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Hardware

Submission + - Chips that flow with probabilities, not bits (technologyreview.com)

holy_calamity writes: "Boston company Lyric Semiconductor has taken the wraps off a microchip designed for statistical calculations that eschews digital logic. It's still made from silicon transistors. But they are arranged gates that compute with analogue signals representing probabilities, not binary bits. That makes it easier to implement calculations of probabilities, says the company, which has a chip for correcting errors in flash memory claimed to be 30 times smaller than a digital logic-based equivalent."
Mozilla

New Firefox iFrame Bug Bypasses URL Protections 118

Trailrunner7 writes "There is a newly discovered vulnerability in Mozilla's flagship Firefox browser that could enable an attacker to trick a user into providing his login credentials for a given site by using an obfuscated URL. In most cases, Firefox will display an alert when a URL has been obfuscated, but by using an iFrame, an attacker can evade this layer of protection, possibly leading to a compromise of the user's sensitive information."
HP

HP CEO's Browsing History Used Against Him 230

theodp writes "Anything you browse can and will be used against you. An investigation of ousted HP CEO Mark Hurd's surfing history reportedly convinced the HP Board that Hurd had had a personal relationship with sexual harassment accuser Jodie Fisher, even if not sexual. Just the latest example of how HP 'work[s] together to create a culture of inclusion built on trust, respect and dignity for all.' The WSJ reported a person close to the investigation said Hurd had looked at clips from racy films featuring Ms. Fisher, a former actress, while someone 'familiar with Mr. Hurd's thinking' said he merely did a Google search of 10 minutes or so. One wonders how many more 'personal relationships' with Ms. Fisher the browser histories of HP's 304,000 worldwide employees might reveal. BTW, nice to see that Hurd has made it to HP's ex-CEO-Hall-of-Fame page."
Announcements

Submission + - Circuit City subpoenas CAG and DVDTalk (kotaku.com)

Anonymous Coward writes: "This is more of just a request to look into the story. Basically, a poster on DVDTalk and CheapAssGamer has posted the weekly ads for Circuit City, Best Buy, and Target ahead of time for the last few years. A few weeks ago he confirmed that there was an intended price break on the PS3 and stole Sony's thunder from E3. A Circuit City ad was used for confirmation. Circuit City has threatened and CheapAssGamer.com to give them personal information about the poster. CheapAssGamer has hired a lawyer and is going to fight. The story is similar to the Black Friday ads being posted early and FatWallet fighting back."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - 'Pixel ad' site to donate nearly $1m to charity (millions4mankind.com)

Anonymous Coward writes: "Millions4Mankind.com was unveiled today, introducing a 'pixel advertising' website servicing both individuals and businesses for the cost of $1.00 per pixel. A nonprofit company, Millions4Mankind's goal is to reach $1 million in gross revenues, which (minus nominal operating expenses) will be donated to a charity selected by the website's visitors. The company expects its operating expenses to total no more than 5% of the gross revenue, therefore today introducing the only charity pixel advertistising website on the Internet that will be donating nearly all of its profits to charity. Every dollar will help someone in the world with some kind of need greater than most of us can imagine. Both individuals and businesses alike may choose to advertise through Millions4Mankind, with automatic activation and no limit on the number of pixels that each customer may purchase. The website, along with all of its advertisements intact, is guaranteed to remain online with full functionality until at least one decade from today. The company has initially chosen Amnesty International, Clinton Foundation, Red Cross, Global Fund and St. Jude as the charities that the website's visitors have to choose from. Visitors may recommend additional charities, and the final charity to receive the advertising proceeds will be selected by a majority-rules survey, the results of which will be available on September 10, 2007."
Linux Business

Submission + - Flying virtually under the VMware price umbrella (interopnews.com)

willdavid writes: "There is a recent Interop News article by Jeff Gould about the high cost of VMware and how their pricing allows companies like Virtual Iron to compete. The article is a great read. It includes a bit of Virtual Iron history and a balanced look at the industry at large."
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - Is the Mac Cheaper?

weaver4 writes: "I have two computers that I bought 18 months ago. A generic PC that cost me $550 and a Mac Mini that cost me $600. When I put a watt meter on these computers (which I leave on all the time) the PC uses 173 Watts and the Mac Mini uses 18 Watts. Therefore the PC cost me an additional $10.04 a month in Electricity. Since I live in warm climate my Air Conditioning needs to remove this excessive heat, but I will leave that out of my analysis. When I went to CraigsList to sell my computers I found that my PC is now worth $250 and my Mac Mini is worth $425. So the total hardware cost of my 18 month ownership is $520 for the PC and $214 for the Mac Mini."
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1 released (pclaunches.com)

Vinit writes: "Microsoft has silently released Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1 versions to a small group of testers. Tagged as 5.1.2600.3180 (xpsp.070718-2058) the 350MB XP Service Pack 3 includes fixes for over 900 reported problems, some of which have already been resolved with post-Service Pack 2 hotfixes. http://www.pclaunches.com/software/microsoft_windo ws_xp_sp3_and_vista_sp1_released_to_small_group_of _testers.php"
Microsoft

Submission + - Vista prevents users from playing high-def content (networkworld.com)

jbrodkin writes: "The restrictive content protection rules in Windows Vista still prevent users from playing high-definition content, more than half a year after the operating system's release, researcher Peter Gutmann said at USENIX this week. The specifications are intended to protect Hollywood copyrights, but even home movies can be blacked out by Vista because camcorders are increasingly becoming capable of shooting in HD. And that's not the only problem: Vista content protection requires so much extra encryption that system performance is being harmed significantly, Gutmann says. Since Vista lacks numerous security features that could protect users from online attacks, Gutmann wonders why Microsoft seems more intent on protecting the rights of Hollywood than the rights of its customers."
Media

Submission + - Journalist detained for Segway-photo (webwereld.nl)

An anonymous reader writes: Dutch IT-Journalist Brenno de Winter was detained Tuesday (in Dutch)for taking a picture of Dutch Railway staff on a Segway. The transporters are generally outlawed in the Netherlands making the device quite rare. When asked to hand over his camera De Winter refused and Railway Police were called to the scene. When ordered to remove the picture the journalist agreed under protest, but was still detained. After cops confiscated the camera they removed the image and searched the other pictures. After promising 'serious consequences' if the photo would be made public somewhere. Despite the fact that Dutch Railways forbids photographs for journalistic purposes, a legal expert writes that European Human Rights prevail over civil rights. The Netherlands Association of Journalists has officially protested on behalf of De Winter and is demanding an apology, removal of the criminal record and compensation. They also have demanded that Dutch Railways adjust their rules to align it with the freedom of press.
Security

Submission + - Simple Comm Technique Beats Quantum Crypto

Atario writes: "Spying is big business, and avoiding being spied on an even bigger one. So imagine if someone came up with a simple, cheap way of encrypting messages that is almost impossible to hack into?

American computer engineer Laszlo Kish at Texas A&M University in College Station claims to have done just that. He says the thermal properties of a simple wire can be exploited to create a secure communications channel, one that outperforms quantum cryptography keys."

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