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Comments: 3 + -   Why Tor Users Should Be Cautious About P2P Privacy on Friday April 30, @08:30PM

Posted by timothy on Friday April 30, @08:30PM
from the but-this-computer's-in-a-safe-location dept.
privacy
An anonymous reader writes "I went across your post a few days ago saying that a machine connected to the Internet was all one needed to spy on most BitTorrent users of the Internet. I followed the link to find out that those researchers from INRIA claimed their attacks also worked for BitTorrent users on Tor. I didn't believe it at first, but then today I found this link on the Tor Project. It seems their attacks don't only link your real IP to your BitTorrent files on Tor but also to the web pages that you're browsing! Tell me it's a joke." No joke, but according to Jake Appelbaum (a Tor developer), the security flaw is more nuanced — and the fault of software outside of Tor. Read on for his explanation of how the privacy benefits of Tor can be easily lost.
Read 1451 More Bytes... 3 comments story

Comments: 98 + -   Steve Jobs Hints At Theora Lawsuit on Friday April 30, @07:44PM

Posted by timothy on Friday April 30, @07:44PM
from the fuddish-duddish dept.
apple
netcrawler writes "Steve Jobs' open letter on Flash has prompted someone at the Free Software Foundation Europe to ask him about his support of proprietary format H.264 over Theora. Jobs' pithy answer (email with headers) suggests Theora might infringe on existing patents and that 'a patent pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other "open source" codecs now.' Does he know something we don't?"
Read More... 98 comments story

Comments: 35 + -   Japanese Researchers Make Plastic Out of Water on Friday April 30, @07:22PM

Posted by timothy on Friday April 30, @07:22PM
from the what's-kanji-for-boffin? dept.
earth
greenrainbow writes with this excerpt from Inhabit: "The material shown in the picture above is just ice, right? Look again. Elastic water, a new substance invented by researchers at Tokyo University, is a jelly-like substance made up of 95% water along with two grams of clay and a small amount of organic materials. As is, the all-natural substance is perfect for medical procedures, because it's made of water, poses no harm to people and is perfect for mending tissue. And, if the research team can increase the density of this exciting new substance, it could be used in place of our current oil-based plastics for a host of other things."
Read More... 35 comments story

Comments: 100 + -   Apple Raises E-Book Prices For Everyone on Friday April 30, @07:00PM

Posted by timothy on Friday April 30, @07:00PM
from the here-a-penny-there-a-penny dept.
books
Nom du Keyboard writes "I was informed by my publisher this week that they would have to raise my eBook prices because they planned to sell them through the Apple iBooks store. How could this happen? A lot of my individual stories sell in the $1 to $3 range, which is well within the impulse purchase amount for many people. In this price range a 50 cent price difference may well be the difference between a purchase and a pass. Meanwhile Apple is touting their new 'Agency Model' whereby the publishers set the prices. However, it seems that Apple requires books sold in their iBook store have prices ending in .99 – nothing else." (More below.)
Read 782 More Bytes... 100 comments story

Comments: 67 + -   Kid Health Experts Attack Video Game Summer Camp on Friday April 30, @06:16PM

Posted by Soulskill on Friday April 30, @06:16PM
from the friendly-environment-to-frag-noobs dept.
canada
Jack Action writes "The University of British Columbia runs a summer camp where kids get to play computer games for three hours a day. The camp organizers say it is 'a good social opportunity for some kids who didn't fit into other programs.' However, health professionals declare they are 'troubled' by the camp. A professor in UBC's department of medicine says kids should be outside and engaged in 'unstructured play,' while the CEO of an NGO that monitors kids' health chimes in that they already spend too much time in front of screens and not exercising. Do the health experts have a point, or are they just criticizing something they don't understand, or perhaps is not to their taste?"
Read More... 67 comments story

Comments: 23 + -   Philip K. Dick's Exegesis To Be Published In 2011 on Friday April 30, @05:55PM

Posted by Soulskill on Friday April 30, @05:55PM
from the that's-a-lot-of-pkd dept.
books
Dynamoo writes "The NYT reports that a two-part edition of PKD's Exegesis will be published next year. This huge work, a combination of journal and philosophical treatise, has been published in part before, but this is the first time that the whole version will be made generally available."
Read More... 23 comments story

Comments: 75 + -   Can Oil-Eating Bacteria Help Clean Up the Gulf Oil Spill? on Friday April 30, @05:34PM

Posted by Soulskill on Friday April 30, @05:34PM
from the if-only-we-hadn't-converted-to-green-bacteria dept.
biotech
sciencehabit writes "At this point it's unclear how much of an environmental threat oil spreading from the BP spill will cause, but the federal government is mobilizing thousands of workers to prepare for the worst. They have a potential ally: microbes that have evolved an ability to break down oil that seeps from the ocean bottom. It gets devoured by a variety of bacteria, which eat it by chemically transforming its compounds into useful cellular constituents." Wired has some pictures of the spill from orbiting satellites.
Read More... 75 comments story

Comments: 201 + -   Palin Email Snoop Found Guilty On 2 Charges on Friday April 30, @04:49PM

Posted by Soulskill on Friday April 30, @04:49PM
from the sorry-about-your-luck dept.
communications
netbuzz writes "A federal jury in Knoxville today has convicted David Kernell, 22, of two charges — misdemeanor computer fraud and felony obstruction of justice — in connection with the 2008 episode where he accessed the personal Yahoo email account of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and then initiated a worldwide rummaging of its contents. The obstruction charge carries a maximum prison term of 20 years."
Read More... 201 comments story

Comments: 51 + -   Nostalgic Elation — the Super Mario Crossover on Friday April 30, @04:28PM

Posted by Soulskill on Friday April 30, @04:28PM
from the it'sa-me-megaman dept.
classicgames
eldavojohn writes "Sure, they're stepping all over proprietary rights and copyright, but something must be said about the amount of bliss-filled nostalgia inside Exploding Rabbit's Super Mario Crossover. If the plumbers never really did it for you, you can now kill those goombas as Link, Mega Man, Samus, Simon Belmont, or Contra's Bill. Goodbye jumping and spitting; hello slicing, whipping, and shooting. Is this one of the early firsts in the new genre of video game mashups?"
Read More... 51 comments story

Comments: 267 + -   Avatar Blu-Ray DRM Issues on Friday April 30, @04:06PM

Posted by Soulskill on Friday April 30, @04:06PM
from the revolutionary-zero-d-technology dept.
movies
geekd writes "Once again, DRM only hurts legit content purchasers: 'An unusual glitch has angered some Avatar Blu-ray owners. For these unlucky people, since the disc won't play on their Blu-ray players, their new Avatar DVD serves no real purpose other than to sit idly on the coffee table. ... It appears the main culprit concerning playback issues with Avatar is, ironically, the disc's DRM (digital rights management). ... Even with updated firmware, a lot of Blu-ray players weren't prepared for these security measures. Despite the security problems, bootleggers are having a field day. Pirated copies of Avatar, according to Los Angeles Times, were available as early as January.'" Reader Murpster adds that this problem isn't specific to the Blu-ray version: "Got a regular Avatar DVD and it won't play on either of my DVD players. It will play on one computer DVD drive, if I want to watch it on a 12-inch screen."
Read More... 267 comments story

 
Poll I last bought 3.5" floppy disks ...
Within the last 12 months.
Within the span of 1-5 years ago.
Within the span 5-10 years ago.
More than 10 years ago.
My next order's in the mail.
Never!
[ Results | Polls ]
Comments:415 | Votes:22694

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