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Apple

iCade, an Arcade Cabinet Docking Bay For Your iPad 55

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i'd-buy-one dept.
schmidt349 writes "ThinkGeek has announced a cool new accessory for that iPad you're too ashamed to be seen buying in the Apple Store. iCade is an arcade cabinet/dock that lets you play all your favorite vintage arcade games at your desk, on the airplane, or in the bathroom with an authentic look and feel. Games are still being licensed, but iCade's launch titles include Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Q-Bert, and everyone's favorite, Super Steve Brothers. Quarters, thick veil of cigarette smoke, and annoying eight-year-olds are not included."

Comment Re:Two hours? (Score 3, Insightful) 223

by fuzzyfuzzyfungus (#31669026) Attached to: Self-Destructing USB Stick
Even if they aren't lying, the question is "did they use AES 256 correctly?"

There are a number of ways, some of them non-obvious, to produce a system that does, in fact, use AES 256 in some capacity; but doesn't actually achieve reasonably security against anybody who wouldn't also be stopped by XOR and a scary looking autorun program(particularly since, as this is a small USB drive, the attacker can probably make some plausible assumptions about some of the plaintext, based on what is known about what fat32 volumes look like).
Portables

Why Everyone Has High Hopes For Apple Tablet 596

Posted by CmdrTaco from the because-the-others-all-suck dept.
waderoush writes "The deafening roar of anticipation around Apple's expected 'iSlate' announcement on January 27 is strange, to say the least, given the public's utter apathy about tablet computers to date. What's going on? Xconomy's analysis makes three points. 1) Previous tablet makers have shown little imagination around UIs and how a touchscreen changes things. 2) With the iPhone, Apple has shown what's possible in this regard. 3) There's latent demand for a mobile computing device that's smaller and lighter than a laptop but has more screen real estate than a smartphone — something reminiscent of a Star Trek tricorder or PADD. Hence the hopes for the iSlate — which are so high that it may be difficult for even Apple to meet them."
The Courts

Chicago Court Throwing Out LIDAR Speeding Tickets 245

Posted by timothy from the should-happen-more-often dept.
bridgeco writes "Chicago Traffic Court Judges have been throwing out speeding cases in which the driver's speed was measured with a LIDAR. Judges are asking for a special 'Frye Hearing' to determine the accuracy of these devices. Many motorists nabbed for speeding by a laser gun, instead of radar, are seeing their tickets thrown out at Chicago's traffic court because of a legal issue that the city's law department has been unable to overcome. Within the past year judges in Cook County Traffic Court in Chicago determined that speeds captured by lidar were not admissible because the devices had not been proven scientifically reliable in an Illinois court, said Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the law department, which prosecutes most speeding tickets in the city." (Here's some background on LIDAR from Wikipedia.)
Biotech

Fear Detector To Sniff Out Terrorists 342

Posted by timothy from the interesting-assumptions dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Evidence that the smell of fear is real was uncovered by US scientists last year who studied the underarm secretions of 20 terrified novice skydivers and found that people appear to respond unconsciously to the sweat smell of a frightened person. Now the Telegraph reports that researchers hope a 'fear detector' will make it possible to identify individuals at check points who are up to no good. 'The challenge lies in the characterization and identification of the specific chemical that gives away the signature of human fear, especially the fear in relation to criminal acts,' says Professor Tong Tun at City University London, who leads the team developing security sensor systems that can detect the human fear pheromone. The project will look at potential obstacles to the device, such as the effects of perfume and the variances in pheromone production and if the initial 18-month feasibility study is successful, the first detectors could be developed in the next two to three years. 'I do not see any particular reason why similar sensor techniques cannot be expanded to identify human smells by race, age or gender to build a profile of a criminal during or after an incident,' Tong added."
Movies

Ridley Scott Directing Alien Prequel 336

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the reboot-a-few-more-classics dept.
brumgrunt writes "After three decades of speculation, original Alien director Ridley Scott has signed on to the new Fox sequel. 'Nothing is known about the set-up of the new movie, except that chronologically it precedes the plight of the Nostromo. Since it's obviously going to involve the human race [...] Writer Jon Spaihts successfully pitched to Fox and Scott Free Productions, and is working on the script.'"
Math

Packing Algorithms May Save the Planet 195

Posted by CmdrTaco from the that-might-be-an-overstatement dept.
An anonymous reader writes "New Scientist reports on how competitions to devise better packing algorithms could help cut the environmental impact of deliveries and shipping. A new record setter at packing differently-sized discs into the smallest space without overlapping them has potential to be applied to real world 3D problems, researchers claim." Ok the title might be a little ridiculous, but the ridiculous packaging used to ship a few tiny objects by some shippers is pretty shameful.

NVIDIA GTX 295 Brings the Pain and Performance 238

Posted by CmdrTaco from the is-it-boring-by-your-place-too dept.
Vigile writes "Dual-GPU graphics cards are all the rage and it was a pair of RV770 cores that AMD had to use in order to best the likes of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 280. This time NVIDIA has the goal of taking back the performance crown and the GeForce GTX 295 essentially takes two of the GT200 GPUs used on the GTX 280, shrinks them from 65nm to 55nm, and puts them on a single card. The results are pretty impressive and the GTX 295 dominates in the benchmarks with a price tag of $499."
Businesses

How Do I Manage Seasoned Programmers? 551

Posted by kdawson from the just-don't-say-mmm-kay dept.
An anonymous reader writes "I have a technology background and worked as a programmer for a few years before slipping over to the dark side. I am now on the business side and have been given responsibility for a small team of Java programmers. While the technology aspect of what my team works on doesn't scare me, I need ideas to make sure the team stays motivated while reporting to me, a business-oriented guy. Perhaps I should mention I am in my early 30s while the majority of the team constitute an older, wiser generation. What advice should I follow to avoid turning into yet another Bill Lumbergh?"
Businesses

Bell Labs Kills Fundamental Physics Research 460

Posted by timothy from the having-solved-all-the-really-important-problems dept.
An anonymous reader writes with this snippet from Wired: "After six Nobel Prizes, the invention of the transistor, laser and countless contributions to computer science and technology, it is the end of the road for Bell Labs' fundamental physics research lab. Alcatel-Lucent, the parent company of Bell Labs, is pulling out of basic science, material physics and semiconductor research and will instead be focusing on more immediately marketable areas such as networking, high-speed electronics, wireless, nanotechnology and software." Jamie points out this list of Bell Labs' accomplishments at Wikipedia, including little things like the UNIX operating system.
Businesses

Changing Customers Password Without Consent 435

Posted by samzenpus from the leave-my-words-alone dept.
risinganger writes "BBC News is reporting that a customer had his password changed without his knowledge. After some less than satisfactory service the customer in question changed his password to 'Llyods is pants.' At some point after that, a member of staff changed the password to 'no it's not.' Requests to change it back to 'Llyods is pants,' 'Barclays is better,' or 'censorship' were met with refusal. Personally I found the original change funny, like the customer did. After all, god forbid a sense of humour rears its ugly head in business. What isn't acceptable is the refusal to change it per the customer's requests after that."

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