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Data Storage

Submission + - IronKey Releases Windows 8 Certified Bootable Flash Drive (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: IronKey has released a thumb drive certified to be used as a bootable Windows 8 device, enabling users to use Windows To Go — an enterprise feature of Windows 8 — to deliver a fully portable desktop. While Imation doesn't promote this feature, users can also boot up this USB on any Intel-based Apple computer. The flash drive has its drawbacks. It's not yet FIPS certified, it can't be provisioned as storage, and it lacks admin management features. The IronKey Workspace drive comes in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities. It offers either 128-bit or 256-bit full disk encryption. Users must purchase the Windows 8 software separately. According to Imation's specifications, the IronKey Workspace has a maximum average read speed of 300MB/sec. and an average write speed of 100MB/sec. to 200MB/sec. When I timed the boot-up times, the initial boot-up from the USB drive was slow — 3 minutes and 40 seconds — but the drive was configuring itself. Subsequent boot-ups took a mere 35 seconds. Shutdown is near instantaneous — about 2 seconds. The flash drive is priced from $129 to $389 depending on capacity.
Graphics

Submission + - Light Field Photography Is the New Path to 3-D (xconomy.com)

Submitted by
waderoush
waderoush writes: "In November, Lytro, the maker of the first light field camera for consumers, upgraded its viewer software to enable a feature called ‘Perspective Shift.’ In addition to refocusing pictures after they’ve been taken, Lytro audiences can now pivot between different virtual points of view, within a narrow baseline. This 3-D capability was baked into Lytro’s technology from the start: ‘The light field itself is inherently multidimensional [and] the 2-D refocusable picture that we launched with was just one way to represent that,’ says Eric Cheng, Lytro’s director of photography. But while Perspective Shift is currently little more than a novelty, the possibilities for future 3-D imaging are startling, especially as Lytro develops future devices with larger sensors — and therefore larger baselines, allowing more dramatic 3-D effects. Cheng says the company is already exploring future versions of its viewer software that would work on 3-D televisions. ‘We are moving the power of photography from optics to computation,’ he says. ‘So when the public really demands 3-D content, we will be ready for it.’"
Games

Submission + - Dungeon Siege, Supreme Commander, Demigod studio need our help! (kickstarter.com)

Submitted by holiggan
holiggan writes: If you have followed the PC gaming scene in the last decade, chances are you’ve played at least one game by Gas Powered Games. They are the studio behind such classics as Dungeon Siege, Dungeon Siege II, Supreme Commander or Demigod.

However, the studio is now in dire straits,having laid off several employees recently and struggling to stay afloat.

Chris Taylor launched a campaign on Kickstarter to try to fund their latest game, “Wildman”. The goal is tough and ambitious (they are aiming for 1.1 million), but perhaps we can pull it out together, fellow Slashdoter-PC-gamers!
Apple

Submission + - Apple Patent Application Proposes Interpersonal Cash Distribution (informationweek.com) 1

Submitted by
Dotnaught
Dotnaught writes: "A newly published Apple patent application describes a way to coordinate interpersonal cash distribution. Using a device like an iPhone, a person could request cash and a nearby participant in the system could respond, meet and provide, say, $50, for a $50 electronic credit, a $5 fee to Apple and a $3 reward for the cash provider. Is there a need for this given the ubiquity and lower cost of ATMs?"

Comment That's Microsoft (Score 1) 2

by ChrisSlicks (#42755015) Attached to: Microsoft Phases Out XNA and DirectX?
They did the same thing to the DirectShow MVP's a couple of years ago (of which I was one). They do it when they decide that they aren't going to further the development, doesn't mean that the product line still doesn't need copious amounts of support - since the replacement product is typically incomplete for a number of years (or incompatible with all but the latest operating system version).
Graphics

Submission + - Microsoft Phases Out XNA and DirectX? (i-programmer.info) 2

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: It is reported that Microsoft has sent an email to DirectX/XNA MVPs which informs them that they are no longer needed because XNA and DirectX are no longer evolving. What does this mean? If you don't need MVPs then presumably you anticipate nothing to support in the future.
Security

Submission + - Turning the Belkin WeMo into a deathtrap (hackaday.com)

Submitted by Okian Warrior
Okian Warrior writes: As a followup to yesterday's article detailing 50 Million Potentially Vulnerable To UPnP Flaws, this video shows getting root access on a Belkin WeMo remote controlled wifi outlet. As the discussion notes, remotely turning someone's lamp on or off is not a big deal, but controlling a [dry] coffeepot or space heater might be dangerous. The attached discussion also points out that rapidly cycling something with a large inrush current (such as a motor) could damage the unit and possibly cause a fire.
Apple

Submission + - Gabe Newell: Steam Box's biggest threat isn't consoles, it's Apple (polygon.com)

Submitted by silentbrad
silentbrad writes: The biggest danger facing the success of Steam Box or any other PC ecosystem hoping to find space in the living room is Apple, according to a lecture given by Valve co-founder Gabe Newell to a class at the University of Texas' LBJ School of Public Affairs. "The threat right now is that Apple has gained a huge amount of market share, and has a relatively obvious pathway towards entering the living room with their platform," Newell said. "I think that there's a scenario where we see sort of a dumbed down living room platform emerging — I think Apple rolls the console guys really easily. The question is can we make enough progress in the PC space to establish ourselves there, and also figure out better ways of addressing mobile before Apple takes over the living room? ... We're happy to do it if nobody else will do it, mainly because everybody else will pile on, and people will have a lot of choices, but they'll have those characteristics. They'll say, 'Well, I could buy a console, which assumes I'll re-buy all my content, have a completely different video system, and, oh, I have a completely different group of friends, apparently. Or I can just extend everything I love about the PC and the internet into the living room.' ... I think the biggest challenge is that Apple moves on the living room before the PC industry sort of gets its act together."
Crime

Submission + - Super Bowl Bust: US takes down 313 websites, snags $13.6M in fake NFL swag (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: In what is becoming as much a tradition as the Super Bowl itself, federal law enforcement officials, in conjunction with the NFL, said today they snatched up $13.6 million in fake merchandise and shuttered 313 websites as part of a third-annual sting against NFL-related counterfeit items dubbed Operation Red Zone. A Warwick, R.I., man was the catch of the operation this year. Officials with a search warrant seized 226 boxes and $130,000 in cash from his home, including more than 4,000 jerseys and various other memorabilia with an estimated value for more than $1 million. Officials snagged an Indianapolis man with $37,000 in counterfeit items he was attempting to sell at a festival, including more than 1,000 hats. Twenty-one other individuals were arrested across the country.
Security

Submission + - Online Ads Are More Dangerous Than Porn, Cisco Says. (securityweek.com) 1

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: The popular belief is that security risks increase as the user engages in riskier and shadier behavior online, but that apparently isn't the case, Cisco found in its 2013 Annual Security report.

It can be more dangerous to click on an online advertisement than an adult content site these days, according to Cisco. For example, users clicking on online ads were 182 times more likely to wind up getting infected with malware than if they'd surfed over to an adult content site, Cisco said.

The highest concentration of online security targets do not target pornography, pharmaceutical, or gambling sites as much as they affect legitimate sites such as search engines, online retailers, and social media. Users are more 21 times more likely to get hit with malware from online shopping sites and 27 more times likely with a search engine than if they'd gone to a counterfeit software site, according to Cisco's report (PDF). There is an overwhelming perception that people get compromised for "going to dumb sites," Mary Landesman, senior security researcher at Cisco, told SecurityWeek.
Idle

Submission + - Your head on a PEZ dispenser (dvice.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "Hot Pop Factory co-founders and designers Matt Compeau and Bi-Ying Miao rely on an Xbox Kinect motion-sensor to scan a person's head and then use a 3D printer to make the plastic pez replicas."
Cloud

Submission + - Company's Ignoring Huge Security Issue With Cloud Computing (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by
DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: "Cloud computing was one of the buzzwords of 2012, gaining widespread adoption among individuals, SMEs and major corporations all around the world. It is going to make our lives easier while saving us millions of pounds at the same time.

However, one issue which is being ignored by the vast majority of organisation is security, with a Pricewaterhouse Coopers survey from last year showing that more than three quarters of respondents across a range of companies believed cloud computing did not increase their security risk.

A belief shattered by a report published this week by security firm Imperva which highlights just how easy it is for even one of the world's largest online companies to be hacked and have sensitive consumer data stolen.

"More than 75 percent of businesses don't see a problem by moving an application to the cloud. For me this is the big story, this is the big problem," Barry Shteiman sector security strategist with Imperva told IBTimes UK this week."
Space

Submission + - Behind the Scenes with SpaceX Production, Testing, and Launches (pinehead.tv)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Today marks the one month countdown to the SpaceX launch for the next NASA Commercial Resupply Services Mission (CRS-2). Pinehead is going get you prepped for launch by covering SpaceX from the outside, in. We are going to start with the big picture and drill down to various rocket/spacecraft components and launch preparations as we get closer to T-minus zero for CRS-2, scheduled for March 1st.

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