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Submission + - How do I fork a FLOSS project? 3

meonkeys writes: "The worse case has come to pass, and it's time to fork. But how do I actually fork a FLOSS project? Is it as simple as changing the name in code, docs, and graphics? Can I change the license too? Should I?"

Submission + - What the Helvetica is Going on With Game Fonts? (goozernation.com) 2

RyanDJ writes: "Ryan Johnson | GoozerNation

Are game companies forgetting the SDTV owners? Fonts are getting smaller and smaller, and Ryan Johnson of GoozerNation hasn't upgraded to HD yet. Why do the developers feel the need to shrink it so? Read in for his editorial."

NASA

Submission + - Meteorite Reveals New Mineral (ibtimes.com)

RedEaredSlider writes: Scientists have found a new type of mineral inside a meteorite, that itself was originally recovered in 1969.

The new mineral, dubbed "Wassonite," was discovered inside the Yamato 691 enstatite chondrite meteorite by American researchers from NASA as well as scientists from Japan and South Korea. That meteorite was recovered from Antarctica 42 years ago.

Cloud

Submission + - Amazon Crowned The Most Reputable Company (techspot.com) 2

An anonymous reader writes: Amazon has been named the most reputable company in the US this year (up from 21st place last year), according to the sixth annual list of the 150 Most Reputable Companies from advisory firm Reputation Institute (RI), in partnership with Forbes Media. The list is based on RI's US RepTrak Pulse Study, which measures trust, esteem, admiration, and good feelings consumers have towards the largest 150 companies based on revenue in the US. The ratings are analyzed from nearly 33,000 online consumer responses taken in January and February.
AMD

Submission + - AMD, Nvidia square off with $149 graphics cards (techreport.com)

crookedvulture writes: In the last two weeks, we've seen Slashdot cover a throwdown between $700 graphics cards and the ensuing posturing by AMD and Nvidia over which is best. Now, the two companies are at it again, this time facing off at a much more affordable $149. AMD has released a new Radeon HD 6790 to compete with Nvidia's freshly minted GeForce GTX 550 Ti, and The Tech Report has pit the two cards against each other and a collection of similarly priced rivals to see what's what. As it turns out, neither offering is a particularly good value considering what else is available on the market. If you can afford to spend just $15 more, you can get yourself a much more capable graphics card.
Sony

Submission + - “Anonymous” Attacks Sony (ps3-hacks.com)

baxpace writes: "The renowned hackers Anonymous have managed to take down the US Sony sites including blog.us.playstation.com for interrupting the "free flow of information".

A video has been released by the group stating that this was done in retaliation for suing Geohot and demanding the IP's of those who have visited his site among other reasons."

Canada

Submission + - Netflix offers new bandwidth options (netflix.com)

BagOBones writes: Due to low bandwidth caps, Netflix is now offering a third lower bandwidth option to users in Canada, in addition to the original two options which were Full quality and SD only mode.. Netflix lists the three settings as follows:

        "Good" — The default setting with good picture quality and lowest data use per hour (about 0.3 GBytes/hour)
        "Better" — Better picture quality and medium data use per hour (about 0.7 GBytes/hour)
        "Best" — Best picture quality and highest date use per hour (generally about 1.0 GBytes/hour — or up to 2.3 GBytes/hour when streaming HD content)

AMD

Submission + - Why tessellation in games is overhyped (pcauthority.com.au)

An anonymous reader writes: Tessellation is a graphical technique that has been given a lot of love by game developers over recent times, including in the new Dragon Age 2 . This is due to the fact that the Fermi architecture underpinning the current generation of NVIDIA cards packs a lot of tessellation grunt, moreso than the competing cards from AMD. This has led to tessellation becoming almost a warcry for NVIDIA, who can't pass up any opportunity to run a tessellation heavy benchmark and point out how impressive the hardware is at it. This article provides a fascinating insight into what tessellation actually is, what it looks like (including some extreme examples), and why the marketing spin is misleading.
The Internet

Submission + - 4Chan is 'Misunderstood' says Christopher Poole

Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The Guardian reports that 4Chan, the influential internet subculture which spawned Anonymous, Rickrolling and Rage Guy, is "misunderstood" as "the dark heart of the internet", says founder Christopher Poole. Outlining his case for online anonymity before a packed audience in the Austin Convention Center at SXSW 2011, Poole argued that 4Chan's chaotic messageboard is a fertile breeding ground for creativity. "It's riffing on a massive scale. 4Chan is misunderstood – people like to think that /b/ [4Chan's infamously random subforum] is the dark heart of the internet. It isn't just that," says Poole. "One of the things that 4Chan does that's really special is the way people come together to collaborate en masse. It's the process at which you arrive at the product that is fascinating." Poole took a swipe at Mark Zuckerberg who has described anonymous internet posting as showing a lack of integrity. "Zuckerberg's totally wrong on anonymity being total cowardice. Anonymity is authenticity. It allows you to share in a completely unvarnished, raw way.""
Google

Submission + - The Larger Security Lessons of Pwn2Own (threatpost.com)

Trailrunner7 writes: When the Pwn2Own contest began in 2007, it was dismissed by some in the industry as nothing more than a publicity stunt meant to inflate the egos of researchers while embarrassing software vendors. But as the fifth edition of the hacker challenge gets underway at the CanSecWest conference here this week, it has evolved into a display of some of the few things that are actually good and right with the security community.
So what's great about a bunch of guys in a windowless room hammering away at MacBooks and iPhones? The really impressive thing in all of this is the sheer brain power on display. Think about what Dai Zovi and Macaulay did for a minute: With a few hours of work, they pulled apart the security model that the developers of Java, QuickTime and OS X had spent years putting together. Unless you're one of those developers, that's a pretty impressive feat. Pwn2Own represents the best researchers pushing the best developers and security teams to do better, and vice versa.

Submission + - Oldest known wild bird raises chick at 60 (ibtimes.com)

Anonymous Coward writes: "The oldest known wild bird in the United States — a Laysan albatross estimated to be at least 60 years old — is a new mother, officials said. She was first banded by U.S. Geological Survey in 1956, when she was estimated to be about five years old. Since then, the albatross has flown at least 2 to 3 million miles, the equivalent of four to six round trips from the Earth to the Moon and back again."

Submission + - Syndrome Asperger - How to fight it? (syndromeasperger.com)

whynotdoitnow writes: "Syndrome Asperger

Syndrome Asperger has been around for some time but, it was not medically diagnosed until 1944 by an European pediatrician named, Hans Asperger. He discovered that with this disorder syndrome, children had problems in interacting and they had obsessive behaviors as well as repetitive actions. Syndrome Asperger is a disorder syndrome that is very hard to identify because it has variations in manifestation od illness and no two people with this disorder syndrome act the same. It is identical to mild autism whenseen along with the numerous types of autism. When it is identified in the beginning, Syndrome Asperger treatment shows more promise. A lot of symptoms can be soothe easily when they don't turn into bad habits. To comprehend and see if your child has Syndrome Asperger is not an easy task. Whatever, there are some indications you can try to observe. Syndrome Asperger medical care is only possible by managing the symptoms and because the symptoms are varied, every child with Aspergers can be cured according to their own symptoms.There are numerous tests to be able to diagnose Aspergers Syndrome. When these tests are finished and a diagnosis is reached, it is very essential to let the child know about the disorder syndrome."

Politics

Submission + - Republicans Want To Keep Students Out Of Voting (washingtonpost.com) 2

siliconbits writes: New Hampshire's new Republican state House speaker is pretty clear about what he thinks of college kids and how they vote. They're "foolish," Speaker William O'Brien said in a recent speech to a tea party group.
"Voting as a liberal. That's what kids do," he added, his comments taped by a state Democratic Party staffer and posted on YouTube. Students lack "life experience," and "they just vote their feelings."

The Internet

Submission + - Trumpet Winsock creator made little money (ycombinator.com) 1

omast writes: It appears that Peter Tattam, creator of Trumpet Winsock, got very little for this piece of software. For those of you who do not remember — or did not need it because were already outside the MS Windows world — Trumpet Winsock was a shareware program that provided TCP/IP functionality to Windows machines back in 1994-1995. It allowed millions to connect to the Internet back then; I was one of them.
According to the article, Tattam made very little money from the program as it was widely distributed but rarely paid for.

Submission + - Anon demands US give clothes back to Manning (forbes.com)

hajus writes: Anonymous has given the US one week to restore certain rights for Bradley Manning in his time in prison awaiting his trial including clothes, any religious texts, a ball, blankets, and bedsheets or they will begin to 'dox' Department of Defense Press Secretary Geoff Morell and chief warrant officer Denise Barnes. 'Dox'. "Dox" will involve digging up personal information on the two officials and mass harassment or public embarrassment. “Targets established,” reads the document, before naming Morell and Barnes. “We’re in the ruining business. And business is good.” The operation has been termed "Operation Bradical" by Anonymous.

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