Tech News Thread.

[Trip]

wow i just read this ...

New PCs could start in just seconds, thanks to an update to one of the oldest parts of desktop computers.

The upgrade will spell the end for the 25-year-old PC start-up software known as Bios that initialises a machine so its operating system can get going.

The code was not intended to live nearly this long, and adapting it to modern PCs is one reason they take as long as they do to warm up.

Bios' replacement, known as UEFI, will predominate in new PCs by 2011.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11430069

a dedicated news thread is a good idea too i think :)

Edited October 3, 2010 by Trip

[Infiltrator]

It was about time for the BIOS to be replaced. It had a nice going, all these years but now its time for a better and more efficient one.

[Netshroud]

Macs have been running EFI for years ^_^

[Trip]

Article on google's new webp image format :D

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/seo/google-8217s...l-about-seo/669

[Trip]

google tv confirmed & new google tv website ;)

http://news.oneindia.in/2010/10/05/tech-go...and-in-oct.html

whens it coming to the uk tho :D

[Trip]

first look @ a logitech google tv box

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/06/logitech_google_tv/

[Trip]

android watch by sony ...

http://www.betanews.com/article/Sony-Erics...Nano/1285686842

[Trip]

teenager jailed for refusing to hand over encryption keys

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/361693/teenage...encryption-keys

[okiwan]

that live view is cool cause it works with android, but the new nano is allot nicer. its the same concept with the clip or can be used as a watch but it has touch screen and accelerometer an a nicer display.

[Trip]

yeah it looks nice and agreed apple's clip thing does look better ... but it wont work with my handset :( so the sony thing is gooood :D

ubuntu release set (10th october)

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1...010-release-set

[okiwan]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN0721049120101007

microsoft to buy adobe!!! shares went up 17%!!! man i wish i had some of those shares. or allot actually. apples probably like fuck you guys.

[Trip]

i thought ms bought adobe ages ago ? oh well lol shows what i know

man im a macromedia kid i loved that company ... wish adobe hadnt bought them out :(

feel like a traitor using photoshop rather than fireworks lol

[okiwan]

funny you mention that cause iv never even seen fireworks until earlier today, some one was showing me a website he designed on it.

[Trip]

its great for web graphics, buttons / layout etc :D

and optimisation + batch processing :)

photoshop is more for photographers and artists .. where fireworks is specifically for web based stuff

i use them all ... but have recently (last 12 months) started using GIMP & inkscape a lot more (both free and open source)

[okiwan]

ya i was big into photoshop an aftereffects. but now with the lack of windows im using gimp.

[Trip]

arrrrrgh

if ms buys adobe they might withdraw flash from android !!! that would suck.

Edited October 8, 2010 by Trip

[okiwan]

arrrrrgh

if ms buys adobe they might withdraw flash from android !!! that would suck.

that cant. android is open source. we would just put it right back in.

[Trip]

unfortunatley not so ... flash isnt opensource i dont think anyway

[okiwan]

no flash isnt, but android is. before flash was even available on android, there was custom roms out there that allowed you to view flash.

[okiwan]

double post

Edited October 8, 2010 by okiwan

[Trip]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11528371

UK infrastructure faces cyber threat, says GCHQ chief

GCHQ is mostly associated with electronic intelligence-gathering

The UK's critical infrastructure - such as power grids and emergency services - faces a "real and credible" threat of cyber attack, the head of GCHQ says.

The intelligence agency's director Iain Lobban said the country's future economic prosperity rested on ensuring a defence against such assaults.

The internet created opportunities for hostile states and criminals, he said.

For example, 1,000 malicious e-mails a month are already being targeted at government computer networks, he said.

Speaking to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Mr Lobban said he did not want to go into detail about the threat to the UK's "critical national infrastructure".

But he said the threat posed by terrorists, organised criminals and hostile foreign governments was "real and credible" and he demanded a swifter response to match the speed with which "cyber events" happened.

Continue reading the main story

“

Start Quote

Cyberspace is contested every day, every hour, every minute, every second”

Iain Lobban

GCHQ

Critical national infrastructure also includes sectors such as financial services, government, mass communication, health, transport, and food and water - all of which are deemed necessary for delivering services upon which daily life in the UK depends.

With both the Strategic Defence and Security Review and the Comprehensive Spending Review due to be published next week, Mr Lobban said ministers would be looking at what capabilities the UK needs to develop further.

"Clearly they will also be deciding how they trade off against other spending priorities."

He added: "Just because I, as a national security official, am giving a speech about cyber, I don't want you to take away the impression that it is solely a national security or defence issue. It goes to the heart of our economic well-being and national interest."

Intellectual property theft

While GCHQ is more usually associated with electronic intelligence-gathering, Mr Lobban stressed that it also had a security role, referred to as "information assurance".

He said that they had already seen "significant disruption" to government computer systems caused by internet "worms" - both those that had been deliberately targeted and others picked up accidentally.

Each month there were more than 20,000 "malicious" e-mails on government networks, of which 1,000 were deliberately targeted at them, while intellectual property theft was taking place on a "massive scale" - some relating to national security.

And there was a "big challenge" with the government wanting to get more and more services online, he said.

"Cyberspace lowers the bar for entry to the espionage game, both for states and for criminal actors," he said.

"Cyberspace is contested every day, every hour, every minute, every second. I can vouch for that from the displays in our own operations centre of minute-by-minute cyber attempts to penetrate systems around the world."

While 80% of the threat to government systems could be dealt with through good information assurance practice - such as keeping security "patches" up to date - the remaining 20% was more complex and could not simply be solved by building "higher and higher" security walls.

Export expertise?

Although cyberspace presented a potential security threat to the UK, Mr Lobban said that it also offered an opportunity if the UK could get its defences right.

"Fundamentally, getting cyber right enables the UK's continuing economic prosperity.

"There's a clear defensive angle. In order to flourish, a knowledge economy needs to protect from exploitation the intellectual property at the heart of the creative and high-tech industry sectors. It needs to maintain the integrity of its financial and commercial services."

But he added that the implications were wider than that.

"There is an opportunity which we can seize if government and the telecommunications sector, hardware and software vendors, and managed service providers can come together.

"It's an opportunity to develop a holistic approach to cyber security that makes UK networks intrinsically resilient in the face of cyber threats.

"That will lead to a competitive advantage for the UK. We can give enterprises the confidence that by basing themselves here they gain the advantages of access to a modern internet infrastructure while reducing their risks."

He said developing such expertise would also open up potential export opportunities, with the global market for cyber security products "growing faster than much of the rest of the global economy".

[okiwan]

http://androidcommunity.com/chrome-os-laun...s-end-20101013/

chrome OS is going to be released before the year is up. im excited to try this in a VM. though i expect to get the full effect it would have to be installed. i bet its gonna be super fast. an i bet there is going to be TONS of security flaws.

Edited October 14, 2010 by okiwan

[Trip]

i bet there wont be many apps. lol :D

cant wait to see how they think we should be computing

... and as for security ... it depends really how its been designed i suppose

0 day hack would be nice