NSA helped out Microsoft with Vista security features
The NSA helped out Microsoft in developing Windows Vista security features as the Washington Post reports. According to Microsoft, who confirmed the report, there was a “red team” who did penetration tests on Windows Vista and a “blue team” who guided system administrators of the Defense Department.
Of course it looks suspicious if the worldwide market leader (how they got there is another questions?!) cooperates with the worlds largest intelligence agency in security measures of it’s upcoming operating system (backdoor?).
Read yourself and think what you like:
Report: For Windows Vista Security, Microsoft Called in Pros, Washington Post
A quick look at Objective-C 2.0
Posted by cordney* in development, technology on November 6, 2006
Apple will introduce a new version of it’s Objective-C language dialect in Mac OS X Leopard. I recently found a nice review of some key features, no astonishing things IMHO, but still very useful.
osnews.com – News
informit.com – Article: Behind the Scenes of Objective-C 2.0
I will hopefully get my hands on a Leopard Developer Preview soon to have some fun with CoreAnimation.. 
cordney*
Apple fixes a dozen vulnerabilities
Yesterdays Mac OS X 10.4.8 update and security update 2006-006 for Max OS X 10.3.9 fixes a dozen security issues in the following system components:
- CFNetwork
- Flash Player
- ImageIO
- Kernel
- LoginWindow
- Preferences
- QuickDraw Manager
- SASL (Simple Authentication and Security Layer)
- WebCore
- Workgroup Manager
Apple: About the security content of the Mac OS X 10.4.8 Update and Security Update 2006-006
Apple fixes critical Airport security holes
Apple recently fixed 4 critical security holes, 3 of them in their own Airport drivers. Various Mac’s were vurnerable to arbitrary code execution by buffer overflows in the Airport drivers and the Airport API used by third-party WiFi software.
Apple: About the security content of AirPort Update 2006-001 and Security Update 2006-005
Heise security: Three critical holes in Apple’s Airport driver
XTorrent – another David Watanabe production [Update]
Posted by cordney* in development on September 21, 2006
XTorrent is another filesharing application for Mac OS X. It is developed by the author of Acquisition – the state-of-the-art filesharing app for Mac.
As I recognised it was from the same author as Acquisition thoughts were flashing into my mind:
- Did he really write a Bittorrent client from the scratch?
- No he wouldn’t. So which open source app did he choose to build upon then?
The answer was easy: Transmission. Of course all of you Q users know Transmission, it’s built right into Q for downloading new Guest PCs from FreeOSZoo. No mentioning of this neither on the product website nor on his blog. Only mentioning in the license agreement if you scroll down… “Xtorrent contains source code from libtransmission [...]“ and on the about pane:
No linking to the website of Transmission project, only a slight hint to what the software is based upon.. “[...] uses code from the libtransmission project.” – does he want to hide something? It seems indeed he wants to promote it as being his work, as writing on his blog entry announcing it: “Xtorrent is an advanced torrent client that has been in development for several months.”
He might be legally right, but one could ask if this is morally ok?! He could have just helped the Transmission team making a better Graphical User Interface (GUI) instead of making money of it. Although I have to admit that his GUI work is really nice, I don’t think many people will pay for it. Yes, it’s free for the moment as it is Beta software, but you know him, he will charge for it soon. :-/
What’s the moral? Use free Transmission Bittorrent client and support the original authors (Or, as to say with David’s words: “Support people, not corporations.”***
*** I’m not quite sure if I quote him right from within early Acquisition releases, correct me if I’m wrong.
Update: It seems that he uses libtransmission in Acquisition also.
cordney*