Computers

Noctua has announced the i4 revision of its NH-U9DX and NH-U12DX CPU coolers for Intel Xeon CPUs.

The dream of having the ultimate connected home can sometimes turn into a nightmare. A complicated set-up process, professional installers who charge exorbitant rates and a disconnected infrastructure can mean spending hours just to get a light switch connected to your router. As with many tech advancements, the true innovations are often 'one-offs' that work better collectively. These gadgets are easy to install and connect to your phone or computer. Light switches, appliances, and even your garden are just a click away. 1. Harvest Geek HarvestBot SensorStationNow a Kickstarter project, this garden sensor points to the future of the connected home with a small waterproof gadget you place in the soil. It measures water, air temp, humidity, light intensity, and soil moisture to help you make decisions about watering and care. Sensors connect to a BaseStation that feeds information to the web and mobile apps. Like any worthwhile connected home gadget, the Harvest Geek system can also send you alerts about weather conditions, such as an overly sunny day when your garden might require extra watering.2. Ford MyEnergi LifestyleOne important trend: the car is now becoming an integral part of the connected home. In the US, Ford has started an innovative 'proof of concept' with Georgia Tech called MyEnergi Lifestyle. It all started with a computer model, of course: engineers found that using a Ford C-MAX Energi electric car, along with products from Eaton, Whirlpool and Nest, a homeowner could save as much as 60% in energy costs and about 9,000 kg in CO2 (a 55 percent reduction). Participants, to be selected soon, use a mobile app that recognises your locale and can automatically use a Value Charge mode for the best utility rates.3. Vivint Whole-home SystemA powerful whole-home automation system, Vivint has one main control system for home security and temp, but the web and iPad apps give you unprecedented control. You can use a template like 'aggressive energy saver' to lower the heat automatically at midday and at night. There are presets for quickly moving a pan-tilt cam in your living room to look out of the window with one click. And a unique door lock system means you can lock one door in your home and have Vivint lock every other door automatically. One interesting feature is that Vivint uses gear from Alarm.com and D-Link for more unified automation. For now it's available only in the US and Canada but we hope they plan for worldwide domination soon.4. Whirlpool Smart DishwasherThis fully automated and connected Whirlpool WDL785SAAM dishwasher uses a technology called 6th Sense Live. You can activate wash cycles remotely using the web or a mobile app. The Energy Adviser system shows exactly how much energy the appliance is using so you can adjust usage time for a better rate. You can also check the total time you've used the appliance and check on maintenance schedules. The app even lets you know when the dishes are clean. Remote control features use Wi-Fi, but the energy consumption features require a smart grid in your home.5. Nexia Home IntelligenceOne of the best features of this smarthome system is that you can install the components yourself. The Nexia Home Bridge connects to your existing router. You enrol devices like door sensors, thermostats, front door deadbolts, appliance modules, and security cameras by pressing one 'plus' button on the bridge. All components are available for control in a web app or using an iOS or Android app (phones and tablets). To install a sensor, you can use an adhesive material to place it on a door or window, which means no complex measurements.6. Belkin WeMo Light SwitchMany home automation systems like those from Vivint use the Z-Wave protocol, which maintains a steady connection when you install multiple devices. (They link to each other to create a stronger bond.) The Belkin WeMo Light Switch connects to your existing Wi-Fi router and lets you turn the lights on and off with an app. Un

The DXT08B0Q and DXM05B0Q firmware updates provide the Samsung 840 and 840 Pro SSDs with improved read performance and enables DAS function as a default option.

Washington's biggest problem when it comes to Bitcoin may just be that policymakers on the Hill don't know enough about it, yet.That was the general consensus of a panel of legal experts speaking Saturday at a Silicon Valley conference devoted to the nascent digital currency."Congress is the wild card here," said Jerry Brito , director of technology policy at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, who liaisons with Washington on technology issues. But, "I'm very optimistic about the regulatory climate for Bitcoin ... because regulators and folks on the Hill simply don't understand it."Use of Bitcoin, a digital currency managed and traded over a peer-to-peer computer network, is growing. It is designed to be a decentralized form of payment not regulated by any financial institution or government body, but still some users worry whether the government might be getting involved, and if so, how.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Massimo Banzi launched a $69 Arduino board that plugs do-it-yourselfers into the cloud using a Wi-Fi chip from Qualcomm Atheros running a custom variant of Linux.View the full article HERE.

Setup an non-indexed /dev/urandom generated long filename, and saved it as php with a meta-refresh to a known malware site in case thats a trigger, and a passive html with no refresh and no args. Passed a username password via ?user=foo&password=bar to the php one and sent the links to Ian Grigg who I saw was online over skype with strict instructions not to click. To my surprise I see this two entries in the apache SSL log... So there is adium4skype which allows you to use OTR with your skype contacts and using skype as the transport. Or one might be more inclined to drop skype in protest. - Adam Back adam at cypherspace.org, Cryptography

[PJ: The leader so far is XMonad. Here's a page that explains how to use XMonad with KDE (or Gnome).] - Hacker News

Bitcoin is not going away, the digital currency's developers say, and they're craving more technically savvy people to support its use."Our bottleneck is not new code, it's code review and testing," said Gavin Andresen , chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation, which provides most of the core backend development for the currency.The foundation, which currently just has two full-time staff members, wants more help on the coding side as it eyes future Bitcoin-related services like enhanced security features on mobile wallets.Ideally, the foundation would bring on a lead quality assurance and project manager full-time, Andresen said, but having other code-savvy people who could test and review new features for Bitcoin is also key. Many of the development projects can be found on the GitHub hosting service.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Is there a gaming company hotter than Valve right now? That's a debate that could last for hours, but here's something that's pretty universally understood: Steam has completely transformed the idea of game delivery, and now that it's spreading to other platforms, it's giving gamers even easier access to even more titles. One of those famed...

Despite our strong differences on some issues, CPP members have, over the course of three years, collectively decided that it would be beneficial to articulate some principles of a "good" copyright law, to analyze respects in which existing copyright law does or does not comport with these principles, and to recommend changes to copyright law that would bring it into greater conformity with the principles. Making changes recommended in this Report would overcome some dysfunctions we perceive in current law and put it on a sounder normative foundation. Even where we disagree, recording the nature of our disagreements could advance discourse on copyright issues by others. Some changes recommended in this Report can only be brought about by legislative action, while others can be accomplished through common law evolution. We hope that this Report will contribute to a wider and more effective conversation about how to improve copyright law and policy. We further hope that this Report will lead to follow-on activities to assess, refine, and implement our recommendations. We end this preamble with one last observation. Too much discourse about copyright law in the past fifteen years has been burdened by rhetorical excesses and an unwillingness to engage in rational discourse with those having differing perspectives. The CPP has proven that it is possible for persons of good will with diverse viewpoints and economic interests to engage in thoughtful civil discourse on even the toughest and most controversial copyright issues. - Pamela Samuelson, Berkeley Technology Law Journal