Balandar

Borg is the founder of The Honor Empire. Here are some more Happy Birthday posts. http://forums.thehonorempire.net....;t=1719

Borg is always assimilating new knowledge. So of course he is wiser! Happy Birthday Borg!!

Even more reason to do so.. to get you EQ addicts into DAoC and UO! Well, at least get all of you ready to jump into SWG! The SWG site is still being worked on. Hopefully I can get it up sometime soon (if college permits ).

From: http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/busines....vulnera Linksys vulnerability puts home users at risk Paul Roberts An easily exploitable software vulnerability in a common home networking router by Linksys Group could expose thousands of home users to denial of service attacks, according to a security advisory issued by iDefense, a software security company. Linksys, based in Irvine, California, could not immediately be reached for comment. Linksys is one of a number of companies that sell low-priced network gear to SOHO (small office/home office) customers. The product, the Linksys BEFSR41 EtherFast Cable/DSL router, is a low-cost router that allows two or more computers to share an ethernet or broadband Internet connection. A security hole in some versions of the software -- called "firmware" -- used by the router could allow a remote user to crash the device, interrupting Internet service for any computers attached to it, according to iDefense. To cause a crash, an attacker only needs to enter the URL (uniform resource locator) for a CGI (Common Gateway Interface) script used to configure and manage the router without providing any "arguments" (input for the script to process), according to iDefense. In most situations, the attacker would already need to be on a computer connected to the network to execute an attack. However, if the router has a 'remote management' feature enabled, a malicious hacker could execute an attack from anywhere on the Internet by entering the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the router along with the name of the script into his or her Web browser. "An attacker could just scan a (network) subnet for IP addresses belonging to Linksys routers. Once they identified the targeted routers, they could bring them down just using their Web browser," said Sunil James, a senior security engineer at iDefense, which is in Chantilly, Virginia. The vulnerability affects BEFSR41 routers using a version of the router firmware earlier than version 1.42.7. Other Linksys models including the BEFSR11 and BEFSRU31 routers may also be affected by the vulnerability, according to James. Those models use the same embedded Web server and firmware software as the BEFSR41, James said. IDefense has not tested the vulnerability on the BEFSR11 or BEFSRU31 router hardware, James said. Aside from losing Internet connectivity, however, James said that iDefense does not believe the vulnerability would allow attackers to place or execute malicious code on an affected network. Following an attack, users would need to reset the router by pressing a reset button on the back of the device to restore it, according to iDefense. To guard against this vulnerability, iDefense recommends upgrading the router firmware to version 1.42.7 or later (http://www.linksys.com/download/firmware.asp). That and subsequent firmware versions appear to eliminate the vulnerability, though Linksys makes no mention of the vulnerability in the release notes that accompany the updated firmware, according to James. Users are also asked to verify that the router's remote management feature is not enabled. Denial of service (DOS) attacks are usually associated with coordinated efforts by one or more hackers against high-visibility corporate Web sites such as eBay and Microsoft. However, the growing popularity of broadband Internet connections in the U.S., Europe, and Asia have made small office and home-based computer networks -- and attacks that target those networks -- common. A study in 2001 by researchers from the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis at the San Diego Supercomputer Center found that a significant percentage of more than 12,000 DOS attacks the group studied were against home users with broadband Internet connections. Researchers theorized that personal vendettas may have been the motivation for many of those attacks.

From: http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1106w.html#item5 "SETI@home Yields to Pressure to Curb Cheating" ZDNet Australia (11/04/02) In response to complaints of rampant cheating in the SETI@home project, administrators have promised to clamp down on such practices. More than 800 of the project's major contributors signed a petition after participant Max Nealon revealed last week that the number of illegitimate work units being returned to SETI@home has climbed dramatically. Part of this revelation involved the disclosure by SETI@Netherlands team leader Rick Groenewegen that 41 percent of about 8 million work units returned by his team were false, and he added that many teams have cheated since SETI@home was launched three years ago. Complaints of cheating from the SETI@home community were repeatedly ignored by the project's administrators at Berkeley, according to Groenewegen. Nealon stated that he believes most of the work returned by SETI@home's leading contributory sources is the result of cheating. SETI@home director David Anderson promised that the project would do its utmost to investigate suspicions of cheating, and delete the accounts of any user found guilty of tweaking his work unit output. However, he admitted last month that manpower problems would likely be given a higher priority than cheating. Anderson is urging contributors to help make the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Networked Computing (BOINC) that will succeed SETI@home cheat-proof. http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstec....,00.htm

From: http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1101f.html#item5 "Cheats Wreak Havoc on SETI@home: Participants" ZDNet Australia (10/30/02); Colley, Andrew As the race to contribute the most computing power to the SETI@home distributed computing project enters its final two-month stretch, participants are accusing project administrators of ignoring claims of cheating. The sudden gains made by relative newcomer SETI@Netherlands, which have helped it rapidly close the gap between it and current leader ARS Technica-sponsored Team Lamb Chop (ATLC), are arousing suspicion. IT professional and SETI@home expert Max Nealon notes that some members of Team Netherlands are returning 5,000 work units (WUs) every day, but estimates that it would take a 1 GHz PC devoted to SETI@home processing six hours to complete just 1 WU. The idea that team members could possess 1,250 GHz of processing power dedicated solely to the project is dubious, he explains. Adding fuel to his argument are allegations reportedly made by SETI Netherlands' team manager, claiming that cheating is common and that 41 percent of the team's work is invalid. Nealon says there are several ways to cheat: In one scenario, partially completed WUs could be distributed to other team members' SETI@home accounts. Yet he reports that his notifying SETI@home administrators of cheating has not elicited any response, and he believes this is because they are more concerned with the project's paucity of resources. Nealon warns that if such cheating is rampant, then the approximately three million results compiled by the project thus far could be called into question. http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstec....,00.htm Here are my Set @ Home stats: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/fcgi-bi....ats_new

http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-...21m.html#item16 "Enterprise Play" InfoWorld (10/14/02) Vol. 24, No. 41, P. 44; McCarthy, Jack The gaming industry is rapidly rolling out advancements in data speed, graphics, and interactive computing that have attracted the attention of corporate computer users. Video cards that game developers use to deliver 3D graphics have been adopted by Macquarium so that it can enhance the Web sites it designs for clients. Internap Network Services has developed a private network access point platform in response to gamers' demands for real-time, high-bandwidth, multiplayer gaming, according to CTO Ali Marashi; the platform, which optimizes routing from service providers, is being deployed for Charles Schwab, Travelocity, and other corporate customers whose real-time and delivery requirements are critical to business. Meanwhile, Estco Medical CTO Seth Berger has channeled his game development expertise into a Web-based collaborative platform that medical device providers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and biotech firms can use for online marketing purposes. "Just as community building allows game developers to hear what's important to the gamers and develop better products, [the platform] facilitates communication among patients, physicians, and other clinicians so that better treatment modalities can be developed," he explains. Butterfly.net has implemented a grid networking scheme to facilitate scalable multiplayer games, and CTO Mark Wirt remarks that it demonstrates that efficient, inexpensive networks can be deployed in a way that generates revenue. TransGaming Technologies CEO Gavriel State says that software portability elements that foster cross-platform game compatibility can also lay the groundwork for enterprise application development. Microsoft and Sony, meanwhile, are adding technology such as broadband and enhanced networking to their respective Xbox and PlayStation systems that could be adopted by others. http://staging.infoworld.com/article....ry.html

http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-...21m.html#item18 "Super Soldiers" Technology Review (10/02) Vol. 105, No. 8, P. 44; Talbot, David The U.S. military is investing $50 million in a project that seeks to enhance the performance and capabilities of soldiers through nanotechnology. MIT earned this contract after demonstrating actual products, such as an "artificial muscle" that could be used to bind wounds or increase strength; a microscopic chemical sensor; and optical threads that could be applied to remote infrared communication. The Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies that MIT is founding with the grant will act as a testbed where distinct technologies can be brought together. The institute plans to have nanotech applications that can be added to existing military systems ready in five years, while integrating them all could take 10 years or longer. A major goal of the institute is to embed strength into uniforms through such technologies as the artificial muscle, which is composed of an electroactive polymer whose shape and length can be adjusted by electrical voltage; a person wearing a uniform with 1.4 kilograms of this material could conceivably lift 80 kilograms to a height of one meter, and the incorporation of carbon nanotubes will reduce electrical resistance, allowing such feats to be performed rapidly. MIT chemist Tim Swager has developed a prototype sensor that uses conductive nanoscopic polymer wires to take readings of nitric oxide concentrations in a person's breath, a critical first step toward remote health monitoring systems. Meanwhile, the optical threads have an organic/inorganic coating that can selectively reflect or absorb specific wavelengths of light, which could lead to an "optical bar code" that soldiers could use to identify friends using night vision goggles. The most formidable challenge will be integrating all these nanotechnologies, and MIT partner DuPont is researching new nano-integration techniques that solve the nanomaterials' inherent incompatibility with each other. http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/talbot1002.asp

http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item1 "Attack on Internet Called Largest Ever" Technews.com (10/22/02); McGuire, David; Krebs, Brian What key online backbone organization officials are calling the largest and most sophisticated attack ever on the Internet's root servers disrupted eight or nine of the 13 computers that control global Internet flow late Monday afternoon for about an hour. The distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, which began at around 5:00 p.m. EDT and ended abruptly about an hour later, went largely unnoticed by users as the Internet continued to function normally thanks to safeguards built into the Internet's architecture. The FBI says it is looking into the incident but, there are no suspects so far. Internet Software Consortium Chairman Paul Vixie said, "It was an attack against all 13 servers, which is a little more rare than an attack against any one of us." The Internet's 13 root server computers, about 10 of which are located in the U.S., control the worldwide flow of data over the Internet via the Domain Name System (DNS). VeriSign operates the "A" root server, which twice a day provides the other 12 root servers with the Internet domain information that is used to route Web traffic. VeriSign says that server was unaffected by the attack. Although the DNS was designed to operate even if eight or more of the 13 servers fail, Vixie says that had the attack lasted longer, Internet use would likely have been disrupted. DDoS attacks are hard to defend against; SANS Institute research director Alan Paller says, "The only way to stop such attacks is to fix the vulnerabilities on the machines that ultimately get taken over." Others say more needs to be done to ensure the safety and stability of the Internet. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2002Oct22.html

http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1023w.html#item4 "Researchers Predict Worm that Eats the Internet in 15 Minutes" Network World Fusion (10/21/02); Messmer, Ellen A two-month-old research paper theorizes next-generation computer worms that could overrun the Internet in a matter of minutes; such worms would use "hit lists" of vulnerable systems, rather than scan blindly, and also carry payloads that would facilitate remote-control automated denial-of-service attacks and file deletion. Their rate of infection would be so high "that no human-mediated counter-response is possible," according to the paper. Co-author and Silicon Defense President Stuart Staniford says that the paper's thesis was tested in a laboratory, using a simulated computer worm programmed to take over 10 million online hosts via low- and high-speed lines; it was estimated that the worm, code-named "Warhol," could corrupt over 9 million servers in about 15 minutes, using the hit list approach. Another worm, code-named "Flash," could supposedly contaminate the Internet even faster. Although such worms have yet to emerge, government officials and anti-virus software vendors do not discount the possibility. A spokesman for Kaspersky Labs notes that his firm anticipated such worms two years ago, but refused to publish out of fear that virus writers would use the knowledge to their advantage. "[The new paper's authors] did this and they are half-guilty for such a worm [appearing] that may easily cause the Internet to be down in just an hour, so users will not be able to download anti-virus updates," he contends. The authors say the government should establish an operations center that focuses on threatening viruses and worms, and National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace recommends that a threat analysis facility be set up. Staniford says his company is developing protection against Flash worms, although he will not provide details, while behavior-based technologies could prove to be another effective defensive measure. http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2002/1021worm.html

*red mage*a master of both black and white magic perfectionist; dashing; imaginative [Final Fantasy Tactics Job Class]

find your element at mutedfaith.com.

Heheheheh. I wish I could write like that.. but I suppose that is why I am a Computer Science major.

Just tested it out. I only got 9524 on 3dmark2k1 se http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=4636767 Before I got 9267. http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=4497846 So what is that? A 1.027% increase?

The 40.71 beta drivers are out for the non NT/XP users. Supposedly a 25% increase in performance. http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=win9x_40.71

What Type of Villain are You? mutedfaith.com /

sb@pgoh.org is a mailing list and it shouldn't be on a From address. I take it you got the W32.Klez.H@mm virus. I just checked my email and found like 16 new emails from lots of different email addresses with that virus. From Borg, you and 15 others you had in your contact list, heh. But no, I don't send out files with exe attachments, or .bat or anything else that can auto execute. If I send anything it will be in a zip.

I Am A: Chaotic Good Human Mage Fighter Follower Of Mystra Alignment: Chaotic Good characters are independent types with a strong belief in the value of goodness. They have little use for governments and other forces of order, and will generally do their own things, without heed to such groups. Race: Humans are the 'average' race. They have the shortest life spans, and because of this, they tend to avoid the racial prejudices that other races are known for. They are also very curious and tend to live 'for the moment'. Primary Class: Mages harness the magical energies for their own use. Spells, spell books, and long hours in the library are their loves. While often not physically strong, their mental talents can make up for this. Secondary Class: Fighters are the warriors. They use weapons to accomplish their goals. This isn't to say that they aren't intelligent, but that they do, in fact, believe that violence is frequently the answer. Deity: Mystra is the Neutral Good goddess of magic. She is also known as the Lady of Mysteries. Followers of Mystra wear armor and carry shields with her symbol on them. Mystra's symbol is a ring of stars. Find out What D&D Character Are You?, courtesy ofNeppyMan (e-mail)

Then join AG in Hibernia on Guinevere.

Queen's Princes of the Universe Scottsman Song What Your Characters Do When You Log http://camelotvault.ign.com/videos/camelot.wmv'>Camelot!

Borg is at the end of his vacation but he is not home as of yet. He did win the tennis tournament, so he will be in a good mood when he gets back.

test

I will not be able to attend.

hmmm.. wonder how much we can change a small house. I doubt there is a lot of room to do such a thing.