Comment Re:A win for open-source? Only if AT&T opens i (Score 0) 139
Symbian will soon be open sourced by Nokia (who has completely acquired the system).
Comment Re:Symbian (Score 0) 139
You don't even know what you're talking about. Symbian has the biggest market share of any of the systems you mentioned and it powers excellent phones such as the N95 and the upcoming N97 (and also the E series for businesses).
Everywhere in the world (perhaps except in the US cause of CDMA phones) Symbian is far ahead of any of its competitors.
Also, did I mention the thousands of applications that are available for S60 phones?
x86 Evolution Still Driving the Revolution 82
An anonymous reader writes "The x86 instruction set may be ancient, in technology terms, but that doesn't mean it's not exciting or innovative. In fact the future of x86 is looking brighter than it has in years. Geek.com has an article pointing out how at 30 years old x86 is still a moving force in technological advancement and, despite calls for change and numerous alternatives, it will still be the technology that gets us where we want to go. Quoting: 'As far as the world of the x86 goes, the future is very bright. There are so many new markets that 45nm products enable. Intel has really nailed the future with this goal. And in the future when they produce 32nm, and underclock their existing processors to allow the extremely low power requirements of cell phones and other items, then the x86 will be the power-house for our home computers, our notebooks, our cell phones, our MIDs and other unrealized devices today.'"
Submission + - Gamers to Help Design HIV Vaccines
Hugh Pickens writes: "For years, biochemists have reengineered naturally occurring proteins by growing them in viruses and single-celled organisms in a process called directed evolution. Now David Baker, a leading protein scientist at the University of Washington, has demonstrated the first algorithm for building novel, functioning enzymes from scratch and wants to enlists gamers to improve three-dimensional protein structures, using graphical representations of real protein chemistry. Baker's game, called Foldit which is avaiable for download, uses humans, who are better at seeing the big picture than computers are, to improve computer-designed proteins. The first several levels of Foldit are designed to teach players what good proteins look like and how to manipulate them using the tools of the game. After improving the designs of a few test proteins, players can advance into competitive play, working in teams or alone. By making the game available to anyone over the Web, the researchers expect to find people they call protein savants — people who are very good at solving protein structures and who will spend several hours a week playing the game."
US Court Orders Company to Use Negative Keywords 177
A US court has ordered a firm to utilize negative adwords in their internet advertising. "Orion Bancorp took Orion Residential Finance (ORF) to court in Florida over ORF's use of the word 'Orion' in relation to financial services and products, arguing that it had used the term since 2002 and had held a trade mark for it since then. [...] The judge in the case went further, though, restraining ORF from 'purchasing or using any form of advertising including keywords or "adwords" in internet advertising containing any mark incorporating Plaintiff's Mark, or any confusingly similar mark, and shall, when purchasing internet advertising using keywords, adwords or the like, require the activation of the term "Orion" as negative keywords or negative adwords in any internet advertising purchased or used.'"
Submission + - New way to ID invisible intruders on wireless LANs (computerworld.com.au)
Bergkamp10 writes: Australia's University of Technology in Queensland (QUT) has created a groundbreaking new system that can detect invisible intruders on wireless LANs. Wireless networks have been almost impossible to thoroughly secure as they possess no clearly defined boundaries, instead they are defined by the quality and strength of the receiving antenna. QUT Information Security Institute researcher Dr Jason Smith has invented a new system to detect eavesdropping on unencrypted networks or active hijackings of computer sessions when a legitimate user who is logged onto the network leaves the connection. Smith has created a series of monitoring techniques that when used together can detect both attackers and configuration mistakes in network devices. According to Smith, ""the strength of the signal travelling in a wireless network and the round trip time of the signal are both monitored because they will change if an intruder enters the network. Separately monitoring the signal and round trip time is unreliable, but correlating them against each other makes the system accurate," he said. Smith goes on to list further features and benefits of the new system and how threats can be responded to.
Submission + - OSX Leopard has a PE Loader?
drfreak writes: "Apparently, OSX Leopard now has the skeleton of a PE Loader in it. Check out this article on OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=18982
Rumors are spreading that maybe Leopard will include native Win32 support in the future. Myself, I think it would be more possible that .NET may be ported to it, as the CLR requires a PE loader."
Submission + - Teenage Cybercriminal Arrested by NZ Police (bbc.co.uk)
JohnStJohn writes: "According to BBC-
"The teenager, who is 18, cannot be named for legal reasons but his cyber identification was "Akill". Police allege that he was the whizzkid kingpin behind what they called an international spybot ring... In this global hacking spree, the FBI estimates that 1.3 million computers were infiltrated and infected and more than US$25m (£12.5m) was illegally embezzled."
The story goes on to say he is co-operating with athorities and may be facing up to 10 years in prison."
"The teenager, who is 18, cannot be named for legal reasons but his cyber identification was "Akill". Police allege that he was the whizzkid kingpin behind what they called an international spybot ring... In this global hacking spree, the FBI estimates that 1.3 million computers were infiltrated and infected and more than US$25m (£12.5m) was illegally embezzled."
The story goes on to say he is co-operating with athorities and may be facing up to 10 years in prison."
Submission + - Cisco's legal problems in Brazil: a timeline (networkworld.com) 1
whitehartstag writes: Cisco on Thanksgiving last week fired its former top dog in Latin America after he was charged by Brazilian authorities with tax fraud and other crimes related to the alleged evasion of $845 million in import duties and other taxes. The firing is the latest in a running saga involving executives from some companies in Brazil setting up a scheme to avoid taxes and import duties to the benefit of Cisco. Here's a time line of events leading to the firing.
Submission + - Swiss DMCA quietly adopted (boingboing.net)
roady writes: We have seen a lot of talk about the Canadian DMCA. But few know about the Swiss version recently adopted by law makers, not even the Swiss people.
The government and media have been very quiet, probably to avoid a referendum. Indeed, Switzerland is a direct democracy and if 50'000 citizens sign a referendum, the whole country will have a chance to vote against the new copyright law. In this version of the DMCA, sharing a file on P2P networks will land you one year in jail, even though the law mandates a levy on blank media. The history of the law can be read here.
U.S. House Says the Internet is Terrorist Threat 457
GayBliss writes "The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill (H.R. 1955) last month, by a vote of 404 to 6, that says the Internet is a terrorist tool and that Congress needs to develop and implement methods to combat it."
Submission + - AOL and Microsoft practicing stalinism censorship
Space Cowboy writes: "Hello, there,
It seems that some Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo are
trying hardly to 'protect' us from reaching some
news sources. Full story can be found at
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091307Z.shtml
Cheers
-SC-"
Fork the Linux Kernel? 455
Joe Barr writes "Fork the kernel? Are you crazy? A blog entry on InfoWorld.com urged the Linux community to fork the kernel into desktop and server versions because, according to the author, all Linus Torvalds cares about is big iron. Sorry, but that's both wrong and stupid."
Submission + - Scientists:Artificial life likely in 3 to 10 years (cnn.com)
CapedOpossum writes: Let the voices chanting apocalyptic visions once again be heard! Playing God? Hell, we're re-inventing the concept! From the article:
"Around the world, a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch and they're getting closer. Experts expect an announcement within three to 10 years from someone in the now little-known field of 'wet artificial life.' ... 'It's going to be a big deal and everybody's going to know about it,' said Mark Bedau, chief operating officer of ProtoLife of Venice, Italy, one of those in the race. ... Bedau said there are legitimate worries about creating life that could 'run amok,' but there are ways of addressing it, and it will be a very long time before that is a problem."
Submission + - Giant spider web spurs sticky debate (www.cbc.ca) 1
Raver32 writes: "Entomologists are debating the origins of a massive spider web, which runs more than 180 metres and covers several trees and shrubs, found in Texas.
Officials at Lake Tawakoni State Park, near Willis Point, find the web both amazing and somewhat creepy.
"At first, it was so white it looked like fairyland," park superintendent Donna Garde said. "Now it's filled with so many mosquitoes that it's turned a little brown. There are times you can literally hear the screech of millions of mosquitoes caught in those webs."
Experts are debating whether the web is the work of social cobweb spiders working together, or a mass dispersal where the arachnids spin webs to move away from one another."
