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Submission + - Mininova removes all 'infringing' torrents (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by Pabugs on Thursday November 26, 2009 @10:33AM

Pabugs writes: I woke up this morning to cruise the Mininova movies category to find the torrents were removed and the line at the top stating 'From now on, only Content Distribution torrents are allowed' — Could it be that 'The Man" is gaining a foothold in the piracy battle? — I guess we'll have to wait and see, in the meantime, I'm a little less thankful on this Thanksgiving knowing that Corporate interests are now crushing my movie habits — Mininova was one of the few places I could find movies that most rental places won't carry and being forced into purchasing a crappy film for preview @ $9.99 isn't worth it to me.

Submission + - FreeBSD 8.0 Released 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26, 2009 @09:30AM

An anonymous reader writes: The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is pleased to announce the availability of FreeBSD 8 stable release. Some of the highlights: Xen DomU support, network stack virtualization, stack-smashing protection, TTY layer rewrite, much improved ZFS v13, a new USB stack, multicast updates including IGMPv3, vimage — a new virtualization container, Fedora 10 Linux binary compatibility to run Linux software such as Flash 10 and others, trusted BSD MAC (Mandatory Access Control), and rewritten NFS client/server introducing NFSv4. Inclusion of improved device mmap() extensions will allow the technical implementation of a 64-bit Nvidia display driver for the x86-64 platform. The GNOME desktop environment has been upgraded to 2.26.3, KDE to 4.3.1, and Firefox to 3.5.5.

There is also an in-depth look at the new features and major architectural changes in FreeBSD 8.0, including a screenshot tour, upgrade instructions are posted here.

You can grab the latest version from FreeBSD from the mirrors (main ftp server) or via BitTorrent. Please consider making a donation and help us to spread the word by tweeting and blogging about the drive and release.

Submission + - Dumbing down programming? (zdnet.co.uk) 1

Submitted by RunRevKev on Thursday November 26, 2009 @09:06AM

RunRevKev writes: The unveiling of Revolution 4.0 has sparked a debate on ZDNet about whether programming is being dumbed down. The new version of the software uses an English-syntax that requires 90 per cent less code than traditional languages. A descendant of Apple's Hypercard, Rev 4 is set to "...empower people who would never have attempted programming to create successful applications". ZDNet report that "One might reasonably hope that this product inspires students in the appropriate way and gets them more interested in programming."

Submission + - Apple Voids Smokers' Warranties (consumerist.com) 4

Submitted by Mr2001 on Friday November 20, 2009 @11:23PM

Mr2001 writes: Consumerist reports that Apple is refusing to work on computers that have been used in smoking households. "The Apple store called and informed me that due to the computer having been used in a house where there was smoking, that has voided the warranty and they refuse to work on the machine, due to 'health risks of second hand smoke'," wrote one customer. Another said, "When I asked for an explanation, she said [the owner of the iMac is] a smoker and it's contaminated with cigarette smoke which they consider a bio-hazard! I checked my Applecare warranty and it says nothing about not honoring warranties if the owner is a smoker."

Apple claims that honoring the warranty would be an OSHA violation. (Remember when they claimed enabling 802.11n for free would be a Sarbanes-Oxley violation?)

Submission + - Video Game Critic Shutting Down (startribune.com)

Submitted by Jay Maynard on Friday November 20, 2009 @12:09PM

Jay Maynard writes: The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that video game critic National Institute on Family and the Media is closing its doors on December 31. The institution, best known for criticizing video game violence, blames the economy for its demise, and hopes others will pick up its work.

Submission + - Linus Torvalds suggested for Nobel Peace Prize (ridenbaugh.com) 7

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 19, 2009 @11:52PM

An anonymous reader writes: I'm as much of a fanboy as anyone else, but I've never thought of anything in computing as being worth a Nobel Peace Prize. Apparently, there are those who take global collaboration seriously, though...

Submission + - Anti-Violence Game Allows Players to Abuse Women (gamepolitics.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn on Thursday November 19, 2009 @06:37PM

eldavojohn writes: Their hearts are probably in the right place but the message may be a little muddled in a Danish only anti-violence game entitled "Hit the Bitch". Depending on how successfully you beat her, you are rated from "pussy" to "gangsta." The game apparently allows an interactive mode if you have a webcam connected so when you swing your arm, the flash based game swings your arm at her. If you're wondering when the strong anti-violent message comes, it's at the end when the player is called an "idiot" for playing. It's generating so many pageviews that it's only for Danish IP addresses but despite that success it's probably not the most prudent advertisement model. More at Huffington Post.

Submission + - Scientists say Chemicals Turning Boys into Girls

Submitted by pickens on Saturday November 14, 2009 @11:49AM

pickens writes: Denmark has unveiled official research showing that two-year-old children are at risk from a bewildering array of gender-bending chemicals in such everyday items as waterproof clothes, rubber boots, bed linen, food, sunscreen lotion and moisturizing cream with a picture emerging of ubiquitous chemical contamination driving down sperm counts and feminizing male children all over the developed world. Research at Rotterdam's Erasmus University found that boys whose mothers were exposed to PCBs and dioxins were more likely to play with dolls and tea sets and dress up in female clothes. "The amounts that two-year-olds absorb from the [preservative] parabens propylparaben and butylparaben can constitute a risk for oestrogen-like disruptions of the endocrine system," says the report. "This contribution originates predominantly from cosmetic products such as oil-based creams, moisturizing creams, lotions and sunscreen." The contamination may also offer a clue to a mysterious shift in the sex of babies. Normally 106 boys are born for every 100 girls: it is thought to be nature's way of making up for the fact that men were more likely to be killed hunting or in conflict. But the proportion of females is rising, so much so that some 250,000 babies who statistically should have been boys have ended up as girls in Japan and the United States alone. "Both the public and wildlife are inadequately protected from harm, as regulation is based on looking at exposure to each substance in isolation, and yet it is now proven beyond doubt that hormone disrupting chemicals can act together to cause effects even when each by itself would not," says Gwynne Lyons, director of Chem Trust.

Submission + - Google Takes Aim At MS Office (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by HangingChad on Saturday November 14, 2009 @11:28AM

HangingChad writes: Google enterprise division talks smack on Office. Plans 30-50 updates to Docs over the next year, including new features as well as performance enhancements. Says business users will be able to ditch Office. Oh, yeah, it's on.

Submission + - Passenger Ejected from Plane During Flight

Submitted by

Ponca City, We love you

on Saturday November 14, 2009 @11:19AM

Ponca City, We love you writes: "During a flight with the South Africa Air Force aerobatic team, the Silver Falcons, a passenger flying in a Pilatus PC-7 Mk II was blasted 100 meters into the sky on his rocket-powered seat through the Perspex canopy after grabbing the black- and yellow-striped handle between his legs proving again that it is probably best not to fiddle with switches or controls when riding in the back seat of an air force plane. "Much of the information has yet to be tested, but it is confirmed that a civilian passenger unintentionally ejected from a Silver Falcons Pilatus PC-7 Mk II Astra during a general flying sortie out of Langebaanweg air force base this week," a South African air force spokesman said. Investigators are assuming that the passenger tried to steady himself while the pilot was putting the plane through its paces by grabbing the eject lever. "All it takes is for the firing handle [the rubbery black- and yellow-striped loop] to be pulled up about 2.5cm and you're on your way out." The ejection was dramatic. "You get one almighty kick under the backside and then you're gone. The seat separates from the pilot automatically and the chute opens." A retired SAAF instructor pilot said the passenger was extremely lucky to have survived the ejection with barely a scratch. "We train for this and if you don't get it right, and are not in the correct ejection posture, you can sustain severe spinal cord injuries or even worse.""

NASA To Try Powering Mars Rover "Spirit" Out of Sand Trap 118

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday November 14, 2009 @06:08AM from the calls-to-onstar-have-gone-unanswered dept.

coondoggie writes "NASA's long-running Mars rover Spirit is stuck in a sand trap — a situation the space agency would like to fix. Yesterday NASA said it will begin what it called the long process of extricating Spirit by sending commands that could free the rover. Spirit has been stuck in a place NASA calls 'Troy' since April 23, when the rover's wheels broke through a crust on the surface that was covering bright-toned, slippery sand underneath. After a few drive attempts to get Spirit out in the subsequent days, it began sinking deeper in the sand trap. Driving was suspended to allow time for tests and reviews of possible escape strategies, NASA stated."

GNOME 3 Delayed Until September 2010 419

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday November 14, 2009 @03:03AM from the ready-when-it's-ready dept.

supersloshy writes "Contrary to popular opinion, GNOME 3 will not be released in March next year. It has been delayed until September 2010, six months later. According to the news message, this is because 'our community wants GNOME 3.0 to be fully working for users and why we believe September is more appropriate.' GNOME 3's main goal is to re-define the ways people interact with the desktop, mainly through a new UI design (currently called 'GNOME Shell'), while GNOME 2.30, set for release in March, will have a focus on being stable. An early visual tour of GNOME 3 has been posted at Digitizor."

Microsoft Takes Responsibility For GPL Violation 364

Posted by Soulskill on Friday November 13, 2009 @08:02PM from the owning-up dept.

An anonymous reader writes with an update to the news we discussed last weekend that a Windows 7 utility seemed to contain GPL code: "Microsoft has confirmed that the Windows 7 USB/DVD tool did, in fact, use GPL code, and they have agreed to release the tool's source code under the terms of GPLv2. In a statement, Microsoft said creation of the tool had been contracted out to a third party and apologized for not noticing the GPL code during a code review."

Submission + - Google Voice buys Gizmo5 (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13, 2009 @07:32PM

An anonymous reader writes: The blog begins with "Today we're pleased to announce we've acquired Gizmo5, a company that provides Internet-based calling software for mobile phones and computers. While we don't have any specific features to announce right now, Gizmo5's engineers will be joining the Google Voice team to continue improving the Google Voice and Gizmo5 experience. Current Gizmo5 users will still be able to use the service, though we will be suspending new signups for the time being, and existing users will no longer be able to sign up for a call-in number."

Submission + - SPAM: DNS Problem Linked To DDoS Attacks Gets Worse

Submitted by itwbennett on Friday November 13, 2009 @06:43PM

itwbennett writes: The percentage of DNS systems on the Internet that are configured to accept DNS queries from anywhere, what networking experts call an 'open recursive' or 'open resolver' system, has jumped from around 50 percent in 2007, to nearly 80 percent this year, according to research sponsored by DNS appliance company Infoblox. As more consumers demand broadband Internet, service providers are rolling out modems configured this way to their customers said Cricket Liu, vice president of architecture with Infoblox. Georgia Tech Researcher David Dagon agreed that open recursive systems are on the rise, in part because of 'the increase in home network appliances that allow multiple computers on the Internet.... Almost all ISPs distribute a home DSL/cable device. Many of the devices have built-in DNS servers. These can sometimes ship in 'open by default' states.' What's worse, says Dagon, many of these devices do not include patches for a widely publicized DNS flaw discovered by researcher Dan Kaminsky last year.
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