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Comment Re:Secure? (Score 1) 187

by im_dan (#33297028) Attached to: Minority Report Style Iris Scanners In Mexico
First thing I'd like to say is, I am part of the legalise drugs crowd, and I'm coincidentally Australian as well. The only drugs I use are already legal (alcohol).
You have made the best case I've heard for why drugs should remain illegal. However my biggest argument for legalising all drugs is that "prostitution, human trafficking, people smuggling" will be virtually eliminated when there is no drug money to fund these activities.
The other argument I have is the money received through taxation would allow for a truly world class rehabilitation program, although I'm cynical enough to know the government will find the best possible way to piss it away on a $900 giveaway or overpriced school sheds, I would hope this can bring so real relief to not just indigenous communities but all drug addicts
The last and most important point is that, drugs are exactly as you describe expensive and destructive, but if somebody is foolish enough to use, I would rather the profits don't go to criminals
Microsoft

MS Says Windows 7 Will Run DirectX 10 On the CPU 503

Posted by kdawson from the aero-capable dept.
arcticstoat writes "In what could be seen as an easy answer to the Vista-capable debacle, Microsoft has introduced a 'fully conformant software rasterizer' called WARP (Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform) 10, which does away with the need for a dedicated hardware 3D accelerator altogether. Microsoft says that WARP 10 will support all the features and precision requirements of Direct3D 10 and 10.1, as well as up to 8x multi-sampled anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and all optional texture formats. The minimum CPU spec needed is just 800MHz, and it doesn't even need MMX or SSE, although it will work much quicker on multi-core CPUs with SSE 4.1. Of course, software rendering on a single desktop CPU isn't going to be able to compete with decent dedicated 3D graphics cards when it comes to high-end games, but Microsoft has released some interesting benchmarks that show the system to be quicker than Intel's current integrated DirectX 10 graphics. Running Crysis at 800 x 600 with the lowest quality settings, an eight-core Core i7 system managed an average frame rate of 7.36fps, compared with 5.17fps from Intel's DirectX 10 integrated graphics."

Comment For us Australians (Score 1) 601

by im_dan (#25129475) Attached to: Email-only Providers?
I use Jumba's 29.95 a year budget option to host my website (The empty shell of a thing that it is) and that obviously includes mail as well. I know you said you didn't want webspace as well but for the price it is the best I've found, considering you can setup as many subdomains as you want and there are no limits on the number of aliases you can have
btw i'm not a shill just a satisfied customer
Data Storage

DDR3 RAM Explained 200

Posted by kdawson from the faster-and-then-some dept.
Das Capitolin sends us to Benchmark Reviews for an in-depth feature on DDR3 memory that begins: "These are uncertain financial times we live in today, and the rise and fall of our economy has had [a] direct [effect] on consumer spending. It has already been one full year now that DDR3 has been patiently waiting for the enthusiast community to give it proper consideration, yet [its] success is still undermined by misconceptions and high price. Benchmark Reviews has been testing DDR3 more actively than anyone. ... Sadly, it might take an article like this to open the eyes of my fellow hardware enthusiast[s] and overclocker[s], because it seems like DDR3 is the technology nobody wants [badly] enough to learn about. Pity, because overclocking is what it's all about."
Security

How the NSA Took Linux To the Next Level 172

Posted by Soulskill from the not-by-beating-the-end-boss-of-the-previous-level dept.
An anonymous reader brings us IBM Developerworks' recent analysis of how the NSA built SELinux to withstand attacks. The article shows us some of the relevant kernel architecture and compares SELinux to a few other approaches. We've discussed SELinux in the past. Quoting: "If you have a program that responds to socket requests but doesn't need to access the file system, then that program should be able to listen on a given socket but not have access to the file system. That way, if the program is exploited in some way, its access is explicitly minimized. This type of control is called mandatory access control (MAC). Another approach to controlling access is role-based access control (RBAC). In RBAC, permissions are provided based on roles that are granted by the security system. The concept of a role differs from that of a traditional group in that a group represents one or more users. A role can represent multiple users, but it also represents the permissions that a set of users can perform. SELinux adds both MAC and RBAC to the GNU/Linux operating system."
Handhelds

Have You Changed Your Opinion On eBook Readers? 569

Posted by Soulskill from the indispensible-or-expensive-e-paperweight dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Kindle made waves when it came out, but they've now had the chance to calm. How many of you have been using your eBook readers since you've received them? How many of you forgot you had one, and how many of you swear by your reader? I like my single-purpose (well, dual — music player) Sony Reader because I actually use it to read, rather than multitasking myself to death. Is this technology as convenient and useful as you expected?" If not, what refinements or improvements would reKindle your interest?
Data Storage

How To Move Your Linux Systems To ext4 304

Posted by timothy from the or-you-could-guess dept.
LinucksGirl writes "Ext4 is the latest in a long line of Linux file systems, and it's likely to be as important and popular as its predecessors. As a Linux system administrator, you should be aware of the advantages, disadvantages, and basic steps for migrating to ext4. This article explains when to adopt ext4, how to adapt traditional file system maintenance tool usage to ext4, and how to get the most out of the file system."
Programming

Malware Modification Contest Has Antivirus Vendors Upset 167

Posted by Soulskill from the would-you-like-a-tissue dept.
SkiifGeek writes "Race to Zero, a sideline competition being set up at this year's DefCon, already has some Antivirus vendors steaming over the objectives of the contest. They are upset because it is essentially a polymorphism exercise. Entrants are given a set of malware samples which they must then modify to pass through a battery of antivirus scanners without detection while still carrying a viable payload. Even if competitors ignore the published vulnerabilities and weaknesses affecting antivirus vendors, the competition should turn up some interesting results. It may provide technical insight and concepts for further research as similar competitions have done in the past."
Networking

Doctorow Tears Up ISP Contract Over Net Neutrality 322

Posted by kdawson from the schedule-2-numbers-1-j-and-k dept.
Burz writes "As a reaction to Virgin Media CEO's promise to violate the concept of net neutrality, Cory Doctorow is declaring his ISP contract void, canceling the service, and calling on other Virgin customers to do the same. He isn't alone. Charlie Stross counts the ways the gang that became Virgin Media is trashing Sir Richard's brand. Myself, I am thinking of stopping my Virgin Mobile service in protest."
Games

What's the Best Game Console of All Time? 479

Posted by Zonk from the duh-obviously-the-fairchild dept.
The C|Net Crave blog has up an article exploring the history of console gaming, and wonders aloud about the pecking order of the various systems. "Gaming is so subjective that there is no single "greatest" system ever. It might sound like a cop-out, but it really depends on what standards you're using and what generation you grew up in. I loved the SNES, and would personally call it the greatest system of all time. However, the NES and PlayStation could both easily be called the best, based on the standards they set and the advances they presented to gaming." The Guardian follows up this piece, noting that the article's rose-colored recollections of the SNES days may not be entirely accurate. Subjective or not, it's a good question: which consoles have a valid place in history and which ones should be forgotten?

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