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Security

Where To Start With DIY Home Security? 825

Posted by timothy from the first-we'll-steal-your-cameras dept.
secretrobotron writes "I'm a recent university graduate from a co-op system which has kept me on the move every other semester, so I've never really had a permanent place to live, and I've never had the opportunity (or the capital) to buy expensive things. Now that I'm working, those restrictions on my life are gone and I'm living in an apartment with things I don't want stolen. I would love to build a DIY home security system, but I don't even know where to start since Google searches reveal things like diysecurityforum.com, which help only to an extent for a curious newcomer. Has anybody out there successfully built a home security system on a budget? If so, where did you start?" Related query: When similar questions have come up before, many readers have recommended Linux-based Zoneminder (last updated more than a year ago); is that still the state of the art?
Idle

Submission + - Comic Con rejects Fred Phelps (comicsalliance.com) 2

Submitted by djconrad
djconrad writes: Anti-Gay preacher Fred Phelps decided to picket Comic Con today, because of their worship of super heroes. This is the participants' response. My favorite signs are "God needs a starship" and "Is this thing on?"
Linux

Submission + - The Scalability of Linus 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Katherine Noyes writes at LinuxInsider that it may be time for Linus Torvalds to share more of the responsibility for Linux that he's been shouldering. "If Linux wants to keep up with the competition there is much work to do, more than even a man of Linus's skill to accomplish," argues one user and the "scalability of Linus," is the subject of a post by Jonathan Corbet wondering if there might there be a Linus scalability crunch point coming. "The Linux kernel development process stands out in a number of ways; one of those is the fact that there is exactly one person who can commit code to the 'official' repository," Corbet writes. A problem with that scenario is the potential for repeats of what Corbet calls "the famous 'Linus burnout' episode of 1998" when everything stopped for a while until Linus rested a bit, came back, and started merging patches again. "If Linus is to retain his central position in Linux kernel development, the community as a whole needs to ensure that the process scales and does not overwhelm him," Corbet adds. But many don't agree. "Don't be fooled that Linus has to scale — he has to work hard, but he is the team captain and doorman. He has thousands doing most of the work for him. He just has to open the door at the appropriate moment," writes Robert Pogson adding that Linus "has had lots of practice and still has fire in his belly.""
First Person Shooters (Games)

Alien Swarm Can Be Played As a Terrifying FPS 157

Posted by timothy from the sounds-icky dept.
AndrewGOO9 writes "With a few simple commands from the developer console, Alien Swarm can go from being played as an isometric top-down shooter to a first-person perspective. Surprisingly easy, it does make the game, which was released for free via Steam earlier this week, a lot more terrifying. But, anyone who is at home playing games like Modern Warfare or Halo should have no problem slaughtering their way through wave after wave of creatures. In fact, it poses the potential to make the game easier for people who would've otherwise struggled with the overhead view."

Submission + - Indian govt. claims to have '$35 laptop' (hindu.com)

Submitted by adityamalik
adityamalik writes: From the article — "NEW DELHI: India on Thursday launched a low cost access-cum-computing device for learners and teachers which would be made available through educational institutions by 2011.
"The price of the device is expected to be around $35 (Rs. 1,500), gradually dropping down to $20 and ultimately $10 per piece,â Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said, while unveiling the device here."
Google

Submission + - Google exec frustrated by Java, C++ complexity (idg.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "Today's commercial-grade programming languages — C++ and Java, in particular — are way too complex and not adequately suited for today's computing environments, Google distinguished engineer Rob Pike argued in a talk at the O'Reilly Open Source Conference. Pike made his case against such "industrial programming languages" during his keynote at the conference in Portland, Oregon."
Government

SFLC Wants To Avoid Death by Code 247

Posted by timothy from the me-too-me-too dept.
foregather writes "The Software Freedom Law Center has released some independent research on the safety of software close to our hearts: that inside of implantable medical devices like pacemakers and insulin pumps. It turns out that nobody is minding the store at the regulatory level and patients and doctors are blocked from examining the source code keeping them alive. From the article: 'The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for evaluating the risks of new devices and monitoring the safety and efficacy of those currently on market. However, the agency is unlikely to scrutinize the software operating on devices during any phase of the regulatory process unless a model that has already been surgically implanted repeatedly malfunctions or is recalled. ... Despite the crucial importance of these devices and the absence of comprehensive federal oversight, medical device software is considered the exclusive property of its manufacturers, meaning neither patients nor their doctors are permitted to access their IMD's source code or test its security.'"
Media

Sony's Blue-Violet Laser the Future Blu-ray? 260

Posted by timothy from the ever-more-bits dept.
JoshuaInNippon writes "Japanese researchers from Sony and Tohoku University announced the development of a 'blue-violet ultrafast pulsed semiconductor laser,' which Sony is aiming to use for optical disks. The new technology, with 'a laser wavelength of 405 nanometers in the blue-violet region' and a power out put 'more than a hundred times the world's highest output value for conventional blue-violet pulse semiconductor lasers,' is believed to be capable of holding more than 20 times the information of current Blu-ray technology, while retaining a practical size. Japanese news reports have speculated that one blue-violet disk could be capable of holding more than 50 high-quality movie titles, easily fitting entire seasons of popular TV shows like 24. When the technology may hit markets was not indicated."
Businesses

Feds Bust Chinese Firm's Hybrid Car Data Heist 203

Posted by timothy from the pesky-agents-of-the-f-b-i dept.
coondoggie writes "An FBI investigation has led a Michigan couple to be charged with stealing hybrid car information from GM to use in a Chinese auto outfit. A federal indictment charged Yu Qin, aka Yu Chin, 49, and his wife, Shanshan Du, aka Shannon Du, 51, of Troy, Michigan with conspiracy to possess trade secrets without authorization, unauthorized possession of trade secrets, and wire fraud. One of the individuals was also charged with obstruction of justice, said Barbara McQuade, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan in a statement. GM estimates that the value of the stolen documents is over $40 million."
Iphone

Submission + - Unluckiest iPhone Thief (gearlog.com) 1

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: Earlier this week, a man rode up to a woman on his bike, grabbing her iPhone right out of her hands. The story would likely have had a more depressing, less hilarious ending had the woman not been holding a handset sporting a prototype GPS tracking program. It took only ten minutes to track down and catch Toure, according to the San Francisco police.
Graphics

Submission + - The race for realtime photorealism

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A recent article in American Scientist describes the battle between Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA for the next generation hardware that will serve all our graphics needs. At the SIGGRAPH conference next week NVIDIA will present OptiX as their future platform for ray tracing entirely on GPUs, while Intel and AMD will be showing KeyShot which is entirely CPU driven. Around the corner AMD's Fusion architecture looks very interesting as well. Who will win this battle for realtime rendering? And when will we see ray tracing in games?
NASA

Submission + - NASA satellite spots Buckyballs bouncing in space (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope say they have spotted large soccer-ball-shaped carbon molecules known as "Buckyballs," in space for the first time. The molecules are named for their resemblance to architect Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes, which have interlocking circles on the surface of a partial sphere, NASA stated. Observed in a laboratory 25 years ago, the molecules were thought to be floating in space, but had escaped detection until now, NASA said
Security

Safari Privacy Bug May Be Leaking Your Data 152

Posted by timothy from the problem-with-software-is-that-it-sucks dept.
richi writes "If you use Safari, your browser may be leaking your private information to any website you visit. Jeremiah Grossman, the CTO of WhiteHat Security, has discovered some Very Bad News. I have some analysis and other reactions over at my Computerworld blog. The potential for spam and phishing is huge. A determined attacker might even be able to steal previously-entered customer data." In short, autofill for Web forms is enabled by default in Safari 4 / 5 (and remotely exploitable), and the data that this feature has access to includes the user's local address book — even if the information has never been entered into a Web form.

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