dan

Dagmar Heijmans from Sellaband.com joins the show to explain how his website allows you to invest in up-and-coming bands that tickle your fancy. Users can buy shares, or "parts," of a cool band and once that band reaches $50 K, they record an album. As stakeholders, Sellaband users share in sales revenues. So far 27 bands have reached the coveted $50,000 mark. In the second half of the show: A McCain supporter is mugged in Pittsburgh and has a "B" carved into her face, really Fox News? San Francisco votes on Proposal K, a Taiwanese students eats himself to death and, of course, the weekend box office.

Dan the Mantern here. When listening today, be sure to enjoy Wilson's pathetic grasp of geography. No Wilson, Holland is not the capital of Denmark. Holland is a province in The Netherlands. Wilson, is your geography so pitiful because U.S. Americans don't have maps? Was your education in South Africa, or such as, the Iraq, such as, really that bad?

NOTICE: The "Photoshop Dan Ackerman in an Inappropriate Situation" contest continues. Make us a funny photo of Dan and win yourself a copy of Far Cry 2 or Baja for 360.

Are Justin and Wilson offended by the title of the new Guns 'N' Roses album? What kind of music does Wilson like? (HINT: It starts with "mmmm" and ends with "usical theater.") Can Chinese people really nap anywhere? How many poo-poo jokes can we make in one episode? Find the answers on today's show, and also learn how you can win a copy of Baja and Far Cry 2 for Xbox 360!

NOTICE: Tomorrow's live show will start early at 10:45 a.m. Eastern. Be there or Jeff will open the floodgates of haterade!

Dan the Mantern here, and it's contest time. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to Photoshop CNET's very own Internet celebrity Dan Ackerman into a completely inappropriate picture. Make Dan into the new Client Number 9, put his head on Princess Zelda's body or, even more ridiculous, give him his own network TV show! Make us laugh and you'll win a copy of Baja or Far Cry 2 for Xbox 360 and Tales Out of Night School, Ackerman's newest CD. We're even throwing in a few promotional jimmy hats from BeenVerified.com. Trust us, if you combine Dan's CD, alcohol and a significant other, you'll need em!

Since Wilson can't be here today (or tomorrow), we invite Dan Ackerman into the studios to give us his expert opinion on the new Apple laptops and the latest video games. Unfortunately, he ignores all of our pressing questions in lieu of his own shameless promotions. Dan is a man of many talents, and his many creative projects give us a glimpse into his kooky world. Listen in for hilarious banter from Mr. Ackerman and even a brief look into the sad state of existence that is affectionately dubbed the Ackergoad household!

What more can be said about a man who literally has his hand in everyone else's cookie jar? Dan Ackerman, Senior Editor for Laptops at CNET, simply can't be pinned down or pigeonholed into one creative arena. No way! Mixed media is his art of choice, and on today's episode he invades the waves with several of his own personal projects including a unique take on the classic podcast and even his DIY amalgam music group! We play a clip on second half of the show after a bit of technical troubles (typical) and I have to admit that although Jeff and I were poised and ready to give Dan hell, the music is great and we actually find ourselves grooving uncontrollably to the penny licks and rolling bass lines. Buy a copy here and prepare yourself for a night of aural love making. And if you can't get enough of Dan's awesome radio voice, be sure to catch his new CNET podcast Digital City, available every Monday on CNET.com.

Just another Friday here at CNET, which apparently means we talk about drugs and porn. Justin recounts his tales of chivalrous battle with house mice (TIP: He used peanut butter not cheese). Also, Playboy pulls out of the DVD business, changing the face of the adult film industry forever and those anti-drug ads don't actually work. Stick around for a special guest caller in the show's second half.

Dan the Mantern here. One of today's stories is about preparations for Halloween safety in Annapolis, Maryland, which apparently has an inordinate number of child molesters. In order to protect Trick or Treaters, signs were mailed out to the homes of sex offenders that say: "No candy at this house." They will be required to post it on their front doors. I understand the message being sent out here, but look at the sign. It's a Jack-0-Lantern... Kind of sending a mixed message here. Kids see carved pumpkin and think Halloween, costumes, and candy corn, not "KEEP OUT." Epic fail, Annapolis Police Department, epic fail.

Tune in on Monday to catch Internet celeb Dan Ackerman talking about his new album and how many hours he's already spent with an advanced copy FALLOUT 3!

Microsoft's eighth Blue Hat conference will take place on Thursday and Friday at the software giant's Redmond, Wash., campus. Entitled "C3P0wned," the invitation-only conference features two full days of sessions.

Day one features a select group of security researchers, with team members from Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) presenting on the second day. It is an opportunity for Microsoft engineers to hear first hand from leading security researchers. The last Blue Hat conference was held in April.

Of interest on day one is a talk by Dan Kaminsky, director of penetration testing at IO Active, who … Read more

Two researchers in Sweden have found multiple flaws in the TCP stack that could lead to massive denial-of-service attacks if exploited. At present there is no workaround and there are no patches available.

The TCP stack defines a set of rules by which a computer can communicate over any network. Robert E. Lee, chief security officer for Outpost24, told CNET News, "the vendors we are in talks with seem to be taking the threat seriously."

The discovery follows a test using a port scanner called UnicornScan, which Lee and senior security researcher Jack Louis created. The tool is … Read more

I'm still laughing as I type this. Dan Lyons is always interesting to read, but sometimes his razor wit lays bare all the silliness of our technology-centric lives.

Take this post from last week criticizing the Web 2.0 bank heist, highlighted by a Scoble-led panel of Web 2.0ers at the MIT Emerging Technology Conference and its quest to find a good Boston restaurant:

My first reaction was that in the greater scheme of things (economy in free fall, war in Iraq, global warming, energy crisis, not to mention the old reliables like cancer and poverty and AIDS, … Read more

With the release of Mac OS X 10.5.5 on Monday, the Cupertino, Calif., computer company provided patches for almost three dozen software flaws. Some of the fixes are specific to Apple features, such as image processing and Finder. Other fixes are updates to various open-source projects including Bind, ClamAV, OpenSSH, and Ruby.

Version 10.5.5 can be obtained from the Apple Software Downloads page.

ATS This patch affects users of Mac OS X v10.4.11, Mac OS X Server v10.4.11, Mac OS X v10.5 through v10.5.4, and Mac OS X Server v10.5 through v10.5.4. The update addresses the issue in CVE-2008-2305 in which viewing a document containing a maliciously crafted font may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple credits Chris Ries of Carnegie Mellon University Computing Services for reporting this vulnerability.

BIND This patch affects users of Mac OS X v10.4.11, Mac OS X Server v10.4.11, Mac OS X v10.5 through v10.5.4, and Mac OS X Server v10.5 through v10.5.4. The update upgrades users to BIND version 9.4.2-P2, which addresses performance issues associated with BIND version 9.4.2-P1.

ClamAV This patch affects users of Mac OS X Server v10.4.11 and Mac OS X Server v10.5 through v10.5.4. The update addresses the vulnerabilities detailed within CVE-2008-1100, CVE-2008-1387, CVE-2008-0314, CVE-2008-1833, CVE-2008-1835, CVE-2008-1836, CVE-2008-1837, CVE-2008-2713, and CVE-2008-3215 by updating Mac OS users to ClamAV version 0.93.3.

Directory Services This patch affects users of Mac OS X v10.5 through v10.5.4 and Mac OS X Server v10.5 through v10.5.4. The update addresses the vulnerability detailed in CVE-2008-2329, in which a person with access to the log-in screen may be able to list user names. Apple says an information disclosure issue exists in Log-in Window when it is configured to authenticate users with Active Directory. "By supplying wildcard characters in the user name field, a list of user names from Active Directory may be displayed."

Directory Services II This patch affects users of Mac OS X Server v10.4.11, Mac OS X Server v10.5 through v10.5.4. The update addresses the insecure file operation vulnerability within CVE-2008-2330, in which a local user may obtain the server password if an OpenLDAP system administrator runs slapconfig. … Read more

On Tuesday, Apple released iPod Touch version 2.1 to address several security issues. Among them are the DNS vulnerabilities first reported by Dan Kaminsky of IOActive in July. Other issues include vulnerabilities in Webkit, CoreGraphics, and the Application Sandbox.

Earlier on Tuesday, Apple released updates to its QuickTime media player.

Apple notes that this update is only available through iTunes as part of the iPod Touch updating process and will not appear in your computer's Software Update application, nor can it be found on the Apple Downloads site.

Application Sandbox This patch affects users of iPod Touch v2.… Read more