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Submission + - Microsoft acquires Xamarin (windowsitpro.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: Microsoft has another piece of big news to talk about at BUILD: The company has announced the acquisition of Xamarin, a key player in the multiplatform app development world. For Xamarin founder Miguel de Icaza, who also started starting GNOME and Mono, the deal brings his career somewhat full circle: de Icaza applied to Microsoft to work on Internet Explorer, but was rejected due to lack of a formal degree required for a H-1B visa.

Submission + - Microsoft Acquires Mono Development Firm Xamarin (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft has acquired Xamarin, the development firm founded by GNOME's creator Miguel de Icaza who has been leading the development of the open-source Mono project for several years. Xamarin has as of late been focusing on developer tools around enabling .NET/Mono development on Android and iOS mobile platforms. More details on Xamarin's acquisition via Microsoft's ASP.net blog.

Submission + - Slysoft (of AnyDVD fame) closes after increased international pressure by AACS (myce.com)

Submitted by jlp2097
jlp2097 writes: It looks like the recent activities by Hollywood studios and the AACS LA finally led to the closing of Slysoft Inc, creator of the popular AnyDVD HD tool for creating personal backups of BluRay/DVD/etc. Slysoft Inc's website confirms the closing due to "recent regulatory requirements". The final nail in the coffin has also been confirmed with slightly more details in their forum: "this is final. Slysoft is gone."

Sad to see them go — it looks like legitimate buyers of BluRays will now have to find other sources for backing up their property to HTPCs and NASes.

Submission + - Orbital ATK cracks the Takata airbag mystery (wtop.com)

Submitted by FullBandwidth
FullBandwidth writes: Orbital ATK, which makes rocket propulsion systems, has determined the cause of the exploding Takata air bags blamed for at least 10 deaths and 139 injuries worldwide. The culprit is a combination of the propulsion chemical used, high humidity and moisture. Specifically, the Orbital ATK team determined the factors contributing to the air bag ruptures are the following:

        The presence of pressed phase stabilized ammonium nitrate propellant that does not contain a moisture-absorbing component;
        Long term exposure to high temperatures;
        Air bag assembly that does not adequately prevent moisture intrusion in high humidity.

“Orbital ATK’s root cause analysis is backed by 20,000 hours of testing and analysis by experienced engineers, scientists and technicians,” said Bob Wardle, senior director of technology programs in Orbital ATK’s propulsion Systems Division.

Submission + - Carnegie Mellon attacked Tor; subpoenaed by Feds (vice.com)

Submitted by Alypius
Alypius writes: CMU's Software Engineering Institute (SEI) was under DOD contract to deanonymize dark web sites when it was served a subpoena to provide IP addresses to the FBI. The judge involved has ruled that, “SEI's identification of the defendant's IP address because of his use of the Tor network did not constitute a search subject to Fourth Amendment scrutiny.”

Submission + - Astronomers find half the missing mass of the Universe

Submitted by The Bad Astronomer
The Bad Astronomer writes: Astronomers made a cosmic twofer. Fast Radio Bursts are mysterious, rapid blasts of radio energy seen randomly on the sky. A quick response allowed astronomers to determine the location and distance to one seen in 2015: An elliptical galaxy six billion light years away, meaning these are huge explosions possibly related to gamma-ray bursts. The observations also revealed material between Earth and this galaxy, identifying half the "missing" baryons predicted by standard models of cosmology.

Submission + - Japan Considers Treating Bitcoin As Real Money (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Regulators in Japan are considering officially recognising bitcoins and other digital currencies as valid methods of payment. The Japan Financial Services Agency (FSA) is in the process of deciding whether to make legislative revisions to regulation that currently regards virtual currencies as objects rather than traditional forms of payment. Under the new proposal, consumers will be able to purchase goods and services using bitcoin and other digital currencies, and also use them as an alternative to legal tender through purchases or trades. The new definition will be submitted during the current session of the Diet, Japan’s legislature, which concludes on 1st June this year.

Comment Re:brick and mortar is an assett (Score 1) 203

by jlp2097 (#50789701) Attached to: Walmart Plays Catch-Up With Amazon

As a European, what's Walmart? But seriously, let me give you some more global perspective - besides UK, Japan, China and South Africa there is not really much of a Walmart presence outside of North and South America. They will never catch up to Amazon, which is present just about everywhere in the world.

Amazon has the hell optimized out of their logistics and again, is present just about everywhere. There is not really much of an advantage (besides storefront locations) that Walmart has.

Submission + - Mozilla Encoder improves JPEG-compression

Submitted by jlp2097
jlp2097 writes: As reported by Heise (german), Mozilla has introduced a new jpeg encoder called mozjpeg. Mozjpeg promises to be a "production-quality JPEG encoder that improves compression while maintaining compatibility with the vast majority of deployed decoders". The Mozilla Research blog states that Mozjpeg is based on libjpeg-turbo with functionality added from jpgcrush. They claim an average of 2-6% of additional compression for files encoded with libjpeg and 10% additional compression for a sample of 1500 jpegs from wikipedia — while maintaining the same image quality.

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