Items tagged with NIST
Do you need a password manager to keep track of all your obscure, special character-filled and lengthy passwords necessary for various websites? It used to be that we would pick a simple, single password for multiple accounts and websites, until the rise of online exploits and hackers made such basic security practices seem ill-conceived. However, the recommendations of one man in particular, Bill Burr, led to the current situation that we’re in now where everything from our online banking accounts to our work email accounts require us to use a “strong” password. These are nearly impossible to remember without writing it down somewhere or filing it off into a app like LastPass (and even that...
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Someone at NIST is a Star Trek fan, and TOS, to boot, as they have no compunction against using references to the "Universal Translator" in this video about their TRANSTAC project, done jointly with Darpa. The project, involving three different systems. At least one of them, as seen in the video below, is none other than an HTC Nexus One (indeed, not an iPhone for once). Check out the progress on the English - Pashto / Pashto - English translator below....
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Well, not exactly. But a technology developed by British boffins to protect soldiers from chemical attack, called "ion-mask," has been released for civilian use to P2i in Oxfordshire, England. It's poised to become the method of choice for protecting electronic devices of all kinds from exposure to water. It doesn't rely on elaborate gaskets to keep moisture out of the case of a protected device. The entire device, including moving parts and circuit boards, can be coated and protected with the marvelous material. Invisible to the naked eye, ion-mask causes water to bounce off treated surfaces like beads of mercury by decreasing the surface energy of the component materials, and, by applying a...
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A fun e-mail just landed in the in-box that we thought some of you would like to see. It seems that some folks at Intel have gotten together and come up with a cool appreciation website and set of videos that will bring a tear (of laughter) to a seasoned sysadmin's eye. Did you know that July 27th is System Administrator Appreciation Day? Enjoy new humorous videos by Christopher Guest developed for the IT guy/gal... If you are wondering why there is a random jockey in one of the videos - it's trademark Guest. He tries to work in Jockeys, miniature horses and little people into all of his work. In this case it's supposed to perpetuate the chaos...
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Ryan over at PC Perspective has stumbled across a very controversial discovery when testing a Radeon X1950 XTX graphics card for another review. Here, Ryan found that the standard Radeon X1950 XTX was really using 2xAA when the user selects 4xAA in OpenGL games such as Prey, Doom3, and Quake 4! The interesting part here (and possibly incriminating) is that the Crossfire version of the Radeon X1950 XTX operated properly and used 4xAA when it was selected. Could this be a driver bug or possibly be ATI taking advantage of reviewers only testing with popular FSAA modes such as 4xAA? We're not sure, though we are anxious to hear what ATI thinks of this issue....
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