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IT

Exchanging Pictures To Generate Passwords 123

Roland Piquepaille writes "Today, Ileana Buhan, a Romanian computer scientist, is presenting her PhD Thesis at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. She is using biometrics to protect confidential information when it is exchanged between two mobile devices. This is a very innovative approach to security. Buhan's biometric application will generate almost unbreakable passwords from photos taken by the connected users. Here is how it works. 'To do this, two users need to save their own photos on their PDAs. They then take photos of each other. The PDA compares the two photos and generates a security code for making a safe connection.'"

Comment Re:excel proves it (Score 1) 772

Only problem is, next number in the sequence of 2000 and 2003 isn't 2007, its 2006. And E and P aren't roman numerals, and my version of excel doesn't show any roman numeral formatting option.

But aside from that :) You did have me going for half a second there.

Government

US House Limits Constituent Emails 581

Plechazunga passes along this note from The Hill: "The House is limiting e-mails from the public to prevent its websites from crashing due to the enormous amount of mail being submitted on the financial bailout bill. As a result, some constituents may get a 'try back at a later time' response if they use the House website to e-mail their lawmakers about the bill defeated in the House on Monday in a 205-228 vote."
Graphics

New Multi-GPU Technology With No Strings Attached 179

Vigile writes "Multi-GPU technology from both NVIDIA and ATI has long been dependent on many factors including specific motherboard chipsets and forcing gamers to buy similar GPUs within a single generation. A new company called Lucid Logix is showing off a product that could potentially allow vastly different GPUs to work in tandem while still promising near-linear scaling on up to four chips. The HYDRA Engine is dedicated silicon that dissects DirectX and OpenGL calls and modifies them directly to be distributed among the available graphics processors. That means the aging GeForce 6800 GT card in your closet might be useful once again and the future of one motherboard supporting both AMD and NVIDIA multi-GPU configurations could be very near."
Space

SpaceX Launch Failure Due To Timing Problem 244

FleaPlus writes "Private orbital spaceflight company SpaceX recently announced that last weekend's Falcon 1 rocket launch failure was caused by a collision between the first and second stage of their rocket. This was due to a timing problem, when their brand-new engine design produced residual thrust for 1.5 seconds longer than expected; they're currently working to fix the problem and launch again, perhaps as early as next month. In a recent interview with Wired, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk remarked on their efforts: "Optimism, pessimism, f-ck that; we're going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work.""
Censorship

Video Game Labeling Law Passed In New York 418

chareverie writes "A law just passed in New York now requires labels for violent content in video games that are already rated, as well as having parent-controlled lockout features installed in consoles by 2010. The law has caused an uproar with civil rights groups who claim that such a law is unconstitutional. A legal challenge is already in the works by the New York Civil Liberties Union who cite that similar laws that have been brought to courts in California, Illinois, Minessota, and Washington state have been deemed as unconstitutional. NYCLU legislative director Robert Perry also says that the 'new law is a "back door" way of regulating video game content.'"
Businesses

Submission + - Activision Blizzard will "Exterminate" job (mcvuk.com)

Devistater writes: "Just a few days after Activision and Vivendi (including Blizzard and Sierra) finished merging to become Activision Blizzard (ATVID), Thomas Tippl (CFO) talks about job cuts in a wide ranging interview. "We will exterminate some of our overlap through redundancy — but we will treat people respectfully." . I'm not sure how respectful it is to talk about "exterminating" jobs..."
Businesses

Submission + - Activision Blizzard to "Exterminate" jobs (mcvuk.com)

Devistater writes: "One week after Activision and Vivendi (including Blizzard) finished merging to become Activision Blizzard (ATVID), Thomas Tippl (CFO) talks job cuts. "We will exterminate some of our overlap through redundancy — but we will treat people respectfully." Full wide ranging interview here. I'm not sure how respectful it is to talk about "exterminating" jobs, but hopefully they will leave Blizzard's developers alone to continue producing games such as Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King."
Communications

20% of U.S. Population Has Never Used Email 279

Ezratrumpet writes "A recent PC World article notes that 20 percent of the U.S. population has never sent an email. Does this number over- or underestimate the actual number of people who know nothing of email? What are the implications of this statistic to our society? Or are these people just Luddites who mourned the demise of the telegraph and have also never used a telephone?"
IBM

IBM Suspended From US Federal Contracts 136

theodp writes "IBM has been temporarily banned from receiving future contracts with federal agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency confirmed on Monday. The suspension went into effect last Thursday due to 'concerns raised about potential activities involving an EPA procurement,' the agency said in an e-mailed statement. Under a reciprocal agreement among federal agencies, when one issues a ban, the others follow it. The EPA said it will not comment further on the matter. An IBM spokesman said he had no immediate comment. 'You don't see this very often, particularly for large companies,' commented a stunned industry analyst, mentioning a bankrupt MCI as a notable exception. IBM earned an estimated $1.5 billion in revenue from federal prime contracts in fiscal 2007."
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - Blizzard confirms "next-gen" MMO (computerandvideogames.com)

DeeQ writes: Blizzard has offered very brief confirmation that it's working on a new massively multiplayer online game. Gossip about a new MMO from the World of Warcraft developer kicked off following new job ads appearing on the developer's website for positions on a "Next-Gen MMO". "No, it is an unannounced Next-Gen MMO", the developer has said on WoW forums in response to speculation.

Feed Techdirt: France Says Non! To Amazon's Free Shipping (techdirt.com)

I've never quite understood European laws that bans the discounting of books. It's one of those protectionist laws that ends up harming everyone. While economically-challenged folks will say that it helps save independent bookstores, they are unwilling to admit at what cost: less innovation in the way books are sold, fewer books purchased and higher prices for everyone. And, there's actually evidence to suggest that it really doesn't do much to protect those independent booksellers after all. The UK ditched such price fixing over a decade ago and didn't see the expected demise of independent booksellers. However, France is still a big believer in the concept and has now told Amazon.com it can no longer offer its famed "free shipping," since that effectively is an excessive discount. Amazon now has ten days to start charging shipping fees, or face daily fines. In other words, ordering books online just got a lot more expensive. It's difficult to see how that helps anyone.

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Microsoft

Submission + - MS says Vista compatibility not solved in SP1

Devistater writes: "Microsoft says there's no need for businesses to wait for Windows Vista SP1, since "Applications that have compatibility issues with Windows Vista today will most likely continue to have the same issues with Windows Vista with SP1." That is a quote from one of a batch of Microsoft Vista RC SP1 whitepapers dated today, entitled "Enterprise Guidance for Application Compatibility Testing and Windows Vista SP1." In the same document they also state that SP1 may break Vista compatibility, "There is a chance that some applications ultimately will not run on the final version of Windows Vista SP1, even though they run on Windows Vista today.""
Caldera

Stay Lifted, Novell Vs. SCO Can Go Forward 161

A number of readers suggest we check out Groklaw, where PJ is reporting that a bankruptcy judge has granted Novell's request to lift the stay so that its trial against SCO can proceed in Utah. The judge concluded that Judge Kimball is the best one to decide how much SCO owes Novell, and that SCO cannot make any "reorganization" plans — including any "fire sale" of assets — until it knows this figure.
Google

Google Honors Veterans Day, Finally 693

theodp writes "It took nearly a decade, but Google has done a turnabout and is honoring Veterans Day with a special holiday design for its famous logo. Users who log onto Google's home page are greeted with three World War I-era helmets capping the letters 'o' and 'e' in Google's name. The decoration is a marked departure for the company, which has come under fire from veterans' groups for ignoring American holidays such as Veterans Day and Memorial Day since Google's inception in 1999."

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