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Cellphones

Japanese "Hate" For the iPhone All a Big Mistake 327

Posted by Soulskill from the downloading-the-ifud-app dept.
MBCook writes "AppleInsider has posted a great article explaining that Wired's story about Japanese iPhone hate was completely false and has been edited at least twice. The comments in the article were recycled and taken out of context, with those interviewed blogging about the mistakes. The piece then goes on to analyze the iPhone's standing in Japan, as well as some of the major factors working for and against it. At last it points out that the Wall Street Journal tried the same myth of failure just after the phone's launch in Japan, recycled from a myth the year before, pushed by a research company with a possible anti-Apple agenda."
Power

Submission + - Solar Panels drop to $1 a Watt 1

Submitted by
ZosX
ZosX writes: "An article over at Popular Mechanics has announced that for the first time, Solar Cells have reached the mythical $1/watt figure. They also talk about supply problems and a few other issues. I'm not the biggest fan of PM, but this article is actually pretty good."
Security

Submission + - Obama Helicopter Security Breached by File Sharing 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "A company that monitors peer-to-peer file-sharing networks has discovered a potentially serious security breach involving President Barack Obama's helicopter. "We found a file containing entire blueprints and avionics package for Marine One, which is the president's helicopter," says Bob Boback, CEO of Tiversa, a security company that specializes in peer-to-peer technology. Tiversa was able to track the files, discovered at an IP address in Tehran, Iran, back to its original source. "What appears to be a defense contractor in Bethesda, Md., had a file-sharing program on one of their systems that also contained highly sensitive blueprints for Marine One," says Boback adding that someone from the company most likely downloaded a file-sharing program, typically used to exchange music, not realizing the potential problems. "I'm sure that person is embarrassed and may even lose their job, but we know where it came from and we know where it went." Iran is not the only country that appears to be accessing this type of information through file-sharing programs. "We've noticed it out of Pakistan, Yemen, Qatar and China. They are actively searching for information that is disclosed in this fashion because it is a great source of intelligence.""
Cellphones

Submission + - Japanese "hate" for iPhone all a big mista (appleinsider.com)

Submitted by
MBCook
MBCook writes: "AppleInsider has posed a great article explaining that Wired's story about Japanese iPhone hate (/. discussion) was completely false and has been edited at least twice. The comments in the article were recycled and taken out of context, with those interviewed blogging about the mistakes. The piece then goes on to analyze the iPhone's standing in Japan, as well as some of the major factors working for and against it. At last it points out that the Wall Street Journal tried the same myth of failure just after the phone's launch in Japan, recycled from the myth the year before, pushed by a research company with a possible anti-Apple agenda."
The Courts

Use Your iPhone To Get Out of a Ticket 291

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the solid-use-of-your-time dept.
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that Parkingticket.com just announced new compatibility with the Safari web browser on Apple's iPhone, giving you new tools to immediately contest a parking ticket. The site is so confident in their service that if all steps are followed and the ticket is still not dismissed they will pay $10 towards your ticket. "The process begins by navigating the iPhone's Safari browser to the Parkingticket.com website where you'll find a straightforward means to fight a parking ticket; whether the ticket was issued in New York City, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia or Washington, D.C. Simply register for a free account and choose the city in which the ticket was issued. Enter your ticket and vehicle details then answer a few quick questions. The detailed process takes about ten minutes, from A-Z. To allow easy entry of your ticket, a look-a-like parking ticket is displayed — for your specific city — with interactive functionality."
Programming

Submission + - Walter Bright Ports D to the Mac (ddj.com)

Submitted by jonniee
jonniee writes: D is a programming language created by Walter Bright of C++ fame. D's focus is on combining the power and high performance of C/C++ with the programmer productivity of modern languages like Ruby and Python. And now he's ported it to the Macintosh.
Idle

Submission + - Goatse Mail To Spammer Ends In Police Citation 2

Submitted by Dave
Dave writes: Locally, we have a happy hour event for Information Technology professionals to meet up and have a few drinks. Each month, it is hosted at a different location, and each month a different business sponsors the beer. As part of this event, there is an e-mail sign up for the actual happy hour mailing list to receive information about where the next event takes place and who is sponsoring it. The business where the event took place happened to take their own copy of this list and used it to start e-mailing me about their non-related promotions (Super Bowl, Mardi Gras, etc).

I replied nicely the first time with a title of 'UNSUBSCRIBE', the full original message (including the header showing which e-mail address the message was sent to), and quotes from the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 which says that there must be a clear unsubscribe mechanism (which there was not), and that requests must be honored within 10 days. This past week, I received more promotional materials and replied with an attached image of goatse.

I was contacted today by an officer in reference to "Unlawful Use Of Computerized Communication Systems". I was told that this could be prosecuted under state criminal law but that "since I had cooperated and returned the officer's phone call", I will instead be issued a municipal citation (locally adopted state law, references the same exact legal code 947.0125) for $300.

I fully plan on going to my court date to contest the citation on principle, but I thought maybe some other slashdotters might have had similar experiences or may be able to provide me with some basis on which to fight this.

Comment Re:Yay fail whale (Score 2, Interesting) 175

by revscat (#26909277) Attached to: Twitter Leads Social Networks In Downtime

Birds tweet. They all tweet to each other. And they do so using tin cans and string.

So they're flying along, happy tweeting on their retro iPhones when all of a sudden this doped up whale jumps in the middle of them, dragging them all to their doom.

Birds = Twitter
Whale = system/network load/myth of Rails scalability

It's a gorgeous bit of iconography.
Microsoft

Bill Gates Unleashes Swarm of Mosquitoes 841

Posted by CmdrTaco from the ok-that's-awesome dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates released a glass full of mosquitoes at an elite Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference to make a point about the deadly sting of malaria. 'Malaria is spread by mosquitoes,' Gates said while opening a jar on stage at a gathering known to attract technology kings, politicians, and Hollywood stars. 'I brought some. Here I'll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected.'" Say what you will about the guy, that is showmanship. Well done.
Cellphones

Apple Planning Video-Call iPhone 268

Posted by Soulskill from the was-blind-but-now-iSee dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The recently awarded iPhone patent contains hidden claims which indicate Apple is planning to bring video calling and recording features to the iPhone, according to InfoWeek blogger Alex Wolfe. Buried within the 'embodiments' section of patent number 7,479,949 is this: 'In some embodiments, the functions may include telephoning, video conferencing, e-mailing, instant messaging, blogging, digital photographing, digital videoing, web browsing, digital music playing, and/or digital video playing.' Wolfe also cites language indicating Apple is aware that having a rear-facing camera is an impediment towards video calls (and also taking pictures of yourself.): 'In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the front of the device so that the user's image may be obtained for videoconferencing while the user views the other video conference participants on the touch screen display.' Screen caps of the patent drawing are also available."
Businesses

Comrade, You Are So Not Getting a Dell 600

Posted by kdawson from the touchy-touchy dept.
theodp writes "At the World Economic Forum, Michael Dell's pitch to help Russia with its computers got the cold-as-Siberia shoulder from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. 'We don't need help,' shot back Putin. 'We are not invalids. We don't have limited mental capacity' (video — rant starts at 1:24). 'Our programmers are some of the best in the world,' Putin continued. 'No one would contest that here — not even our Indian colleagues.'"

Comment Re:I care. I'm surprised to say that I actually do (Score 1) 672

by revscat (#26379037) Attached to: Ballmer Sets Loose Windows 7 Public Beta At CES
Or just use Expose. Or just click on the icon on the Dock. The only time the problem you describe actually shows itself are for applications that are GDI-style, and those are few and far between these days.

The Dock is fine as an app switcher for 99% of the cases. If you want to bring Mail to the front, you click on it. How could that be any simpler?

Comment Re:Are there any Mac Viruses? (Score 3, Insightful) 449

by revscat (#25979631) Attached to: Apple Says Macs Are Safe, No Antivirus Needed
The page you linked to shows malware, not viruses. No system is immune to malware. And as far as viruses are concerned, there has never an OS X virus. Ever.

And the market share thing has been debunked time and time again. You think that if virus writers could capture 100% of 8% of the market that they wouldn't have done so sometime in the past 8 years?

Comment Re:Safe... until (Score 4, Insightful) 449

by revscat (#25979467) Attached to: Apple Says Macs Are Safe, No Antivirus Needed

Maybe there aren't many (or any) viruses, worms and whatnot targeting the platform today, but they will come, and when they arrive, it will be a good idea to have some protection installed beforehand.

People have been saying the same damn thing for 8 years. "Just wait, one day OS X will get a virus. You'll see."

Ok, well, after hearing this for almost a decade I'm kinda starting to get skeptical.

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