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Microsoft

Submission + - Windows 8 will not play DVD discs anymore, unless you pay for the Media Center (pureinfotech.com) 4

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Here is something interesting, you may already know that Microsoft plans to sell Windows Media Center as a separate paid pack, but now the company has just revealed that Windows 8 will also stop the support for DVD playback. This won’t be the case of course, if you upgrade to the Media Center pack that you only will be able to install...
United States

Submission + - Mississippi Teens Jailed After Video Recording Police Investigation From Balcony (wlbt.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Two Mississippi teenagers were arrested after video recording a police investigation from their balcony Tuesday. Pearl Police, who charged up the stairs to arrest the teens and burst through their apartment door without a warrant after a shooting took place in the parking lot below, charged the teens with disorderly conduct. Terrell Madison and his twin sister Shanell were jailed for several hours before they were released. Police returned their phone but kept their SIM card, which is unlawful to do without a subpoena.

According to WLBT, "The Colony Park Apartment resident said she and her twin brother Terrell were on their apartment balcony when Tuesday's tragic police shooting unfolded. But she said minutes later they were being manhandled by officers after they saw her brother recording the scene with his cell phone. "The police came up here after they took his phone. They slammed him down and arrested him, and I'm like 'Why are y'all arresting him', and then they grabbed me and slammed me also and arrested me," said Shanell Madison. She said they didn't know why they were targeted in their own home."
Facebook

Submission + - Ethical hacker jailed for discovering Facebook security vulnerabilities (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Diamonddavej
Diamonddavej writes: The BBC reports that software development student Glenn Mangham, 26, of Cornlands Road, York, UK was jailed 17 February 2012 for 8 months for computer misuse, after he discovered serious Facebook security vulnerabilities. Hacking from his bedroom, Mangham gained access to three of Facebook's servers and was able to download to an external hardrive the social network's "invaluable" intellectual intellectual property (source code). Mangham's defence lawyer, Mr. Ventham, pointed out that Mangham is an "ethical hacker" and runs a tax registered security company. The court heard Mangham previously breached Yahoo's security, compiled a vulnerability report and passed on to Yahoo; he was paid "$7000 for this achievement" and he was merely trying to repeat the same routine with Facebook. But passing sentence, Judge Alistair McCreath told Mangham, that despite that he did not intend to pass on the information gathered, nor did he intend to make any money from his hack, his actions were not harmless and had "real consequences and very serious potential consequences" for Facebook. Persecutor, Mr. Patel, said Facebook spent "$200,000 (£126,400) dealing with Mangham's crime, ...
United States

Submission + - Steve Jobs Told Obama Made-in-the-USA Days Over 9

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: At his Last Supper with Steve Jobs, reports the NY Times, President Obama had a question for Jobs: What would it take to make iPhones in the United States? 'Those jobs aren't coming back,' Jobs replied. The president's question touched upon a central conviction at Apple: It isn't just that workers are cheaper abroad; Apple execs believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that Made in the U.S.A.' is no longer a viable option for most Apple products. 'The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,' a former Apple exec gushed, describing how 8,000 workers were once roused from company dormitories at midnight to address a last-minute Apple design change, given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. 'There's no American plant that can match that.' What's vexed Obama as well as economists and policy makers is that Apple — and many of its hi-tech peers — are not nearly as avid in creating American jobs as other famous companies were in their heydays. 'We don't have an obligation to solve America's problems,' a current Apple exec is quoted as saying. 'Our only obligation is making the best product possible.'

Submission + - Best way to teach high school kids how to make gam 1

Submitted by
nzyank
nzyank writes: "The other day I bravely (foolishly?) volunteered to conduct a video game development workshop at my boys' HS. This in Smallsville, Vermont with an average graduating class size of about 20. The idea is to meet once a week and actually create a game, start to finish. It will be open to would-be programmers, designers, artists, etc.

I worked on a bunch of AAA titles back in the 90's, but I'm pretty much out of touch nowadays and I'm trying to figure out the best approach. The requirements are that it has to be one of either Windows/XBox or Android, since those are the platforms that I am current on. It has to be relatively simple for the kids to get up and running quickly, and it needs to be as close to free as possible. Teaching them to use stuff like Blender, C#, C++, Java, XNA, OpenGL and the Android SDK is probably a bit much.

I was thinking of something like the Torque Engine, but they want $1000 for an academic license, which is never going to happen. I simply don't know what's out there nowadays and could really use some suggestions."

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Assembling a desktop environment 1

Submitted by paxcoder
paxcoder writes: Gnome Shell... is different. Very much so. The fallback was inadequate. I suspect that many people, like me, turned to the alternatives. My choice was LXDE, which worked ok, until (lx-)panel broke in the unstable branch of the distro that I use. Tired of using the terminal to run stuff, I replaced the standard panel with the one from Xfce. That made me realize that we really don't need a packaged desktop environment, there are pieces ready for assembly. If you customize your graphical environment, what elements do you use? Which window manager, file manager, panel(etc.) would you recommend? Do you have a panel with a hardware usage monitors, how do you switch between workspaces? Anything cool we might not know about?

Submission + - Slashdot Poll 3

Submitted by Nom du Keyboard
Nom du Keyboard writes: How many incandescent light bulbs have you replaced in your house with fluorescent equivalents?

None – and never will.
1-2
3-5
6-10
10-20
>20
Waiting for LEDs/Light Bulb Next.
I use pre-incandescent lighting technology
Java

Submission + - Ubuntu Lockdown 2

Submitted by clava
clava writes: We have a desktop Java testing application that is going to be administering tests to students on lab computers running Ubuntu 10.x. These computers are used by the students for other purposes and we're not allowed to create special users or change the OS configuration. When the testing app is launched, we need to restrict users from exiting the app so they can't do things like search the internet for answers or use other applications. Is there a good way to put an Ubuntu machine in kiosk mode or something via our application and have exiting kiosk mode be password protected? Any ideas are appreciated.
Google

Submission + - Google Throws /. Under Bus to Snag Patent

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Before Danny Hillis and Bran Ferren invented Google's newly-patented system for Delegating Authority to Evaluate Content, Google says users looking for content evaluation websites were condemned to the likes of Amazon.com and Slashdot. From the patent: 'Many sites found on the World Wide Web allow users to evaluate content found within the site. The Slashdot Web site (www.slashdot.org) allows users to 'mod' comments recently posted by other users. Based on this information obtained from the users, the system determines a numerical score for each comment ranging from 1 to 5.' The problem with sites like Slashdot, Google told the USPTO, is that 'because there is no restriction on the users that may participate, the reliability of the ratings is correspondingly diminished.' Commissioning a small number of trusted evaluators or editors would increase the reliability of the evaluations, Google notes, but wouldn't allow nearly as much content to be evaluated. Google's solution? Allow trusted evaluators to transfer a 'quantity of authority' to like-minded 'contributing authorities', who in turn designate and delegate authority to additional like-minded contributing authorities. Think Microsoft Outlook 97 Delegate Access meets Slashdot Karma Points, and you've got the general idea!
Encryption

Submission + - Twitter Buys Moxie Marlinspike's Crypto Startup (forbes.com)

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: Twitter has confirmed that it's acquiring Whisper Systems, the mobile encryption startup founded by hacker and security researcher Moxie Marlinspike. Marlinspike has built some of the most noteworthy tools in applied cryptography over the last few years, including the encrypted calling app Redphone, the hardened Android OS WhisperCore, and Convergence, a system for fixing the broken SSL certificate authority system. Twitter won't yet say how it plan to integrate Marlinspike or his products.

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