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PCWorld is carrying an interesting story on a new tool that is being released expressly to identify and combat security holes in compiled software.

On Monday, @stake, of Cambridge, Massachusetts will unveil SmartRisk Analyzer, an application security modeling and analysis tool that scans computer code written in the C, C++, and Java languages for flaws like buffer overflows that, if left undetected, pose security risks for customers using finished software products.

The product compares code to an @stake database of about 400 security and code reliability rules. It can generate reports that list flaws by type or rank them by severity. A remediation module marks erroneous code in an environment that resembles the integrated development environments most software developers work in, and appends suggestions for ways to fix coding mistakes, @stake said.

Innovative name for a security company ;)

One hundred thousand workers at SBC Communications walked off their jobs for four days beginning at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The issue: jobs and pay cut for workers following transfer of jobs to Bangalore. The full story can be read here while a status report from yesterday can be seen here.

eWeek is carrying a report on a patch released by Apple to plug a security hole in OSX.

The issue revolves around two URI handlers, "help" and "disk." The first allows any AppleScript on the user's machine to be run, while the second allows users to mount a disk image automatically over a network. In theory, this allows malicious users to create a Web page that will either download a small disk image onto a Mac or mount it remotely, then execute an AppleScript on the mounted image, which could contain any Unix command— including ones to remove any file in the user's Home directory. The flaw works with any browser, including Safari, Internet Explorer, and Firefox.

Apparently reported to Apple in February, the security patch has taken 3 months to reach the end user. Sound familiar?

Kudumbashree is a novel project initiated by the Kerala government, that allows 600 (previously unemployed) women to eke out a satisfactory living using computers. The project involves training and supporting candidates to set-up 'IT-units' - computer centres that handle everything from DTP & data entry to training and computer assembly. These IT-units then collaborate and bid for work, primarily from the state government, and due to their increasing competence and low prices, are becoming increasingly successful.

Going forward, Kudumbashree plans to network the IT units. Most of the centres are already connected through e-mail so that data entered into the computers can be sent immediately to the respective offices.

Computer hardware units have also come up that assemble computers and take up maintenance. The existing units will now buy computers and give their annual maintenance contract to these units, fuelling their growth.

New units have also come in association with the Kerala Government's IT@School project, running from varying schools in the State.

The full story is available here.

The Economic Times is carrying a rather astonishing report on the latest entrant to the outsourcing market: Religious outsourcing.

European and American clergy are outsourcing "mass intentions" - requests for services, such as thanksgiving and memorial masses for the dead - to priests and congregations with time on their hands.

Each mass is said in front of a public congregation in Malayalam, the local language. Rates vary from country to country: a request from North America or Europe can net a priest three pounds or four pounds; poorer countries pay less.

David Fleming, Amicus National Secretary, went on to say that, "this shows that no aspect of life in the west is sacred. We have identified 25 different skilled jobs that have been offshored but saying mass and delivering religious services is a real shock“.

The business of religion.. :S

With both the rovers having completed their primary missions, NASA have decided to assign them with new targets. Opportunity is on it's way to explore the Endurance crater, while Spirit is well on it's way to examine the 'Columbia Hills'.

ABC is carrying this story.

Reuters reports that Israeli scientists have programmed a biomolecular computer to successfully detect and treat cancer cells (in a test-tube).

Shapiro's DNA computer is a molecular model of one of the simplest computing machines -- the automaton, which can answer certain yes or no questions.

It uses enzymes, which manipulate DNA, as the computer's hardware. The computer is preprogrammed with medical information and detects markers, or concentrations of certain molecules of RNA (a cousin of DNA) which are overproduced or underproduced to detect the cancer. If the markers signify a disease, the output releases a molecule similar to an anti-cancer drug to destroy the cancerous cells.

The full story is available here.

The Institute of Mathematical Sciences - IMSc has joined the worldwide Teraflop supercomputer club with the full commissioning of ''Kabru'', a 288-CPU (144 node) node Linux Cluster.

''With a theoretical peak performance of 1.382 Teraflops and a measured (sustained) performance of 951.7 Gflops of double precision arithmetical operations, KABRU is the second fastest supercomputer from India and the fastest supercomputer belonging to an academic/research organisation in the country, a release from the Institute said.

Kabru has been submitted for inclusion into the Top 500 supercomputer list. Supercomputing Online is carrying this article. An associated story can be seen here.

HiPakistan is carrying a story on the launch of a new project by Pakistan's IT ministry to train 4000 government employees in the use of Open Source Software. While this is good news, the motive behind the project is hardly encouraging:

He informed the meeting that in 2005, WTO regulations were expected to be enforced and as a result it would become mandatory for WTO members to use licenced software. This will exert a profound impact not only on the expenditure of the general software users but also incur a great burden on national exchequer, he added.

I think he just said that the Paksitani government currently uses pirated software :S

Express India has a story on a recent Wall Street Journal article on the Indian medical tourism boom and what it means to the American health care industry.

The company had capitalised on the high cost of health care administration in US and demands of patients elsewhere, for "fast, inexpensive treatment" with the most modern equipment, the Wall Street Journal said in the article "India's new coup in outsourcing: Inpatient care".

Some serious finger-pointing fun is about to start over this one ;)