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Submission + - Robot attacks a Swedish factory technician

Submitted by ziftyatl on Wednesday July 29, 2009 @03:17PM

ziftyatl writes: The first shot in the robot rebellion and uprising may have happened in Sweden when a robot used to lift heavy rocks attacked a technician attempting to repair it. He thought he had cut off the power already and walked towards the machine thinking it was safe. However, as he approached it, the robot sprang to life and grabbed his head. The worker survived, but had four ribs broken and could have easily been killed in the incident. The company was fined 25,000 kronor ($3,000) for inadequate safety procedures.

Submission + - iPhone developer who fought Nintendo and Apple

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29, 2009 @02:52PM

An anonymous reader writes: In April Mobile 1UP was ordered by Nintendo to take down its Game & Watch-style games on the App Store. Well, Aaron Ardiri, Founder of Mobile 1UP, complied but with a twist. He took the apps down, but then using new artwork and some new code, relaunched them one-by-one. The company's new $2.99 GW Series App is exactly as its title suggests: one App with all six games from the GW Series. Geek.com had a chance to sit down with Aaron and asked him about his development process, the fun he had dealing with Nintendo and Apple, and more.

Submission + - Microsoft 'Typo' Code Bug Gave Hackers IE Exploit (computerworld.com)

Submitted by

CWmike

on Wednesday July 29, 2009 @02:32PM

CWmike writes: "Microsoft has confirmed that a single superfluous character in its own development code, an '&', is responsible for the bug that has let hackers exploit Internet Explorer since early July. Two German researchers who analyzed a vulnerability in a Microsoft-made ActiveX control came to the same conclusion three weeks ago. "The bug is simply a typo," Michael Howard, a principal security program manager in Microsoft's security engineering and communications group, said in a post Tuesday to the Security Development Lifecycle blog. Howard, who is probably best known for co-authoring Writing Secure Code, went on to say that the typo is the "core issue" in the MSVidCtl ActiveX control. Adobe stepped forward to acknowledge that it's the first major third-party vendor to have used Microsoft's flawed development code in its products, the Windows versions of Adobe's Flash Player (to be fixed Thursday) and Shockwave Player (already fixed)."

Submission + - When is a cybercrime not a cybercrime? (sophos.com)

Submitted by on Tuesday June 23, 2009 @07:34AM

An anonymous reader writes: What do you think the criminal penalty would be if you were caught trying to sell 56,000 phished credit card numbers on line?

Does a $150 fine sound about right?

It seems that's what a guy in Western Australia was slapped on the wrist with in a recent court case over there.

The article at:

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/06/22/guest-blog-short-arm-law/above

includes a poll where you can vote for what you think the punishment should be for this sort of thing. So if you want to try to educate the Australian judiciary, you can!

Submission + - The Dangers of Affiliate Fraud Cybersquatting (net-security.org)

Submitted by Alan on Tuesday June 23, 2009 @07:09AM

Alan writes: While pay-per-click sites remain a large part of the cybersquatting business model, there is another wave of massive-scale online infringement monetization called affiliate fraud that often goes undetected. This monetization practice, which can garner 5.6 times the revenue than that of a pay-per-click model on the same Web site.

Submission + - Dutch gov't: Tax online industry, fund print media (tweakers.net)

Submitted by

Godefricus

on Tuesday June 23, 2009 @07:05AM

Godefricus writes: "Outrage ensued today among Dutch techie and media websites, after a government report which was published yesterday. The report advises (article in Dutch, google translation) that the dwindling print media industry should be financially supported by the online industry, to help them fund "innovative initiatives." The suggested implementation of the plan is taxing a percentage of each ISP-subscription, and give the money to the papers. The report, which was sollicited by the Dutch parliament and written by a committee of its members, specifically states that "news and the gathering of news stories is not free, and the public must be made aware of that."
The report is not conclusive, but from here it's just one step toward legislation proposals.
Both industries are largely privately owned in The Netherlands — and yes, if you were wondering, the current government is centre-left wing.

Who needs an RIAA if you can build one into your government? And hey, why invest in the future if you can invest in the past?"

Submission + - Predicting SCO's Actions Post Bankruptcy (groklaw.net)

Submitted by eldavojohn on Tuesday June 23, 2009 @07:04AM

eldavojohn writes: SCO lost last year and began the bankruptcy filings a long time ago but PJ has some speculative bad news on what they retain through the bankruptcy proceedings. In their filings SCO says they retain "their litigation and related claims against International Business Machines Corporation, Novell, Inc., AutoZone Corporation, Red Hat and certain Linux users which are not material customers of UnXis (excluding certain large-scale users of Linux servers) that are claimed to have infringed against UNIX copyrights." So that's still a possibility they could go after anyone who is a "certain Linux user." Maybe just the possibility of that and their ability to send threatening letters will serve their master's purpose? And what's even worse is that they'll retain a patent for running multiple Java applications on a single Java virtual machine. We may not be out of the SCO litigation woods yet.

Submission + - Twitter and US Covert "Black" Operations i (wyrdy.com) 1

Submitted by

Zrop

on Tuesday June 23, 2009 @06:46AM

Zrop writes: "What is really happening in Iran? The official version is that the Iranians are revolting against election fraud, but pre-election polls showed a strong lead for Ahmadinejad, so why would they tamper with the election? It makes no sense.

We know George W. Bush gave the approval to launch covert "black" operations to achieve regime change in Iran. It is likely that these programs are still active. There is a multitude of signs indicating foreign intelligence agency involvement in the Iranian post-election protests. The National Endowment for Democracy, the heir-taker of the CIA in these matters, are known for creating "color-coded" revolutions with the aid of modern communication technology. And here we are, with a green revolution and a lot of talk about the importance of social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter for the Iranian protests — how these networks can serve as important tools for truth and democracy. Unfortunately, there is little mention about the fact that they also can also serve as tools for disinformation.

In light of this, maybe we can make sense of the fake pictures circulating on Twitter, the Irainan protests against Voice of America, and the US State Departments request to twitter not to shut down services for a maintenance upgrade."

Submission + - SPAM: The why behind NASA/Google Singularity University

Submitted by

destinyland

on Tuesday June 23, 2009 @05:10AM

destinyland writes: "Backed by Google and NASA, "Singularity University" begins Saturday. Headed by Ray Kurzweil, "It's something that needs to happen," says co-founder Peter Diamandis (who also founded the International Space University and the X-Prize.) "I am absolutely convinced that humanity is going to undergo some fundamental evolution over the course of the next few decades," Diamandis announces in a new interview. He defends the $25,000 price tag for the nine-week course (which begins Saturday), and promises "We're going to allow people to participate online and view some of the lectures online." They'll also offer shorter three- and 10-day programs in October, exploring expontentially progressing and "transformative" technologies which might one day address energy shortages, pandemics, and even hunger But best of all, he describes what it was like to fly Stephen Hawking into zero gravity."
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Blogs cannot be controlled all the time: Google (indianexpress.com)

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Tuesday June 23, 2009 @04:55AM

Anonymous Coward writes: "Google India, the Indian subsidiary of US-based software giant, today contended before the Bombay High Court that unlike the publishers in print media, the blogging service, which facilitates publication of a blog, cannot control what is being posted all the time. They argued that it does not control the publication of content on blog-hosting website 'Blogger' (owned by Google Inc), and is not liable for the same."

Submission + - SPAM: Big animated films that survived major upheavels

Submitted by

brumgrunt

on Tuesday June 23, 2009 @04:43AM

brumgrunt writes: "Ratatouille changed director with just eighteen months to go. The Emperor's New Groove nearly didn't happen at all, and nearly all of Sting's music was dumped from it. And then there's the saga of Toy Story 3. Den Of Geek tracks down the big upheavels that took place on six animated films mid-production, and discovers that one of its examples remains some distance from a happy ending.... [spam URL stripped]"
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Earlier iPhones: performance issues with 3.0? (apple.com)

Submitted by

baobab68

on Tuesday June 23, 2009 @04:29AM

baobab68 writes: "Users of the first model iPhone, and the iPhone 3G, seem to be reporting an inordinate number of issues with the new 3.0 firmware. From overheating issues to short battery life and laggy response in the user interface, it seems like there might be some real issues with the new software on older, slower models. An upgrade strategy by Apple?!"

Submission + - U.S Army End Ban on Social Media Sites (webspy.com.au)

Submitted by

EyezOpen

on Tuesday June 23, 2009 @04:11AM

EyezOpen writes: "Not only does the army recognize soldiers' need to communicate with family & friends but also efficiency issues arising when blocking Internet access."

Submission + - Sun Aims High with Java Store (eweek.com)

Submitted by ReeceTarbert on Tuesday June 23, 2009 @03:56AM

ReeceTarbert writes: At the 2009 JavaOne conference Sun unveiled the first public demonstration of the Java Store and, according to Java's creator James Gosling, if this store realizes its full potential it will make the Apple's App Store look like a "rounding error". Big words for sure, but eWEEK's interview is revealing, especially when the possible Java Store policies are discussed: "The one we built that I liked the most was one where the software is always free to download, but the software and the right to use are independent things. And what you buy at the store is not the software; you buy a right to use. So you get a little license token. And we built a license management server. So when you say 'buy that,' what you get is a license token."

Submission + - iPhone 3G 3.0 Carrier Unlock (Ultrasn0w) Released

Submitted by

MasJ

on Tuesday June 23, 2009 @03:47AM

MasJ writes: "The iphone dev team has finally released the much awaited ultrans0w 3G unlock for the iPhone 3G. This hack can unlock any 3G iPhone (to be used on any carrier) on the new 3.0 firmware. This time, it also follow a simplified install process wherein a simple jailbreak is required and then you can just install ultrasn0w from Cydia [The jailbroken app-store]. More information is available at the Dev Team Blog."

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