Comment Re:I feel for ya... (Score 2, Insightful) 260
You get what you pay for.
Submission + - Next Adobe Reader Will Include Sandboxing (threatpost.com)
Trailrunner7 writes: The next major version of Adobe's PDF Reader will feature new sandboxing technology aimed at curbing a surge in malicious hacker attacks against the widely deployed software. The security feature, called "Protected Mode," is similar to the Google Chrome sandbox and Microsoft Office 2010 Protected Viewing Mode, according to Adobe's security chief Brad Arkin.
In an interview with Threatpost, Arkin said the sandbox is scheduled for release before the end of this year and is based on Microsoft's Practical Windows Sandboxing technique. The sandbox will be turned on by default and will display all operations in a PDF file in a very restricted manner. The first sandbox implementation will isolate all “write” calls on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2003. Arkin believes this will mitigate the risk of exploits seeking to install malware on the user’s computer or otherwise change the computer’s file system or registry.
In an interview with Threatpost, Arkin said the sandbox is scheduled for release before the end of this year and is based on Microsoft's Practical Windows Sandboxing technique. The sandbox will be turned on by default and will display all operations in a PDF file in a very restricted manner. The first sandbox implementation will isolate all “write” calls on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2003. Arkin believes this will mitigate the risk of exploits seeking to install malware on the user’s computer or otherwise change the computer’s file system or registry.
Submission + - A tool for sorting political bias in the media (left-right.us)
Anonymusing writes: Slashdot is much more popular among liberals than among conservatives — at least judging by a search on Left-Right. I recently launched the site as an experiment to study political bias across American media sources. Type a search term in the box, and the site will return Google results drawn from more than 100 top politically-relevant web sites, displaying pages from liberal-oriented sites on the left side, and pages from conservative-oriented on the right. Sometimes the differences are striking: that search for "Slashdot is" returns dozens of results on the left, but only five on the right. Similarly, a search for obstetric fistula — a hot topic in international health — turns up dozens of results on the left, and only four on the right. Slashdot readers, what do you think of Left-Right? How would you improve it? And can you find any other searches with extreme differences?
Comment Re:OMFG (Score 4, Informative) 481
But the Star Wars props aren't original designs. The early ones were Graflex flash guns with very minor modifications. They evolved slightly over the years, but the design didn't originate with Lucas.
Basically George is mad that someone ripped off a design that he ripped off already.
Comment Re:I have to say it but (Score 1) 481
Actually it's not. According to the story, they make no mention of any Star Wars property. Third parties have gotten on the bandwagon and made comparisons, but not the manufacturer.
Besides, the props in the movies were just modified Graflex flash guns. I don't know if Lucas licensed those are not, but his designs are far or original.
Comment Re:What's misspelled? (Score 1) 291
Sure, they misspelled the word "low". They stared it with an "n" instead of an "l" and forgot the final "w".
Comment Re:I say good riddance (Score 1) 426
What you are getting in the mailbox is most likely a TMC (Total Market Coverage) product. These products exist only to serve as a vehicle to deliver the advertisements. They may be part of the local paper, but they are not the main product, they only exist to generate revenue by giving the advertisers deeper penetration into the market.
The real local newspapers are the ones that cover the activates of the local government, police and schools. They are the ones that play watchdog on local officials, and while they are by no means perfect, they serve a very valuable purpose that won't be easily replaced by your average bloggers. The signal to noise ratio in the blogosphere is just abysmal. Even a poorly run a newspaper provides better information than every local blogger I've read. There may be exceptional bloggers out there, but they only cover a fraction of what needs to be covered.
We don't necessarily need newspapers, but we do need journalism. The problem is that newspapers provide more journalists in more local areas than any other medium. The local TV and radio stations in my area only report on 2 things - What the hear on the police scanner and what they read in our local paper. The same is true with the "news" bloggers. We may think that online news exists independent of newspapers, but that's just not true yet.
I honestly don't care if the companies that own the newspapers die, but if the papers themselves are allowed to die then democracy will certainly suffer for it. A conversion to non-profit might serve us well while we wait for the next big thing to emerge that will successfully replace newspapers.
Apple and AT&T Sued, Again, Over 3G 230
Macworld is reporting that Apple and AT&T are being sued, again, for the lack of delivery on their 3G network. This follows a long line of other lawsuits in San Jose, San Diego, Alabama, Florida, Texas, and New York "The lawsuit charges the companies with Negligence, Breach of Express Warranty, Breach of Implied Warranty of Merchantability, Unjust Enrichment, Negligent Misrepresentation, Violation of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and Other Similar State Statutes, and Breach of Contract. Dickerson is seeking to force Apple and AT&T to correct its labeling and advertising, as well as to recover compensatory, statutory and punitive damages."
Texas Legislature Considers Open Document Formats 149
An anonymous reader notes that a legislator in Texas has introduced a bill to require open document formats in all state government business. The bill is carefully worded such that only ODF could pass its test as "open." The story is covered by the Fort Worth Star Telegram, which is careful to be even-handed, giving Microsoft's spokesman equal time. A ZDNet blogger notes that the bill, introduced by a Democrat in a state whose politics is dominated by Republicans, faces chances that "...fall somewhere east of slim and west of none."
Appeals Court Stays RIAA Subpoena 78
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has stepped in and issued a temporary stay of the RIAA's subpoena for the identity of a student at the State University of New York in Albany. The student, 'John Doe #3,' had filed an appeal and motion for stay pending appeal, arguing that the appeal 'raises significant issues, some of first impression' (PDF), such as the standards for the use of ex parte procedures for expedited discovery, the scope of the First Amendment right of anonymity over the internet, the scope of the distribution right in copyright law, and the pleading requirements for infringement of such right."
Comment Re:What about the kids? (Score 1) 689
I believe a re-trial would violate double jeopardy. Someone should look at the cases one and a time and look for abuses. There are bound to be a few cases where the kids were actually guilty of something worth punishing them for. The hard part will be determining what is fair.
So does anyone know if the judges are immune to civil actions? What would it take to strip them of that if they are?
Researchers Warn of Possible BitTorrent Meltdown 294
secmartin writes "Researchers at Delft University warn that large parts of the BitTorrent network might collapse if The Pirate Bay is forced to shut down. A large part of the available torrents use The Pirate Bay as tracker, and other available trackers will probably be overloaded if all traffic is shifted there. TPB is currently using eight servers for their trackers. According to the researchers, even trackerless torrents using the DHT protocol will face problems: 'One bug in a DHT sorting routine ensures that it can only "stumble upon success", meaning torrent downloads will not start in seconds or minutes if Pirate Bay goes down in flames.'"
Inside Factory China 135
blackbearnh writes "While China is attempting to pull its industry up out of mere manufacturing mode, for now the country is the production workhorse of the consumer electronics industry. Almost anything you pick up at a Best Buy first breathed life across the Pacific Ocean. But what is it like to shepherd a product through the design and production process? Andrew 'bunnie' Huang has done just that with the Chumby, a new Internet appliance. In an interview with O'Reilly Radar, he talks about the logistical and moral issues involved with manufacturing in China, as well as his take on the consumer's right to hack the hardware they purchase."
Microsoft To Open Retail Stores 535
chaz373 writes "CNET reports that Microsoft is going retail. In the 'Beyond Binary' blog Ina Fried reports, 'After years of brushing off the notion, Microsoft said on Thursday that it will open up its own line of retail stores. Without detailing the plans, Microsoft said it has hired David Porter, a 25-year Wal-Mart veteran, to lead the effort. Sources say that Porter's mission will be to develop the company's retail plans and that the effort is likely to start small with just a few locations.'"
Balancing Player Input and Developer Vision? 77
Chris_Jefferson writes "I work on a simple iPhone puzzle game called Combination. Probably the most frequent request I get from users is for an in-game hint system, to help them out on the harder problems. However, when I tried beta testing such a system, almost every user would just hammer the hint button as soon as they got stuck for longer than 30 seconds, spoiling (I believe) their enjoyment of the game. Should games programmers decide they know what's best for users, and not give them features they are crying out for? Has anyone ever seen a good middle-ground, where users are helped, but can't just skip their way through the entire game?"
This question can be generalized for just about any game that's being continually developed — where should the game's designer draw the line between responding to feedback and maintaining what they feel is is the greater source of entertainment?
