Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Price points exist for a reason (Score 1) 293

The expensive SSDs are not always expensive because the manufacturers are greedy. Data corruption on SSDs is a huge issue. And even before this article I would not touch OCZ if you paid me. But the author is scraping the bottom of the barrel to find a suitable solution, and the title should reflect this - sub 100 pounds is one cheap SSD. Since Intel makes Flash I would expect them to pass - or by horrified if they didn't. I would expect Samsung to pass as well as they fab lots of the flash that everyone else buys. Many of the others just buy it, arrange it on a PCB and sell it - not as much understanding or engineering going on there. Nice to know, but the blurb would be better if all the main players were included in the testing.

Comment Simple solutions - Soffit lights (Score 1) 445

We put soffit lights in. They point down and illuminate the ground - just like other DarkSky solutions. Dark sky lights point down and have a shield around the bulb, so all light goes down. Soffit lights are can lights in the soffit - the roof overhang area. There is nothing to shine in neighbors eyes, and the light is around the perimeter of the house as a security deterrent. Flood lights that point up, make a house look creepy. Again, simple solution. Downward pointing lights with shielded bulbs.

Comment Talk value (Score 1) 205

VCs have different contractual terms, but in the end they want to see at least a 4 to 1 ROI. As others have said, you need to tell them how it will make them money. Do you expect to have a software company and sell an app? Will you license this tech? If so, who is your target. Does this take time - meaning if Samsung was a licensee would this algorithm work in real time on a phone? Will someone have to transfer video to a PC and then post process? If it is the latter, you really need to talk about who will buy it. Have you done any market research? You have to convince the VCs that this will make them money - so you should have a solid idea of who your customer is, and if it will sell.

Submission + - Diamond shows promise for a quantum Internet (nature.com)

ananyo writes: A future quantum version of the Internet might be built from diamond crystals rather than silicon chips. Physicists report that they have entangled information kept in pieces of diamond 3 metres apart, so that measuring the state of one quantum bit (qubit) instantly fixes the state of the other — a step necessary for exchanging quantum information over large distances (abstract).

Comment Everything he mentions could happen on Linux (Score 2, Insightful) 138

"no one calls to say they misplaced their printer icon"; No adobe update notifications, don't need to defrag or update, etc..... Why not? Linux doesn't do away with any of this. Package updates break things on Linux as often as they do on any other platform. Adobe needs updates on Linux too. The difference is that the users are scared to touch anything, so they don't. Instead of users buying software and doing their own work, they hire him to administer free software - I am OK with that, but I hate the myth that Linux "just works". There is a reason, that even with all the free software that exists, the software companies are still in business.

Comment Sideloading is the cause of piracy? (Score 1) 596

The article tries to make the point that side loading is the cause of piracy. That because anyone can search for a pirated game, find it, and easily install it, that this ability to sideload is what makes Android a poor OS from a security perspective. Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, BeOS, AIX, HP-UX, and others allow installing applications from "unknown sources" and they are not platforms of evil (take your MS shots here). It is silly that Slashdot even promoted this blog post. The author should address how software gets pirated (same way it does elswhere) - through exploits, hacks, cracks etc. Making it easy to install is not what causes piracy. It is a moral decision by the person doing the pirating. One thing that would help stop it: trial versions or timed versions of software. But don't blame sideloading. This is one thing that makes android development and alternate app stores so much easier on Android then other platforms. Of course the other option for any developer - sell your APK directly, and provide your own serial tied to something on the phone. Some companies do this and it can work. But as always, if someone has physical access to a device, then true security is impossible.

Comment Let him hang (Score -1) 321

I hope the guy gets punished as a traitor. If everyone took his stance that "information should be free" and released what they should be shared, where would be? The next guy may want to level the playing field and share fighter plans, nuke designs, whatever he thinks should be free. No sympathy from me. And Assange is a jerk as well - he thinks he knows best on what to share. - I don't think or govt is perfect by any stretch, but sharing every secret without thought of the consequences is insane. If every Mother-in-Law knew every thought or feeling that another in-law had about her... we would have no one left alive after Thanksgiving dinners. Secrets are made to be secret.
First Person Shooters (Games)

Combat Vets On CoD: Black Ops, Medal of Honor Taliban 93

An anonymous reader writes "Thom 'SSGTRAN' Tran, seen in the Call of Duty: Black Ops live action trailer and in the game as the NVA multiplayer character, gets interviewed and talks about Medal of Honor's Taliban drama. '... to me, it's a non-issue. This is Hollywood. This is entertainment. There has to be a bad guy if there's going to be a good guy. It's that simple. Regardless of whether you call them — "Taliban" or "Op For" — you're looking at the same thing. They're the bad guys.'" Gamasutra published a related story about military simulation games from the perspective of black ops veteran and awesome-name-contest winner Wolfgang Hammersmith. "In his view, all gunfights are a series of ordered and logical decisions; when he explains it to me, I can sense him performing mental math, brain exercise, the kind that appeals to gamers and game designers. Precise skill, calculated reaction. Combat operations and pistolcraft are the man's life's work."
IBM

IBM's Plans For the Cell Processor 124

angry tapir writes "Development around the original Cell processor hasn't stalled, and IBM will continue to develop chips and supply hardware for future gaming consoles, a company executive said. IBM is working with gaming machine vendors including Nintendo and Sony, said Jai Menon, CTO of IBM's Systems and Technology Group, during an interview Thursday. 'We want to stay in the business, we intend to stay in the business,' he said. IBM confirmed in a statement that it continues to manufacture the Cell processor for use by Sony in its PlayStation 3. IBM also will continue to invest in Cell as part of its hybrid and multicore chip strategy, Menon said."
Security

Submission + - Quantum key security 'blinded' by new attack (techworld.com)

An anonymous reader writes: A Norwegian team claims it has come up with a new way to hack quantum key encryption (QKD) systems that would allow an attacker to intercept a key without being detected. An undetectable attack on QKD sounds impossible because the physics that underpin the technology are unshakable. Anyone intercepting the photons used to encode the key in any of QKD's sending protocols between point A and point B will alter their quantum state, making their presence immediately obvious to the receiver.

That is what, in essence, QKD amounts to the detection of the interception of encryption keys with absolute certainty.

According to a newly published paper in Nature Photonics, however, the team at Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim decided to exploit weakness in the way QKD systems are configured by two vendors, ID Quantique and MagiQ Technologies, to break this apparently watertight assumption.

Security

Two Unpatched Flaws Show Up In Apple iOS 171

Trailrunner7 writes "The technique that the Jailbreakme.com Web site is using to bypass the iPhone's security mechanisms and enable users to run unapproved apps on their phones involves exploiting two separate vulnerabilities. One of the vulnerabilities is a memory-corruption flaw that affects the way that Apple's mobile devices, including the iPad and iPod Touch, display PDFs. The second weakness is a problem in the Apple iOS kernel that gives an attacker higher privileges once his code is on a targeted device, enabling him to break out of the iOS sandbox. The combination of the two vulnerabilities — both of which are unpatched at the moment — gives an attacker the ability to run remote code on the device and evade the security protections on the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. The technique became public earlier this week when the Jailbreakme.com site began hosting a set of specially crafted PDF files designed to help users jailbreak their Apple devices and load apps other than the ones approved by Apple and offered in its official App Store."
Cellphones

Cell Phone Interception At Def Con 95

ChrisPaget writes "I'm planning a pretty significant demonstration of GSM insecurity at Defcon next week, where I'll intercept and record cellular calls made by my attendees, live on-stage, no user-input required. As you can imagine, intercepting cellphones is a Very Big Deal in the eyes of the law; this blog post is an attempt to reassure everyone that their privacy is being taken seriously despite the nature of the demo. I'm not just making it up either — the EFF have helped significantly with the details."

Submission + - Fibre optic interface could replace USB (pcpro.co.uk) 1

darien writes: "Intel demonstrated its new "Light Peak" optical interconnect at the second day of IDF in San Francisco. The interface can carry any type of data, and the controller supports a transfer rate of 10 gigabits per second — though since it's based on light the potential for future upgrades is practically infinite. Silicon is promised for next year, though adoption is expected to be slow."

Slashdot Top Deals

"No matter where you go, there you are..." -- Buckaroo Banzai

Working...