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‘EVE: Valkyrie’ studio's 'Sparc' hits PSVR on August 29th
CCP Games announced last month that it would be following up its popular EVE: Valkyrie VR game with the Tron-like VR sport title Sparc. Today, the studio announced it'll come out for PlayStation VR on August 29th for $30.
Relive 'Tron' disc battles when 'Sparc' launches first on PSVR
Have you wanted to relive Tron's light disc battles through CCP Games' Sparc (aka Project Arena)? You're about to get your chance... although you may have to switch platforms to get it soon. CCP has revealed that Sparc will launch in the third quarter of the year for PlayStation VR. The developer stresses that this is only a temporary exclusive (it's arriving "first" on PSVR), but that still means you'll have to forego any near-term dreams of virtual arena battles on your Vive.
1024-bit RSA encryption cracked by carefully starving CPU of electricity
Since 1977, RSA public-key encryption has protected privacy and verified authenticity when using computers, gadgets and web browsers around the globe, with only the most brutish of brute force efforts (and 1,500 years of processing time) felling its 768-bit variety earlier this year. Now, three eggheads (or Wolverines, as it were) at the University of Michigan claim they can break it simply by tweaking a device's power supply. By fluctuating the voltage to the CPU such that it generated a single hardware error per clock cycle, they found that they could cause the server to flip single bits of the private key at a time, allowing them to slowly piece together the password. With a small cluster of 81 Pentium 4 chips and 104 hours of processing time, they were able to successfully hack 1024-bit encryption in OpenSSL on a SPARC-based system, without damaging the computer, leaving a single trace or ending human life as we know it. That's why they're presenting a paper at the Design, Automation and Test conference this week in Europe, and that's why -- until RSA hopefully fixes the flaw -- you should keep a close eye on your server room's power supply.
WoW Moviewatch: Devour
(Warning: This machinima apparently contains some spoiler elements for the game F.E.A.R.)Inspired by Baron Soosdon, first time machinimator, Buzz Dawson, learned to make machinima in just three days with not only World of Warcraft, but also F.E.A.R. He even bought the editing program, Sony Vegas 9, just for this project, which is quite ambitious for an inaugural effort. The result of his educational experiment, Devour, a music video for the song by Shinedown, isn't a literal interpretation, employs creative use of the L70ETC character models, and contains some great cut scenes. While I wish WoW was featured a bit more prominently, for a new effort, this is fantastic. The aspect ratio doesn't jump, the characters don't randomly fade in and out, and the transitions are fairly smooth. What say you, (constructively) critical commenters?[Via Warcraftmovies.com]If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ..
Rover SPARC uses IBM backup tech to keep your fav files safe
There's no shortage of backup solutions out there -- just like there's no shortage of people who never get around to it anyways. The Rover SPARC does things a little differently, however. Instead of providing a massive storage solution for all your files, the Rover SPARC uses IBM's "Continuous Data Protection" to keep track of your most precious files, and back them up on the fly as changes are made. The wallet-sized drive comes in 2GB and 4GB flavors for $100 and $130, respectively, and while both sizes aren't going to back up your OS, program, or media folders anytime soon, emails, contacts and other must-haves should fit just fine. If you're incredibly unlucky, the "plug & play software" saves copies of certain files (including photos) online, but there's a $35 annual fee to keep that going after the first year.
