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Input Devices

The Best Keyboards For Every Occasion 523

ThinSkin writes "ExtremeTech has written an article on the best keyboards in every category, such as gaming keyboards (macro and hybrid), media center keyboards, keyboard gamepads, and so forth. Of course, the big companies like Microsoft and Logitech dominate these lists, while smaller companies like Razer, Ideazon, and others play an important role as well."
Social Networks

Submission + - Facebook used to serve court papers

yorktimsson writes: The age says that Australian courts are using facebook to serve court papers...

"Today in what appears to be a first in Australia and perhaps the world, Master Harper of the ACT Supreme Court ordered that a default judgement could be served on defendants by notification on Facebook."
GNU is Not Unix

Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Released 482

SDen writes "Bang on target, the new version of Ubuntu Linux is available for our downloading pleasure. Amongst various changes it sports updates to the installer, improved networking, and a new 'Mobile USB' version geared towards the blossoming netbook market. Grab a copy from the Ubuntu website, and check out Linux Format's hands-on look at the Ibex."

Comment Uh what? (Score 2, Informative) 30

I just read the article... and I am astonished just how little content can make up an article. So we have one returning character and two babes, one maybe playable, but we don't know. We have different enemies that are different from the different enemies we had before (and yes, I purposely overused the word "different" here). And we have rumors on how they'll die, decompose, all the while burbling and turning into slime. Could someone please explain to me how this is relevant news concerning a new computer game? No details, no specs, no screenshots, just some Japanese magazine having seen a soon-to-be-released trailer and another newsfeed picking up the story, summarizing ineptly what will become perfectly obvious from watching the trailer which you'll be able to watch soon yourself. And yes, I must be new here and all, but please... wake me up when there's NEWS to be had.

Comment Re:Proof (Score 4, Insightful) 131

Pffft. So tell me-- why when I browse a site in the "Internet-zone" and then print a table of links, does that function run in the 'Local Zone'?

I'll tell you why: because it has to. You can't access local devices in the Internet Zone. That's the point. Granular approaches would allow you to print without accidentally giving other permissions to something that shouldn't have them.

At the enterprise level, with something like NoScript, you can just allow entire domains, say intranet.example.com or whatever your organization uses.

Next thing you're gonna tell me is that you think Microsoft should do away with ACLs at the individual file level or even the directory because users are just too stupid to figure that out. They should just have "file zones" and people will just have to stick their files in the right zone. Pffft.

X

Submission + - VIA releases 16,434-line FOSS framebuffer driver

billybob2 writes: VIA has released 16,434 Lines Of Free & Open Source code that enables Linux to natively use the framebuffer on VIA's graphics chipsets. This comes a month after VIA announced that it will provide Open-Source drivers and documentation on its website so that its hardware will work out of the box with Linux distributions. This gives VIA-powered systems that come pre-installed with Linux, such as the gPC, 15.4" gBook, CloudBook and Zonbu the ability to output graphics through digital connections such as HDMI and possibly making them the best-supported framebuffers Linux has ever had. Look forward to documentation and X.org drivers from VIA as well in the near future.
X

Submission + - No sex please, we're Amazonian Mollys

Smivs writes: "A fish species, which is all female, has survived for 70,000 years without reproducing sexually, experts believe. Scientists from the University of Edinburgh think the Amazon Molly may be employing special genetic survival "tricks" to avoid becoming extinct. The species, found in Texas and Mexico, interacts with males of other species to trigger its reproduction process. The offspring are clones of their mother and do not inherit any of the male's DNA. Dr Laurence Loewe, of the university's School of Biological Sciences, said: "What we have shown now is that this fish really has something special going on and that some special tricks exist to help this fish survive. "Maybe there is still occasional sex with strangers that keeps the species alive. Future research may give us some answers.""
Privacy

Submission + - Feds to collect DNA from everyone arrested (yahoo.com) 2

TheKnightShift writes: "The federal government has announced that it will soon begin swabbing the mouths of EVERYONE it arrests, in order to collect DNA samples. This will be regardless of whether or not a person is actually charged with a crime. The DNA will then be stored in a central database, and it will be extremely unlikely that anyone cleared of a criminal charge will be able to have their sample removed from it. The Department of Homeland Security is apparently eager to begin using this new power."
Security

Submission + - Fake Subpoenas Sent to Pwn CEOs (sans.org)

An anonymous reader writes: The Internet Storm Center is reporting that a round of e-mails is being sent out that looks like a subpoena being sent to the CEOs of major US corporations. The e-mail tries to entice the victim to click on a link that gives them "more information" about being subpoena'd to testify in a federal court case. According to ISC Handler John Bambenek:

We've gotten a few reports that some CEOs have received what purports to be a federal subpoena via e-mail ordering their testimony in a case. It then asks them to click a link and download the case history and associated information. One problem, it's total bogus. It's a "click-the-link-for-malware" typical spammer stunt. So, first and foremost, don't click on such links. An interesting component of this scam was that it did properly identify the CEO and send it to his e-mail directly. It's very highly targeted that way.
An interesting problem is that while the courts do send some electronic notices out, they are not PGP or Digitally signed to ensure that they are authentic.

Government

Submission + - SPAM: Study: H-1Bs Go Hand-in-Hand with Job Creation 8

narramissic writes: "A new study by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), a pro-immigration think tank finds that between 2002 and 2005, for every H-1B position requested, tech companies listed on the S&P 500 stock index increased their employment by five workers. For tech firms with fewer than 5,000 employees, each H-1B request corresponded with an average increase of 7.5 workers, the group said."
Link to Original Source
Media (Apple)

Submission + - iPhone SDK rules block Skype, Firefox, Java. (cnet.com) 1

An anonymous reader writes: Apple's iPhone software development kit is already drawing complaints due to the strict terms of service. Voice over IP apps like Skype that attempt to use the cellular data connection will be blocked. Competing web browsers Firefox and Opera are forbidden. Even Sun is now backpedaling on its recent announcement of a java port, noting that there are some legal issues. Critics are already comparing Apple's methods to Comcast's anti-net neutrality filtering, and Microsoft's Netscape-killing antitrust tactics. Could Apple face government regulators? CNET has more.
Medicine

Submission + - Brain Ischemia - slow progress (sullydog.com)

Geoffrey.landis writes: "Researchers have been slowly building up a picture of exactly what occurs during a stroke (or, in medical jargon, "brain ischemia," defined as "a pathophysiological state in which cerebral blood flow to the brain is insufficient to meet the metabolic demands"), and the mechanisms by which it damages the brain. For the most part we're talking real science here, which is to say a slow and painstaking accumulation of understanding, and not the headline-making moments of "eureka," right or wrong, which are so beloved by journalists. Nevertheless, there is real progress going on here. Jonathon Sullivan of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Wayne State University has just put up a site summarizing the most recent understanding, including both the technical details that will interest biochemistry nerds, and also a good summary of recent science readable for the rest of us.

One of the hard-won new insights that Sullivan elucidates is the idea that the most devastating events of brain ischemia occur not during the actual oxygen deprivation, but happen when oxygen is reintroduced to the blood-starved brain. (in his words, "Ischemia Cocks the Hammer, Reperfusion Pulls the Trigger.")

Sullivan blames the problem on the peroxynitrite radical, O=NOO-. (Which can be pronounced "O Noo!" if you like). Quoting the text: "You are looking at a truly evil molecule. If we didn't have it caged in this little white box right now, it would jump right out of the screen and nitrosylate your face." (although that's not the only molecule Sullivan doesn't like. About the calpain molecule, he says, "calpain is like one of those white supremacy biker dudes on an overdose of meth. He goes insane and starts tweaking on all kinds of molecules.")

Bottom line is that while he says that there's no silver bullet, he notes that there are many promising strategies that work better than "take a lot of aspirin and hope for the best." Two approaches that look promising for the future include hypothermia and insulin injection, separately or in combination."

GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - OpenOffice.Org Now Under LGPLv3 (sun.com)

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes: "Sun has moved OpenOffice.org to the LGPLv3 license. They cite worry over software patents as being one of their main reasons for this move, saying 'Upgrading to the LGPLv3 brings important new protections to the OpenOffice.org community, most notably through the new language concerning software patents. You may know that I am personally an opponent of software patents, and that Sun has already taken steps in this area with a patent non-assert covenant for ODF. But the most important protection for developers comes from creating mutual patent grants between developers. LGPLv3 does this.'"

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