Bug 33484: Printing Multiple Files from Windows Explorer at Once Makes LibreOffice Unusable
May 12th, 2012This is as Offtopic as it gets, but here goes.
With LibreOffice installed, if you try to print multiple documents from the Windows Explorer, you have probably noticed that this behavior doesn’t work. Someone is reporting a similar issue on the Mac as well.
The LibreOffice people currently don’t know what’s causing this, but if you can add anything that might help the developers fix this, please see bug 33484.
Facebook Co-Founder Saverin Gives Up U.S. Citizenship Before IPO
May 11th, 2012Via: Bloomberg:
Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire co- founder of Facebook Inc. (FB), renounced his U.S. citizenship before an initial public offering that values the social network at as much as $96 billion, a move that may reduce his tax bill.
Facebook plans to raise as much as $11.8 billion through the IPO, the biggest in history for an Internet company. Saverin’s stake is about 4 percent, according to the website Who Owns Facebook. At the high end of the IPO valuation, that would be worth about $3.84 billion. His holdings aren’t listed in Facebook’s regulatory filings.
Saverin, 30, joins a growing number of people giving up U.S. citizenship, a move that can trim their tax liabilities in that country. The Brazilian-born resident of Singapore is one of several people who helped Mark Zuckerberg start Facebook in a Harvard University dorm and stand to reap billions of dollars after the world’s largest social network holds its IPO.
Spy School Teaches the Basics of Intelligence Gathering to Kids, Teens
May 11th, 2012Lesson #1: Try not to crash jets with tons of cocaine on board. Mmmkay?
Via: Tampa Bay Online:
Spy School — a Tampa Bay History Center program specially designed for teens — will instruct youngsters about surveillance, information gathering and disguise.
Agents and experts will teach children ages 12 to 18, offering tips on how to enter the espionage career field.
The two-part spy series is part of the history center’s traveling exhibition, “Spies, Traitors, Saboteurs: Fear and Freedom in America.” Spy School begins Saturday and offers a guided tour with curator Rodney Kite-Powell.
Research Credit: RP
JPMorgan Loses $2 Billion
May 11th, 2012Update: Fitch Downgrades JPMorgan Chase
Via: CNN:
The closing bell brought no relief for JPMorgan Chase on Friday, as a major credit rating agency moved to downgrade its debt almost exactly 24 hours after the bank revealed a $2 billion trading loss.
Fitch Ratings downgraded both JPMorgan’s short-term and long-term debt, with the latter falling to A+ from AA-. The bank, the country’s largest by assets, was also placed on ratings watch negative.
—End Update—
Via: Bloomberg:
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said the firm suffered a $2 billion trading loss after an “egregious” failure in a unit managing risks, jeopardizing Wall Street banks’ efforts to loosen a federal ban on bets with their own money.
The firm’s chief investment office, run by Ina Drew, 55, took flawed positions on synthetic credit securities that remain volatile and may cost an additional $1 billion this quarter or next, Dimon told analysts yesterday. Losses mounted as JPMorgan tried to mitigate transactions designed to hedge credit exposure.
Banks Prepare for the Return of the Drachma
May 11th, 2012Via: Reuters:
Banks are quietly readying themselves to start trading a new Greek currency. Some banks never erased the drachma from their systems after Greece adopted the euro more than a decade ago and would be ready at the flick of a switch if its debt problems forced it to bring back national banknotes and coins.
From the end of the Soviet Union – which spawned currencies such as the Estonian Kroon and the Kazakh Tenge – to the introduction of the euro, they have had plenty of practice in preparing their systems to cope with change.
Planning behind the scenes has been underway since Europe’s debt crisis erupted in Greece in 2009, said U.S.-based Hartmut Grossman of ICS Risk Advisors who works with Wall Street banks.
“A lot of the firms, particularly in Europe and also here, have been looking at that for a long time,” said Grossman, who added that the latest Greek political crisis had brought matters “to a little bit of a head”.
“But there really has been contingency planning at all of the financial institutions for that to happen … Greece leaving the euro zone is not a new idea,” he said.
Finally: BioLite Campstoves Up for Preorder
May 11th, 2012Too bad there’s no affiliate program…
Via: BioLite:
Availability: New Orders ship in July.
Backdoors in RuggedCom Networking Equipment
May 11th, 2012Via: Wired:
A Canadian company that makes equipment and software for critical industrial control systems planted a backdoor login account in its flagship operating system, according to a security researcher, potentially allowing attackers to access the devices online.
The backdoor, which cannot be disabled, is found in all versions of the Rugged Operating System made by RuggedCom, according to independent researcher Justin W. Clarke, who works in the energy sector. The login credentials for the backdoor include a static username, “factory,” that was assigned by the vendor and can’t be changed by customers, and a dynamically generated password that is based on the individual MAC address, or media access control address, for any specific device.
Attackers can uncover the password for a device simply by inserting the MAC address, if known, into a simple Perl script that Clarke wrote. MAC addresses for some devices can be learned by doing a search with SHODAN, a search tool that allows users to find internet-connected devices, such as industrial control systems and their components, using simple search terms.
Clarke, who is based in San Francisco, says he discovered the backdoor after purchasing two used RuggedCom devices – an RS900 switch and an RS400 serial server – on eBay for less than $100 and examining the firmware installed on them.
Clarke said the equipment had labels on them with French writing that made it appear they had been used for a substation at a utility in Canada.
RuggedCom switches and servers are used in “mission-critical” communication networks that operate power grids and railway and traffic control systems as well as manufacturing facilities. RuggedCom asserts on its website that its products are “the product of choice for high-reliability, high-availability, mission-critical communications networks deployed in harsh environments around the world.”
Clarke says he notified RuggedCom about his discovery in April 2011 and says the representative he spoke with acknowledged the existence of the backdoor.
“They knew it was there,” he told Threat Level. “They stopped communicating with me after that.”
Research Credit: anchoviesmegma
Cryptogon Requesting Responses from Qualified Individuals to NANOR Device and Data
May 10th, 2012Microsoft Bans Firefox on ARM-Based Windows
May 10th, 2012Via: Cnet:
Raising the specter of last-generation browser battles, Mozilla launches a publicity campaign to seek a place for browsers besides IE on Windows devices using ARM chips.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Microsoft muscles aside other browsers and cements the dominance of Internet Explorer. The browser market, deprived of competition, stagnates.
That, of course, is what happened during the first browser war of the 1990s and beyond, on personal computers. Today, Mozilla’s top lawyer warned that Microsoft’s behavior threatens a repeat of history, because it’s telling Mozilla that it’s barring Firefox from forthcoming Windows 8 machines that use ARM processors.
“They’re trying to make a new version of their operating system which denies their users choice, competition, and innovation,” said Harvey Anderson, Mozilla’s general counsel. “Making IE the only browser on that platform is a complete return to the digital dark ages when there was only one browser on the Windows platform.”
Anderson has been discussing the matter with his counterparts at Microsoft, but the company hasn’t budged.
Microsoft declined to comment for this story.
Military Training in the Middle of Miami Jolts Residents Out of Bed
May 10th, 2012Via: Miami Herald:
No, there was no smell of napalm in the morning.
But there was the thunderous whump whump of low-flying helicopters, and even the jarring blast of explosions at the abandoned Grand Bay Hotel in Coconut Grove early Tuesday during a military training exercise that jolted many unsuspecting residents from their beds.
…
The maneuvers were part of a “realistic urban training” exercise for about 100 military personnel, and organized by the U.S. Special Operations Command, said Maj. Michael Burns, a U.S. Army spokesman. The exercise also included three military helicopters, and the use of simulated explosions and gunfire to mimic real-life military scenarios.
“They have to train in a realistic environment,” Burns said. “We didn’t use any real bullets,” he added reassuringly.
Miami police assisted in overseeing the exercises — but they were instructed to keep quiet about the exercises until late Monday, for security reasons. The police also blocked off roads around the Grand Bay during the exercise, Muir said.
“It was the federal government’s call on what was being done. We were courteously advised,” said Miami commissioner Marc Sarnoff, whose district includes Coconut Grove.


