sajjadG - Slashdot User

Submission + - Qualcomm Goes Open Source With AllJoyn Project (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Blacklaw on Friday September 16, 2011 @08:11AM

Blacklaw writes: "It's unexpected from Qualcomm," Qualcomm Innovation Center president Rob Chandhok admits in an interview with thinq_ about the company's open source AllJoyn proximity-based networking platform project. "Like 'wait, is this a guy from Qualcomm that just said that?' In my mind there's two ways that you standardise something: one is you wind your way through a standards body, and you standardise the APIs, and you then have proprietary implementations. The other way is that you open-source it and it becomes a de facto standard, because it's useful." The full interview has plenty of detail about Qualcomm's belief in the open source methodology, plus details of the AllJoyn project itself.

Submission + - US launches eBay-Craigslist dispute criminal probe (techworld.com.au)

Submitted by

angry tapir

on Tuesday September 13, 2011 @11:11PM

angry tapir writes: "The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into whether eBay executives broke the law and stole trade secrets while sitting on the board of Craigslist.org. The investigation is centered on the activities of eBay executives who managed the Craigslist relationship between 2004 and 2007, a period when eBay morphed from a US$30 million Craigslist investor, with a seat on its board of directors, into a direct competitor in the lucrative online classified advertising market."

Submission + - Developers fight back (wordpress.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13, 2011 @10:09PM

An anonymous reader writes: Developers are planning to boycott Apple and Google in response to the latest patent trolls crisis.

http://devsunite.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/macrosolve-and-lodsys/

Submission + - Linux kernel moves to Github (lkml.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 05, 2011 @07:00AM

An anonymous reader writes: Linus Torvalds has announced that he will be distributing the Linux kernel via Github until kernel.org servers are fully operational following the recent server compromise.

But hey, the whole point (well, *one* of the points) of distributed development is that no single place is really any different from any other, so since I did a github account for my divelog thing, why not see how well it holds up to me just putting my whole kernel repo there too?

Submission + - Linus puts linux on Github

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 05, 2011 @03:18AM

An anonymous reader writes: Linus Torvalds, after putting his divemaster program (https://github.com/torvalds/diveclog) on github, has put the linux kernel on github. https://github.com/torvalds/linux

Submission + - Judge in Oracle, Google case may order mediation (techworld.com.au)

Submitted by

angry tapir

on Sunday September 04, 2011 @10:17PM

angry tapir writes: "As the trial date nears in Oracle's dispute with Google over Android, the judge overseeing the case is proposing a last-ditch mediation in front of a magistrate judge. On Friday, Judge William Alsup wrote that he's inclined to order both sides to mediate the case in front of a U.S. magistrate judge. He would order "top executive officers of both sides to be in attendance for one or two complete days.""

Submission + - Poor Second-Hand Game Sales Aren't Consumers Fault 1

Submitted by edcs on Saturday September 03, 2011 @03:28PM

edcs writes: Insidestroll has a breakdown of why game publishers can't blame their customers for buying used games, and why games are absolutely not a better deal than movies: "Games are a medium that costs less then half as much as movies to make, and yet costs three times as much to consume." The article also speculates that over-inflated prices may have caused the game industry more problems than just a poor second-hand market, mainly by stifling creativity through breeding a timid consumer base that is unlikely to take a risk on innovative titles.

Submission + - Sony Attacks Microsoft's Publishing Policies (gamergaia.com)

Submitted by winston18 on Saturday September 03, 2011 @02:08PM

winston18 writes: Sony’s vice president of publisher relations has went on record as saying that Microsoft is protecting an inferior technology with their policies regarding content on Xbox Live Arcade and multiplatform titles. The comments stem from Microsoft’s admission that they reserve the right to deny titles on Xbox Live if they launch on the Playstation Network first.

Submission + - Weak typing - the lost art of the keyboard (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk on Saturday September 03, 2011 @01:20PM

mikejuk writes: How do you type? Hunt and peck? Two thumbs? Touch type? Two thumbs touch type?
For the first time since the computer was invented the standard QWERTY keyboard is challenged by new ways of inputing text. And yet even the iPad virtual keyboard has two useless dimples on the F and J keys. Perhaps it isn't time to give up on the home keys just yet.

Submission + - Google Patents Glove for 'Seeing With Your Hand'

Submitted by theodp on Saturday September 03, 2011 @10:09AM

theodp writes: Is Google Couch Search about to go Beta? GeekWire reports that Google co-founder Sergey Brin is among the inventors listed on a patent issued to the search giant this week for 'Seeing With Your Hand', using a glove with sensors for viewing a room or controlling a computer with gestures. From the patent: 'When a small object is lost, for example, underneath a couch, humans naturally put their hands under the couch to locate the lost object by touch. While gathering information by touch is in some cases an acceptable substitute for seeing, in many situations it may be desirable to 'see' the inaccessible environment to better gather information.'

Submission + - Will Ubuntu Again Benefit from Industry Turmoil? (crn.com) 1

Submitted by deadeyefred on Saturday September 03, 2011 @08:11AM

deadeyefred writes: With HP trying to exit the PC business, Apple in transition but with skyrocketing Mac sales, and Windows 8 yet to ship, can Ubuntu once again benefit from serious turmoil in the PC industry? Not only that, but the last time there was a world economic slump, free software got a lot more serious look. Ubuntu's beta launch this week, which has been fairly well received, might be a good sign.

Submission + - Scammer selling Wikipedia entries as Kindle ebooks (beyond-black-friday.com) 1

Submitted by destinyland on Saturday September 03, 2011 @04:23AM

destinyland writes: A Kindle blogger has identified a supposed ebook "author" whose 887 different ebooks were all apparently cut-and-pasted directly from Wikipedia entries. The "WikiFocus" series targets obscure niches with few competing ebooks, like Hello Kitty, Aquaman, or the comic strip Archie. "Of the 887 ebooks, all but 10 earned terrible reviews, averaging one star or less," this article notes, "or received no reviews at all." A typical review? "This 'book' is just a word for word copy of the Wikipedia page." (And a least one other "author" has attempt the same trick, trying to pass off a Wikipedia page about Charlie Sheen as an $18.95 biography!)

Submission + - Linux Kernel Attackers Didn't Know What They Had (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7 on Friday September 02, 2011 @07:49AM

Trailrunner7 writes: The attack that compromised some high-value servers belonging to kernel.org--but not the Linux kernel source code--may have been the work of hackers who simply got lucky and didn't realize the value of the servers that they had gotten their hands on.

The attackers made a couple of mistakes that enabled the administrators at kernel.org to discover the breach and stop it before any major damage occurred. First, they used a known Linux rootkit called Phalanx that the admins were able to detect. And second, the attackers set up SSH backdoors on the compromised servers, which the admins also discovered. Had the hackers been specifically targeting the kernel.org servers, the attack probably would've looked quite different.

Submission + - "Do no evil" - but only if it doesn't cost us $$ (wsj.com) 1

Submitted by pcause on Saturday August 27, 2011 @06:56AM

pcause writes: The WSJ reports that Larry Page knew Google was running illegal ads, but went for the money over what was legal and right. From the article — "Larry Page knew what was going on," Peter Neronha, the Rhode Island U.S. Attorney who led the probe, said in an interview. "We know it from the investigation. We simply know it from the documents we reviewed, witnesses that we interviewed, that Larry Page knew what was going on."

Google is as greedy and corrupt as anyone other big company.

Submission + - Steve Jobs Has 313 Apple Patents to His Name (gizmocrazed.com)

Submitted by

Mightee

on Saturday August 27, 2011 @04:32AM

Mightee writes: "Apple is a much cautioned company, protecting all that it has created by filing patents. It has over 1000 patents which include 313 patents in the name of Steve Jobs — some obvious and some not.

Some of these patents have completely changed the face of the company which includes the iPod's Click Wheel and the iTunes store. These services have not only served the consumers but also some musicians who can now safely broadcast their music."

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