bigpaperbag - Slashdot User

Submission + - Belgian biometric security (ucl.ac.be)

Submitted by

jjq

on Wednesday June 06, 2007 @10:42AM

jjq writes: "A research team in cryptography from the Catholic University of Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve) disclosed serious weaknesses in the Belgian biometric passport, the only type of passport distributed in Belgium since the end of 2004. The works carried out in Louvain-la-Neuve during the course of May 2007 show that Belgian passports issued between end 2004 and July 2006 do not include any security mechanism to protect the personal data embedded in the passport's microchip. Passports issued after July 2006 do benefit from security mechanisms but these ones are flawed. This means that anyone possessing a little electronic reading device, which is easy and cheap to acquire, can steal the passport content while it is still in the pocket of the victim owners and thus without their knowing. Face and signature are among the data at risk. This news is all the more surprising because Karel De Gucht, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, declared in the Parliament on 9th January 2007 that the Belgian passport benefited from the security mechanisms advocated by the International Civil Aviation Organization. More see http://www.dice.ucl.ac.be/crypto/passport/index.ht ml"

Submission + - DHS Wants [super] Cell Phones (cq.com)

Submitted by solitas on Wednesday June 06, 2007 @10:39AM

solitas writes: Full article title: "DHS Wants Cell Phones to Detect Chemical, Radioactive Material"

Apparently Homeland Security now is thinking about "distributed detection", of a sort, and exploring the idea of cellphones that have chemical/biological/radiation detectors built-into them (as GPS units are now).

They figure they could monitor the widely distributed network, weed-out the statistical noise over many sensors, and be able to pinpoint possible trouble areas (i.e. bio-bombs, rad-bombs, etc.) more efficiently.

...and THEN they'll quietly have alcohol/smoking detectors installed to monitor you.

Submission + - The Stagnation of Virtual Game Development

Submitted by

eldavojohn

on Wednesday May 30, 2007 @01:29PM

eldavojohn writes: "In an egotistical yet concise blog entitled "Why Don't Game Developers Do What I Wan't?", IEEE takes a stab at why virtual worlds have evolved so little in the past decade or more. Aside from the obvious better resolution and colors, why aren't there huge 'Snow Crash'-esque advancements? From the blog: "Mostly, a world costs too much to make. A little over a decade ago, a game character in a AAA title could be painted by a single artist in a week or two. Now, it takes a team of artists months to model, texture, rig, animate, and script a single character. Back in the day, Non-Player Characters could be single full-screen images of a person who talks to you via box of text, and sells you groceries or swords or whatever. Now, NPCs take nearly as much effort as main characters, and overall may take more, because you need a lot of variety in the NPCs that fill your virtual world. It takes a lot of time." He follows it up nicely in the second part (with a more offensive title, "Are Developers Just Thick, Or Something?") about development with this short insightful comment: "The apparent improvement in computers has been rather less dramatic than players suppose, I think, because much of what they want is AI-complete: that is, the desires require that the central problem of true artificial intelligence be solved first. But even simpler problems can mean much more work than one might first assume, if only because there are a world of them to solve." I agree with him on the point that we are disappointed that games aren't further along in mimicking human behavior or challenging us on a psychological level ... yet we're still blown away by eye candy. This is one of the fundamental lackings in today's games."

Submission + - Anisotropic Filtering and Antialiasing Explained

Submitted by

mikemuch

on Wednesday May 30, 2007 @10:18AM

mikemuch writes: "In case you're not up on the techniques that make today's games look smooth and sharp, Jason Cross at ExtremeTech has written a guide to the various flavors of antialiasing and anisotropic filtering. He touches on what current graphics hardware is capable of in these realms and shows "real-life" examples of the techniques in action in current game titles."

Submission + - last.fm bought by CBS for $280m

Submitted by megla on Wednesday May 30, 2007 @10:03AM

megla writes: The BBC is reporting that last.fm has been purchased by CBS for the princely sum of $280m — not quite up to Gootube levels, but fairly significant.
While the article quotes founding member Martin Stiksel as saying it's "an exciting opportunity", I can't help but feel that not all the 15 million users will agree with the effects of commercialization.
As yet their seems to be no announcement on the last.fm website.

Submission + - Google's DoubleClick deal under US scrutiny

Submitted by

slashthedot

on Wednesday May 30, 2007 @09:59AM

slashthedot writes: "The Federal Trade Commission has opened a preliminary antitrust investigation into Google's planned $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick.

It was decided last week that the Federal Trade Commission instead of the Justice Department would conduct the review.

In the complaint, the groups noted that Google collects the search histories of its users, while DoubleClick tracks what Web sites people visit. The merger, according to their complaint, would "give one company access to more information about the Internet activities of consumers than any other company in the world."
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/technology/29ant itrust.html?ex=1338091200&en=95699bd4ea8a1b59&ei=5 088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss"

Submission + - Windows Vista No Safer Than XP, Researchers Find

Submitted by somethinginmyeye on Wednesday May 30, 2007 @09:54AM

somethinginmyeye writes: Users of Windows Vista and Windows XP are equally at risk to viruses and exploits, according to the CRN Test Center, which took two notebooks, stripped them bare of all security applications, and sent them out to face all the perils of the internet. Check out how the systems stood up and how they were tested. http://crn.com/software/199701019

Submission + - Earthlink Says It Will Remove Ads At My Request

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 30, 2007 @09:50AM

An anonymous reader writes: This is a fun one. It's almost too good to be true — because it probably is.

Today, Earthlink added a huge new ad position to its webmail page that dramatically shrinks the space available for actual display of messages. When I complained, a customer service rep in live chat promised that he would "escalate the issue" to "engineers" who would remove the ad for everyone! A transcript follows.

My question: what do you think the chances of this actually happening are? Can a CSR really change corporate policy on an important business issue on the basis of a single complaint? Or is it possible that mine was one of a deluge of complaints — and things really WILL change?

info: 'Adam' says: Thank you for contacting EarthLink LiveChat, how may I help you today?
XXXX@earthlink.net: I am very upset by the huge ad on the webmail page. It is so disruptive that I may have to cancel my account. Are these ads now a regular part of the page?
Adam: I apologize for the inconvenience caused. I'll do my best to help you.
Adam: I am can understand your concern.
XXXX@earthlink.net: Please answer my question. This huge ad takes up almost 20% of the page. Is it now a regular feature?
Adam: I am sorry to say that the ads are provided by our sponsors. This is the reason why you are getting the ads on the Web Mail page.
XXXX@earthlink.net: There have always been ads. But today's is huge. It's for FibreSUre. My question remains unanswered. I will now repeat it for a third time: Are these huge new ads now a regular opart of the page?
XXXX@earthlink.net: If so, Please advise procedure on account cancellation.
Adam: Please stay on hold while I check it.
Adam: Thank you for the time. I need to escalate the issue to our engineers. You will not face the issue again.
XXXX@earthlink.net: Please explain further. I do not understand your answer.
Adam: I mean I will escalate the issue to our engineers. They will check it and remove the ad from the Web Mail page and resolve your issue.
XXX@earthlink.net: You willblock the ads just for me? Or the big ads are a one time occurence for everyone?
Adam: I am sorry to say that all the customers are getting these ads. I will escalate the issue to our engineers. So, that tey will remove the ads for every one.
XXXX@earthlink.net: Fine. Thank you for your response. Can you email me a transcript of this chat for future reference?
Adam: I am sorry for the typo. I mean they.
Adam: Sure, please give me few minutes
XXXX@earthlink.net: Thank you. That resolves the matter.
Adam: I had emailed your the chat transcript.
Adam: Please check it once.
XXX@earthlink.net: Thank you again and goodbye.
Adam: You are welcome.
Adam: I apologize for the inconvenience caused.
Adam: Is there anything else I may assist you with today?
XXX@earthlink.net: No that's it. Thank you and goodbye.
Adam: You're welcome and thank you for using EarthLink LiveChat. Should you need further assistance, please feel free to contact us again.
Adam: Have a nice day.
Adam: Bye.

Submission + - Livejournal Bans 500+ Journals for "Pedophliia

Submitted by

illuminatedwax

on Wednesday May 30, 2007 @08:40AM

illuminatedwax writes: "When online watchdog group Warriors For Innocence began reporting journals and communities whose content involved pedophilia or incest to LiveJournal, they responded that the communities were not breaking any actual Terms of Service and therefore couldn't be deleted. The watchdog group then sent LiveJournal an open letter. LiveJournal then deleted over 500 communities whose listed interests could be related to pedophilia (such as "incest"). Some of the deleted groups include accounts for role-playing characters that were entirely fictional, fandom communities for fictional pedophilia (e.g. Harry Potter slash), support groups for survivors of incest or child abuse, and even a Spanish journal devoted to the discussion of the Russian novel Lolita by Nabokov. There were also a handful of what legitimately appeared to be predatory journals shut down as well. LiveJournal users have responded by warning fellow users, writing the Warriors of Innocence (reply), and moving to other journal hosting sites such as GreatestJournal. The Warriors of Innocence are maintaining that they did not intend for most of these journals to be deleted, and LiveJournal is already replying to some users. What should LiveJournal's responsibility be in keeping their site free from predators?"

Submission + - Google likens Sweden to dictatorship

Submitted by lobStar on Wednesday May 30, 2007 @08:24AM

lobStar writes: Google criticizes the Swedish government heavily and does even go as far as liken it with dictatorship because of the proposed bill that would allow wiretapping of all data crossing the countries' borders. The proposal stems from a tradition begun by Saudia Arabia and China and simply has no place in a western democracy," says Peter Fleischer, Google spokesman. "Sometimes Google needs to take a clear stance and my impression is that everybody has listened very intently to what we have had to say," Although the bill has been delayed, not even a such strong statement from the search giant seems to make the government change it's mind.

Submission + - Major League Baseball targets Slingbox users

Submitted by cyclocommuter on Wednesday May 30, 2007 @08:21AM

cyclocommuter writes: Interesting ARS Technica article on how Major League Baseball is targetting Slingbox users for watching games outside the confines of their living rooms. This appears to be yet another instance where a big corporation is putting the pressure on another small innovative company... Napster, bittorrent, the list goes on.

Submission + - LOLCODE - A New Programming Language From Cats

Submitted by

brianez21

on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @03:45PM

brianez21 writes: "LOLCODE was created 25 May 2007 and is a rather funny esoteric programming language (like Whitespace and Brainfuck). It was made to poke fun at all the cat-related humor on the Internet. There is currently a working LOLCAT interpreter available, here is an example piece of code (Hello World) that is ready to be run.

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
VISIBLE "HAI WORLD!"
KTHXBYE
"

Submission + - Starcraft: Ghost pre-order on BestBuy.com

Submitted by Van in SLO on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @03:26PM

Van in SLO writes: In the midst of all of the interest in the announcement of Starcraft II and the general sentiments of dissatisfaction with Best Buy, it's interesting to note that a search of the BestBuy.com website reveals that they are still taking pre-orders for Starcraft: Ghost, a console game that Blizzard put on indefinite hold (and many believe effectively cancelled) over a year ago. The most interesting thing is the listed release date of 6/15/07. Is this just a lack of effort on the part of Best Buy, or are they trying to collect on a product that may never be delivered? I leave that for you to determine.

Submission + - True cost of failed Illinois video game legslation

Submitted by Mr. Shotgun on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @01:37AM

Mr. Shotgun writes: Ars is running a story about how the Illinois state government is going to pay off the legal bills from their recently defeated video game crusade. FTA:

the state was scouring department budgets, looking for the $1 million it cost to defend the unconstitutional legislation in court. Yes, you read that right — the State of Illinois spent one meeeellion dollars of taxpayer money on the litigation even as the state budget was starved for cash in other, more pressing areas. And worse yet, they spent it on a bill which, when introduced, was plainly unconstitutional.

Another write up is available here.

Submission + - RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft & Co Form Copyright Alli

Submitted by

The Illegal Subset of the Integers

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @02:00PM

The Illegal Subset of the Integers writes: "Not satisfied with the current strength of copyright law, in which children and grandmothers who have never used computers can be forced to face expensive lawsuits to prove their innocence, the RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft, Disney and others have banded together to form the Copyright Alliance. This new lobbying group's members have previously argued for strengthening legal protections for DRM, lowering the standards of proof required for successful infringement claims, and increasing penalties for copyright infringement, while wishing to limit defenses against infringement like copyright misuse and fair use. Reactions fall along predictable lines with Rep. Berman (D-CA), who cites Jack Valenti as his inspiration, praising the new group's creation as "a tremendous idea" while the EFF, CEA & co. are launching the Digital Freedom Campaign to support reforms like Rep. Boucher's (D-VA) Fair Use Act, that would repeal or weaken parts of the DMCA."

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