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Submission + - PCGamingWiki looks into Linux gaming with Port Reports (pcgamingwiki.com)

Submitted by AberBeta
AberBeta writes: PCGamingWiki contributor soeb has been looking into the recent larger budget game releases to appear on Linux, including XCOM: Enemy Unknown & Borderlands: The Pre–Sequel produced by Mac porting houses Feral and Aspyr, and finds that while feature parity is high, performance could be a smidge better. However people accept the performance differences, the games are arriving, now the userbase needs to expand to make a virtuous cycle.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Bitcoin over Tor is a bad idea? (arxiv.org)

Submitted by jd
jd writes: Researchers studying Bitcoin have determined that the level of anonymity of the cryptocurrency is low and that using Bitcoin over Tor provides an opportunity for a Man-in-the-Middle attack against Bitcoin users. (I must confess, at this point, that I can certainly see anonymity limitations helping expose what machine is linked to what Bitcoin ID, putting users at risk of exposure, but I don't see how this is a function of Tor, as the paper implies.)

It would seem worthwhile to examine both the Tor and Bitcoin protocols to establish if there is an actual threat there, as it must surely apply to any semi-anonymous protocol over Tor and Bitcoin has limited value as a cryptocurrency if all transactions have to be carried out in plain sight.

What are the opinions of other Slashdottians on this announcement? Should we be working on an entirely new cryptocurrency system? Is this a problem with Tor? Is this a case of the Scarlett Fish (aka: a red herring) or something to take seriously?

Submission + - Detritus from cancer cells may infect healthy cells (nature.com)

Submitted by bmahersciwriter
bmahersciwriter writes: Tiny bubbles of cell membrane — called exosomes — are shed by most cells. Long thought to be mere trash, researchers had recently noticed that they often contain short, regulatory RNA molecules, suggesting that exosomes may be one way that cells communicate with one another. Now, it appears that RNA in the exosomes shed by tumor cells can get into healthy cells and 'transform' them, putting them on the path to becoming cancerous themselves.

Submission + - Prison Architect prison simulation game launched for linux (introversion.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Prison Architect is a Prison Simulation and Management game currently released in Alpha from indie developers Introversion Software (Uplink, Darwinia, DEFCON and Multiwinia). Prison Architect was initially released in September 2012 and has been played by nearly 90,000 gamers so far. 10 Alpha updates have been released and Introversion is committed to continuing to release a major update each month. From Alpha 10 onwards Prison Architect will be available for Linux — from the Introversion Blog:

"We are now supplying builds for Linux via steam and as a standalone download from our website. The game should be widely compatible across the various Linux distributions, but please let us know if you have problems by logging bugs in our bug tracker. We have targeted Ubuntu 12.04 (32 bit and 64 bit) as a starting point, and we anticipate wider compatibility in later alphas. Please note that we do require glibc 2.15 or later, which unfortunately means Prison Architect does not currently work on Debian Stable."
Facebook

Moglen: Facebook Is a Man-In-The-Middle Attack 376

Posted by Soulskill from the can-we-blame-alice-and-bob-for-this dept.
jfruh writes "In an email exchange with privacy blogger Dan Tynan, Columbia law professor Eben Moglen referred to Facebook as a 'man in the middle attack' — that is, a service that intercepts communication between two parties and uses it for its own nefarious purposes. He said, 'The point is that by sharing with our actual friends through a web intermediary who can store and mine everything, we harm people by destroying their privacy for them. It's not the sharing that's bad, it's the technological design of giving it all to someone in the middle. That is at once outstandingly stupid and overwhelmingly dangerous.' Tynan is a critic of Facebook, but he thinks Moglen is overstating the case."
Earth

Paypal Founder Helping Build Artificial Island Nations 692

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the principality-of-sealand-declares-war dept.
MadMartigan2001 writes with a pretty crazy article on a project involving floating libertarian paradises. From the article: "PayPal founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel has given $1.25 million to an initiative to create floating libertarian countries in international waters. Thiel has been a big backer of the Seasteading Institute, which seeks to build sovereign nations on oil rig-like platforms to occupy waters beyond the reach of law-of-the-sea treaties."

Comment Re:I hope that Firefox isn't playing Microsoft's g (Score 2, Insightful) 363

by AberBeta (#33584366) Attached to: Mozilla Unleashes the Kraken

If you hadn't noticed, every synthetic benchmark released from a browser vendor favoured their engine, at time of release. At least Google had balls to call it v8bench.
While I believe all benchmarks (and non-comprehensive ACID tests) to be 3dmark-style pissing contests where they encourage developers to fast-path specific used functions, I have more confidence in Mozilla producing another (Dromaeo also tried to have a more realistic workflow).
Transportation

Nissan Unveils All-Electric LEAF 586

Posted by kdawson from the made-right-here-in-the-U-S-of-A dept.
MojoRilla writes "In Japan, Nissan unveiled their all-electric LEAF (press release, and Flash site). Slated to launch in late 2010 in Japan, the US, and Europe, this car will have a 100-mile range, seats 5, has an advanced computer system with remote control by IPhone, and promises to be competitively priced. While this car's range won't work for everyone, it could be a game changer as a commuter car." Recharge time is 8 hours with a 200-volt power source, and "just under 30 minutes with a quick charger" (no further details given) to charge to 80% of capacity.

Comment Re:Ironkey also supports Linux! (Score 1) 191

by AberBeta (#28683505) Attached to: IronKey Unveils Self-Destructing USB Flash Drive

I got a review piece of hardware from InfoSec and tried it out in Linux.
You can mount it once the key has been set-up, but you can't set it up under Linux with the software provided.
So this key *requires* Windows before it can be used under Linux, which is pretty bloody stupid.

Since I don't have any copies of that software, it pretty much doubles the cost of the drive.

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