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Games

Submission + - Research lets you type words by thought alone (eetimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: How about typing on a computer just by thinking about it? The downside is you have to wear a skull cap with electrodes that capture your brain waves like an EEG machine. According to this EE Times story a team of researchers from Belgium and the Netherlands has presented Mind Speller, a thought-to-text device intended to help people with movement disabilities. The system does rely on a lot of processing on a remote computer but it is a wireless system. And these thought-to-computer systems have wider applicability than medical support. One of the research groups involved in this development has already looked at wireless electroencephalography (EEG) to enable measures of emotion to be fed back into computer games (see IMEC has a brain wave: feed EEG emotion back into games).

Submission + - How important is career development?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I have been offered to participate at the conference JavaOne. This is the largest and the most important Java conference in the world but I am having an ethical dilemma: Can I travel to a country that still practices capital punishment and torture? It's even one of the top five countries based on the number of state authorized murders. Right there on the top after oppressive countries like China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and North Korea.

The judicial system seems to be completely broken if one are to belive that cases like Terry Childs's are portrayed accurately on this site. This case is even playing out in the City of San Francisco — the same site as the conference.

Am I as a professional software engineer even safe to travel there? ...or is there a chance I have broken some strange law by doing something that is perfectly legal in my own country, like copying my own DVDs to the harddrive?

Feed Ars Technica: Hands-on: Ubuntu One music store will rock in Lucid Lynx (arstechnica.com)

From feed by feedfeeder

Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution, has announced the official launch of the Ubuntu One music store. Integrated into the Rhythmbox music player in the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04 release, the store allows users to purchase downloadable songs and albums.

The music store is powered by 7digital, an online music distributor that offers over 4 million songs in the MP3 format without DRM. Canonical partnered with 7digital and developed the software that allows the music store to integrate with Rythmbox and Ubuntu One, the cloud service that Canonical launched last year.

Read the comments on this post



Games

Feed Engadget: TiltFX from Codejunkies makes a PSP respond to your every move (video) (engadget.com)

From feed by feedfeeder
We all lean when playing racing games and sit up in our seats when jumping in action games, but so far most PSP games have stoutly ignored all that nonsense. The TiltFX from Codejunkies might finally make those uppity consoles a little more responsive with a "G Sensor" -- a three-axis MEMS gyro that clips onto the lower-left of a PSP 1000, 2000, or 3000-series console. (Sorry, Goers, left out again.) Once plugged in you can simply tilt the console in the direction you want your character to go, something that we could definitely see enhancing the experience of games like Archer McLean's Mercury or or Loco Roco. And, for just £14.99/$19.99, it's certainly a better value than some other PSP accessories we've sampled in the past. Video demonstration after the break.

Continue reading TiltFX from Codejunkies makes a PSP respond to your every move (video)

TiltFX from Codejunkies makes a PSP respond to your every move (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Codejunkies |Email this|Comments
Security

Submission + - Cloud Computing: Risks Outweigh The Benefits (net-security.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Research conducted across Europe, the Middle East and Africa by ISACA has found that a quarter of enterprises that already use cloud computing believe that the risks outweigh the benefits (a fifth in the UK), yet still carry on regardless. This perhaps recognizes the relative immaturity of cloud computing usage and the uncertainty of the balance between risk and reward. Of the more than 1,500 professionals sampled across more than 50 EMEA countries, 33% already use cloud computing (40% in the UK).
Medicine

Submission + - Iron Alloy Could Create Earthquake-Proof Buildings (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by separsons
separsons writes: Researchers at Japan's Tohoku University designed a new shape memory metal alloy. The super elastic iron alloy can endure serious stretching and still return to its original shape. The scientists say that once optimized, the material could be used in everything from braces to medical stents to earthquake-proof buildings!

Submission + - Oracle/Sun enforces pay-for-security-updates plan (google.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Recently, the Oracle/Sun conglomerate has denied public download access to all service packs for Solaris unless you have a support contract. Now, paying a premium for gold-class service is nothing new in the industry, but withholding critical security updates smacks of extortion. While this pay-for-play model may be de rigueur for enterprise database systems, it is certainly not the norm for OS manufactures.

What may be more interesting is how Oracle/Sun is able to sidestep GNU licencing requirements since several of the Solaris cluster packs contain patches to GNU utilities and applications.
The Military

Submission + - Predator Unmanned Aircraft Causing Data Overload

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The Washington Post reports that the flow of data from Predator unmanned aircraft flying combat patrols over Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere not only exceeds capabilities to interpret and exploit the data, but probably soon will exceed the bandwidth available to carry it to ground stations. "According to US Central Command officials, the command exploits less than one-half of the electronic-signal intercepts collected from the Predator," says Davi M. D'Agostino, GAO's director of defense capabilities and management, adding that information collected by wide-area sensors is saved on computer disks and flown back to the United States for review and dissemination "because current networks in the theater of operations cannot handle the large amount of data." Another problem is the failure by the services to develop common electronic systems so they can share Predator data (PDF). The full-motion videos gathered daily by the Army cannot be automatically shared with the Air Force and the Army's common sharing system for collections by its unique systems, such as Shadow and its version of the Predator, is not expected to be available to others until 2016. Although these aircraft have "enormous capability and concept advantages," they "are not a panacea for air warfare nor replacement for manned aviation," says Lt. Gen. David Deptula, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance."

Feed Engadget: Dell Aero is 'the lightest' Android phone yet, poses for pictures (engadget.com)

From feed by feedfeeder
AT&T's teaser site for the Dell Aero has gone live and we can now fill in a few more gaps in our knowledge about this forthcoming handset. It's looking every bit the renamed Mini 3 we thought it was, so click here and here to get a closer look at the body of the device. The official web mouthpiece confirms a 3.5-inch screen with nHD resolution -- which may or may not signify the same 640 x 480 as on the Brazilian and Chinese versions -- and one definite point of departure, a 5 (rather than 3) megapixel camera on the back. Claimed to be the lightest Android smartphone yet, the Aero will also come with WiFi and GPS built in, though its biggest attraction will undoubtedly be the thoroughly tricked out Android UI, which promises Picassa, Flick, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitpic integration right out of the box. Check out the gallery below for some hints of what that willl look like.

[Thanks, Chilko]

Dell Aero is 'the lightest' Android phone yet, poses for pictures originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 08:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | AT&T |Email this|Comments
Nintendo

Submission + - The Wii Remote's Greatest Strength (bitmob.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: If Sony and Microsoft's new motion-tracking devices succeed with the non-gaming public, they owe it to the Wii Remote's shortcomings.
Botnet

Submission + - How to detect a bot infection 1

Submitted by uganson
uganson writes: Following on the recent discussion on How To Avoid the Infection of Botnet?, I ask my fellow Slashdotters, what are the common sense and usual general measures to detect bot infections? I mean, not having any particular suspicion of being infected, what are the symptoms of infection to look for, or being aware of?

When not looking for any particular instance of bot, are sophisticated bots able to remain stealth enough, that even a tech savvy user would remain unaware of an infection?

I'm looking in particular for measures that a user can apply in its home computer/network, or laptop. I guess business networks would implement more elaborated intrusion detection systems that are usually off reach for a home user.

General housekeeping measures I use include: Up to date antivirus (of course), periodic system scans with anti malware detectors, checking bandwith usage graphs on the firewall, look for strange process names.
Firefox

Submission + - Web Developers: Time to Dump Firefox? (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: With a seemingly endless parade of bad press, some are beginning to question the viability of Firefox as a web standard. Should developers really be spending time and energy to support this fading star? Or does the FOSS community's poster child still demand our respect and, more importantly, careful consideration during the app development cycle?
Businesses

Submission + - PM2.0 Needs a Makeover (papercutpm.com) 1

Submitted by papercutpm
papercutpm writes: The paradigm of Project Management 2.0 (PM2.0) contains two concepts that are intertwined. On one hand, the concept evangelizes new communication and collaboration platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. On the other, it suggests that new collaboration tools could replace a project manager. In this opinion piece, the author suggests these two notions need to be separated from one another. Using new tools in a project context is not a bad thing, but neither is it the Next Big Thing. As to the idea that tools make a project manager obsolete, that's just plain nonsense. Perhaps "PM2.0" needs to be split into "PM Tools 2.0" (which refers strictly to new tools used in a project management context) and "PM Wishful Thinking 2.0" (which refers to hiring organizations hopes that expensive project managers might be able to just go away).
Firefox

Submission + - Mozilla Stops Development for Windows Mobile, WP7 (techie-buzz.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Mozilla has been building a version of Firefox for Windows Mobile devices for quite some time now with anticipation that Microsoft might increase it’s market share.

However, developing for Windows Phone 7 was not easy considering the restrictions placed on developers. In addition to that, Mozilla also cited that Windows Phone 7 has a closed platform and does not support development of native applications through a NDK. For that reason, Mozilla today announced that they are stopping development of Firefox for all Windows Mobile based devices including the upcoming Windows Phone 7.

"While we think Windows Phone 7 looks interesting and has the potential to do well in the market, Microsoft has unfortunately decided to close off development to native applications. Because of this, we won’t be able to provide Firefox for Windows Phone 7 at this time. Given that Microsoft is staking their future in mobile on Windows Mobile 7 (not 6.5) and because we don’t know if or when Microsoft will release a native development kit, we are putting our Windows Mobile development on hold."

This is definitely bad news for Firefox lovers who have been waiting in anticipation for the Firefox browser on Windows Mobile based devices.

Techie-Buzz.com : http://techie-buzz.com/tech-news/mozilla-stops-firefox-development-for-windows-mobile-and-windows-phone-7.html

Mozilla Announcement : http://blog.pavlov.net/2010/03/22/stopping-development-for-windows-mobile/

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