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Submission + - UK Online Safety Expert Exposes Pet Society as Dan (games.com)

FacebookNerd writes: Playfish might want to take a break from its London headquarters and head to Wrexham for a chat with Charles Conway. Conway, a self-touted "online safety expert," has been making his rounds in North Wales and North West England telling people that Pet Society is encouraging "stranger danger" in kids by exposing them to real-world contact with "murderers, rapists and paedophiles." .........
While Conway also names FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and CityVille in his lecture on Facebook games, he uses Pet Society's social features to build his strongest case. We've all known about the "Cafe" in Pet Society, a location in the game where everyone can go to show off their pets and their pets' homes.
Charles Conway Pet Society BunnyPig
Pet Society Go to ProfileBy being in the Cafe, you're bound to meeting strangers. Even though all you can do once you get to another pet's home is some pre-set actions (e.g. hug, kiss, dance, laugh, and punch), there's also the option to visit the real Facebook profile of a someone you might not know at all. Conway actually demonstrated this by creating an avatar named "BunnyPig" to demonstrate to a group of foster care and social workers.

Because Facebook games require players to have lots of friends to earn virtual money and goods, Conway concludes that kids will be tempted to friend strangers. And in turn, malevolent strangers can scope out kids who play the game. This "Go to profile" option is clearly a valid concern and does exist in the game.

Businesses

Submission + - CSC sued by investors over failed $20bn UK health (computerworlduk.com)

DMandPenfold writes: CSC is being sued by a group of investors over the failed NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT), the world’s largest non-military IT programme.

The news comes as the company repaid the government £170 million after the parties failed to sign a memorandum of understanding by a 30 September deadline.

The supplier, which after taking over Accenture’s work on the programme had amassed a £3.1 billion contract, was in the summer heavily criticised by the Public Accounts Committee, which said its work on the programme was so disappointing that it may no longer be fit for any other government work.

Last month, the government officially ‘abandoned’ the project, following a Cabinet Office review that delivered a dire verdict. The government remains embroiled in a dispute with another supplier, Fujitsu, which quit the programme in 2008.

The investors suing CSC, led by Canadian fund the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, claim the company “fraudulently concealed” the performance of the contract from them, and that it knew over three years ago that the contract was “undeliverable”. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Submission + - Petition to abolish software patents (whitehouse.gov)

qmuser writes: The White House site has a petition to abolish patent coverage of software. In my opinion, software patents have been abused, and are a considerable hinderance to small business startups and the open source software movement. If you agree, please sign the petition. Getting an account takes just a minute and requires a name, zip and email. See https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/direct-patent-office-cease-issuing-software-patents/vvNslSTq
Censorship

Submission + - Belgian ISPS ordered to block The Pirate Bay (vrritti.com)

cjpa writes: They have been ordered by a Belgian judge to implement a DNS blocking regime in relation to 11 links leading to The Pirate Bay and they will have 14 days to do so, or they will be risking a fine.

The case had been initiated by the Belgian Anti-Piracy Federation (BAF). The parties involved have not yet commented on the verdict.

Submission + - Raspberry Pi: The latest details (silicon.com)

An anonymous reader writes: silicon.com has a round-up of all of the latest news on the ultra-low cost Linux PC Raspberry Pi — covering its price, specs, release dates, the motivations behind the project and what programming languages it will support.

Submission + - IT tops the list of most hated jobs (zdnet.com.au)

c0lo writes: A 2011 CareerBliss survey says that four out of the 10 most hated jobs are IT related.
Even the listed jobs are well-paid positions and fairly high up in the corporate infrastructure, the issues with the IT positions seem to be with the way their companies are run.

Submission + - Tinnitus Cures Treatment (blogspot.com)

samuri007 writes: " Have You Seen Thomas Coleman's new Tinnitus System yet? It's called "Tinnitus Miracle" I've read the whole thing (all 250 pages) and there's some great information in there about how to naturally get rid of tinnitus without drugs, surgery or any kind of gimmicks. I highly recommend it — it's very honest and straightforward without all the hype and b.s. you see all over the net these days. Here's the website where you can get more information:
Click Here --> http://tinyurl.com/3n9br3r

Comment Seems obvious (Score 1) 109

Am I alone in always having assumed that this would be the case? In any litigation that I've ever been involved in everyone assumes that a compromise will need to be reached and so piles in every cost they can justify in any way at all, no matter how flimsy. The main aim of any initial filing is to raise the litigation risk for the other party, ie the amount that they would maybe have to pay if they lost. It forms a starting point for the negotiation over the course of the action.

Comment Re:Great news (Score 1) 163

Obviously low end phones will have to move towards basic smart phone capabilities just as they once had to start including address books and text messaging

I don't remember a time when a low end phone did not have text messaging? When exactly was this?

My first phone was in the States and only had 10 speed dial slots (instead of an address book) and no text messaging. It was called two way paging at the time and required a separate device and contract.

Wow, all of a sudden I feel old...

Comment Great news (Score 1) 163

In basic terms I don't see how anyone could object to this, it seems great. Obviously low end phones will have to move towards basic smart phone capabilities just as they once had to start including address books and text messaging, and linux is a good solution. The only worry is that Nokia, being a phone manufacturer, won't be making this cross-compatible so an opportunity for the android-of-the-low-end-phone is lost. It's still better than Meego!
Google

Submission + - Google Adds 3D Helicopter View to Google Maps (gizmag.com)

Zothecula writes: Those not content with a getting a 2D top-down or 360-degree street level view of a planned route using Google Maps can now enjoy a virtual flight over the route thanks to Google adding a new Helicopter View. The new feature, which currently only works in a full browser and requires the Google Earth plugin, lets users see 3D view, should come in particularly handy for walkers or bike riders looking for a more intuitive view of potentially tiring hills.

Submission + - Business Wire Awarded Press Release 'Process' Pate (itproportal.com)

hypnosec writes: In a significant development, recently Business Wire, one of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway companies, has been awarded with the US patent over the technical process of optimizing and distributing press releases which is a very successful SEO tactic. With this Business Wire has been given the rights to sue every company that has ever optimized press release. For the users, this step will help to increase availability, ranking and click through rates of press release online specifically in the search engine results according to the company. This move, however, has come under much criticism as the patent is over the much exercised “process” and not over any software or new visible technology developed by Business Wire.

Submission + - local maker/hacker spaces (maker-works.com)

PerlJedi writes: "As the maker movement picks up speed and becomes more visible, "Maker Spaces" are popping up in towns across the country. Some are franchises with multiple locations, others are community supported. I visited an new space in Ann Arbor last week called Maker Works. I was impressed with the array of tools they already have available, and those they are planning to bring on-line soon. Being a hobby electronics/robotics geek, I was impressed enough to sign up for a membership of my own. I have many tools at home already for my projects, but their are a variety of tools that are not practical/affordable for any individual to own, especially for hobby purposes, such as the 50 Watt laser cutter I was trained on this weekend.
Personally, I am hopeful and excited to see what my generation, and the next will be able to create if such community supported shops continue to become more available around the world."

Biotech

Submission + - Your Country Needs TERMINATORS (epsrc.ac.uk)

An anonymous reader writes: The British Bio-funding organisation BBSRC has opened a call for investigations that 'seek to explore the potential applicability of synthetic biology to meeting the UK's national security and defence needs'. Terminators? The Andromeda strain? Can anyone actually think of a non-horrific outcome from a research program with this tagline? The only thing standing between you and being reprocessed by grey goo may be the puniness of the amounts of money they are actually offering...

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