Saturday, August 6, 2011

A first look at Hathaway's Selina Kyle

Just hours after we got to see what the new Superman looks like, Warner Bros. has released a photo of Anne Hathaway dressed as Selina Kyle for the new batman film, Dark Knight Rises.

A few websites which have also posted this photo are referring to it as an image of Catwoman, but it's clearly just Selina Kyle. She may be in all black rubber-leather stuff - and she surely looks smoking, but this costume is more likely being used in a pre-Catwoman scene.


Selina Kyle was a 'cat burgalar' long before she was Catwoman, and the film will likely depict at least one such heist before her transformation into the iconic personality.

Now, it's also likely that the Catwoman costume will incorporate elements of this costume, but she's not Catwoman without the ears and claws.

It looks like they were serious when they announced a while back that Anne Hathaway's costume would not be as revealing as past Catwomans (Catwomen?).

We can't see the whole costume here due to the awesome motorbike-thing, but it looks like what she's got is more of a rubber jumpsuit, and while it's not loose, it's not exactly form-fitting.

I mean: compared to Michelle Phifer, who looked like she had to be painted into her shiny faux-leather costume, or Halle Berry who had a lot of exposed skin between the tattered pieces of her cat suit, well, this one looks downright puritan.

Frankly, the costume is more attractive for its slight conservation. I certainly don't think that they will get any complaints from fans over this image.

For those unfamiliar, Catwoman is the planned secondary villain for the upcoming Batman film, Dark Knight Rises, the final in the trilogy by Christopher Nolan.

Selina Kyle/Catwoman has always been an enigmatic figure in Batman's story, all the way back to the 'Golden Age' comics. Her goals have never been too far from the bat's, and occasionally they have even worked together for short times, but while both figures work outside the law to achieve their goals, Batman has never been happy with Catwoman's methods, and so they always come back to odds eventually.

Of course, the main difference is that Catwoman must steal to support her causes, while Batman is self-funded.

Dark Knight Rises is slated for a Summer 2012 release.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Anonymous codes a digital weapon

Anonymous is reportedly coding a JavaScript-powered weapon that exploits SQL vulnerabilities to create a "devastating impact" on targeted servers.

Dubbed RefRef, the new software could replace the ubiquitous Low Orbit Ion Canon (LOIC) fielded by cyber activists waging various DDoS campaigns.

Anonymous codes a digital weapon

RefRef - which is slated to debut in September - works by turning a server's own processing power against itself.

According to the Tech Herald, the targeted server eventually "succumbs" to resource exhaustion. 



Although such an attack vector has existed for a while, cyber activists have traditionally preferred the brute force of a DDoS attack generated by bots or LOICs.



Nevertheless, Anonymous recently tested the new weapon and managed to down Pastebin for a total of 42 minutes.

"Imagine giving a large beast a simple carrot, [and then] watching the best choke itself to death," an Anon promoting RefRef told the Herald.

Another Anon explained that the tool "only makes you vulnerable" if systems remain unpatched and outdated.

"This is how Sony got caught with it's pants down. It axed huge swathes of it's IT security a little while before it got pwned. Basically, [Sony] decided that basic maintenance wasn't good ROI... It's companies like Sony - making idiotic decisions like that - which will be vulnerable to this tool. Proper companies staying on top of things won't be vulnerable after the fifth or sixth attack, at which point patches will be out."



Despite its possible shortcomings, RefRef does appear to be a fairly potent tool, as it can be used on any platform that supports JavaScript, including smartphones and even consoles. 
The versatile nature of the weapon will likely create multiple command points manned by activists from public wifi hotspots such as libraries and Internet cafés.

Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 3


Kate Stewart has announced the availability of the third alpha release of Ubuntu 11.10, code name "Oneiric Ocelot". This release comes with the new Linux kernel 3.0, while Lubuntu (an Ubuntu variant featuring the LXDE desktop) becomes an official member of the Ubuntu family. From the release notes: "Alpha 3 includes the 3.0.0-7.9 Ubuntu kernel which is based on the mainline 3.0 kernel. Some of the most notable changes between the alpha 2 and alpha 3 release with respect to the kernel include: adopted a 3 digit kernel version, e.g. 3.0.0-x.y; re-base to upstream 3.0 final kernel; enable Overlayfs; enable Realtek RTL8192CU and RTL8188CU WiFi driver; enable support for rt53xx wireless chipset family...." See also the release announcement. Download (SHA256): oneiric-desktop-i386.iso (712MB, torrent), oneiric-desktop-amd64.iso (709MB, torrent). Also made available today were 11.10 alpha 3 releases for Kubuntu (download, release notes), Edubuntu (download), Lubuntu (download) and Mythbuntu (download).

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

TurnKey Linux 11.2

Liraz Siri has announced the release of Turnkey Linux 11.2, an Ubuntu-based set of highly specialised virtual appliances which integrate some of the best open-source software into ready-to-use solutions: "We just updated the website and the TurnKey Hub with the new TurnKey 11.2 maintenance release, which includes: TurnKey Hub support for micro instances, Amazon's free tier and cloud servers backed by persistent network-attached storage volumes (AKA EBS-backed instances); built-in support for TurnKey's new dynamic DNS service; the latest security updates. We've added support for micro instances (613 MB RAM), Amazon EC2's smallest cloud server type which costs less than US$15/month if you run a server 24x7." Read the release announcement and see the virtual appliances page for further information. All of the 40+ appliances are available for download from SourceForge; here is a quick link to the "core" CD image: turnkey-core-11.2-lucid-x86.iso (168MB).

Monday, August 1, 2011

Frugalware Linux 1.5 RC2


The second and final release candidate for Frugalware Linux 1.5, a general-purpose distribution for intermediate and advanced users, has been released for final testing: "The Frugalware developer team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Frugalware 1.5rc2, the second candidate of the upcoming 1.5 stable release. Here are some of the improvements, fixes and updates since 1.5rc1: Package updates - Linux Kernel 2.6.39.3, X.Org Server 1.10.3, LXDE updated, 1.0.1 release of the core EFL libraries, Mozilla Firefox 5.0.1, 245 packages updated, 20 new packages. New features: our Vim package gained Python support." Read the brief release announcement and check out the comprehensive changelog for further details. Download the installation DVD image from here: frugalware-1.5rc2-i686-dvd1.iso (4,262MB, SHA1).

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Underworld: Awakening



Status: Post-production