In computer security, PaX is a patch for the Linux kernel that implements least privilege protections for memory pages. This approach allows computer programs to do only what they have to be able to do to execute properly, and nothing more. PaX flags data memory as non- executable and program memory as non-writable; and randomly arranges the program memory. This effectively prevents many security exploits, such as those stemming from buffer overflows. The former prevents direct code injection absolutely; while the latter makes so-called return-to-libc (ret2libc) attacks indeterminate, relying on luck to succeed. PaX was first released in 2000.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PaX

Today's selected anniversaries: * 476 - Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, was deposed. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_Augustus)

* 1781 - Los Angeles was founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula by 44 Spanish settlers. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles%2C_California)

* 1870 - France's Third Republic was declared. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Republic)

* 1888 - Inventor George Eastman registered the trademark "Kodak". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Eastman)

* 1957 - Little Rock Crisis: The Governor of Arkansas tried to prevent nine African-American students from attending Little Rock Central High School. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Crisis)

Wikiquote of the day:

"I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff— I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy." -- J. D. Salinger in The Catcher in the Rye

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._D._Salinger, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye)