×
Operating Systems

Submission + - Ubuntu for tablet Announced (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: Keeping its promise from yesterday Ubuntu has announced an operating system for tablets dubbed ‘Ubuntu for Tablets’ that is says will work on tablets of any size. Advertised to work on both entry level tablets as well as high-end tablets with enterprise specifications, the operating system offers multitasking, safer sharing, instant launch of applications through the menu bar on the left, effortless switching between applications among other features. Canonical has put out specifications of the tablets that would be required for an entry level consumer Ubuntu tablet experience as well as High-end Ubuntu enterprise tablet experience.

Submission + - Utilities Racing to Plug Grid Before 'Disaster Strikes' (wsj.com)

Submitted by
FreeMichael61
FreeMichael61 writes: "In the latest episode of Spy vs. Spy, China rejects accusations its hacking U.S. companies to steal IP or bring down the grid. But there's no doubt the grid can be hacked, CIO Journal's Steve Rosenbush and Rachael King report. Industrial control networks are supposed to be protected from the Internet by an air gap that, it turns out, is largely theoretic. Rosenbush and King detail the attack vectors that hackers could use to bring down the electrical system in a neighborhood near you."
Hardware

Submission + - NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN uses 7.1 billion transistor GK110 GPU (pcper.com)

Submitted by
Vigile
Vigile writes: "NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX TITAN graphics card is being announced today and is utilizing the GK110 GPU first announced in May of 2012 for HPC and supercomputing markets. The GPU touts computing horsepower at 4.5 TFLOPS provided by the 2,688 single precision cores, 896 double precision cores, a 384-bit memory bus and 6GB of on-board memory doubling the included frame buffer that AMD's Radeon HD 7970 uses. With a make up of 7.1 billion transistors and a 551 mm^2 die size, GK110 is very close to the reticle limit for current lithography technology! The GTX TITAN introduces a new GPU Boost revision based on real-time temperature monitoring and support for monitor refresh rate overclocking that will entice gamers and with a $999 price tag, the card could be one of the best GPGPU options on the market."
Canada

Submission + - Canadian Court Rules You Have the Right to Google a Lawyer (michaelgeist.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Hollywood crime dramas are infamous for the scene when an accused is taken to a local police station and permitted a single phone call to contact a relative or lawyer. While the storyline is myth — there is no limit on the number of phone calls available to an accused or detainee — Michael Geist reports on a recent Canadian case establishing a new, real requirement for law enforcement. After a 19-year old struggled to find a lawyer using the telephone, the court ruled that police must provide an accused with Internet access in order to exercise their right to counsel.
Games

Submission + - Duke Nuken 3D Code Review (fabiensanglard.net)

Submitted by alancronin
alancronin writes: Similar to Fabien Sanglard's previous code reviews of other games such as the Quake and Doom line of games comes a review of the code base of Duke Nukem 3D (split out over 4 pages). This will be a very good read for anyone interested in understanding the mechanics of a highly addictive game or anyone that wants to learn more about game design.
China

Submission + - China's Army Accused Of Running Hacking Group APT1 (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by
judgecorp
judgecorp writes: "The Chinese government has been accused of backing the APT1 hacking group, which appears to be part of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), according to the security firm which worked with the New York Times when it fell victim to an attack. The firm, Mandiant, says that APT1 is government sponsored, and seems to operate from the same location as PLA Unit 61398."
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows 7 still being sold on up to 93% of British PCs (pcpro.co.uk) 2

Submitted by
nk497
nk497 writes: "The vast majority of PCs sold by British PC makers are running Windows 7 — not Windows 8. PC Pro spoke to several PC builders, with some reporting as many as 93% of recently sold machines were on the older OS. One company initially sold its PCs with Windows 8, but feedback from users soon changed that. Customers quickly began to specify systems with Windows 7, those with Windows 8 "took delivery and wanted to change back to Windows 7" – a process the firm described as a "nightmare". Another firm found success by installing a "start menu" tool on Windows 8 machines, and others said the switch would have gone smoother if Microsoft has offered a Windows 8 tutorial or better explained the new OS."
Open Source

Submission + - Python Trademark Filer Ignorant Of Python? (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by
WebMink
WebMink writes: "Is it possible that the CEO of the company that's trying to file a trademark on "Python" was unaware of Python's importance as a programming technology? That's what he claims — despite running a hosting company that's trying to break into cloud computing, where Python is used extensively. Still, he also regards the Python Software Foundation as a hostile American company and thinks that getting attention from half the world's geeks is a DDoS..."
Google

Submission + - Google Patents Staple of '70s Mainframe Computing 2

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: 'The lack of interest, the disdain for history is what makes computing not-quite-a-field,' Alan Kay once lamented. And so it should come as no surprise that the USPTO granted Google a patent Tuesday for the Automatic Deletion of Temporary Files, perhaps unaware that the search giant's claimed invention is essentially a somewhat kludgy variation on file expiration processing, a staple of circa-1970 IBM mainframe computing and subsequent disk management software. From Google's 2013 patent: 'A path name for a file system directory can be "C:temp\12-1-1999\" to indicate that files contained within the file system directory will expire on Dec. 1, 1999.' From Judith Rattenbury's 1971 Introduction to the IBM 360 computer and OS/JCL : 'EXPDT=70365 With this expiration date specified, the data set will not be scratched or overwritten without special operator action until the 365th day of 1970.' Hey, things are new if you've never seen them before!
Open Source

Submission + - Linux 3.8 released (kernelnewbies.org)

Submitted by
jrepin
jrepin writes: "Linux Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 3.8. Some of the headline features in this release include metadata integrity checking in the xfs filesystem, the foundation for much improved NUMA scheduling, kernel memory usage accounting and associated usage limits, inline data support for small files in the ext4 filesystem, nearly complete user namespace support, and much more. See the Kernel Newbies 3.8 page for lots of details."
Technology

Submission + - SSD Write Endurance Considered... Sufficient (ef.gy)

Submitted by jyujin
jyujin writes: Ever wonder how long your SSD will last? It's funny how bad people are at estimating just how long "100,000 writes" are going to take when spread over a device that spans several thousand of those blocks over several gigabytes of memory. It obviously gets far worse with newer flash memory that is able to withstand a whopping million writes per cell. So yeah, let's crunch some numbers and fix that misconception. Spoiler: even at the maximum SATA 3.0 link speeds, you'd still find yourself waiting several months or even years for that SSD to start dying on you.
Crime

Submission + - Naked scammers blackmail men on web (cnn.com)

Submitted by innocent_white_lamb
innocent_white_lamb writes: Police in Singapore have received many reports of a blackmail ring that uses attractive women to seduce men via webcam/chat. "They would commence a webcam conversation with the victims and initiate cybersex by undressing themselves first before persuading the male victims to appear nude or perform sexual acts in front of the webcams", according to the Singapore Police Force. The victim then received an email and/or phone call demanding $50,000.
Microsoft

Submission + - GameStop's Mayan Apocalypse (goozernation.com)

Submitted by kube00
kube00 writes: The rumor mill is saying the next generation of consoles might not play used games. What does this mean for retailers such as Amazon, GameStop, and Best Buy? Will gamers flock to the one console that can still play used games? GoozerNation speculates if the Mayan apocalyspse draws near for used game sales
Ubuntu

Submission + - Canonical Announcing Ubuntu Tablet Tomorrow? (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: While browsing for clues on Ubuntu Touch Developer preview, we have come across something rather interesting. Canonical has a countdown going on up at its site that indicates a possible tablet announcement sometime tomorrow. With the Ubuntu Touch developer preview launching this week, the announcement about a tablet or at least an operating system for a tablet from Canonical has, it seems, taken a backseat. From the countdown that reads "Tick, tock, tablet time!" it is evident that Canonical is going to make some announcement about tablets tomorrow.

Slashdot Top Deals