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Desktops (Apple)

Journal Journal: Where is iWork '12?

Journal by ablaze

It's been some time since the latest iWork refresh. iWork '09 was released nearly three years ago, which is a long time in computer business. Several events were suggested as a reason for Apple to delay the release of the next version of their Office suite: the new iPad, Lion, and lately the release of iCloud was accused to be the reason to further work on Pages, Keynote and Numbers to work seamlessly with the service.
All those events came and went, yet a new version of iWork is still not
China

Submission + - China wants cyber crisis hotline (the-diplomat.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: China should look at establishing a cyber crisis hotline with the United States, according to a Chinese newspaper seen as a window into official thinking. Discussions about a crisis hotline might seem an obvious first step in improving relations. But if it's a sign the Chinese government is beginning to think about how to coordinate a rapid, unified response to cyber emergencies, then it is an extremely important one.
Firefox

Submission + - Mozilla's WebAPI for Firefox takes shape (extremetech.com)

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "The first fruits of Mozilla’s attempt to make a Chrome OS-like Firefox operating system — Boot 2 Gecko — are now beginning to take shape in the Nightly builds of Firefox for Android. Dubbed “WebAPI,” these recent additions allow Firefox to access an Android device’s hardware through a JavaScript API. As of the latest Nightly, Firefox 11 for Android can now read the battery state, capture images from the camera, send SMSes, and trigger the vibrator motor. The end goal — and WebAPI is far from complete — is to have a full set of APIs that HTML5 web apps can leverage to create seamless, native-like experiences on Android or Boot 2 Gecko devices. WebAPI will enable HTML5 web apps that communicate via SMS when 3G or WiFi aren’t available, websites that detect when you’re running low on battery and point you towards the nearest charging point, HTML5 games (or adult video sites) could use the vibration API... and more!"
Security

Submission + - Researchers Explore How Cyber Attackers Think (net-security.org)

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes: In a unique collaboration, an engineer and a criminologist are applying criminological concepts and research methods in the study of cybercrime, leading to recommendations for IT managers to use in the prevention of cyber attacks on their networks. Their work is the first look at the relationship between computer-network activity patterns and computer-focused crime trends. The study shows that the human aspect needs to be included in security studies, where humans are already referred as the weakest link.
Hardware

Submission + - Smart Meters Wreaking Havoc w/ Home Electronics (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: About 200 customers of the Central Maine Power Company recently noticed something odd after the utility installed smart meters in their homes: household electronics including wireless devices stopped working, or behaved erratically.

Many Smart Meters broadcast in the 2.4GHz frequency range. Unfortunately, so do many of the consumer gadgets we take for granted these days including routers, electric garage doors, fire alarms, clocks, electric pet fences, answering machines, and baby monitors--even medial devices.

The electromagnetic congestion in the home is in some ways similar to the growing electronic congestion in hospitals as they acquire more and more electronic monitors all operating within a few feet of each other. Medical equipment has been known to shut down or give erroneous results when positioned close to another piece of equipment. Such interference is not new, just getting worse--rapidly....
Entertainment

Submission + - Netflix will lose money for all of 2012 (cnn.com)

Submitted by PolygamousRanchKid
PolygamousRanchKid writes: Netflix (NFLX) warned in its last earnings report that it expects to be unprofitable "for a few quarters" starting at the beginning of 2012. The primary culprit is Netflix's pricey plan to expand its streaming video service into the United Kingdom and Ireland, but a wave of subscribers jumping ship hasn't helped.

The filing also revealed that Netflix is in the process of raising $400 million from investors to help bulk up its cash stash. While that will give Netflix more money to invest in content, secondary offerings are sometimes considered ominous signs. They can signal that expenditures have outpaced expectations and that a company needs to raise more cash.

Netflix, which had $366 million in cash on hand at the end of last quarter, is facing threats from rivals with much deeper pockets. Studios are demanding more money for their valuable content, and the playing field is getting crowded. Meanwhile, Netflix is losing some of those all-important licenses. In September, Starz ended contract renewal negotiations with Netflix and said it will pull its movies and TV shows from Netflix early next year. That loss of content leaves angry customers asking why they're paying more for less.
Science

Submission + - Engineers developing 'Bionic contact lens' (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by ProbablyJoe
ProbablyJoe writes: The BBC reports that researchers at Washington University have made a breakthrough in developing a contact lens that will be able to overlay text and images on top human vision.

The research is still in early stages, so far just being able to light one LED on the lens, and requiring a battery no more than 1cm away. But researchers claim the main problem has already been overcome — getting the human eye to focus on an image generated on its surface.

While a long way from completion, the team hopes to soon increase the display to hundreds of pixels, and overlay text on the lens. The technology could eventually be used in future augmented reality applications, allowing futuristic 'Terminator' style vision.

Submission + - Anonymous hacks CATCH Team Cybercime Investigator (nyud.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On Friday, a group of hackers operating under the banner of Anonymous' Operation AntiSec published the private e-mails of a California Department of Justice investigator. The hackers posted the entirety of the 38,000 e-mails in a Gmail account that appears to belong to Alfredo "Fred" Baclagan, a California Department of Justice special agent supervisor in charge of computer crime investigations, to a hidden site on Tor, as well as to a torrent listed on The Pirate Bay.

Submission + - Bulldozer's Just As Bad With Servers (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by RobinEggs
RobinEggs writes: Some reviews of Bulldozer's performance in servers have arrived, and Arstechnica has a breakdown. The results are pretty ugly. Apparently Bulldozer fares just as poorly with servers as with desktops.

From the article: 'One reason for the underwhelming performance on the desktop is that the Bulldozer architecture emphasizes multithreaded performance over single-threaded performance. For desktop applications, where single-threaded performance is still king, this is a problem. Server workloads, in contrast, typically have to handle multiple users, network connections, and virtual machines concurrently. This makes them a much better fit for processors that support lots of concurrent threads. Some commentators have even suggested that Bulldozer was, first and foremost, a server processor; relatively weak desktop performance was to be expected, but it would all come good in the server room.

Unfortunately for AMD, it looks as though the decisions that hurt Bulldozer on the desktop continue to hurt it in the server room. Although the server benchmarks don't show the same regressions as were found on the desktop, they do little to justify the design of the new architecture.'

It's probably much too early to start editorializing about the end of AMD, or even to say with certainty that Bulldozer has failed, but my untrained eye can't yet see any possible silver lining in these new processors.

Submission + - Best Buy Black Friday Store List 2011 (blogspot.com)

Submitted by NF2PV4lenTinE
NF2PV4lenTinE writes: You can shopping and buy in BLACK FRIDAY 2011 on my blog,My blog have category allow you choose many shopping and buy in save price,Best product and Good deals. Thank you for shopping and buy in my blog. Black Friday Store List in my blog.
Your Rights Online

Submission + - Divorcing couple ordered to share Facebook passwor (theverge.com)

Submitted by PolygamousRanchKid
PolygamousRanchKid writes: A judge recently ordered a divorcing couple to disclose their Facebook and online dating passwords, but Courtney and Stephen Gallion won't be snooping around each other's accounts: only the attorneys will get the information. The order came after the husband found "useful" information on a shared computer and suspected more was online. It's an unusual application of a fairly standard evidentiary principle to our new ways of interacting online — and although the couple won't actually swap passwords, the Judge still ordered them not to try and impersonate each other online. New technology, same old crazy.
The Courts

Submission + - CA founder still free; former CEO still in prison (computerworld.com)

Submitted by jcatcw
jcatcw writes: Charles Wang, the founder of CA Inc., is not in prison, but Sanjay Kumar, the former CEO, is serving a 12-year term for fraud, and Don Tennant, editorial director of Computerworld and InfoWorld, is mad as heck about it. The fraud is described by CA itself as "a massive accounting fraud perpetrated by the company's senior-most executives from as far back as the late 1980s through 2001, and their cover-up of that fraud, which lasted through mid-2004." As Tennant said in his Dear Charles letter at the time of Kumar's sentencing: "This isn't right. Sanjay is guilty of some devastatingly poor judgment, but you're the one who shot the illegal performance- enhancing drugs into CA. The Special Litigation Committee of CA's board of directors said it has found that 'fraud pervaded the entire CA organization at every level and was embedded in CA's culture, as instilled by Mr. Wang, almost from the company's inception.' Your fingerprints are on the needle, Charles."
Education

Submission + - Student suspended for website sues

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: A University of Delaware student suspended for a humor website that a fellow student found 'disturbing' has filed a lawsuit alleging that the University violated his First Amendment rights. A separate site (created for this purpose) has more details. From the complaint, "UD makes available its Internet server for students to create web sites with no restrictions on content... As such, UD may not, consistent with the First Amendment, punish any student based on the content of his or her website, even though the content may have an adverse emotional impact on some readers."

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