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Comment Special launch offer expires in Date() + 3 days (Score 3, Interesting) 294

by dk3nn3dy (#35287406) Attached to: Trying To Lure Suckers, Company Resells Open Source Blender

This part is awesome:

Your Dinky One-Time Investment Is Only $47!
(This is a special launch offer only, we're only opening this for the next 3 days only before the offer closes forever!)
Thats right. Your investment for the entire course is only $47 (this launch offer will closed anytime after February 26, 2011 )

Where February 26, 2011 is:
days = 3; // How many days to add to today
  d = new Date();
now = d.getTime(); // Add 10 days
d.setTime(now + days * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
document.getElementById("offerEnd1").innerHTML = formatDate(d);
function formatDate(d) {
var months = new Array("January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December");
return months[d.getMonth()] + " " + d.getDate() + ", " + d.getFullYear();;

Submission + - Capacitive touchscreen usable with a stylus (diginfo.tv)

Submitted by dk3nn3dy
dk3nn3dy writes: Hitachi Displays have developed a capacitive touchscreen which converts input from a non-conductive object into electrostatic capacitance. This enables it to be used in a diverse range of ways, such as multi-touch using several fingers, with a plastic pen for finer input, and in cold places while wearing gloves. The display is currently under development for release in the second half of 2011.
Security

Submission + - Cracking Passwords with Amazon EC2 GPU Instances (stacksmashing.net) 1

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: As of Nov-15, 2010, Amazon EC2 is providing what they call "Cluster GPU Instances": An instance in the Amazon cloud that provides you with the power of two NVIDIA Tesla “Fermi” M2050 GPUs. The exact specifications look like this:

        22 GB of memory
        33.5 EC2 Compute Units (2 x Intel Xeon X5570, quad-core “Nehalem” architecture)
        2 x NVIDIA Tesla “Fermi” M2050 GPUs
        1690 GB of instance storage
        64-bit platform
        I/O Performance: Very High (10 Gigabit Ethernet)
        API name: cg1.4xlarge

GPUs are known to be the best hardware accelerator for cracking passwords, so I decided to give it a try: How fast can this instance type be used to crack SHA1 hashes?

Using the CUDA-Multiforce, I was able to crack all hashes from this file with a password length from 1-6 in only 49 Minutes (1 hour costs 2.10$ by the way.). This just shows one more time that SHA1 is deprecated — You really don't want to use it anymore!

StackSmashing: http://stacksmashing.net/2010/11/15/cracking-in-the-cloud-amazons-new-ec2-gpu-instances/
Botnet

Submission + - 50 ISPs Harbor Half of All Infected Machines (net-security.org)

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes: As the classic method of combating botnets by taking down command and control centers has proven pretty much ineffective in the long run, there has been lots of talk lately about new stratagems that could bring about the desired result. A group of researchers from the Delft University of Technology and Michigan State University have recently released an analysis of the role that ISPs could play in botnet mitigation — an analysis that led to interesting conclusions. The often believed assumption that the presence of a high speed broadband connection is linked to the widespread presence of botnet infection in a country has been proven false.
Medicine

Submission + - Miniature Human Livers Grown in Lab (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: In the quest to grow replacement human organs in the lab, livers are no doubt at the top of many a barfly’s wish list. With its wide range of functions that support almost every organ in the body and no way to compensate for the absence of liver function, the ability to grow a replacement is also the focus of many research efforts. Now, for the first time, researchers have been able to successfully engineer miniature livers in the lab using human liver cells.

Submission + - W3C: IE9 is the most HTML5 compatible browser (engadget.com)

Submitted by GIL_Dude
GIL_Dude writes: The W3C posted results (http://test.w3.org/html/tests/reporting/report.htm) for their latest HTML5 compatibility tests and have found that, so far, IE 9 has the best overall results.
Displays

Submission + - LCD screen with Embedded Optical Sensors

Submitted by dk3nn3dy
dk3nn3dy writes: Sharp has developed a LCD display with optical sensors built into the displays pixels, without requiring a touch-sensitive film to be bonded on top of the regular screen. The optical sensor is similar to that used in scanners, allowing for notes or business cards to be scanned by the screen itself. As the optical recognition technology is built into the pixels it also simplifies tactile recognition based on simultaneously touching multiple points. Future uses include fingerprint authentication on the screen of your mobile phone or PDA, or iPhone style touch recognition. Volume production will start next spring.
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Breakthrough revolutionises microchip patterning

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: US research engineers claim to have developed a low-cost technique for patterning microchips that allows them to create ultra-small grooves on microchips as easily as "making a sandwich". The simple, low-cost technique results in the self-formation of periodic lines, or gratings, separated by as little as 60nm, or less than one ten-thousandth of a millimetre.

Features of this size have many uses in optical, biological and electronic devices, including the alignment of liquid crystals in displays. The ease of creating the lines is in marked contrast to traditional fabrication methods, which typically use a beam of electrons, ions or a mechanical tip to 'draw' the lines into a surface.

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