Comment Re:Yet Another Reason (Score 1) 88
Please explain why you'd rather not reveal your referrer data. (New example from TFA aside.)
Maybe if you're embarassed because you still use Altavista search
Comment Re:Yet Another Reason (Score 1) 88
The HTTP referrer field may create privacy concerns for some people, but there are definite concrete benefits in web development to having data from this field available on an aggregate level. Examples:
- See the paths people take when browsing a site, and arrange/optimise the design accordingly (generaly to make browsing a site easier)
- See what search engine queries generally land a user at a page, so in the long run the content can be tailored towards what people are actually searching for
I don't think a war against the HTTP referrer field is really warranted, given the privacy implications are only relevant to particularly committed privacy fanatics.
- See the paths people take when browsing a site, and arrange/optimise the design accordingly (generaly to make browsing a site easier)
- See what search engine queries generally land a user at a page, so in the long run the content can be tailored towards what people are actually searching for
I don't think a war against the HTTP referrer field is really warranted, given the privacy implications are only relevant to particularly committed privacy fanatics.
Phishing For Bank Info Without Any Pesky Malware 232
Emb3rz writes "DarkReading.com brings us news of a new approach to phishing that targets online banking sites. Here's the novel part of it: it doesn't involve any of the typical attack vectors we all know and love. Instead, it uses JavaScript from a remote page to detect if you have a banking site open, and prompts you for info via popup if you do."
Comment Re:State of the Market (Score 2, Informative) 82
All I care about is best performance under 50W and under $100. Is there anything out there better than the 8600GT?
The Radeon HD 3870 is extremely similar in terms of price and performance. I guess it depends on what you can get the best deal on.
Comment State of the Market (Score 4, Informative) 82
- The current best performing single card is the GeForce GTX 295
- The best performance setup was (before this card) a tossup between dual GeForce GTX 295s (quad SLI) and three GeForce GTX 280s (three-way SLI).
- The overclocking potential of the GeForce GTX 285 & reduced power consumption might make a three-way 285 setup preferrable to a dual 295 setup (for enthusiasts)
- The best performance setup was (before this card) a tossup between dual GeForce GTX 295s (quad SLI) and three GeForce GTX 280s (three-way SLI).
- The overclocking potential of the GeForce GTX 285 & reduced power consumption might make a three-way 285 setup preferrable to a dual 295 setup (for enthusiasts)
Comment Re:It's a plot! (Score 4, Informative) 101
Where the hell is the IETF in all this, I want to know?
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-rpsec-bgpsecrec-10.txt
Abstract:
The security of BGP, the Border Gateway Protocol, is critical to the proper operation of large-scale internetworks, both public and private. While securing the information transmitted between two BGP speakers is a relatively easy technical matter, securing BGP, as a routing system, is more complex. This document describes a set of requirements for securing BGP and the routing information carried within BGP.
NVIDIA's 55nm GeForce GTX 285 Launched 82
Visceralini writes "NVIDIA is launching yet another high-end 3D graphics offering, an optimized version of their top shelf GeForce GTX 280 single GPU card, dubbed the GeForce GTX 285.
This new GeForce is a
55nm die-shrunk version of the legacy GTX 280 with lower power consumption characteristics that don't require an 8-pin PCI Express connector, rather just a pair of more standard 6-pin plugs.
Performance
metrics are shown here in a number of the latest game titles including
Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Far Cry 2 and Mirror's Edge. The new GTX 285 is
about on par or slightly faster than a GTX 280 but with
less power draw and some room for overclocking over the reference design."
Methane On Mars May Indicate Living Planet 200
Riding with Robots writes "NASA is announcing today that the definitive detection of methane in the Martian atmosphere means the planet is still alive, at least geologically, and perhaps even biologically. 'Methane is quickly destroyed in the Martian atmosphere in a variety of ways, so our discovery of substantial plumes of methane in the northern hemisphere of Mars indicates some ongoing process is releasing the gas,' said one agency scientist. The gas was detected with observations made over over several Martian years with NASA telescopes at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Both biological and geological processes could explain the methane."
Breathalyzer Source Code Ruling Upheld 520
dfn_deux writes "In a follow up to a 2005 story where Florida judge Doug Henderson ruled that breathalyzer evidence in more than 100 drunk driving cases would be inadmissible as evidence at trial, the Second District Court of Appeal and Circuit Court has ruled on Tuesday to uphold the 2005 ruling requiring the manufacturer of the Intoxilyzer 5000, Kentucky-based CMI Inc, to release source code for their breathalyzer equipment to be examined by witnesses for the defense of those standing trial with breathalyzer test result being used as evidence against them. '"The defendant's right to a fair trial outweighed the manufacturer's claim of a trade secret," Henderson said Tuesday. In response to the ruling defense attorney, Mark Lipinski, who represents seven defendants challenging the source codes, said the state likely will be forced to reduce charges — or drop the cases entirely.' ... What this really means is that outside corporations cannot sell equipment to the state of Florida and expect to hide the workings of their machine by saying they are trade secret. It means the state has to give full disclosure concerning important and critical aspects of the case."
Wiretapping Program Ruled Legal 575
BuhDuh writes "The New York Times is carrying a story concerning that well known bastion of legal authority, the 'Foreign Intelligence Surveillance' court, which has ruled that the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program was perfectly legal. It says, 'A federal intelligence court, in a rare public opinion, is expected to issue a major ruling validating the power of the president and Congress to wiretap international phone calls and intercept e-mail messages without a court order, even when Americans' private communications may be involved, according to a person with knowledge of the opinion.'"
Germany Legislates For Mandatory Web Filters 309
An anonymous reader writes "Germany's Minister for Families has announced a legislative initiative to force ISPs to implement a government-mandated block list (in English), which will be updated daily. The BKA (Germany's equivalent of the FBI) will be in charge of generating and maintaining the list. As usual, this is being brought in under the 'fight child porn' guise. The minister is quoted as saying: 'We must not water down the problem' in reply to being challenged that this law and technology could be used to censor other content. She then went on to say: 'I can't know what wishes and plans future governments will develop.' She has agreed the principle of the legislation with the interior minister and the technology minister, which in German coalition government terms means it's pretty much a done deal."
Woman Claims Ubuntu Kept Her From Online Classes 1654
stonedcat writes "A Wisconsin woman has claimed that Dell computers and Ubuntu have kept her from going back to school via online classes. She says she has called Dell to request Windows instead however was talked out of it. Her current claim is that she was unaware that she couldn't install her Verizon online disk to access the Internet, nor could she use Microsoft Word to type up her papers."
Collateral Damage as UK Censors Internet Archive 272
An anonymous reader noted the latest developments in the controversial censoring of the internet by UK ISPs. Apparently since some content of the Wayback Machine is bad, the whole thing needs to be blacklisted.
Comment Political? (Score 5, Insightful) 217
This is almost certainly a political move; with terrorism being a scarier topic than privacy
Nevertheless, the summary doesn't do justice to the article. The article suggests that experts agree the passports will be much harder to forge (impossible with current methods) - which is a big strength.
In fact, the main argument against using biotech passports (in the article) is that authorities will begin to rely on them 'too much', which doesn't ring true to me, since biotech is inherently MORE reliable than, say, an official trying to identify someone by a small passport photo.
I think the risk of misappropriation of bio-information is worth it, weighed up against the risk of terrorist or criminal activities which it seeks to mitigate.
Comment Re:I forsee a new job at Wikipedia... (Score 1) 141
How about collaborative video editing?
Certainly technically much more difficult than the standard text-based wiki...
I forsee a collaborative interface where individuals can create, edit, rearrange, score, caption & voiceover individual scenes/graphics at will.
The various scenes would then be rendered live (or cached) in an appropriate compressed format for the end user.
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