Comment Re:Name (Score 2, Interesting) 206
I think here user unfriendly means different, the reason so many other names are "friendlier" is because they've been used so many times before.
Botnets Using Ubiquity For Security 95
Trailrunner7 sends in this excerpt from Threatpost: "As major botnet operators have moved from top-down C&C infrastructures, like those employed throughout the 1990s and most of the last decade, to more flexible peer-to-peer designs, they also have found it much easier to keep their networks up and running once they're discovered. When an attacker at just one, or at most two, C&C servers was doling out commands to compromised machines, evading detection and keeping the command server online were vitally important. But that's all changed now. With many botnet operators maintaining dozens or sometimes hundreds of C&C servers around the world at any one time, the effect of taking a handful of them offline is negligible, experts say, making takedown operations increasingly complicated and time-consuming. It's security through ubiquity. Security researchers say this change, which has been occurring gradually in the last couple of years, has made life much more difficult for them. ... Researchers in recent months have identified and cleaned hundreds of domains being used by the Gumblar botnet, but that's had little effect on the botnet's overall operation."
Comment Re:Net neutrality (Score 1) 340
As long as the government takes it no farther, net neutrality is great for ensuring that the recording industries and any other interested parties do not obtain control over your connection.
Submission + - Microsoft Patents 'Fonts With Feelings'
theodp writes: Seems like those old IBM flaming logo commercials (video) should count as prior art, but the USPTO granted Microsoft a patent Tuesday for inventing Fonts With Feelings. Giving font characters sound, motion and altered appearance, Microsoft asserts, gives a user 'the impression the fonts have personalities,' thereby enhancing the user's understanding and/or fluency of words. From the patent: 'As a few non-limiting examples, the word 'giant' can get very large; the word 'lion' can morph into a line drawing of a lion; the word 'toss' can morph into a hand that animates a ball toss; the word 'bees' could show bees flying around with or without a 'buzz' sound effect'. If you're curious, Microsoft Research offers some explanations and examples of 'fontlings' in action — don't miss 'f' kicks 'a'!
Comment Re:Who cares? (Score 1) 356
How can a supernova create a beam of directed radiation?
Submission + - Mozilla updating Firefox for the 64-bit age (webmonkey.com) 1
Bobfrankly1 writes: Firefox is reportedly joining Safari and IE8 in the 64-bit browser arena, by offering experimental builds. Currently available for Windows only, we will finally be able to consume more ram then ever before.
Submission + - BP "top kill" fails 1
oxide7 writes: BP Plc said on Saturday its complex "top kill" maneuver to plug the Gulf of Mexico oil well has failed, crushing hopes for a quick end to the largest oil spill in U.S. history already in its 40th day. It may be another two months before the London-based energy giant can definitively turn off the gusher — a delay that could undermine U.S. President Barack Obama as he faces growing criticism for a perceived slow response to the disaster.
Comment Re:I'm all for this (Score 1) 141
I'm not sure of the speech packs but I remember seeing in the older MPQ's for WoW that the shorter sound effects were in WAV and longer songs in MP3.
Comment Re:Not quite (Score 1, Redundant) 288
Yeah I almost feel safe making a bet that "formerly one of the biggest ISP's" will become a reality.
Comment How has antimatter responded to this bias? (Score 3, Funny) 304
Wasn't this the previously supposed hypothesis? That the big bang held a slight matter bias.
Its great that we can recreate it now.
Also, how has antimatter responded to this bias?
Comment How prevalent? (Score 1, Interesting) 449
So wait, how prevalent is this?
Comment Old News (Score 1) 201
Wasn't this done about 30 years ago in the US(Maryland maybe?) involving a similar mitochondrial condition?
Comment Re:Good for them (Score 1) 224
Finances, they were upping Google's offer and I would say Google has now offered more than yahoo.
Submission + - Apple Confirms iPad Wi-Fi Problems
adeelarshad82 writes: There appears to be a dark cloud hanging over Cupertino's wonder-tablet. Apple's support forum is being bombarded by user complaints centering on the iPad's inability to maintain a full, steady Wi-Fi connection. Users are speculating that the weak signal strength may be caused by poor placement of the Wi-Fi antenna; others ponder if the problems are the symptoms of a software issue. Apple posted a Knowledge Base article, pertaining to these issues. Not only does the article make suggestions for a remedy, it gives legitimacy to the fact that Apple considers this a very real issue. The article states that having a third-party Wi-Fi router that supports both the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz bands may be subject to a connectivity problem. It suggests that users can setup different SSID's for each band's network and to ensure that each network uses the same security type (WEP, WPA or WPA2). PCMag also has a few tips for early adopter experiencing connectivity issues until Apple comes up with a more definitive explanation and fix for this problem.
