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Firefox

Submission + - Adblock Plus will whitelist ads by default (adblockplus.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Adblock Plus author is planing to force a special subscription on users, that will whitelist ad servers. The malicious change is posted under a misleading title "Experiment: Whitelisting broken sites". There's a possibility that ABP has sold-out.
Education

Submission + - The disgraceful interrogation of L.A. school libra (latimes.com) 1

Submitted by Devil
Devil writes: In a scene that even Kafka couldn't have dreamed up, school librarians in Los Angeles are being interrogated like common criminals. If they fail the interrogation, they'll be fired; if they pass, they'll cease to be librarians.

Submission + - Amazon: How Can a Tablet Supplement an E-Reader? (i4u.com) 1

Submitted by i4u
i4u writes: The CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, just said some very perplexing things. In an interview with Consumer Reports, the bald-pated executive told readers to "stay tuned" for Amazon's plans for a tablet. He also noted that this potential tablet would be more of a "supplement" to the Kindle. Jeff believes there will always be a place in the market for "purpose-built e-reading device"s.

Submission + - A new file format that you can't print (saveaswwf.com)

Submitted by Squiff
Squiff writes: The WWF have published a new file format, predictably with the extension .wwf that is (quote) 'a PDF that cannot be printed out. It's a simple way to avoid unnecessary printing' (http://www.saveaswwf.com/en/). Some (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2011/feb/09/wwf-pdf-file-format-printed) think that that this is more WTF than WWF and smacks of a different trio of letters- DRM- commenting that 'Predictably, the print industry is not remotely pleased.'. Some simply might not be able to comment at this point since the software is only provided for Windows and OS X. One might suppose that in the event that this did catch on, it would soon be followed by a burst of popularity for wwf editing and printing software. No mention of licensing in the FAQ....
Data Storage

Submission + - Wall Street Hedge Fund Smashes Hard Drive Evidence (wsj.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: We all know Slashdotters love debating the best way to wipe a hard drive clean. Looks like tech-savvy Wall Street Hedge Fund managers also know the best way to do it. From the WSJ article:

"F—in' pulled the external drives apart," Mr. Longueuil told Mr. Freeman during their meeting, according to the criminal complaint. "Put 'em into four separate little baggies, and then at 2 a.m. 2 a.m. on a Friday night, I put this stuff inside my black North Face jacket, and leave the apartment and I go on like a twenty block walk around the city and try to find a, a garbage truck and threw the s—t in the back of like random garbage trucks, different garbage trucks four different garbage trucks."

Submission + - forever storage: end of lifetime SSD's

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Data on a SSD can't be written anymore ? Never fear ; it can still be read! And it can be read for a long time after you arer done with your SSD. So, how do I securely destroy a used SSD ? Or do I trust the SSD firmware when it says that I can't read data, that no one else can.
Games

Submission + - Duke Nukem Forever Parties Like It's 1997 (wired.com)

Submitted by CrispyZorro
CrispyZorro writes: Current trends say that shooters like Halo and Call of Duty must be pared down ruthlessly into a brief string of exciting moments that follow one after the other at a rapid-fire pace. These games brake for nobody.

Duke Nukem Forever bucks this conventional wisdom. The game takes its sweet time, deploying plenty of puzzles, goofy minigames and segments that ask the player to do nothing but walk along and soak up the atmosphere, admiring the paintings on the walls of Duke's mansion.

In fact, for the first hour of the game, it seems like Duke Nukem Forever wants you to do anything but shoot aliens. But there's a method to this sluggish madness: Duke the character may possess all the depth of a kiddie pool, but for the game's fiction to work, players must feel like they’re taking on the role of the cigar-chomping egomaniac.

The box art for Duke Nukem Forever puts the focus right where it belongs, on Duke himself.

Duke is not the sort of personality-free camera-on-a-stick that serves as the protagonist of many first-person shooters. And Duke's not a stand-in for you.

He'(TM)s Duke. You'(TM)re just along for the ride.
Security

Submission + - Microsoft Says RIP Windows XP AutoRun (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by aesoteric
aesoteric writes: Microsoft has finally decided to push out an update to disable AutoRun in its XP operating system, a Windows feature that had been increasingly exploited by virus writers over the years. But because Microsoft still sees AutoRun as a feature and not a security hole, it isn't calling its Windows Update a "security update" but rather an "Important, non-security update" — but it effectively disables the AutoRun feature anyway.
Android

Submission + - Oracle Says Google Throws Its Users Under The Bus (blogspot.com) 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The heat is on between Oracle and Google in their patent and copyright lawsuit. Oracle's lawyers just told the court that 'Google now wants to throw its licensees and users under the bus' by refusing to be liable for every Android-based device out there. It's also about the burden of proof. Oracle has produced almost 400 pages of claim charts and other material to prove infringements based on the public codebase, but Google wants to see this for individual devices. Groklaw thinks Oracle 'saw the case as a slam dunk, and Google is not cooperating.' FOSS Patents (Florian Mueller) says Google is at the top of a billion-dollar pyramid, is projected to generate mobile advertising income to the tune of $1.3 billion next year thanks to Android, and should 'assume responsibility' and solve the problem 'for the entire ecosystem' because otherwise Oracle might sue device makers, operators, or even app developers or users.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Kills AutoRun in Windows (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: As malware authors and attackers have continued to employ the Windows AutoRun functionality to help spread their malicious creations--culminating famously in the Stuxnet worm--Microsoft has been making gradual changes to help prevent these attacks. This week the company took the major step of putting an optional fix into Windows Update that will disable AutoRun.

The company made the change Tuesday on the same day that it shipped its monthly crop of patches, and said that the change is designed to bring Windows XP and other operating systems into a more secure state by makign it harder for malware to use AutoRun as a propagation method.
Space

Submission + - First underground cave photographed on the moon (wired.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Lanxon
Lanxon writes: High-resolution images have confirmed for the first time the presence of an underground cave on the moon's surface. Images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter camera reveal that what previously appeared to be a lunar pit in the Marius Hills region is in fact the entrance to a lava tube, with the cave floor visible through a collapsed ceiling, or "skylight".
Music

Submission + - Last.FM Requires Subscription (blog.last.fm)

Submitted by Hummdis
Hummdis writes: If you, like so many others, listen to Last.FM on your mobile or home entertainment devices, then you're going to need to pay for this once free service effective February 15th.

It remains free to listen on Last.FM (the website), but if you want to continue to listen on Android, your BluRay player, or any other device, you'll need to spend the $3.00 per month to be able to do so.

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