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Mozilla

Submission + - Like Google, Mozilla To Silently Update Firefox 4 (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: Taking a page from rival Google's playbook, Mozilla plans to introduce silent, behind-the-scenes security updating to Firefox 4. The feature, which has gotten little attention from Mozilla, is currently 'on track' for Firefox 4, slated to ship before the end of the year. Firefox 4's silent update will only be offered on Windows, Mozilla has said. Most updates will be downloaded and installed automatically without asking the user or requiring a confirmation. 'We'll only be using the major update dialog box for changes like [version] 4 to 4.5 or 5," said Alex Faaborg, a principal designer on Firefox, in the 'mozilla.dev.apps.firefox' forum. 'Unfortunately users will still see the updating progress bar on load, but this is an implementation issue as opposed to a [user interface] one; ideally the update could be applied in the background.' Unlike Google, Mozilla will let users change the default silent service to the more traditional mode, where the browser asks permission before downloading and installing any update.
Math

Submission + - 5 Trillion Digits of Pi - New World Record (numberworld.org)

Submitted by KPexEA
KPexEA writes: Alexander J. Yee & Shigeru Kondo claim to have calculated the number pi to 5 trillion places, on a single desktop and in record time.
The main computation took 90 days on Shigeru Kondo's desktop. Verification was done using two separate computers.
The program that was used for the main computation is y-cruncher v0.5.4.9138 Alpha.
Patents

Submission + - Apple Mines App Store Submissions for Patent Ideas (unwiredview.com) 1

Submitted by
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes: "Apple has started filing a bunch of patents on mobile applications. That might not be so interesting in and of itself, but if you look closely at the figures in one of the patents, you can see that it's a copy of the third-party Where To? application, which has been on the App Store since at least 2008. There's also a side-by-side comparison which should make it clear that the diagram was copied directly from their app. Even though it's true that the figures are just illustrations of a possible UI and not a part of the claimed invention, it's hard to see how they didn't get some of their ideas from Where To? It might also be the case that Apple isn't looking through the App Store submissions in order to patent other people's ideas, but it's difficult to explain some of these patents if they're not. And with the other patents listed, it's hard to see how old ideas where 'on the internet' has been replaced with the phrase 'on a mobile device' can promote the progress of science and useful arts. This seems like a good time to use Peer to Patent."
Games

Submission + - Wipeout recreated with an RC car (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: If you’ve owned any of Sony’s PlayStation consoles then there’s a good chance you’ve also played one of the Wipeout, games. It’s a high-speed racing game that helped make the PSOne popular, and it’s now been recreated using a remote control car.

The project is the idea of Malte Jehmlich. He decided to create a track out of cardboard reminiscent of the Wipeout tracks. He then hooked up a wireless camera
to a remote control car, and modified the controller to be an arcade cabinet with a wheel and forward/reverse selector.
Apple

Submission + - Hardware hackers reveal Apple's charging secrets (ladyada.net)

Submitted by
ptorrone
ptorrone writes: "In this 7 minute video we explore "The mysteries of Apple device charging". Usually device makers need to sign a confidentially agreement with Apple who want to say "works with iPhone / iPod" and never talk about how the insides work. If you don't put these secret resistors on the data lines to you get the dreaded "CHARGING IS NOT SUPPORTED WITH THIS ACCESSORY". We demonstrate how anyone can do this and make their own chargers that work with iPhone 4, 3Gs, etc."

Comment Re:What????? (Score 1) 165

by jaak (#33111852) Attached to: Radioactive Boar On the Rise In Germany

It's called radioactive fallout. A large plume of radioactive debris was spread over Europe (in fact, this was how the accident was first detected outside of the USSR, not because the authorities reported it).

The debris contaminated ground water, lakes, rivers, forests, animals, livestock, etc. all over parts of Europe.

I was in the UK at the time and I remember the contamination almost destroyed the lamb and mutton industry there.

Wikipedia has some information on the effects of the disaster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
Government

Submission + - Appelbaum detained at U.S. border, questioned abou (cnet.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Appelbaum detained at U.S. border, questioned about Wikileaks

A security researcher involved with the Wikileaks Web site — Jacob Appelbaum, a Seattle-based programmer for the online privacy protection project called Tor — was detained by U.S. agents at the border for three hours and questioned about the controversial whistleblower project as he entered the country on Thursday to attend a hacker conference. He was also approached by two FBI agents at the Defcon conference after his presentation on Saturday afternoon about the Tor Project.

Appelbaum, a U.S. citizen, arrived at the Newark, New Jersey, airport from Holland flight Thursday morning, was taken into a room, frisked and his bag was searched.

Officials from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Army then told him he was not under arrest but was being detained. They asked questions about Wikileaks, asked for his opinions about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and asked where Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is, but he declined to comment without a lawyer present, according to the sources. He was not permitted to make a phone call, they said.

After about three hours, Appelbaum was given his laptop back but the agents kept his three mobile phones, sources said.

CNET News: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20012253-245.html
Earth

Submission + - G.M.'s Electric Lemon 2

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: On a day that saw him test-drive the new Chevy Volt, President Obama declared the federal rescue of automakers a success, delivering a message to 'naysayers' who have criticized a robust government role. Presumably one of those naysayers would be NYT Op-Ed contributor Edward Niedermeyer, who said the Volt 'appears to be exactly the kind of green-at-all-costs car that some opponents of the bailout feared the government might order G.M. to build.' The future of G.M. and the $50B taxpayer investment in it, adds Niedermeyer, 'now depends on a vehicle that costs $41,000 but offers the performance and interior space of a $15,000 economy car.'
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - TI Calculator DRM Defeated (ticalc.org)

Submitted by josath
josath writes: Texas Instrument's flagship calculator, the Nspire, was hacked to allow user-written programs earlier this year. Earlier this month, TI released an update to the OS that runs on the calculator, providing no new features, but only blocking the previous hack. Now, just a few weeks later, Nleash has been released, which defeats this protection. The battle rages on as users fight for the right to run their own software on their own hardware...

Submission + - Slashdot is Dying, New York Times Confims It (nytimes.com) 12

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The New York Times is running a story about how Slashdot has dropped in popularity compared to other news sites in social web space. Quote: "Why is Slashdot almost irrelevant to the social media community? It used to be the biggest driver of traffic to tech web sites, but now it hardly delivers any traffic at all to them. We explore some of the reasons, including input from our own community."
GNOME

Submission + - GNOME Contributions: Canonical 1% - Red Hat 16% !! (digitizor.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: At GUADEC, Dave Neary presented the results of the GNOME Census. The results reveal some very interesting findings. Around 70% of the developers identify themselves as volunteer and 70% of the commits made in the GNOME releases are made by paid developers. Now, here is the part that has started out something like a war – Canonical’s contribution to GNOME is only a mere 1%, while Red Hat contributes 16%.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Richard Garriott Wins $28 Million from NCSoft Suit (prnewswire.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: Last year Lord British sued NCSoft over stocks and severance and yesterday his lawyers announced he has won $28 million from NCSoft. His legal team said "In Texas, a deal is a deal, no matter how a company might try to spin the events after the fact. We're pleased that the jury listened to the facts in this case, and decided it is 'game over' for NCsoft's attempt to deny Richard what he is rightfully owed." The three-and-a-half-day trial and three hours of deliberations by a jury resulted in quite the haul for Garriott.
Games

Submission + - Angry players lash out at CCP over bugs (eveonline.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: A straight forward request from the creators of Eve Online (CCP) to their players to support a bid for best online game at the European Games Award quickly turned embarassing when an angry player base almost universally refused, often throwing support behind other games instead. Players of the beleagered game have been angered by the lack of progress made in squashing bugs that snuck into the last few expansions as well as a recent development blog saying that no developers will be free to work on reviewing existing content for at least 18 months.
Iphone

Submission + - iPhone data leads to rape charges being dropped (theage.com.au) 1

Submitted by one eyed kangaroo
one eyed kangaroo writes: The Age reports that a Sydney man has used deleted iPhone messages to have serious charges against him dropped.
"In what may be the first time an iPhone's elephantine memory has saved someone accused of a serious crime, deleted data retrieved by a leading surveillance expert appears to have led to the dropping of five rape charges against a Sydney man." His lawyer said, "'Without the ability of Coulthart to drag the content out, a man's life may have been ruined'.'

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