Submission + - Four Step Fraud Process Wrecks Fackebook. (pcworld.com)
twitter writes: "PC World has an interesting and scary article about fraud on social networks that goes beyond the usual privacy and free software concerns.
Facebook represents a perfect storm of fraud factors. The whole "friend" system creates trust, but the reality of social networks prevents verification that people are who they say they are.
.... difficult-to-detect fraud is exploding on Facebook, and you would be well-advised to verify every friend.
His research included fraudulent friends for his own account.
The author also mentions hate speech, which seems to be unrelated FUD at first glance. What you have to remember is that employers check Facebook and MySpace too. Can you be sure you have not been libled in a private profile? I've stayed away from Facebook because I never trusted the owners and despised the fake privacy they offered. Until employers understand that the information can be misleading, you would be better off away from the service too."
Submission + - M$ to Spend $20B on Data Centers. (infoworld.com)
twitter writes: "What do you get when you have $21 billion dollars and plan to spend $20 billion propping up your stock price and another $20 billion building data centers that people predict will fail? Massive debt.
[M$] is planning to build 20 datacenters at a cost of about $1 billion each in hopes of dominating the cloud.
... Microsoft is the wrong company at the wrong time to dominate the architecture of the future. Here are four big negatives that will keep Microsoft out of the winner's circle. [wrong compensation structure for salesforce, lack of credibility, it would destroy Windows and Office, if they do it like Vista it will fail].
The author has more confidence in M$ than the company deserves but his insight to M$'s sales force and business perception are interesting. I think it's funny that M$ is about to become a dot bomb 2.0 company. While M$ people viciously derided web business models, they have yet to recover from 2000 crash and will stake their future on their late arrival to a party dominated by others."
Groklaw Says Microsoft Patent Portfolio Now Worthless 219
twitter writes "P.J. concludes her look at the Bilski decision: 'you'll recall patent lawyer Gene Quinn immediately wrote that it was bad news for Microsoft, that "much of the Microsoft patent portfolio has gone up in smoke" because, as Quinn's partner John White pointed out to him, "Microsoft doesn't make machines." Not just Microsoft. His analysis was that many software patents that had issued prior to Bilski, depending on how they were drafted, "are almost certainly now worthless." ... He was not the only attorney to think about Microsoft in writing about Bilski.'"
Submission + - Simply Mepis 8 Review by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
twitter writes: "Long time IT reporter Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has a glowing review of the upcoming 8th release of SimplyMepis.
this relatively obscure Debian-based desktop distribution from Morgantown, WV, is an outstanding desktop operating system.
... The distribution itself is built on top of Debian 5 (Lenny) [with a few newer packages and addons like Flash 10 and well done custom network and hardware managers].
I've been using desktop Linux for more than a decade, and I keep coming back to SimplyMEPIS. Version 8 is good enough that... I've migrated all my files to the SimplyMEPIS PC and made it my main desktop system.
This strangely overlooked distribution is also one of my favorites for it's ease of installation and excellent default package selection. These include KDE 3.5.9 desktop and Kontact with the newest version of VirtualBox, OpenOffice.org and Firefox. Mepis remains a low fuss choice for Windows refugees and GNU/Linux users who can't live without Flash."
Submission + - M$ Moves Into Debt (bloomberg.com)
twitter writes: "Unable to sell stock to raise money, M$ will sell bonds which will deplete the company of it's cash, in an attempt to raise it's declining stock value.
Microsoft Corp. may sell debt in what would be the world's largest software maker's inaugural bond offering. Microsoft may offer senior unsecured debt securities, according to a regulatory filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The shelf registration clears the way for the company to issue debt at any time.
The move comes amid suspicions of hidden weakness and demonstrated threats to it's cash cows Windows and Office. It is part of a previously announced plan to enter debt for $20 billion worth of stock buybacks. M$ had $20.7 in cash left as of September 30th, which was down from a high of $60 billion just a few years ago. At the time of announcement, USB analyst Heather Bellini predicted:
Microsoft to complete the repurchase — at least five times larger than its average per quarter in the last fiscal year — over the next three months. ``They won't announce it until it's done,'' Bellini said.
Despite this news, M$FT has hit a 52 week low of $18.00 today and continues to float there, down from peaks of $36 at the start of the year and $56 in 1999. Stock options were once an important mechanism to attract talent to the company.
Updates in journal."
Boycott Novell Protesters Manhandled In India 360
James Mathew writes "This is an interesting story from Kerala, India, where the ruling Communist Party organized a national conference in its efforts to hijack the Free Software Movement, which has enviable roots in the state. They got Novell to sponsor it. On the second day of the conference, a few free software activists who displayed posters against Novell were manhandled by the organizers and police — typical of what is expected from them. Most of the snaps taken during the scuffle were forcefully deleted by the organizers, after seizing the protesters' mobile phones. Still they couldn't delete all. Here is another blow-by-blow account."
Comment Advertisers. (Score 1, Insightful) 314
Actually, Sweaty B was telling people, "Advertisers, advertisers, advertisers, baby!", but it's not fair to shift blame outside of the company. They alone made the decisions, which drove Intel out of the graphics market, removed XP driver compatibilty at the last moment and loaded Vista with enough anti-features to insure it's complete failure.
Comment You are serious? I'm scared. (Score -1) 124
All the GPGPU people use one of the GPU programming languages. The hard core ones use assembly.
Well, yeah. That's what you have to do when you don't have a free implementation. Kind of sucks to rewrite everything when you swap hardware platforms, don't it? Tell me it would not be nicer to have a free, vendor supported framework that would at least port to different generations by the same vendor.
Also, please tell why you would waste with that kind of thing when there are lots of spare cycles at super computes on every University. Learning GPU programming languages and assembly is a nice hobby and all, but I'm not sure you should write it into your grant.
Oh, I see, I'm talking to the CEO Yoyo. I've been trolled. Nice one.
AT&T Begins a Trial To Cap, Meter Internet Usage 421
An anonymous reader writes "On the heels of Comcast's decision to implement a 250-GB monthly cap, and Time Warner Cable's exploration of caps and overage fees, DSL Reports notes that AT&T is launching a metered billing trial of their own in Reno, Nevada. According to a filing with the FCC (PDF), AT&T's existing tiers, which range from 768 kbps to 6 Mbps, would see caps ranging from 20 GB to 150 GB per month. Users who exceed those caps would pay an additional $1 per gigabyte, per month."
Submission + - Circuit City Collapses, 155 Stores to Close. (bloomberg.com)
inTheLoo writes: 17% of Circuit City's staff will have an unmerry Christmas as the retailer closes 155 stores. This follows stories of poor service, and the threat of delisting. Effected employees have about 48 hours of job left.
Anonymous Anger Rampant On the Web 399
the4thdimension writes "In a story that may bring out the 'duh' in you, CNN has a story about how anonymous anger is rampant on the Internet. Citing various reasons, it attempts to explain why sites like MyBiggestComplaint and Just Rage exist and why anger via the web seems to be everywhere. Various reasons include: anonymity, lack of rules, and lack of immediate consequences. Whatever the reason, they describe that online anger has resulted in real-life violence and suggest methods for parents and teens to cope with e-aggression and to learn to be aware of it." I can't figure out what makes me angrier: my habit of anonymously trolling web forums, or my video game playing.
Submission + - M$ Shakes Down Old Folks and Charities. (news.com.au)
twitter writes: "From the bait and switch dept.
MICROSOFT will charge the Australian Aged Care Industry IT Council $70 million over the next 18 months as it forces users to pay full commercial rates for previously discounted software. Is this M$'s way to make up for falling traditional software sales?
MICROSOFT will charge the Australian Aged Care Industry IT Council $70 million over the next 18 months as it forces users to pay full commercial rates for previously discounted software. Is this M$'s way to make up for falling traditional software sales?
Aged care providers are shocked by Microsoft's decision to revoke their not-for-profit status, which gave them access to its products at a heavily discounted rate.
A Microsoft spokesman said a recent review had uncovered "a number of ineligible entities, including a range of commercial organisations, that were using Academic Volume Licensing programs" under the belief they qualified.
At least three projects were put on hold by Aged Care. Never trust important business to a software license that may be revoked at any time."
Submission + - Droning Aircrafts Revived to Save Plannet. (theregister.co.uk)
inTheLoo writes: The Register had an interesting interview with a top aero engineer about preserving aviation without ruining the environment. Electric airplanes that fuel up batteries from non carbon emitting sources is seen as the long term solution to aviation's carbon emission problems. A short term solution was "open rotor" aircraft, aka turbo props.
"open rotor" engines, a bit like a modern high-bypass turbofans writ large and with the outer duct removed. Prototypes have been around for decades, showing potentially excellent fuel savings, but open-rotor engines haven't made it into airline service because they are so noisy.
Airport noise limits, says Poll, are already causing increased emissions. The in/famous Airbus A380 superjumbo, for instance, has a "cruise fuel burn penalty" which is a direct result of design steps taken to make it meet Heathrow noise limits.
In the future, people may not get the droning noise joke from the movie Airplane. Current audiences should look at the total lack of "security" the movie shows and get their courage back. All of us will be lucky if air travel continues to be an affordable part of modern life.
Submission + - Horny Teen Pregnancy and Dissatisfaction Risk
inTheLoo writes: Two amazingly obvious studdies are making the not news rounds. First, there's a correlation between sexy TV and teen pregnancy:
The research was based on a 2001 survey of 2,000 12- to 17-year-olds who were asked how often they watched any of 23 popular TV shows,
.... Teens who watched shows where sex was regularly shown or discussed had two to three times the risk of pregnancy....
Assuming the subjects were equally free to chose the shows they watched, we come to the amazing conclusion that girls interested in sex are more likely to get pregnant than those watching cartoons. Another study shows that about half of women eventually lose interest in sex.
a new study in which researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston studied 32,000 women [finds] 39 percent of women 18 and older reported low levels of desire, 26 percent had problems with arousal and 21 percent had difficulties with orgasm. Women older than 65 had the highest levels of sexual problems, but they also reported the least amount of distress about the issue.
This can be summed up as half of all women are dissatisfied with their significant other and things only get worse with age.
