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Security

The Fine Line Between Security and Usability 195

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the discarding-old-tech dept.
SkiifGeek writes to ask, "Where should vendors be required to draw the line when supporting deprecated file formats and technology? In a recent case independent security researcher cocoruder found a critical bug with the JET engine, via the .mdb (Access) file format, he reported it to Microsoft, but Microsoft's response came as a surprise to him — it appears that Microsoft is not inclined to fix a critical arbitrary code execution vulnerability with a data technology that is at the heart of a large number of essential business and hobby applications."
PC Games (Games)

Croal vs. Totilo - The Portal Letters 51

Posted by Zonk from the on-the-nature-of-games dept.
Today Newsweek's N'Gai Croal and MTV's Stephen Totilo conclude another of their fascinating email correspondences, this time surrounding Valve's recently released Portal . In part one, the two journalists explored the power of minimalism in gaming, and why that 'less is more' attitude worked so well. Part two saw the pair wrestling with some fundamental disagreements about the nature of character in the game. In today's finale, the twosome addresses the game's brief length, and how that made the game all the better. "What's great about Portal's approach is that suggestive spareness of the plot and the absence of characterization leaves us plenty of room to fill in the blanks with our imagination, which, when supported by a framework as precisely and elegantly thought out as it is here, delivers a more powerful final product than many other games that give us plenty of characterization and story but precious little genuine mystery ... Portal goes one step further and questions the very nature of the person thing giving us those orders; like you said, Valve's puppeteering of its players."
The Courts

FSF Reaches Out to RIAA Victims 329

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the armor-for-the-little-guy dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In what has been termed the ''RIAA's worst nightmare', the Free Software Foundation has announced that it is coming to the aid of the victims of RIAA lawsuits, by establishing an Expert Witness Defense Fund to assist defendants in RIAA cases. The purpose of the fund is 'to help provide computer expert witnesses to combat RIAA's ongoing lawsuits, and to defend against the RIAA's attempt to redefine copyright law.' The funds will be used to pay fees and/or expenses of technical expert witnesses, forensic examiners, and other technical consultants assisting individuals named as defendants in non-commercial, peer-to-peer file sharing cases brought by the RIAA, EMI, SONY BMG, Vivendi Universal, and Warner Bros. Records, and their affiliated companies, such as Interscope, Arista, UMG, Fonovisa, Motown, Atlantic, Priority, and others."
The Internet

Why Trolls and Flames Happen 331

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the some-things-will-never-change dept.
AnonymousHack writes "New Scientist examines why people are in general more rude and abusive online. 'Psychologically, we are "distant" from the person we're talking to and less focused on our own identity. As a result we're more prone to aggressive behavior' says one psychologist, who also cites research showing messages received by email are always perceived more negatively than on the phone." Just more proof for the Greater Internet F***wad Theory.
Supercomputing

Scientists Trap a Rainbow 147

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the i-can-c-the-light dept.
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that Physicists from both the University of Surrey and Salford University have devised a method to trap a multi-colored rainbow of light inside a prism. "Previous attempts to slow and capture light have involved extremely low or cryogenic temperatures, have been extremely costly, and have only worked with one specific frequency of light at a time. The technique proposed by Professor Hess and Mr Kosmas Tsakmakidis involves the use of negative refractive index metamaterials along with the exploitation of the Goos Hänchen effect, which shows that when light hits an object or an interface between two media it does not immediately bounce back but seems to travel very slightly along that object, or in the case of metamaterials, travels very slightly backwards along the object."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Endangered Raw Materials (newscientist.com)

Submitted by WorthlessProgrammer
WorthlessProgrammer writes: The article "Dwindling of rare metals imperils innovation" [EETimes.eu], says that essential materials that would enable fuel-efficient technologies, and materials required for the next-gen IT hardware may become could become extinct. E.G., hafnium will be gone by 2017 and zinc will be gone by 2037 (no problem, the 2036 Unix crash will make this a minor problem). Other 'endangered' elements include platinum, copper, indium, gallium, and selenium.

My Notes 1. Was an interesting article until I read the reference to Moore's Second Law, which has never been defined. In fact, G. Moore said has said "I'm not close enough now to make new predictions — several things have been called Moore's Second Law but I can't take credit for any of them" So what is this 'Second Law' ?

2. The "Almighty Buck" icon selection alludes to potential creation of a new source of political and financial power that may rival oil producers
GNOME

Journal Journal: New worst ever software name 1

Journal by Otter

OK, maybe Splunk is still worse, but Velvet Ember Under Sky Zenith is pretty bad, although it looks potentially very useful. (And my Slashdot-honed reflexes cringe at clicking on a link to "gna.org".) The announcement on Python-announce doesn't do it any favors either:
Security

Submission + - Essential Bluetooth hacking tools

Submitted by J.R
J.R writes: The guys at Security-Hacks have compiled a list of Bluetooth hacking tools: "If you are planning to gain a deeper understanding of Bluetooth security, you will need a good set of tools with which to work. By familiarizing yourself with the following tools, you will not only gain a knowledge of the vulnerabilities inherent in Bluetooth-enabled devices, but you will also get a glimpse at how an attacker might exploit them. This hack highlights the essential tools, mostly for the Linux platform, that can be used to search out and hack Bluetooth-enabled devices." http://www.security-hacks.com/2007/05/25/essential -bluetooth-hacking-tools

Feed Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 terabyte hard drive (theregister.com)

From feed by registerfeed
Hitachi unleashes TB on the world - that's terabyte

Review Hitachi's 'world's first' 3.5in terabyte desktop hard drive looks much like any other hard drive, but it packs in five platters and ten read/write heads for an exceptional data storage capacity.

Feed Is Writing A Critical Review Of A Piece Of Software Trademark Infringement? (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
Greg Beck writes "Public Citizen late yesterday filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit in Florida by two affiliated infomercial companies that are attempting to shut down negative reviews of their day trading software on the website InfomercialScams.com. They are claiming that running a website where consumers can post reviews of their products constitutes trademark infringement and a variety of other wrongs, and are seeking triple damages and attorneys' fees against the site's owner. In its motion to dismiss, Public Citizen argues that the Arizona-based website operator is not subject to jurisdiction in Florida, that the websites are protected by the First Amendment, that posting reviews is not trademark infringement, and that the Communications Decency Act protects a website owner from liability for what users post on the site." Once again, it looks like companies are trying to misuse intellectual property laws to prevent legal free speech.

Feed PS3 1.80 firmware is out and streaming your media (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Portable Audio, Portable Video

The PS3 1.8 firmware is out and making its way global in Sony's typical rolling release cycle: APAC, Europe, then the Americas. We'll be testing it ourselves later but we thought you'd like to peep the first screen shots of DLNA-enabled media sharing in the PS3's XMB interface. In this case, Hardcoreware turned on media sharing within Vista (Home Premium or Ultimate, we presume) and voila, their updated PS3 detected and played music, pictures, and video stored on their networked PC -- just like their Xbox 360. Of course, this should work on any DLNA-supported PC (yes, Macs too) or media device including PSPs when the firmware update is released next month. A nice shot in the arm for the Digital Living Network Alliance and good news for PS3 owners everywhere. Hit the read link for more pictures.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Feed Unveiling the Art of Illusion (slashdot.org)

From feed by lcfeed
Blender gets the lion's share of press among free 3-D modeling applications, but it is not the only player in the field. Art of Illusion (AOI) is a mature, GPL-licensed 3-D modeler with robust editing, animation, and rendering features, and it's a...

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