Mike Cohen

links for 2007-04-05

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First bogus virus for iPod

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Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, has discovered the first virus designed to infect iPod portable media players. The virus, which has been named Podloso, is a proof of concept program which does not pose a real threat.

The virus is a file which can be launched and run on an iPod. It should be stressed that in order for the virus to function, Linux has to be installed on the iPod. If the virus is installed to the iPod by the user, the virus then installs itself to the folder which contains program demo versions. Podloso cannot be launched automatically without user involvement.

Once launched, the virus scans the device’s hard disk and infects all executable .elf format files. Any attempt to launch these files will cause the virus to display a message on the screen which says ‘You are infected with Oslo the first iPodLinux Virus’.

Podloso is a typical proof of concept virus. Such viruses are created in order to demonstrate that it is possible to infect a specific platform. They do not have a malicious payload. Additionally, Podloso is unable to spread. The user has to save the virus to the iPod memory for the device to become infected. Podloso has no malicious payload, and does not present a real threat; it simply demonstrates that it is, theoretically possible to create malicious programs for such devices.

So the dozen or so people running Linux on their iPods need to explicitly install and run a piece of software to infect it. Once they reboot into normal iPod mode so they can play their AAC tracks, it no longer has any effect.

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links for 2007-04-04

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A home owner's dream, a house that fixes itself

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This is really cool. A new house being built in the mountains of Greece will have the ability to repair itself when things break. Embedded in the walls will be an entire arrays of batteryless, wireless sensors that will give data readouts on a whole host of things, including vibrations, temperature, humidity and gas levels. The sensors are so advanced that “even if the building totally collapsed, the sensors would still let you pinpoint the source of the fault,” says Dr Roger Gregory, the chairman of the University’s spin off company Instrumental Ltd. In addition to the advanced sensor design present in the house, the walls will be made of self-repairing polymers. Self-repairing materials are able to fix themselves when small cracks form, helping stave off more catastrophic failures. The self-repairing walls will contain polymer nanoparticles that will turn to liquid under extreme stress, flowing into the cracks that may form. Once in the cracks the materials reharden, fixing the newly formed fracture.

links for 2007-04-01

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  • Have you ever thought of introducing a new program in your community for the youth to help them stay out of trouble? What about the idea of introducing Africa in a high school curriculum from an artistic perspective? This is exactly what the school in New
    (tags: music)
  • Vista is not the hotcake that they were hoping for. Take Acer’s president, Gianfranco Lanci, who has just said that ‘PC makers are really not counting on Vista to drive high demands for the industry.’ Or Samsung Electronics, who now says that DRAM d
  • NVIDIA has admitted to a killer bug in all GeForce 8800GTX/GTS cards, and will recall all affected cards and replace them. ‘An NVIDIA engineer, who wishes to remain anonymous, has just clued us in on the whole deal. This engineer claims that while allegat
    (tags: hardware)

links for 2007-03-31

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Toyota planning its own in-car operating system

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The Prius OS seems pretty powerful, but this goes a lot further.
Via Engadget:

We’ve certainly seen all sorts of exotic vehicles run on Windows XP before (so to speak), but Toyota execs are mulling the idea of crafting its own in-car operating system in order to keep that competitive edge alive. Currently, OS’ are ‘built from scratch‘ for every new vehicle model, but the automaker is realizing that an in-house squad focused on delivering a single system to run behind the scenes could not only dramatically cut R&D costs, but also ‘ boost efficiency and speed up development.’ Although Toyota wouldn’t comment directly, it is presumed that the project is an integral part of the new VI (Value Innovation) initiative, in which the firm is hoping to consolidate the amount of parts used in their vehicle. Still, we aren’t going to see a Toyota-branded OS until ‘closer to 2015,’ so we hope fully expect an auto-pilot feature to be in there somewhere. [Originally from Wired]

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WorldBeatPlanet upgraded to Drupal 5.1

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I finally upgraded WorldBeatPlanet. Unlike MacMegasite, this upgrade was painful, since I was running Drupal 4.6 with lots of modules and several custom content types. I had to first upgrade the database to Drupal 4.7 and then to 5.1. A few features still don’t work, but the site looks a lot nicer now.

links for 2007-03-30

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  • LinuxMCE is a free, open source add-on to Ubuntu including a 10′ UI, complete whole-house media solution with pvr + distributed media, and the most advanced smarthome solution available. It is stable, easy to use, and requires no knowledge of Linux and on
  • No one is suggesting that flailing around the living room while playing a video game will turn a chunky channel surfer into an Ironman, but some dedicated Nintendo Wii users believe that playing the sports games bundled with the system is helping them sli
    (tags: wii fitness)