.
x?inetd	Yes	Server for monitoring and controlling other servers	This is required service, and it actually reduces CPU load on a server. if you need SSH, ftp, etc but not all the time, the x?inetd version will start them on request, even remote request. This allows for them to be available, but frees the clock?cycles if they are only being used a few times a day / week.
xfs	Yes	X Font Server	If you are going to be running a GUI at any point in time, this will be required.
ypbind	No	Name Server for Sun's YP server	This is for GLIBC based NIS / YP networked systems.

Hacking as a Business Model

Now we can find sites that are specialized in giving dark side security services , in other words you pay them to infect people with virus and malware.
The website that gives this service charges per PC infection (which they call it load) - please note that the website domain is "load.cc".
Still Linux Desktop PCs are safe from such an attack
I'm not sure if visiting the webiste load.cc is safe or not.
complete report is below

Security researchers studying the latest Internet crime trends have discovered a new Eastern European website that uses a large botnet to infect vulnerable PCs. The operators of the botnet and website charge clients for each successful PC infection.

The site is likely based out of Russia, according to the security researcher’s sources who asked to remain anonymous because of their underground intelligence work. While the front-end website, called loads.cc, doesn't appear to contain or deliver malware, readers are strongly urged to avoid visiting the site in case malware is present and because the site likely logs the IP addresses of its visitors. (The “.cc” Internet domain is assigned to the Australian territories of the Cocos and Keeling Islands.

The sources discovered the site while performing forensics on some servers known to host malware. They say that, when last checked, loads.cc was still in operation.

A view of the loads.cc homepage, provided by researchers.

This service is another example of a service-based hacking product, similar to others recently reported here, that opens up Internet crime to less technically proficient criminals. Rather than compete with some of the other services, it actually complements them.

Whoever is running loads.cc controls a botnet that may include up to several million PCs in its network, according to the sources. The operator of the site provides real-time information on the size and availability of the botnet. The site operator charges clients for using the botnet to infect computers with whatever malware the customer chooses. The going rate at the time of its discovery was about 20 cents per "load," or per successful injection into a vulnerable PC.

A client can ask in advance for a certain number of infections, say 1,000 infections for a $200 fee. Customers can also pay for loads based on country, IP addresses or other attributes. Once the job is done, the client receives a report—essentially an itemized bill—of the IP addresses where loads were successful. Then the perpetrators can pursue their goals: For example, they could potentially distribute spam, grab PC owners’ online banking information, or steal log-in credentials.

Ref URL h3r3

Western Digital Releases pinkPocket HD for charity

Western Digital is the latest drive maker to offer pocket-friendly storage that triggers a charity donation every time one's purchased. Like Sony, Belkin, Seagate and other before it, WD's targeting Breast Cancer, but it's not going to stop giving after a month.
Original Post h3r3