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Submission + - Engrossed with Smartphones, Train Riders Overlook Gunman Who Shoots One of Them (sfgate.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: A man standing on a crowded Muni train pulls out a .45-caliber pistol. He raises the gun, pointing it across the aisle, before tucking it back against his side. He draws it out several more times, once using the hand holding the gun to wipe his nose. Dozens of passengers stand and sit just feet away — but none reacts.

Their eyes, focused on smartphones and tablets, don't lift until the gunman fires a bullet into the back of a San Francisco State student getting off the train.

That was the scene captured by a Muni camera on Sept. 23, the night Nikhom Thephakaysone, 30, allegedly killed 20-year-old Justin Valdez, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle (http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Absorbed-device-users-oblivious-to-danger-4876709.php#photo-5278749)

Submission + - Malala meets Barack Obama and asks him to end Drone Strikes (rtoz.org)

Submitted by rtoz
rtoz writes: Education Activist Malala Yousafzai met U.S President Barack Obama at White House.
The Obamas welcomed Malala Yousafzai to the Oval Office “to thank her for her inspiring and passionate work on behalf of girls education in Pakistan,” according to a statement issued by the White House.

Malala said she was honored to meet Obama and that she raised concerns with him about the administration’s use of drones, saying they are “fueling terrorism.”

See here the photo of Malala with Obama Family

Submission + - X11 Server Security Hole Plugged Dating Back To 1993 (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: CVE-2013-4396 was publicized this week and resolved as the latest X11 Server security advisory. This security advisory is about a use after free memory hole that could lead to system crashes and/or memory corruption, but making this X11 security advisory more pressing is that the issue has been present since September of 1993. For two decades in all X11/X.Org Server releases going back to X11R6.0 has been this vulnerabilty that was only now discovered in the widely-used open-source software and can be fixed by a five-line X Server patch.

Submission + - Mozilla Updates Firefox OS to 1.1, Prepares for 2nd Round of Device Launches

Submitted by SmartAboutThings
SmartAboutThings writes: Mozilla has oficially introduced the first update to its mobile Firefox OS. The very first update to Firefox OS adds some important new features, performance improvements and additional language support. Some of the most important changes include MMS support, Push Notifications API, Contact Management enhancements, Firefox browser downloads, Keyboard improvements and much more. In a separate announcement, Mozilla also said that new launches of Firefox OS smartphones will begin soon with more devices and in more markets around the world.

Submission + - Auto Makers To Standardize On Open Source (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: There are efforts underway within the auto industry to create a standard, Linux-based platform for In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) systems so that cars will act more like smartphones instead of having only about 10% of that functionality today. For example, Tesla's Model S IVI system, which is based on Linux, is designed to allow drivers to navigate using Google Maps with live traffic information, listen to streaming music from any online radio station and have access to an Internet browser for news or restaurant reviews. Having an industry-wide open-source IVI operating system would create a reusable platform consisting of core services, middleware and open application layer interfaces that eliminate the redundant efforts to create separate proprietary systems by automakers and their tier 1 suppliers like Microsoft. By developing an open-source platform, carmakers can share upgrades as they arrive.

Submission + - Microsoft Reportedly Looking To Put Windows Phone On Android Devices, Starting W (blogspot.com.au)

Submitted by quantr
quantr writes: Microsoft has reached out to HTC to see if the company would be interested in adding Windows as a second OS to its Android handsets, a new report by Bloomberg claims. It isn’t clear exactly how the two operating systems would share the handset, in terms of allowing dual-booting or making a user choose a default at device setup, but it’s a sign Redmond may be thinking about pulling out all the stops to get people using its mobile OS.
These talks are in very early stages, according to Bloomberg’s sources, and there’s a possibility that Microsoft may even reduce or eliminate its licensing fee for Windows Phone to make it more attractive to HTC. HTC seems to be a target because it’s a former partner that has already built both Windows and Android hardware (though it doesn’t seem to be too keen on delivering more on the Windows Phone side). Microsoft’s head of Operating Systems Terry Myerson is said to be heading to Taiwan to discuss the arrangement in further detail with HTC, says Bloomberg.

Submission + - Skype whitewashes wiretap concerns with improved battery life and cloud services (blogspot.com.au) 3

Submitted by quantr
quantr writes: In 2008, Skype said it didn't have the ability to help the government wiretap calls. The reason: the company's technology relied on peer-to-peer networks rather than servers under its control. Over the past few years, though, that has started to change, with Skype moving to a new cloud infrastructure which relies more and more on the company's own servers to do the heavy lifting. There's no question that opens up new possibilities for Skype, and that's what the company is highlighting today.
In an official blog post, Skype VP Mark Gillett explains how the move away from P2P allows everything from more battery life for smartphones (since they don't have to do as much computing locally) to persistent video and chat messages that you can receive even when you aren't logged in. Skype will also soon synchronize chat message status across devices, so you won't get bombarded anew each time you log in from a different machine.
However, it's hard to read Skype's blog post without thinking about what the company was accused of earlier this year: helping US government agencies listen to private audio and video calls via the controversial PRISM surveillance program. If it was true in 2008 that peer-to-peer technologies made such wiretaps impossible, was it worth trading that for a little additional stability and functionality? That's an legitimate question. Privacy and utility are often at odds: the more a company knows about you, the better service it can provide.

Submission + - Lockheed to Furlough 3,000 on Monday, Layoffs also Kicking In

Submitted by Dawn Kawamoto
Dawn Kawamoto writes: Lockheed employees are the latest casualty in the government shutdown, with the defense contractor announcing Friday it plans to furlough 3,000 workers on Monday. But what they didn't mention is they are also laying off workers too, says a Lockheed source on the hush-hush. Lockheed, of course, isn't the only defense contractor taking it on the chin. Other contractors includeUnited Technologies, which has furloughed 2,000, and BAE Systems which cut 1,000. Wonder when layoff city will stop? Ask your Congressional representative.

Comment Subject: (Score 0) 1

by Moderator (#45034053) Attached to: The Luddites are Almost Always Wrong
Agreed, completely. Historically, people protested and tried to enact laws that limited the use of the first locomotive because it would put people out of jobs. Just imagine the world today if they had their way. We saw the same type of "protectionism" against internet transactions the late 90's and again with Tesla today. Any disruptive technology is going to fire up the nay-sayers.

I remember the protesting when NAFTA was enacted in the early 90's. My mom was a factory worker who was smart enough to learn another trade afterwards; today she runs her own business and can afford multiple European vacations every year.

People need to be flexible and always willing to learn. Bank on at least one major career change in your lifetime. There will always be jobs for people to do, but continuous education and an open mind go a long way towards making that happen. Otherwise, you end up in the government handout line for 20 years (like my mom's peers who weren't willing to re-train), complaining about "the corporations" sending all of the "good jobs" overseas.

Comment Comment by Moderator (Score 0) 14

by Moderator (#45006441) Attached to: Why are younger people losing interest in cars?
Young adults have no interest in cars because they are not fun anymore. One reason they are not fun is because new cars are so expensive. Young adults cannot find jobs, and what little money they make goes towards electronics and rising education costs instead of car payment + insurance + rising gasoline costs. The other reason that cars are no longer fun is that everything even remotely affordable (read: under $35k) is going to be a shitty unibody front-wheel drive four cylinder car that handles like shit, accelerates like shit, and has so many proprietary components that you have to take to the dealer to get serviced (no more stereo upgrades, cannot tune the car for more HP, etc).

Submission + - Why are younger people losing interest in cars? (chicagotribune.com) 14

Submitted by Strudelkugel
Strudelkugel writes: The average car on the road is 11.4 years old, according to Polk, a global automotive analysis firm, which reviewed 247 million light vehicles in the U.S. The age of cars has been gradually increasing since 2002, when the average car was 9.8 years old. Polk expects the trend to continue over the next five years. Automotive density is projected to decline to 77.5 cars per 100 people, down from 80 cars per 100 in 2007, according to Kelsey Mays of Cars.com.

Another study, from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, analyzed the reason for the decline in young driver licensing. Of the 618 unlicensed respondents aged 18-39, 26.9 percent said the main reason they did not get a license was “too busy or not enough time to get a driver’s license.”

Comment Re:Screen size (Score 0) 359

by Moderator (#41820647) Attached to: Google's Nexus 4, 7, 10 Strategy: Openness At All Costs

I don't know about anyone else, but I think that the size of the Nexus 4 is too big at 4.7". I was hoping for a 4" to 4.3" screen, but Google have really pushed for that extra big handset.

Glad I'm not the only one.

To me it's just silly to call a 4.7" phone the Nexus 4. They should round to the closest whole number and call it the Nexus 5 instead.

It's called "Nexus 4" because it is the fourth Nexus phone (after Nexus One, Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus), not because of the size.

Comment Failed attempt. (Score 0) 262

by Moderator (#36821788) Attached to: Do Two-Screen Laptops Make Sense?

The Thinkpad W700ds had two displays, and that ugly behemoth is no longer sold. The market for two monitors on a laptop can't be that large. I mean, given the proliferation of shitty laptop displays (16:9, glossy screens, etc), it seems that not many people care about their displays in the first place. Just get an external LCD monitor and run dual displays with your laptop being one screen.

Comment Sparkleshare (Score 5, Informative) 482

by Moderator (#36464670) Attached to: Open Source Alternative To Dropbox?

Sparkleshare is still under development, and it seems to have the most traction of any user-friendly project. When released, it will be the open-source Dropbox replacement.

I agree though, it's very hard to get rid of the convenience of Dropbox. Not just for saving files, but for syncing your configuration across machines (save your .dotFiles in ~/Dropbox and then symlink to ~/). But when they refuse to support the BSD's (2 out of the 4 machines I regularly work on), and their Linux implementation starting requiring disabling SELinux, they pretty much did it to themselves. Not to mention the whole thing where the Dropbox CTO admitted they could look at your files if they wanted.

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