Comment Great! (Score 3, Insightful) 76
Now I won't know whose patch messed up my computer after the update...
Submission + - Researchers Create 4nm Transistor with 7 Atoms (dailytech.com)
EmagGeek writes: "University researchers have created a transistor by replacing just seven atoms of silicon with phosphorous. The seven-atom transistor has very hopeful implications for the future of quantum cryptography, nuclear and weather modeling, and other applications.
"The significance of this achievement is that we are not just moving atoms around or looking at them through a microscope," says Professor Michelle Simmons, a co-author of a paper on the subject that is being published by Nature Nanotechnology. The paper is entitled "Spectroscopy of Few-Electron Single-Crystal Silicon Quantum Dots".
"We are manipulating individual atoms and placing them with atomic precision, in order to make a working electronic device," elaborated Simmons. "We have replaced just seven individual silicon atoms with phosphorus atoms. That is amazing exactness"."
"The significance of this achievement is that we are not just moving atoms around or looking at them through a microscope," says Professor Michelle Simmons, a co-author of a paper on the subject that is being published by Nature Nanotechnology. The paper is entitled "Spectroscopy of Few-Electron Single-Crystal Silicon Quantum Dots".
"We are manipulating individual atoms and placing them with atomic precision, in order to make a working electronic device," elaborated Simmons. "We have replaced just seven individual silicon atoms with phosphorus atoms. That is amazing exactness"."
Submission + - Who should play Commander Shepard in the ME Movie? (allegedly-speaking.com)
Kohato writes: The news that Legendary Pictures has snapped up the rights to develop a Mass Effect movie got us sifting through some potential candidates for the role of Commander Shepard. Below is the short list of actors we think could do the job.
Submission + - Google releases Chrome 5.0 for Win/Mac/Linux (h-online.com)
ddfall writes: Four months after the release of version 4.0 for Windows, Google has announced the availability of Chrome 5.0 for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux — the first stable release to be available on all three major platforms
Comment Re:Personal certificates aren't THAT profitable.. (Score 1) 97
Verisign's milk cow is their SSL certificates for websites.
They need a huge infrastructure to analyse and issue personal certificates. Profit margins are a lot lower in this case.
They're just cutting a not-so-profitable business and keeping their main income untouched.
Comment Re:Its not just Microsoft (Score 1) 375
I have wasted a lot of time on Slashdot as well.
Worse is... I'll waste a lot more time on Slashdot as well.
Submission + - How college students designed the iPad in 1988 (technologizer.com)
harrymcc writes: Back in 1988, Apple held a contest that invited students from top universities to design the PC of the year 2000. The winning entry, from the University of Illinois, was a futuristic tablet computer. One that did an uncanny job of predicting what sort of tablet Apple would release 22 years later. Like the iPad, the winning entry had a color touchscreen, with onscreen keyboard, gigabytes of memory, a wireless modem, and GPS. It did everything from note-taking to 3D games, and even included a feature like Apple's "Find My iPad." I've taken an in-depth look at everything the machine got right (and wrong) and have republished the winning paper in its entirety.
Submission + - Breaking the rules: security through obscurity (wordpress.com)
Internalist writes: "'Andrew Odlyzko is a number theorist, a complexity theorist, a cryptographer, and a deep thinker. He has proved some very beautiful theorems, written non-trivial software, and managed large projects.' He also believes that our current views on building secure systems are flawed, and that security through obscurity is the answer."
Submission + - System to surgically jam electronics taking shape (networkworld.com) 1
coondoggie writes: Raytheon BBN has gotten $8.3 million to begin developing a sophisticated electronic system to surgically jam specific digital signals generated by everything from cell phones to GPS devices, satellites and radios. Known as the Precision Electronic Warfare (PREW), the goal of the technology will be able to surgically disable targets in small areas on demand without hindering or disabling friendly devices in the surrounding area.
Submission + - All the major AV softwares bypassed again! (esiea-recherche.eu)
An anonymous reader writes: The french engineer school ESIEA [1] organized iAWACS 2010 [2], the international Alternative Workshop on Aggressive Computing and Security, during which the 15 major antivirus softwares have all been bypassed during a challenge [3].
During the last year edition [4], it has been objected that challengers used administrator accounts [5] to defeat AV programs. So this year, regular users accounts (without UAC) have been used, with the same success.
"Marketing and events budgets should be replaced by R&D budgets for a few vendors" advised the organizer of the event.
[1] http://www.esiea.fr/-ESIEA-in-English-
[2] http://www.esiea-recherche.eu/iawacs_2010.html
[3] http://www.esiea-recherche.eu/data/iawacs2010/pwn2kill/pwn2killdebrief.pdf
[4] http://www.esiea-recherche.eu/iawacs_2009.html
[5] http://www.esiea-recherche.eu/data/pwn2rm.pdf
During the last year edition [4], it has been objected that challengers used administrator accounts [5] to defeat AV programs. So this year, regular users accounts (without UAC) have been used, with the same success.
"Marketing and events budgets should be replaced by R&D budgets for a few vendors" advised the organizer of the event.
[1] http://www.esiea.fr/-ESIEA-in-English-
[2] http://www.esiea-recherche.eu/iawacs_2010.html
[3] http://www.esiea-recherche.eu/data/iawacs2010/pwn2kill/pwn2killdebrief.pdf
[4] http://www.esiea-recherche.eu/iawacs_2009.html
[5] http://www.esiea-recherche.eu/data/pwn2rm.pdf
Submission + - Can Employer Usurp Copyright On GPL-derived Work? 4
An anonymous reader writes: I am a recent graduate, and I've been working on my own on a project that uses GPL-licensed libraries. Later a university department hired me to develop this project into a solution that they needed, on a part-time basis. The project's size increased over time and soliciting help from the open source community seemed like the natural way to go, however when I suggested this, my boss was not interested, and it was made clear to me that the department's position was that copyright of the whole thing belonged to them. Indeed by default work created for an employer belongs to the employer, so I may have found myself in the same trap as described in this story: "http://developers.slashdot.org/story/02/03/21/0139244/Beware-Employment-Contracts". Even though I want to release my code to the public I don't know whether I have the legal right to do so, and many people are likely in the same position, working for a university without realizing that their work may not belong to them.
I am wondering whether there is room for hope, since
(1) I started the project on my own, and since no written or verbal agreement was ever made to transfer copyright over to my employer I question whether they can claim that they now own the extended version of the project.
(2) The whole project relies on GPL libraries, since from the start I intended to release it under GPL, and without those libraries it would be useless. Can they still claim copyright and prevent me from publishing the source code even though it is derived from GPL software?
I am wondering whether there is room for hope, since
(1) I started the project on my own, and since no written or verbal agreement was ever made to transfer copyright over to my employer I question whether they can claim that they now own the extended version of the project.
(2) The whole project relies on GPL libraries, since from the start I intended to release it under GPL, and without those libraries it would be useless. Can they still claim copyright and prevent me from publishing the source code even though it is derived from GPL software?
Submission + - EVGA Bans Users For Discussing Using Hybrid PhysX (gamephys.com)
mykos writes: From the article:
As you may or may not know, Nvidia has robbed its customers by disabling the PhysX technology (GPU and PPU) anytime a Non-Nvidia GPU is present in the system (even IGPs) since the release of 186 GeForce drivers. As predicted, the community responded critically and eventually a user by name of GenL created a patch that removes the blockage and reclaims the feature. This patch is justifiable since we believe if a user bought a GeForce card, he unquestionably deserves access to all its features.
Now, it has come to our attention that EVGA is preventing users from discussing the PhysX mod on their forums. "Sorry guys, but this thread must be locked here. We've stated multiple times in the past that discussion of the PhysX mod is not permitted on these forums, as it is a violation of Nvidia's Intellectual Property rights. This is non-negotiable, and as a partner of Nvidia, we must also respect its rights. Next thread discussing the PhysX mod will earn a warning." said nordicjedi, a forum moderator on EVGA.
As you may or may not know, Nvidia has robbed its customers by disabling the PhysX technology (GPU and PPU) anytime a Non-Nvidia GPU is present in the system (even IGPs) since the release of 186 GeForce drivers. As predicted, the community responded critically and eventually a user by name of GenL created a patch that removes the blockage and reclaims the feature. This patch is justifiable since we believe if a user bought a GeForce card, he unquestionably deserves access to all its features.
Now, it has come to our attention that EVGA is preventing users from discussing the PhysX mod on their forums. "Sorry guys, but this thread must be locked here. We've stated multiple times in the past that discussion of the PhysX mod is not permitted on these forums, as it is a violation of Nvidia's Intellectual Property rights. This is non-negotiable, and as a partner of Nvidia, we must also respect its rights. Next thread discussing the PhysX mod will earn a warning." said nordicjedi, a forum moderator on EVGA.
Submission + - GIMP Resynth vs Photoshop content aware (ultradownloads.com.br)
NVIDIA Driver Update Causing Video Cards To Overheat In Games 155
After a group of StarCraft II beta testers reported technical difficulties following the installation of NVIDIA driver update 196.75, Blizzard tech support found that the update introduced fan control problems that were causing video cards to overheat in 3D applications. "This means every single 3D application (i.e. games) running these drivers is going to be exposed to overheating and in some extreme cases it will cause video card, motherboard and/or processor damage. If said motherboard, processor or graphic card is not under warranty, some gamers are in serious trouble playing intensive games such as Prototype, World of Warcraft, Farcry 3, Crysis and many other games with realistic graphics." NVIDIA said they were investigating the problem, took down links to the new drivers, and advised users to revert to 196.21 until the problem can be fixed.
Submission + - Test Proves Theory of General Relativity Wrong? (softpedia.com)
ogre7299 writes: ""The first test that proves the General Theory of Relativity wrong. A spinning top increases its weight much more than expected. According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, a moving mass should create another field, called gravitomagnetic field, besides its static gravitational field. This field has now been measured for the first time and to the scientists' astonishment, it proved to be no less than one hundred million trillion times larger than Einstein's General Relativity predicts. ""
