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Submission + - Is Choice a Problem for Android (sixrevisions.com)

Submitted by mjone13
mjone13 writes: Dave Feldmen in a blog posts says that the problem Android faces is giving consumers too much choice. He cites several studies which state that consumers generally are unhappier when they have too much choice. He then goes on to talk about Android fragmentation, app developer problems and bug issues. Finally he says the people who general prefer the choice Android provides are tinkers similar to gear heads who love tinkering with their car.

Is choice really a problem for Android?

Submission + - The Linux Backdoor Attempt of 2003

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Ed Felton writes about an incident, in 2003, in which someone tried to backdoor the Linux kernel. Back in 2003 Linux used a system called BitKeeper to store the master copy of the Linux source code. If a developer wanted to propose a modification to the Linux code, they would submit their proposed change, and it would go through an organized approval process to decide whether the change would be accepted into the master code. But some people didn’t like BitKeeper, so a second copy of the source code was kept so that developers could get the code via another code system called CVS. On November 5, 2003, Larry McAvoy noticed that there was a code change in the CVS copy that did not have a pointer to a record of approval. Investigation showed that the change had never been approved and, stranger yet, that this change did not appear in the primary BitKeeper repository at all. Further investigation determined that someone had apparently broken in electronically to the CVS server and inserted this change.

if ((options == (__WCLONE|__WALL)) && (current->uid = 0))
retval = -EINVAL;

A casual reading by an expert would interpret this as innocuous error-checking code to make wait4 return an error code when wait4 was called in a certain way that was forbidden by the documentation. But a really careful expert reader would notice that, near the end of the first line, it said “= 0” rather than “== 0” so the effect of this code is to give root privileges to any piece of software that called wait4 in a particular way that is supposed to be invalid. In other words it’s a classic backdoor. We don’t know who it was that made the attempt—and we probably never will. But the attempt didn’t work, because the Linux team was careful enough to notice that that this code was in the CVS repository without having gone through the normal approval process. "Could this have been an NSA attack? Maybe. But there were many others who had the skill and motivation to carry out this attack," writes Felton. "Unless somebody confesses, or a smoking-gun document turns up, we’ll never know."

Submission + - Kickstarter for open source GPU (kickstarter.com)

Submitted by eekee
eekee writes: The targets are high, but so is the goal: developing Verilog source code for a GPU implementation. The source will be open source, LGPL-licensed, and suitable for loading onto an FPGA. The first target is for a 2D GPU with PCI interface; perhaps not terribly interesting in itself, but the first stretch goal is much more exciting: full OpenGL and Direct3D graphics.

Submission + - Americans Dumber Than World Average (theatlantic.com)

Submitted by rwise2112
rwise2112 writes: A new global report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development finds that Americans rank well below the worldwide average in just about every measure of skill. In math, reading, and technology-driven problem-solving, the United States performed worse than nearly every other country in the group of developed nations.

Comment Re:lowered expectations (Score 1) 177

by jbernardo (#44924401) Attached to: NSA Posts Opening For "Civil Liberties & Privacy Officer"

I'm sure they'll make better use of the "guy" (could be a girl) than that. It will be an ideal channel for disinformation. "Our privacy and civil liberties officer has forced us to reveal that we are scaling down our surveillance of Muslims", or "In line with the recommendations we are no longer issuing compromised SSL certificates", and so on.

In that is true, the position seems to have already been filled. I have no idea why cold fjord is advertising an opening for his own position at the NSA, unless he is overworked...

Submission + - U.S. Borders Are Back Doors for Device Searches (nytimes.com)

Submitted by onehitwonder
onehitwonder writes: Newly released documents reveal how the government uses border crossings to seize and examine travelers’ electronic devices instead of obtaining a search warrant to take them, according to The New York Times' Susan Stellin. The documents reveal what had been a mostly secretive process that allows the government to create a travel alert for a person (regardless of whether they're a suspect in an investigation), then detain that individual at a border crossing and confiscate or copy any electronic devices that person is carrying. The documents come courtesy of David House, a fund-raiser for the legal defense of Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Pfc. Bradley Manning.

Submission + - Skype Bypasses Windows 8.1 Lock Screen 2

Submitted by ChristW
ChristW writes: From a blog entry on the Skype website, it is clear that "you can answer calls directly from your lock screen". So, if I lock my Windows PC and walk away, any passer by can answer my personal Skype calls.

Submission + - Steve Ballmer Visits Finnish Parliament (yle.fi) 1

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer met with Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen and Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen on Wednesday in Helsinki. The meeting took place at the House of Parliament, where the premier was officiating at the opening of the autumn session. 'We’re entirely committed and very fired up by the acquisition of the Devices and Services division of Nokia,' Ballmer told Yle. 'We’ve had great meetings with the folks we hope will be our new teams after the deal closes in Espoo, in Tampere, in Salo, in Oulu and we’re very excited to have Finland as the centre of all phone development at Microsoft.' Also taking part in the Helsinki meeting were outgoing Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and the company’s board chair, Risto Siilasmaa.

Comment Re:FRAND (Score 1) 278

by jbernardo (#44766263) Attached to: Jury Finds Google Guilty of Standards-Essential Patents Abuse Against MS

Please, if you haven't followed the previous patent stories here, just google florian mueller. That guy has already admitted being on the payroll of both Oracle and Microsoft. He was debunked several times by Groklaw - here is one of them - http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20120419070127103. His "articles" have as much value as microsoft PR.

Reading (and worst, quoting) his drivel isn't reading "opposing sides", as you state. It is reading and giving support to what is basically paid PR from Microsoft and Oracle.

Submission + - Android looms large over Microsoft's Nokia buy (citeworld.com)

Submitted by mattydread23
mattydread23 writes: Two years ago, former Microsoft exec Stephen Elop made the fateful choice to put Nokia on the Windows Phone platform. "Trojan Horse" or not, that has proven to be a questoinable move — he said he was trying to avoid a smartphone duopoly, but that duopoly happened anyway, and Nokia is now in such weak shape that some are speculating that Microsoft bought it just to keep Windows Phone alive. Here's a look back at what might've been.

Submission + - Lavabit Annouces Shutdown After Two Days of Downtime

Submitted by scotbuff
scotbuff writes: Lavabit, made famous as Ed Snowden's supposed email provider, announced they were shutting down rather than become complicit in crimes against the American people. After two days of unannounced and mostly unexplained downtime a letter from owner and operator Ledar Levison appeared today: http://lavabit.com/

Submission + - Study: Fake Facebook 'Likes' And Twitter 'Followers' Are Misleading Consumers (theguardian.com) 1

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: How much do you like courgettes? According to one Facebook page devoted to them, hundreds of people find them delightful enough to click the "like" button – even with dozens of other pages about courgettes to choose from. There's just one problem: the liking was fake, done by a team of low-paid workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, whose boss demanded just $15 per thousand "likes" at his "click farm". Workers punching the keys might be on a three-shift system, and be paid as little as $120 a year. The ease with which a humble vegetable could win approval calls into question the basis on which many modern companies measure success online – through Facebook likes, YouTube video views and Twitter followers. Channel 4's Dispatches programme will on Monday reveal the extent to which click farms risk eroding user confidence in what had looked like an objective measure of social online approval. The disclosures could hurt Facebook as it tries to persuade firms away from advertising on Google and to use its own targeted advertising, and to chase likes as a measure of approval. The importance of likes is considerable with consumers: 31% will check ratings and reviews, including likes and Twitter followers, before they choose to buy something, research suggests. That means click farms could play a significant role in potentially misleading consumers.

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