Comment Re:Dumb argument (Score 1) 284
That should be *unless* proven otherwise - big distinction there.
Kongregate App Pulled From Android Market 139
itwbennett writes "Last week Google took a page from Apple's book and pulled the Arcade by Kongregate app from the Android Market for violating its terms of service. In particular, the part that forbids distributing 'any Product whose primary purpose is to facilitate the distribution of Products outside of the Market.' As Kongregate's Jim Greer explained to Joystiq, the app is essentially a custom web browser that loads in a Flash game from the mobile version of Kongregate. Plus, it will cache the game so you can play offline. And this may be the feature that got it yanked, speculates Ryan Kim at GigaOm."
Comment Re:So he was done on a technicality? (Score 1) 321
That's sort of my point. It would have been easy to do him if he'd done it to their face using a megaphone. Instead they've had to resort to the telecoms act to catch him. I guess ultimately it doesn't matter as they rightly got him.
Comment So he was done on a technicality? (Score 1) 321
"He was charged under the Communications Act 2003, for sending malicious communications that were grossly offensive." So if he'd used a megaphone and said to their faces they wouldn't have been able to charge him? Crazy laws.
What I see here is the fact that it's written rather than verbal is how they got him. Does it make a difference to the offended families involved how the trolling was done? I bet not, it's just another example of how free-speech laws have diverged from today's technology.
GOG.com Not Really Gone 276
gspr writes "On Sunday, Slashdot and many others reported that DRM-free games site GOG.com was shutting down. Now the site is back, revealing that it was all a hoax. According to the site: 'Now it's time we put an end to all the speculations once and for all. It's true that we decided that we couldn't keep GOG.com the way it was so we won't. As you probably know by now, GOG.com is entering its new era with an end of the two-years beta stage and we're launching a brand new GOG.com with new, huge releases.' So it was all an advertising stunt."
Comment State laws and extradition (Score 4, Interesting) 329
Coming from the UK, I can understand how people can be extradited on US federal law charges. I'd be surprised if state laws apply too.
For that matter how does this affect US citizens in say NY if the law is broken in CA?
Submission + - Flaw in Android OS will hand market to i-Pad (vic.gov.au) 2
Jamie Holyoake writes: "A flaw in Android OS means that the Apple ipad will obtain a vital foothold in the potential domination of the education sector Worldwide. Google have already lost a lot in potential revenue from the corporate sector as a lot of businesses have decided to avoid purchasing android phones for their employees because of the very same flaw:
Android OS has never allowed its users to configure global (or even browser) wi-fi proxy settings (which has been a base feature of Win Mobile, Apple, and even Symbian devices since long before the concept of Android was even released to the public). It has been an issue since the birth of Android and it was officially reported to Google developers (who must all have generous data plans) at code.google.com back on Nov 12 2009 (http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1273).
The vast majority of education institutions (and a huge percentage of corporate environments) worldwide have some kind of proxy to get through in order to access the web. The ipad is proving to be a huge hit (as anyone might expect) and a fair amount of interest is being shown by education institutions globally where many are working towards the dream of replacing reference books and even work books with ipads especially at the secondary education level. So as it currently stands, Android tablet devices cannot even be considered as an alternative at these places due to this issue. Google really needs to pull their finger out and address this enormous flaw before Android can expect to be noted as a serious competitor.
However, in spite of the fact that Google have had over 6 months to address it and have more than 1000 very frustrated people jumping up and down (and that's just in the thread mentioned above alone), Google has seen fit to classify the issue as merely an "enhancement" of "medium" priority. Apparently no steps have been taken towards doing something about it in 2.1 Eclair or even 2.2 Froyo and we see cosmetic features like animated "live" wallpaper that apparently take priority over the basic functionality of enabling students and business people to connect to the outside world. Google has not as yet released any form of statement to its frustrated users to explain their reasons for neglecting the issue, or their plans (or lack thereof) to remedy the situation.
Many Android fans and network administrators that I know are in a position where they would like to recommend Android devices to colleagues, clients and friends but find that they are unable to due exclusively to the lack of proxy support for wi-fi connections. Furthermore, it is not a widely known flaw to potential buyers. Being such a standard feature to expect on any new device, many people have been stung by the realization of the fact after they have purchased an android device in good faith that no company in its right mind would allow an OS to be so far past intial beta stages and still not incorporate such a base line feature. This is leaving a bitter taste in a lot of people’s mouths and they are converting back to windows or apple powered devices with a reluctance to place their trust in Android so readily in the future. Google need to wake up and give the consumer real freedom of choice and a competitive product which isn't biased away from those people, places, and devices which are unable to rely on a sturdy mobile broadband connection or else consumer loyalties will be embedded elsewhere.
Jamie Holyoake
(A network administrator in Australias public education sector)."
Android OS has never allowed its users to configure global (or even browser) wi-fi proxy settings (which has been a base feature of Win Mobile, Apple, and even Symbian devices since long before the concept of Android was even released to the public). It has been an issue since the birth of Android and it was officially reported to Google developers (who must all have generous data plans) at code.google.com back on Nov 12 2009 (http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1273).
The vast majority of education institutions (and a huge percentage of corporate environments) worldwide have some kind of proxy to get through in order to access the web. The ipad is proving to be a huge hit (as anyone might expect) and a fair amount of interest is being shown by education institutions globally where many are working towards the dream of replacing reference books and even work books with ipads especially at the secondary education level. So as it currently stands, Android tablet devices cannot even be considered as an alternative at these places due to this issue. Google really needs to pull their finger out and address this enormous flaw before Android can expect to be noted as a serious competitor.
However, in spite of the fact that Google have had over 6 months to address it and have more than 1000 very frustrated people jumping up and down (and that's just in the thread mentioned above alone), Google has seen fit to classify the issue as merely an "enhancement" of "medium" priority. Apparently no steps have been taken towards doing something about it in 2.1 Eclair or even 2.2 Froyo and we see cosmetic features like animated "live" wallpaper that apparently take priority over the basic functionality of enabling students and business people to connect to the outside world. Google has not as yet released any form of statement to its frustrated users to explain their reasons for neglecting the issue, or their plans (or lack thereof) to remedy the situation.
Many Android fans and network administrators that I know are in a position where they would like to recommend Android devices to colleagues, clients and friends but find that they are unable to due exclusively to the lack of proxy support for wi-fi connections. Furthermore, it is not a widely known flaw to potential buyers. Being such a standard feature to expect on any new device, many people have been stung by the realization of the fact after they have purchased an android device in good faith that no company in its right mind would allow an OS to be so far past intial beta stages and still not incorporate such a base line feature. This is leaving a bitter taste in a lot of people’s mouths and they are converting back to windows or apple powered devices with a reluctance to place their trust in Android so readily in the future. Google need to wake up and give the consumer real freedom of choice and a competitive product which isn't biased away from those people, places, and devices which are unable to rely on a sturdy mobile broadband connection or else consumer loyalties will be embedded elsewhere.
Jamie Holyoake
(A network administrator in Australias public education sector)."
Submission + - Microsoft and Yahoo (re)considering merging
thrillseeker writes: According to the WSJ, Microsoft and Yahoo "are taking a fresh look at a merger of the two companies or some kind of match-up that would pair their companies' respective strengths", in order to defend against the juggernaut of Google. Personally, I can ignore and not use either of them just as well combined as separate, but it probably makes sense to some executive somewhere.
Submission + - Data centers sucking down electricity bigtime
BobB writes: "Energy consumption in corporate data centers doubled between 2000 and 2005, due in large part to the spreading use of volume servers, according to a new report. The study, conducted by a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and a consulting professor at Stanford University, found that servers and associated infrastructure, such as cooling and uninterruptible power supplies, in U.S. data centers consumed about 45 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2005, accounting for about 1.2% of the country's electricity consumption, roughly equal to the power drawn by the nation's color televisions. The electricity costs for the servers and associated infrastructure reached $2.7 billion.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/021507-study .html"
Submission + - AllOfMP3 payments cut off
cerberusss writes: "As of February 2007, the popular Russian music download site AllOfMP3 seems to be cut off from user payments. Whereas previously it was possible to buy gift certificates at XRost and then using these at AllOfMP3, the XRost payment provider displays the following message upon logging in:
However, the 48 hours have passed since long and it's not known when payments will be possible again. Did the RIAA finally get what they wanted?"As part of our ongoing effort to improve the payment platform, we will be performing a scheduled server maintenance. The payment option at our site will be restored in 48 hours.
Submission + - MythTV better than Series 3?
gizmateer writes: "Does an open source solution like MythTV stand a chance against TiVo's Series 3?
According to this article MythTV actually has several features that a TiVo will never be able to compete with but is considerably harder for the non-geek to initially setup and then maintain. A huge ding against MythTV is the fact it does not support CableCARD like the Series 3. Since I'm OTA, that's not as big of a deal, but what are your thoughts? MythTV vs Series 3?"
According to this article MythTV actually has several features that a TiVo will never be able to compete with but is considerably harder for the non-geek to initially setup and then maintain. A huge ding against MythTV is the fact it does not support CableCARD like the Series 3. Since I'm OTA, that's not as big of a deal, but what are your thoughts? MythTV vs Series 3?"
Submission + - writer jailed for criticising Scientology ..
rs232 writes: "A Silicon Valley writer has been charged under a California law that deems it an offence to interfere with the 'free exercise' of religion. This was after he posted a joke to alt.religion.scientology about aiming a "Tom Cruise" missile at Scientologists.
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6156516.html?part= rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Henson#Henson_v ersus_Scientology"
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6156516.html?part
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Henson#Henson_
