THE NUMBER OF women resigning from IT jobs in the UK has risen over the last year.
According to research from Chartered Management Institute, part of the reason is the pay gap between the genders has widened for the first time in 11 years.
The figures show that 5.7 per cent of women working in IT walked away from the industry in 2006, which was a 2.1 per cent more than for 2005. While the average IT bloke’s pay increased by 3.1 per cent the average woman’s pay went up by only 2.9 per cent.
However it was not all bad news for women. The National Management Salary Survey found that British female managers were promoted a lot faster than men. They were more likely to get a bonus, although these were 30 per cent lower than an average bloke.
So in other words women are doing a better job and are being asked to take on more responsibility for less money.
More information [WomenInTechnology]
A FLAW IN the super secure Apple OSX enables a user to create an admin account without knowing an administrator password.
According to Hackmac, the security hole is really handy if you are a tech support person who has to deal with a Mac user who forgot that their password was “coldplay”.
Apparently it all takes about 5-10 minutes. You boot in single user mode. Gain root access by pressing Command + S (Apple+S). When the first shade of blue appears on the screen, hold it down until the screen turns black with white text. Everything will load.
Enter the command:
: /sbin/mount -uw /
Next, delete the file that tells your computer every time you start up that you’ve completed the setup by entering this commmand:
rm /var/db/.applesetupdone
Type, reboot. Wait for the setup screen to appear. Select “DO NOT TRANSFER MY DATA”. Choose your internet connection and network. Create a new local account to administer that computer which is different from the one you buggered up.
You should now automatically be logged into your new administrator account and will have lost none of your data.
All really simple and one which would give you total control of any user’s Mac, apparently.
DRUG COMPANY Pfizer might have hit upon a new way to push its pills, or maybe it’s merely been hacked.
San Francisco security firm Support Intelligence told Wired that an unknown number of Pfizer’s computers appear to have been zombied and are slinging spam emails far and wide advertising Viagra, a Pfizer product, along with Cialis, a competing drug, and the usual assortment of penile extensions, fake watches, and penny stock scams.
Rick Wesson, CEO of Support Intelligence, said this has been going on for six months. He’s collected 600 spam emails to prove it and adds that 138 Pfizer IP addresses have been blacklisted by various spam-fighting groups.
Support Intelligence has tried to alert Pfizer to the problem several times, but apparently its warnings have been ignored.
Or, can it be that Pfizer has rolled out an innovative marketing campaign, call it covert deniable viral guerilla marketing?
More information [Wired]
Pocos días después del lanzamiento europeo de la nueva consola portátil de Sony, el famoso grupo de hackers ruso “M33″ anuncia su Custom firmware v3.60 para la misma.
No parece que le haya costado mucho esfuerzo a pesar de los rumores de que el hardware basado en la placa TA-085, sería más difícil de “piratear”.
Aunque no se conoce la forma de ejecutar el código puede ser similar al empleado por el grupo con las anteriores PSP y sus firmwares 3.51 y 3.52 y seguramente con la ayuda de trabajos previos que adelantaban un “dumpeo” de la v3.60 anunciada en MaxConsole, un día después del lanzamiento de la consola.
La PSP Slim es un rediseño de la original, más delgada y con menor peso, con una batería más pequeña aunque dicen con la misma autonomía.
La RAM ha aumentado a 64 Mbytes – frente a los 32 de la original – que debe mejorar el perezoso tiempo de carga de los juegos. La carga vía USB y una salida de video son otras de las novedades.
Disponible en España por 169 euros – igual a la original PSP – espera competir con su rival Nintendo DS, la actual dominadora del mercado de las consolas portátiles.
Más información [ElOtroLado]
