Android: If you suspect your roommate or anyone else has been reading your private messages on your phone, then PeeperPeeper can catch them red-handed. The app creates fake shortcuts for popular messaging apps and takes a photo when someone opens them. Read more…
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PeeperPeerer Catches Who Has Been Snooping on Your Private Messages
Rambo Tribble writes “The BBC reports that the U. S. government has agreed to pay software maker Apptricity $50 million to settle claims that the U.S. Army pirated thousands of copies of the firm’s provisioning software. The report indicates 500 licensed copies were sold, but it came to light an army official had mentioned that ‘thousands’ of devices were running the software.” $50 million in tax money could have paid for a whole lot of open source software development, instead. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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US Military Settles Software Piracy Claims For $50M
An anonymous reader writes with this bit from The Next Web “Bitcoin hit a new milestone today, passing the $1, 000 mark for the first time. The virtual currency is currently trading above the four-digit figure, with its highest at $1, 030 on Mt. Gox, one of the largest exchanges. Last week, Bitcoin’s high for the day was $632. That means its trading value has surged 62.83 percent in a week, assuming we’re looking at just its high points. That figure could of course rise even further if Bitcoin continues to push further up throughout the day.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Bitcoin Tops $1,000 For the First Time
MojoKid writes “Benchmarks are serious business. Buying decisions are often made based on how well a product scores, which is why the press and analysts spend so much time putting new gadgets through their paces. However, benchmarks are only meaningful when there’s a level playing field, and when companies try to ‘game’ the business of benchmarking, it’s not only a form of cheating, it also bamboozles potential buyers who (rightfully) assume the numbers are supposed mean something. 3D graphics benchmark software developer Futuremark just ‘delisted’ a bunch of devices from its 3DMark benchmark results database because it suspects foul play is at hand. Of the devices listed, it appears Samsung and HTC in particular are indirectly being accused of cheating 3DMark for mobile devices. Delisted devices are stripped of their rank and scores. Futuremark didn’t elaborate on which specific rule(s) these devices broke, but a look at the company’s benchmarking policies reveals that hardware makers aren’t allowed to make optimizations specific to 3DMark, nor are platforms allowed to detect the launch of the benchmark executable unless it’s needed to enable multi-GPU and/or there’s a known conflict that would prevent it from running.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Futuremark Delists Samsung and HTC Android Devices for Cheating 3DMark
An anonymous reader writes “The Xeon Phi co-processor requires a Xeon CPU to operate… for now. The next generation of Xeon Phi, codenamed Knights Landing and due in 2015, will be its own CPU and accelerator. This will free up a lot of space in the server but more important, it eliminates the buses between CPU memory and co-processor memory, which will translate to much faster performance even before we get to chip improvements. ITworld has a look.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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A Co-processor No More, Intel’s Xeon Phi Will Be Its Own CPU As Well
First time accepted submitter conoviator writes “The NY Times has just published a piece providing more background on the healthcare.gov software project. One interesting aspect: ‘Another sore point was the Medicare agency’s decision to use database software, from a company called MarkLogic, that managed the data differently from systems by companies like IBM, Microsoft and Oracle. CGI officials argued that it would slow work because it was too unfamiliar. Government officials disagreed, and its configuration remains a serious problem.'” The story does not say that MarkLogic’s software is bad in itself, only that the choice meant increased complexity on the project. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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NYT: Healthcare.gov Project Chaos Due Partly To Unorthodox Database Choice
Bruce66423 writes with news that the IRS hasn’t made much progress improving its poor IT security. From the article: “The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that the IRS had only partially implemented 42 percent of the corrective plans it checked off as completed in recent years. … The review (PDF) showed that the IRS failed to properly track its progress toward completing many of the fixes auditors had recommended in recent years. The agency closed most of the cases without adequate documentation and did not always upload the necessary information into a database that helps ensure compliance. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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IRS Left Taxpayer Data Vulnerable and Lied About It
MTorrice writes “To understand the brain and its chemical complexities, researchers would like to peer inside the skull and measure neurotransmitters levels as the brain at work. Unfortunately, research methods to measure levels of chemicals in the brain require drilling holes in the skull, and noninvasive imaging techniques, such as MRI, can’t detect specific molecules. Now, as a first step toward a new imaging tool, chemists report they can detect molecules hidden behind 3- to 8-mm-thick bone.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Detecting Chemicals Through Bone
Sometimes a free trial comes along and you want to check it out, but in order to do so you have to enter a credit card number. Perhaps you don’t want to share that information just yet. That’s where GetCreditCardNumbers comes in. It creates “real” numbers you can use so you don’t have to give up your actual information. Read more…
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GetCreditCardNumbers Generates "Real" Numbers for Use in Free Trials
Researchers at MIT have developed a handheld milling machine that turns anyone into a skilled sculptor. Like with a 3D printer, users start with a 3D model on a computer, but instead of a machine laying down layers of plastic, the handheld mill removes only what’s needed from a solid block of material to eventually reveal a fully formed 3D object. This could basically turn anyone into a Michelangelo when we’re all able to buy one. Read more…
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Whoa, This Handheld Router Only Cuts Where Needed To Reveal 3D Models