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Submission + - Space Quest II Remake Released (infamous-adventures.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After more than five years of working on the game, bit by bit in their spare time, the team at Infamous Adventures has released their remake of the 1987 classic, "SPACE QUEST II: Vohaul's Revenge". Originally written and programmed by Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe and released by Sierra On-Line, the game features the hapless hero, janitor Roger Wilco in a rollicking adventure that takes him through space!

Remade in a classic retro "VGA" style, like Sierra's later point and click adventures from the early 1990's, Space Quest II Remake provides hand-drawn backgrounds, hand animated characters, a full voice pack featuring over 4,000 recorded lines and a whole lot of extras and fun. A labor of love and devotion to the original series, the team at Infamous Adventures is proud to be able to release this to the fans, both young and old.

Submission + - SOPA Blackout Simulator (vilimpoc.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I've written up a quick and simple client-side Javascript function that obscures DIVs, or any other CSS selector you like, to show what the Web would look like if SOPA passes.

You can build this into your websites and give people a real sense of what an arbitrary and capricious SOPA web censorship regime might look like.
Android

Submission + - Time running out to save App Inventor projects (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: You have until Dec 31st to download any App Inventor projects you may still have on Google's beta site. After this date the servers will be turned of (why?) and you will have no where to continue to develop your app for a while. MIT media labs haven't got an alternative server up and running yet. This isn't a good way to treat users especially not students who are just learning to program. Couldn't Google keep the existing servers running for a few months more just to provides some continuity?

Submission + - Actual damages for single download = single licens (blogspot.com) 1

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "In Real View v 20-20 Technologies, it was held that the actual copyright infringement damages for a single unauthorized download of a computer program was the lost license fee that would have been charged. The judge, in the District Court of Massachusetts, granted remittitur, reducing the jury's verdict from $1,370,590.00 to $4200 unless the plaintiff seeks a new trial. Something tells me the plaintiff will seek a new trial."

Submission + - Samoa and Tokelau skip Friday, 30th Dec as Date Li (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
GarethSwan
GarethSwan writes: "The tiny Pacific islands of Samoa and Tokelau have skipped over Friday, 30th December 2011 as they realign the International Date Line to the east in a bid to improve trade ties with neighbouring countries such as Australia and New Zealand, The islands have decided to make the change as conducting business across the IDL was becoming increasingly difficult, especially for the tourist industry. They will now be the first to ring in the New Year instead of the last."

Submission + - 2011: Record Year for Airline Safety (wsj.com)

Submitted by smitty777
smitty777 writes: Unless something bad happens in the next two days, we are on track for having a new record for airline safety. The new record of one death for every 7.1 million passengers beats the 2004 record of 1 to 6.4m. The WSJ also notes:
— Another low is the total number of passenger deaths; as of today that number stands at 401. Though it was lower in 2004, when 344 passengers were killed in commercial aviation accidents, that year saw 30% fewer passengers as well as far fewer flights.
— Western-built planes have fared best, with one major crash per 3 million flights, the best number since the International Air Transport Association began tracking crashes in the 1940s. When factoring in other types of airliners, the crash rate is about two per million flights.
— We are also in the midst of the longest period without a fatal airliner accident in modern aviation; nobody has died in an airliner since an Oct. 13 propeller plane crash in Papua New Guinea. The previous record was 61 days in 1985.
There was also the North American and Russian numbers as well — the only country that saw a drop.

2011 also seemed to break the record for unusual airline travel events as well.
Medicine

Submission + - Does "supersizing" supershrink your brain? (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Rambo Tribble
Rambo Tribble writes: As reported by the BBC, the journal, Neurology, is set to release the findings of a study in Oregon on diet and brain shrinkage in Alzheimer's victims. The upshot is: a diet rich in vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids is beneficial; trans fat and fast food are detrimental.
The Internet

Submission + - New group paves way for 2012 Online Primary (cnn.com)

Submitted by DJRumpy
DJRumpy writes: Americans Elect, which has raised $22 million so far, is harnessing the power of the Internet to conduct an unprecedented national online primary next spring. If all goes according to plan, the result will be a credible, nonpartisan ticket that pushes alternative centrist solutions to the growing problems America's current political leadership seems unwilling or unable to tackle.

The theory: If you break the stranglehold that more ideologically extreme primary voters and established interests currently have over presidential nominations, you will push Washington to seriously address tough economic and other issues. Even if the group's ticket doesn't win, its impact will force Democrats and Republicans in the nation's capital to start bridging their cavernous ideological divide.
Idle

Submission + - Orangutans to Skype between zoos with iPads (extremetech.com)

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "For the last six months, orangutans — those great, hairy, orange apes that go “ook” a lot — at Milwaukee zoo have been playing games and watching videos on Apple’s (seemingly ubiquitous) iPad, but now their keepers and the charity Orangutan Outreach want to go one step further and enable ape-to-ape video chat via Skype or FaceTime. "The orangutans loved seeing videos of themselves — so there is a little vanity going on — and they like seeing videos of the orangutans who are in the other end of the enclosure," Richard Zimmerman of Orangutan Outreach said. "So if we incorporate cameras, they can watch each other." And thus the idea of WiFi video chat between orangutans — and eventually between zoos — was born. It might seem like folly, but putting (ruggedized!) iPads into the hands of apes could really revolutionize our understanding of great ape behavior — and thus our own behavior, too."
Ubuntu

Submission + - Ubuntu AppStore Goes Online (muktware.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: One thing that GNU/Linux misses the most is marketing. We never get to know about the new and useful tools which are being added due to the lack of PR muscles. Recently Ubuntu made yet another incredible move which makes the application installation process of Windows look ancient. Ubuntu silently took its apps on-line by launching 'Ubuntu App Directory' (the name can be more attractive like Ubuntu App Shop).
Security

Submission + - Attack Tool Released for WPS Setup Flaw (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Just a day after security researcher Stefan Viehbock released details of a vulnerability in the WiFi Protected Setup (WPS) standard that enables attackers to recover the router PIN, a security firm has published an open-source tool capable of exploiting the vulnerability. The tool, known as Reaver, has the ability to find the WPS PIN on a given router and then recover the WPA passphrase for the router, as well.

Researchers at Tactical Network Solutions in Maryland on Wednesday released a tool called Reaver that implements an attack on the WPS vulnerability. The company released the tool as an open-source project on Google Code, but also is selling a more advanced commercial version.
Social Networks

Submission + - Occupy Protestors Tread The Social Networking Rout (itproportal.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: Techie Occupy Wall Street protesters are planning to create a social networking meant primarily for organizing protests and getting people together for various causes. In the year 2011, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook helped protesters to spread their cause and garner support across the world. What started out as a minor protest comprising of a handful of people turned into a worldwide protest thanks to the use of social media. According to Wired, after seeing the impact social media platform have had on protests worldwide, several Occupy Wall Street protesters are creating their own social networking platform aimed at spreading awareness about a particular cause and rallying people for protests.

Submission + - New Record High Temperature at South Pole (wisc.edu)

Submitted by Titus Andronicus
Titus Andronicus writes: The South Pole experienced its highest ever recorded temperature of -12.3C (+9.9F) on December 25, 2011, according to preliminary reporting from the Antarctic Meteorological Research Center at the University of Wisconsin.
User Journal

Journal Journal: 6 computers and nothing to compute 1

Journal by qualityassurancedept

Here is where I am at with my computers these days... I have built two decent quad core Phenom II based computers (mostly just to experiment with overclocking and unlocking cores on Phenom II x2 processors). I have a Sempron based computer with 4 TB of hard disk space that I use with FreeNas to store backups for all of my computers/media (because I got interested in experimenting with FreeNas). I have two old laptops (both Athlon based). I have two Celeron based computers as well. I like
Communications

Submission + - Free Wi-Fi coming to Japanese vending machines in (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: Free Wi-Fi is on its way to some Japanese vending machines. Working much like a mobile hotspot at your local coffee shop, people located near the machines would be able to connect to the internet for 30 minutes at a time and surf the web. The service is available to anyone, to use with any smartphone, tablet, or computer and does not require the purchase of a drink from the machine.

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