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Cellphones

Submission + - No Cut-And-Paste for Windows Phone 7 2

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In a behind-the-scenes look at Windows Phone 7 (photos), CNET's Ina Fried notes that Microsoft's new software has won some early praise for breaking ground in some areas, but takes a step backwards in others. In particular, it doesn't support features like copy and paste and multitasking that were already part of the old Windows Mobile. 'I think users use cut-copy-paste periodically,' said Microsoft exec Terry Myerson, '(but) there's other things they use more frequently.' Hey, it was either cut-and-paste or Goo Splat.
Earth

Submission + - German radar satellite lifts off tonight (www.dlr.de)

Submitted by 2Y9D57
2Y9D57 writes: Germany's new TanDEM-X radar satellite is scheduled to lift off from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 04:15 Berlin time on 21 June, that's 10:14 pm Eastern today (20 June). Flying in close formation with its twin satellite, TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X will generate the the most consistent and highest-resolution (12 meter / 40 foot pixel pitch) digital elevation map of the Earth ever, taking three years to image all 150 million square kilometers / 58 million square miles and generating more than 350 TB of raw data in the process. Live streaming at www.dlr.de/live-en.
Science

Submission + - Why Being Wrong Makes Humans So Smart 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Kathryn Schulz writes in the Boston Globe that the more scientists understand about cognitive functioning, the more it becomes clear that our capacity to make mistakes is utterly inextricable from what makes the human brain so swift, adaptable, and intelligent and that rather than treating errors like the bedbugs of the intellect — an appalling and embarrassing nuisance we try to pretend out of existence, we need to recognize that human fallibility is part and parcel of human brilliance. Neuroscientists increasingly think that inductive reasoning undergirds virtually all of human cognition. Humans use inductive reasoning to learn language, organize the world into meaningful categories, and grasp the relationship between cause and effect in the physical, biological, and psychological realms and thanks to inductive reasoning, we are able to form nearly instantaneous beliefs and take action accordingly. But our use of inductive reasoning comes with a price. "The distinctive thing about inductive reasoning is that it generates conclusions that aren’t necessarily true. They are, instead, probabilistically true — which means they are possibly false," writes Schulz. "Because we reason inductively, we will sometimes get things wrong." Schulz recommends that we respond to the mistakes (or putative mistakes) of those around us with empathy and generosity and demand that our business and political leaders acknowledge and redress their errors rather than ignoring or denying them. "Once we recognize that we do not err out of laziness, stupidity, or evil intent, we can liberate ourselves from the impossible burden of trying to be permanently right. We can take seriously the proposition that we could be in error, without deeming ourselves idiotic or unworthy.""
Google

Submission + - Gmail's Pursuit of the Twenty Year Old Inbox UI (techflash.com)

Submitted by reifman
reifman writes: In a year filled with technical innovations, it amazes me that the user interface for the email inbox remains pretty similar to the one I used as a new hire at Microsoft twenty years ago. I’m a big fan of Gmail and acknowledge its many innovations, but it’s an enigma. As a web application, it’s well suited for rapid innovation and it’s the offspring of Google, which built its success from the simplicity of its search engine. Why are most of Gmail’s efforts aimed at chasing the shadow of tired desktop email applications? Earlier this week, TechFlash published my twelve ideas for changing the way we live and work with email.

Comment Re:Why not add a tag for this? (Score 2, Insightful) 98

by Oddscurity (#32628058) Attached to: Getty's Flickr Sales, Money Spinner Or Ripoff?

Well indeed, the latter part of the tag would have to be kept to a pre-canned list with carefully explained meanings, or you'd effectively be promoting contract disputes.

I suggested the noads one because I can see people not wanting their likeness abused for whatever type of product advertisement they find to be most annoying.

Why it was implemented as all-or-nothing, I'm inclined to go with your second suggestion. This idea I outlined wasn't particularly hard to arrive at.

If what they effectively want to say to downstream clients who would buy a license via Getty is, 'You only have to deal with one party: us', that still doesn't explain why they're not allowing an artist to specify a minimum fee, or indeed what images are released this way.

Technology wise it's hardly that much more work to adding just images with a certain tag to Getty's pool vs. adding a user's entire cache of images. One would imagine this to be trivial, in fact.

Comment Why not add a tag for this? (Score 4, Interesting) 98

by Oddscurity (#32627232) Attached to: Getty's Flickr Sales, Money Spinner Or Ripoff?

Why don't they just introduce a new tag, 'gettylicense', with everything after the colon being the minimum amount owed.

e.g. 'gettylicense:$5.00'

And maybe another colon for specifiers: 'gettylicense:$5.00:noads' for something that can be licensed for $5.00, isn't available to be used in ads.

Put a set of standard tags together like this, link to them on an FAQ page about the whole scheme, and let people decide on a per photo basis whether or not they want to allow commercial reuse like this.

Doing this with tags instead of something new and separate would expose the ability to upload these permissions along with the photos using whatever tools integrate with Flickr.
E3

Submission + - Sega to release 20+ Dreamcast revivals by mid-2011 (thekartel.com)

Submitted by almehdaaol
almehdaaol writes: Sega is re-releasing key Dreamcast games for next-gen consoles in a passionate effort to revive their last great system. Speaking to press at E3, Sega of America president Mike Hayes has confirmed that "18-24" Dreamcast games is what the company hopes to have done by the middle of next year.
Open Source

Submission + - Security through Obscurity and State Secrets (2jk.org)

Submitted by jonklinger
jonklinger writes: Could a state with no secrets function better when protecting national security than a state that keeps information away from the general public? In this a brief article, we inspect what are the reasons for keeping classified information, what are they meant to protect and how do they protect national security. We present the method used by Israel, which is similar to most states. Israel’s approach, which is to keep all the information from the public, failed in general and caused nothing but costs on privacy, freedom of expression and national budgets. Following our review, we will compare the classified information model to a model in information security, called Security through Obscurity and present how this model was perceived as flawed. Against it, we will present the Open Source Model, which creates transparency towards the general public, allowing it to inspect the security flaws, and therefore creating stronger protection. Our conclusion would be that better national security could be reached by removing all classified information and disclosing all the information to the general public. We believe that by making the information public, the cost of the censorship apparatus will be eliminated. We also believe that adopting a ‘no classified information’ approach, governments may improve physical security when they rely on the foundations of open source security as detailed herein.
Movies

Submission + - Create Twilight Shirt, But No Twilight Material 1

Submitted by
mikesd81
mikesd81 writes: "Techdirt reports Cafe Press is running an official Twilight t-shirt design contest, however in the rules there are some interesting restrictions:

        * No use of the official Twilight movie
        * No use of images or depictions of the actors in the movie
        * No use of explicit sexual language or graphics
        * No use of copyrighted material from the movie or its promotional materials (e.g. no use of images of the movie, movie posters or from the movie website)
        * No blood
        * No fangs
        * No stakes thru the heart
        * No coffins
        * No bats
        * No use of Twilight book cover images
        * No pictures of apples

So create a T-shirt promoting a movie, without promoting the movie. No wonder the prize is $500."
Google

Submission + - Britain's BPI goes after Google -- with US DMCA ! (p2pnet.net) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The BPI, the RIAA's UK counterpart, has gone up against the Holiest of Holies, American online advertising conglomerate Google, says Chilling Effects. The BPI contributed to the British government's Digital Ecomy bill, complete with its ACTA Three Strikes and you're Off The Net element, with hardly a murmur from the UK lamescream media. Now Chilling Effects quotes a missive directed at Gargle by the BPI. It states, in part, "We have identified the following links that are available via Google's search engine, and request the following links be removed as soon as possible as they directly link to sound recordings owned by our members ... " And what's even more interesting is: this British 'trade' outfity is using the American DMCA to attack Google. Can it do that?
Security

Submission + - Turning attackers tool against them (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Tasha26
Tasha26 writes: BBC has an interesting web security snippet from the SyScan 2010 security conference in Singapore. In a presentation, security researcher Laurent Oudot released details of bugs found in commonly used attack-kits such as Neon, Eleonore and Sniper, proving that not only are they not secure but these loopholes could be exploited to get more information about the attackers, perhaps identifying them, stealing their tools and methods, or even following the trail back to their own computer.
Nintendo

Submission + - E3 2010 Hands-On Impressions: Donkey Kong Country (sidequesting.com)

Submitted by kewlrats
kewlrats writes: Nintendo has a knack for building on our nostalgia. The latest iteration is a sort of re-imagining of the original DKC instead of a real sequel. Much like New Super Mario Bros before it, Donkey Kong Country Returns strips the franchise to its basics before adding a layer of polish to it. Thankfully, Nintendo knows how to create brilliant platforming experiences even from those bare essentials.

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