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Submission + - Gartner: Make way for digital business, risks or die? (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: In his opening keynote Garter’s Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president and global head of research said that since 2013 650 million new physical objects have come online. 3D printers became a billion dollar market; 10% of cars became connected; and the number of Chief Data Officers and Chief Digital Officer jobs have doubled. By 2015, all of these items will double again, he said.

Submission + - Modder Hacks Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO Client, Changes In-Game Data (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: When Star Wars: The Old Republic made news in September, it was for announcing that one of the mythos' most enduring antiheroes, the onetime Sith Lord Revan, would be making an appearance in the MMO. Now, a new bug could wipe some of that goodwill off the map. Modder and TOR enthusiast SWTorMiner has created a video that shows him fixing a simple visual bug (introduced in one of the recent game patches) to make a character's eyewear render properly. SWTorMiner doesn't claim to have discovered the bug himself, but he's drawing attention to it precisely because it allows for much larger hacks than just replacing a bit of cosmetic detail. In theory, this same exploit could be used to allow access to areas of the game that are currently locked out, either because previous bosses haven't yet been killed, or because PvP battlegrounds are still in warm-up periods. These are the kinds of problems that can rapidly balloon and challenge the fundamental nature of the game.

Submission + - DARPA delving into the black art of super secure software obfuscation (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: iven enough computer power, desire, brains and some luck, the security of most systems can be broken. But there are cryptographic and algorithmic security techniques, ideas and concepts out there that add a level of algorithmic mystification that could be built into programs that would make them close to unbreakable. That’s what the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants for a new program called Safeware.

Submission + - Shellshock Proves It: CGI Must Die 1

Submitted by snydeq
snydeq writes: Remember that incredibly stupid thing you did a decade or two ago? You wouldn't want to live it down every day. Neither should the Internet, writes Andrew C. Oliver, putting CGI squarely in the cross hairs, thanks to Shellshock. 'Frankly, this nasty bug in Bash should not be a big deal — and wouldn’t be if it weren’t for CGI, one of the most widespread, terrible ideas ever invented. ... If not for CGI, this bug would be a minor privilege escalation path for users with permissions to kick off shell scripts as root (or other more privileged users). It would not be an “oh, did someone break the Internet again?”-level threat. The issue is that CGI exposes the HTTP headers as environment variables, and since Bash may be kicking off your shell script, anyone on the Internet can do it.'

Submission + - US offers $60 million for radical new energy technology (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: Far-reaching changes in the way we cool large structures and make alternative energy products are driving $60 million worth of research and product development from the Department of Energy.

Specifically, the DOE’s advanced research group Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) this week announced two programs, one that would focus on developing low-cost, highly efficient and scalable dry-cooling technologies for thermoelectric power plants and another to advance automated systems-level technology that would speed improvement of plant biomass crops to increase alternative fuel options.

Submission + - Lost Opportunity? Windows 10 Has The Same Minimum PC Requirements As Vista (hothardware.com) 1

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Buried in the details of Microsoft's technical preview for Windows 10 is a bit of a footnote concerning the operating system's requirements. Windows 10 will have exactly the same requirements as Windows 8.1, which had the same requirements as Windows 8, which stuck to Windows 7 specs, which was the same as Windows Vista. At this point, it's something we take for granted with future Windows release. As the years roll by, you can't help wondering what we're actually giving up in exchange for holding the minimum system spec at a single-core 1GHz, 32-bit chip with just 1GB of RAM. The average smartphone is more powerful than this these days. For decades, the standard argument has been that Microsoft had to continue supporting ancient operating systems and old configurations, ignoring the fact that the company did its most cutting-edge work when it was willing to kill off its previous products in fairly short order. what would Windows look like if Microsoft at least mandated a dual-core product? What if DX10 — a feature set that virtually every video card today supports, according to Valve's Steam Hardware Survey, became the minimum standard, at least on the x86 side of the equation? How much better might the final product be if Microsoft put less effort into validating ancient hardware and kicked those specs upwards, just a notch or two?

Submission + - DARPA technology uncovers counterfeit microchips (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said this week one of its contractors, working on one of the agency’s anti-counterfeit projects has developed and deployed what it calls an Advanced Scanning Optical Microscope that can scan integrated circuits by using an extremely narrow infrared laser beam, to probe microelectronic circuits at nanometer levels, revealing information about chip construction as well as the function of circuits at the transistor level.

Submission + - DARPA image technology would move way beyond X-Rays (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: Getting a better view inside mostly dense objects like corrosion in aircraft wings and welds on ships or even gunpowder hidden in suitcases are just a few of the applications researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are hoping to develop with a new program called Intense and Compact Neutron Sources (ICONS).

Submission + - Micron Launches First SSD Based On 16nm NAND Flash (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Samsung made some waves earlier this year with the introduction of its 850 Pro family of solid state drives and the first commercial use of 3D stacked NAND Flash memory. Micron is striking back today with a lower manufacturing process geometry in conventional NAND, however, and a new Flash technology it claims, will accelerate performance more effectively than other competing solutions. The new Micron M600 family of solid state drives will launch at capacities ranging from 128GB to 1TB across multiple form factors including 2.5-inch SATA drives, mSATA, and the PCIe-capable M.2 platform. The M600 uses Micron's newest 16nm TLC NAND, which allows the drive to hit a better cost-per-GiB than previous generation drives. The drives are built around the Marvell 88SS9189 SATA 6Gbs controller, which has been used by a variety of other SSD manufacturers as well. The M600 family of solid state drives performed relatively well throughout a battery of tests, though it couldn't quite catch Samsung's 850 Pro. Pricing for the M600 reportedly will be competitive at approximately $.45 — $.55 per GiB.

Submission + - Nixie Wearable Drone Camera Flies Off Your Wrist To Capture The Moment (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Over the past couple of years, drones have become popular enough to the point where a new release doesn't excite most people. But Nixie is different. It's a drone that you wear, like a bracelet. Whenever you need to let it soar, you give it a command to unwrap, power it up, and let it go. From the consumer standpoint, the most popular use for drones is to capture some amazing footage. But what if you want to be in that footage? That's where Nixie comes in. After "setting your camera free", the drone soars around you, keeping you in its frame.Nixie is powered by Intel's Edison kit, which is both small enough and affordable enough to fit inside such a small device.

Comment Re:$799 for a 4K 28" panel is a PREMIUM price??? (Score 1) 64

by MojoKid (#48005855) Attached to: Acer Launches First 4K Panel With NVIDIA G-Sync Technology On Board
The note was versus "standard 28-inch panels"... not 4K. Yes, this is a solid price for a 4K 60Hz panel, with or without G-Sync. However, you can get standard 28-inch panels for a lot less and even Samsung, Dell and Asus non-G-Sync 4K panels for as little as $429 to about $600 now.

Submission + - Acer Launches First 4K Panel With NVIDIA G-Sync Technology On Board (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Save for a smattering of relatively small, 3K and 4K laptop displays, we haven't quite gotten to the same type of pixel density on the PC platform, that is available on today's high-end ultra-mobile devices. That said, the desktop display space has really heated up as of late and 4K panels have generated a large part of the buzz. Acer just launched the first 4K display with NVIDIA G-Sync technology on board. To put it simply, G-SYNC keeps a display and the output from an NVIDIA GPU in sync, regardless of frame rates or whether or not V-Sync is enabled. Instead of the monitor controlling the timing and refreshing at say 60Hz, the timing control is transferred to the GPU. The GPU scans a frame out to the monitor and the monitor doesn't update until a frame is done drawing, in lock-step with the GPU. This method completely eliminates tearing or frame stuttering associated with synchronization anomalies of standard panels. There are still some quirks with Windows and many applications that don't always scale properly on high-DPI displays, but the situation is getting better every day. If you're a gamer in the market for a 4K display, that's primed for gaming, the Acer XB280HK is a decent new option with this technology on board, though it does come at a bit of a premium at $799 versus standard 28-inch panels.

Submission + - FAA lets movie, TV firms fly drones in national airspace, what could go wrong? (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: I am all for realism in movies but this might be a little precarious. The Federal Aviation Administration has granted regulatory exemptions to six aerial photo and video production companies, the first step to allowing the film and television industry the use of unmanned aircraft in the National Airspace System.

Submission + - Euclideon Teases Photo-Realistic Voxel-Based Game Engine (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Not many would argue that current console and PC graphics technologies still haven't reached a level of "photo-realism." However, a company by the name of Euclideon is claiming to be preparing to deliver that holy grail based on laser scanning and voxel engine-based technologies. The company has put together a six-minute video clip of its new engine, and its genuinely impressive. There's a supposed-to-be-impressive unveil around the two minute mark where the announcer declares he's showing us computer-generated graphics rather than a digital photo — something you'll probably have figured out long before that point. Euclideon's proprietary design purportedly uses a laser scanner to create a point cloud model of a real-world area. That area can then be translated into a voxel renderer and drawn by a standard GPU. Supposedly this can be done so efficiently and with such speed that there's no need for conventional load screens or enormous amounts of texture memory but rather by simply streaming data off conventional hard drives. Previously, critiques have pointed to animation as one area where the company's technique might struggle. Given the ongoing lack of a demonstrated solution for animation, it's fair to assume this would-be game-changer has some challenges still to solve. That said, some of the renderings are impressive.

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