Gearfuse

No joke. The MD5 algorithm, which is used widespread around the web for encryption, has been broken. A group of researchers used a cluster of PS3s to create a forged certificate authority, essentially enabling them to break into SSL-encrypted sites. HTTPS? Gone. There is no security. Sure, most of us don’t have 200 Playstation 3s sitting at home but if something is broken, you have to fix it. If you’re a programmer or coder of some sort, make sure implementing MD5 isn’t on your list of things to do.

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When we have a dream, the visions we experience remain in our minds and only in our minds, and are more often than not, forgotten quickly. Sleep Waking is a robot which uses recorded brainwaves to re-enact your movements inside of your dreams. (more…)

Sources are saying that Microsoft might be giving up their dreams of the Zune posing heavy competition with the iPod and have moved on to brighter pastures. While Zune sales still remain moderately okay on the whole scheme of PMP products, the Zune has proven to be a disappointment as many predicted. It’s being rumored that Microsoft is working on a 3D audio process that could change the face of how we hear our music.

The process would work by having a series of speakers which focus on target locations, so that you wouldn’t need headphones to get the full surround sound effect. A Microsoft development team is currently working on an algorithm for speakers that might do exactly that. Optimally, the speakers would be embedded in computer monitors and would target areas which would create virtual headphones. This would be done by having sound waves that diminish greatly only inches from the focal point of the sound. The ultimate goal is to allow workers to be able to listen to conference calls or video without disturbing other workers at all. It will be interesting to see if this ever comes to light. — Andrew Dobrow

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PayPal can’t seem to get a break. Because it is the main payment method of eBay, there are always tons of people trying to hack into the system and exploit flaws. Now, we understand that there shouldn’t be any flaws in the first place, but people shouldn’t be trying to steal other’s identities either. So here is a step that PayPal is trying to take to increase security: Security Keys. These keys generate unique passwords every 30 seconds or so, and everytime a user signs in to the service, they will have to enter this random key combination in addition to their username and pervious password. Of course, there are some serious problems with this. One being that, like nearly everything that is “random”, there are algorithms involved that can be cracked. Also, as is done today, users can be tricked into entering their information into a phishing site. All these new measures would do is give the scammers only 30 seconds to loging (which is still plenty of time). Will this new security measure work? It’s unlikely. — Nik Gomez

The Paypal Security Key [via Gadgetell]