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The Internet

Submission + - Facebook Maxes Out Its Data Center Space (facebook.com)

Submitted by
1sockchuck
1sockchuck writes: "Facebook is adding 2 million new users a week, and recently maxed out the data center space at its California facilities. The load on the company's servers "continues to increase at a pretty astounding rate," says Facebook engineer Jason Sobel, who said the fast-growing social networking service has added a data center in Virginia, which is now serving 30 percent of its traffic. Sobel also discusses how Facebook sorts out which data gets stored on the East Coast and West Coast, which has meant some fine-tuning of its MySQL code to properly update Memcached."
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.
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - Apple Confirms MacBook Hard Drive Failures (informationweek.com)

Submitted by
Scott Selikoff
Scott Selikoff writes: "Information Week is reporting a hard drive sold with Apple MacBooks has a critical manufacturing flaw that often results in the permanent loss of data. Seagate was not immediately available for comment, but Apple spokesman Cameron Craig said the company was aware that there might be a problem. "We've received a few reports that some MacBook consumer notebooks may have hard drive issues, and we're looking into it," he said.

Speaking as someone who went to through 3 hard drives on a 4 month old MacBook before Apple replaced the entire computer, its a slight relief to know that it's not just me. If you have a MacBook, make sure you back up weekly, or in my case with what I went through, hourly."
Security

Submission + - An inconvenient hack: Al Gore's Web site hacked (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Bergkamp10
Bergkamp10 writes: Hackers it would seem are not without a sense of irony. A blog to promote former US Vice President Al Gore's celebrated documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, has been hacked to host links to web sites selling online pharmaceuticals. According to the story the links appear to have been created as part of a scheme to boost the Web traffic for sites that promote the drugs, security experts said. They contain titles such as "Xanax On Line," "Viagra," and "Buy Valium Online." The technique is common among cyber scammers who bombard the site with links to their products in the hope of increasing traffic and boosting their search engine rankings. The links point to Web pages on a site run by Westmont College, a small Christian college based in Santa Barbara, California. The Westmont College Web site also appears to have been hacked, a security expert said.
Education

Submission + - OLPC Being Derailed by Microsoft and Intel 1

Submitted by anti.myrmidon
anti.myrmidon writes: According the the Wall Street Journal,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119586754115002717.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
Mr. Negroponte's ambitious plan has been derailed, in part, by the power of his idea. For-profit companies threatened by the projected $100 price tag set off at a sprint to develop their own dirt-cheap machines, plunging Mr. Negroponte into unexpected competition against well-known brands such as Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system.
Google

Submission + - Google to Launch OpenSocial Thursday (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by
NewsCloud
NewsCloud writes: "After tonight's Breaking Open Facebook with Free Open Source Software, TechCrunch reports Google plans to announce an open API for social networking tomorrow. "OpenSocial is a set of three common APIs, defined by Google with input from partners, that allow developers to access core functions and information at social networks: 1) Profile Information (user data) 2) Friends Information (social graph) and 3) Activities (things that happen, News Feed type stuff)" Says Om Malik: "OpenSocial attacks Facebook where it is the weakest (and the strongest): its quintessential closed nature...Even if you take Facebook out of the equation, the task of writing and adapting widgets for the every increasing number of social platforms was going to be turn into a colossal mess.""
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Yoga for Geeks: I can haz wifi now? (itworldcanada.com)

Submitted by
NewsCloud
NewsCloud writes: "itWorld Canada reports on a yoga class geared for those who spend their lives around and in front of computers: 'No Lululemon required in Yoga for Geeks which includes postures for head and shoulder mobility, opening up the connective tissue in the upper body and opening up the hips, which get tight if you're sitting all day. The class also includes breathing and relaxation.' Laptop pain is serious business so don't be a laptop loser (pdf), work safely and mind your boyz. See also I can haz wifi now? and photos from Linux Fest and Penguin Day."
Software

Submission + - OSAF released version 0.7 of Chandler (chandlerproject.org)

Submitted by modir
modir writes: A few days back OSAF released new versions of the Chandler Client and the Chandler Server (formally known as Cosmo). A full list of changes and new features can be found in the Release Notes. OSAF was started in 2001 by Mitch Kapor (the creator of Lotus Agenda) with the intention to create a PIM application targeted at knowledge workers.
Google

Submission + - New Google Linux Apps Coming Soon !! (techrythm.com) 2

Submitted by
techoon
techoon writes: "The goal of the Google Linux Client Team is to develop Linux desktop applications, such as what we have seen from Google Earth and Google Picasa with official Linux versions. Google had also made an interesting splash at the first-ever Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit (which they had kindly hosted at their Mountain View campus) during a presentation by the Google Linux Client Team. What was it? Well, there are some "significant accomplishments" and other new Google desktop applications coming out this year for the Linux platform."
Announcements

Submission + - Plone 3.0 released (plone.org)

Submitted by
dracvl
dracvl writes: "After a year of development, the Plone Foundation announced the release of Plone 3.0 today. Plone is Python's leading content management system, and this is a major milestone for open source content management systems. Recent converts to Plone include Novell, Akamai... and the CIA. Major new features in this release is pervasive versioning, automatic locking, links that never break and ajax-powered inline editing. The list of features is a good start if you're wondering what it can do."
Software

Submission + - Alternatives to Adobe's $2500 Creative Suite?

Submitted by
jsepeta
jsepeta writes: "I've been using Adobe products for years, and own several older versions of the products from their Creative Suite: Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Acrobat Pro, and Dreamweaver. I'd like to teach some graphic design and web production skills to my coworkers in the marketing department, and realize that most of them can't afford $2500 to buy Adobe's premium suite, and frankly, shouldn't need to because there should be competitive products on the market. But I cannot seem to locate software for graphic design & printing that output CMYK files that printing companies would accept, and am unfamiliar with products that are better than FrontPage yet still easier to use for Web design. Any suggestions? Our company is notoriously frugal and would certainly entertain the idea of using open source products if we can implement them in a way that doesn't infringe upon our Microsoft-centric hegemony / daily work tasks in XP."
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA throws in the towel in Atlantic v. Andersen (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Quantrell
Quantrell writes: The RIAA has decided to cut its losses in the case of Atlantic v. Andersen, a case where the RIAA sued a 42-year-old disabled single-mother with a single seven-year-old daughter for file-sharing. 'What's unusual is that the RIAA has stipulated to a dismissal with prejudice, completely exonerating Andersen. Next to a negative verdict, an exonerated defendant is the last thing the RIAA wants. When faced with an undesirable outcome, the RIAA's tactic has been to move to dismiss without prejudice, a "no harm, no foul" strategy that puts an end to a lawsuit without declaring a winner and a loser. Dismissing a case with prejudice opens the RIAA up to an attorneys' fee award, which happened in the case of another woman caught in the music industry's driftnet, Debbie Foster.

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