open source – Page 188

DoD Announces New Bug Bounty Program Called Hack the Pentagon

Quince alPillan writes: Announcing what it calls “the first cyber bug bounty program in the history of the federal government, ” the Department of Defense says it’s inviting vetted hackers to test the security of its web pages and networks. Vetted hackers will need to pass a background check and will be attacking a predetermined system that is not a part of critical operations. This program is being put together by the Digital Defense Service, launched last fall. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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DoD Announces New Bug Bounty Program Called Hack the Pentagon

iOS 9.3 Will Tell You If Your Employer Is Monitoring Your IPhone

An anonymous reader writes: Nobody likes being monitored. But even if you suspected your company is following your activities on the iPhone, would you know where to check? In the next iteration of its smartphone operating system, iOS 9.3, Apple is looking to make this an easier task. According to Reddit user MaGNeTiX, the latest beta of iOS 9.3 has a message telling users their iPhone is being supervised. The message is as prominent as can be, both on the device’s lock screen and in the About section. “This iPhone is managed by your organization, ” the message on the lock screen says. And in the About screen, you get a little more detail, with a message saying your iPhone’s supervisor can monitor your Internet traffic and locate your device. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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iOS 9.3 Will Tell You If Your Employer Is Monitoring Your IPhone

New P2P Torrent Site ‘Play’ Has No Single Point of Failure

An anonymous reader writes: Play, a new peer-to-peer (P2P) site for downloading torrents, is practically impossible to shut down and promises to be the latest technology to revolutionise online downloads. The platform has appeared recently across ZeroNet, a Budapest-based open source site which is looking to offer a home to decentralised platforms which employ Bitcoin-crypto and BitTorrent technologies. As no central server exists, every additional user is a further point of connection inside the network, helping to avoid potential failures. As the first torrent site to appear on the network, Play can be accessed directly through a ZeroNet URL (only available with the tool installed). The site serves magnetic links sourced from RARBG, with which users can download films, series and other media files, in varying qualities. While ZeroNet itself is not an illegal platform, Play is identical to any other P2P download site in that it could face legal challenges over violating copyright. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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New P2P Torrent Site ‘Play’ Has No Single Point of Failure

Business card with built-in ECG is perfect for cardiologists

Some people can make business cards that stand out and show off their skills. Take for example, that one engineer who created a card that lights up and that programmer who designed one that can play Tetris . But what if you’re a medical professional, specifically a cardiologist? A company called MobilECG has created a business card that’s directly connected to your field: it has a built-in ECG that actually works. According to its blog post , the device has sensors that measure “the real ECG signal between the users’ hands, ” so long as their thumbs are touching the finger pads. Of course, you’ll have to explain to patients that while it works, MobilECG created it as a toy. The Hungarian startup clearly states that it’s “not suitable for diagnostic purposes, ” so they can’t abstain from getting an actual ECG done. The company is gauging people’s interest in the card at the moment and is planning to sell it for a rather hefty price of $29 per if it ever decides to release it. If you have the skills to make small electronic devices from scratch, though, you can try to create your own version. The card is open source, and MobilECG posted all its codes and schematics (PDF) online. Via: Gizmodo , Damn Geeky Source: mobilecg

Israeli Troops Who Relied On Waze Blundered Into Deadly Palestinian Firefight

An anonymous reader writes: Israeli forces mounted a rescue mission in a Palestinian neighborhood after gun battles erupted when two soldiers mistakenly entered the area because of an error on a satellite navigation app, Israeli authorities said Tuesday.The clashes late Monday in the Qalandiya refugee camp outside Jerusalem left at least one Palestinian dead and 10 injured, one seriously. According to initial Israeli reports, the two soldiers said they had been using Waze, a highly touted Israeli-invented navigation app bought more than two years ago by Google. The smartphone app, which has a settings option to ‘avoid dangerous areas, ‘ relies on crowdsourcing to give users the fastest traffic routes. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google-Backed SSD Endurance Research Shows MLC Flash As Reliable As SLC

MojoKid writes: Even for mainstream users, it’s easy to feel the differences between using a PC that has an OS installed on a solid state drive versus a mechanical hard drive. Also, with SSD pricing where it is right now, it’s also easy to justify including one in a new configuration for the speed boost. And there’s obvious benefit in the enterprise and data center for both performance and durability. As you might expect, Google has chewed through a healthy pile of SSDs in its data centers over the years and the company appears to have been one of the first to deploy SSDs in production at scale. New research results Google is sharing via a joint research project now encompasses SSD use over a six year span at one of Google’s data centers. Looking over the results led to some expected and unexpected findings. One of the biggest discoveries is that SLC-based SSDs are not necessarily more reliable than MLC-based drives. This is surprising, as SLC SSDs carry a price premium with the promise of higher durability (specifically in write operations) as one of their selling points. It will come as no surprise that there are trade-offs of both SSDs and mechanical drives, but ultimately, the benefits SSDs offer often far outweigh the benefits of mechanical HDDs. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Google-Backed SSD Endurance Research Shows MLC Flash As Reliable As SLC

Scientists Achieve Perfect Efficiency For Water-Splitting Half-Reaction

Dthief writes: Splitting water is a two-step process, and in a new study, researchers have performed one of these steps (reduction) with 100% efficiency. The results shatter the previous record of 60% for hydrogen production with visible light, and emphasize that future research should focus on the other step (oxidation) in order to realize practical overall water splitting. The main application of splitting water into its components of oxygen and hydrogen is that the hydrogen can then be used to deliver energy to fuel cells for powering vehicles and electronic devices. The process involves exposing the water to a mass of platinum-tipped nanorods, with visible light driving the reaction. The 100% efficiency refers to the photon-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency, and it means that virtually all of the photons that reach the photocatalyst generate an electron, and every two electrons produce one H2 molecule. At 100% yield, the half-reaction produces about 100 H2 molecules per second (or one every 10 milliseconds) on each nanorod, and a typical sample contains about 600 trillion nanorods. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Scientists Achieve Perfect Efficiency For Water-Splitting Half-Reaction

As of Tonight, 1900 Steam Games For Linux

New submitter KGIII writes: “After a recent Steam change, there were more than 1, 900 Steam Linux games listed as Valve ended up including yet-to-be-released Linux game ports. That total including unreleased Linux games is now up to 2, 009! But in terms of released Linux game titles available for download right now, the 1, 900 threshold was crossed tonight to end out February.” It’s getting there. All of you gamers might just be able to make the choice to move to Linux soon. It looks like there are quite a few more games coming down the pipe. This is a good thing as it gives gamers more options for their operating system. I imagine this bodes well for the SteamOS project and for the dedicated SteamOS devices. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

CompuLab Rolls out Fanless, High-End PCs With Unique Design

An anonymous reader writes: Israeli PC maker CompuLab has begun shipping the Airtop PC that allows assembling high-end PC components into a completely fanless design. Phoronix’s initial testing of the Airtop PC showed that it has a Core i7 5775C Broadwell processor, 16GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and GeForce GTX 950 all while being fan-less thanks to the innovative design. The early results are quite positive for this uniquely designed PC but it comes at a cost premium of a fully-loaded system costing more than $2, 200 USD. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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CompuLab Rolls out Fanless, High-End PCs With Unique Design

107 Games Revealed Ahead of HTC Vive Preorder Launch

SlappingOysters writes: Preorders open today for the HTC Vive virtual reality headset and while the device has been well-received by critics, little is known about the games coming to the device. We know that Job Simulator, Fantastic Contraption and Tilt Brush will be bundled in with the HTC Vive for those who preorder it, but Finder has discovered a further 104 games that have also been earmarked by their creators as coming to the device. For those considering a preorder, the site also provides a useful HTC Vive vs. Oculus Rift vs. PlayStation VR comparison table. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ken May

Tag: open source