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Toys

Submission + - Buckyballs Throws in the Towell

Submitted by RenderSeven
RenderSeven writes: As previously reported the immensely popular Buckyballs office toys have been targeted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Last week Maxfield and Oberton, the maker of Buckyballs gave up the battle and announced they would discontinue sales and close. However, being driven out of business is not enough for R Buckminster Fuller's estate, who has filed yet another lawsuit that they own all rights to the name "buckyballs" despite widespread use of the term. If you still haven't bought your own yet, a few thousand sets in stock are still available.
Image

US Agricultural Economists Say Bacon Shortage Is Hogwash 137

Posted by samzenpus from the hold-on-tight dept.
PolygamousRanchKid writes "The economics of the current drought are likely to nose up prices for bacon and other pork products next year, by as much as 10 percent. But U.S. agricultural economists are dismissing reports of a global bacon shortage that lent sizzle to headlines and Twitter feeds last week. Simply put, the talk of scarcity is hogwash. 'Use of the word 'shortage' caused visions of (1970s-style) gasoline lines in a lot of people's heads, and that's not the case,' said Steve Meyer, president of Iowa-based Paragon Economics and a consultant to the National Pork Producers Council and National Pork Board. 'If the definition of shortage is that you can't find it on the shelves, then no, the concern is not valid. If the concern is higher cost for it, then yes.'"
Games

Submission + - Valve blog announces dates for Steam Linux external beta (valvesoftware.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In the third post to the new Valve Linux Blog, the linux team have announced that starting next week they will begin their internal beta, with an external beta of 1000 users to begin mid "some time in october".
There will be an external beta sign up page made available "soon".

Comment A confusing evolution (Score 1) 867

by Captain Spam (#41468521) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What Distros Have You Used, In What Order?

For me, it went something like:

Red Hat* -> Slackware -> FreeBSD** -> Gentoo + Kubuntu

*: Before RHEL existed.
**: Okay, fine, that's not Linux, but that's still what replaced Slack on that particular box.

My current server and desktop are both Gentoo, while my laptop is Kubuntu (hence the +). No, there's no particular logical progression, really. Each just looked neat as I came across them.

Submission + - Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak on Samsung patent verdict (thenextweb.com)

Submitted by dgharmon
dgharmon writes: “I hate it,” Wozniak told Bloomberg in Shanghai today, referring to the patent battle. “I don’t think the decision of California will hold. And I don’t agree with it — very small things I don’t really call that innovative. I wish everybody would just agree to exchange all the patents and everybody can build the best forms they want to use everybody’s technologies.”
Apple

Submission + - App Developer Says Stolen UDIDs Came from Them, Not FBI (nbcnews.com) 2

Submitted by pdabbadabba
pdabbadabba writes: A Florida iPhone and iPad app developer, Blue Toad, has come forward claiming that it is the source of the Apple UDIDs previously released by Anonymous. Their dataset, they say, is a 98% match for the one Anonymous hackers claim to have stolen from an FBI laptop. If so, this development would cast serious doubt on Anonymous' claims and, possibly, calm fears that this data is evidence of an ongoing FBI surveillance operation (a claim the FBI has also denied).

Comment Re:Clone myself, but... (Score 1) 350

by Captain Spam (#40965753) Attached to: With one-time-only use of a cloning machine, I would:

But keep them (me) in a coma to harvest for organs.

What?

Bad idea. If you did that, no matter what sort of Orwellian security system or clone handicapping mechanism you have in place to prevent against it, one of your clones (the whiniest, most likely) would eventually escape and tell everyone of your operation and ruin your presidential bid.

You are going to run for president, right? It's the only logical thing to do with clones, as I understand it.
Software

Submission + - Productivity and creativity software coming to Steam

Submitted by
lga
lga writes: "Valve announced today in a press release that they are expanding Steam beyond games and will start to deliver other software. This means that Steam will compete directly with Microsoft's Windows Store and perhaps explains some of Gabe's disdain for Windows 8. The ability to save documents to Steam Cloud space also brings Valve into competition with the likes of Dropbox and Skydrive.

According to the press release:

The Software titles coming to Steam range from creativity to productivity. Many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular Steamworks features, such as easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with you.

"

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