Quote Of The Day

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."
- Carl Jung

Browser problems

Bug hunters race to find security flaws

Spoofing bug found in IE 7
Security experts find a weakness in Internet Explorer 7 that could help crooks mask the type of attack the browser was designed to thwart.
Image: IE 7 spoofing bug

Mozilla rebuts Firefox 2 bug reports
A pair of security flaw reports are "just noise" and don't present any real risk to Firefox users, Mozilla says.

New site

Been working on it for a while, it still has a way to go.  I'm learning a lot in the process.

 

 

www.BestBuysUS.com

Is this Will Smith?

Neurochip acts as a second motor cortex

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wearables

Haven't you ever wished that you had a second motor cortex? If you've suffered a brain injury of some kind, you just might. For the last few years, researchers at the University of Washington have designed and installed a special computer chip attached to the top of monkeys' heads to record the brain's motor cortex nerve signals. This computer chip, dubbed the Neurochip, creates a brain-computer interface that records every movement sent from the motor cortex to the rest of the monkeys' bodies. Then the Neurochip converts those signals into a stimulus that can be fed back to the brain, creating new neural pathways that theoretically could be used if the motor cortex was damaged in some way. We've still got a few questions, like exactly how this happens, how big physically this interface is, and when we should expect human trials. Of course, we've seen previous brain-computer interfaces before, but this one seems a bit more practical than strapping your head to some type of computer. The team published its results in the November 2, 2006 issue of Nature.

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OS-X on PC's?

Run OS X 10.4.8 legally on any PC, kinda sorta

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

There's plenty of folks out there who would love to run Mac OS X on generic PC hardware. In fact we've chronicled some of their efforts on this here blog of ours. Well according to Reg Hardware, one such fellow, Semthex, has just released what he claims is a legal version of Apple's kernel, which will run on any generic x86-powered machine. There's one catch, though: you'll have to run OS X entirely from the command line, so say goodbye to those fantasies of running Aqua full blast to spice up your beige box. That being said, Semthex subsequently posted to his blog that running a GUI is possible, "but it needs a key-salt to be inserted into 'commpage.c,' I won't provide because it would violate Apple Right and the law. But I heard it is already around." No matter which version you try, as always, your mileage may vary, so proceed at your own risk; but if you do reach computing nirvana, or blow up your PC in the process, let us know either way, cool?

[Via Reg Hardware, photo courtesy of MacUser]

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It's about Time!!

NEC LCD3735WXM joins the 37-incher club

Filed under: Displays

While we've seen an assortment of 37-inch TVs before, seriously, who wouldn't want 37 inches of liquid crystal awesomeness? This new NEC LCD3735WXM will hit the stage (also known as your home entertainment center) with an ATSC high def tuner, 1366 x 768 resolution, VGA / DVI (with HDCP support) along with S-video, component and composite video inputs, 16:9, and a 1,600:1 contrast ratio and a 9ms response time. Sadly, you'll have to wait until next month to throw down $2,300 to get one of these, though.

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Way KEWL

Alienware DHS A Series brings style to media PCs

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Alienware, our favorite "out-of-this-world" (har) computer maker has just come out with its Media Center PC, the DHS A Series. This newcomer appears to be the line that we first caught wind of earlier this month. The lustrous AMD LIVE! box is loaded up with a D2Audio 1,000 watt amp, HDMI, an Athlon 64 X2 dual-core CPU, a 160GB drive standard and can optionally hold up to 1.5TB. The DHS A Series should start shipping for $1,000 beginning in early 2007, but will certainly cost more if you want to break that terabyte threshold.

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Abe Lincoln

"It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong."
- Abraham Lincoln

Firefox 2 Released

Mozilla ups the ante against browser rivals
Mozilla officially released Firefox 2 on Tuesday afternoon, after much buzz over possible early access to a backdoor into the code.
Review: Firefox 2.0
George Ou: Firefox 2.0 shows promise
Video: Firefox 2 has arrived
Photos: Inside Firefox 2.0

More on Google Search

Google Gets Customizable

Users can create customized search engines for their sites to focus on any kind of content.

In another round of battle against Yahoo, Google has introduced a customized version of its search engine that will enable bloggers and other web site operators to offer a specialized form of Google to search for specific kinds of content, like a favorite sports team, actor, or hobby. The service, dubbed Google Customized Search Engine, allows users to select which web pages they want to include in a Google index, how the content should be prioritized, whether other users can also contribute to the index, and what the search results page will look like. The Mountain View, California, search giant is upping the stakes in its rivalry against Yahoo, which offers its own customized search engine, Search Builder. Other search vendors also offer such features, like blinkx, which recently introduced a customized version of its video search engine.

Find out more in today’s story.

New Google Search Setup

Get a Top Ranking in Google in 1 Day for Free

Google announced the launch of Google Customized Search Engines, which allow you to create topical search engines biased toward topics or websites of your choice. Read more...

Life-sized balsa wood toy plane fails to liftoff

Filed under: Transportation

For the average child, killing hours on end tossing an easily assembled balsa wood toy plane isn't an uncommon occurrence; for Mark Clews, however, those flat packed crafts weren't exhilarating enough. The 24-year old bloke spent six whole months building a "life-sized edition" to the same exact specifications as the kits he adored as a wee boy. The aircraft boasted a 20-foot wingspan, was 15-feet in length, and was constructed with a slightly tougher wood than balsa. However, his engineering (and physics) skills weren't nearly as sharp as those carpentry ones, as he expected "an enormous rubberband" wound countless times around the propeller to launch the plane into flight. Unsurprisingly, the craft jolted forward a meager five feet, and "even backwards" on another attempt, rendering his project a failure. In an presumed attempt to alert others of how not to get airborne, his impressive (albeit permanently grounded) creation will be on display at the Learn to Fly expo next month in London.

[Via FARK]

 

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Free Money

Researchers hack RFID credit cards. Big surprise.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wireless

RFID has been riddled with so many problems, it's amazing that anyone even has a shred of confidence in this technology at all. Our latest security problem du jour is that credit card companies are apparently issuing plastic that relays your digits wirelessly; as you might have guessed, security researchers are checking into this, and in a demonstration for The New York Times, easily hacked a University of Massachusetts computer science professor's newfangled RFID credit card. In short order (and with his permission), a researcher working with RSA Labs was able to steal the professor's name and credit card number that was being transmitted in cleartext -- thereby poking massive holes in Visa, MasterCard and American Express' claims that these card include "the highest level of encryption allowed by the U.S. government." Predictably, the credit card companies have already dismissed claims that the populus will be greatly affected by this hack. Brian Triplett, senior vice president for emerging-product development for Visa, told the Gray Lady: "This is an interesting technical exercise, but as a real threat to a consumer - that threat really doesn't exist." Well, Brian, care to put your plastic where your mouth is?

[Via TechDirt]

 

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