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AMD

Submission + - XBMC Developers Criticize AMD's Linux Driver (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It's not only the NVIDIA Linux driver that has been publicly slammed over lacking support but the AMD Catalyst driver is now facing scrutiny from the XBMC media and entertainment software. The developers behind XBMC aren't happy with AMD due to not properly supporting video acceleration under Linux. The AMD Linux driver is even lacking support for MPEG2 video acceleration and newer levels of H.264. AMD reportedly has the support coded, but they're refusing to turn it on in their public Linux driver. Developers are questioning whether AMD even cares about their Linux customers, when the missing features will arrive, and if it's worth the wait.
Image

A Universal Turing Machine In 100 Punchcards 48

Posted by timothy from the animation-to-blow-your-mind dept.
New submitter theclockworkcomputer writes "100 years ago tomorrow, Alan Turing was born. To celebrate, I wrote a Universal Turing Machine in 100 Punchcards. I've uploaded a video to explain a small part of the read head (the Jacquard). One needle is shown out of a total of 28. As this is about a program for a Turing Machine and not about a Turing Machine itself, I hope to be excused from the requirement of infinite tape."
Security

Submission + - Vulnerable SAP Deployments Make Prime Attack Targets (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: Using a combination of TCP scans and Google, security researchers found that nearly a quarter of the organizations running vulnerable versions of SAP are tempting fate by leaving them exposed to the Internet. This discovery, researchers from ERPScan say, dispels the myth that SAP systems are only available from the internal network, leading to the misconception that they are protected by design.

By March 2012, there were more than 2,000 security advisories published by SAP. Of those, about 7% (124) have publicly available PoC (proof-of-concept) exploit code available to the public. Many of the issues discovered are related to poor configuration or poor deployment planning. For example, 212 SAP Routers were found in Germany, which were created mainly to route access to internal SAP systems.

Another issue with the vulnerable and exposed SAP installations is that many of them run on Windows NT, creating a twin set of risks for the organization, as they have to contend with a bad SAP deployment and unsupported OS that is full of security issues all by itself.

SAP environments are often home to an organization’s most important business data, making protecting them critical for enterprise security, but it seems many gaps exist...
Government

Submission + - 'Nuclear free' city grants waiver for HP (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: The City of Takoma Park, Md. this week granted a waiver to its public library to allow it to use some new HP hardware, whose products are otherwise banned under its “nuclear free zone” ordinance. That law, adopted in 1983 one month after the Cold War-era movie “The Day After” was aired, prohibits the city from buying equipment from any company connected to U.S. nuclear weapons production. The library bought new Linux-based, x86 systems from a Canadian vendor and didn’t realize the vendor was using HP hardware. The hardware arrived in April and was unused until the Takoma Park city council granted it a waiver this week. The city’s list of banned contractors was developed in 2004 by a now inactive group, Nuclear Free America, and hasn’t been updated since.

Submission + - Faulty patch leaves thousands with no banking service (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by
frisket
" rel="nofollow">frisket writes: "The Register reports: "RBS and Natwest have failed to register inbound payments for up to three days, customers have reported, leaving people unable to pay for bills, travel and even food. The banks — both owned by RBS Group — have confirmed that technical glitches have left bank accounts displaying the wrong balances and certain services unavailable. There is no fix date available." Customers of NatWest subsidiary Ulster Bank in Ireland have also been left without banking services. RTE reports that "the problem had arisen within the systems of parent bank RBOS when an incorrect patch was applied.""
The Military

Pentagon Contractors Openly Post Job Listings For Offensive Hackers 149

Posted by Soulskill from the must-have-eight-years-experience-and-good-references dept.
Sparrowvsrevolution writes "In the wake of confirmation that the U.S. government was involved in the creation of Stuxnet and likely Flame, a look over job listings on defense contractor sites shows just how explicitly the Pentagon and the firms that service it are recruiting offense-oriented hackers. Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, SAIC, and Booz Allen have all posted job ads that require skills like 'exploit development,' have titles like 'Windows Attack Developer,' or asks them to 'plan, execute, and assess an Offensive Cyberspace Operation.'"
Movies

Joe Cornish To Write and Direct Snow Crash Movie 256

Posted by Soulskill from the fingers-crossed dept.
SomePgmr tips this quote from Geek.com: "Fans of the cyberpunk novel Snow Crash have reason to rejoice today, as it's been announced that the film adaptation of Neal Stephenson's classic has been revived once again, this time with an exciting writer and director at the helm in the form of Joe Cornish. Cornish is known for his recent sci-fi alien invasion flick Attack the Block, which was filmed and released in the UK by the same studio that put out Shaun of the Dead. Cornish's first film came to the U.S. in a limited release in 2011 and did well enough that Paramount took notice and pursued Cornish for the Snow Crash project."
Games

Submission + - Carmageddon: Reincarnation Linux Version confirmed (kickstarter.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Stainless Games have been fundraising for Carmageddon: Reincarnation, a modern day remake of the classic Carmageddon racing games, on Kickstarter.com for weeks. Stainless said that if they hit 600,000 Dollars in pledges before time runs out, the would commit themselves to creating a Linux port of the game, as well as a MacOS port. Today they made it official: The fundraising has come so close to netting 600K overall, with a few more hours left to go, that they are officially committing themselves to creating a Linux port of the new game. PC gamers will get to play Carmageddon 4 first, with a February 2013 release date. The MacOS & Linux versions will follow the PC version later in 2013.
Education

Grad Student Wins Alan Alda's Flame Challenge 161

Posted by Soulskill from the wins-free-M*A*S*H-dvd-set dept.
eldavojohn writes "Scientists have long been criticized of their inability to communicate complex ideas adequately to the rest of society. Similar to his questions on PBS' Scientific American Frontiers, actor Alan Alda wrote to the journal Science with a proposition called The Flame Challenge (PDF). Contestants would have to explain a flame to an eleven-year-old kid, and the entries would be judged by thousands of children across the country. The winner of The Flame Challenge is quantum physics grad student Ben Ames, whose animated video covers concepts like pyrolysis, chemiluminescence, oxidation and incandescence boiled into a humorous video, complete with song. Now they are asking children age 10-12 to suggest the next question for the Flame Challenge. Kids out there, what would you like scientists to explain?"

Submission + - New analysis shows dinosaurs not as heavy as previously believed. (discovery.com)

Submitted by Cognitive Dissident
Cognitive Dissident writes: Discovery.com has an article on a new study using computer modeling to estimate the actual amount of flesh needed to cover the skeletons of dinosaurs. Based on a comparison with modern animals, it indicates that these animals could have weighed dramatically less than has been previously estimated. "A huge Brachiosaur, once thought to weigh 176,370 pounds, is now believed to have weighed 50,706 pounds." That's only about two-and-a-half times the weight of a modern African elephant. If other evidence can be reconciled with this, many estimates of the ecosystems dinosaurs lived in will also have to be revised.
Wikipedia

Kevin Bacon Meets Wikipedia With New Pathfinding Program 50

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the computers-are-ruining-everything dept.
New submitter BLT2112 writes "Inspired by the Oracle of Bacon, the Oracle of Wikipedia finds the shortest path between two Wikipedia articles, as in Wikipedia Golf. As explained in the site, 'One selects one article as the tee and another article as the hole and then completes the course between them clicking as few links as possible. No typing is allowed. . . . The Oracle also allows you to search for the most challenging potential Wikipedia Golf courses. Can you find a longer course and merit a place in the "records" section?'"
Android

Submission + - KegDroid - The Ideal Bar Gadget (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: If you are looking for an exciting hardware project, KegDroid deserves a look. It is a sophisticated system that involves Android, Arduino, NFC, plumbing and — beer. Perhaps the final stroke of genius is to package the whole thing in a Droid body. Some how the little green fella looks at home on the bar. You have heard of desktop and laptop apps now we have bartop apps to add to the list.
Check out the video...
Intel

Intel Unveils Tiny Next Unit of Computing To Match Raspberry Pi 194

Posted by samzenpus from the small-like-you dept.
MrSeb writes "Details of a new, ultra-compact computer form factor from Intel, called the Next Unit of Computing (NUC) are starting to emerge. First demonstrated at PAX East at the beginning of April, and Intel's Platinum Summit in London last week, NUC is a complete 10x10cm (4x4in) Sandy Bridge Core i3/i5 computer. On the back, there are Thunderbolt, HDMI, and USB 3.0 ports. On the motherboard itself, there are two SO-DIMM (laptop) memory slots and two mini PCIe headers. On the flip side of the motherboard is a CPU socket that takes most mobile Core i3 and i5 processors, and a heatsink and fan assembly. Price-wise, it's unlikely that the NUC will approach the $25 Raspberry Pi, but an Intel employee has said that the price will 'not be in the hundreds and thousands range.' A price point around $100 would be reasonable, and would make the NUC an ideal HTPC or learning/educational PC. The NUC is scheduled to be released in the second half of 2012."

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