G.SKILL Ripjaws MX780 RGB Gaming Mouse Review
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CISA Passes Senate Despite Glaring Privacy Concerns
The Cybersecurity Information Security Act, otherwise known as CISA, passed its U.S. Senate vote earlier today by a tally of 74-21. It now heads off to a conference committee where it can try to mirror the bill passed by the House earlier this year, and there's a chance it could be filibustered before then or even vetoed by the President. However, CISA has been endorsed by the White House, which is a change from its condemnation of CISPA two years ago. CISA may stall, but it may also come to pass. Now, for why CISA isn't the greatest idea is that while it's designed to try and curtail cybersecurity breaches of businesses, it's rather open ended in what it defines as a threat. Basically, CISA allows these businesses to openly share its cybersecurity threat data with the FBI, NSA, and others in order to help those agencies defend other companies from future threats. The problem is the threat definition of CISA is extremely open ended, where nearly anything can be considered a threat. And to make matters potentially worse, the companies can share all user data without a warrant and even offer a backdoor to circumvent any user privacy laws.
According to Mark Jaycox, a legislative analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), CISA lays down the groundwork for companies to collect user data quickly and provide it to the government. It isn't some user data, but all user data from as many users as the company feels like gathering the data on. Any cybersecurity threat information gathered on the grounds of CISA can be shared "notwithstanding any other provision of law." Health records, financial information, emails, text messages, and anything else a company gathers by way of CISA would no longer be private. Two amendments to CISA that would have added more privacy were not passed, although the votes were fairly close, so there's a chance support for those amendments will return.
CISA is meant to stop breaches, but it does nothing for poor computer architecture, unencrypted data, outdated servers/firewalls, employees downloading malware, or anything else that can also contribute to data breaches. CISA only seems to be concerned with outside threats and nothing internal, which is just as big of a threat.
Academic institutions, tech companies (most of Silicon Valley, really), computer security professionals, and civil society organizations were all against CISA, yet it still passed. More than one million faxes were sent to the Senators by their constituents opposing CISA, and yet it still passed. The Department of Homeland Security even warned that the passage of CISA could flood it with superfluous information or things of "dubious data," while also destroying privacy protection. Yet CISA still passed the Senate. The EFF expressed its disappointment with the passage of CISA, as I'm sure many others will, too. The EFF intends to keep fighting for more privacy protection to be included in CISA , because even with the good intentions of the bill, its current wording is seriously flawed and can expose all of our data to the government. We'll keep you updated on how CISA proceeds from here.
Sources: EFF, Yahoo, and Wired
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Corsair Releases Strafe RGB Silent Keyboard
Corsair has announced the release of its latest mechanical keyboard, the Strafe RGB Silent, "the world’s first mechanical keyboard to use the new Cherry MX Silent keyswitch." The Cherry MX Silent switches use the same switch technology with a sound dampening system to create a keyboard that is up to 30% quieter. The sound dampening system trades out rubber O-rings for a "patented fully-integrated noise reduction system" that reduces "key bottoming-out and spring-back noise." The keyboard takes advantage of an onboard controller to provide multi-color dynamic backlighting with "nearly unlimited lighting customization, effects and personalization." The Strafe RGB Silent is the exclusive launch partner for the Silent switches and is available only from Best Buy or Corsair at an MSRP of $159.99.
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New Quantum Computer Design for Increased Capabilities
For a long time, researchers have been dreaming of and working to develop quantum computers that would be able to solve problems modern computers could take thousands of years to tackle. Many have been working on what are called adiabatic quantum computers of late, but so far all of the current approaches suffer from a common problem. Now researchers at the University of Innsbruck have devised a new approach that should solve the problem and allow for greater scalability.
Modern adiabatic quantum computation methods work by encoding the problem into the interaction between the quantum bits, or qubits, and then seeing how they behave. The problem is that the mechanics qubits actually limit what computations can be performed. What the Innsbruck researchers propose is to instead encode the problems onto local fields, either electrical or magnetic depending on the kind of qubit. By separating the hardware (the qubits) from the possible inputs, more problems could be programmed, and the degrees of freedom would also be increased.
This higher degree of freedom can also be used to increase the fault tolerance, by redundantly encoding onto multiple qubits.
Source: EurekAlert!
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BIOSTAR Debuts Hi-Fi Z170Z5 Combo Motherboard
BIOSTAR, a professional brand dedicated to the production of motherboards, graphics cards, and industrial computing systems, has officially released the Hi-Fi Z170Z5 combo motherboard. The latest product from BIOSTAR is based on the H170 chipset by Intel and features support of either DDR3 or DDR4 memory modules. This allows owners of DDR3 memory to enjoy all of the features that the H170 chipset offers, while still being able to upgrade to faster memory at a later time. The Hi-Fi Z170Z5 comes with PCI-E 3.0 technology, incredibly durable solid cap capacitors, and the ability to prioritize network traffic for optimal networking performance. The combination motherboard also boasts audio components with independent power designs, the ability to remotely control a machine via Android and Apple devices, easy updating and restoration of the BIOS, as well as various safeguards such as OVER-Current Protection, OVER-Voltage Protection, and OVER-Heat Protection.
More information about the Hi-Fi Z170Z5 combo motherboard from BIOSTAR can be found on the official product website.
Source: Press Release
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Hardware Roundup: Tuesday, October 27, 2015, Edition
Another day has arrived, with several items to help you get through this Tuesday. There is a review of the NZXT S340 By Razer case, a unique version that has some Razer tweaks along the way. For a storage option, we have the Silicon Power Slim S80 240GB SSD, which has 19nm MLC NAND flash and a Phison controller. We also have a look at the Tt eSPORTS Poseidon Z RGB Gaming Keyboard, a mechanical model with full RGB backlighting and Tt's own mechanical switches for a little bit more affordable solution. The final item for today is the Zotac MAGNUS EN970 Gaming Mini-PC, an option for those tight on space yet still want to do some gaming, thanks to the GTX 960 packed inside.
Cases
NZXT S340 By Razer @ Benchmark Reviews
Storage/Hard Drives
Silicon Power Slim S80 240GB SSD @ Madshrimps
Keyboards/Mice
Tt eSPORTS Poseidon Z RGB Gaming Keyboard @ ThinkComputers
Prebuilts
Zotac MAGNUS EN970 Gaming Mini-PC @ Bjorn3D
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Concrete 3D Printer Built for Future Construction
When thinking about a product made by a 3D printer, most people probably expect a plastic, metal, or even glass object. Thanks to researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology and ROHACO though, concrete is also being 3D printed now. Currently we are not looking at printing entire houses and buildings, but laying the ground work for such a future.
Currently concrete structures are made by first building a form and then pouring in a batch of concrete. While this approach has worked for a long time, it cannot do everything we may want it to do, such as creating small details and incorporating multiple kinds of concrete with different properties. The new 3D printer is able to make details the size of a pea and can deposit various kinds of concrete, from fiber-reinforced to dirt-repelling concrete, to give the structure the desired properties. It could even be used to place wireless sensors directly into the concrete at precise spots. Before any of this can happen though, a lot of work has to be done.
One issue the researchers have to overcome with the printer is how to best deposit new layers without comprising the final structure's integrity. The underlying layer has to be both strong enough to support the new layer, but also moist enough to adhere to it and these are conflicting properties.
Source: Eindhoven University of Technology
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