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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 119 declined, 38 accepted (157 total, 24.20% accepted)

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Android

Submission + - Google redifining "open," playing favorites (appleinsider.com)

Submitted by unassimilatible
unassimilatible writes: Oracle's Java infringement case against Google has revealed some startling documents via discovery. Turns out, Android development isn't quite as "open" as Google would lead you to believe. One presentation slide read, "If we gave it away, how can we ensure we get to benefit from it?" and recommends a set of policies that include "Do not develop in the open. Instead, make source code available after innovation is complete." It also appears that Android handset partners have a lot to fear about Google giving its new Motorola business preferential treatment — since Google apparently has already been doing that.

Submission + - SETI to be shut down for lack of funding (myway.com) 1

Submitted by unassimilatible
unassimilatible writes: AP reports that SETI is being forced, at least temporarily, to pull the plug. Astronomers at the SETI Institute said a steep drop in state and federal funds has forced the shutdown of the Allen Telescope Array, a powerful tool in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, an effort scientists refer to as SETI.

"There's plenty of cosmic real estate that looks promising," Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the institute, said Tuesday. "We've lost the instrument that's best for zeroing in on these better targets."

The shutdown came just as researchers were preparing to point the radio dishes at a batch of new planets.

Kind of sad, as I still occasionally get e-mails from SETI, a project I first started contributing to in the late 90's with my old Mac PowerPC.
IOS

Submission + - Adobe adopts HTTP Live Streaming for iOS

Submitted by unassimilatible
unassimilatible writes: Arstechnica reports that Adobe has capitulated in the iOS-Flash war, and has adopted HTTP live streaming for iOS. HTTP Live Streaming is a protocol that Apple developed to stream live and recorded video using standard HTTP connections instead of the more difficult to optimize RTSP. It uses H.264-encoded video and AAC or MP3 audio packaged into discrete chunks of an MPEG-2 transport stream, along with a .m3u playlist to catalog the files that make up the individual chunks of the stream. QuckTime on both Mac OS X and iOS can play back this format, and it is the only streaming format compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Android

Submission + - Samsung Galaxy Ad Misleads With Fake Interviews (pcworld.com)

Submitted by unassimilatible
unassimilatible writes: A Samsung ad campaign for the latest Galaxy Tab is misleading, to say the least. Actors pretending to be real people in fake interviews in a fake magazine misquoting a bad first-gen Galaxy tab review, are exposed — by the actual review writer. Netizens "are having fun pointing out other curious things about the interviews, such as the fact that "leading New York real-estate CEO Joseph Kolinski" raves about the 8.9-inch Galaxy Tab even though the only 8.9-inch Tabs that Samsung itself had on hand at CTIA were non-working models." Kolinski is actually an actor, not a CEO, Jim.
Iphone

Submission + - Android users hit by malware attacks (ft.com)

Submitted by unassimilatible
unassimilatible writes: Tens of thousands of users of Android-based smartphones have downloaded applications capable of taking over their phones with malicious software designed to steal data or send expensive messages, security experts have warned, the Financial Times reports.

Google, the Android developer, has removed 55 such applications from its official Android Marketplace after being alerted to them by amateur and professional researchers. Score one for the iPhone?

Submission + - New Video Game Controlled by Kissing (time.com)

Submitted by unassimilatible
unassimilatible writes: Artist Hye Yeon Nam has put her video game where her mouth is -" literally — with the creation of a new bowling game that's controlled only by passionate (and awkward) French kissing. The Kiss Controller, as it's so called, has two components: a headset that functions as a sensor receiver and a magnet that provides the sensor input, Time reports. Could this be the first example of technology that Slashdotters will be unable to use, as they likely won't be able to get a controller?
Facebook

Submission + - Lawyers Using Facebook Research for Jury Selection (wsj.com) 2

Submitted by unassimilatible
unassimilatible writes: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that trial lawyers are increasingly using social networking sites like Facebook to research jurors in real-time during the voir dire process. Armando Villalobos, the district attorney of Cameron County, Brownsville, Texas, last year equipped his prosecutors with iPads to scan the Web during jury selection. But what of the jurors who have their privacy settings restricted to "friends only?" Mr. Villalobos has thought of a potential workaround: granting members of the jury pool free access to the court's wi-fi network in exchange for temporarily "friending" his office. Faustian bargain, or another way to get out of jury duty?

Submission + - Windows 7 update installs stealth WAT 7

Submitted by unassimilatible
unassimilatible writes: A Windows 7 update released on 9/30, KB2158563, claims to "resolve issues caused by revised daylight saving time and time zone laws in several countries. This update enables your computer to automatically adjust the computer clock on the correct date in 2010." The part not mentioned by Microsoft is that KB2158563 is a Trojan, the stealth payload being a WAT (Windows Activation Technologies) update that sniffs out cracked versions of Windows 7, and declares them not genuine, complete with black screen. Looks like MS is up to its old tricks again.
Microsoft

Submission + - Gates bans family from using Apple products (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by unassimilatible
unassimilatible writes: In what is likely the first-ever reference to Vogue magazine on Slashdot, Melinda Gates tells the fashion monthly that her husband Bill has banned the use of Apple products in their Washington mansion. Mrs. Gates admits that she is jealous of her friends' iPhones. The Daily Mail also reports on the pettiness.
Privacy

Submission + - Stimulus Bill May Allow Packet Inspection by ISPs 2

Submitted by unassimilatible
unassimilatible writes: While it has been widely-reported that the nearly $1 trillion "stimulus" bill is chock-full of pork projects which have little or nothing to do with stimulating the economy, some even more insidious things appear to be hidden in it. First, we hear that there may be some Big Brother monitoring of health care. But even scarier is an amendment which made its way into the bill which would allow packet inspection by Internet Service Providers. The amendment was inserted by Hollywood's best friend and Net Neutrality foe, California Senator Diane Feinstein (D). From the amendment: "In establishing obligations under paragraph (8), the assistant secretary shall allow for reasonable network management practices such as deterring unlawful activity, including child pornography and copyright infringement."
Editorial

Submission + - Michael Meeks: "OO.o is a profoundly sick proj

Submitted by unassimilatible
unassimilatible writes: Michael Meeks, who works full time developing OpenOffice, writes in his blog that the project is "profoundly sick."

In a healthy project we would expect to see a large number of volunteer developers involved, in addition — we would expect to see a large number of peer companies contributing to the common code pool; we do not see this in OpenOffice.org. Indeed, quite the opposite we appear to have the lowest number of active developers on OO.o since records began: 24, this contrasts negatively with Linux's recent low of 160+. Even spun in the most positive way, OO.o is at best stagnating from a development perspective.

What does this say about the open source movement if only 24 developers are working on Microsoft Office's free alternative?

Sci-Fi

Submission + - Majel Roddenberry Dies

Submitted by unassimilatible
unassimilatible writes: If there was ever a sad day for nerds, it's today, as Majel Barrett-Rodenberry has passed away. The widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry is best remembered as the gorgeous Nurse Christine Chapel from the original series, the pesky and officious Lwaxana Troi from The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, and of course the ubiquitous voice of Star Trek computers in movies, TV, and animated films (who hasn't used her voice as a system sound on their PC?). Majel also attended Star Trek conventions yearly and was a producer of Andromeda. Fortunately, Majel just finished her voice over work for the computers in J.J. Abrams' latest Trek movie. I have to admit, this made me sad, just having caught up on the entire TNG and DS9 series on DVD.
The Military

Submission + - Pentagon Clears Flying-Car Project for Takeoff (wired.com)

Submitted by unassimilatible
unassimilatible writes: DARPA has announced a "Personal Air Vehicle Technology" project. It "will ultimately lead to a working prototype of a military-suitable flying car — a two- or four-passenger vehicle that can "drive on roads" one minute and take off like a helicopter the next. The hybrid machine would be perfect for "urban scouting," casualty evacuation and commando-delivery missions, the agency believes." Wired has the story and analysis.

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