thht - Slashdot User

Submission + - iPhones call more than just the number you dial (eidac.de)

Submitted by flopwich on Saturday April 18, 2009 @07:31PM

flopwich writes: It turns out, apparently, that Apple's iPhone makes more calls than it tells you about. A company called Pinch Media produces software that applications developers can add to their software to provide Pinch Media, and who else(?), access to information about the user's location and call times. It doesn't notify the user and gives no option to turn the "feature" off.

Submission + - Top 50 Most Influential Videogames in History (videogamesblogger.com)

Submitted by Wowzer on Sunday March 08, 2009 @07:11PM

Wowzer writes: The Guinness World Records 2009 Gamer's Edition lists the top 50 most influential console videogames in history. From the article: "Securing the first place on the coveted list is Super Mario Kart with the world's most prolific video game character, Mario, who has starred in more than 116 titles. As the best-selling racing game on the N64 (more than 9 million units sold), Super Mario Kart is also the best-selling racer on the SNES (8 million units), the GameCube (nearly 7 million units) and the DS (10 million units). In second place, the world's most ported video game, Tetris, is available on at least 59 different gaming platforms receiving its high ranking because of its simplicity and devilish addictiveness. Third runner up, Grand Theft Auto holds the record for the most controversial series of games. It has received near-perfect scores in virtually every review and GTA IV has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the fastest-selling video game ever."

Submission + - Microsoft Shoots Own Foot in Iceland (yaxic.org) 1

Submitted by

David Gerard

on Sunday March 08, 2009 @03:43PM

David Gerard writes: "The Microsoft Certified Partner model is: an MCP buys contracts from Microsoft and sells them to businesses as a three-year timed contract, payable in annual instalments. Iceland's economy has collapsed, so 1500 businesses have gone bankrupt so aren't paying the fees any more. But Microsoft has told the MCPs: "Our deal was with you, not them. Pay up." The MCPs that don't go bankrupt in turn are moving headlong to Free Software. Taking most of the country with them. (Warning: link contains salty language and vivid imagery.)"

Submission + - German court: voting machines not constitutional

Submitted by raffnix on Tuesday March 03, 2009 @06:10AM

raffnix writes: Voting booths in Germany can no longer be equipped with electronic "vote computers", the Constitutional German Court ruled Tuesday. At this year's general election due in September, voters can expect to use pen and paper, after the Karlsruhe-based court ruled that the machines contradict the public nature of elections. The terminals, which electronically register a voter's choice, have been used in German elections for 10 years, including the 2005 general election when 2 million people voted by button. Voters should not need to be computer literate to register their choice, the judges ruled. They also criticized the fact that the machines didn't let voters check what choice they had made. For this reason it was difficult to detect programming errors or deliberate manipulation of the machines.

Submission + - German Supreme Court says No to Voting Computers

Submitted by

WalterSobchak

on Tuesday March 03, 2009 @05:49AM

WalterSobchak writes: "Germany's supreme court banned current voting machines from further elections. While the court found no issues with the elections that had already been held, they banned the current technology from further use, deeming them too in-transparent and not tamper proof.

The court specifically said that this decision is not "technophobic", and applies only to the currently used technology (mainly NEDAP machines), If new technology meets the high standards required for elections, it could be used for elections. Also, the court said that given proper technology, even voting by internet is imaginable

Source: Spiegel Online (German)"

Submission + - German supreme court bans voting machines (spiegel.de)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03, 2009 @05:32AM

An anonymous reader writes: The german supreme court just rules the 2005 election and the use of voting machines to be against the german constitution. Although there will be no revote of the election of 2005, the use of voting machines now seems to be banned in Germany. There is a upcoming election of the "Bundestag" in autuumn, so this is a big decision. I expect more stories than that of SPIEGEL ONLINE to pop up in the next few hours (heise.de for sure) since the descision was made only minutes ago.

Submission + - why is thepiratebay.org down?

Submitted by

Trouts

on Saturday February 28, 2009 @08:41AM

Trouts writes: "The Pirate Bay's website has been down since about 12:15 GMT . Peter Sunden's blog ( http://blog.brokep.com/ ) is also down. I've looked around but no news on why are available yet. Does anyone know why?"

Submission + - Obama budget calls for record US deficit (wikinews.org)

Submitted by bluefoxlucid on Thursday February 26, 2009 @11:11PM

bluefoxlucid writes: President Barrack Obama has unveiled a new budget for $3.6 trillion in spending. "The new budget will use a $1.75 trillion deficit, which would be nearly four times greater than any previous deficit and is $250 billion larger than what was projected just days ago due to a proposed new spending for another bank bailout," according to Wikinews. House of Representatives Republican minority leader John Boehner criticized the budget, saying, "We can't tax and spend our way to prosperity. The era of big government is back, and Democrats are asking you to pay for it." Wikinews further states that "$634 billion of the budget is 'dedicated [to] financing reforms to our health care system,' according to Obama. Analysts reporting for the BBC and Reuters both conclude that, if passed, it lays a ground-work for a form of universal health care."

Submission + - Facebook asks users to vote on terms of use

Submitted by saxoholic on Thursday February 26, 2009 @09:08PM

saxoholic writes: According to their blog (privacy voiding membership required), Facebook, in response to the uproar about their recent attempt to change the terms of use, have decided to have users vote and comment on Facebook Principles, and rights and responsibilities, citing a desire to "make the world more open and transparent."

I'm not sure how I feel about this. They seem to want everything to be transparent, and somewhat democratically decided, but is that feasible from a social network that is controlled by a company? I'm sure the majority of users would vote to not have their information shared with advertisers, etc, but Facebook can't agree to that because it would kill their revenue...

Sony To Unveil New Fuel-Cell Prototype 116

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday February 25, 2009 @08:34PM from the new-power dept.

Nakeot writes "On Friday, Sony plans to unveil their newest portable fuel-cell technology, aimed at a variety of mobile applications. From the article: "The system contains both a methanol fuel cell and a Li-on battery" and can "intelligently switch between power from the battery, fuel, or even both under high-draw circumstances." Sony intends to show off two models claimed to power your cell for a week or a month, respectively, as well as the latest developments with their sugar-batteries that can now run purely off your favorite cola beverage. This model builds on Sony's 2008 model, their first commercially-demonstratable prototype, and could make waves with Sony's OLED devices, but will Sony be able to avoid another battery recall?"

Submission + - New Safari dominates browser benchmarks (cnet.co.uk)

Submitted by Kent on Wednesday February 25, 2009 @08:22PM

Kent writes: Not even Chrome or Mozilla's Minefield could beat Apple's latest Safari in JavaScript benchmark tests, according to tests run by CNET. Safari beat every major browser on the market in terms of rendering speed, and processed JavaScript 42 times faster than Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7. In related news, Microsoft sees Linux as the bigger threat.

Submission + - A comprehensive how-to set up a wireless network (kirgs.com)

Submitted by

ryankirgan

on Wednesday February 25, 2009 @08:14PM

ryankirgan writes: "A comprehensive how-to set up a wireless network (securely) with Windows XP guide I wrote this how-to guide a while back, however thought I would publish it on my blog in response to: Stop Internet Poachers from Stealing Your Wi-Fi by Rick Broida. My advice to people is diametrically opposed to Rick's, so hopefully between the two there's a solution that best meets your requirements :) Disclaimer: This is how I set up wireless networks, however I am sure that there are a lot of different ways to do this. Apart from any references to upgrading firmware (in short, don't do it unless you have to!) there shouldn't be anything in here that breaks your equipment and ends up costing you lots of money!"

Submission + - Hacking Contest Offers $10,000 For Smartphone Bugs (computerworld.com)

Submitted by

CWmike

on Wednesday February 25, 2009 @07:26PM

CWmike writes: "The hacking contest Pwn2Own, slated for next month's CanSecWest, will award cash prizes of $10,000 to anyone who can break into the most popular smartphones, including iPhone and BlackBerry. Pwn2Own has made headlines in its two previous years for hacks of Mac OS X and Windows. But this year, the content will focus on mobile devices and Web browsers, said Terri Forslof, security response manager at 3Com's TippingPoint unit, the contest's sponsor. 'Mobile is a new frontier of sorts,' said Forslof. 'We've seen mobile exploits in the past, but we still don't see a lot of focus in that area. More and more, people are taking computing on the go and rely on these devices for e-mail and accessing the Web. So it seemed prudent to have a look at them, and the contest is a good forum for that.'"

Court Upholds AP "Quasi-Property" Rights On Hot News 169

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 24, 2009 @07:14PM from the discarded-lo-these-90-years dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "A federal court ruled that the AP can sue competitors for 'quasi-property' rights on hot news, as well as for copyright infringement and several other claims. The so-called 'hot news' doctrine was created by a judge 90 years ago in another case, where the AP sued a competitor for copying wartime reporting and bribing its employees to send them a copy of unreleased news. The courts' solution was to make hot news a form of 'quasi-property' distinct from copyright, in part because facts cannot be copyrighted. But now the AP is making use of the precedent again, going after AHN which competes with the AP, alleging that they're somehow copying the AP's news. The AP has been rather busy with lawsuits lately, so even though the AP has a story about their own lawsuit, we won't link to it."

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