Cody Taylor

China has blocked the video-sharing network YouTube after Beijing denounced footage appearing to show security forces beating Tibetans in Lhasa last year as “a lie”.

Esteemed online voices @LeoLaporte and @DaveWiner are sounding the alarm about Twitter’s increasing platform dominance. “It’s a very dangerous network because it’s all centralized,” Winer said. Both critics have installed their own smaller, open-source micro-messaging systems outside of Twitter’s domain, i.e., Evan Prodromou’s Laconica

Jive.ly is a new app in full beta, billing itself as a Twitter-like site for mobile. Created by UK-based developer Martin Buhr, the app is designed as a place to update your social network accounts with images and videos from a mobile without having to hook up third party services like Twitpic.

Design engineers searching a development platform for a low-power, high-performing and cost-sensitive H.264 IP network camera need look no further than Freescale Semiconductor. The i.MX27 IP Camera Reference Design furnishes the hardware engine and software applications to enable an OEM to add their differentiating IP or go straight to manufacture.

LoneAdminOK writes “I started working for a small company in the middle of January as their IT Manager. I am the first actual ‘IT Guy’ that they have had; before me it was someone that performed another job within the company and just handled the IT on the side. The problem that I am running into is that most of the software I am finding on the network and on people’s computers isn’t owned by the company. The person before me would just get it from ‘somewhere’ and install it on the computers as needed. This is putting me in a bad position when I have to reinstall the program or find it to install on someone else’s computer. Often, I am telling people that we don’t have it or we have to buy another license, and they get mad at me because the other guy said that we had it. I can’t even tell where the versions of Windows Server that they are running came from. The only one I know is legit is the one that is installed on an HP server with the OEM sticker on it. How have any of you handled a situation like this? I don’t install ‘borrowed programs’ in a production environment because I know that if the BSA got wind of this, it would all fall on me when they stormed in.”

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ruphus13 writes “Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz continues to promote the use of Open Source, and says the downturn in the economy will only boost the momentum behind FOSS. From his post, ‘Free and open source software is sweeping across the vast majority of the Fortune 500. When you see the world’s most conservative companies starting to deploy open source, you know momentum is on your side. That’s creating massive opportunity for those of us who have pioneered the market, to drive commercial opportunities… We announced just last week that we’re building the Sun Cloud, atop open source platforms — from ZFS and Crossbow, to MySQL and Glassfish. By building on open source, we’re able to avoid proprietary storage and networking products, alongside proprietary software.'” In related news, the Sun-IBM deal proposed last week has been called “anti-competitive” by a tech industry group, while others are speculating on how it could affect Linux and Java.

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TomTom has decided to fight Microsoft, and it’s not going to be fighting alone. TomTom has just joined the Open Invention Network patent alliance. Bring it on Microsoft, bring it on.

Truth of the fact is; by restricting the material the networks are not only losing potential weekly watchers; they’re also losing a stream of ex facto revenue potentially more reliable then DVD purchases.

CNet reports on legislation currently being drafted that would transfer federal cybersecurity responsibilities away from the Department of Homeland Security. Instead, they would fall under the authority of the Executive Office of the President, creating an Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor. A tech commission recommended relieving the DHS of cybersecurity responsibilities late last year, saying it simply wasn’t prepared to deal with organized online threats. More recently, the director of the DHS’s National Cybersecurity Center resigned, citing interference from the NSA. The new legislation would “put the White House National Cybersecurity Advisor in charge of coordinating cyber efforts within the intelligence community and within civilian agencies, as well as coordinating the public sector’s cooperation with the private sector. The adviser would have the authority to disconnect from the Internet any federal infrastructure networks — or other networks deemed to be ‘critical’ — if found to be at risk of a cyberattack. The private sector will certainly speak out if this provision is included in the final draft of the bill, a representative of the technology industry who spoke on condition of anonymity said.”

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narramissic writes “Researchers with security consultancy IOActive have created a worm that could quickly spread among Smart Grid devices, small computers connected to the power grid that give customers and power companies better control over the electricity they use. ‘[The worm] spread from one meter to another and then it changed the text in the LCD screen to say “pwned,”‘ said Travis Goodspeed, an independent security consultant who worked with the IOActive team. In the hands of a malicious hacker, this code could be used to cut power to Smart Grid devices that use a feature called ‘remote disconnect,’ which allows power companies to cut a customer’s power via the network. The robustness of US power networks has been a hot-button issue after a technical glitch in 2003 caused a cascading power failure in the eastern United States and Canada that affected 55 million people.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.