heise online news 26/11/2008

heise online news 26/11/2008 www.heise-online.co.uk Overview of the news from the past 24 hours heise online news Spam falls to an annual low Last weekend, spam volumes dropped to their lowest level for eighteen months, due to the disconnection of hosting company McColo and the recent DDoS attacks on internet providers that began on 11 November › Read article     First alpha version of Ubuntu 9.04 The first alpha version of the forthcoming Ubuntu 9.04 is available › Read article     Programming for all with Processing 1.0 A deliberately simplified version of Java lets programming beginners write graphical applets and even simple games with just a few lines › Read article     Ruby on Rails 2.2 turns international Ruby on Rails 2.2 offers many improvements, most importantly to its internationalisation and database connections › Read article     Identity theft breaches on the increase The Identity Theft Resource Center says that trade in stolen data is still on the rise and that a clearer picture is emerging of the amount of data that is being passed on for direct marketing purposes › Read article     IETF wants to improve the routing of P2P data traffic Several developer groups have proposed drafts about how to locate the nearest P2P host. The challenge is to avoid unnecessary P2P data traffic "diversions" across network boundaries › Read article     IETF won't standardise reputation systems yet The Anti-Spam Research Group (ASRG) of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has for the time being put off any standardisation of reputation systems as part of its efforts to curb unwanted advertising messages and email fraud › Read article     Award for free roaming service in Africa Mobile phone group Zain, which operates in Africa and the Middle East, has received the AfricaCom award for the "best pan-African initiative" for its free roaming service › Read article     Hole in Google Mail allows mail to be hijacked Recent reports claim that attackers have succeeded in exploiting a vulnerability to get control of victims' domains › Read article     New version of the Opera Mini web browser released Unlike its bigger brother Opera Mobile, Opera Mini is free and runs as a Java application on most newer mobile phones. The new web browser now has skins and improved support › Read article     New beta version of Chrome, Google's browser Google has given its browser a Bookmark Manager and has reworked the pop-up blocker and privacy settings › Read article     DoS vulnerabilities in Wireshark Wireshark goes into an endless loop when analysing certain SMTP requests to a server › Read article     Critical vulnerability in ffdshow audio and video codec The ffdshow codec contains a buffer overflow that can be remotely exploited to infect a PC with malicious code. The error occurs if an overly-long link is parsed when ffdshow is working with a media stream › Read article     Patent disputes about chip technologies Publications by the US International Trade Commission business watchdog point towards a complicated copyright dispute between LSI/Agere and numerous other chip manufacturers › Read article     Microsoft boss to take the stand in "Vista capable" class-action suit A Seattle court believes that Steve Ballmer can make an important contribution to explaining the background of the 2006 "Windows Vista capable" logo program › Read article     This newsletter is sent to in a multipart format. If you want to read it as plain text, you will have to change the display mode of your e-mail program. You are receiving heise online news because you subscribed at our website. If you no longer wish to receive the newsletter, you can cancel your subscription at http://www.heise-online.co.uk/newsletter/manage/news. For more news from the world of technology, subscribe to our other newsletters: Newsletter heise open source: All the latest about Free and Open Source software from heise online, including news, features, analysis and case studies. www.heise-online.co.uk/newsletter/manage/open Newsletter heise Security: IT security news and alerts to keep your systems secure, with features giving an in-depth look at the world of IT security. www.heise-online.co.uk/newsletter/manage/security Newsletter heise networks features: In-depth articles, tools and techniques for networking and communications. www.heise-online.co.uk/newsletter/manage/networks Legal notice Publishers: Christian Heise, Ansgar Heise, Christian Persson Editor-in-chief: Jonathan Bennett All rights reserved. Any copies or dissemination on any medium, either in part of whole, requires the written consent of the publisher. Copyright (c) 2008 Heise Media UK Ltd.