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Apple

Submission + - Top 10 Rumors About iPad 2

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: Apple iPad 2 rumors are like the last X-Files movie: we know there's no basis for them, but sometimes "You Want To Believe." Apparently, even industry analysts aren't immune to fantasies, with many predicting that the iPad's unborn child will ship roughly 40 million units next year, far more than the first iPad's estimated 12.9 million for 2010. PCMag recently put together a list of top ten rumors about iPad 2 based on their hype. Some of these are believable, for instance that the new iPad will borrow heavily from iPhone 4 (groscope, two cameras and retina display) and others not so believable like the one about the 7-inch iPad.
Government

Ballmer, Bezos Fund Effort To Undermine Bill Gates 866

Posted by CmdrTaco from the rich-get-richer dept.
theodp writes "You know what they say — it takes money to avoid paying money. TechFlash reports that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos have contributed $100,000 each to an effort to defeat an income tax on individuals in Washington state making more than $200,000. The backers of Initiative 1098, which is set for the November ballot, include Bill Gates (Sr.), who has emerged as one of the most vocal proponents of the income tax. Under the proposal, which has drawn the ire of the Bezos and Ballmer-backed Defeat 1098, no tax would be due on the first $200K of income, 5% tax would be owed on income between $200K and $500K, and everything above $500K would be subject to a 9% tax (cutoffs are doubled for joint returns)."
Government

Survey Says To UK — Repeal Laws of Thermodynamics 208

Posted by kdawson from the einstein-is-next-up-against-the-wall dept.
mostxlnt writes "As we noted, the new Tory UK government has launched a website asking its subjects which laws they'd most like repealed. There are proposals up for repeal of the Laws of Thermodynamics: Second, Third, and all (discussion thread on this one closed by a moderator). One comment on the Third [now apparently deleted] elucidated: 'Without the Third Law of Thermodynamics, it would be possible to build machines that would last forever and provide an endless source of cheap energy. thus solving both potential crises in energy supply as well as solving the greenhouse gas problem in one step... simples... eh?'"

Submission + - how to market music, by trent reznor (howtodestroyangels.com)

Submitted by
smash
smash writes: "How to Destroy Angels is a new band featuring Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame. The first EP is available as a free MP3 download, 2 dollar upgrade for downloadable high-def, or free with any other merchandise purchase. Given that the distribution cost for the album is pretty close to free, the pricing seems fair. Is this the future distribution model for entertainment media? How can traditional publishers expect to charge physical media distribution prices for digital downloads, when any artist can set themselves up to distribute via the internet like this?"
Open Source

Submission + - The Urbi robotics OS goes open source

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Following the recent announcement of Microsoft to release its Robotics Development Studio in a free (as beer) license, the trend in opening access to robotics middleware seems to be reinforcing. The latest addition is the Urbi platform from Gostai, which has gone open source with the latest GNU Affero GPL v3 license, as reported by a Robotics Trends news. Gostai has a page that answers frequently asked questions regarding its open source initiative.

Urbi includes a C++ middleware API called UObject to interface components such as motors, cameras, and algorithms, and a new scripting language, urbiscript, with built-in support for parallel
and event-based programming, used to write high-level robot behaviors and orchestrate the interactions between components. UObject components are built as shared libraries, and appear as native objects within urbiscript, and either hot-plugged in a running Urbi engine, or started as a remote autonomous process using TCP to communicate with the engine. At any time, new urbiscript code can be sent to a running Urbi engine via a simple telnet, to introspect the state of components, modify existing code or add new behaviors.

Urbi is cross-platform and supports several robots (Lego Mindstorms, the Nao humanoid robot, Segway RMP, Spykee, Bioloid, Aibo) and a simulator (Webots). Gostai announced also that the next Urbi release will include a bridge with Willow Garage's ROS that makes the ROS components visible from within Urbi. ROS is another of the active open source players in robotics.

Urbi started around 2003, first at the Robotics Cognitive Lab of ENSTA in Paris, and then via the Gostai spin-off that was created out of the lab. Until now, only the C++ middleware API was GPLed. The move to completely open the urbiscript interpreter and middleware implementation will encourage a larger diffusion for the Urbi platform and ensure its long term availability. I think it could also be used not only in robotics, but in other domains where the parallel and event-driven features of urbiscript could prove to be useful.

Submission + - Apple shut out Admob (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by shadows83
shadows83 writes: Apple has drawn a line in the developer sandbox that some larger advertising companies, like Google's AdMob, may not be too happy with. In a revision of the iOS developer terms, Apple has stated that application creators may pass on certain non-device data with Apple's explicit permission, but only to independent advertising companies not owned by or affiliated with mobile platform developers and distributors (read: Google, with its Android platform).
Google

Submission + - New Google Search Index 50% Fresher with Caffeine 1

Submitted by
Ponca City, We love you
Ponca City, We love you writes: "When Google started, it would only update its index every four months, then around 2000, it started indexing every month in a process called the "google dance" that took a week to 10 days and would provide different results when searching for the same term from different Google data centers. Now PC World reports that Google has introduced a new web indexing system called Caffeine, that delivers results that are closer to "live" by analyzing the web in small portions and updating the index on a continuous basis. "Caffeine lets us index web pages on an enormous scale," writes Carrie Grimes on the official Google Blog. "Caffeine takes up nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database and adds new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of gigabytes per day." Now not only does Caffeine provide results that are 50 percent fresher than Google's last index, adds Grimes, but the new search index provides a robust foundation that will make it possible for Google to build a faster and more comprehensive search engine that scales with the growth of information online."
Portables

Submission + - Dell laptops still exploding (consumeraffairs.com)

Submitted by
bl8n8r
bl8n8r writes: "It "looked like fireworks which would have been cool had it not been in my house." said Doug Brown of Columbus, Ohio. Brown, a Network Administrator, called 911 last week when the Dell 9200 laptop burst into flames in his house. Emergency response units included two pumpers, a ladder truck, a bamalance, the HAZMAT unit, and a battalion chief. When Doug phoned Dell to inquire about liability, he was asked if he had insurance. It's not clear if Doug's laptop is one of the earlier models recalled by Dell; a Macbook is cited in TFA for allegedly burning down a house in Australia as well as another instance of a suspect Dell laptop burning down a pickup truck in Nevada. If the burning battery issues are going to continue to be a problem, who's going to be responsible for losses? Insurance companies, Laptop makers, Battery vendors, and consumer negligence could presumably be cited in all cases."
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - 1UP Goes Hands-on With Spore

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: At the Leipzig Games Convention 1UP was able to get its hands on Spore for the very first time and delivered some great impressions. The game is apparently entirely finished and EA is using the rest of the time before its release to polish it. "Almost immediately I realize just how overwhelming this can be. Why? Because I have to be willing to concede that experimentation is simply part of the game... Unlike, say, a Nintendo Mii, the choices I make aren't merely cosmetic — they ultimately greatly affect my gameplay...I'm facing creatures I'm not ready to experience quite yet and I need to back off. But it's then that it occurs to me: I'm interacting with creatures that other people have created (obviously better than I have)...I've experienced so much — I've gotten such a great taste for the game — and yet I realize I haven't even scratched its surface."
Security

Submission + - Strict German Computer Crime Law Now in Effect (beskerming.com)

Submitted by
SkiifGeek
SkiifGeek writes: "With little fanfare, section 202c of the German computer crime laws came into effect over the weekend. Worryingly for Security professionals, the laws make the mere possession of (creates, obtains or provides access to, sells, yields, distributes or otherwise allows access to) many useful tools illegal. A similar law was proposed for the UK, however it was modified prior to passing through parliament due to the outcry from the industry.

Phenoelit, KisMAC, the CCC, and the Month of PHP Bugs are just some of the relatively high profile projects and groups to have already taken measures to remove or modify content under this law."
Portables

Submission + - Open Portable Gaming System (nyud.net)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Virtual Cogs have made a really neat application board to show off some of their other products. This daughter card for their VC21 system has a 4.3" LCD (same as used on the PSP), some joysticks, buttons, SD card, speakers, etc and runs Linux 2.6 and was intended to write video games on as a portable open-source platform. They have even attached their miniature video camera, bluetooth and GPS receiver modules to the system to expand the possibilities even further. This could be a lot of fun and have potential for a lot of cool applications even beyond gaming! Also, it looks like they are willing to do a limited production run if there is sufficient interest. http://wiki.virtualcogs.com.nyud.net:8080/tiki-vie w_blog.php?blogId=1
Security

Submission + - Keeping Emails (abc.net.au)

Submitted by
mgv
mgv writes: "In a rather fascinating admission, the government of Western Australia has stated that they do not back up email for longer than three months. This came to light when the director general was identified as having email communications with Mr Brian Burke, the ex-premier of Western Australia (equivalent to a state governor). Mr Burke is more famous for the time he spent in prison for corrupt deals with companies, whose subsequent collapse cost the state government around $600 million dollars. However, this leaves the interesting question of the missing emails. Which poses questions for Slashdot: What can be done to get the emails? How many mail servers can even be configured to delete the body of a message, but not the headers? And what justification could there be for a 3 month message deletion policy? It seems hard to believe that anything this recent is gone, especially when the government claims it still has the email headers, just not the body of the messages. For the record, the government uses microsoft exchange server."

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