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Supreme Court Gives Tacit Approval To Warrantless DNA Collection 135

Posted by timothy from the welcome-to-gattica dept.
An anonymous reader writes On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a case involving the conviction of a man based solely on the analysis of his "inadvertently shed" DNA. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argues that this tacit approval of the government's practice of collecting anyone's DNA anywhere without a warrant will lead to a future in which people's DNA are "entered into and checked against DNA databases and used to conduct pervasive surveillance."
Microsoft

What Would Minecraft 2 Look Like Under Microsoft? 208

Posted by timothy from the hypthetical-or-not dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft spent billions purchasing Mojang, the studio behind the game Minecraft, and while it's unlikely to start work on a sequel anytime soon, rather than continue development of the game, it's worth considering what a Minecraft 2 will look like. After all, as a public company with revenues to justify, it doesn't seem beyond unreasonable a few years down the line, especially since a Minecraft-like game was one of the stand-out tech demos shown for the software giant's HoloLens augmented reality headset. As the author points out, Microsoft will have to tread carefully, tackling issues like whether greater graphical fidelity is actually what players will want ever — and whether to continue to support Minecraft on PlayStation."

Submission + - Why Computers Still Struggle To Tell the Time (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: It’s pretty much impossible for a computer to keep exact time, although accuracy can be improved to the extent that users are willing to spend more money on the problem, said George Neville-Neil, a software engineer who helps financial institutions and other time-sensitive organizations maintain ultra-precise measurements of time. To keep internal time, computers use a crystal oscillator that creates an electromagnetic signal, or a vibration that the computer uses to coordinate processor, memory, bus and motherboard operations. But computer makers often use inexpensive crystals costing only a few cents each, which can compromise accuracy. 'If you buy server-class hardware, you will get cheap crystal, and time will wander if you don’t do something about it,' Neville-Neil said.

Submission + - Buzz Aldrin's 1966 selfie sells for almost £6,000 (techienews.co.uk)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: First ever 'selfie' taken in space by NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin back in November 1966 has fetched almost £6,000 blowing away its estimated minimum selling price by ten times at an auction held in London. The space selfie was part of a collection of 700 vintage NASA photographs that sold for a total of £489,440 at London's Bloomsbury Auction. The selfie was snapped by Aldrin during the Gemini 12 mission in November 1966.

Submission + - What would Minecraft 2 look like under Microsoft? (redbull.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft spent billions purchasing Mojang, the studio behind the game Minecraft, and while it's unlikely to start work on a sequel anytime soon, rather than continue development of the game, it's worth considering what a Minecraft 2 will look like. After all, as a public company with revenues to justify, it doesn't seem beyond unreasonable a few years down the line, especially since a Minecraft-like game was one of the stand-out tech demos shown for the software giant's HoloLens augmented reality headset. As the author points out, Microsoft will have to tread carefully, tackling issues like whether greater graphical fidelity is actually what players will want ever — and whether to continue to support Minecraft on PlayStation.
GUI

Why We Should Stop Hiding File-Name Extensions 564

Posted by timothy from the text-rules dept.
An anonymous reader writes 14 years after the Anna Kournikova virus took advantage of users' ignorance about file-name extensions in order to wreak worldwide havoc, virus writers and hackers are still taking advantage of the tendency of popular consumer operating systems to hide file-name extensions: Windows users still need to activate extension visibility manually – even though email-transmitted viruses depend most on less savvy users who will never do this. Additionally applications on even the latest versions of Apple's OSX operating system still require the user to 'opt in' to including a file-name extension during an initial save. In looking at some of the eccentricities of the modern user experience, this article argues that it might be time to admit that users need to understand, embrace and responsibly use the only plain-text, obvious indicator of what a file actually is.

Submission + - First Satellites With All-Electric Propulsion Call Home (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: The launch of two new communications satellites may not seem like news these days, but it is when they're the first satellites with all-electric propulsion. Boeing announced that the two 702SP small platform satellites, called ABS-3A and EUTELSAT 115 West B, that launched on Sunday evening are sending back signals to mission control as they power towards geosynchronous orbit under ion drive.

Submission + - Unique 3D Printed 2-String Violin May Revolutionize the Music Industry (3dprint.com)

Submitted by ErnieKey
ErnieKey writes: This April, MONAD Studio will unleash 5 new musical instruments which have been 3D printed. They look unlike anything you have seen before, and when combined together will create a massive musical spectacle that could revolutionize the music industry. Created by Eric Goldemberg of FIU, the installment will be on display at the 3D Print Design Show in NY. There are already many musicians lining up to try out these new instruments.
Censorship

Inside the North Korean Data Smuggling Movement 62

Posted by timothy from the western-imperialists-violating-the-kim-family's-rights dept.
Sparrowvsrevolution writes A new Wired magazine story goes inside the North Korean rebel movement seeking to overthrow Kim Jong-un by smuggling USB drives into the country packed with foreign television and movies. As the story describes, one group has stashed USB drives in Chinese cargo trucks. Another has passed them over from tourist boats that meet with fishermen mid-river. Others arrange USB handoffs at the Chinese border in the middle of the night with walkie talkies, laser pointers, and bountiful bribes. Even Kim assassination comedy The Interview, which the North Korean government allegedly hacked Sony to prevent from being released, has made it into the country: Chinese traders' trucks carried 20 copies of the film across the border the day after Christmas, just two days after its online release.

Comment Re:FDE on Android doesn't work as of yet (Score 4, Informative) 124

by phayes (#49170899) Attached to: Google Backs Off Default Encryption on New Android Lollilop Devices

What is lame is people posting ignorant comments as Anon Cowards.

Apple has control of both the hardware & the software & has optimized both to make use of FDE as painless as possible. This is clearly not the case in Android.

Stealing from Seillac's comments on ARS:
"Apparently, Google has not merged the various drivers that optimize Qualcomm's QCE module for encryption and decryption into AOSP. The generally-assumed reason is that this code is proprietary. Without these optimizations, the Nexus 6's hardware decryption module on the Snapdragon 805 is essentially hamstrung."

From: http://www.androidpolice.com/2...
Graphics

NVIDIA Fixes Old Compiz Bug 51

Posted by timothy from the mayan-long-count dept.
jones_supa writes NVIDIA has fixed a long-standing issue in the Ubuntu Unity desktop by patching Compiz. When opening the window of a new application, it would go black or become transparent on NVIDIA hardware. There have been bug reports dating back to Ubuntu 12.10 times. The problem was caused by Compiz, which had some leftover code from a port. An NVIDIA developer posted on Launchpad and said the NVIDIA team has been looking at this issue, and they also proposed a patch. "Our interpretation of the specification is that creating two GLX pixmaps pointing at the same drawable is not allowed, because it can lead to poorly defined behavior if the properties of both GLX drawables don't match. Our driver prevents this, but Compiz appears to try to do this," wrote NVIDIA's Arthur Huillet. The Compiz patch has been accepted upstream.

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