Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Quite misleading (Score 2) 170

The charger is a mini linux machine what needs to use an apple developer account to dynamically add the devices UDID to the developer portal. It then signs the malicious app and installs it. It takes advantage of ad-hoc distribution and would require a new Apple developer account every 100 devices.

Everything that Ernest said, plus one more important note: Your phone must be either unlocked or not passcode/password protected, in order for this exploit to function. (Just another good reason to use what should be common sense security precautions, really.)

Comment Salary caps (Score 1) 355

First, I will preface my comment by saying that I am not actually in favor of government regulation of the internet... but if we were to actually go down that road, I would opine that the only step necessary to dramatically improve US broadband, would be to incorporate salary caps into the C- level positions at the existing telcos. If the money can't be siphoned up the chain to the bank account of those money-hungry CEOs, then it seems to me that the most likely places for all that cash to go would be a) back into the company, (as in, both the lower level employees and the infrastructure) or b) back to the customers and stockholders.

I mean, I'm all for a free market and the capitalistic system and all that... but good grief! Salaries at the top are positively obscene!

Submission + - JavaScript Is Way Too Slow – for What?

An anonymous reader writes: Simon St. Laurent suggests a little clarification when it comes to the use of JavaScript in mobile web apps "I keep finding that programmers—even web programmers—frequently think “web application” means “JavaScript application.” Programmers are, of course, used to working with programming languages, and often see application environments from the perspective of the programming language in use.

These blinders derail Drew Crawford’s detailed rant on Why mobile web apps are slow. It turns out that “slow for what?” is a key part of the question, as Crawford reveals near the very end"

Submission + - iPhone 5S: New photos, full specs point to biggest 'S' upgrade ever (bgr.com)

An anonymous reader writes: As Apple’s next-generation iPhone 5S enters mass production, we’re seeing all of the puzzle pieces fall into place. Photos are leaking, new details are trickling out, and rumors of production issues and possible delays are spreading like wildfire, just like they do every year. Now, a new report may reveal full specs for the iPhone 5S alongside new images of the device’s case assembly seemingly taken inside Foxconn’s factory...

Submission + - Virtual Reality Allows Adults to See World Through a Child's Eyes (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes: When adults inhabit the body of a child in virtual reality, they really do begin to see the world through the eyes of a child. Researchers found that volunteers in such a scenario viewed objects as much larger than they really were. The effects persisted after the simulation was over: Adults who had inhabited a child's body were more likely to identify themselves as someone who was still in primary school.

Submission + - Latest Windows 7, 8 & RT Patches Cause Many Bugs and Issues (wind8apps.com)

SmartAboutThings writes: Users all over the world have reported on forums and blogs that they are receiving various bugs and issues with some of the latest patches released by Microsoft in order to fight some other serious problems in almost all of its Windows versions. Experts in this field are calling these problems "in desperate need of attention" and that issues with patches "have hit a new low". Are you experiencing any issues after installing the latest patches to your Windows version?

Comment Just stick to the definition of "Agile process" (Score 1) 221

Personally, in your situation I would probably recommend going full tilt into the formal Agile process. Strictly speaking, the formalized definition of the "Agile process" does not necessarily coincide with what most people think of as "agile". In an "agile" world, maybe you can make changes at a whim, simply because the customer says jump... but in the "Agile process", you don't really make changes to the current sprint; all changes get dropped into the product backlog, and prioritized appropriately to be included in a future sprint. If you're changing the scope of tasks included in the current sprint, then you're not really doing Agile.

Mind you, there are infrequent times when a new requirement or a bug report might actually trumps the sprint altogether... personally, I would classify those as emergencies. And let's be frank: How many actual emergencies do you think take place in the world of computer programming?

(Source: My employer sent me to ScrumMaster training a couple of weeks ago.)

Submission + - Volkswagen Concept Car Averages An Amazing 262 MPG (ibtimes.com)

coolnumbr12 writes: The Volkswagen XL1 averages an amazing 262 mpg, and although it may never hit streets in the United States, the technology behind the car could impact future Volkswagen vehicles.
The keys to the incredible mileage in the Volkswagen XL1 were reducing the weight of the vehicle and eliminating wind resistance. The XL1 only weighs 1,753 pounds — that's more than a thousand pounds lighter than the Toyota Prius, which weighs in at 2,921 pounds. The wheels on the Volkswagen XL1 are as thin as road bike’s and wrapped in custom Michelin rubber. The XL1 chassis is a single piece of molded carbon-fiber, and has a drag coefficient of only 0.189 – similar to a bumblebee.

Submission + - Obamacare Software Glitch Will Limit Penalties Charged to Smokers (yahoo.com)

turbosaab writes: The Obama administration has quietly notified insurers that a computer system glitch will limit penalties that companies may charge smokers under the new healthcare law. The underlying reason for the limitation is another provision in the health care law that says insurers can't charge older customers more than three times what they charge the youngest adults in the pool. The government's computer system has been unable to accommodate the two. So younger smokers and older smokers must be charged the same penalty, or the system will kick it out. A fix will take at least a year to put in place.

Submission + - Squito – a Throwable Panoramic Camera will Show you the Action Inflight (lensvid.com)

Iddo Genuth writes: Squito is a new design for a throwable panoramic camera inside a ball. The technology was developed by Steve Hollinger – Boston-based artist and inventor who designed a working model of the Squito and is now looking to reach out to manufacturers and developers alike who could help him take the Squito technology to the next level and bring it to the consumer and professionals alike to be used for shooting everything from a basketball game from the viewpoint of the ball to firefighters and search and rescue teams looking for survivors inside collapsed and burning buildings.

Submission + - A pure HTML5 remake of the classic game Asteroids... With a twist! (goosteroids.com)

Vasheron writes: Introducing Goosteroids! What is grey goo you ask, and why are we destroying it? The answer is simple: Every second of everyday millions of people with smartphones and thousands of companies produce media that are super-pixelated and provide no value to the human race. Stock photos, CMS templates and pictures of last night's dinner are a few examples. We call this stuff grey goo. We must free humanity of the boring, mundane and useless. Climb aboard your laser-firing rocket ship and destroy grey goo forever! See the code on GitHub!

Submission + - In Smartphones and Tablets, Multicore is Not Necessarily the Way to Go

Esther Schindler writes: The PC solution for the CPU performance wall was to throw more cores at it. That’s not necessarily the best way to improve mobile app performance, explains Andy Patrizio.

When it comes to smartphones, the white paper notes that single core performance isn’t even saturated with current technology, so second cores are hardly necessary. Smartphones are driven by Web browsing and HTML5-based applications, and here, multicore is fairly worthless because HTML5 itself is not multicore.

The conclusion, then, is that smartphone makers are putting far too much processing power in phones, much more than necessary. HTML5 will not use three of the four cores of a Tegra 3 but the cores will draw power.

So what's a performance-sensitive mobile developer to do?

Baptiste is more concerned with the GPU, both its implementation and integration, than with CPU cores. “Having a great GPU that can leverage HTML5 is where it can really matter. The problem is no one is taking advantage of that on a scale that really matters,” he said. “WebGL takes advantage of the graphics processor, but it’s not used on iOS except in iAds.”

Submission + - Quake 3 Server left alone for 4 years develops world peace (huffingtonpost.co.uk) 1

An anonymous reader writes: In 1999, the state-of-the-art in video game warfare was Quake 3 Arena — a fast and brutal game set in tight, cramped levels, where the aim was simply to kill, get killed, and repeat.

And among its various innovations — of which, arguably, there weren't that many — was some rather clever artificial intelligence.

The 'bots' in the game — essentially the computer controlled players — were equipped with a kind of 'learning' AI.

In the game, the bots would watch your gameplay style, and adapt themselves as the fighting continued. The bots would effectively "think" their way to new tactics, discarding ideas that didn't work and honing in on those that did.

Naturally this got some people thinking. If you left the bots playing, on their own, surely they would get better and better⦠and then what? Would they turn into the ultimate AI killing machine — or create a nightmare world of pain and suffering?

Well now we know.

They evolved world peace.

Slashdot Top Deals

The biggest difference between time and space is that you can't reuse time. -- Merrick Furst

Working...