China blocks LinkedIn, ramps up Internet censorship

The blocking of the site is likely tied to China's efforts to stifle mention of "Jasmine Revolution"
The social networking site LinkedIn has been blocked in China, a move that analysts say is tied to Chinese government efforts to suppress mention of a "Jasmine Revolution" on he Internet.
On Friday morning, LinkedIn was inaccessible from Beijing, producing an error message. Linkedin confirmed via email that the site has been blocked for some users in China. "This appears to be part of a broader effort in China going on right now, involving other sites as well," said Hani Durzy, a Linkedin spokesman.
Internet censorship is prevalent in China. Content and websites deemed politically sensitive are routinely taken down or blocked. But in the past several weeks, government censorship has grown more restrictive following mass protests in the Middle East that have toppled governments there. The term "Jasmine Revolution" refers to the pro-democratic movement that began in Tunisia last December and spread to other Middle Eastern countries.
Calls on the Internet for China to stage their own "Jasmine Revolution" began last week.
Chinese government censors, however, were quick to prevent any mention of the term from spreading far. This past weekend, the term "Jasmine Revolution" was blocked in searches on Chinese microblog sites. Users were also barred from posting information using the term on Chinese social networking sites like Renren.com.
Mention of the Jasmine Revolution has also begun appearing on LinkedIn. One user with the screen name "Jasmine Z" expressed their opinion on the potential for revolution in China via posts on the site.
"Whoever was trying to do this thought LinkedIn would be a good way to get into China," said Bill Bishop, an independent analyst who watches the China IT market. But the government was quick to catch on and blocked the site, he added.
The blocking of LinkedIn could follow the path of other U.S.-based sites that have faced troubles with China's Internet censors. In 2009, following ethnic riots in China's western Xinjiang region, both Facebook and Twitter were blocked. The Chinese government also decided to shut down the Internet in the region for several months.
The Chinese government has "been explicit in that they view foreign social networking sites as potential tools for subversion," Bishop said. "It's a surprise LinkedIn wasn't blocked earlier."
In deciding to block both Facebook and Twitter, the Chinese government also made way for China's own social networking sites to fill in the void and become popular. The country now has several Twitter and Facebook clones. The country itself has the world's largest Internet population at 457 million users.

McNealy: Sun could have won out over Linux

Former CEO says 'Google today would be running on Solaris' if Sun had not mishandled its OS
Sun Microsystems' mishandling of Solaris on the Intel platform left an opening for Linux to become established, when the company's Solaris OS could have won out instead, Sun co-founder and former CEO Scott McNealy said when interviewed Thursday evening by former Sun President Ed Zander at a Silicon Valley business and technology forum.
Sun was acquired by Oracle early in 2010 after facing heavy losses amidst a poor economy and industry-wide trends toward Intel and Linux systems, which were not Sun specialties. But things could have worked out differently, according to McNealy.
Sun had its Solaris x86 product, which the company kept reviving and cancelling. "If we had just grabbed the Intel Pentium chip and done a one-way and two-way pizza box with Solaris on it, Linux never would have happened," McNealy said. "Google today would be running on Solaris." Oracle is still offering and developing Solaris.
McNealy and Zander also recalled how close Sun came to acquiring Apple Computer in late 1995 and early 1996. "We were literally hours away from buying Apple for about $5, $6 a share at that time," Zander said. But an investment banker on the Apple side put in so many terms that Sun could not afford to make the deal. "He basically blocked it," McNealy said.
Last night's forum, sponsored by the Churchill Club, was held on the 29th anniversary of the founding of Sun. Once the company went public in 1986, it was technically for sale, McNealy said. Sun fetched $7.4 billion from Oracle. "Twenty-nine years ago, if you had [asked] me, would you take that [offer], yes I probably would have taken it."

Microsoft notes Windows Update "inconsistencies," provides fix

Any time Microsoft pushes an update to a few hundred million users, you can expect some hiccups. With Windows 7 SP1, Microsoft has quietly acknowledged an “inconsistency” that might cause more problems than normal. Here’s the fix.
Any time Microsoft pushes an update to a few hundred million users, you can expect some hiccups. I’ve been monitoring the progress of Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 since it was released to the public earlier this week, both on Microsoft’s official Windows Update forum and via e-mail and Twitter.
So far, aside from the issue with non-bootable partitions that I highlighted yesterday, this looks like a successful rollout. But it’s not completely trouble-free. Most of the error messages I’m seeing in reports have to do with Windows Update, with error codes like 80073712, 800706BE, and 8024200D. Those sorts of errors have been a fact of life with Windows Update for years, but this time around, Microsoft has quietly acknowledged an “inconsistency” in the Windows Update code that might cause more problems than normal.
In this post, I highlight a handful of tools you can use to fix these Windows Update problems if you run across them.
The quickest and easiest repair option is the Windows Update Troubleshooter. Open Control Panel, click in the search box, and type troubleshoot. Click the Troubleshooting link at the top of the search results, then click System and Security, and finally click Windows Update. The troubleshooter runs quickly. On my system, which had no noticeable issues with recent updates, it detected a minor problem and fixed it.

The entire process took less than 90 seconds and did not require a reboot.
If you’re experiencing Windows Update errors and that troubleshooter doesn’t work, haul out the big guns: the System Update Readiness Tool for Windows 7. According to a Microsoft support document published just a few days ago:
This tool is being offered because an inconsistency was found in the Windows servicing store which may prevent the successful installation of future updates, service packs, and software. This tool checks your computer for such inconsistencies and tries to resolve issues if found.
If you’re unable to apply the Service Pack 1 update to Windows 7, consider downloading and running this utility. Choose the version that applies to your installation:

• 32-bit Windows 7
• 64-bit Windows 7
• Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit only)

So far I’ve seen no indication from Microsoft on how widespread these “inconsistencies” are. I’ve asked a Microsoft spokesperson for comment and will update this post with further details.

Scientists investigate the possibility of wormholes between stars

Artistic illustration of wormhole travel. Image credit: NASA/Les Bossinas (Cortez III Service Corp.)
Wormholes are one of the stranger objects that arise in general relativity. Although no experimental evidence for wormholes exists, scientists predict that they would appear to serve as shortcuts between one point of spacetime and another. Scientists usually imagine wormholes connecting regions of empty space, but now a new study suggests that wormholes might exist between distant stars. Instead of being empty tunnels, these wormholes would contain a perfect fluid that flows back and forth between the two stars, possibly giving them a detectable signature.
The scientists, Vladimir Dzhunushaliev at the Eurasian National University in Kazakhstan and coauthors, have posted their investigation of the possibility of wormholes between stars on arXiv.org.
The scientists began investigating the idea of wormholes between stars when they were researching what kinds of astrophysical objects could serve as entrances to wormholes. According to previous models, some of these objects could look similar to stars.
This idea led the scientists to wonder if wormholes might exist in otherwise ordinary stars and neutron stars. From a distance, these stars would look very much like normal stars (and normal neutron stars), but they might have a few differences that could be detectable.
To investigate these differences, the researchers developed a model of an ordinary star with a tunnel at the star’s center, through which matter could move. Two stars that share a wormhole would have a unique connection, since they are associated with the two mouths of the wormhole. Because exotic matter in the wormhole could flow like a fluid between the stars, both stars would likely pulse in an unusual way. This pulsing could lead to the release of various kinds of energy, such as ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays.
For now, the difficult part is calculating exactly what kinds of oscillations are occurring, and what kind of energy is being released. This information would allow scientists to predict what a wormhole-containing star might look like from Earth, and begin searching for these otherwise normal-looking stars.

Verizon iPhone suffers 'death grip,' says Consumer Reports

Lab, real-world tests show results similar to AT&T's model; solved with case
Consumer Reports today said that its lab tests show the Verizon iPhone 4 suffers from a "death grip" problem similar to last summer's revelations about AT&T's model.
Holding the Verizon model in certain ways can "cause the phone to drop calls, or be unable to place calls, in weak signal conditions," the magazine said Friday.
Similar problems with AT&T's iPhone last summer raised a ruckus that Apple first dismissed, then dealt with by offering free cases to all owners. Apple discontinued the offer last September.
As it did last year with the AT&T version of the iPhone 4, Consumer Reports today declined to put Verizon's on its "recommended" list because of the dropped call problem, even though the device is among its highest-rated smartphones.
"[Dropped calls] can occur when you hold either version of the iPhone in a specific but quite natural way in which a gap in the phone's external casing is covered," said Paul Reynolds, the magazine's electronics editor, in a blog post.
Covering the gap at the lower left of the steel band encircling the Verizon iPhone 4 resulted in dropped calls and an inability to place calls when the cellular signal was at a low strength -- at the level of one bar in the iPhone's indicator -- said Reynolds.
"Reception typically dropped notably within 15 seconds or so of the gap being bridged," Reynolds reported.
Experts, including antenna engineer Spencer Webb, president of AntennaSys, a mobile device antenna design and consulting firm, explained last year that placing part of one's hand over a gap in the band degraded performance by bridging separate antennas, changing the length of the cellular antenna and thus its ability to receive and transmit.
The Verizon iPhone has four such gaps, one more than AT&T's version.
Consumer Reports tested the Verizon iPhone in an isolation chamber at its Yonkers, N.Y. labs, using the same equipment and methodology it used last year to confirm the quickly-dubbed "death grip" issue with AT&T's iPhone. It replicated the tests, and came up with the same results -- dropped calls, inability to place calls -- using a live network connection as well.
The solution for the Verizon iPhone's death grip problem, said Reynolds, is the same as for AT&T's smartphone: Get a case.
"When we placed the Verizon iPhone 4 into the Apple iPhone 4 Bumper, a $29 frame-like cover sold by the company, the problem was essentially eliminated," Reynolds said. "Based on past tests of the AT&T iPhone with cases of other designs, we also expect other cases sold for the Verizon iPhone 4 will alleviate the problem."
After Apple stopped giving cases to every iPhone 4 owner last September, Consumer Reports blasted the company for the move, calling the decision "not acceptable" because it put the burden on customers.
At the time it ended the case giveaway, Apple said customers had to contact product support to request a free bumper. Apple did not immediately reply today to questions about whether that offer was still valid, or to a request for comment on Consumer Reports' findings.
The publication also ran five other highly-rated smartphones through the same tests, including HTC's Droid Incredible, LG's Ally, Motorola's Droid 2 Global and Droid X, and Samsung's Fascinate. All those smartphones run Google's Android mobile operating system.
None of five Android smartphones exhibited the death grip problem.
Reynolds noted that, unlike last summer, few complaints about dropped calls have surfaced from Verizon subscribers. In an interview Friday, Reynolds declined to speculate on why consumers haven't voiced concerns about the Verizon iPhone's reception. "I will note, though, that Verizon is above average in our satisfaction surveys," he said.
The bottom line for Consumer Reports? It's not recommending the Verizon iPhone, even though it gave the device a score of 75 out of a possible 100, just one point off the top ranking of 76, which the AT&T iPhone 4, T-Mobile's myTouch 4G and Samsung's Vibrant all received.
"We're not recommending [the Verizon iPhone 4] because it has the potential to drop calls or make it unable to place them if used in a normal way," said Reynolds. "You shouldn't need to a case to use a phone."

Apple invites bug researchers to scrutinize Lion OS

Apple invites bug researchers to scrutinize Lion OS
But security experts who accept must keep findings secret
Apple is offering security experts a copy of the developer preview of Mac OS X 10.7, aka Lion, and asking them for feedback.
Several prominent Mac security researchers have reported that they received invitations to try out the Lion preview, which Apple issued Thursday.
"Apple has invited me to look at the Lion developer preview," said Dino Dai Zovi in a tweet yesterday. "I won't be able to comment on it until its release, but hooray for free access!"
Charlie Miller, an analyst with Baltimore-based consulting firm Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) and Dai Zovi's co-author, confirmed today that he had also received an invitation to try out Lion.
The preview comes with a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that prevents Zovi, Miller and others from commenting publicly about what they find. But Apple has asked for feedback and provided researchers an e-mail address to report vulnerabilities or other issues, said Miller.
"They've never done this before," noted Miller in an interview today. "That they're thinking of reaching out [to researchers] is a good positive step, but whether it makes a difference, I'll believe it when I see it."
Miller has been critical of Apple's security practices in the past, saying in 2008 that Mac OS X was an easier target at the time than either Windows or Linux.
Miller has proven his point at the last three Pwn2Own hacking contests by walking away with cash prizes and laptops for exploiting vulnerabilities in Mac OS X and Safari, Apple's browser. Miller is slated to tackle Safari and Apple's iPhone on March 9 at this year's Pwn2Own.
Other researchers have heard the news, if not received an invitation to the preview, and given their two cents on expectation for security improvements.
"I doubt we'll see any real security innovation in Lion," opined Alexander Sotirov on Twitter. And in a later tweet aimed at Miller, Sotirov said, "I'm sure we'll see improvements in Lion, perhaps even full ASLR. But that doesn't count as 'innovation' in 2011."
Sotirov is an independent security researcher, who with Miller and Dai Zovi, launched a 2010 effort they dubbed "No Free Bugs" that proposed researchers should be paid for their work because vulnerabilities have value.
ASLR, or "address space layout randomization," is an anti-exploit technology that randomly assigns data to memory to make it tougher for attackers to determine the location of critical operating system functions, and thus make it harder for them to craft reliable exploits.
Windows, for example, leans on ASLR, but Apple's current operating system -- 2009's Snow Leopard -- relies on partial ASLR that doesn't randomize important components of the OS. Microsoft has included ASLR in Windows since Vista's late 2007 debut.
After Snow Leopard's August 2009 launch, Miller said Apple missed the security boat by not fully implementing ASLR.
Apple has not disclosed a ship date for Lion -- saying only that it will be available "this summer" -- or its price. Historically, the company has priced its operating system upgrades at $129 for a single license, $149 for a five-license package, although it departed from that practice with Snow Leopard when it priced Mac OS X 10.6 at $29 and $49, respectively.