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Operating Systems

Submission + - London Stock Exchange to abandon Windows for Linux (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
apachetoolbox
apachetoolbox writes: "The LSE (London Stock Exchange)'s Windows-based TradElect system brought the market to a standstill for almost an entire day. TradElect runs on HP ProLiant servers running, in turn, Windows Server 2003. Since then, the CEO that brought TradElect to the LSE, Clara Furse, has left without saying why she was leaving. Sources in the City-London's equivalent of New York City's Wall Street--say that TradElect's failure was the final straw for her tenure. The new CEO, Xavier Rolet, is reported to have immediately decided to put an end to TradElect. LSE's competition, such as its main rival Chi-X with its MarketPrizm Linux based trading platform software, was able to deliver a high level of performance and in general it was running rings around TradElect."

Comment Yalp removes good reviews to! (Score 1) 202

by apachetoolbox (#26923763) Attached to: Restauranteurs Say Yelp Uses Extortion To Ply Ad Sales

Like most small business owners when you add your business to a website like Yalp you check in once in a while to see how things are going. I went from 8 positive reviews down to 2, no reason. All legit reviews from existing happy customers.

So ya Yalp is very shady but this is common knowledge now. In fact I was warned against putting my company on Yalp by others because of how shady they are.
United States

Submission + - What would you ask the next president?

Submitted by
BIA
BIA writes: "At the beginning of the year we will be sending all '08 Presidential Candidates a small list of short questions. These questions will be related to Information and Technology in some respect. Once the list of questions is complete we will be posting the letters online as well as when they where sent and when, if ever, we received a reply. As replies come in we will be posting the results for everyone to see. The top moderated questions will be added to the letter."
Privacy

Submission + - Prison for those who lie about their age online (presscue.com) 1

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "An adult caught lying about their age online could face 20 years in prison, according to a bill ordered favorably reported by the US Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. Under the KIDS Act of 2007(S. 431/H.R.719), aimed at forcing convicted sex offenders to register online identities, "Any person 18 years or older who knowingly misrepresents their age with the intent to use the Internet to engage in criminal sexual conduct involving a minor, or to facilitate or attempt such conduct, shall be fined under this title and imprisoned for not more than 20 years.""
KDE

Submission + - Original KDE3 vs. KDE4 Memory Comparison Debunked (jarzebski.pl)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: The author of the original KDE 3.5 vs KDE 4.0 memory comparison, which indicated that KDE 4.0 used less memory than the KDE 3.5 series, has come out with a more accurate benchmark. In reality, KDE 4.0 uses 110 MB more memory than KDE 3.5.8. This was no surprise to many KDE developers, who saw many mistakes in the way the original results were obtained. However, given the new composite window manager, Plasma/Oxygen bling, and numerous new features, the extra memory consumption is probably well worth it!
Databases

Submission + - Amazon creates database as a service (amazon.com)

Submitted by
BryanA
BryanA writes: "Amazon has started a limited beta of their new SimpleDB web service. SimpleDB automatically indexes your data, no need to pre-define a schema or change a schema if new data is added later. The service runs within Amazon's high-availability data centers. This is not free, $0.14 per Amazon SimpleDB Machine Hour consumed plus $0.10 per GB transfered, plus $1.50 per GB-month for data storage. This is not a RDBMS however. With SimpleDB you can store, process, and query data through their API. Here is the getting started guild with more details of the new service. Is this a solution to a growing problem, or is this a solution without a problem?"
Movies

Submission + - "I Am Legend" Graphic Novel

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Anybody who has been anxious to see "I Am Legend", which was released today in theatres has probably looked for more information about it online. You may have heard news about a graphic novel based on the movie, but had a very hard time finding it. You're not alone, it was quite difficult to find. For those of you still interested, they provide a nice little story and can be found here: http://iamlegend.warnerbros.com/comicBook/comicBook.html
Enjoy.
Security

Submission + - Critical .mdb flaw Found - Microsoft may Never fix (beskerming.com) 4

Submitted by
SkiifGeek
SkiifGeek writes: "When independent security researcher cocoruder found a critical bug with the JET engine, via the .mdb (Access) file format, he reported it to Microsoft, but Microsoft's response came as a surprise to him — it appears that Microsoft are not inclined to fix a critical arbitrary code execution vulnerability with a data technology that is at the heart of a large number of essential business and hobby applications.

Where should vendors be required to draw the line when supporting deprecated file formats and technology? In this case, leaving a serious vulnerability active in a deprecated technology could have serious effects if an exploit were to target it, but it is a matter of finding the right balance of security and usability such that Microsoft's users are not exposed to too great a danger for continuing to use Microsoft products."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Lego approach to building 3D chips

Submitted by holy_calamity
holy_calamity writes: UK researchers have taken inspiration from Lego to stack up silicon wafers with 200 nanometre accuracy — around five times better than the standard technique for doing so. Improving the accuracy of bonding silicon layers is recognised by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors as a hurdle that must be cleared if 3D ICs are to become standard.
Microsoft

Gates Foundation Revokes Pledge to Review Portfolio 236

Posted by Zonk from the no-pledge-no-problem dept.
NewsCloud writes "After the LA Times reported that the Gates Foundation often invests in companies hurting the very communities Bill and Melinda want to help, the Seattle Times reported the foundation planned 'a systematic review of its investments to determine whether it should pull its money out of companies that are doing harm to society'. Shortly after that interview, the Gates Foundation took down their public statement on this and replaced it with a significantly altered version which seems to say that investing responsibly would just be too complex for them and that they need to focus on their core mission: 'There are dozens of factors that could be considered, almost all of which are outside the foundation's areas of expertise. The issues involved are quite complex...Which social and political issues should be on the list? ... Many of the companies mentioned in the Los Angeles Times articles, such as Ford, Kraft, Fannie Mae, Nestle, and General Electric, do a lot of work that some people like, as well as work that some people do not like. Some activities might even be viewed positively by some people and negatively by others.'"
Software

Submission + - Small Project Lockout Code to Ensure Dev Payment

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: What do people use on small-scale projects (non contractual) such as web sites and data processing scripts to ensure payment? I work almost exclusively with scripting languages such as Perl and Python and wonder if there is any "standard" way to obfuscate self-destruct routines that render the software useless after a short period of time. The method needs to be simple, yet not "easily" broken by your average office IT worker by simply editing out the code or resetting a system clock. Ideally, there would be something that after so many uses would lock out the code, followed up by a MD5 sum checker that would further lock it out if any changes were made to the target script. Any ideas?
Robotics

Submission + - A drone as wide as a Boeing 737

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "According to a short report by AFP, Israel is developing a killer robot plane. This drone is designed for long-range operations — more than 50 hours and several thousand miles — while weighing 4 tons during takeoff. This unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), dubbed Eitan (Steadfast) will have a wing span of 35 meters — like a Boeing 737. And this long-endurance (HALE) drone is the largest unmanned aircraft designed by Israel. It should be tested in coming days, but details are scarce, and it might already have flied in 2006. Read more for my investigations about this huge drone."

Mars Probe May Have Spotted Sojourner Rover 149

Posted by Zonk from the born-free-as-free-as-the-wind-blows dept.
Maggie McKee writes "NASA's eagle-eyed Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter may have spotted the tiny, toaster oven-sized Sojourner rover just a few meters away from its companion, the Mars Pathfinder lander. It appears to have crawled there in an attempt to re-establish contact with the lander after the lander had already died. But the pictures aren't clear enough to definitively ID the rover, and it's possible Sojourner simply took off on its own. If it were miraculously still alive after 10 years, it could be 3 kilometers away from Pathfinder — and probably impossible to find, even with MRO."
Education

Submission + - Teacher guilty of endangering kids due to spyware

Submitted by nursegirl
nursegirl writes: Norwich, Conn seventh grade teacher, Julie Amero has been convicted of four counts of risk of injury to a minor after her classroom PC displayed pornographic pop-ups in class. While an expert for the defendant said he had discovered spyware on her PC that had been downloaded from a hairstyling site, the local police investigator claimed that the spyware had been downloaded from actively visiting porn sites.

Amero testified that she had told four other teachers and the assistant principal about the popups, but received no assistance. The school's internet filtration software was not working because it's license had expired.

Amero faces up to forty years in prison.

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