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Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft fights Apple trademark on 'App Store' (goodgearguide.com.au) 1

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "Microsoft is asking the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to deny Apple a trademark on the name "App Store," saying the term is generic and competitors should be able to use it. Apple applied for the trademark in 2008 for goods and services including "retail store services featuring computer software provided via the internet and other computer and electronic communication networks" and other related offerings."
Privacy

Submission + - Is "anonymous web browsing" possible/feasible? (hp.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An interesting perspective on what it truly means to "browse the web anonymously". It's not just removing cookies and using the "Incognito" mode in your Chrome browser — there are financial and privacy implications that most people, even in security, aren't thinking about. This blog post lays some of that out, and starts asking questions that really need thought!

Comment Not earth shattering (Score 1) 1

by SD NFN STM (#34656036) Attached to: Scientifically, You Are Likely In The Slowest Line

Common sense tells you that a single long line feeding into a group of cashiers will:

1) Make it a truly FIFO system which is fair... and us Brits love two things, queues and fairness.
2) Eliminate the hassle of trying to pick, and then change to the fastest queue... only to change back to the first after some dufus screws up the queue with a price-check item.

I'm confused as to why all stores don't adopt this approach these days. Maybe not Ikea, as jostling that huge trolley full of furniture may be a bit much... but if I can get through a windy queue with my suitcase at the airport, then I sure can do the same with my grocery shopping.
Space

Submission + - New Molecule Could Lead To Better Rocket Fuel (chemweb.com)

Submitted by MithrandirAgain
MithrandirAgain writes: Trinitramid is the name of the new molecule that may be a component in future rocket fuel. This fuel could be 20 to 30 percent more efficient in comparison with the best rocket fuels available today, according to researchers. The discovery was made at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden.

"A rule of thumb is that for every ten-percent increase in efficiency for rocket fuel, the payload of the rocket can double. What's more, the molecule consists only of nitrogen and oxygen, which would make the rocket fuel environmentally friendly. This is more than can be said of today's solid rocket fuels, which entail the emission of the equivalent of 550 tons of concentrated hydrochloric acid for each launch of the space shuttle," says Tore Brinck, professor of physical chemistry at KTH.

Submission + - How The Free Market Rocked The Grid (ieee.org)

Submitted by sean_nestor
sean_nestor writes: Most of us take for granted that the lights will work when we flip them on, without worrying too much about the staggeringly complex things needed to make that happen. Thank the engineers who designed and built the power grids for that—but don't thank them too much. Their main goal was reliability; keeping the cost of electricity down was less of a concern. That's in part why so many people in the United States complain about high electricity prices. Some armchair economists (and a quite a few real ones) have long argued that the solution is deregulation. After all, many other U.S. industries have been deregulated—take, for instance, oil, natural gas, or trucking—and greater competition in those sectors swiftly brought prices down. Why not electricity?
Science

Submission + - Scientifically, You Are Likely In The Slowest Line (hothardware.com) 1

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "As you wait in the checkout line for the holidays, your observation is most likely correct. That other line IS moving faster than yours. That's what Bill Hammack (the Engineer Guy), from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois — Urbana proves in this video. Ironically, the most efficient set-up is to have one line feed into several cashiers. This is because if any one line slows because of an issue, the entry queue continues to have customers reach check-out optimally. However, this is also perceived by customers as the least efficient, psychologically."
Technology

Submission + - Aerial Video Footage of New York Taken By RC Plane (singularityhub.com)

Submitted by kkleiner
kkleiner writes: Expert remote control pilot Raphael “Trappy” Pirker recently took his 54 inch Zephyr model plane on a harrowing tour of Manhattan and the surrounding area. The best part: his RC vehicle was fitted with a camera that wirelessly transmitted an amazing recording of everything it saw – Pirker was piloting his craft with this visual feed. As you can see in the video, the results were spectacular. The plane looks to be flying within a few feet of buildings and whizzing past bridges with ease. You have to check out around 2:01 when he starts to buzz right by the Statute of Liberty. Phenomenal! Could the new era of personal video recording be spreading to the sky?

Submission + - Bank of America Buying Abusive Domain Names (finextra.com)

Submitted by Nite_Hawk
Nite_Hawk writes: From the Article: Bank of America has snapped up hundreds of abusive domain names for its senior executives and board members in what is being perceived as a defensive strategy against the future publication of damaging insider info from whistleblowing Website WikiLeaks. According to Domain Name Wire, the US bank has been aggressively registering domain names including its board of Directors' and senior executives' names followed by "sucks" and "blows".

Submission + - Telecoms Competition 100 Years Ago (eugenegill.com)

Submitted by Tokolosh
Tokolosh writes: With all the discussion of net neutrality, regulation, competition and government involvement, a review of the situation 100 years ago is instructive. Read the "Twentieth Century Magazine" from 1910. This was a "progressive" and "socialist" publication, and its opinions are not always what you might expect.

The most interesting part are the roles of government and the courts — there are none at all. Barriers to entry for competitors are low: no regulations, no taxes, no licenses, no patents, no franchises, no "last mile", no court injunctions, no lobbying. Imagine what we could do in such an environment! What have we gained or lost in 100 years? How should things be different, or the same?

The same publication has a lot to say on the subject of the government involvement in healthcare. Hint: They think it is a bad idea.
Google

Submission + - Android Bug Allows Silent Malicious App Installs (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: There's a weakness in the Android operating system that could enable an attacker to install a malicious third-party application on Android devices without the user's knowledge. A researcher has developed a proof-of-concept app that's in the Android Market now, disguised as an extension to the popular Angry Birds game.

Jon Oberheide, a security researcher who has done extensive research on Android and mobile security, found that on devices running Android 2.0 and higher, he could access a special token on the device that's used to request permission from the Android Market server to install an application. The token, called the Android service token, is used in place of a username and password each time the Android handset asks permission from the Market server to install an application. After a user installs the application, it asks for the service token and then installs three separate extensions that each have potentially malicious features. One of the extensions is designed to steal the user's contacts, another is meant to track the device's location surreptitiously and the third is designed to send expensive SMS messages in the background.

Submission + - Boeing halts 787 test flights after cabin smoke (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Garabito
Garabito writes: Boeing halted test flights of its long-delayed 787 Dreamliner on Wednesday, a day after smoke in the main cabin forced an emergency landing in Texas. Boeing Co halted test flights of its long-delayed 787 Dreamliner on Wednesday, a day after smoke in the main cabin forced an emergency landing in Texas.
The aircraft, carrying 42 crew and test technicians on a test flight from Yuma, Arizona, remained in Laredo on Wednesday while Boeing planned to evaluate data from the aircraft at its facilities in Seattle.

Submission + - The mechanical glory of the IBM Selectric typewrit (makezine.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: From Make OnLine: "The word of the day is "whiffletree." A "whiffletree" is a mechanical digital-to-analog converter. Brilliant science-and-technology documentarian Bill Hammack, professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at the University of Illinois, has produced this fascinating video anatomy of IBM's classic Selectric typewriter, in which a 7-bit whiffletree is employed to convert keypresses (digital) to precisely coordinated tugs (analog) on the control cables that rotate and tilt the type ball. Doubly awesome is the fact that the video features an appendix (yes, a video appendix) which focuses exclusively on the whiffletree itself, closely illustrating its operation with a simple 2-bit case."

Submission + - Chevy Volt Pricier in Electric Than Gasoline Mode (conceivablytech.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It appears to be a plain math game, but highlights the fact that you simply can't assume that running your car in electric mode is cheaper than buying gas. General Motors seems to be acknowledging the issue and does not claim that the Volt will be necessarily more economic to drive than a cheap gasoline car. The company's advice may be a bit disturbing: If you are concerned about the cost, but a $2000 used car. I am not sure if this is the best way to bring the customer on your side.
Government

Submission + - NSA Says Its Secure Dev Methods Are Known Now (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Despite its reputation for secrecy and technical expertise, the National Security Agency doesn't have a set of secret coding practices or testing methods that magically make their applications and systems bulletproof. In fact, one of the agency's top technical experts said that virtually all of the methods the NSA uses for development and information assurance are publicly known.

"Most of what we do in terms of app development and assurance is in the open literature now. Those things are known publicly now," Neil Ziring, technical director of the NSA's Information Assurance Directorate, said in his keynote at the OWASP AppSec conference in Washington Wednesday. "It used to be that we had some methods and practices that weren't well-known, but over time that's changed as industry has focused more on application security."

Submission + - Was the Wheel of Fortune 'Miracle' Really a Hack? (esquire.com)

Submitted by mattnyc99
mattnyc99 writes: By now everyone's seen the video of Caitlin Burke's one-letter solve on Wheel of Fortune last Friday. But not everyone knows how easy it is to game the system of game shows, how easy it is for an addicted viewer to prepare for a big on-air win. Esquire writer Chris Jones pulled back the curtain a bit on the Price Is Right's perfect showcase, but now he's got something of an investigation into America's latest gamebreaker. From the article: "At a remarkably fast rate — "I wanted to show everyone what I've got," Burke says — she can cycle through her shortened lists of possibility. As more letters are guessed and either lit up or discarded, she can permanently drop those from contention, too. Her brain has a one-way valve built into it. Eventually, everything gets distilled, each puzzle boiled down to its most likely combination — two-letter words, three-letter words, and so on. Burke has trained her brain so that the impossible falls away, never to return, and eventually, out of the crowded ether, only a handful of solutions emerge."

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