Looks like IBM has figured out a method to reliably vertically stack semiconductors, eliminating significant design constraints and power use requirements when designing small computing devices. They expect to begin implementing this new technique into mobile products like cellular phones as early as next year. MSNBC Reports...
In IBM’s solution, two chips are sandwiched on top of one another — the distance between them measured in microns, or millionths of a meter — and held together by vertical connections that are etched in silicon holes that are filled with metal.
The vertical connections are referred to as “through-silicon-vias,” which allow multiple chips to be stacked together with greater information flow between them. IBM said its three-dimensional approach creates the possibility of up to 100 times more pathways for information, and shortens by 1,000 times the distance that information on a chip needs to travel.
“This is a big step, this is a really historic move,” said David Lammers, director of WeSRCH.com, a social networking Web site for semiconductor enthusiasts and part of VLSI Research Inc.
In an effort to stem the tide of discovered encryption keys, the AACS Licensing Authority announced that is has "taken action, in cooperation with relevant manufacturers, to expire the encryption keys associated with the specific implementations of AACS-enabled software." So, those with some clue will wait for BackupHDDVD and AnyDVD HD to get updated. Meanwhile the average clueless consumer who rarely even thinks about updating anything will soon be in for a shock when their HD disc playing software goes into self-destruct mode with new HD releases.
The end result? Perhaps, and this is just an educated guess, more and more legitimate consumers will likely be turned into encryption cracking evildoers, simply because they want to play what they PAID FOR. Sigh... Why is this so predictable?
Through the distribution of new movie discs with embedded revoked keys, AACS LA will trigger a self-destruct system for PC-based high-def player software whose integrity from unauthorized copying is found to be compromised. And based on its last statement, the revocation could extend beyond Corel InterVideo, which warned its users last Friday.
How many hard drives do you have to lose to let loose 3 million individuals identities? Apparently only one!
In yet another instance of "why is some security lax moron holding personal data on millions of people in the trunk of his Toyota", a vendor with Affiliated Computer Services has "misplaced" a hard drive containing an estimated 3 million individuals personal information.
This begs so many questions, it's hard to know where to start. How does one lose a HDD? Was someone letting the HDD out for a bit of fresh air? Did it magically grow legs? Took it to Walmart to go shopping and then got seperated at the checkout? Did the HDD forget to bring it's cellphone? Why only the HDD and not a complete system?
This is mind bogglingly stupid. Why do things like this happen? The Inquirer Reports...
NEARLY THREE million peoples' identities are up for grabs after a hard drive went missing, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The HDD contained social security numbers, birth data and names of people who got health care benefits and medical aid, the report said.
Does a 62 percent rise year-on-year in profit sound pretty darn sweet? How about beating 17 top analysts expectations, or beating your own corporate forecast by 24%? It sounds very sweet to anyone owning shares in Nintendo Corporation, because they posted a record $2.2 Billion Dollars in earnings for the year ended March 31. Reuters Reports...
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. is eyeing a record group recurring profit of 260 billion yen ($2.2 billion) for the year ended March 31 on strong sales of its handheld DS consoles and a weaker yen, the Nikkei business daily said on Friday.
The figure, above a market estimate for a 242.4 billion yen profit by 17 analysts polled by Reuters, would represent a 62 percent rise year-on-year and would exceed Nintendo's previous forecast by 24 percent.
Nintendo shares were up 1.2 percent at 34,750 yen at 0029 GMT, outperforming the benchmark Nikkei average, which was up 0.17 percent.
Looks like yet another gauntlet has been thrown down in the war between AMD and Intel. Across the board there are dramatic price drops on AMD X2 CPU's, with the X2 6000+ 3Ghz Dual Core tipping in as cheap as $229, and the low end X2 3600+ veritable pocket change at $73. Clock-per-dollar it's really AMD's ball game at the moment, so let's see now Intel reacts over the coming weeks. TG Daily reports....
A dual-core processor for $73? Not a problem over at AMD. The company has published yet another dramatic top-to-bottom price cut for its desktop processor line-up, which now tops out at just $241 for a 3 GHz dual-core chip in the high-end mainstream segment.
Average retail prices for AMD’s desktop dual-core processors have been sliding downhill for several weeks in an increasingly competitive environment in which AMD tries to maintain its market share and Intel can control key segments of the market with a superior processor architecture. The price cuts AMD published today not only follow that trend but show take the battle between the companies to a new level: AMD’s high-end mainstream processor X2 6000+ undercuts the price of its most comparable Intel counterpart E6600 by nearly 24%.
When someone is in need of blood, there sometimes isn’t
enough available. Motor vehicle accidents and major trauma can damage vital
organs, leading to blood loss, and then shock. If blood can be given in a timely
manner, it can give doctors the time they need to perform surgery and correct
internal injuries. However, finding the right blood type to avoid rejection is
a problem, thus patients are given 0- a universal blood type. With more blood available
using this new technique, countless lives may be saved. For those against blood
transfusions (Jehovah Witnesses), they are even working on “fake” blood.
The BBC reports: Scientists have
developed a way of converting one blood group into another. The
technique potentially enables blood from groups A, B and AB to be converted
into group O negative, which can be safely transplanted into any patient. The
method, which makes use of newly discovered enzymes, may help relieve shortages
of blood for transfusions. The new technique works by using bacterial
enzymes to cut sugar molecules from the surface of red blood cells. After a
search of 2,500 fungi and bacteria the researchers discovered two bacteria - Elizabethkingia
meningosepticum and Bacterioides fragilis - which contained
potentially useful enzymes. They found that enzymes from both bacteria were
able to remove both A and B antigens from red blood cells.
Nintendo ends the fiscal year with sales way ahead of analysts expectations. $300 million ahead of analyst expectations, closing their fiscal year with $8.1 billion in revenue. CNNMoney.com reports...
TOKYO (Reuters) -- Japanese video game maker Nintendo raised its just-ended fiscal year sales and profit forecasts for the fourth time Thursday, thanks to robust demand for its DS handheld games, sending its shares higher.
Nintendo's strategy to broaden the overall game-playing population paid off handsomely with the DS as well as its new game console, the Wii, proving a smashing success. Both the DS and Wii focus on intuitive, easy-to-play games. The Wii's success helped Nintendo exceed sales expectations for the year ended March 31.
The company said sales totaled about ¥966 billion ($8.1 billion) for the year ended March 31, up from its previous forecast of ¥900 billion ($7.5 billion), and compared with a consensus of ¥929 billion ($7.8 billion) in a poll of 17 analysts by Reuters Estimates.
Maybe NDA's arent what they used to be. Apparently Albatron or one of it's australian distributors have allowed their 8600GTS to be leaked to retailers.
Whirpool.net.au forum user "Bβoy" has posted pics and benchmarks of his shiny new 8600 for all to see. The numbers look really good, and point towards the 8600GTS being a very nice midrange performer.
It's bad enough when we reported earlier in the week that Vista was still vulnerable to an almost 2 year old identified exploit using malformed .ani (cursor) files.
Unfortunately, it seems the fix Microsoft released to patch this exploit breaks Realtek HD Audio and Ethernet drivers/applications. This might seem less serious than you'd think at first. Unfortunately Realtek is pretty dominant in the onboard audio and ethernet markets so this "fix" can break alot of machines.
We found out the hard way patching our Vista x64 Ultimate rig here, but with safe mode and system restore it wasn't too hard to recover from. Let's hope Microsoft and Realtek have the sense to address this now, and not blow it off until the next "Patch Tuesday". Microsoft has at least addressed the issue in a Knowledge Base article here, with a link to a patch for XP SP2 here. We assume a patch for Vista is imminent to work around this problem soon. We hope.
Till more news is evident, if you have Realtek HD Audio or Realtek ethernet and Vista, you might want to steer clear of this "fix" until the fix gets fixed.
When someone is in need of blood, there sometimes isn’t
enough available. Motor vehicle accidents and major trauma can damage vital
organs, leading to blood loss, and then shock. If blood can be given in a timely
manner, it can give doctors the time they need to perform surgery and correct
internal injuries. However, finding the right blood type to avoid rejection is
a problem, thus patients are given 0- a universal blood type. With more blood available
using this new technique, countless lives may be saved. For those against blood
transfusions (Jehovah Witnesses), they are even working on 
