NVIDIA To Re-Enable GeForce 900M Overclocking

jones_supa writes: One week after NVIDIA disabled overclocking on their GeForce 900M mobility lineup, a representative of the company has reported that NVIDIA will be bringing back the disabled feature for their overclocking enthusiasts on the mobility front. On the GeForce Forums, he writes, “We heard from many of you that you would like this feature enabled again. So, we will again be enabling overclocking in our upcoming driver release next month for those affected notebooks. If you are eager to regain this capability right away, you can also revert back to 344.75.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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NVIDIA To Re-Enable GeForce 900M Overclocking

Samsung’s Portable SSD T1 Tested

MojoKid writes The bulk of today’s high-capacity external storage devices still rely on mechanical hard disk drives with spinning media and other delicate parts. Solid state drives are much faster and less susceptible to damage from vibration, of course. That being the case, Samsung saw an opportunity to capitalize on a market segment that hasn’t seen enough development it seems–external SSDs. There are already external storage devices that use full-sized SSDs, but Samsung’s new Portable SSD T1 is more akin to a thumb drive, only a little wider and typically much faster. Utilizing Samsung’s 3D Vertical NAND (V-NAND) technology and a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface, the Portable SSD T1 redlines at up to 450MB/s when reading or writing data sequentially, claims Samsung. For random read and write activities, Samsung rates the drive at up to 8, 000 IOPS and 21, 000 IOPS, respectively. Pricing is more in-line with high-performance standalone SSDs, with this 1TB model reviewed here arriving at about $579. In testing, the drive did live up to its performance and bandwidth claims as well. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Samsung’s Portable SSD T1 Tested

FreeBSD-Current Random Number Generator Broken

First time accepted submitter bobo the hobo writesThe FreeBSD random number has been discovered to be generating possibly predictable SSH keys and SSL certificates for months. Time to regenerate your keys and certs if using FreeBSD-Current. A message to the freebsd-current mailing list reads in part: “If you are running a current kernel r273872 or later, please upgrade your kernel to r278907 or later immediately and regenerate keys. I discovered an issue where the new framework code was not calling randomdev_init_reader, which means that read_random(9) was not returning good random data. read_random(9) is used by arc4random(9) which is the primary method that arc4random(3) is seeded from.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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FreeBSD-Current Random Number Generator Broken

Storing Data In Synthetic Fossils

Bismillah tips news of research from ETH Zurich which brings the possibility of extremely long-term data storage. The scientists encoded data in DNA, a young but established technique that has a major problem: accuracy. “[E]ven a short period of time presents a problem in terms of the margin of error, as mistakes occur in the writing and reading of the DNA. Over the longer term, DNA can change significantly as it reacts chemically with the environment, thus presenting an obstacle to long-term storage.” To get around this issue, they encapsulated the DNA within tiny silica spheres, a process roughly comparable to the fossilization of bones (abstract). The researchers say data can be preserved this way for over a million years. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Storing Data In Synthetic Fossils

HTTP/2 Finalized

An anonymous reader writes: Mark Nottingham, chair of the IETF HTTP working group, has announced that the HTTP/2 specification is done. It’s on its way to the RFC Editor, along with the HPACK specification, where it’ll be cleaned up and published. “The new standard brings a number of benefits to one of the Web’s core technologies, such as faster page loads, longer-lived connections, more items arriving sooner and server push. HTTP/2 uses the same HTTP APIs that developers are familiar with, but offers a number of new features they can adopt. One notable change is that HTTP requests will be ‘cheaper’ to make. … With HTTP/2, a new multiplexing feature allows lots of requests to be delivered at the same time, so the page load isn’t blocked.” Here’s the HTTP/2 FAQ, and we recently talked about some common criticisms of the spec. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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HTTP/2 Finalized

Patent Troll Wins $15.7M From Samsung By Claiming To Own Bluetooth

An anonymous reader writes: A jury has upheld patent claims against Samsung and awarded the patent-holder $15.7 million. “The patents relate to compatibility between different types of modems, and connect to a string of applications going back to 1997. The first version of Bluetooth was invented by Swedish cell phone company Ericsson in 1994.” Lawyers for the plaintiff argue that the patents cover all devices that use Bluetooth 2.0 or later, so further cases could extend far beyond Samsung. Of course, the company that won the lawsuit wasn’t the one who made the invention, or the one who patented it. The company is Rembrandt IP, “one of the oldest and most successful” patent trolls. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Patent Troll Wins $15.7M From Samsung By Claiming To Own Bluetooth

Federal Study: Marijuana Use Doesn’t Increase Auto Crash Rates

An anonymous reader writes: After the legalization of marijuana in multiple states around the U.S., many are worried about a corresponding uptick in car crashes as people drive while under the influence of pot. But according to a new federal study (PDF) commissioned by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, those fears seem unfounded. They report that after adjusting for other factors (people who tend to drive after using marijuana also tend to be more crash-prone in general), there was no statistically significant increase in crash rates by drivers who tested positive for the drug. It’s still a bad idea to drive high, but driving drunk is far, far worse: “One substance was shown to have a major influence on crashes: alcohol. The study confirmed the enormous danger of drinking and driving, even after age and sex adjustment: drivers with a 0.05% blood-alcohol level were found to be twice as likely to be in a crash. For a person weighing 180 to 190 pounds, that could be a single can of beer, glass of wine, or shot of liquor. At 0.08% (two drinks), the likelihood is quadrupled, and at .20% (four drinks or more), the risk is higher by 23 times.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Federal Study: Marijuana Use Doesn’t Increase Auto Crash Rates

OpenStreetMap.org Gets Routing

An anonymous reader writes “Good news for OpenStreetMap: the main website now has A-to-B routing (directions) built in to the homepage! The OSM website offers directions which are powered by third-parties using OSM data, providing car, bike, and foot routing. OpenStreetMap has a saying: ‘What gets rendered, gets mapped’ – meaning that often you don’t notice a bit of data that needs tweaking unless it actually shows up on the map image. It will make OpenStreetMap’s data better by creating a virtuous feedback loop.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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OpenStreetMap.org Gets Routing

Company Promises Positive Yelp Reviews For a Price; Yelp Sues

jfruh writes Many restaurants and other small businesses live and die by Yelp reviews. Revleap operates a paid service that it says can “create a large constant flow of positive reviews that stay on top of your [Yelp] profile, and remove fake reviews.” But Yelp is suing Revleap for what it says are practices that are fraudulent and in violation of Yelp’s terms of service; among other things, Revleap promises users gift cards in exchange for good reviews. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Company Promises Positive Yelp Reviews For a Price; Yelp Sues

US Military Working On 3D Printing Exact Replicas of Bones & Limbs

ErnieKey writes The U.S. military is working with technology that will allow them to create exact virtual replicas of their soldiers. In case of an injury, these replicas could be used to 3D print exact medical models for rebuilding the injured patient’s body and even exact replica implants. Could we all one day soon have virtual backups of ourselves that we can access and have new body parts 3D printed on demand? Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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US Military Working On 3D Printing Exact Replicas of Bones & Limbs