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Security

Did Stuxnet Take Out 1,000 Centrifuges At Natanz? 189

Posted by timothy from the down-for-routine-maintenance dept.
AffidavitDonda writes "In late 2009 or early 2010, Iran decommissioned and replaced about 1,000 IR-1 centrifuges in the Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz, implying that these centrifuges broke. Iran's IR-1 centrifuges often break, yet this level of breakage exceeded expectations and occurred during an extended period of relatively poor centrifuge performance. Although Iran has not admitted that Stuxnet attacked the Natanz centrifuge plant, it has acknowledged that its nuclear sites were subject to cyber attacks."
Firefox

Submission + - KataSpace, a WebGL MMO, Goes BSD Open Source (blogs.com)

Submitted by wjamesau
wjamesau writes: Developed at Stanford by a team led by a veteran of Linden Lab, KataSpace is a new web-based MMO architecture with a BSD open source license that runs on WebGL, the 3D graphics protocol that'll come pre-installed with the latest builds of Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Basically, it'll let anyone develop an MMO or virtual world space that runs on the web without a plug-in. Demo space with avatars at the link!
Google

Submission + - Microsoft sets record: patching 34 vulnerabilities (thetechherald.com)

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: Microsoft releases a record number of patches Tuesday — a whopping 14 security bulletins to fix 34 different vulnerabilities, including eight critical vulnerabilities that allow the remote execution of code. ("Another month, another record," wrote one technology blog.) And Microsoft will also belatedly acknowledge Google security engineer Tavis Ormandy in four bulletins for his discovery of a vulnerability in Windows Help and Support Center. It was Ormandy who announced the pending acknowledgments on Twitter, adding Friday that "I don't think there's been more than a few days this year that Microsoft haven't been vulnerable to public kernel flaws." But another security analyst also notes there's no patches for Windows XP SP2, "even though the five critical vulnerabilities for XP SP3 most likely apply to their discontinued version of the OS as well."
Hardware

Submission + - iSuppli warns of looming DRAM shortage (idg.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "A shortage of the main memory chips used in personal computers could send prices of the chips higher in the second half of this year, market researcher iSuppli has warned. The main DRAM manufacturing tool chip makers lack right now is immersion lithography equipment, which iSuppli believes will be in short supply this year. Companies that make the vital equipment will not be able to produce enough machines to meet industry needs, the market researcher said, and only a few DRAM makers already have the gear they need."

Submission + - Rumblings in OpenSolaris land. (fork?) (illumos.org)

Submitted by kallisti5
kallisti5 writes: It looks as though an *official* fork of OpenSolaris may be under way, no details have been announced yet except for the following email...

"
Subject: [osol-announce] The Illumos Project
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:54:58 -0700
From: "Garrett D'Amore"
To: opensolaris-announce
Reply-To: mailer@opensolaris.org

A number of the community leaders from the OpenSolaris community have
been working quietly together on a new effort called Illumos, and we're
just about ready to fully disclose our work to, and invite the general
participation of, the general public.

We believe that everyone who is interested in OpenSolaris should be
interested in what we have to say, and so we invite the entire
OpenSolaris community to join us for a presentation on at 1PM EDT on
August 3, 2010.

You can find out the full details of how to listen in to our conference,
or attend in person (we will be announcing from New York City) by
visiting http://www.illumos.org/announce (The final details shall be
posted there not later than 1PM EDT Aug 1, 2010.)

We look forward to seeing you there!

— Garrett D'Amore & the rest of the Illumos Cast
"
First Person Shooters (Games)

Alien Swarm Can Be Played As a Terrifying FPS 157

Posted by timothy from the sounds-icky dept.
AndrewGOO9 writes "With a few simple commands from the developer console, Alien Swarm can go from being played as an isometric top-down shooter to a first-person perspective. Surprisingly easy, it does make the game, which was released for free via Steam earlier this week, a lot more terrifying. But, anyone who is at home playing games like Modern Warfare or Halo should have no problem slaughtering their way through wave after wave of creatures. In fact, it poses the potential to make the game easier for people who would've otherwise struggled with the overhead view."
Security

Submission + - iPad hacker gets arrested (washington.ar.us) 4

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: One of the members of the security team responsible for the recent iPad security breach was arrested today in the state of Washington. Charged for possession of controlled substance Escher Auernheimer AKA Weev will be heard in court on the 18th of this month.

Submission + - Construction bricks made from recycled plastic (greenopolis.com)

Submitted by sv_libertarian
sv_libertarian writes: They’re transparent and translucent. They interlock together to form a honeycomb structure that’s extremely durable. They can be used to build anything from buildings and fences to roofs and walls of light. So what are “they” referring to? They’re called POLLI-Bricks, and they’re a genius example of recycled bottle architecture.

Submission + - New iConji language for the symbol-minded (ncbr.com)

Submitted by
billdar
billdar writes: "As texting evolves into it's own language, a NCBR article covers an ambitious project to develop a new symbol-based language called iConji for mobile texting and online chatting. "iConji is a set of user-created 32x32-pixel symbols that represent words or ideas, not dissimilar from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics or American Sign Language." There is an instructional video for the iPhone app and it is also integrated into Facebook."
Apple

Submission + - Apple sells apps that don't actually *do* anything

Submitted by apraetor
apraetor writes: This app, like many others in the Apple App Store, claims to do things which are patently untrue. In addition, the claims are things which the iPhone OS SDK outright bans developers from doing. For example, the app claims to repair battery capacity issues. Meanwhile, the SDK allows only polling the battery's current charge % and state (i.e. charging, full, discharging). An email I sent to Apple's App Store support last week has gone unanswered.

This app is such bs. It doesn’t actually *do* anything. The “features” it claims are all built-in to iPhone OS anyway. It relies on the naivety of users for sales; it is unfortunate that Apple, which purports to “approve” apps for customer protection, lets dishonest developers openly deceive those same customers for profit. The developer claims that the app “performs maintenance” to restore lost battery life, but the iPhone SDK documentation makes it clear that 3rd party apps can do nothing other than display the current charge of the battery, and the charge status.
“Magical battery-fixing junk”
This app claims to increase your iPhone volume.. yet another piece of Apple-approved deceptive advertising.

Submission + - VirtualBox beta supports OS X as guest OS on Macs (virtualbox.org)

Submitted by milesw
milesw writes: In addition to a slew of new features, VirtualBox 3.2.0 Beta 1 offers experimental support for Mac OS X guests running on Apple hardware. Got to wonder if Ellison discussed this with Jobs beforehand, given Apple's refusal to allow virtualizing their (non-server) OS.
PlayStation (Games)

BioShock 2's First DLC Already On Disc 466

Posted by Soulskill from the read-the-rest-of-this-post-in-a-month-for-five-bucks dept.
An anonymous reader writes with this quote from 1Up: "Trouble is brewing in Rapture. The recently released Sinclair Solutions multiplayer pack for BioShock 2 is facing upset players over the revelation that the content is already on the disc, and the $5 premium is an unlock code. It started when users on the 2K Forums noticed that the content is incredibly small: 24KB on the PC, 103KB on the PlayStation 3, and 108KB on the Xbox 360. 2K Games responded with a post explaining that the decision was made in order to keep the player base intact, without splitting it between the haves and have-nots."
Java

Sun's Project Darkstar Game Server Platform No More 82

Posted by timothy from the dropped-off-the-moving-truck dept.
sproketboy writes "Project Darkstar, an open source software platform from Sun labs that simplifies the development of horizontally scalable servers for online games, is being discontinued as of the Oracle acquisition. This project, mentioned a couple of years back on Slashdot, was a unique concept for building an application server specific to on-line gaming. Sadly they were so close at version 0.9.11 (which is still very stable). Hopefully the open source community can get involved and help continue work on this project."

Submission + - Facebook Will Begin Building Its Own Data Centers (datacenterknowledge.com)

Submitted by 1sockchuck
1sockchuck writes: Facebook has decided to begin building its own data centers. The fast-growing social network has previously leased server space from data center providers like Digital Realty Trust, but with more than 350 million users Facebook has grown to the point where the economics favor a build-your-own approach. This will allow it to implement power-saving customizations, like using an on-board battery in its servers, foregoing a central UPS. There's speculation that Facebook may be the secretive Company X behind a data center project that will be unveiled tomorrow in Oregon.

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