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Submission + - Kovacs, Mozilla's Exec Who Made Firefox OS Appealing, Now CEO at AVG (firefoxosblog.net)

Submitted by SmartAboutThings
SmartAboutThings writes: FirefoxOS is still a very young mobile operating system. The real image and branding breakthrough moment was a year ago, in July 2012, when Booth to Gecko was rebranded into FirefoxOS and that happened under Gary Kovacs’ rule at Mozilla. From late 2010, when he joined Mozilla as CEO and up until April, this year, when it was announced that he would retire, the company has seen significant growth, especially in new areas, especially in mobile. Kovacs was also the one to preview Firefox OS at the Mobile World Congress 2013 from Barcelona. That’s when Firefox OS managed to attract the attention and the support of 18 major worldwide mobile operators. Last year, Gary Kovacs also managed to sign a $1 billion deal with Google , keeping it the default search engine in the Firefox browser. Kovcs basically moved from a company that was looking to impress in the mobile field, competing with Android and Wndows Phone to what most of us know to be an antivirus company. Apparently, Mozilla's former boss was attracted by the fact that AVG Technologies is increasing its presence in the mobile space.

Submission + - The Old Reader To Close Public Site In Two Weeks

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: When Google first announced Google Reader would be shut down, the news kick-started a very competitive race to create the best alternative. At least one service, however, did not welcome the change, and is now planning to close up shop next month: The Old Reader.

In fact, if you navigate to the service’s homepage now, you’ll be greeted by this sad message: “Unfortunately we had to disable user registration at The Old Reader.” In two weeks, the public site will be shut down and a private one, available to a select few (accounts will be migrated automatically), will take its place.

Submission + - Evernote Wants to Become the Nike for Your Brain (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Another way to think about it is session lengths. Microsoft Office was the definition of productivity for like 25 years. The average session length was probably an hour or two. You would sit down at your PC and you would like type stuff on Word or Excel. Then smartphones shrank the average session time to like two minutes, maybe five minutes. That’s part of why I think Microsoft is continuing to have a such a hard time getting into mobile, because it’s a fundamentally different way of thinking. “What can I do to be productive two minutes at a time?” It isn’t Office.

Submission + - ASCAP petitions FCC to deny Pandora's purchase of Radio Station

Submitted by chipperdog
chipperdog writes: NorthPine.com reports: "ASCAP is firing back against Pandora Radio's attempt to get lower music royalty rates by buying a terrestrial radio station, "Hits 102.7" (KXMZ Box Elder-Rapid City). In a petition to deny, ASCAP alleges "Pandora has failed to fully disclose its ownership, and to adequately demonstrate that it complies with the Commission’s foreign ownership rules." ASCAP also alleges that Pandora has no intention of operating KXMZ to serve the public interest, but is rather only interested in obtaining lower royalty rates. Pandora reached a deal to buy KXMZ from Connoisseur Media for $600,000 earlier this year and is already running the station through a local marketing agreement.

Submission + - Metadata on Open Education Resources Raises Legal and Ethical Questions (opensource.com)

Submitted by ectoman
ectoman writes: Open education resources (OER) are valuable for teachers all over the world. But organizing those resources takes work—and produces a good deal of metadata. Lisa Petrides, president and founder of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), writes about the legal and ethical issued raised by OER metadata.

Organizations like ours (and we are not alone) are having second thoughts about how much metadata we share and with whom. Some are becoming skittish, because the tides have turned once again and quality metadata is in high demand. We decided at OER Commons, for example, to place an "all rights reserved" notice on our website (meaning, you can’t scrape metadata and reuse it), and a license for non-commercial use on our metadata, with the goal of working with partners who desire something more than faux collaboration.

Submission + - Massachusetts enacts 6.25% sales tax on "prewritten" software consulting (codingoutloud.com) 1

Submitted by marshallr
marshallr writes: Technical Information Release TIR 13-10 becomes effective in Massachusetts on July 31st, 2013. It requires software consultants to collect a 6.25% sales tax from their clients if they perform "computer system design services and the modification, integration, enhancement, installation or configuration of standardized software." TIR 13-10 was published to mass.gov on July 25th, 2013 to provide the public a few working days to review the release and make comments. Can someone clue me in on what's meant by "prewritten" or "standardized" software?

Submission + - Geoblocking in Australia to be dismantled (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Major software and content players such as Apple, Adobe, and Microsoft face a raft of measures which could dismantle their business models and their ability to enforce regional restrictions, or ‘geoblocking’, on the use of their products if key recommendations of the Australian Government’s Inquiry into IT Pricing report are adopted.

Submission + - We're Number 9! U.S. Slips in Internet Speed Rankings

Submitted by curtwoodward
curtwoodward writes: The United States of America: The greatest country in the world, the last superpower, born of divine providence. Unless you're trying to connect to the Internet. The latest State of the Internet Report from network optimization company Akamai shows that the US has slipped in the global rankings of average connection speed, despite nearly 30 percent of yearly growth. That puts ol' Uncle Sam behind such economic powerhouses as Latvia and the Czech Republic. Oh, and we pay more, too. Is it finally time to shake up the ISP market and make Internet connections a public utility, on par with electricity and water? Or will edge projects like Google Fiber make a dent soon?

Submission + - An open letter to Congress from 50 U.S. organizations: End patent abuse (opensource.com)

Submitted by ectoman
ectoman writes: Last week, 50 organizations—including the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the Motion Picture Association of America, and the Consumer Electronics Association—sent an open letter to U.S. House and Senate leaders, urging them to take action and curb patent abuse. They write:

Managing frivolous patent suits unfortunately has become an expensive distraction for a large cross section of American businesses. Instead of focusing on innovation, job creation, and economic growth, we are forced to deal with legal games that have serious consequences.

Mark Bohannon, Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Global Public Policy at Red Hat, analyzes the letter, calling it "the latest manifestation of the growing frustration with abusive litigation."

Submission + - 72-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Tail Found In Mexican Desert (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by minty3
minty3 writes: The 16-foot tail comprised of 50 vertebrae is believed to have belonged to a duck-billed dinosaur known as a hadrosaur. The team, comprised of archaeologists and students, found the fossilized tail completely intact after spending 20 days slowly lifting a rock that lay on top of the dinosaur’s bones. It most likely made up half of the dinosaur’s length.

Submission + - Cisco to Acquire Sourcefire for $2.7 Billion

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes: Cisco will acquire Sourcefire, a provider of intelligent cybersecurity solutions. Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay $76 per share in cash in exchange for each share of Sourcefire and assume outstanding equity awards for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $2.7 billion, including retention-based incentives. The acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of each company. Once the transaction closes, Cisco will include Sourcefire into its guidance going forward. Prior to the close, Cisco and Sourcefire will continue to operate as separate companies.

Submission + - Coping with Proprietary Formats

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I am an independent IT/Change Management consultant on a large commercial project. I bid as exclusively opensource, but I have found the project requires me to edit and distribute Visio and Adobe PDF files. The former is the largest problem. The latter (PDF) is a problem because I must chop them up and and address red line edits in-line. I'm a Debian user, but not finding anything in the archives to help me cope with this situation. Any recommendations... "Get a new client" is not welcome. I'm trying to do this the right way.

Submission + - Intellectual Property Drama Reaches 3D Printing World (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: Stratasys, one of the world's biggest 3D printer manufacturer, routinely uses 3D-printed objects as displays for its booths at trade shows. The problem: It's been using objects designed by popular designer Asher Nahmias, whose creations are licensed under a noncommercial Creative Commons license — and he says Stratasys's use violates the licensing terms. This is just one example of how the nascent 3D printing industry is having to grapple with the IP implications of creating physical objects out of downloadable designs. Another important problem: IP law distinguishes between purely deocrative and useful objects, but how should the digital files that provide a design for those objects be treated?

Submission + - Image Comics' DRM-Free Comic Bok Store is Now Live (opensource.com)

Submitted by ectoman
ectoman writes: At its annual press event a few weeks ago, Image Comics announced it would begin selling its comic books directly to consumers through a new online store—DRM-free. The move makes Image the first major comic book publisher to offer content without DRM. In an interview with Wired, publisher Eric Stephenson argues that the solution to comic book piracy is not more restrictions, but rather better comics:

"My stance on piracy is that piracy is bad for bad entertainment. There's a pretty strong correlation with things that suck not being greatly pirated, while things that are successful have a higher piracy rate. If you put out a good comic book—even if somebody does download it illegally—if they enjoy it, then the likelihood of them purchasing the book is pretty high. Obviously we don't want everybody giving a copy to a hundred friends, but this argument has been around since home taping was supposedly killing music back in the '70s, and that didn't happen. And I don't think it's happening now."

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