Comment Next up - Lodsys (Score 1) 91
Now if the lawyers would go after the frivolous claims made by Lodsys to shake down the iOS developers . . .
It would be a good week.
Why Sony Cannot Stop PS3 Pirates 378
Sam writes "A former Ubisoft exec believes that Sony will not be able to combat piracy on the PlayStation 3, which was recently hacked. Martin Walfisz, former CEO of Ubisoft subsidiary Ubisoft Massive, was a key player in developing Ubisoft's new DRM technologies. Since playing pirated games doesn't require a modchip, his argument is that Sony won't be able to easily detect hacked consoles. Sony's only possible solution is to revise the PS3 hardware itself, which would be a very costly process. Changing the hardware could possibly work for new console sales, though there would be the problem of backwards compatibility with the already-released games. Furthermore, current users would still be able to run pirated copies on current hardware."
An anonymous reader adds commentary from PS3 hacker Mathieu Hervais about Sony's legal posturing.
Comment Re:Alien astronomers (Score 1) 575
They're already on IPV6. We're still working on it.
Microwave Map of Entire Moon Revealed 82
Zothecula writes "The first complete microwave image of the Moon taken by Chinese lunar satellite Chang'E-1 has been revealed. Chang'E-1 is China's first scientific mission to explore planetary bodies beyond Earth and the on-board Lunar Microwave Radiometer has made it possible for the first time to globally map the Moon in microwave frequencies. Radar observations of the Moon are unable to provide thermal information, and microwave observations taken from Earth cannot reach the far side of the moon. So Chang'E-1's (CE-1) orbit was conducted at an altitude of 200km (124 miles) and allowed it to observe every location of the moon with a nadir view and at high spatial resolution."
The Best Video Games On Awful Systems 272
Buffalo55 writes "For the most part, classic games manage to reappear on different systems. Just look at Nintendo. The publisher has done an excellent job bringing NES, SNES, Genesis and even old school Neo Geo titles to the Wii's Virtual Console, while Microsoft's Game Room brings the best of Atari's 2600 into the living room. Of course, not every console was a success. The '90s, in particular, saw quite a few flops from companies like Panasonic, Sega and Atari. Just because a system is a failure, though, doesn't mean all of its games suck. On the contrary, most of these machines have a few gems that fell between the cracks once the console croaked."
What overlooked game on a failed platform would you like to see revived?
Comment HP - Innovate (Score 1) 104
Wow!
A pad device! AND some sort of phone! Maybe a SMART PHONE! GO HP!!!
How timely!
Comment Re:Followup question... (Score 1) 253
On removable devices you can also click the device in the Finder and select "Get Info." There is a checkbox for "Ignore Permissions on this Volume." This is more Mac to Mac, but it might help if you're going back and forth between several machines. Just thought I'd point it out.
Comment Re:So... (Score 1) 647
You are absolutely correct, sir!
By uploading your porn to the "cloud," every government can easily catalog all of your collection for analysis later. This saves everybody a lot of time and hassle.
Open Source Developer Knighted 101
unixfan writes "Georg Greve, developer of Open Document Format and active FOSS developer, has received a knighthood in Germany for his work. From the article: 'Some weeks ago I received news that the embassy in Berne had unsuccessfully been trying to contact me under FSFE's old office address in Zurich. This was a bit odd and unexpected. So you can probably understand my surprise to be told by the embassy upon contacting them that on 18 December 2009 I had been awarded the Cross of Merit on ribbon (Verdienstkreuz am Bande) by the Federal Republic of Germany. As you might expect, my first reaction was one of disbelief. I was, in fact, rather shaken. You could also say shocked. Quick Wikipedia research revealed this to be part of the orders of knighthood, making this a Knight's Cross.'"
Sun Pushes Emergency Java Patch 90
Trailrunner7 writes "In a sudden about-face, Sun has rushed out a Java update to fix a drive-by download vulnerability that exposed Windows users to in-the-wild malware attacks. The patch comes less than a week after Sun told a Google researcher it did not consider the issue serious enough to warrant an out-of-cycle patch and less than a day after researchers spotted live exploits on a booby-trapped Web site. The flaw, which was also discovered independently by Ruben Santamarta, occurs because the Java-Plugin Browser is running 'javaws.exe' without validating command-line parameters. Despite the absence of documentation, a researcher was about to figure out that Sun removed the code to run javaws.exe from the Java plugin. The about-face by Sun is another sign that some big vendors still struggle to understand the importance of working closely with white hat researchers to understand the implications of certain vulnerabilities. In this case, Google's Tavis Ormandy was forced to use the full-disclosure weapon to force the vendor into a proper response."
Navy Wants Cyber Weapons That Shoot Data Beams 123
ectotherm writes "By 2018, the US Navy hopes to equip its fighter jets with the ability to shoot data streams containing 'specialized waveforms and algorithms,' useful in an electronic attack or cyber-invasion. A few non-classified details here."
Iron Alloy Could Create Earthquake-Proof Buildings 107
separsons writes "Researchers at Japan's Tohoku University designed a new shape memory metal alloy. The super elastic iron alloy can endure serious stretching and still return to its original shape. The scientists say that once optimized, the material could be used in everything from braces to medical stents to earthquake-proof buildings!"
Need Help Salvaging Data From an Old Xenix System 325
Milo_Mindbender writes "I've recently gotten ahold of an old Altos 586 Xenix system (a late '80s Microsoft flavor of Unix) that has one of the first multi-user BBS systems in the US on it, and I want to salvage the historical BBS posts off it. I'm wondering if anyone remembers what format Xenix used on the 10MB (yes MB) IDE hard drive and if it can still be read on a modern Linux system. This system is quite old, has no removable media or ethernet and just barely works. The only other way to get data off is a slow serial port. I've got a controller that should work with the disk, but don't want to tear this old machine apart without some hope that it will work. Anyone know?"
Comment Delete the account?!? Huh? (Score 1) 199
What makes you think that deleting the account will keep them from selling your info anyway? You probably waived any and all rights to privacy and such when you signed up in the first place. I just don't get what people are thinking these days.
Comment Re:Water Filters? Hello? (Score 1) 211
Parent post stated specifically, "the ones (states) I've lived in." Apparently TN was not one of them. Last time I checked, Texas sales tax cannot exceed 8.25% and is not charged for edible groceries. You do pay sales tax, however, when eating at a restaurant.
That's not too bad, considering we have no state income tax and our property taxes are reasonable. Home values are also excellent.
My
