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Portables

Submission + - Gadets Taking Over Our Brains (reuters.com)

Submitted by
skotte
skotte writes: "According to a Trinity College survey released Friday, the boom in mobiles and portable devices that store reams of personal information has created a generation incapable of memorizing simple things. While perhaps not news to slashdotters, the implication is a little unsettling."
Quickies

Submission + - Geek Squad hacked dead porn star's computer (theinquirer.net) 1

Submitted by
JagsLive
JagsLive writes: "theinquirer.net reports, http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40965 " A FORMER staffer for Geek Squad admitted his team stole a porn star's personal data and then hacked into her home computer to get more. A few day's later the porn star, Jasmine Grey, was killed in a car crash, leaving the entire team feeling a bit guilty, he said. ""
Security

Submission + - Dangerous Java flaw threatens virtually everything (zdnet.com.au)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: ZDNet is reporting that a java flaw discovered by Google's Security team is "as bad as it gets". Australia's Computer Emergency Response Team (AusCERT) analyst, Robert Lowe, warned that anyone using the Java Runtime Environment or Java Development Kit is at risk. "Delivery of exploits in this manner is attractive to attackers because even though the browser may be fully patched, some people neglect to also patch programs invoked by browsers to render specific types of content": said Lowe. AusCERT has issued an alert.
Input Devices

Submission + - Future of Keyboards and Mice: Touchscreen (osweekly.com)

Submitted by
OSW
OSW writes: "OSWeekly.com takes a look at Microsoft's Surface again and concludes that the future of keyboards and mice is touchscreen. Brandon Watts writes, "In a previous article, I had mixed feelings about the new Microsoft Surface project, as it was really difficult to understand where the market for such a thing would be. Then I watched some new footage on DL.TV and I will admit, even as a Linux guy, that I was blown away. Consider for a moment, if Microsoft is able to get this technology down to the home user for the cost of today's home PCs. I'm not saying that keyboards and mice would become a thing of the past, but I could see them evolving into virtual devices to better suit Surface-like advancements. Remember those old virtual keyboards that were once available for the Palm Pilots? Imagine something like this as your future keyboard... it could happen."
Music

Submission + - Music Protection Racket in Australia (news.com.au) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The "Phonographic Performance Company of Australia" (PPCA) has just won the right to start charging all venues playing music $1.05 per person — based on the capacity of the venue, not the attendance. Dance party's will be charged $3.07 per person. This represents an increase of over 1000% in both cases. Full story at http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,22053835 -16947,00.html.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Man Travels 200 Miles at 13000 ft in His Lawn Chair

Journal by honorebel
BEND, Ore. - Last weekend, Kent Couch settled down in his lawn chair with some snacks -- and a parachute. Attached to his lawn chair were 105 large helium balloons. Destination: Idaho.
With instruments to measure his altitude and speed, a global positioning system device in his pocket, and about four plastic bags holding five gallons of water each to act as ballast -- he could turn a spigot, release water and rise -- Couch headed into the Oregon sky
Nearly nine hours later, the 47-yea
Graphics

Submission + - John Knoll on CGI, Tron and 25 years of change

Submitted by StonyandCher
StonyandCher writes: Monday marked the 25th anniversary of of the relase of Tron, whose computer graphics were seen as revolutionary at the time. With that anniversary in mind, Computerworld spoke with John Knoll, a visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). Knoll, who served as visual effects supervisor for such films as Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith; Pirates of the Caribbean; Star Trek: First Contact, and Mission: Impossible, weighed in on the limitations of CG back then and how far it's come in the last quarter century. (Knoll may also be known in the IT world for his role in the creation of Photoshop, which he developed with his brother Thomas.)
Robotics

Submission + - Ancient robot (60AD) was programmed with rope

Submitted by Pingu93
Pingu93 writes: New Scientist has a feature about the 'worlds first' programmable robot, dating from 60AD. It was designed by a Greek inventor who was, appropriately enough, called Hero. He designed his rolling machine so that it could be programmed using rope and pegs in different configurations. Some of the writers at New Scientist went so far as to build there own version of the robot and the technology blog has some video of it in action.
Television

Submission + - Why HD movie downloads are a big lie (com.com)

Submitted by jpfingst
jpfingst writes: "There's a lot of buzz lately about the delivery of HD TV and Movie content over the Internet with shows like Lost being delivered by ABC.com and other video download services with XBox360 or iTunes....But there's one dirty little secret that people are forgetting or that they don't understand, IT'S NOT HD they're getting over the Internet. Heck it's not even NTSC 480i (720?480 60 fields interlaced) DVD quality when you really look at the amount of video data you're getting!"
The Internet

Submission + - Pay to Play: Uncovering Online Payola (dailytech.com)

Submitted by
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam writes: "Payola is a term normally associated with the radio industry, where record companies paid stations to play and promote new records. Federal legislation has made such activity in most media industries strictly illegal, but no law currently exists for online outlets. DailyTech goes undercover to investigate whether or not hardware review websites can be swayed by the almighty buck."
Security

Protected Memory Stick Easily Cracked 220

Posted by kdawson from the not-that-hard-a-hack dept.
Martin_Sturm writes "A $175 1GB USB stick designed to protect your data turns out to be a very insecure. According to the distributer of the Secustick, the safety of the data is ensured: 'Due to its unique technology it has the ability to destroy itself once an incorrect password is entered.' The Secustick is used by various European governments and organizations to secure data on USB sticks. Tweakers.net shows how easy it is to break the protection of the stick. Quoting: 'It should be clear that the stick's security is quite useless: a simple program can be used to fool the Secustick into sending its unlock command without knowing the password. Besides, the password.exe application can be adapted so that it accepts arbitrary passwords.' The manufacturer got the message and took the Secustick website offline. The site give a message (translated from Dutch): 'Dear visitor, this site is currently unavailable due to security issues of the Secustick. We are currently working on an improved version of the Secustick.'"
Microsoft

Submission + - Xbox 360 boots Ubuntu Linux

Submitted by curry684
curry684 writes: After a security hole was uncovered last month, it was only a matter of time before someone would succeed in booting a Linux distro on the system:

That's Ubuntu, running our favorite Mozilla Firefox web browser in the Gnome desktop environment, and a console window dumping the system's processor info, showing a sweet total of 3 Xenon CPUs running at an approximated 3192Mhz.
Video and screenshots are supplied for your leisure.
Security

Submission + - Digg.com Accounts Compromised

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: There is a cross-site scripting vulnerbility on the registration page of popular social networking site Digg.com. The hole allows cookies and sessions of logged-in users to be hijacked, compromising the account. The exploit can be triggered simply by a user clicking a maliciously-crafted link. A full explanation and sample exploit code is available here
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - Online Gamers Can Now Pay With Their Blood

Submitted by
Weather Storm
Weather Storm writes: "According to weirdasiannews.com, a game company called Moliyo, which runs multiple online games in China, has given roughly 120,000 hackers banned from one of its games, Cabal Online, the chance to play once again. The price? A pint of blood. Any banned player that shows up to a blood drive in Nanjing and donates a pint of blood will have their accounts unlock. In a response to a shortage of donors, Chinese hospitals and Moliyo developed an ingenious method of enticing gamers to give the gift that truly keeps on giving. About a hundred of the guilty have stepped forward."

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