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Google

Submission + - Google Products You Forgot All About

Submitted by
Googling Yourself
Googling Yourself writes: "Lifehacker has an interesting blog post on the "Top 10 Google Products You Forgot All About" that includes stalwarts like Google Trends and Google Alerts and a few others that may not be quite so familiar like Google Personals, Google's WYSIWYG web site creation tool, and Flight Simulator for Google Earth. How many of the ten do you use regularly and what other Google products do you use that everybody else has forgotten all about?"
Privacy

Submission + - Google Reader shares private data, ruins Christmas (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Felipe Hoffa
Felipe Hoffa writes: One week ago Google Reader's team decided showing your private data to all your GMail contacts. No need to opt-in, no way to opt-out. Complaints haven't been answered. Some users share their problems, including one family that won't be able to enjoy this Christmas due to this "feature". Will this start happening with all Google products?

You can check a summary of complaints or the whole thread.
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - First commerical open source game in development

Submitted by LingNoi
LingNoi writes: Blender's project Apricot has begun work on creating the first open source commerical title scheduled for release on Windows, Linux and Mac platforms. The project is being funded by the Blender and Crystal Space communities in an effort to address the problems that professionals face in the games industry with regards to using Blender 3d and Crystal Space engine.

Discussions have already begun on improvements that can be made on the blender forums.
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - Recent Hacking on the Final Fantasy XI Community

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: As of late, hundreds of Final Fantasy XI accounts have been compromised by a trojan that was leaked into a Final Fantasy XI information page. As more and more accounts seize to exist by legit players, Square Enix continues to do nothing but brush the rightful owners off. With this happening, thousands of players refuse to even log onto their characters, and some just choose to stay up all night watching over them, due to the paranaoia of which account will be taken next. Everyone seems to agree that their Service and Support/GM team should be rendered useless at this point, for refusing to even listen to their customers about the on-going situation. What will it take to get them to notice? It looks like we'll be seeing a lot of WoW boxes under everyone's christmas tree this year. Good job, SE, you done good.
Government

Submission + - Usaspending.gov Federal Spending Tracker Online (usaspending.gov)

Submitted by FiniteElementalist
FiniteElementalist writes: Champions for government transparency can now view some of the fruits of their labor as Usaspending.gov is online. This site provides easy access to a plethora of searchable data about US Federal Government spending, such as federal contracts and assistance. It also provides an API for small scale accesses to the available data. Usaspending.gov was created as a result of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 introduced by Senators Coburn (R-OK) and Obama (D-IL).
(PS Don't get too worried about the red warning text at the bottom, other than you shouldn't setup automated or bulk data gathering from the site.)
Software

Submission + - Scribbles - simple drawing, unique UI (atebits.com)

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "This is the sort of app that would normally fly under everyone's radar, but it might be worth checking out. There are some pretty unique aspects to the user interface. It blurs the line between a bitmap and a vector drawing app... has stuff like a 3D layer UI (a first?), infinite canvas, scalable brushes, high-resolution export, super easy-to-use interface.

May the gods of slashdot bless me with a mention! Or, I guess at least I guess you (mr. editor) can check out the app."
Wii

Submission + - Activision Sued over Guitar Hero....again (wired.com)

Submitted by Zalbik
Zalbik writes: It seems that Activision's legal battles over the latest edition of the Guitar Hero franchise are not over yet. Having been sued previously over the inclusion of a song cover that sounds too much like the original, they are now being subject to a class action suit due to the fact that the Wii edition of the game only outputs mono sound, despite packaging claims to the contrary.

Apparently their offer to replace any defective discs free of charge isn't enough for some people, so Samuel Livingston of San Diego (represented by the law firm KamberEdelson, LLC) has filed a class action suit over this issue. previously covered lawsuits over the latest edition of the Guitar Hero franchise.
Music

Submission + - EMI music forces NZ National Party to recall DVDs (nzherald.co.nz)

Submitted by RincewindTVD
RincewindTVD writes: Music 'similar' to Coldplay's Clocks has forced promotional material from NZ's National political party to be recalled, including DVDs sent out and online media.

Musicologist Dr Graeme Downes notes that the song Clocks and hte music in the promotional material are very similar and that he would not be willing to help defend the copyright infringement claims.

It looks like the Auckland artist and the production company that made this for the National party might be in a bit of hot water over this.

Forced recall details here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10480032&ref=rss

Earlier details including notes from a musicologist here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10479448

Too lazy to edit urls..
Intel

Submission + - Cash starved AMD's chief lashes out at (itwire.com)

Submitted by
WirePosted
WirePosted writes: "Two years ago Hector Ruiz was talking about grabbing 30% market share in the computer processor space. Today the AMD CEO, in the midst of a company cash squeeze and a plummeting share price, is bitterly complaining about the "monopoly" held by its larger rival and Silicon Valley neighbour Intel."
Security

Submission + - Former MS (now FF)Security Honcho: MS Hides Holes (mozilla.com) 1

Submitted by
theranjan
theranjan writes: "When Jeff Jones, a Security Strategy Director at Microsoft, decided to compare Internet Explorer security vulnerabilities with those of Mozilla Firefox, and decided to publish his results showing that Internet Explorer was more secure, he perhaps forgot that the Head Security Strategist of Mozilla, Window Snyder, was a former MS employee, in fact the security lead for the Service pack of Windows XP and Server. In a rebuttal of the study, Window Snyder said that the number of vulnerabilities publicly acknowledged was just a "small subset" of all vulnerabilities fixed internally. The vulnerabilities found internally are fixed in service packs and major updates without public knowledge. This is probably one of the first times that we have confirmation from one of Microsoft's former workers that this practice is routinely followed in Microsoft. This also confirms that the studies performed or referenced by Microsoft touting itself as the safest Operating system, comparing the vulnerabilities between OSes, needs to be taken with bucketfuls of salt. Finally, Window speaks out against the practice of counting bugs,stating plainly that "If we as an industry would just acknowledge that counting bugs is useless then vendors could feel safe talking about what they are doing to protect users" and "Were not building fixes for our PR team, were building them for our users. Go ahead and count.""
Media

Submission + - Pepsi and Amazon's Super Bowl MP3 Promotion (sciam.com)

Submitted by MaineCoasts
MaineCoasts writes: Scientific American reports that at this years Super Bowl, Pepsi will be kicking off a yearlong MP3 download promotion on the inside of 5 billion of its soda bottle caps. Sources said Pepsi customers will need to collect five caps in order to exchange them for a download; this yields the potential for 1 billion redeemable tracks through Amazon. Scientific American suggests that this may be a turning point for MP3s, forcing further consideration by Warner Music Group (WMG) and Sony BMG Music Entertainment to follow EMI and Universal Music Group's lead in distributing music in the MP3 format, which forgoes restrictive digital rights management technology.
Music

Submission + - UO Investigates RIAA for Spying (oregonlive.com)

Submitted by
Mr. E
Mr. E writes: "University of Oregon officials have asked a federal judge to let them investigate charges that the RIAA is spying on UO students. While it's not clear how they believe that the RIAA has accessed confidential student information, they make it sound like the RIAA was sniffing the network. Had the RIAA done so, they would have access to all unencrypted information on the network, which is likely to contain things like passwords and private emails in addition to evidence of copyright infringement they are after. UO officials note that, while they do not condone copyright infringement, they have a duty under the law to protect student privacy and to investigate those who may have violated it. RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckworth said that they were "surprised and disappointed" by this investigation."
Software

Submission + - Adobe to unclutter Photoshop UI (tekwasp.com)

Submitted by spotplace
spotplace writes: It's not common to see a company blast their own product for failing to adapt to times and people's necessities, unless they're trying to give you a reason to buy the latest and greatest of said product. That's exactly what Adobe has done. John Nack, senior product manager at Adobe, says the old Photoshop interface doesn't cut it anymore: "I sometimes joke that looking at some parts of the app is like counting the rings in a tree: you can gauge when certain features arrived by the dimensions & style of the dialog. No one wants to work with — or work on — some shambling, bloated monster of a program."

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