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Submission + - NSA Still Funded to Spy On US Phone Records,Vote Fails 3

Submitted by turp182
turp182 writes: The Amash Amendment (#100) to HR 2397 (DOD appropriations bill) failed to pass the House of Representatives (this link will change tomorrow, it is the current day activity of the House) at 6:54PM EST today, meaning it will not be added to the appropriations bill. The amendment would have specifically defunded the bulk collection of American phone records.

Roll call may not be available until tomorrow.

Subjective: Let freedom be reigned.

Submission + - Technology, Not Law, Limits Mass Surveillance (technologyreview.com) 1

Submitted by holy_calamity
holy_calamity writes: U.S. citizens have historically been protected from government surveillance by technical limits, not legal ones, writes independent security researcher Ashkan Soltani at MIT Tech Review. He claims that recent leaks show that technical limits are loosening, fast, with data storage and analysis cheap and large Internet services taking care of data collection for free. "Spying no longer requires following people or planting bugs, but rather filling out forms to demand access to an existing trove of information," writes Soltani.

Submission + - Banks Need Tougher Love From the Fed (wsj.com)

Submitted by hunterrhodes
hunterrhodes writes: The Federal Reserve has taken another step on its post-financial-crisis journey toward a stronger, more resilient banking system. But the road stretches on.

The Fed on Tuesday approved final rules regarding new capital standards known as Basel III. These increase requirements for the amount of common equity banks need to hold, among other things. Although most large banks already meet the new, more stringent requirements, their formal adoption shows the U.S. won’t backslide, even as some have called for scrapping the Basel approach.

Submission + - Fedora 19 released (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: The Fedora Project has officially announced the release of Fedora 19 "Schrödinger's Cat" today. Some of the features of the open source distribution are Developer’s assistant that accelerates development efforts by providing templates, samples and toolchains for a different languages; OpenShift Origin that allows easy building of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) infrastructure; node.js; Ruby 2.0.0; MariaDB database; Checkpoint & Restore that allows users to checkpoint and restore processes; and OpenLMI which makes remote management of machines simpler among others. The distribution also packs GNOME 3.8, KDE Plasma Workspace 4.10 and MATE Desktop 1.6.

Comment Re:I tested Windows 8.1 (Score 1) 543

by Ben Dibell (#44162709) Attached to: Microsoft Reacts To Feedback But Did They Get Windows 8.1 Right?
The idea of tablets taking over the world is a terrifying proposition to me, and it's given me numerous "I don't want to live on this planet anymore" moments. The cloud is pure evil, tablets are not good for serious work (remember multitasking? A CLI you could use if you wanted? A decent CPU? Freedom to use a different OS outside an emulator or VM?) and they cater to people who have no serious uses for their devices. People who want music and facebook and videos and maybe some cheap 2D games. PCs are for people who want power, freedom, and productivity. If the world was more intelligent, tablets would have been DOA. I still miss netbooks. I am on one now. I love it. It's served me since '09. The death of netbooks was mourned bitterly by me.

Submission + - Best Search Engine? (Or, Is Google in Decline?)

Submitted by rueger
rueger writes: Reading about the end of AltaVista, I was more interested in the number of comments suggesting that Google just isn't delivering the way it used to. My own experience suggests that it's increasingly less likely that a Google search will generate a page of results that's immediately useful. At least if "useful" excludes ask.com, bad computer "experts", and shopping sites. So, hard core search engine users: what's out there that matches the Google of five years ago, or which could be the next big thing?

Submission + - AMD/ATI drops WindowsXP support (amd.com) 1

Submitted by Billly Gates
Billly Gates writes: The latest beta drivers for the Catalyst drivers control suite only list Vista as the lowest version they will support. We still have almost a year before WindowsXP support finally ends. Will NVidia follow?

So if you own a AMD system you will not receive audio, chipset, video, or any other drivers for your XP system and must upgrade or use an outdated legacy version. Looks like another death knell for this very long lasting platform.
Security

Submission + - Australian hacker, who hit Microsoft and Sony, fears possible arrest after raid (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Dylan Wheeler of Perth says he obtained the software development kits for both the next Xbox and PlayStation by hacking into Microsoft's and Sony's networks. He placed a bogus listing on Ebay advertising the SDK for Durango, the codename for the next Xbox. It garnered a bid for more than $50,000. Eventually, Microsoft literally came knocking at his door. Despite a friendly rapport with Microsoft, the police came a few months later, seizing his credit card and computers. He hasn't been charged with a crime yet, but he's worried. Observers liken him to Aaron Swartz, part of a class of hackers who don't mean harm or are seeking financial gain.
Digital

Submission + - Music industry making more money from digital downloads (highlycurrent.info)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It seems that the music industry is making more money now than ever before on digital download music content and "other new sources", enough that it can off-set the decline in CD sales. So it goes to show that people do legally purchase digital music files thus supporting content providers in ways other than just buying hard CD's. The more....
AMD

Submission + - AMD's TressFX Hair gives game characters lovely locks (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: The problems associated with rendering realistic hair has held video games back for years. When Nintendo first created the sprite for Mario in the original Donkey Kong, it gave him a hat because it was too difficult to animate his hair. When video games made the leap into the world of real-time 3D graphics, things didn't get much better. Today AMD is officially unveiling its solution, TressFX Hair, that will significantly improve the look of virtual hair beginning with the new Tomb Raider. AMD's primary rival, Nvidia, has also taken notice of the problem – it demonstrated its own tech back in 2010, and some are speculating the company's PhysX engine will have a hair component. But today's announcement from AMD is a bit more exciting because the company worked closely with Tomb Raider's developer, Crystal Dynamics, to implement TressFX in a playable game, and because it will work on any DirectX 11 card (including AMD's competitors).

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