Submission + - China vs. Google. Google blinks (cnn.com)
i_want_you_to_throw_ writes: Google will no longer automatically direct its mainland Chinese users to its non-censored Hong Kong search engine, the company said late Monday.
Submission Summary: 0 pending, 42 declined, 6 accepted (48 total, 12.50% accepted)
Submission + - Finally. SCO/Novell suit is over. SCO loses (crunchgear.com)
i_want_you_to_throw_ writes: It is over. The SCO’s long-running lawsuit against Novell over a number of patents involved around Unix copyright. In short, SCO claimed to own Unix even after Novell bought it back near the turn of the century. SCO’s patent-trolling has been shameless. The once great company reduced itself to a lawsuit machine and essentially attacked IBM and Novell for years. You can read all about the mess here, but trust me, this has been one of the nastiest patent wars in recent history.
Submission + - Apple Asks Court To Ban Google Phones (informationweek.com)
i_want_you_to_throw_ writes: Apple on Tuesday asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to block the importation into the country of HTC's Google Android-based mobile phones, including the Google-branded Nexus One. Apple asked the court for "a permanent exclusion order" that would bar from entry "all mobile communications devices and components" made by HTC that carry the offending technologies, according to court documents.
Submission + - CueCat 2 , Electric Bugaloo? (cnbc.com)
i_want_you_to_throw_ writes: Magazines are starting to think beyond the page and experiment with smartphone applications they say will provide their readers with additional content and bring a whole new level of engagement with the publication. Starting with its March issue, Esquire will have barcodes next to all products featured in its editorial section. Readers simply scan the barcodes and a menu on their phone will open with several options, including the choice to instantly purchase the product. Have we learned nothing from the late 90s and the CueCat ?
Submission + - PHP runtime rewritten by Facebook? (facebook.com)
i_want_you_to_throw_ writes: It's true! Facebook has completely rewritten the PHP runtime to make it faster and more efficient, and its completely open source. Named HipHop, its described as a source code transformer, changing PHP into optimized C++ which is then compiled using g++. Thus keeping the best aspects of PHP while taking advantage of the performance of C++. Using HipHop, the Facebook web server CPU usage has been decreased by about fifty percent!
Submission + - iPad DRM is bad for freedom? (defectivebydesign.org)
i_want_you_to_throw_ writes: Today, Apple launched a computer that will never belong to its owner. Apple will use Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) to gain total veto power over the applications you use and the media you can view. Is it bad for freedom? DefectiveByDesign.org (A campaign of the Free Software Foundation) says yes. From the site: DRM will give Apple and their corporate partners the power to disable features, block competing products (especially free software) censor news, and even delete books, videos, or news stories from users' computers without notice-- using the device's "always on" network connection. What do you think?
Submission + - SourceForge blocks Iran, North Korea, Syria, Sudan (downloadsquad.com)
i_want_you_to_throw_ writes: In a move that must surely strike at the very core of open source, FOSS, and the heart of GNU crusader Richard Stallman, SourceForge has now blocked all access from by countries on the U.S. 'Foreign Assets Control sanction list'.
That isn't the beginning of the story though: back in 2008 the same countries were allowed to surf SourceForge, but not interact with the source code repositories — they could download, but couldn't contribute. Now it seems the access block is complete — if you live in Iran, North Korea, Syria, Sudan or Cuba, you simply can't access SourceForge.
Since /. is part of this family, this seems to be the place to talk about it.
That isn't the beginning of the story though: back in 2008 the same countries were allowed to surf SourceForge, but not interact with the source code repositories — they could download, but couldn't contribute. Now it seems the access block is complete — if you live in Iran, North Korea, Syria, Sudan or Cuba, you simply can't access SourceForge.
Since
Submission + - Linux on the move: the future of portable distros (techradar.com)
i_want_you_to_throw_ writes: Regular Linux is discussed a lot, but how about the portable distros? They have seen an explosion these last couple of years. There's a new breed of netbook distro that's aiming to change this perception and take the fight for the perfect mobile platform back to the manufacturers. Netbooks aren't the only portable platform where there's innovation to be found: there are millions of mobile phone users completely oblivious to the fact that their devices are powered by Linux. And that's just the way it should be. But there's a growing number for whom it will become increasingly important, whether that's through Android or Nokia's latest gadget.
Submission + - 75% of Linux code now written by paid developers (apcmag.com)
i_want_you_to_throw_ writes: During a presentation at Linux.conf.au 2010 in Wellington, LWN.net founder and kernel contributor Jonathan Corbet offered an analysis of the code contributed to the Linux kernel between December 24 2008 and January 10 2010. The Linux world makes much of its community roots, but when it comes to developing the kernel of the operating system, it's less a case of "volunteers ahoy!" and more a case of "where's my pay?"
Submission + - Tesla elbowing aside Edison among the geek gods (wsj.com) 1
i_want_you_to_throw_ writes: Decades after he died penniless, Nikola Tesla is elbowing aside his old adversary Thomas Edison in the pantheon of geek gods. Often thought to have never been properly credited in his time, what do slashdotters think?
Submission + - Google files patent on billboard ad replacer (uspto.gov) 1
i_want_you_to_throw_ writes: Google has just filed a patent application for a method to automagically detect billboards in Streetview-type imagery and replace them in real time with Google's own dynamically-generated ads. It's just a patent application at this point, so there's no way of knowing if it's actually going to happen yet. Still, an interesting idea.
Submission + - Huddlechat = Campfire? 37Signals Cries Foul (portfolio.com)
i_want_you_to_throw_ writes: The launch of Google's App Engine Web software platform was initially greeted with something close to rapture. But the warm glow faded quickly when the company was accused of copying a 37Signals application. Is this the danger in allowing Google's developers to develop side projects which Google then sanctions? Maybe not enough research by Google's folks into similarities?
Submission + - Amero Sentencing delayed...again
i_want_you_to_throw_ writes: "For a while it looked as if legions of IT pros might descend on Connecticut like a plague of locusts however, short attention span syndrome has pushed the case to somewhere below, "iPhone.. ooh, shinny" on the radar of most geeks.
To recap, Julie Amero has hung in limbo since January waiting for the Connecticut DA to either put up ( and put her away for up to 40 years ) or shut up and let her return to picking up the pieces of her shattered life. Her conviction on 4 felony counts came after an unprotected classroom computer running Windows 98 began spewing porn pop-ups."
