kahunak writes to alert us that GIMPS has announced that the 45th and 46th Mersenne primes have been confirmed. The EFF's $100,000 award, for the first prime over 10 million digits in length, will probably be claimed. (We discussed no. 45 when it was announced.)

pfleming alerts us to developments in Arizona on a subject we have frequently discussed (e.g. FL, MN, NJ): efforts in DUI cases to obtain source code to devices that analyze blood alcohol levels. On Friday a Pima County Superior Court judge ruled that the software that powers the Intoxilyzer 8000 must be revealed to defense lawyers. "Defense attorneys representing more than 20 people arrested on felony DUI charges agreed to consolidate their cases into one and to argue it before [Judge] Bernini ... The source codes are crucial because the Intoxilyzer 8000 sometimes gives 'weird' or inexplicable results ... Six other states have been battling CMI [maker of the Intoxilyzer] over the source code — Minnesota, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Tennessee and New Jersey... CMI has currently racked up over $1.2 million in fines in a civil contempt order for not disclosing the source code in Florida."

Weblver1 writes "A recent survey of IT professionals published by web security firm Finjan shows that data-theft should be a good reason for concern. Based on answers from 1,387 professionals, 25% acknowledged that their organization has been breached. What's worse, 42% did not know and could not exclude a breach, reflecting on the number of organizations that could potentially be breached without anyone knowing after the fact. Other findings we should be concerned about include 82% of Healthcare IT respondents admitting that medical records are at risk of data-theft, and 68% of all sectors admitting sensitive corporate information can be compromised by cyber-criminals. Finjan's report is available here (PDF, registration required). This survey comes a week after Forrester Research found in their survey that IT security spending is expected to rise (or at least remain the same) — with the current level of data breaches and sensitive data that is not protected well enough, there is a good reason for it.

Croakyvoice writes "Law56ker has today released the Nxdoom Collection, a massive collection of 220 Doom Mods for the Dreamcast, a collection of best Total Conversions, Megawads, and Various levels for use on NXDOOM for the Sega Dreamcast. Wads Include Duke Nukem GP, Half Life, Star Wars, Goldeneye, Quake 2 and Star Trek. They come on 2 CDS." Registration is required for downloading anything, but if you're low on Megawads this seems like one-stop shopping.

otakuj462 writes "Many participants in OLPC's 'Give 1 Get 1' program of last November are now encountering what has come to be known as the 'stuck key' problem, in which one or more of the keys on their XO-1 laptop's built-in keyboard become stuck in an activated position, or are activated when adjacent keys are pressed. As of January 30th, the official word from OLPC is that the root cause of this problem is unknown because '[t]here are several manufacturers of the keyboards.' ('So far we don't know of any _reliable_ method of fixing the keyboard or the exact root cause.') It is unknown just how widespread this problem currently is, as the 30-day manufacturer's warranty has already expired for most G1G1 participants. However, the OLPC forums are full of reports. OLPC is currently deploying the XO-1 to children in Mongolia and Peru, as well as other developing nations. If OLPC is actively deploying units with known, critical hardware bugs, without a dedicated support infrastructure in place, to children who have never seen a computer before, should they still be considered to be a responsible organization? Did OLPC deploy their hardware too soon?"

Anonymous Coward writes "After 8 years of effort, InPhase Technologies is shipping the world's first holographic disk drive next month. They showed it at this week's NAB. With a 300GB 5.25" disk cartridge and a 50-year media life, the Tapestry 300r is aimed at the video and film archive market. They've been promising this thing for so long I'd given up hope that they'd ever ship it!"

holy_calamity writes "Academics researching how technology addiction affects businesses and employees say 'habit-forming' gadgets like Blackberries should be dispensed along with warnings about the effect they can have on your life. 'We don't want to be in a situation in a few years similar to that with fast food or tobacco today. We need to pay attention to how people react to potentially habit-forming technologies.'"