Hackers compromise official PHP website, infect visitors with malware (updated)

Wikipedia Maintainers of the open-source PHP programming language have locked down the php.net website after discovering two of its servers were hacked to host malicious code designed to surreptitiously install malware on visitors’ computers. The compromise was discovered Thursday morning by Google’s safe browsing service , which helps the Chrome, Firefox, and Safari browsers automatically block sites that serve drive-by exploits. Traces of the malicious JavaScript code served to some php.net visitors were captured and posted to Hacker News here and, in the form of a pcap file , to a Barracuda Networks blog post here . The attacks started Tuesday and lasted through Thursday morning, PHP officials wrote in a statement posted late that evening . Eventually, the site was moved to a new set of servers, PHP officials wrote in an earlier statement . There’s no evidence that any of the code they maintain has been altered, they added. Encrypted HTTPS access to php.net websites is temporarily unavailable until a new secure sockets layer certificate is issued and installed. The old certificate was revoked out of concern the intruders may have accessed the private encryption key. User passwords will be reset in the coming days. At time of writing, there was no indication of any further compromise. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments        

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Hackers compromise official PHP website, infect visitors with malware (updated)

Scientists show how to make an integrated circuit using only graphene

IBM built an integrated circuit using graphene back in 2011 , but it wasn’t a complete breakthrough — much of the hardware was based on old-fashioned metal and silicon. UC Santa Barbara has gone one step further by showing how to design an IC made exclusively from the advanced substance. The new process shapes circuit components from graphene ribbons whose properties change depending on the pattern; a narrow ribbon is semiconducting, while a wide ribbon is metallic. Chips designed this way should be thinner, more efficient and easier to assemble than their mixed-material counterparts. The catch? Right now, this all-graphene IC exists solely as a computer model. When there are no immediate plans for production, it could be a long while before we see the real thing. Filed under: Science , Alt Comments Via: IEEE Spectrum Source: UC Santa Barbara

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Scientists show how to make an integrated circuit using only graphene

UK Police Seize 3D-Printed ‘Gun Parts,’ Which Are Actually Spare Printer Parts

nk497 writes “Police in Manchester have arrested a man and seized what they claim are 3D printed components to a gun. They made the arrest after a ‘significant’ discovery of a 3D printed ‘trigger’ and ‘magazine, ‘ saying they were now testing the parts to see if they were viable. 3D printing experts, however, said the objects were actually spare parts for the printer. ‘As soon as I saw the picture… I instantly thought, “I know that part, “‘ said Scott Crawford, head of 3D printing firm Revolv3D. ‘They designed an upgrade for the printer soon after it was launched, and most people will have downloaded and upgraded this part within their printer. It basically pulls the plastic filament, and it used to jam an awful lot. The new system that they’ve put out, which includes that little lever that they’re claiming is the trigger, is most definitely the same part.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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UK Police Seize 3D-Printed ‘Gun Parts,’ Which Are Actually Spare Printer Parts

Microsoft posts record Q1 revenue, increased operating income

Robert Scoble / flickr Microsoft has posted its results for the first quarter of its 2014 financial year. Compared to the same quarter last year, revenue is up 16 percent to $18.529 billion, operating income is up 19 percent to $6.334 billion, and earnings per share is also up, rising 17 percent to $0.62. The way Microsoft is reporting its financials has changed as a result of the reorganization that started earlier this year . Broadly, the results are split into two main parts: a “Devices and Consumer” division, which spans all sales that are end-user facing, including OEM Windows licensing, retail software, Xbox, Windows Phone (including related patent licensing), and Bing advertising; and a “Commercial” division, which spans volume license sales, server products, and consulting. This means that under the new reporting system, some products have their revenue split. Office, Office 365, and Windows, in particular, have both consumer and commercial sales. Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments        

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Microsoft posts record Q1 revenue, increased operating income

AMD’s Radeon R9 290X Launched, Faster Than GeForce GTX 780 For Roughly $100 Less

MojoKid writes “AMD has launched their new top-end Radeon R9 290X graphics card today. The new flagship wasn’t ready in time for AMD’s recent October 8th launch of midrange product, but their top of the line model, based on the GPU codenamed Hawaii, is ready now. The R9 290 series GPU (Hawaii) is comprised of up to 44 compute units with a total of 2, 816 IEEE-2008 compliant shaders. The GPU has four geometry processors (2x the Radeon HD 7970) and can output 64 pixels per clock. The Radeon R9 290X features 2816 Stream Processors and an engine clock of up to 1GHz. The card’s 4GB of GDDR5 memory is accessed by the GPU via a wide 512-bit interface and the R290X requires a pair of supplemental PCIe power connectors—one 6-pin and one 8-pin. Save for some minimum frame rate and frame latency issues, the new Radeon R9 290X’s performance is impressive overall. AMD still has some obvious driver tuning and optimization to do, but frame rates across the board were very good. And though it wasn’t a clean sweep for the Radeon R9 290X versus NVIDIA’s flagship GeForce GTX 780 or GeForce GTX Titan cards, AMD’s new GPU traded victories depending on the game or application being used, which is to say the cards performed similarly.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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AMD’s Radeon R9 290X Launched, Faster Than GeForce GTX 780 For Roughly $100 Less

This new US Army helmet looks absolutely awesome

It seems like something out of Halo, but this new futuristic soldier helmet discovered by KitUp! is now being tested by the US Army. Called the Helmet Electronics and Display System-Upgradeable Protection, it’s a modular variation of the current head gear, with face-protective 9mm plating and Heads Up Display powered by an Android phone. Read more…        

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This new US Army helmet looks absolutely awesome

Magnificent Asshole Reveals Popular Piracy Site Was a Trap All Along

Piracy is a dangerous game. You never know if the hosts are out to get money , or maybe just out to get you . Turns out the guy who ran a pirate haven called Uploader Talk was the latter. Now, after a year of stealing uploader’s info from deep cover, the jig is up . Read more…        

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Magnificent Asshole Reveals Popular Piracy Site Was a Trap All Along

NYC Is Replacing Its 250,000 Street Lights with LEDs

In recent years, we’ve watched with wonder as boring old yellow halogen car headlights have been replaced with futuristic, Tron -like LEDs . Now, that transition is about to take place on the city scale, as New York City prepares to replace its street lamps—all 250, 000 of them—with LEDs. Read more…        

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NYC Is Replacing Its 250,000 Street Lights with LEDs

DARPA Issues $2mil Cyber Grand Challenge

First time accepted submitter Papa Fett writes “DARPA announced the Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC)–the first-ever tournament for fully automatic network defense systems. International teams will compete to build systems that reason about software flaws, formulate patches and deploy them on a network in real time. Teams would be scored against each other based on how capably their systems can protect hosts, scan the network for vulnerabilities, and maintain the correct function of software. The winning team would receive a cash prize of $2 million , with second place earning $1 million and third place taking home $750, 000.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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DARPA Issues $2mil Cyber Grand Challenge

Japan Just Successfully Tested Its Asteroid-Shattering Space Cannon

You have to crawl before you can walk—be you a baby or an asteroid-blasting space cannon. Now, after a successful test-fire here on Earth, Japan’s specially made cannon for its Hayabusa 2 spacecraft is ready to take its first, real steps in outer space. Read more…        

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Japan Just Successfully Tested Its Asteroid-Shattering Space Cannon