kenrick - Slashdot User

Submission + - 'Unbreakable' encryption?

Submitted by billsoxs on Saturday October 13, 2007 @02:53PM

billsoxs writes: Wired is running a story about the Swiss using an "unbreakable" encryption for their electronic voting. The claim is:

"A computer in Geneva, provided by the company id Quantique, will fire photons, or particles of light, down a fiber-optic link to a receiver 62 miles away.

If anybody wanted to eavesdrop on the line, they would need to intercept the photons, which means they won't make it to the destination. The operators of the line will then know that someone is listening in."
Is it just me — or does everyone else see an obvious hack? That is capturing the photons at the hack point and broadcasting a new matching — or edited — set of photons. How many other easy hacks do people see?

Submission + - Vista - Ubuntu Install Comparison

Submitted by

Cokeisbomb

on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @01:51PM

Cokeisbomb writes: "Andrew Thomas, at the Inqurier has recently installed both Vista and the latest version of Ubuntu on his desktop and has compared the install process and initial setup. Although he has been using computers for 30+ years, his findings were different than what many of us might expect. From the article: "Well, I've only been playing with computers since 1972 and I couldn't make it work. Linux can see the Windows boxes and vice versa, but any attempt to access files is met with a login dialogue box that refuses any username and password I enter. So I've done what any normal person would do in the circumstances — give up"."

Submission + - Phishing Scan Uses Google Maps

Submitted by

morgan_greywolf

on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @01:29PM

morgan_greywolf writes: "According the the PC World, a new phishing scam uses Google Maps to pinpoint the physical location of the victim's computer:

Account holders with at least two Australian banks have become victims of a phishing scam in which malicious code reveals the physical location of affected IP addresses using Google Maps. Bank account holders in Germany and the U.S. have also been targeted.

Identity theft anyone?"

Journal Journal: God as identified and/or defined by US (Good, Bad, or Evil)? 3

Journal by OldHawk777 on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @01:25PM

God as identified and/or defined by anyone, anything, any religion, any government ... has never existed. IOW: a god cannot be copyrighted, claimed, patented ... except by weak, fearful, slaves of "the unknown and may never be" destiny/option.

Too Know and Too Fear will always be mutually exclusive or inversely proportional!

Submission + - The Oscars, Pirate Bay style

Submitted by

Little_Professor

on Thursday February 15, 2007 @09:01AM

Little_Professor writes: "the Pirate Bay proudly present OscarTorrents. OscarTorrents is the Oscars as it should be — everyone can download the year's nominations using the popular BitTorrent service, watch the movies, then use our rating system to choose their favourites. Why restrict the voting to a few bought-off jurors when the whole world can have their say?

The site is not just aimed at torrent verterans — it features an easy to use guide to downloading bittorrent files for newbies. there's even a reassuring notice: "To those worried about downloading in case they get sued: by our calculations, your chances of getting nailed are way less than your chances of winning the lottery. Don't think twice about it.""

Submission + - Hayabusa to begin long journey back to Earth

Submitted by

Sparky

on Thursday February 15, 2007 @08:32AM

Sparky writes: "Japan is planning to set the Hayabusa spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth next month after a delay of more than a year, but it's far from certain that it will get back safely. It was supposed to retrieve asteroid debris, but it's thought that a computer error meant that this didn't happen. A fuel leak means that it's chemical thrusters are out of action, and the craft is relying on it's weaker ion engines. The journey back will take 3 years, and the capsule will be on Earth in June 2010 — even if it is empty."

Submission + - UK petition for government IT projects to be open

Submitted by

FireFury03

on Thursday February 15, 2007 @05:52AM

FireFury03 writes: "There is a petition on the British government's website calling for software projects funded by the tax payer to be released under a Free licence so that the tax payer can re-use the code they paid for and also examine the progress of the project. All to often these projects seem to over run and cost many times the original budget. This blog on the subject suggests that this is a common practice in the US — if corporate America can do it, why not everyone else?"

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