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The University of Minnesota isn't making any friends in the Linux community. Phoronix reported that Greg Kroah-Hartman, the Fellow at the Linux Foundation responsible for stable releases of the Linux kernel, has banned the University from contributing to that kernel after two students purposely added faulty code to it. The students in question published a research paper titled "On the Feasibility of Stealthily Introducing Vulnerabilities in Open-Source Software via Hypocrite Commits" on February 10. Those so-called "hypocrite commits" were defined as "seemingly beneficial commits that in fact introduce other critical issues." Although the paper was ostensibly focused on open source software generally, the students devoted much of their attention to the Linux kernel specifically because it's so popular. The kernel is practically ubiquitous—it's found in everything from single-board computers like the Raspberry Pi to the most powerful supercomputers. All of which is to … [Read more...] about Linux Foundation Bans University After It Intentionally Submitted Buggy Patches

AMD this week made select capabilities of its FidelityFX package available to Microsoft Xbox Series X|S developers. For Xbox Series X|S, AMD makes available FidelityFX Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS) , Variable Shading , and ray-traced shadow Denoiser technologies, which are already supported by numerous PC games. AMD's FidelityFX is a collection of technologies that can greatly enhance visual quality of games or improve their performance without noticeable degradation of image quality. AMD has introduced eight FidelityFX technologies. Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS) Combined Adaptive Compute Ambient Occlusion (CACAO) Variable Rate Shading (VRS) Stochastic Screen Space Reflections (SSSR) Ray-traced shadow Denoiser AMD's Luminance Preserving Mapper for HDR-supporting FreeSync Premium Pro monitors Single Pass Downsampler (SPD) Parallel Sort (optimized version of the radix sort algorithm) So far, game developers have implemented support for CAS, … [Read more...] about AMD Enables FidelityFX For Microsoft’s Xbox Series X|S Consoles

Thanks to the massive shortage of RTX 30-series GPUs, which include the best graphics cards on the market, prices of pre-built PCs featuring them are skyrocketing and delivery windows are being extended far into the future. But Dell is here with a deep discount of nearly $500 on its XPS desktop model with RTX 3070 graphics , taking the price down to a scalper-busting $1,409 before shipping. More: Best deals on gaming PCs and laptops Best PC builds GPU Pricing index Dell XPS Desktop: was $1,879, now $1,409.40 at Dell with code TRAVIS10OFF View Deal Of course, a good build is not just about the GPU. It needs to be balanced out with a capable CPU, a decent amount of RAM and plenty of storage for those space-hungry games. This desktop handles it capably with an Intel Core i5-10400 CPU clocked at 2.9GHz with a boost clock speed up to 4.3GHz, 16GB DDR4 RAM, and a 256GB NVMe SSD for a speedy boot drive alongside a 1TB 7,200rpm HDD. All … [Read more...] about Get nearly $500 off this Dell XPS Desktop with RTX 3070 graphics

We might learn more about Apple's latest products sooner than expected. BleepingComputer has reported that a cybercrime group called REvil is threatening to leak "stolen product blueprints" unless it's paid a $50 million ransom by April 27. The report was published mere hours after Apple revealed a completely redesigned iMac that has USB 4 support, the first iPad Pro models to feature its M1 chip , and other new products. That probably wasn't an accident—this way REvil can take advantage of all the hype. BleepingComputer reported that REvil stole the product blueprints from Quanta Computer, the second-largest notebook original design manufacturer in the world, alongside what the cybercrime group described as "a lot of confidential data." Right now, it seems like the information stolen from Quanta Computer was limited to the MacBook line, which likely includes the latest MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models (the current MacBook Pro made our list of best ultrabooks … [Read more...] about Hackers Threaten to Leak Apple Product Data if Ransom Goes Unpaid