In a contest offering up to $20,000 to the first security expert able to hack into the latest version of Apple’s Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows Vista or Ubuntu Linux, a firm named Independent Security Evaluators took the prize by picking off Mac OS X:
Charlie Miller, principal analyst with Independent Security Evaluators and the researcher who found some significant flaws in Apple’s iPhone last summer, compromised the Apple MacBook Air in less than a minute. While he refrained from describing the flaw, SecurityFocus learned that the issue affected the Safari browser. Contest officials said that the MacBook Air was running the latest version of Mac OS X, version 10.5.2 or “Leopard.”
Miller — and two colleagues from ISE, Jake Honoroff and Mark Daniel — worked on the code for exploiting the security issue for about three weeks, he told SecurityFocus.
From: SecurityFocus.com.
The common perception that Apple’s products are safe from hackers has to be tempered: compared to the number of attacks against PCs, Apples computers are relatively safe. But that’s no reason for complacency. Even Mac users have to be careful.
Tech
Yes, Virginia, there are Christians who accept evolution. The entire Catholic church, for example.
Even among American Protestants, the majority of denominations accept that science has determined that evolution happened. Its one of the basic underpinnings of most of the biological sciences, and its not even an issue in most religious circles. So I’m always distressed to see well meaning articles by Christians that purport to challenge evolution quoting scientific principles they are unqualified to cite. Its a fire I don’t think we should play with; James 3:1 makes that clear.
I’m not a scientist, I’m a Christian. Most of them are just like me, with a few exceptions. I have a hard time finding what appear to be outright lies … the careful arranging of quotes out of sequence or the use of ellipses to remove important and clarifying information within a single quote, for instance. Cooler heads than mine discuss what we Christians should call such statements by our brothers in the faith (see Quintessence of Dust).
Stephen Matheson at Quintessence uses the phrase “Folk Science” to describe the practice because the proponents truly believe they have found a collection of facts that disprove evolution or supports the Creationist-flavor-of-the-month. But like me, he tends to find that untruths, created erector-set style with quote-mining and selective excising, can be called nothing less than “lies”.
Matheson is the real deal, a developmental cell biologist and Associate Professor of Biology at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. And he’s a Christian. So his critique of what I’ll call the “teachers ignorant of James 3:1″ comes from both the scientific and Christian perspective.
Quintessence is fine reading, and is on my list.
Faith, Science
Hey, wait a minute … this tomb is empty!
Politics
Easter seemed like it was coming a bit early this year:
A Once in a lifetime experience!
Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20 this year- Some years it is March 21). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.
This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! Only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early before (95 years old or above!). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier!
Here’s the facts:
- The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913.
- The next time it will be a day earlier yet, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now).
- The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. No one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!
Faith
The Supremes are considering the 2nd Amendment directly for the first time in some 70 years, and from the questions they asked, there seems to be no question that there is an individual right to bear arms in our Constitution. It looks like, rather than questioning if the right exists, the justices will be asking what reasonable restrictions can be implemented by the government.
I suspect the case will end with a referral back to the District, with instructions to draft a more reasonable set of laws. DC has the “strongest” (read, most restrictive) gun laws in the nation, yet the District also has the highest crime rate of the local area. A good blog post, along with some pretty good comments at Say Anything Blog point out that DC, as a “gun free zone”, has criminals coming in from more gun-friendly states nearby. The question has to be asked, why do the criminals travel to the gun free zone? Because they know Joe Homeowner isn’t going to be able to fight back.
Politics