_iris - Slashdot User

Comment Roku + Popcorn Hour Box (Score 1) 697

by _iris on Friday April 22, 2011 @12:56PM (#35907698) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Are You Streaming-Only For Home Entertainment?

I've ditched my satellite television plan in favor of a Roku player and a Popcorn Hour Box. The Roku is for Netflix's Instant Watch ($8.99) and Hulu Plus ($7.99). The PHB is for watching offline stuff, like ripped DVDs, streamed off of my PC in the other room. I considered going the media PC route but I have very little space available in my living room and I cannot stand fan noise. Both the Roku and the PHB are fanless and low power.

I've been more than satisfied with the content available and you can't beat the price. The major downside for me is that when my girlfriend is watching television I can't play ping-sensitive online games, despite using IP ToS tagging and traffic shaping tools to prioritize my game packets.

Comment Cores aren't just for applications (Score 1) 336

by _iris on Friday April 08, 2011 @12:44PM (#35759506) Attached to: Quad-Core Mobile Chips Wasted On Mobiles?

> But do smartphones need quad-core chips? There's surely only so much multitasking a smartphone user can do.

Even if you're running a single application, that application can benefit greatly from operating system processes running concurrently.

Kongregate App Pulled From Android Market 139

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday January 25, 2011 @04:28AM from the gone-in-a-flash dept.

itwbennett writes "Last week Google took a page from Apple's book and pulled the Arcade by Kongregate app from the Android Market for violating its terms of service. In particular, the part that forbids distributing 'any Product whose primary purpose is to facilitate the distribution of Products outside of the Market.' As Kongregate's Jim Greer explained to Joystiq, the app is essentially a custom web browser that loads in a Flash game from the mobile version of Kongregate. Plus, it will cache the game so you can play offline. And this may be the feature that got it yanked, speculates Ryan Kim at GigaOm."

Fed Goes Hunting For Malcontents 193

Posted by Soulskill on Friday January 14, 2011 @09:45AM from the are-you-now-or-have-you-ever-been-julian-assange dept.

snydeq writes "The wake of State Department document leaks to WikiLeaks may have the unhappy rousted from government agencies' 'privileged insiders' ranks, thanks to a recent memo from the US OMB asking agencies to spell out their strategies for minimizing insider risk. 'It's likely that federal contractors and government suppliers will also find themselves responding to this list of questions (PDF) and the central issue of preventing the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and classified materials. In a key section of the memo, the OMB requests information on whether organizations are measuring the "trustworthiness" of their employees and whether they use a psychiatrist or sociologist to measure the unhappiness of an employee as a measure of trustworthiness.'"

Why Sony Cannot Stop PS3 Pirates 378

Posted by Soulskill on Friday January 14, 2011 @07:29AM from the of-pots-and-kettles dept.

Sam writes "A former Ubisoft exec believes that Sony will not be able to combat piracy on the PlayStation 3, which was recently hacked. Martin Walfisz, former CEO of Ubisoft subsidiary Ubisoft Massive, was a key player in developing Ubisoft's new DRM technologies. Since playing pirated games doesn't require a modchip, his argument is that Sony won't be able to easily detect hacked consoles. Sony's only possible solution is to revise the PS3 hardware itself, which would be a very costly process. Changing the hardware could possibly work for new console sales, though there would be the problem of backwards compatibility with the already-released games. Furthermore, current users would still be able to run pirated copies on current hardware." An anonymous reader adds commentary from PS3 hacker Mathieu Hervais about Sony's legal posturing.

Hank Chien Reclaims Donkey Kong High Score 122

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday January 11, 2011 @07:36AM from the barrels-of-fun dept.

An anonymous reader writes "If you can say anything about Hank Chien, it's that he evidently doesn't take defeat very well. Sure, he knew not so deep down that his Donkey Kong World Record score wouldn't last forever, but he couldn't have foreseen that it would have been toppled so quickly. Twice, even. But he also knew that more Kong competition would be coming his way; namely Richie Knucklez Kong-Off in March. So Hank had something to prove, and prove he did. Scoring a massive 1,068,000 points in less than three hours, Hank has officially reclaimed the high score in Nintendo’s 1981 arcade classic."

Atari Loses Copyright Suit Against RapidShare 198

Posted by Soulskill on Friday January 07, 2011 @07:28AM from the game-over-play-again? dept.

dotarray writes "Online copyright lawsuits aren't all about music. Video game publisher Atari Europe recently became concerned that copies of its game Alone in the Dark were floating around one-click file-hosting service RapidShare, so it took the hosting company to court. While they won the initial case, the decision was overturned on appeal, finding that RapidShare is doing nothing wrong."

A Blue-Sky Idea For the USPS — Postal Trucks As Sensors 252

Posted by timothy on Sunday December 19, 2010 @06:13PM from the also-datamining-for-amazon-gifts-ideas dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The US Postal Service may face insolvency by 2011 (it lost $8.5 billion last year). An op-ed piece in yesterday's New York Times proposes an interesting business idea for the Postal Service: use postal trucks as a giant fleet of mobile sensor platforms. [Registration-required link; this no-reg summary encapsulates the idea, as does this paper by the same author.] (Think Google Streetview on steroids.) The trucks could be outfitted with a variety of sensors (security, environmental, RF ...) and paid for by businesses. The article's author addresses some of the obvious privacy concerns that arise."

Michael Moore Posts Julian Assange's Bail 987

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @12:47PM from the right-is-right dept.

digitaldc quotes Michael Moore in a story running on the Huffington Post where he says "Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail. Furthermore, I (Michael Moore) am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars."

Comcast Accused of Congestion By Choice 434

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @09:55AM from the i'm-completely-shocked dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A kind soul known as Backdoor Santa has posted graphs purportedly showing traffic through TATA, one of Comcast's transit providers. The graphs of throughput for a day and month, respectively, show that Comcast chooses to run congested links rather than buy more capacity. Keeping their links full may ensure that content providers must pay to colocate within Comcast's network. The graphs also show a traffic ratio far from 1:1, which has implications for the validity of its arguments with Level (3) last month."

UK Man Prevented From Finding Chipped Pet Under Data Protection Act 340

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday September 23, 2010 @09:50AM from the clause-22 dept.

Dave Moorhouse was elated when he was informed that a microchip provider had information on the whereabouts of his stolen dog. This joy soon faded when the company informed him that it could not divulge the Jack Russell terrier's location because it would breach the Data Protection Act. Last week a court agreed with the chip company and refused Mr Moorhouse's request for a court order compelling them to reveal the name and address of the new owners. Steven Wildridge, managing director of the chip company said: “This is not a choice, it’s an obligation under the Data Protection Act. If the individuals involved do not want us to pass on their details to the original owner then we cannot do so unless compelled to following a criminal or civil proceeding."

Stewart and Colbert Plan Competing D.C. Rallies 696

Posted by samzenpus on Monday September 20, 2010 @10:53AM from the power-of-the-internet dept.

Lev13than writes "In a direct retort to Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have announced competing rallies on October 30th. Stewart plans to host a 'Rally To Restore Sanity' on Oct. 30 on the National Mall in D.C. for the Americans he says are too busy living normal, rational lives to attend other political demonstrations. Colbert, meantime, will shepherd his fans in a 'March To Keep Fear Alive.' 'Damn your reasonableness!' Colbert said. 'Now is not the time to take it down a notch. Now is the time for all good men to freak out for freedom!' Stewart, meanwhile, has promised to provide attendees with signs featuring slogans such as 'I Disagree With You But I'm Pretty Sure You're Not Hitler' and 'I'm Afraid of Spiders.'"

Submission + - 3Dconnexion releases SDK

Submitted by

New10k

on Wednesday March 21, 2007 @12:54PM

New10k writes: "AECnews is reporting (http://aecnews.com/news/2007/03/21/2302.aspx) that Logitech subsidiary 3Dconnexion today released a Software Development Kit for Windows. The Mac version is scheduled for release March 30. The Linux version is already out."

Submission + - Comodo CEO A featured Guest on Computer America

Submitted by

Yuvaraj

on Wednesday March 21, 2007 @12:36PM

Yuvaraj writes: "Comodo CEO and Chief Security Architect A featured guest on popular radio program ComputerAmerica. Comodo's Melih Abdulhayoglu discusses strategy behind push to protect every computer in the world for free.

For nearly a decade Melih Abdulhayoglu, Chief Security Architect and CEO of Comodo has been exploring technologies that provide online security and safety for both consumers and businesses. In a recent interview with host Carey Holzman of Craig Crossman's ComputerAmerica, Melih discussed how Comodo has been actively working to make the Internet more secure, more authenticated, and more verifiable for free for consumers.

An edited transcript of the interview with Melih Abdulhayoglu's follows. (To hear the full interview, please click here. The broadcast aired on March 19, 2007 at 7:00 PM PST. The host was Carey Holzman (CH), is the author of a number of publications including The Healthy PC).

CH: Our guest tonight is the Chief Security Architect and CEO of Comodo, Melih Abdulhayoglu. They are the makers of a free firewall.

CH: You have an interesting product, can you tell us about it?

MA: Thank you. Sure. We thought, "Why not build one of the best firewalls around and give it away for free?". And [then] we went ahead and did that.

CH: I like that thought, but while there are lots of good firewalls, the problem is that people don't know how to use them. They don't know if an application wants to access the internet, whether they should allow it or not. So they end up clicking "No" and ultimately locking themselves out of their computer, or they "allow all" which defeats the whole point of having a firewall. Melih, could you tell me how Comodo is different from other firewalls, paid or free?

MA: Sure. When the firewall is asking this question, it is checking to see what sort of executable application is running on your computer trying to make a connection to the Internet. The reason it is asking is because it does not know what that specific application is about. So we thought, "Why not create a huge safe list with a safe list of applications so that your firewall will ask you less often?"

CH: Yes, that's mind blowing. Usually 90% of us use regular programs, yet firewalls force people to allow access each and every time one of these people tries to access that program. How many applications do you have in your safe lists that are known to be safe?

MA: We have around 300,000 applications at the moment.

CH: Wow, 300, 000!

MA: And we are getting 3,000 executables a day to review. On daily basis, we keep updating our lists.

CH: And what about some hacker putting something in your safe list?

MA: That's where being the world's 2nd largest Certification Authority comes in. We are the guys who put the padlock on websites, so we have full Public Key Infrastructure. What that means is we have the ability to digitally sign a file so that any modification to it can be protected. If any modification is made, our firewall will know about it and it would reject it.

CH: Is your firewall fast and light-weight or is it going to strain my system resources?

MA: A firewall is all about controlling and stopping malware from making a connection from your home to the Internet. So, how do you test firewall security? This is known as the "leak test". What you do is see is if your firewall is leaking or not. According to independent tests, in terms of having best scoring leak test, we scored top of the list. And we do it in a way whereby it don't take too much system resources.

CH: OK but I could be sending data right now and just not know it

MA: That is one of the biggest problems facing us today. I mean, look at spam. 80% of it comes from Zombie computers that have not been protected. Somehow we are going to have to protect all of those machines or else the army of Zombie PCs will deter all of us from using the Internet.

CH: That's true.

CH: Is there any plan of selling or charging for this firewall or other desktop security products?

MA: No, anything in desktop security that we are going to give to consumers is free.

CH: God bless you. So how do you get paid?

MA: Very good question, actually. Let me explain. First of all, why free? Someone has to provide it for free since the problems we are facing today from spam to spy ware are all because we don't have our machines secured. Many people around the world cannot afford $60 or $70 in countries such as China where the average income is about 100$ a month. So what happens is that all of those machines are left vulnerable, and China has the second largest Internet population in the world.

So spam, spyware, and hacking often come from these machines. To solve this problem, we need to create the idea of a secure and trusted Internet. Once we have done that, we need to come up with a business model that allows us to make money from that.

By giving free products to end-users, we are creating a secure ecosystem for our users and our online businesses. In return, businesses pay Comodo to protect their websites. So, the more users we have using our firewall, the more trusted the Comodo brand is, and the more business customers will choose Comodo to secure their online environment. Our customers are happy because they are using our services to protect their websites and consumers are happy because they can do business online confidently.

CH: That sounds like a good plan. When it comes to AV or firewall, I am a big believer in paying money in exchange to getting something back. But with many solutions, you pay to not get anything.

MA: That's a very important point. Imagine that there is a burglar alarm that only recognizes certain burglars but not all burglars. That's the current flawed model for anti-virus solutions. You can no longer use what is known as black listing technologies and only stop known malware.

Let's look it in this way. In the physical world, there is a door. The door is your 'prevention'. Also, you have a burglar alarm. The burglar alarm is your 'detection'. Thirdly, you have insurance. Insurance is your 'cure'. In a security system, you need all three. You need prevention, detection and cure. In today's security solutions, there is no 'prevention' — only 'detection' technologies such as AV and firewall. For example, in our next version of firewall, is going to have what is known as HIPS to include prevention technologies. What HIPS does is, instead of setting the default to be "allow", we are changing it so the default is "deny".

CH: Companies like McAfee seem like they have lost the way. They put in lots of processes, features, and packaging and ended up with product that was heavy. They give you big boxes and charge $20 or $30 more. What makes Comodo different?

MA: Well, first of all, we have the luxury of not charging people, so we don't have to justify the price by including lots stuff that people don't need. You know, adding features for more and more functionality makes the product not feasible.

CH: That's good to hear, and that's promising in the future. I note that on your website "free" means "free for your firewall, antivirus, email security certificate free and password manager free". Tell me about those.

MA: We believe everyone should be offered free desktop security because it's in everyone's interest to create a more secure and trusted Internet. We are the guys that let you encrypt and digitally sign your email for free. We have products like password manager, backup product, and also a very innovative tool called Verification Engine. This solves the problem of not knowing whether graphics on a site, like a credit card logo, are authentic. We have the only technology in the world to verify the web content with VerificationEngine. So, with these technologies, we are going to create a trusted Internet for everyone.

CH: Anything you want to mention in our last few moments?

MA: All we want to gain is our users' trust. As users trust Comodo, they will trust websites protected by Comodo and more business will trust our solutions. That is how we want to Create Trust Online.

CH: So everybody who sees or hears this show, get a free copy of the firewall. If you install it, give us your feedback. Thank you. About Comodo

Comodo is a leading global provider of Identity and Trust Assurance services on the Internet, with over 200,000 customers worldwide. With global offices in the US, UK, Ukraine and India, the company offers businesses and consumers the intelligent security, authentication and assurance services necessary to ensure trust in online transactions.

Comodo helps enterprises address digital ecommerce and infrastructure needs with reliable, third generation solutions that improve customer relationships, enhance customer trust and create efficiencies across digital ecommerce operations. Comodo's solutions include integrated Web hosting management solutions, infrastructure services, digital e-commerce services, digital certification, identity assurance, customer privacy and vulnerability management solutions. For additional information on Comodo — Creating Trust Online — please visit: www.comodo.com.

For more information, reporters and analysts may contact

Judy Shapiro
Comodo
(201) 963-9471
Email: judy.shapiro@comodo.com"

Sony Exec Says Luxury Could Be PS3's Downfall 208

Posted by Zonk on Wednesday March 21, 2007 @12:27PM from the a-mite-bit-pricey dept.

Via Next Generation, an interview with CEO of Sony Corporation Sir Howard Stringer on the site CEO Exchange. In the piece they report that Stringer has gone on record as saying the PS3's price may be its downfall. This is the first indication we've had from Sony's upper management that the console's price may just be too high. "Wii is a wonderful device, but has a different target audience. If we fail, it is because we positioned PS3 as the Mercedes of the videogame field. PS3 is after a different audience and it can be whatever it wants -- a home server, game device, even a computer." Relatedly, a Goldmann Sachs analyst has opined that a PS3 price cut could come this year. Assuming they drop the price by $100 or more, this might blunt the objections many have to the console's lofty pricetag.

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