Comment J2ME (Score 1) 314
Will we see a J2ME version of Opera + webkit?
Comment Re:Hopefully we can narrow this down to ONE (Score 1) 314
Who is the competitor to the W3C now then? Competition is not a good thing, when it comes to standards.
WHATWG
Submission + - RSA Admits SecurID Tokens Have Been Compromised (net-security.org)
Orome1 writes: RSA has finally admitted publicly that the March breach into its systems has resulted in the compromise of their SecurID two-factor authentication tokens. The admission comes in the wake of cyber intrusions into the networks of three US military contractors: Lockheed Martin, L-3 Communications and Northrop Grumman — one of them confirmed by the company, others hinted at by internal warnings and unusual domain name and password reset process.
Submission + - Why Science is a Lousy Career Choice 1
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "President Obama had a town hall meeting at Facebook’s headquarters last week and said that he wanted to encourage females and minorities to pursue STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) but Pastabagel writes that need for American students to study STEM is one of the tired refrains in modern American politics and that plenty of people already study science. but they don’t work in science. "MIT grads are more likely to end up in the financial industry, where quants and traders are very well compensated, than in the semiconductor industry where the spectre of outsourcing to India and Asia will hang over their heads for their entire career." Philip Greenspun adds that science can be fun, but considered as a career, science suffers by comparison to the professions and the business world. "The average scientist that I encounter expresses bitterness about (a) low pay, (b) not getting enough credit or references to his or her work, (c) not knowing where the next job is coming from, (d) not having enough money or job security to get married and/or have children," writes Greenspun. "Pursuing science as a career seems so irrational that one wonders why any young American would do it.""
Submission + - SSL And The Future Of Authenticity (thoughtcrime.org)
An anonymous reader writes: There has been a growing tide of support for replacing SSL's Certificate Authorities with an alternative authentication mechanism. Moxie Marlinspike, the security researcher who has repeatedly published attacks against SSL, has written an in-depth piece about the questions we should be asking as we move forward, and urges strong caution about adopting DNSSEC for this task.
Submission + - LHC, CERN has found the hugs boson (web.cern.ch) 2
An anonymous reader writes: In a ground-breaking announcement issued today, CERN, the European Organization of Nuclear Research (which hosts the enormous and magnificent Large Hardon Collider) has announced the discovery of the hugs boson, an unexpected gauge boson, which was not predicted by the Standard Model. Noteworthy, the discovery was made by a high-school student during his scolarship. Due to his age, it is not clear whether he can be awarded the Nobel Prize. However, his teacher has generously agreed to be awarded in his name, in case of any problems.
Submission + - New Google Gmail Motion Interpretation (google.com)
PB8 writes: "You were wondering what teh Google would offer for a suitable First of April technological innovation? Gmail Motion will utilize your webcam, read your body language and gestures interpreting them as Gmail commands through Google's spatial software. American Sign Language (ASL) is but one dialect Motion will understand. Apparently even sports referee gestures will be handled. Be sure to check out the product manager's video introducing it. This innovation will also available for Google Docs. Microsoft's Bing and MSN are again caught flatfooted against the jaugernaut of Google."
Submission + - Browser Power Consumption Compared (msdn.com) 1
theweatherelectric writes: Over on the IE Blog they've posted a power consumption comparison of the five major browsers. They write, 'Power consumption is an important consideration in building a modern browser and one objective of Internet Explorer 9 is to responsibly lead the industry in power requirements. The more efficiently a browser uses power the longer the battery will last in a mobile device, the lower the electricity costs, and the smaller the environment impact. While power might seem like a minor concern, with nearly two billion people now using the Internet the worldwide implications of browser power consumption are significant.'
British ISPs Respond On Filtering 163
An anonymous reader writes "UK ISPs have responded to culture minister Ed Vaisey's comments regarding pervasive, opt-out only porn filtering, bringing up many of the technical and civil-liberties issues also raised on Slashdot. In response to the government proposal, Nicholas Lansman, secretary general of the Ispa industry body, said: 'Ispa firmly believes that controls on children's access to the internet should be managed by parents and carers with the tools ISPs provide, rather than being imposed top-down.' Trefor Davies, chief technology officer at ISP Timico, commented that 'Unfortunately, it's technically not possible to completely block this stuff. You end up with a system that's either hugely expensive and a losing battle because there are millions of these sites or it's just not effective. The cost of putting these systems in place outweigh the benefits, to my mind.' Mr. Davies also feared that any wide-scale attempt to police pornographic content would soon be expanded to include pirated pop songs, films and TV shows. 'If we take this step it will not take very long to end up with an internet that's a walled garden of sites the governments is happy for you to see,' he said."
Why Anonymous Can't Take Down Amazon.com 392
suraj.sun writes "The website-attacking group 'Anonymous' tried and failed to take down Amazon.com on Thursday. The group's vengeance horde quickly found out something techies have known for years: Amazon, which has built one of the world's most invincible websites, is almost impossible to crash.... Anonymous quickly figured that out. Less than an hour after setting its sights on Amazon, the group's organizers called off the attempt. 'We don't have enough forces,' they tweeted."
Statistical Analysis of Terrorism 265
Harperdog sends in a Miller-McCune story about Aaron Clauset, a researcher whose studies on the statistics and patterns that arise from large numbers of terrorist attacks could help governments better prepare for such conflicts and reduce uncertainty about their frequency and magnitude. Quoting:
"After mapping tens of thousands of global terrorism incidents, he and his collaborators have discovered that terrorism can be described by what mathematicians call a power law. ... Using this power law relationship — called 'scale invariance' — the risk of a large attack can be estimated by studying the frequency of small attacks. It’s a calculation that turns the usual thinking about terrorism on its head. 'The conventional viewpoint has been there is "little terrorism" and "big terrorism," and little terrorism doesn't tell you anything about big terrorism,' Clauset explains. 'The power law says that's not true.' Massive acts of violence, like 9/11 or the devastating 1995 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, obey the same statistical rules as a small-scale IED attack that kills no one, Clauset's work suggests. 'The power law form gives you a very simple extrapolation rule for statistically connecting the two,' he says."
Why There's Still No Netflix App For Android 291
An anonymous reader writes "Why is there a Netflix app for iOS devices and Windows Phone 7, yet no Netflix support for Android? Well, Netflix has been working on an Android app but has run into a few technical hurdles because Android lacks a universal DRM solution which means that the company has to work with different handset manufacturers separately in order to ensure that the installed DRM protocol meets the requirements laid out by the movie studios."
Feeling Upset? Look At Some Meat 155
Meshach writes "A study out of Canada claims that seeing meat actually calms a person down. From the article: 'Contrary to expectations, a McGill University researcher has discovered that seeing meat makes people significantly less aggressive. Frank Kachanoff, who studies evolution at the university’s department of psychology, had initially thought the presence of meat would provoke bloodlust, believing the response would have helped our primate ancestors hunt. But in fact, his research showed the reverse is true.'" I can see all the "Make Steak, Not War!" protest signs already.
What's the Oracle Trial Against SAP Really About? 160
Ponca City writes "Chris O'Brien writes in the Merucry News that Larry Ellison's lawsuit against bitter rival SAP gives Ellison the opportunity to deliver the final humiliation to his company's greatest foe of the past decade while sending a blunt message to Oracle's next great enemy, Hewlett-Packard: 'This is who you are fighting. This is how determined we are to win. Get ready.' O'Brien writes that it's a crafty bit of psychological warfare that is already having the desired effect. When Oracle decided to subpoena former SAP CEO Léo Apotheker after he was appointed president and CEO of HP, Apotheker decided to stay out of the country to avoid testifying so now we have the bizarre spectacle of the new CEO of the largest technology company in the world unable to show his face in Silicon Valley. Ellison loves to fight. In gaining control of PeopleSoft, Ellison demonstrated the love of combat and confrontation that has made him one of the wealthiest men on the planet. He waged an 18-month hostile takeover bid to acquire the company, and fought off an effort by the US Department of Justice to torpedo the deal. 'Oracle probably could have settled this case [with SAP],' writes O'Brien. 'But why pass up a glorious chance to subpoena Apotheker and send your new opponent running in circles?'"
Apache Declares War On Oracle Over Java 428
jfruhlinger writes "The Apache Software Foundation, feeling increasingly marginalized as Oracle asserts its control over the Java platform, is fighting back, trying to rally fellow members of the Java Community Process to block the next version of the language if Oracle doesn't make it available under an open license amenable to Apache. Last month's Oracle-IBM pact was a blow against the ASF, which had worked with IBM in the past, but it appears that Apache isn't giving up the fight."
