Submission + - Modded XBox 360's now banned from Live
clickclickdrone writes: "As of last night, all modded Xbox 360's have been banned from Live. From what I understand, all the various 'stealth' techniques used have failed to bypass it thus far. http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7339 has the details. Bad news if you have a modded machine. Maybe we'll all need two, one for Live and one for general use. It sounds like a brave if foolhardy move from Microsoft though given the fickle nature of the market."
Submission + - Documents Reveal U.S. Incompetence with Word, Iraq
notNeilCasey writes: "The U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority, which formerly governed Iraq, accidentally published Microsoft Word documents containing information never meant for the public, according to an article in Salon. By viewing the documents using the Track Changes feature in Word, the author has been able to reconstruct internal discussions from 2004 which reflect the optimism, isolation and incompetence of the American occupation. Download the author's source document or look for more yourself."
Submission + - The Mystery of the 2,000 Year-Old Computer
oloron writes: "A hundred years ago, sponge divers off the coast of Greece found, amidst the wreckage of an ancient ship, "a shoebox-size lump of bronze, which appeared to have a wooden exterior. Inside... [was] what looked like a bronze dial. Researchers also noticed precisely cut triangular gear teeth of different sizes. The thing looked like some sort of mechanical clock. But this was impossible, because scientifically precise gearing wasn't believed to have been widely used until the fourteenth century — fourteen hundred years after the ship went down."
It look a century — and all kinds of next-generation CAT scans. But finally, researchers have unraveled the mystery of the "Antikythera Mechanism."
It turns out that the ancient Greeks were more clever than we ever dreamed. (And we dreamed they were pretty clever.) The artifact does indeed have the an amazingly precise gear train. And it's used to power what the New Yorker is calling "the world's first computer."
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/14/0705 14fa_fact_seabrook
but does it run linux?"
Submission + - The Art of Good Passwords
SirTicksAlot writes: "Anyone who has used a computer in just about any situation has, at one time, had to make up a password to protect his or her identity. This in itself can be quite an art form. Choosing a good password that you would be able to remember can give long lasting safety to those who need to protect their data.
From the article:
"If you are old enough to remember the movie, 'War Games', You may recall a young Mathew Broderick who was eager to play a game from a remote computer. Unaware that the remote computer system was part of Norad's WOPR, or War Operation Plan Response computer. By doing a few hours of research he was able to easily guess the password (joshua) and gain access to the one machine that could cause World War Three. While hollywood always takes things to a whole new level of far-fetched, These are not far off from security breaches of today."
This article explains what makes passwords good, techniques on how to avoid the WOPR incident, and includes a section for web developers on how to enforce those techniques in their applications."
From the article:
"If you are old enough to remember the movie, 'War Games', You may recall a young Mathew Broderick who was eager to play a game from a remote computer. Unaware that the remote computer system was part of Norad's WOPR, or War Operation Plan Response computer. By doing a few hours of research he was able to easily guess the password (joshua) and gain access to the one machine that could cause World War Three. While hollywood always takes things to a whole new level of far-fetched, These are not far off from security breaches of today."
This article explains what makes passwords good, techniques on how to avoid the WOPR incident, and includes a section for web developers on how to enforce those techniques in their applications."
Submission + - Second Life - wretched hive of scum and villainy
Dread Pirate Skippy writes: The BBC reports today that investigators in Germany will be cracking down on child pornography in the virtual world of Second Life. From the article, "The investigation follows a report by a German TV news programme which uncovered the trading group and members who pay for sex with virtual children." It doesn't stop there however, as it goes on to state, "Members of this group also offered to put [reporter Nick Schader] in touch with traders of real child pornography."
Submission + - University Run computer Games Company
EdTheDuck writes: "Huddersfield University was the 1st in the UK to create its own Computer Games Company to be run by Students.
The company started work in September of 2006 and has 8 full time staff of students on a placement year working at it. All members of staff are Programmers but there are a large team of Designers who volunteer their time to the project.
The University found it hard placing its students in computer games companies and so created this venture to give its students chance to work in a real company and gain some invaluable experience of the industry.
They are currently working on 3 major projects, 1 of which has recently been released as a Beta on their website (http://www.canalsidestudios.com/games/index.php?p age=downloads).
They have been using the newly created game framework release by Microsoft late last year, XNA.
Stay tuned for their later releases as more info is placed on the website."
The company started work in September of 2006 and has 8 full time staff of students on a placement year working at it. All members of staff are Programmers but there are a large team of Designers who volunteer their time to the project.
The University found it hard placing its students in computer games companies and so created this venture to give its students chance to work in a real company and gain some invaluable experience of the industry.
They are currently working on 3 major projects, 1 of which has recently been released as a Beta on their website (http://www.canalsidestudios.com/games/index.php?
They have been using the newly created game framework release by Microsoft late last year, XNA.
Stay tuned for their later releases as more info is placed on the website."
Submission + - Jack Thompson rushed to judgement
Jamil Karim writes: "MSNBC has an interesting article criticizing Jack Thompson not only for blaming video games for the Virginia Tech massacre when "police hadn't even identified the gunman", but also attacking his argument:
"And for all of Thompson's claims that violent video games are the cause of school shootings, Sternheimer points out that before this week's Virginia Tech massacre, the most deadly school shooting in history took place at the University of Texas in Austin... in 1966. Not even "Pong" had been invented at that time.""
"And for all of Thompson's claims that violent video games are the cause of school shootings, Sternheimer points out that before this week's Virginia Tech massacre, the most deadly school shooting in history took place at the University of Texas in Austin... in 1966. Not even "Pong" had been invented at that time.""
Submission + - KISS singer: "Illegal downloading is robbing&#
psymastr writes: KISS founder, guitarist and singer Paul Stanley gave an interview to Australia's Herald Sun in which he calls illegal music downloading a "tragedy."
"Downloading is one of the tragedies of the 21st century [...] Under the guise of technology and fancy jargon, people have legalised stealing. [...] you can't share what you don't own. [...] Sharing something with one person is one thing, sharing with tens of thousands of people is a crime. It's robbery."
"I don't owe anyone any justification for wanting to get paid. For anybody else to decide when I have enough money is bollocks."
"Downloading is one of the tragedies of the 21st century [...] Under the guise of technology and fancy jargon, people have legalised stealing. [...] you can't share what you don't own. [...] Sharing something with one person is one thing, sharing with tens of thousands of people is a crime. It's robbery."
"I don't owe anyone any justification for wanting to get paid. For anybody else to decide when I have enough money is bollocks."
Submission + - How Top Designers Work Their Magic
Patrick G. writes: "If you are a web-developer, it's interesting to know, how best web-developers work their magic. It's interesting to know what you can actually learn from them. In the article "35 Designers x 5 Questions" 35 professional designers disclose their favorite CSS technique, how they prioritize their designs, their favorite font, their most read design-related book and the design magazine that they read religiously. From the article: "35 designers. 5 questions. 5 precise answers. Result: 175 professional suggestions, tips and ideas from some of the best web-developers all around the world."
You can learn more in the Design Process Survey and in the article Design Workflows at Work: How Top Designers Work Their Magic."
You can learn more in the Design Process Survey and in the article Design Workflows at Work: How Top Designers Work Their Magic."
Submission + - Australian State snubs Vista for XP
john_chr writes: Talk about new desktop operating systems may be at an all-time high, but the Queensland state government has no intention to progress from the six-year-old Windows XP for more than 100,000 computers to be purchased over the next three years — so says Computerworld.
With the release of Ubuntu Linux 7.04 "Feisty Fawn" this month, IT departments have another desktop operating system option for standard PCs, but, like Vista, it is not on Queensland's procurement radar.
Linux stands a better chance in the Server Room, but on the desktop "some departments may have to buy Vista licences and "downgrade" to XP "
Submission + - 11 Ways to Break Your Google Addiction
CorinneI writes: "Hooked on "Googling" for your every need online? Well, believe it or not, there are many effective ways to find exactly what you're looking for without turning to the No. 1 search engine around — and we've picked 11 of our favorites to show you that the impossible is possible. In fact, Google isn't the best way to find off-the-beaten path sites and make new discoveries. Give sites like ChaCha.com and StumbleUpon, which gives pages a thumbs-up/thumbs-down rating, a whirl and see where they take you. Check out the whole lineup on PCMag.com and break your Google addiction today.
URL: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2115492,00.as p"
URL: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2115492,00.a
Submission + - USB memory installs malware to Windows PCs
An anonymous reader writes: I needed a USB flash drive to transfer files between home, workplace and school and bought a cheap SanDisk Cruzer Micro USB flash drive just to notice that when plugging in the stick to my computer, the USB flash drive would install automaticly a piece of software called U3 Launchpad, which proved to be a real PITA to uninstall. Apparently there are also some security issues with the software and I'm not alone with my frustration.
Happily I found a way to repartition and format the USB memory and remove the Autorun function, but in the future I'm going to be damn sure to disable Autorun before connecting new USB devices. I think it's just plain wrong to automaticly install this kind of software to the user's PC without even asking a permission.
Is this an individual case or a new trend among hardware manufacturers?
Happily I found a way to repartition and format the USB memory and remove the Autorun function, but in the future I'm going to be damn sure to disable Autorun before connecting new USB devices. I think it's just plain wrong to automaticly install this kind of software to the user's PC without even asking a permission.
Is this an individual case or a new trend among hardware manufacturers?
Submission + - CPUShare: Grid Computing Cheaply
Diablo-D3 writes: "Andrea Arcangeli, known for his kernel hacking, has decided to take on all the grid computing systems out there and has created CPUShare. As he describes it, "CPUShare allows the home users to profit from the significant power of their hardware that otherwise would be wasted every day," allowing us geeks with a thousand idle computers to profit for other people's need of CPU power."
Submission + - Quantum secrets of photosynthesis revealed
forgethistory writes: "Through photosynthesis, green plants and cyanobacteria are able to transfer sunlight energy to molecular reaction centers for conversion into chemical energy with nearly 100-percent efficiency. Speed is the key — the transfer of the solar energy takes place almost instantaneously so little energy is wasted as heat. How photosynthesis achieves this near instantaneous energy transfer is a long-standing mystery that may have finally been solved.
http://www.physorg.com/news95605211.html"
