"Akamai has validated the existence of the vulnerability in bash, and confirmed its presence in bash for an extended period of time. We have also verified that this vulnerability is exposed in ssh---but only to authenticated sessions. Web applications like cgi-scripts may be vulnerable based on a number of factors; including calling other applications through a shell, or evaluating sections of code through a shell.

There are several functional mitigations for this vulnerability: upgrading to a new version of bash, replacing bash with an alternate shell, limiting access to vulnerable services, or filtering inputs to vulnerable services. Akamai has created a WAF rule to filter this exploit; see "For Web Applications" below for details."

http://www.csoonline...h-cve-2014-6271.html

This is a really intriguing project to award large monetary prizes for developing open source educational self-teaching software:

The United Nations estimates 58 million children from ages 6 to 11 don’t attend school, a number that has remained stubbornly stagnant since the middle of the last decade.

One nonprofit believes it has the solution: Create software so exciting to use that kids will want to teach themselves.

X-Prize is challenging entrepreneurs to develop open-source software that children can use to acquire basic literacy and arithmetic skills on their own.
This is a really intriguing project to award large monetary prizes for developing open source educational self-teaching software:

The United Nations estimates 58 million children from ages 6 to 11 don’t attend school, a number that has remained stubbornly stagnant since the middle of the last decade.

One nonprofit believes it has the solution: Create software so exciting to use that kids will want to teach themselves.

X-Prize is challenging entrepreneurs to develop open-source software that children can use to acquire basic literacy and arithmetic skills on their own.

"It’s based on the supposition, still unproven, that kids can teach themselves how to read and write," says Matt Keller, director of the Global Learning X-Prize.

The five best submissions will receive $1-million each to test their software in 100 villages in an English-speaking part of sub-Saharan Africa. The best of those five will receive a $10-million prize so long as the software improves learning....

"My guess is the team that wins is going to be the team that develops something so sticky, so dynamic, so engaging that kids are enthralled by it," says Mr. Keller. "They’re going to learn in spite of themselves."

http://philanthropy....the-Crowd-to/148949/

"It’s based on the supposition, still unproven, that kids can teach themselves how to read and write," says Matt Keller, director of the Global Learning X-Prize.

The five best submissions will receive $1-million each to test their software in 100 villages in an English-speaking part of sub-Saharan Africa. The best of those five will receive a $10-million prize so long as the software improves learning.

http://philanthropy....the-Crowd-to/148949/

Nothing groundbreaking but may be informative to some:
Understanding How Open Source Software Developers Make Money
http://www.makeuseof...velopers-make-money/

"There are many myths about open source software (OSS) and perhaps the most common is this: open source and profit are mutually exclusive...The truth is: many OSS developers and projects do generate revenue. Some earn just enough money to survive while others produce so much money that they put proprietary alternatives to shame. How’s that for irony?"

This looks pretty serious for folks that still use the old Android Browser (or apps that might use some of the contained code):

...a flaw that enables malicious sites to inject JavaScript into other sites. Those malicious JavaScripts can in turn read cookies and password fields, submit forms, grab keyboard input, or do practically anything else.

via:

  http://arstechnica.c...lf-of-android-users/

More at:

  https://community.ra...saster-cve-2014-6041

As usual, here is a bit of a roundup of this weeks Tech and Science news.  I decided not to do what most news agencies have done, and shove the Apple iPhone 6 down your throats ^_^

---

SanDisk SD memory card 'largest ever'

Memory specialist SanDisk has created an SD card with 512 gigabytes (GB) of storage space - the highest capacity ever released.

The card, which is the size of a postage stamp, will go on sale for $800 (£490).

The launch comes a decade after the firm released a 512-megabyte (MB) SD card with one-thousandth of the space.

Read more at: http://www.bbc.co.uk.../technology-29175093

Facebook experiments with vanishing posts

Facebook is following in the footsteps of messaging app Snapchat by testing a feature that allows users to schedule the automatic deletion of their posts.

The social network said the option, which offers expiration settings ranging from one hour to seven days, was "a small pilot" for its iOS app.

Facebook often tests new capabilities.

It faced criticism in June for one experiment that "manipulated" the content of nearly 700,000 users' news feeds, to gauge emotional responses.

Read more at: http://www.bbc.co.uk.../technology-29156436

Google buys firm behind spoon for Parkinson's patients

Google has bought a biotech company that has developed a spoon designed to make life easier for people with diseases such as Parkinson's.

It is part of its ambitious foray into health technology, spurred in part by the personal interest of co-founder Sergey Brin.

Last year, Google became the main investor in Calico, a firm dedicated to developing medicines to extend life.

Latest acquisition Lift Labs will join Google's research division Google X.

The spoon developed by Lift Labs is equipped with sensors that detect tremors and cancels them out by as much as 70%, according to the firm.

The technology it uses is similar to image stabilisation features in cameras that compensate for shaky hands when taking a photo.

Read more at: http://www.bbc.co.uk.../technology-29155888

In this Chinese city, phone addicts get their own sidewalk lane

Some places have lanes for bicycles, others for motorcycles, but there's a place in mainland China that boasts a different type of lane altogether: one for phone addicts glued to their screens. According to a Chinese publication, the cellphone lane above was spotted along a place called Foreigner Street in Chongqing city, one of the five major cities in the country. The sidewalk was most likely painted on for everyone's safety, because, hey, if there's distracted driving, there's also distracted walking, as perfectly demonstrated by the woman in this video. If the idea sounds familiar, it's because the National Geographic did something similar back in July as an experiment. The society stenciled "NO CELLPHONES" on one-half of a DC sidewalk and "CELLPHONES: WALK IN THIS LANE AT YOUR OWN RISK" on the other half. The result? Well, among other things, they found that the people actually glued to their phones didn't even notice the markings at all. Typical.

Read more at: http://www.engadget....ane-china/#continued

The Big Picture: NASA gets ready to build the 'next great rocket'

See the gargantuan structure above that dwarfs that line of puny humans at the bottom (bet you didn't even notice them at first glance, huh)? It's a welding tool -- the biggest one built for spacecraft, in fact, that's slated to help Boeing build the core stage of NASA's Space Launch System at the agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The structure's officially called the Vertical Assembly Center, and it stands 170 feet tall with a width that measures 78 feet: not exactly surprising, considering the SLS is a 200-foot-tall behemoth. It's but one of the many tools Boeing intends to use to build the core stage of NASA's "most powerful rocket ever" after the two organizations finalized their $2.8 billion deal in July. The core stage will house cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen used to power the rocket's four engines, and building it brings the SLS much closer to the launch pad for deep space exploration.

Read more at: http://www.engadget....t-welding/#continued

eBay DROPS DEAD AGAIN - tat bazaar says sorry, scrambles to resurrect site

eBay went titsup earlier today, and the company is now attempting to bring its site back to life.

The online tat bazaar coughed to an unexplained technical blunder preventing an unknown number of its subscribers from accessing the site, which many buyers and sellers of used goods enjoy using in their spare time on the weekends.

eBay posted this miserable statement on its service page about 90 minutes ago:

We are aware that some users may experience problems when using the eBay Site. We are actively working on restoring the issue and apologize for any inconvenience caused.

But plenty of folk were still complaining that they were unable to access the site, at time of writing.

Tim Lee has written a nice write up for recent legal progress in rolling back the software patent madness of recent years.  It's good news for those of us who spend our time coding and don't want to get wrapped up in frivolous lawsuits designed to extort money.

Now a series of decisions from lower courts is starting to bring the ruling's practical consequences into focus. And the results have been ugly for fans of software patents. By my count there have been 11 court rulings on the patentability of software since the Supreme Court's decision — including six that were decided this month.  Every single one of them has led to the patent being invalidated.

http://www.vox.com/2...to-the-supreme-court