iPhone causing denial of service attacks

Could it be too good to be true ? The iPhone is one of the tech marvels that happens once in a few years, and it has shown itself to be a revolution in the designing of phones, although the restriction on carriers and the relatively slow network are acting as hobble-stones.
Well, in the latest news on this area, the iPhones have been caught to be behaving very strangely on the Duke University campus, with around 150 iPhones (a fraction of what would be available once the students come back from holiday) bring several wireless access points to a halt, in an imitation of a Denial of Service attack, probably the last thing that Apple wants to hear at this point:

The iPhone is flooding wireless access points at the US Duke University with MAC address requests, resulting in a denial of service-like attack that is taking out 20 to 30 access points for 10 to 15 minutes at a time – weird! The iPhones are asking for an address that isn’t on Duke University’s network, and when the iPhones don’t get a response, they keep on sending out requests, flooding the available bandwidth.
Help has been sought from Cisco, the maker of the school’s networking equipment, and technical support has been sought from Apple, although there is only speculation online as to precisely what might have caused the problem – Apple isn’t saying anything yet as it no doubt investigates the problem. When the fix inevitably comes, either the iPhone, Cisco’s equipment, or both, will simply be patched with a software update to resolve the problem.

So even though it will probably be a short-lived problem, the fact that such a problem occurred reflects badly on Apple's quality regime. And it is good that it happened at a time when the university was thinly populated, otherwise at peak times and if happening in a number of places at the same time, the problem would have been magnified many times and probably resulted in a loss of face for Apple.

AT & T exclusive with IPhone: a CDMA killer

The Apple iPhone has been a much awaited device ever since it was announced and displayed a few months back. Due in June, the iPhone will be available exclusively with AT & T, giving AT & T an automatic advantage due to the hype and media buzz around the iPhone. Apple is locked with AT & T for a period of 5 years, an incredibly long time, but equally importantly, in the battle between GSM and CDMA users (Sprint & Verizon), Apple has been prohibited from developing a CDMA version of the iPhone for 5 years. The fact that a leading device is not available on CDMA will automatically give GSM a push up in the standards war. Refer this article:

The Apple iPhone, due out next month, has been breathlessly hailed as offering consumers the ultimate wireless experience. It also could give AT&T, its exclusive U.S. distributor, the ultimate experience for a wireless carrier: an easy way to handcuff rivals and steal customers.
Apple is barred for that time from developing a version of the iPhone for CDMA wireless networks. That ban is no small thing. AT&T rivals Verizon Wireless and Sprint are both CDMA shops. AT&T uses GSM, a global standard incompatible with CDMA.
They also sparred over the iPhone. As previously reported by USA TODAY, Verizon passed on the opportunity to become the exclusive U.S. distributor, balking at Apple's demand for control over distribution, pricing, marketing and more. That left an opening for AT&T — then called Cingular — to cement a deal. (AT&T on Monday officially dumped the Cingular name and store signs now are being switched. The move came slightly ahead of schedule.)

There is intense competition between the major US carriers, AT & T, Sprint and Verizon, with all of them using all possible tactics to get a better market share. In such a case, if the iPhone becomes a major hit, it will give a huge advantage to AT & T, while at the same time, if people are put off by high prices, then it can be a disaster. Also, with the iPhone promoting a much better internet connection as well as songs downloading, more people will use higher data plans, increasing revenue for AT & T.

MySpace refuses to provide sex offender names to attorney generals

In a letter this Monday, attorney generals from 8 states sent a letter to MySpace asking it to provide names of registered sex offenders who use the social networking site. MySpace has finally responded, and the answer is a nyet. Citing federal privacy laws (Electronic Communications Privacy Act), MySpace refused the request from the attorney generals, and instead passed the blame onto them in terms of the attorney generals not following the law. As per MySpace, they can only provide information after a proper legal process is followed, not on the basis of a letter.
MySpace is one of the leaders of the social networking websites, but it is not following all the security measures about preventing minors from logging on (and minors are very influencable, and hence the need to make sure that they are not allowed easy access where predators can get at them), for example, people under the age of 14 are not allowed to create a profile, but the only check is that the user has to certify whether they are above or below 14, hardly a very water-tight security measure.
On their side, MySpace proclaims that they are very proactive about removing registered sex offenders; and while denying the request of the attorney generals, claim that they still want to follow the law and make their network safe for everyone to access. Refer this story:

Citing federal privacy law, MySpace.com said Tuesday it won't comply with a request by attorneys general from eight states to hand over the names of registered sex offenders who use the social networking Web site.
"We're truly disheartened that the AGs chose to send out a letter ... when there was an existing legal process that could have been followed," the security officer, Hemanshu Nigam, said in an interview.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal on Tuesday blasted MySpace for refusing to share the information and said no subpoena is needed for MySpace to tell the attorneys general how many registered sex offenders use the site "or other information relating to possible parole violations."
Christian Genetski, an attorney who has represented MySpace, said the Electronic Communications Privacy Act requires subpoenas, court orders or search warrants, depending on the information sought.

A contradiction between wanting to make its network safe (and it would do almost anything to preserve that reputation) while also ensuring that it follows the complete law even when cooperating with legal authorities could prove difficult for MySpace. It might have to buckle down.

IBM develops 160 Gigabits per second chip

IBM has developed a new optical networking chip, using light signals instead of the traditional electrical signals. With this change in technology, the chip can speed data transmission to 160 GB/sec. This is fast enough to download one high definition movie in one second, and is part of the overall push to move out the frontiers of technology in the computing arena.
The optical receiver chip is a CMOS chip made with materials like indium phosphide and gallium arsenide. As per IBM, the production model will be small, just 3.25 mm by 5.25 mm in size.
At current technology, such a chip would be limited by current broadband technology, that runs at a max projected speed of 100 Mbps in research conditions, and even Ethernet tops out at 1 Gb/sec.