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PayPal Launches Facebook App For Sending Money 66

Posted by samzenpus from the like-this dept.
angry tapir writes "PayPal has launched a Facebook application designed to let users of the social networking site send money to each other. The application, named Send Money, features a greeting card component for accompanying the money transfer with an e-card containing a message, photos and videos to mark occasions like birthdays and anniversaries."
Earth

Meet the Saber-Toothed Squirrel 59

Posted by samzenpus from the we're-going-to-need-a-bigger-acorn dept.
sciencehabit writes "Researchers have discovered the fossil remains of a 94-million-year-old squirrel-like critter with a long, narrow snout and a pair of curved saber-fangs that it would have likely used to pierce its insect prey. The creature, pieced together from skull fragments unearthed in Argentina and dubbed Cronopio dentiacutus, was not ancestral to us or any living mammal. Instead, it belonged to an extinct group called dryolestoids, a cadre of fuzzy mammals that scurried about in the shadow of long-necked dinosaurs."

Comment Re:To-Do lists (Score 1) 314

by dermoth666 (#37475346) Attached to: I tend to keep random notes most often ...

Right. I answered "Post-it Notes", but I didn't count emails. I do exactly the same, and also at the end of the day I take a picture of whatever urgent is left on my post-it's and email myself. Obviously after making sure the image is readable I leave the email unread ;)
The Military

US Military Moving Closer To Automated Killing 472

Posted by Soulskill from the paging-john-connor dept.
Doofus writes "A recent article in the Washington Post, A future for drones: Automated killing, describes the steady progress the military is making toward fully autonomous networks of targeting and killing machines. Does this (concern|scare|disgust) any of you? Quoting: 'After 20 minutes, one of the aircraft, carrying a computer that processed images from an onboard camera, zeroed in on the tarp and contacted the second plane, which flew nearby and used its own sensors to examine the colorful object. Then one of the aircraft signaled to an unmanned car on the ground so it could take a final, close-up look. Target confirmed. This successful exercise in autonomous robotics could presage the future of the American way of war: a day when drones hunt, identify and kill the enemy based on calculations made by software, not decisions made by humans. Imagine aerial "Terminators," minus beefcake and time travel.' The article goes on to discuss the dangers of surrendering to fully autonomous killing, concerns about the potential for 'atrocities,' and the nature of what we call 'common sense.'"
Android

Intel, Google Team To Optimize Android For Smartphones 187

Posted by Soulskill from the get-on-that dept.
angry tapir writes "Intel and Google announced on Tuesday that they would partner to optimize future versions of the Android OS for smartphones and other mobile devices using Intel chips. Intel CEO Paul Otellini demonstrated a smartphone with the upcoming Medfield chip running on Android during a keynote at the Intel Developer Conference being held in San Francisco. However, Otellini didn't mention the version of Android running on the smartphone. Intel wants to make x86 the architecture of choice for smartphones, and porting Android will provide a larger opportunity to the chip maker in the smartphone market, Otellini said."
Businesses

Algorithmic Trading Rapidly Replacing Need For Humans 331

Posted by Soulskill from the digitizing-greed-and-fear dept.
DMandPenfold writes "Algorithmic trading, also known as high frequency trading (HFT), is rapidly replacing human decision making, according to a UK government panel which warned that the right regulations need to be introduced to protect stock markets. Around one third of share trading in the UK is conducted by computers fulfilling commands based on complex algorithms, said the Foresight panel in a working paper published yesterday. Nevertheless, this proportion is significantly lower than in the U.S., where three-quarters of equity dealing is computer generated. The Foresight panel, led by Dame Clara Furse, the former chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, argued that there are both benefits and severe risks to algorithmic trading. There was 'no direct evidence' that the computer trading in itself increased volatility, it said, but in specific circumstances it was possible for a series of events with 'undesired interactions and outcomes' to occur and cause massive damage."
Security

Apple Criticized For Not Blocking Stolen Certs 154

Posted by samzenpus from the I-am-disappoint dept.
CWmike writes "A security researcher is criticizing Apple for lagging with its response to the DigiNotar certificate fiasco. He is urging the company to quickly update Mac OS X to protect users. 'We're looking at some very serious issues [about trust on the Web] and it doesn't help matters when Apple is dragging its feet,' said Paul Henry, a security and forensics analyst with Lumension. Unlike Microsoft, which updated Windows on Tuesday to block all SSL certificates issued by DigiNotar, Apple has not updated Mac OS X to do the same. Meanwhile, even Mac OS X users who want to go DIY are stymied, reports Bob McMillan, because the OS can't properly revoke dodgy digital certificates."
Windows

Microsoft 'Ribbonizes' Windows 8 File Manager 951

Posted by Soulskill from the statistically-driven-interface dept.
CWmike writes "Microsoft said today it will 'ribbonize' the file manager in next year's Windows 8, adding Explorer to the short list of integrated applications that already sport the interface in Windows 7. Microsoft's Alex Simons, director of program management, released screenshots of the new ribbon interface planned for Explorer (scroll way down). 'We evaluated several different UI command affordances including expanded versions of the Vista/Windows 7 command bar, Windows 95/Windows XP style toolbars and menus, several entirely new UI approaches, and the Office style ribbon,' explained Simons. 'Of these, the ribbon approach offered benefits in line with our goals.' Plans by Microsoft and others to ribbonize applications have often met resistance. 'We knew that using a ribbon for Explorer would likely be met with skepticism by a set of power users, but there are clear benefits,' Simons said."
Patents

Appeals Court Makes It Easier To Dump Software Patents 109

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the your-thoughts-are-infringing dept.
An anonymous reader writes "While software patents are still legal, it appears that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, sometimes known as the nation's 'patent court' has just made a decision that will make it much easier to reject software patents for being mere 'mental processes'" rather than an actual invention. This could allow the Patent Office and the courts to reject many software patents."

Comment Use LFS or similar... (Score 1) 260

by dermoth666 (#37079352) Attached to: Installing Linux On a 386 Laptop

I did pretty much that to install a linux distro on a 486 laptop - I compiled the kernel, libraries, etc. - then built a bootdisk and filesystem. I then went on and copied the ~15m filesystem using a bunch of floppies (no network) one disk at a time after booting from the floppy, and finally installed the bootloader.

The Linux From Scratch HOWTO has all instructions for it, although in my case I diverted a little bit from it - for instance I used uClibc instead of Glibc and a 2.2 kernel. Doing it from scratch gives you the best way to select more recent components for some parts while using smaller/older ones elsewhere, so you don't end up with a totally outdated system.
Google

Submission + - Google Code. Now with more Git. (blogspot.com)

Submitted by leetrout
leetrout writes: On Monday Google announced that it was adding support for Git in Google Code Project Hosting.

The post hints at the history of DVCS within Google Code and why they have added support.

Since our original announcement of Mercurial support, Git has grown significantly more popular and user-friendly, and on the technical side, it has added an efficient “smart” HTTP protocol that fits with Google’s HTTP-based infrastructure. (Note that this feature is only available in version 1.6.6 and later.)

The blog post goes on to briefly describe some of the technical aspects of the service including a note that states "to fit with our existing Python-based system, our Git server implementation is powered in part by Dulwich" which is a pure-Python implementation of the Git file formats and protocols.

I, for one, welcome the new option and will be curious to see if it gains any traction against GitHub.
Moon

Hotspot Found On Moon's Far Side 96

Posted by Soulskill from the thermal-exhaust-port dept.
derGoldstein tips this news from Discovery.com: "Scientists have found evidence of volcanoes on the far side of the moon. The new discovery, reported in the journal Nature Geoscience (abstract) is a rare example of volcanism on the lunar surface not associated with asteroid, meteor or comet impact events. ... They focused on an area containing numerous domes, some more than six kilometers high. The domes featured steeply sloping sides which Jolliff and colleagues interpret as, 'volcanic in origin and formed from viscous lava.'"
Security

How Citigroup Hackers Easily Gained Access 371

Posted by CmdrTaco from the all-kinds-of-fail dept.
Endoflow2010 writes "Hackers who stole the personal details of more than 200,000 Citigroup customers 'broke in through the front door' using an extremely simple technique. It has been called 'one of the most brazen bank hacking attacks' in recent years. And for the first time it has been revealed how the sophisticated cyber criminals made off with the staggering bounty of names, account numbers, email addresses and transaction histories. They simply logged on to the part of the group's site reserved for credit card customers and substituted their account numbers — which appeared in the browser's address bar — with other numbers. It allowed them to leapfrog into the accounts of other customers, with an automatic computer program letting them repeat the trick tens of thousands of times."

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