Browsers to get sturdier padlocks The yellow security padlock in Web browsers, weakened by lax standards and loose supervision, will get reinforced next year with tougher requirements and browser updates. The browser icon was designed to show that traffic with a Web site is encrypted and that a third party, called a certification authority, has identified the site and vouches for its validity. But in recent years, standards of verification have slipped, undermining the sense of security implied by the padlock.
Taking on rootkits with hardware Word that Intel is taking on rootkits came as a surprise to some last week. But researchers at the chip giant have been working on security technologies for several years. What's more, Intel's labs aren't just looking to protect computers against rootkits, Travis Schluessler, a security architect at the chipmaker, told CNET News.com. The Santa Clara, Calif., company hopes it can also help stave off the more familiar threat of worms and viruses.
PLAYDOUGH FINGERS TRICK PRINT SCANNERS: Clarkson University Engineer Outwits High-Tech Fingerprint Fraud Eyeballs, a severed hand, or fingers carried in ziplock bags. Back alley eye replacement surgery. These are scenarios used in recent blockbuster movies like Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report" and "Tomorrow Never Dies" to illustrate how unsavory characters in high-tech worlds beat sophisticated security and identification systems. Sound fantastic? Maybe not. Biometrics is the science of using biological properties, such as fingerprints, an iris scan, or voice recognition, to identify individuals. And in a world of growing terrorism concerns and increasing security measures, the field of biometrics is rapidly expanding.
The Firefox Hacks You Must Have With the release of the new version 1.5 of Firefox, there's never been a better time to download the open-source browser, take it for a drive, kick the tires and see what it can do. In the case of a browser, mainly what it can do is show you web pages, hopefully quickly. So the real satisfaction comes from finding enhancements and add-ons, because you can only have so much fun timing page loads with a stopwatch. Fortunately, Firefox is famous for its pluggable extensions architecture, which allows you to download little snippets of code that act as the software equivalent of small consumer electronics devices, only they are free.
HERE WE GO AGAIN:
Drinking tea may cut ovarian cancer DRINKING two cups of tea a day may reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, research in Sweden suggests. A study involving more than 60,000 women indicates that women who drank two cups or more of tea a day had an almost 50 per cent lower risk of ovarian cancer than women who did not drink tea. The research comes after studies that have suggested that green and black tea may provide protection from several cancers.
Build your own macro lens with a Pringles can! This one is not for the faint of heart, but the guy over at Photocritic.org managed to rig himself a macro lens for his Canon 20D using naught but a Pringles can (that wonderful tool of hackerdom), a cheap lens, and a few other odds and ends. The results aren’t too shabby either, he manages to get some sweet pics with his setup that are worth a look even if you’re not quite brave enough to mod this one up.
Conqueror, Today's Time Waster If you ever played Risk, or my favorite, Axis and Allies, you'll enjoy Conqueror. It's a turn-based strategy game you can play online with up to 16 human or AI opponents. The game is quite simple: build up troops, conquer your neighbor's land, lather, rinse, repeat. And like games of this nature, there are lots of little wrinkles and things to do. For instance, to guard against easy takeover, start building farms immediately to build up your populations. Increase your Influence rating in a territory to improve productivity, yielding more stuff or soldiers. You can even increase the culture in an area, which logically improves a lot of other things. All this is free, and is quite addictive. Play at your own risk (sorry, couldn't help that one).
Learn programming with Karel the Robot It reminds me of the old Logo programming tools, but the Karel approach is simple: learn to program by giving instructions to a simple "robot" at your command. It was originally designed to teach Pascal, but has now been modified to teach C/C++. First you might want to read the original book, "Karel the Robot, A Gentle Introduction to the Art of Programming," by Richard E. Pattis. MTSU has a Karel page, and you can find a Mac version of Karel over here (where they've also got a good PDF user guide). Happy coding!
Nessus 3.0 Released duplo1 writes Tenable Security has announced the release of Nessus 3.0. Nessus is an enterprise level vulnerability scanner and this new version brings a complete rewrite of the Nessus engine redesigned for increased speed and efficiency running on the average, twice as fast as Nessus 2. From the release: "In addition to gaining dramatic improvements in performance, Tenable also provides an optional Direct Feed subscription service for Nessus 3.0 which provides immediate access to new vulnerability checks and entitles Nessus 3.0 users to commercial support from Tenable. The Tenable Plugins include support for a rating methodology called Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) that can be used to express the criticality of a discovered vulnerability or threat."
A couple of weeks ago I looked at three mid-range graphics card that all came in well under the £200 mark. The most expensive of the three at £160 was the Leadtek WinFast PX6800GS TDH based upon nVidia’s GeForce 6800 GS chip. This GPU is a respin of the 6800 GT. It’s built on a 110nm micron process enabling it to offer higher clocks and this gave it enough of a lead over the cards based on ATI’s X800 GTO, thereby justifying its higher price. However, Sapphire exclusively offers a part called the GTO2 (GTO Squared). The ‘Squared’ refers to the fact that this card has one ‘quad’ of pipelines that have been disabled, and that with a bit of jiggery-pockery from a BIOS flash and an overclocking tool, it can be turned from a 12-pipeline 400MHz card into a 540MHz 16-pipelined graphics card. |
A brain mechanism that may link violent computer games with aggression has been discovered by researchers in the US. The work goes some way towards demonstrating a causal link between the two - rather than a simple association. Many studies have concluded that people who play violent video games are more aggressive, more likely to commit violent crimes, and less likely to help others. But critics argue these correlations merely prove that violent people gravitate towards violent games, not that games can change behaviour. Now psychologist Bruce Bartholow from the University of Missouri-Columbia and colleagues have found that people who play violent video games show diminished brain responses to images of real-life violence, such as gun attacks, but not to other emotionally disturbing pictures, such as those of dead animals, or sick children. And the reduction in response is correlated with aggressive behaviour.
VERY COOL:
Meal Box is a Japanese-style dining-table with chairs that can all be packed in a box. Perfect for late night fast food binges in the office or picnics.
Magenn Air Rotors: Floating WInd Turbines Treehugger has shown flying wind turbines before but never one this clever- it is held up by helium. Such a simple idea- it works on both straight lift from the helium and the "Magnus effect" where "For the Magnus airship and hence the patented Magenn Air Rotors System, we have proven that as wind speed increases, rotation increases, lift increases, drag will be minimized because of reduced leaning, and stability increases." The first units in production will be a 4Kw residential unit that will cost ten thousand dollars, and can be ordered this spring from the Ottawa-area company.
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