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Microsoft

Submission + - The weird world of tech product names (technologizer.com)

Submitted by harrymcc
harrymcc writes: Tech companies have an amazing knack for giving their products--including the good ones--names that are unmemorable, unpronounceable, confusing, or just plain strange. (One candidate for the most peculiar one of all time: Pentax's *ist.) Technologizer's Jared Newman has taken a look at the phenomenon--including classic examples and thoughts from insiders on why tech branding is the way it is. His conclusion: The relentless pace of the industry and unending need for new monikers ensures that weird product names are here to stay.
Movies

Submission + - Why special effects no longer impress (denofgeek.com) 3

Submitted by brumgrunt
brumgrunt writes: When an advert for toilet roll now has a CG dog in it, have we come to the point where special effects have no lasting impact whatsoever? As Den of Geek argues, "Where we once sat through Terminator 2 and gasped when Robert Patrick turned into a slippery blob of mercury, we now watch, say, Inception and simply acknowledge that, yes, the folding city looks quite realistic." http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/694475/the_numbing_ubiquity_of_computer_graphics.html

Submission + - Facebook Blasted for Failing to Protect Children (smh.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An investigative report found Facebook users blatantly trading and posting child pornography, and Internet safety experts were unimpressed by Facebook's efforts to curtail the behavior. This followed a case earlier this year where an international child porn ring was busted and it emerged that Facebook had disabled the user accounts but had not reported them to law enforcement.
Linux

Submission + - OPIE back from the dead after two years (sourceforge.net)

Submitted by
TuxMobil
TuxMobil writes: "The Open Palmtop Integrated Environment (OPIE) is not dead anymore. Since more than two years a fresh update is available finally. OPIE aims at making an universal graphical framework for most (embedded) distributions available. As reference platforms, HP's iPAQ and Sharp's Zaurus PDAs are directly supported. OPIE also moved from handhelds.org to SourceForge."
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook dissected by random (but funny) gay dude. (lonniedenison.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I have no idea who this guy is, but something about his analysis of Facebook rings true. Is this a rant? Or an accurate assessment of what Facebook has come to represent in modern society? (Warning: Coarse language and potentially less than popular political views).
Businesses

Submission + - Amazon Presents The Grapes of Wrath, RV Edition

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: 'If you enjoy living in the outdoors and work well in a fast paced environment,' advertised Amazon last April, 'come join us between October and December at our fulfillment centers.' With the holiday season well underway, Santa's getting some help again this year from the 'Amazon.com gypsies' who live in RVs outside the company's Campbellsville, KY warehouse during the holiday season. The Kentucky Department of Parks helped out Amazon by keeping the Green River Lake State Park campground open during November and December, and adding frost-free water hydrants and wifi for Amazon's Workampers. 'This is another example of how our state parks play a crucial role with economic development in Kentucky communities,' said a state official. It's got kind of a Grapes of Wrath vibe, but to be fair, some workers couldn't be happier with the arrangement.
IBM

IBM To Build 3-Petaflop Supercomputer 73

Posted by Soulskill from the onward-and-upward dept.
angry tapir writes "The global race for supercomputing power continues unabated: Germany's Bavarian Academy of Science has announced that it has contracted IBM to build a supercomputer that, when completed in 2012, will be able to execute up to 3 petaflops, potentially making it the world's most powerful supercomputer. To be called SuperMUC, the computer, which will be run by the Academy's Leibniz Supercomputing Centre in Garching, Germany, will be available for European researchers to use to probe the frontiers of medicine, astrophysics and other scientific disciplines."

Submission + - Comcast accused of congestion by choice

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A kind soul known as Backdoor Santa has posted graphs purportedly showing traffic through TATA, one of Comcast's transit providers. The graphs of throughput for a day and month, respectively, show that Comcast chooses to run congested links rather than buy more capacity. Keeping their links full may ensure that content providers must pay to colocate within Comcast's network. The graphs also show a traffic ratio far from 1:1, which has implications for the validity of its arguments with Level (3) last month.

Submission + - U.S. Supreme Court Rules in Highly Watched Omega v (blogspot.com)

Submitted by David Weiskopf
David Weiskopf writes: We are taking another unscheduled break from our two-part holiday round-up (see Part I here) because the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on the important and closely watched Omega S.A. vs. Costco Wholesale copyright case centered on the availability of the first-sale doctrine defense to importation of copyright protected works made outside of the United States and imported into the U.S without permission of the copyright owner (which is otherwise prohibited absent availability of the first sale doctrine defense) — a type of 'grey market' good.
Idle

Submission + - Sydney Police oppose Wikileaks rally (zdnet.com.au)

Submitted by lukehopewell1
lukehopewell1 writes: The New South Wales assistant police commissioner has issued a letter to the organisers of a pro-Wikileaks rally in Sydney, directly opposing the march.

The protesters had intended to meet at Sydney's Town Hall before marching on to the US Consulate building at Martin Place, less than a kilometre away.

The protest is in aid of free speech after several high profile organisations withdrew their support from Wikileaks and to shine light on Julian Assange's recent arrest in London.

The letter — sent directly to Pirate Party member Rodney Serkowski from M.J. Murdoch, assistant commissioner and commander of Central Metropolitan Region — said that under Section 23 of the Summary Offences Act, the rally must be authorised by a court to be protected against various offences.

The assistant commissioner added that without a court notice authorising the rally, protesters and organisers would not have the support of the NSW Police Service.

"Under Section 26 of the Summary Offences Act, I am advising you that I oppose the holding of your public assembly," the assistant commissioner said in his correspondence.

"Please note that without an authorised public assembly you do not have protection for obstruction type offences," Murdoch added.

Serkowski is disgusted and disappointed by the letter, and claimed that the NSW Police cited Oprah Winfrey's Sydney visit as one of the reasons it could not lend its support to the rally.

The Australian Pirate Party told its followers via social messaging service Twitter that it is still working with the NSW Police to ensure public safety, despite the commissioner's opposition of the rally.

This latest rally marks the second protest in Sydney against Julian Assange's imprisonment, with the first attracting over 1000 attendees.
Idle

Submission + - Australian Media defends WikiLeaks (walkleys.com)

Submitted by scotty.m
scotty.m writes: Australia's most senior media professionals have written to Prime Minister Julia Gillard today to express their support for WikiLeaks.
The letter was initiated by the Walkley Foundation and signed by the ten members of the Walkley Advisory Board as well as editors of major Australian newspapers and news websites and the news directors of the country's three commercial TV networks and two public broadcasters.
Sony

Submission + - Sony demonstrates 'Flower Power' solar windows (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: At the Eco Products 2010 exhibition in Tokyo this past weekend, Sony showed intentions to bring new meaning to the phrase "flower power" with its beautifully designed Hana Mado, or "Flower Window." The device is actually a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) which converts light into electrical energy and is made using a screen printing technique to generate custom designs.
Earth

EPA Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Bees 410

Posted by Soulskill from the how-could-that-bee dept.
hether writes "The mystery of the disappearing bees has been baffling scientists for years and now we get another big piece in the puzzle. From Fast Company: 'A number of theories have popped up as to why the North American honey bee population has declined — electromagnetic radiation, malnutrition, and climate change have all been pinpointed. Now a leaked EPA document reveals that the agency allowed the widespread use of a bee-toxic pesticide, despite warnings from EPA scientists.' Now environmentalists and bee keepers are calling for an immediate ban of the pesticide clothianidin, sold by Bayer Crop Science under the brand name Poncho."
Businesses

Submission + - Baggage Fees Send Airline Profits Soaring (chicagotribune.com)

Submitted by
Pickens
Pickens writes: "The Chicago Tribune reports that the 20 largest U.S. carriers collected $906.4 million in baggage-related charges during the third quarter, a 23 percent jump from 2009 results, according to data released Monday by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. New baggage fees for international routes, a rebound in air travel and passenger frustration over limited overhead space in airplane cabins all contributed to the skyrocketing fee income, observers said. The volume of luggage handled by American Airlines has leveled off this year, averaging 0.8 to 0.9 checked bags per passenger, or roughly 205,000 checked bags per day, down from about 1.1 checked bags in 2008, when American and other major carriers turned to fees to offset losses prompted by high oil prices and the recession. And while analysts question what else carriers can do to wring greater baggage income from passengers, no carrier has followed Spirit Air Line's example and begun charging passengers for carry-ons. Spirit's new policy appears to have reaped rewards for the ultra-low-cost carrier. After Spirit rolled out the new charges Aug. 1, its baggage fee revenue rose to $22.9 million during the third quarter, up 36 percent from the previous quarter."

Submission + - The Top 50 Gawker Media Passwords (wsj.com) 1

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: Readers of Gizmodo, Lifehacker and other Gawker Media sites may be among the savviest on the Web, but the most common password for logging into those sites is embarrassingly easy to guess: “123456.” So is the runner-up: “password.”

On Sunday night, hackers posted online a trove of data from Gawker Media’s servers, including the usernames, email addresses and passwords of more than one million registered users. The passwords were originally encrypted, but 188,279 of them were decoded and made public as part of the hack. Using that dataset, we found the 50 most-popular Gawker Media passwords:

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