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News

Submission + - Chicago Tribune Stops the Journatic Presses

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In April, the Chicago Tribune touted its investment in and use of news outsourcer Journatic. "We're excited to partner with Journatic, both as an investor and as a customer," said Dan Kazan, the Trib's Sr. VP of Investments. "Journatic will expand Tribune's ability to deliver relevant hyperlocal content to our readers, and we believe that many other publishers and advertisers will benefit from its services as well." That was then. In a Friday-the-13th letter to readers, the Tribune announced a plagiarized and fabricated story has prompted the paper to suspend its relationship with Journatic. The move comes two weeks after Journatic's standards and practices were called into question by This American Life, which noted several Journatic-produced stories had appeared this year on TribLocal online with false bylines. Explaining why he went public about his experience at Journatic, reporter Ryan Smith said he felt 'people should know how their local newspapers are being hollowed out.'
Patents

Submission + - RIM Facing $147.2 Million Patent verdict (reuters.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Reuters reports that beleaguered wireless device maker Research In Motion is on the losing end of a patent suit that will cost them $147.2 million. The jury arrived at that number by assigning an $8 royalty for every BlackBerry connected to RIM's enterprise server software. Unsurprisingly, RIM intends to appeal the decision. 'Mformation sued RIM in 2008, bringing claims on a patent for a process that remotely manages a wireless device over a wireless network, a court filing says. According to its web site, Mformation helps corporations manage their smart phone inventory. The company also says it helps telecoms operators, such as AT&T and Sprint, with remote fixes and upgrades for users' gadgets. RIM argued that Mformation's patent claims are invalid because the processes were already being used when Mformation filed its patent application.'
Science

Submission + - Biodegradable, biocompatible "Shrilk" is a potenti (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: Arthropods — that's spiders, insects and crustaceans, have provided inspiration for a new material that is cheap to produce, biodegradable, and biocompatible. Its creators say the material, dubbed "Shrilk," has the potential to replace plastics in consumer products and could also be used safely in a variety of medical applications, such as suturing wounds or serving as scaffolding for tissue regeneration.

Comment Price Social Networking (Score 2) 291

by tylerv86 (#38364502) Attached to: 24-Year-Old Asks Facebook For His Data, Gets 1,200 PDFs
If so many people are concerned with their privacy, yet still want a Social Network; why not create your own website. Using HTML5 or whatever other fad code of today, creating your own fully linked website with interactive media is almost as easy as creating a facebook profile. With the searching power of google finding all your friends is just as easy. Chatting, use irc. facebook as brought nothing new to the area of personal web presence, except it's almost idiot-proof, and, oh yeah. FREE! Now that the dust has settled on this fashionable form of web presence, it's not so amazing to those who don't want everyone in the world with a PC or smartphone to have a direct portal to their info. Kids are killing themselves over this info, crimes are being committed. People, it's time to take responsibility for your own actions and get a clue. If you don't know how the internet works, GET OFF-LINE! Anyone can do anything with a computer. Until there is some kind of world internet police, it's free game. This is what makes it so special. Stop whining and get informed. Don't tell others what to do with their companies, your not paying for anything. On the web, all you have to do and compete. Make something better. Then watch as the users tell you what to do.Best part is, you can ignore them too. You have the power to control your "on-line avatar", whatever, but you cant sit on your hands and let others do it. Get coding!
Security

Submission + - How To Deny DDoS Attacks (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "Security Advisor's Roger Grimes provides insights on how to stop today's increasingly sophisticated DDoS attacks. 'The most difficult challenge has been DDoS attackers' increasing sophistication as they've moved from targeting Layers 3 and 4 (routing and transport) to Layer 7 (the application layer). They've learned, for example, how to determine which elements comprise a victim's most popular Web page, honing in on which ones take the most time to load and have the least amount of redundancy,' Grimes writes. 'The most sophisticated DDoS hackers have attacked with many vectors, one at a time, thus increasing the pain. A growing number of DDoS victims have found that attackers are using these types of multipronged, multiday assaults as ruses to draw attention from more damaging attacks elsewhere on the network. '"

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