squisher - Slashdot User

Submission + - Real-time raytracing for PC games almost a reality (pcper.com) 1

Submitted by

Vigile

on Thursday September 20, 2007 @09:06PM

Vigile writes: "Real-time raytracing has often been called the pinnacle for computer rendering for games but only recently has it been getting traction in the field. A German student, and now Intel employee, has been working on raytraced versions of the Quake 3 and Quake 4 game engines for years and is now using the power of Intel's development teams to push the technology further. With antialiasing implemented and anisotropic filtering close behind, they speculate that within two years the hardware will exist on the desktop to make "game quality" raytracing graphics a reality."

Submission + - GPS III to No Longer Have Selective Availability (defenselink.mil) 2

Submitted by Cobalt Jacket on Wednesday September 19, 2007 @11:34AM

Cobalt Jacket writes: The U.S. Department of Defense has announced that Selective Availability (SA) would "no longer be present in the next generation of GPS satellites." (referring to GPS III) Existing satellites have had the feature disabled by President Clinton since 2000, but SA can be activated at any time. SA was one of the principle stated reasons for the European Union and European Space Agency's backing of the Galileo program. This will not affect the GPS IIF spacecraft which will be launched over the next few years, though it is unlikely that SA will ever be utilized on those satellites.

Submission + - Aging telecommunications network

Submitted by Jake Platt on Monday September 17, 2007 @04:26PM

Jake Platt writes: I am a network consultant working on Long Island, NY and help support about a dozen small to mid-size companies mainly located in a huge industrial park originally built in the 1950's. In the past 60 days, the Verizon data and voice networks have experienced huge spikes in failures, as many as, 2 — 3 local loop/central office equipment and line failures per week for each of my clients!!! Verizon has been taking 2-3 days to respond, effectively leaving these companies in the dark (no internet, no email, no voice). I've never seen anything like this. Privately, the Verizon tech support guys have told me that the copper lines in the ground are so old that they are letting the system go into decline and do not want to spend any $$$ to improve it until they have no choice. Are parts of the US telecommunications network reaching its age limit? Jake Platt Long Island, NY

Submission + - Microsoft loses anti-Trust EU case (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by CPUsInHotPlaces on Monday September 17, 2007 @06:22AM

CPUsInHotPlaces writes: The BBC is reporting that the European Union's "Court of First Instance" has ruled against Microsoft in the ongoing anti-trust case. As a result of this ruling, they must pay abide by the original ruling from 2004 (including a 497m euro fine), and also pay 80% of the EU commission's legal costs.

The only section of the original ruling that was not upheld was the comission's attempt to impose an independent monitoring trustee

Submission + - Congress Considers Forcing Travel Registration (iht.com)

Submitted by macduffman on Friday June 15, 2007 @03:35PM

macduffman writes: Congress and the Department of Homeland Security are considering several new visa restrictions, including forcing some foreign travelers to register their travel plans online 48 hours in advance. What would this mean for foreign relations and the economy?

Submission + - Wikipedians want Spoiler Warnings Gone - Do You? (wikipedia.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 15, 2007 @02:48PM

An anonymous reader writes: Tensions are always high in Wikipedia, but this time it's serious. Many Wikipedians want all spoiler warnings on Wikipedia gone. Real encyclopaedias don't have spoiler warnings. Then again, real encyclopaedias don't have articles about anything recent enough to warrant them.

Should Wikipedia remove its spoiler warnings? Are spoiler warnings a violation of the no censorship policy? Is Wikipedia bound by netiquette?

I know you care about this.

Submission + - Sam and Max Episodes On Steam

Submitted by Dr. Eggman on Friday June 15, 2007 @02:05PM

Dr. Eggman writes: News comes from Valve today that Telltale's episodic series Sam & Max: Season 1 is coming to steam. Available in 3-episode bundles for $20 or individualy for $8.95 (with a 10% discount through June 22.) Episode trailers have also been placed on steam for download.

Submission + - Should We SEO Our Children?

Submitted by

gbulmash

on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @10:59PM

gbulmash writes: ""Freakonomics" turned a lot of people on to how your name can affect your career prospects. Now a Wall Street Journal article is discussing parents who are considering how well their children will rank in Google searches when they pick the child's name. With everyone "googling" each other, common names make pages related to you harder to find. Is this the future of baby naming: search engine optimizing our children?"

Submission + - A Step Backwards in Online Banking Security

Submitted by Gates82 on Monday May 07, 2007 @04:22PM

Gates82 writes: I have recently been frustrated by "added security" questions on banking and credit card websites. It seems that all of these institutions are heading towards a regular login and a second (3rd or 4th) security question to be used as a second authentication or as verification to reset your primary password. These questions seem a step backwards in security; now all that it is required to reset my password on these sites is to know my user ID and then answer a simple question (ie. place of birth, date of birth, pets names, etc) with most of the answers being quite publicly available. Personally, I normally bash on the keyboard and click continue not caring what the answer is; assuming that it will be more difficult to crack then guessing fluffy as a pet name. But to make matters more unbearable I attempted to login to a credit card website and was greeted with a second login and it was requesting an answer to one of these (hit-head-on-keyboard) questions. It took two calls to get logged in and I am now forced to use a password for each security question in place of the real answer.

This process seems like a way for companies to deal with joe blow who forgets his password every month when he goes to make a payment. But how insecure is this for the rest of us who are comfortable with our password making/remembering capabilities?

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