A government plan for IDs to replace online passwords The Department of Commerce introduced a plan Friday for a system of Internet IDs that could replace passwords and simplify secure transactions online. The plan calls for the federal government to encourage the development of these new IDs and make sure they conform to certain standards. The idea is that the current system of authentication online --- passwords, mostly --- just doesn't work very well. WSJ

BRICS credit: Local currencies to replace dollar Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - the BRICS group of fastest growing economies - Thursday signed an agreement to use their own currencies instead of the predominant US dollar in issuing credit or grants to each other. The agreement, the first-of-its-kind, was signed at the 3rd BRICS summit here attended by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, China's Hu Jintao, Brazil's Dilma Rousseff, Russia's Dmitry Medvedev and South Africa's Jacob Zuma. The Economic Times

First test results of AMD Radeon HD 6570, 6670 Entry-level low-cost systems available, offering recently prepared for the model of the Radeon HD 6450, AMD within the next week (19 April) product line, the new graphics chip, code-named Turks Radeon HD 6570 and Radeon HD 6670 models use the add. Radeon HD 5700 series Radeon HD 6700 family, under whom he re-positioned for the DirectX 11 graphics cards in various details regarding the technical specifications and we reached the first test results. DonanımHaber (translated)

Best Buy to chop down sizes of largest retail stores The world of retail electronics has changed drastically over the years. It used to be that most people were going to retail stores to make a purchase. Today, many people go into a retail store to see how a device works and research an item, then go home to purchase it online. The reasons for this are many, but much lies with the lower price that many gadgets can be found for online. DailyTech

Neuroscience: Brain buzz Last year a succession of volunteers sat down in a research lab in Albuquerque, New Mexico to play DARWARS Ambush!, a video game designed to train US soldiers bound for Iraq. Each person surveyed virtual landscapes strewn with dilapidated buildings and abandoned cars for signs of trouble --- a shadow cast by a rooftop sniper, or an improvised explosive device behind a rubbish bin. Nature News

The World's Biggest Pac-Man game takes over the internet, your life It's officially the weekend, which means you've got two choices: one, mimic iTr3vor and toss up a YouTube video of yourself dancing in an Apple Store, or two, blow your own mind with the magic of HTML5. In between hour-long Pica-Pic sessions, we'd recommend killing time in The World's Biggest Pac-Man game... Engadget