HTML5 will incorporate high definition extensions

The W3C's HTML working group added the extension set to its Second Public Working Draft of the spec, published Sunday. The HD extension introduces one new head-level HTML/XHTML element, three block-level elements, four global attributes (which can be used with existing elements), and three additional attributes unique to the previously-approved element.

Despite the connection to , the HD HTML extensions are not related to the video element codec controversy from last December, in which representatives from Apple and Nokia objected to the inclusion of the open and patent-free Vorbis and Theora codecs to the HTML5 spec. According to the published draft, the high definition HTML additions will permit designers and Web app developers to "design rich media sites that take better advantage of high-resolution display technology" and the "improved visual and auditory capabilities" of modern hardware, including both high-def, deep color PC monitors and non-PC displays like home theater.

Ubuntu machine uncracked in Pwn to Own contest

Sponsored by TippingPoint's Digital Vaccine Laboratories as part of their Zero Day Initiative program for discovering and reporting new bugs, the contest was announced several weeks ago, with clearer rules and increased cash prizes announced just two days before the conference.

Participants had their choice of attacking any of three laptops: a VAIO VGN-TZ37CN running Ubuntu 7.10, a Fujitsu UB810 running Vista Ultimate Service Patch 1, and MacBook Air running OS X 10.5.2. Each operating system was the latest version, and was patched with the latest security updates available.

During the three days of CanSecWest, would-be crackers could sign up to receive a random 30-minute time slot to attempt their exploit. To avoid confusion, only one effort was allowed at a given time. To win, contestants had to use a zero-day attack -- that is, one made through a previously unknown vulnerability -- to read a specific file on the laptop. The first to crack each laptop would receive the laptop and a cash prize.

MacBook Air, Vista Box PWNd - Ubuntu Stands Alone

At a recent security conference, hackers were given the chance to try to attack three different laptops: a MacBook Air, a machine running Windows Vista and one running Ubuntu 7.10. In the PWN 2 OWN contest, both the Mac and the Windows machine were PWNd, but Ubuntu resisted all attacks.


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After three days of attacks by leading hackers, a laptop running Ubuntu remained untouched while two others, running Mac OS X and Windows Vista Service Pack 1, succumbed.

The attacks were launched at the CanSecWest PWN 2 OWN contest in Vancouver, Canada.

This was sponsored by security firm TippingPoint, a division of 3Com (Nasdaq: COMS) Latest News about 3Com, and held March 26-28, under its Zero Day Initiative (ZDI).

ZDI is a program for rewarding security researchers for responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities.
The Gory Details

The three machines being attacked were a MacBook Air running the current version of Mac OS X, 10.5.2; a Fujitsu U810 notebook running Windows Vista Ultimate SP1; and a Sony Vaio VGN-TZ37CN running Ubuntu 7.10.

All three had the latest security patches installed.

The good news is that all three were not vulnerable to attacks over the networks on the operating systems themselves, which was what the hackers were restricted to on the first day of the contest.

Five principles for successful mass collaboration, part 1

This article is excerpted from the newly published book We-Think: The Power of Mass Creativity.

Core

Everything has to start somewhere. Somebody has to be willing to work harder than everyone else or nothing ends up getting done. Innovative communities invariably start with a gift of knowledge provided by someone, just as Linux started with the kernel that Linus Torvalds slaved over and which he posted on the Internet.

A good core attracts a community of capable contributors and developers around it. The kernel has to be solid but unfinished, so open to improvement; if it were already complete there would be few opportunities to add to it. Jane McGonigal says the core to a successful game like I Love Bees depends on the starting-point being ambiguous and open to interpretation. Both the worm project to decode C. elegans' genome and I Love Bees began with a puzzle that could be solved only with the collaborative efforts of people with different skills. Steven Weber, a political scientist at Berkeley University in California, found that successful open source software projects tended to be 'multi-dimensional' and complex, thus inviting the involvement of people with different skills.' Thomas Kuhn summed up the ambiguous character of the core to a new intellectual community in his history of scientific revolutions. Kuhn argued that the possibility of a new scientific paradigm emerged when a small group of pioneers made a breakthrough that was

Universities build open source enterprise applications

A group of U.S. universities is blazing a new path in open source software. They're building a set of enterprise applications — the big, important, mission-critical ones that have long been the exclusive domain of software companies such as Oracle, SAP and Microsoft.

The first application is the Kuali Financial System, a financial management application designed from the outset for the specific requirements of colleges and universities. It's available under a variant of the Apache 2.0 license. Strikingly, the first deployment is a small school in Nairobi, Kenya: Strathmore University, which estimated that it cut deployment costs by more than half compared with using a commercial product.

The software project is being overseen by the Kuali Foundation, a nonprofit group that brings together academic institutions, grant funding and a small but growing list of commercial partners, all committed to an open source software model for a suite of administrative applications. The name is a Malaysian word for "wok," a common but indispensable utensil in a Malay kitchen. The overall approach is similar to that of the Sakai Foundation, a higher education project focused on a learning management system.

New Utility Enforces Policies Across Linux, Unix and Windows Networks

Symark's new PowerAdvantage utility allows system administrators to centralize their authentication, authorization and access management across Windows, Unix and Linux networks. It provides cross-platform unified log-in -- users can have a single log-in and password for all Unix, Linux and Windows machines. This eliminates the need to establish separate access credentials for each system.


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Symark International on Tuesday released PowerADvantage, an integrated authentication and configuration tool that extends features of Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Webroot AntiSpyware 30-Day Free Trial. Click here. Latest News about Microsoft Windows' Active Directory to networks also running Unix and Linux systems.

PowerAdvantage adds centralized authentication, authorization and account access functionality to Unix and Linux systems. It's also designed to bolster policy enforcement and infrastructure management functionality in the two non-Windows operating systems.

Among the chief benefits of PowerADvantage are the reduction in administration costs and security improvement, according to Symark. The new software also helps system administrators meet regulatory compliance efforts by centrally managing user identifications, authentication, security policies and automatic deployment of configuration settings across heterogeneous Unix and Linux environments.

Open Documents and Last Chance for OOXML

Document Freedom Week came at a curious time this year: just before the International Organization for Standardization holds a second vote on whether to approve Microsoft's Office Open XML as an international standard. It was rejected in September.


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Those who were on Spring Break last week may be forgiven if they are still shaking the sand out of their ears, but we here at LinuxInsider never take our noses off the grindstone even for a moment in our relentless quest to keep our readers informed.

And a good thing, too, because last week was an important week. First, Wednesday was none other than Document Freedom Day, the first global event dedicated to document liberation and open standards. While some of you were lounging around watching the clouds go by, roughly 200 teams from more than 60 countries worldwide were hard at work organizing local activities to raise awareness of the open document cause.

Take that, Redmond!
Historic Saturday

What made the issue especially pressing, of course, was that after the ISO's initial rejection of Office Open XML as an official standard in September, Saturday was the final deadline for votes by ISO member national bodies to decide the matter once and for all.

Study predicts strong growth for mobile Linux

Linux represents 15 percent of the smartphone market, but that figure should grow considerably, says a market research report. The study, from Strategy Analytics, found that Motorola will continue to drive the growth for mobile Linux, along with Google.

More than 25 million Linux-based cellphones have shipped to date, says Strategy Analytics. That figure represents 15 percent of the smartphone market, compared to Symbian's 50 percent and Windows Mobile's 18 percent.

In its study, Strategy Analytics argues that mobile Linux offers an attractive mix of "customization, cost, developer community, time to market, security, and multi-chipset support." That mix increasingly appeals to both handset manufacturers and mobile operators, it said. For example, Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo have indicated that they see Linux as a way to create efficiencies by reducing the number of platforms they support, the firm reports.

The Linux numbers might have been higher if not for the problem of fragmentation: over 20 of the 30-odd OS platforms available today are Linux-based, says the study. However future signs pointing to increased consolidation, says the study. These signs include the emergence of Android, sponsored by Google and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), and standardization efforts such as the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum and the LiMo Foundation, which formally introduced its mobile specification today.

Stated Stuart Robinson, Director of the Handset Component Technologies service at the research group, "Strategy Analytics believes recent initiatives by Google and Motorola could solve problems like consistency of APIs, slow adoption of mobile Linux in developed markets, and fragmentation. We also believe that interest in Linux is at an all-time high and that it will emerge as a worthy competitor to market leaders Symbian and Windows Mobile."

Mot split muddies the waters

Motorola's LiMo-compatible U9 (also seen at top)

The study was released prior to last week's announcement that Motorola -- by far the leader in mobile-Linux handset sales -- has begun the process of creating two independent, publicly-traded companies. A "Mobile Devices" company will sell handsets and accessories, and a "Broadband & Mobility Solutions" company will sell everything from set-top-boxes to networking equipment. The latter includes the company's more profitable Enterprise Mobility, Government and Public Safety, and Home and Networks businesses.