Day: December 19, 2012

Amazon Has Another Huge Security Hole

You may recall that Amazon was implicated as the weak link in the Mat Honan iCloud hack , wherein a gadget blogger had his entire online identity nuked from orbit because Amazon gave up the secondary identifying information necessary to issue a password reset over at Apple. (The last four of your credit card, incidentally.) I’m sad to say that Amazon has clearly not improved their authentication protocols in any meaningful way, but this time it’s hurting them directly. More »

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Amazon Has Another Huge Security Hole

Solved! UChicago’s Indiana Jones mystery package

Last week, the University of Chicago posted that they had received a curious package addressed to Henry Walton Jones, Jr. A student mail worker recognized that name as belonging to a certain Indiana Jones who, in the film trilogy, was a professor at UChicago. The envelope was packed with Indiana Jones ephemera, including a replica of Abner Ravenwood’s journal. The University posted the mystery online and it has now been solved. Turns out, the package was an eBay purchase on its way from a seller named Paul, in Guam, to a buyer in Italy. According to Paul, this package was en route from him in Guam to his intended recipient IN ITALY (registered mail confirmation attached) when it must have fallen out of the package in Hawaii. Our address had originally been put on the manila wrapping of the journal just for cosmetic effect. We believe that the post office wrote on our Zip code on the outside of the package and, believing the Egyptian postage was real, sent it our way. From Guam to Hawaii en route to Italy with a stopover in Chicago: truly an adventure befitting Indiana Jones. ” Indiana Jones Mystery Package ” Indiana Jones Mystery Package (Thanks, Bob Pescovitz!)

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Solved! UChicago’s Indiana Jones mystery package

Add a RAM Disk to Your Computer for Faster-than-SSD Performance

Feel the need for more computer speed? Even if you’re already rocking a fast SSD ( one of the best upgrades you can make), you can still improve your computer’s performance by adding more memory and turning it into a RAM disk, which can be as much as 70 times faster than a regular hard drive or 20 times faster than an SSD. More »

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Add a RAM Disk to Your Computer for Faster-than-SSD Performance

This Laser Weapon Got Five Times More Powerful in Just One Year

The pace of High Energy Laser (HEL) technology has become a sprint with nations and defense firms alike racing to develop more and more powerful systems. Nowhere is this breakneck pace clearer than at Rheinmetall’s Ochsenboden Proving Ground, especially during a recent test of the company’s shiny, new, 500-percent improved HEL anti-artillery platform. More »

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This Laser Weapon Got Five Times More Powerful in Just One Year

Possible Habitable Planet Just 12 Light Years Away

sciencehabit writes “Astronomers have discovered what may be five planets orbiting Tau Ceti, the closest single star beyond our solar system whose temperature and luminosity nearly match the sun’s. If the planets are there, one of them is about the right distance from the star to sport mild temperatures, oceans of liquid water, and even life (paper).” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Possible Habitable Planet Just 12 Light Years Away