[H]ardNews 9th Edition - Tech Edition

Google Removes Size Comparison:

I think the moral of the story is this: bigger is better but no one likes a braggart. Maybe, “you can’t prove yours is bigger than mine”. Bah…who knows, what ever happened to the old slogans like “we know we are better than you, why bother trying?”

Google Inc. will stop boasting on its home page about the number of Web pages it has stored in its index, even as the online search engine leader continues a crusade to prove it scans substantially more material than its rivals.

RealPlayer Exploit Found:

Linux users who use RealPlayer should know there is a highly critical unpatched vulnerability in version 10.0.5.756. Not sure how many Linux users actually use RealPlayer but there you have it, you have been warned.

The vulnerability, which remains unpatched, has been confirmed in RealPlayer version 10.0.5.756 (gold) and affects only the Linux/Unix platforms. Security alerts aggregator Secunia Inc. rates the bug as "highly critical" and warned that a malicious hacker could run a successful exploit to take complete control of a vulnerable machine.

Sun Rehires Exec From Red Hat:

So this lady defects from Sun to Red Hat. Then, a year later, she comes back to Sun. Think about this, wouldn’t that be the best way to find out what your competition is doing? Allow one of your highly sought after employees be lured to another company (knowingly) and then hire her back after a year of getting the dirt on the competition? Damn, I should run a Fortune 500 company…or a conspiracy website.

Tegan-Padir is now leading development of Sun's Java server software, the computing giant confirmed Tuesday. She previously had been vice president of engineering for Sun's application server software. She left in 2004 to lead Red Hat's desktop software initiative. Now back at Sun, Tegan-Padir is working in the same domain as before, with the title vice president of engineering for the Enterprise Java Platforms Group, Sun said.