digifuzz - Slashdot User

Submission + - Hackers get Install Other OS back on the PS3 (theinquirer.net)

Submitted by eonlabs on Tuesday May 10, 2011 @11:45PM

eonlabs writes: A little over a year ago, Sony played a nasty April Fools prank on its customers by stripping out the "Install Other OS" feature from it's PS3 gaming systems. Hackers have recently found a new way to put it back in. I have to wonder, since they've bypassed everything else, how long before someone creates a replacement for PSN. The current network's been down since the anniversary of patch 3.21.

Submission + - Microsoft to buy Skype for $8.5 billion (latimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 10, 2011 @11:42PM

An anonymous reader writes: "It could be the most expensive call Microsoft Corp. has ever made. In acquiring Internet phone service Skype for $8.5 billion, the technology giant is seeking new ways to make money as its core computer software business faces a growing threat from a new generation of powerful mobile devices."

Submission + - Geo-IP removal skips Aussie game censorship (delimiter.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 10, 2011 @10:41PM

An anonymous reader writes: Live in Australia and play video games? You sure do. Then you're likely familiar with the country's lack of an R18+ classification, which means that many popular games get heavily modified (think Left 4 Dead without the blood) to be sold on Australian shores. This censorship hit CD Projekt's upcoming game The Witcher 2 recently, cutting out an option which would see a player's character rewarded with sex for completing a side quest. But the company appears to have gotten around Australia's censorship — removing geo-IP targeting from its Good Old Games site in what appears to be a clandestine attempt to allow Australians access to the full game. It would be nice if Steam could do the same ...

Submission + - Google Faces $500 Million Settlement with DOJ (itworld.com)

Submitted by

itwbennett

on Tuesday May 10, 2011 @09:37PM

itwbennett writes: "Google is revising down its first-quarter earnings to reflect a possible $500 million settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over online advertising issues, the search company revealed in a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission."

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Security Through Insanity?

Submitted by telekon on Tuesday May 10, 2011 @08:45PM

telekon writes: I work for an educational institution which is heavily invested in Microsoft technologies, and which uses a certain popular vendor for its campus card system. I work in the department responsible for that system, and we're moving into a new era of R&D for interfacing to that system. But we're a UNIX shop in an MS world. Recently, I proposed creating a darknet within the general infrastructure for a secure network of student card kiosks since financial transactions will be occurring on this subnet, but there's an obstacle: "network security" will object to traffic they can't observe. My response was, "Well, we do everything over SSH or TLS as it is, what's the difference?" MY boss replied, you're not thinking like a Windows admin. I said, "God for bid I ever do..."
My question is, has anyone come up against this, and how do you respond?

Submission + - Android Honeycomb will not be open sourced (geek.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 10, 2011 @08:14PM

An anonymous reader writes: In an effort to understand the landscape for developers, Andy Rubin was asked if, since Ice Cream Sandwich would be open, will Android 3.0 and/or 3.1 be granted the same courtesy. Rubin answered definitively in the negative. Honeycomb on its own would not be open, because its phone functionality is very broken. Ice Cream Sandwich will take all of the Honeycomb functionality and open source it alongside code that is much more universally friendly.

Submission + - Creating a "force field" invisible touch interface (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by

angry tapir

on Tuesday May 10, 2011 @07:15PM

angry tapir writes: "Using infrared sensors like the ones on television remote controls, Texas A&M University students presented an inexpensive multitouch system at the Computer Human Interaction (CHI) conference in Vancouver. "I like to consider it an optical force field; it's like a picture frame where we shoot thousands of light beams across and we can detect anything that intersects that frame," said Jonathan Moeller, a research assistant in the Interface Ecology Lab at Texas A&M University. The frame is lined with 256 IR sensors, which are connected to a computer. When ZeroTouch is mounted over a traditional computer screen it turns the display into a multitouch surface. Taken one step further, if the screen is suspended then a user could paint a virtual canvas. (Pics and video in link.)"

Submission + - Apple, Google execs squirm before Senate privacy p (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

Roberto123

on Tuesday May 10, 2011 @05:48PM

Roberto123 writes: "Officials of Google and Apple were forced to admit before a Senate Subcommittee today that they don't require third party application providers to create and offer a privacy policy to protect the personal information of consumers using mobile device software applications. The admission came at a hearing called in the wake of revelations that Apple had been recording and saving location-based data of users of iPhones and iPads even when users had turned off location permissions — and Google had followed a similar practice."

Ubuntu Powered Tablet Spotted! 169

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday December 28, 2010 @12:54PM from the yes-have-some dept.

dkd903 writes "The year 2010 had been all buzz with tablets and a similar trend is expected during the year 2011 too. We have already seen a lot of Android powered tablets. But how does a tablet powered by Ubuntu sound? A Chinese manufacturer TENQ has launched a tablet called P07. The device is said to be running Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition and the boot time reported to be almost instant."

Submission + - GOATSE Picture Shown In YouTube Debate

Submitted by

Penguinshit

on Tuesday July 24, 2007 @02:15PM

Penguinshit writes: "What makes the Internet so great, beyond showing a glimpse of a confusing world to millions of mouth-breathers? The answer, of course, is GOATSE (relax, this isn't THAT link...). One of those lame YouTube questions featured a split-second image of the horrible anus. As of this time, it is unclear as to how many Americans witnessed the outrage, but there are reports of as many as 200,000 phone calls made to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) reporting the obscenity. CNN has yet to make an official statement regarding the matter, but a top spokesman was reportedly overheard denouncing the incident as "despicable."

The story is being reported in several aggregators and blogs."

Wikipedia Corrects Encyclopedia Britannica 381

Posted by kdawson on Monday July 23, 2007 @11:33PM from the just-plain-wrong dept.

javipas writes "Despite all the controversy about Wikipedia's work model, no one can argue the potential of a project that has so effectively demonstrated the usefulness of the 'wisdom of crowds' concept. And that wisdom has detected a large number of mistakes in one of the most revered founts of human knowledge, the Encyclopedias Britannica. Among the wrong information collected on this page are the name at birth of Bill Clinton and the definition of the NP problems in mathematics."

Submission + - Al Gore wins Debate (blogspot.com)

Submitted by rufusthedragon on Monday July 23, 2007 @11:07PM

rufusthedragon writes: There is one canidate, well pseudo candidate, that may have won the night: Al Gore. While not an actual candidate, his numbers are fantastic. He has the American public on the edge of their seats waiting for him to announce his candidacy. The proof is in the numbers — a recent CNN poll has him in third. Sorry Edwards, Richardson, Biden, Kucinich, Dodd and Gravel you are losing to a man not even in the race. This is actually the smart move on Gore's part, to withhold an announcement. Running now would be a waste of his time and money. He would easily out shine any of the current candidates and most importantly it is best for the country....here is to hoping.

Submission + - UK students must submit fingerprints for lunch (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by

wikinerd

on Monday July 23, 2007 @10:37PM

wikinerd writes: "A school in the UK decided to start requesting fingerprint scans from its 1100 students before being allowed to get their lunch. From next term, the same school expects to use the biometric system for controlling entry into the school, as well as for dictating who is allowed to use the school's printers. According to a concerned citizen, the school did not consult the parents before implementing the new policy. Currently students carry ID cards that are used for getting their lunches, and the school claims that the biometric system is a means to limit expenses from lost cards, and since the fingerprint scans are not stored there is no breach of civil rights and no need for asking the parents first. However, a group named Leave The Kids Alone says that this is an infringement of liberty since fingerprint templates are stored and can be accessed by the police."

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