Comment i am awesome (Score 1) 273
I brilliantly ordered new HDD about one week before the news of the impending floods came up. I am a genius.
Comment Re:Finally (Score 1) 375
This move to modularity is probably overall good, however, does the optional Windows 8 legacy UI remind anyone else of 1995? Remember when you stared the Windows 95 GUI by typing "win.exe"? And, of course, whenever possible, you tried to run applications from DOS without the Windows GUI sucking up performance. There was a (sometimes) significant performance penalty for running Windows "app" on top of DOS.
If the 1995-esque performance penalties are there for running explorer.exe on top of the new Windows 8 Metro UI, that will be bad news.
Submission + - FBI Shuts Down Major Scareware Gang, Arrests 2 (threatpost.com)
Trailrunner7 writes: The FBI has made a major dent in the huge scareware and rogue antivirus problem that has been plaguing Internet users for years now, arresting two people and seizing dozens of computers, servers and bank accounts as part of a large-scale coordinated operation in twelve countries.
The operation, which involved authorities in the United States, Germany, France, Latvia, the UK and several other nations, was designed to disrupt the scareware ecosystem that has been preying on users' security fears in an effort to scam them out of millions of dollars in licensing fees for useless or outright malicious software.
The operation, which involved authorities in the United States, Germany, France, Latvia, the UK and several other nations, was designed to disrupt the scareware ecosystem that has been preying on users' security fears in an effort to scam them out of millions of dollars in licensing fees for useless or outright malicious software.
Submission + - Harry Potter author self-publishes ebooks DRM-free (wired.co.uk)
Lanxon writes: After a week of frenzied speculation, JK Rowling has revealed that she will release the long-awaited e-books of her mind-bogglingly popular fantasy series through her own ecommerce store and interactive online experience, Pottermore. Crucially, Rowling will sell the e-books through a proprietary platform, she revealed at a press conference this morning. Because of a shrewd arrangement with her publishers Bloomsbury and Scholastic (or possibly just a short-sighted one on the publishers' side), Rowling retains the digital rights to the seven Harry Potter novels.
Comment Re:But, you know, I *had* to buy in (Score 1) 169
You are SO stuck in the 20th century. Haven't you heard? "Money" is completely obsolete. I heard about it on all the Gawker Media websites yesterday -- BitCoin is here!
Nah, there's no new dotcom bubble. Everything's fine! I'm going to go spend some Flooz on a stock option or two.
Valve's Newell: One-Price-For-Everyone Business Model 'Broken' 374
Fysx writes with recent comments from Valve co-founder Gabe Newell about how he thinks the traditional video game business model is flawed:
"The industry has this broken model, which is one price for everyone. That’s actually a bug, and it’s something that we want to solve through our philosophy of how we create entertainment products. What you really want to do is create the optimal pricing service for each customer and see what’s best for them. We need to give customers, all of them, a robust set of options regarding how they pay for their content. An example is – and this is something as an industry we should be doing better – is charging customers based on how much fun they are to play with. Some people, when they join a server, a ton of people will run with them. Other people, when they join a server, will cause others to leave. We should have a way of capturing that. We should have a way of rewarding the people who are good for our community."
Submission + - SPAM: Countries ranked in terms of internet freedom
msum writes: Freedom House has just published a report that ranks 37 nations around the would in terms of their internet freedom. Estonia was ranked as the most free. See who else is listed.
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Submission + - Fukushima "illegal information" will be censored (japanfocus.org) 2
dgilzz writes: The [japanese] government charges that the damage caused by earthquakes and by the nuclear accident are being magnified by irresponsible rumors, and the government must take action for the sake of the public good. The project team has begun to send “letters of request” to such organizations as telephone companies, internet providers, cable television stations, and others, demanding that they “take adequate measures based on the guidelines in response to illegal information. ”The measures include erasing any information from internet sites that the authorities deem harmful to public order and morality.
Comment Re:No, sounds like only in America (Score 1) 332
This is an important distinction -- why does the wealthiest country in the history of the world (today's US) have "miserable" scholars? Public funding is crucial in determining what (and even whether) scientific research is undertaken. The current political environment in the United States, which sees the debate between Democrats and Republicans reduced to how much public spending to cut, is generally hostile to research funding. This will inevitably lead to a decrease in the number of people who pursue Ph.D.'s in the US.
Submission + - Epsilon breach affects JPMorgan Chase, Capital One (net-security.org)
Orome1 writes: The recent Play.com breach has been tied to the attack that its marketing communications firm Silverpop — a company that services over 105 customers, among whom are Walgreens and McDonalds — suffered last December. But the latest breach will likely have the biggest impact, because marketing services provider Epsilon — the largest one in the world — has notified its customers of a breach that likely compromised all of their mailing lists. Among Epsilon's customers are US Bank, JPMorgan Chase, TiVo, Capital One, the Home Shopping Network, LL Bean Visa Card, Ritz-Carlton Rewards, Best Buy, Disney Destinations, Walgreens, and many more.
Comment collaboration doesn't look as good as in gdocs (Score 2) 126
Google docs has real-time collaboration (you can see other people's edits as they happen). The video on collaboration for Google Cloud Connect in MS Office says you have to save before edits are synced to all collaborators. Sounds like a recipe for lots of sync inconsistencies to me.
Submission + - Robot Internet/Hive Mind Under Development (bbc.co.uk) 1
mantis2009 writes: The BBC describes a project underway at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology that envisions an online, Wiki-like database to "let robots share and store what they discover about the world." Ideally, the project, named "RoboEarth," would give robots the ability to learn from one another in robust ways, significantly decreasing the time it takes for robots to learn how to perform tasks. The article quotes from researcher Dr. Markus Waibel, who says that a main goal of RoboEarth is to promote standardization for roboticists. "The key is allowing robots to share knowledge," said Dr. Waibel. "That's really new."
Submission + - Toyota problems may force electronics changes (networkworld.com)
coondoggie writes: While NASA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration engineers did not find anything wrong with Toyota's auto engineering, the investigation may prompt changes and perhaps new design standards for auto electronics. The NHTSA is now considering a number of new tests for electronic car systems including: Propose rules, by the end of 2011, to require brake override systems, to standardize operation of keyless ignition systems, and to require the installation of event data recorders in all passenger vehicles;
Submission + - Computers with vision threaten privacy (nytimes.com)
mantis2009 writes: The New York Times has a story and an interactive feature describing recent advances in software utilizing computer vision to recognize facial expression, personal hygiene, and even patterns in social behavior. Computer systems that monitor health care employees and prison populations look set to become more mainstream in the near future. Privacy advocates worry about the implications of unblinking computers that could potentially not only record but interpret your every move. From the article: "A nurse walks into a hospital room while scanning a clipboard. She greets the patient and washes her hands. She checks and records his heart rate and blood pressure, adjusts the intravenous drip, turns him over to look for bed sores, then heads for the door but does not wash her hands again, as protocol requires. “Pardon the interruption,” declares a recorded women’s voice, with a slight British accent. “Please wash your hands.”"
Comment Re:Good! (Score 2, Informative) 450
Whatever happened to the new power grid that President Bush promised before and again after the great American blackout of 2003?
https://www.ferc.gov/eventcalendar/Files/20050608125055-grid-2030.pdf
