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Apple

Submission + - Apple and comic fans fooled by Tintin app comprise (ifc.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday, an iPad App called "Tintin: The Complete Collection" made the rounds across Twitter, Facebook and maybe even LinkedIn for all we know, as comic book professionals and fans retweeted and shared a link to buy every Tintin book (24 of them!) for the absolutely psychotically low price of $4.99. The price point seemed to good to be true, and as it turned out, that's exactly what the App was.
Security

Submission + - Unique Malware URLs Increased 89 Percent (net-security.org)

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes: Websites loaded with malware increased a massive 89 percent in the third quarter compared to Q2 2011. The most impersonated organizations include the FDIC, U.S. Federal Reserve and the IRS. The large increase in malware sites is attributed to the reemergence of the Avalanche phishing gang, which was responsible for two thirds of all the phishing attacks that took place in the second half of 2009. On the other hand, traditional phishing attacks dropped eight percent in the third quarter compared with Q2 2011. Money transfer and e-commerce phishing showed the largest areas of decline while phishing attacks impersonating national banks stayed strong.
Businesses

Submission + - Why Microsoft Embraced Gaming (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by wjousts
wjousts writes: A interesting take on the birth of the Xbox from Technology Review:

When the original Xbox video-game console went on sale in 2001, it wasn't clear why Microsoft, known for staid workplace software, was branching out into fast-paced action games. But Microsoft decided that capitalizing on the popularity of gaming could help the company position itself for the coming wave of home digital entertainment.
Security

Submission + - Five Million New Malware Samples (net-security.org)

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes: In the third quarter of 2011 alone, five million new malware samples were created. In addition, Trojans set a record for becoming the preferred category for cybercriminals to carry out their information theft, representing more than 75 percent of all new malware, according to PandaLabs. Trojans, viruses and worms occupied the top three spots with 63.22, 10.11 and 9.74 percent of infections, respectively. In the ranking of the Top 20 countries with the most infections, China once again led this ranking. Taiwan and Turkey occupied the second and third place respectively, followed by Russia and Poland.
Operating Systems

Submission + - Apple to require sandboxing for Mac App Store Apps (tuaw.com)

Submitted by mario_grgic
mario_grgic writes: And so it begins, Apple will require that all Mac apps submitted to the Mac App store stick to strict sandboxing requirements. This means you must ask Apple for read or read/write entitlements for additional folders outside your Application Support folder before your app is approved. There are also restrictions on direct hardware access, communication to processes your app did not start, or even something simple as taking a screenshot.

All that is needed after this to turn your Mac into an appliance is to only allow app installations from App Store.
Science

Submission + - Fracking Likley Cause of Minor Quakes in UK (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by
Stirling Newberry
Stirling Newberry writes: "Non-conventional extraction of hydrocarbons is the next wave of production, including natural gas and oil – at least according to its advocates. One of the most controversial of the technologies being used is hydraulic fracture drilling, or "fracking." Energy companies have been gobbling up google ad words to push the view that the technology is "proven" and "safe," while stories about the damage continue to surface. Adding to the debate are two small tremors in the UK — below 3.0, so very small – that were quite likely the result of fracking there. Because the drilling cracks were shallow, this raises concerns that deeper cracks near more geologically active areas might lead to quakes that could cause serious damage."
Books

Submission + - Amazon Launching eBook Lending Program, Publishers (wsj.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon is starting a program to lend ebooks to Kindle users. It will allow users to borrow one title at a time, but readers will be able to keep the borrowed ebook for as long as they want. The initial library will only have around 5,000 titles, because 'None of the six largest publishers in the U.S. is participating.' The article continues, 'Several senior publishing executives said recently they were concerned that a digital-lending program of the sort contemplated by Amazon would harm future sales of their older titles or damage ties to other book retailers. ... The new program, called Kindle Owners' Lending Library, cannot be accessed via apps on other devices, which means it won't work on Apple Inc.'s iPad or iPhone, even though people can read Kindle books on both devices. This restriction is intended to drive Kindle device sales, says Amazon.'"
Patents

Submission + - IBM patents GPU databases (insidehpc.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: According to the patent applications, using GPU acceleration for databases "may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages." To cover all of its bases, IBM also states that the "program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server."
EU

Submission + - First Joint EU-US Cyber Security Exercise (net-security.org)

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes: The first joint cyber security exercise between the European Union and United States is being held today in Brussels, with the support of the EU’s Network and Information Security Agency and the US Department of Homeland Security. The day-long table-top exercise, Cyber Atlantic 2011, is using simulated cyber-crisis scenarios to explore how the EU and US would engage each other and cooperate in the event of cyber-attacks on their critical information infrastructures. More than 20 EU Member States are involved in the exercise, 16 of them actively playing, with the European Commission providing high-level direction.
America Online

Submission + - AOL discontinues LISTSERV (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Ending a service it has offered for well over a decade, AOL is shutting down its free LISTSERV-based mailing-list hosting operations, the company has told mailing list administrators. "If your list is still actively used, please make arrangements to find another service prior to the shutdown date and notify your list members of the transition details," an email notice sent out by AOL stated. "If you are no longer actively using this service then no other action is required." At the peak of the service's popularity in the late 1990s, AOL was the third-largest provider of mailing lists, serving more than a million users.
Desktops (Apple)

Submission + - Ensign 1 Kickstarter Campaign (kickstarter.com)

Submitted by
Rustybolts
Rustybolts writes: "Only Human Studios have started a Kickstarter campaign to help fund their new game Ensign 1. Ensign 1 is a single/ multiplayer space combat game for Linux, PC and Mac with a interesting twist. You can leave your cockpit of your currently boarded ship. You can then leave your ship when docked to explore larger capital ship and choose to pilot any other ship that happens to be laying around the docking area or take control of the capital ship itself.

Check it out at
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1902082235/multiplayer-space-combat-ensign-1"
NASA

Submission + - Airship to Orbit, altitude record for American tea (suasnews.com)

Submitted by
garymortimer
garymortimer writes: "Success for JP Aerospace and their airship to orbit project. They are claiming an altitude record for the twin envelope development craft by to soaring 95,085 feet above Nevada last month

The atmosphere as a ladder to space.

Balloons have carried people and machines to the edge of space for over seventy years. JP Aerospace is developing
the technology to fly a balloon or more accurately, their relative, the airship directly to orbit.

Flying an airship directly from the ground to orbit is not practical. An airship large enough to reach orbit would not survive the winds near the surface of the Earth. Conversely, an airship that could fly from the ground to upper atmosphere would not be light enough to reach space. The resulting configuration is a three-part architecture for using lighter-than-air vehicles to reach space."
Science

Submission + - The #SciFund Challenge - linking scientists and th (wordpress.org)

Submitted by
jearbear
jearbear writes: "The #SciFund Challenge, created by two scientists at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Sytnehsis aims to get scientists to create research proposals that connect their science with a public non-academic audience. They've brought together 50 scientists, and just launched the #SciFund Challenge on RocketHub! Participants have collaborated on creating proposals with broad appeal, from biofuel catalyst design to the study of cellular cilia to deploying seismic sensor networks (that attach to your computer!). Beyond just the RocketHub site, participants have been using the project blog to discuss how this method of seeking funds is working for them and what it might mean for the future coupling of academic science and society through funding."
Science

Submission + - RSA takes on Scientific Heresy (wattsupwiththat.com)

Submitted by sanzibar
sanzibar writes: Matt Ridley, Angus Millar Lecture 2011 -
How do you know whether you are taking the rational or the irrational side of an argument, the scientific or the pseudoscientific position? Or to put it a slightly different way, when are the heretics right and when are they nutcases? This question is not as easy to answer as it seems.

Many scientific truths began as heresies and fought long battles for acceptance against entrenched establishment wisdom that now appears irrational: the germ theory, continental drift, the use of antibiotics to treat stomach cancer, low-carbohydrate diets, even the idea that crop circles are man-made. Many environmentalists think the scientific conventional wisdom is right about climate change, and explicitly demand obedience to the consensus or even argue that dissent is illegitimate, but at the same time many of the same people once argued that scientific conventional wisdom is wrong about the safety of genetically modified food and that dissent is legitimate.

There is a consensus that the earth is round and natural selection explains evolution, but there is also a consensus that ghosts and gods exist. So the consensus cannot always be trusted, but nor can it always be dismissed. This lecture will explore the problem of how to decide when to question the scientific wisdom and when to accept it.

Full transcript in the link.

audio:
http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/2011/angus-millar-lecture-2011-scientific-heresy

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