akm1489 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Follows App Tracks Your Online Popularity (apple.com)

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Tuesday March 15, 2011 @08:01AM

Anonymous Coward writes: "Follows lets you track your online popularity. Use this app to chart how many followers, friends, likes, subscriptions, connections or views you've accumulated across various social networks and services.

You can provide a custom URL to follows and have it track private data such as newsletter subscribers, comment counts, visitors, etc."

Submission + - NASA buys 12 seats on Soyuz (nasa.gov)

Submitted by jamax on Tuesday March 15, 2011 @07:56AM

jamax writes: NASA has announced that it has bought 12 seats on Soyuz flights to be flown in the period 2014- june 2016.

Submission + - KVM over IP: Eliminates the Distance Limitation As (smartvm.com)

Submitted by

peterdisuja

on Tuesday March 15, 2011 @07:54AM

peterdisuja writes: "One or more computers can be controlled with a single set of peripherals using an IP KVM Switch. However, the key feature of this device is that it bypasses the control limits of a typical switch by allowing users to remotely exercise control over IP with 128 bit browser based access. There is no need for a physical connection in the form of wires. This device gives the freedom to access the systems over a local area network or a wide area network from remote locations. Compatible with almost every operating system and network device in the office environment, these switches add a greater flexibility to the network by placing the systems where they are required and the peripherals where they are desired."

Submission + - Adobe Confirms Flash Bug, To Release Fix Next Week (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by

iamrmani

on Tuesday March 15, 2011 @07:45AM

iamrmani writes: "Adobe is planning to release the fix for a "critical" vulnerability that affected certain versions of its flash player during the week of March 21, 2011.

Adobe rated the bug as "critical," which, if exploited would allow malicious native-code to execute, potentially without a user being aware. In other words, the bug could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.

Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/122830/20110315/adobe-flash-flash-player-bug-zero-day-bug-patch-vulnerability-excel-authplay-microsoft-adobe-reader.htm#ixzz1GfTnuinb"

Submission + - Microsoft Calls Time on Zune Player (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Stoobalou on Tuesday March 15, 2011 @07:28AM

Stoobalou writes: Microsoft has hinted that its Zune Player hardware has reached the end of the road and that no further devices would be developed or released.

The Redmond software giant's feeble forays into the media player market always faced an uphill struggle in the face of Apple's utter dominance, the various flavours of its iPod hardware hogging as much as 77 per cent of sales in recent years, but that didn't stop Microsoft from pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a string of devices which almost universally failed to gain favour with either reviewers or the gadget-buying public.

Submission + - Apple's Role in Japan during the Tohoku Earthquake (kevinrose.com)

Submitted by

TiZon

on Tuesday March 15, 2011 @07:16AM

TiZon writes: "As you all must have heard, the 5th largest earthquake in recorded history hit us on Friday, 2:30pm Japan Time. As Alex often says on TWiM, stories on the ground are often quite different from the stories in the news, and there is a tech story that I'd really like to tell: the story of Apple Inc in Japan."

Submission + - Red Hat Paid $4.2m To Settle Patent Suit (itwire.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15, 2011 @07:15AM

An anonymous reader writes: iTWire reports that 'Red Hat paid $US4.2 million to settle a patent infringement suit brought against it by FireStar Software, an intellectual property activist claims. Florian Mueller, who made a name for himself during the campaign to prevent the adoption of software patents in Europe some years ago, said he had dug up a court filing that showed the payment had been made.' Mueller says the payment made by Red Hat was kept secret but news about it surfaced in another suit.

Submission + - The migration season (opensourcepedia.com)

Submitted by opensourcepedia on Saturday February 12, 2011 @05:40PM

opensourcepedia writes: It's time to try something new and exciting open source software.

Submission + - Is Google cheating on us (blogspot.com)

Submitted by akm1489 on Saturday February 12, 2011 @05:38PM

akm1489 writes: Obviously google is most precise search engine but it is in one way or another giving its user a false impression.Generally people think how google returns millions of result in fraction of second : some people argue that it uses hardware accelerator for comparison,searching,sorting any other advanced techniques.May be all arguments are correct but the theme line is basically google doesn't returns millions of result for any query,it is there in their policy that they don't retrieve more than 1000 result for any query,demonstration is their in http://ananyamallik.blogspot.com/2011/02/is-google-cheating-on-ius.html

Best Buy Unapologetic About Charging For PS3 Firmware Updates 454

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday October 07, 2010 @01:12AM from the a-fool-and-his-money dept.

donniebaseball23 writes "After discovering that electronics retailer Best Buy was charging ignorant customers $30 for the 'service' of installing updated firmware on PS3s, IndustryGamers got word from the company on its policy. Best Buy sees no problem with charging for this convenience, even though it's something Sony provides to PS3 owners completely free. 'While many gamers can handle firmware upgrades easily on their own, those customers who do want help can get it from Geek Squad, and we continue to evaluate this offering to ensure it meets their needs. The service goes beyond a firmware updates, and includes user account setup, parental control setup and other components,' a representative said."

Can NetBooks & Tablets Co-Exist? 291

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday September 08, 2010 @10:32AM from the gobble-gobble-gobble dept.

bsk_cw writes "According to Computerworld's Serdar Yegulalp, there has been a lot of talk about whether the iPad will take the place of the netbook — or, in fact, whether it will eat into the market share for more mainstream desktop and laptop computers. But, he continues, the iPad has a long way to go before it becomes a netbook killer — if only because it has created a space all its own."

Rupert Murdoch Publishes North Korean Flash Games 186

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday September 08, 2010 @06:33AM from the wonder-if-they're-paywalled dept.

eldavojohn writes "You might recall back in June when it was noted that North Korea was developing and exporting flash games. Now, the isolated nation state is apparently home to some game developers that are being published by a subsidiary of News Corp. (The games include Big Lebowski Bowling and Men In Black). Nosotek Joint Venture Company is treading on thin ice in the eyes of a few academics and specialists that claim the Fox News owner is 'working against US policy.' Concerns grow over the potential influx of cash, creating better programmers that are then leveraged into cyberwarfare capabilities. Nosotek said that 'training them to do games can't bring any harm.' The company asserts its innocence, though details on how much of the games were developed in North Korea are sparse. While one of the poorest nations in the world could clearly use the money, it remains to be seen if hardliner opponents like the United States will treat Nosotek (and parent company News Corp.) as if they're fostering the development of computer programmers inside the DPRK. The United Nations only stipulates that cash exchanged with companies in the DPRK cannot go to companies and businesses associated with military weaponry or the arms trade. Would you feel differently about Big Lebowski Bowling if you knew it was created in North Korea?"

Lineage II Addiction Lawsuit Makes It Past the EULA 267

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday September 02, 2010 @03:29AM from the four-little-letters dept.

We recently discussed a man who sued NCsoft for making Lineage II "too addictive" after he spent 20,000 hours over five years playing it. Now, several readers have pointed out that the lawsuit has progressed past its first major hurdle: the EULA. Quoting: "NC Interactive has responded the way most software companies and online services have for more than a decade: it argued that the claims are barred by its end-user license agreement, which in this case capped the company's liability to the amount Smallwood paid in fees over six months prior to his filing his complaint (or thereabouts). One portion of the EULA specifically stated that lawsuits could only be brought in Texas state court in Travis County, where NC Interactive is located. ... But the judge in this case, US District Judge Alan C. Kay, noted that both Texas and Hawaii law bar contract provisions that waive in advance the ability to make gross-negligence claims. He also declined to dismiss Smallwood's claims for negligence, defamation, and negligent infliction of emotional distress."

Target To Sell Facebook "Credits" As Gift Cards 96

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday September 02, 2010 @02:48AM from the a-bucks-worth-of-farmville dept.

Julie188 writes "Target will begin selling Facebook's virtual currency as gift cards on September 5, becoming the first brick-and-mortar retailer to do so. Facebook Credit gift cards will be available in $15, $25 and $50 denominations at the retailer's 1,750 stores. That's right, you can now spend real dollars to get fake ones so you can buy imaginary items for games like FarmVille, Bejeweled and 150 other FB games or apps. If that interests you, please contact me. I have some swamp land in Florida I'd like to show you."

More Devs Going Indie, To Gamers' Benefit 137

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 25, 2010 @03:28AM from the granularization-of-an-industry dept.

Wired is running a feature about how a growing number of game developers are abandoning jobs at major publishers and studios and taking their experience to the indie scene instead. Quoting: "They’re veterans of the triple-A game biz with decades of experience behind them. They’ve worked for the biggest companies and had a hand in some of the industry’s biggest blockbusters. They could work on anything, but they’ve found creative fulfillment splitting off into a tiny crew and doing their own thing. They’re using everything they’ve learned working on big-budget epics and applying it to small, downloadable games. The good news for gamers is that, as the industry’s top talents depart the big studios and go into business for themselves, players are being treated to a new class of indie game. They’re smaller and carry cheaper price tags, but they’re produced by industry veterans instead of thrown together by B teams and interns. Most importantly, unlike big-budget games that need to appeal to the lowest common denominator to turn a profit, these indie gems reveal the undiluted creative vision of their makers."

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