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Toys

Flying Humans 330

Posted by kdawson from the that-trick-never-works dept.
mlimber sends us to the NYTimes for a story about flying people who jump from planes or other high locations wearing a wing suit akin to a flying squirrel's. Their efforts have potential military and Xtreme sports applications. The story profiles, with video, one guy who wants to be the first to jump from a plane and land without a parachute (and live). Here's a YouTube video of another of these fliers skimming six feet above skiers in the Swiss Alps. Quoting: "Modern suit design features tightly woven nylon sewn between the legs and between the arms and torso, creating wings that fill with air and create lift, allowing for forward motion and aerial maneuvers while slowing descent. As the suits, which cost about $1,000, have become more sophisticated, so have the pilots. The best fliers, and there are not many, can trace the horizontal contours of cliffs, ridges and mountainsides."
Microsoft

Submission + - Vista piracy the least of Microsoft's problems (itwire.com)

Submitted by
WirePosted
WirePosted writes: "Like thousands of other media commentators around the world, in January this year I attended the offical Microsoft launch of Windows Vista. In my show bag of goodies, among the press releases, I found shiny new boxed copies of the Ultimate versions of Vista and Office 2007. Since I didn't have a computer at the time that could run Vista, I loaned my copy to iTWire blogger Sam Varghese for a review. What happened next is most interesting."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Microsoft Censors... Its own Naughty Santa

Submitted by CajunArson
CajunArson writes: The Register has a story about a rather naughty Santa. It appears that the seemingly nice holiday service provided via Windows Live Messenger took on a mind of it's own. When the AI version of Santa Claus began to talk dirty to underage children, it appears that the ghost of Microsoft management present decided to sent AI Claus packing back to the digital north pole.
The Internet

Do Tiny URL Services Weaken Net Architecture? 270

Posted by CmdrTaco from the huge-gigantic-massive-insignificant-concerns dept.
Indus Khaitan writes "Thanks to twitter, SMS, and mobile web, a lot of people are using the url minimizers like tinyurl.com, urltea.com. However, now I see a lot of people using it on their regular webpages. This could be a big problem if billions of different links are unreachable at a given time. What if a service starts sending a pop-up ad along with the redirect. What if the masked target links to a page with an exploit instead of linking to the new photos of Jessica Alba. Are services like tinyurl, urltea etc. taking the WWW towards a single point of failure? Is it a huge step backward? Or I'm just crying wolf here?"
Security

Submission + - User-Privilege Flaw Hits Vista

Submitted by
IT071872
IT071872 writes: "According to PC world, A security firm has discovered one of the first security flaws to directly affect Windows Vista, a bug that it claims allows local users to escalate their privileges.

The flaw involves Windows' system for managing user security levels, User Account Control (UAC), which was introduced with Vista. UAC is designed to limit the damage that can be caused by mass attacks such as worms by giving standard users limited privileges, a practice common with other operating systems."
Java

Submission + - TopLink: All Major Java ORMs now Open Source

Submitted by Floyd Marinescu
Floyd Marinescu writes: InfoQ.com reports that Oracle is contributing TopLink (one of the first production object persistence engines first launched in 1994), to Eclipse as an open source project. Oracle is proposing that TopLink become the The Eclipse Persistence Platform (tentatively named EclipseLink). Going forward, all production features of TopLink will be available in EclipseLink and Oracle's commercially supported TopLink will only contain an additional thin proprietary integration code layer necessary for some Oracle AppServer and SOA Suite features. TopLink is the last major production Java ORM/persistence engine to go open source. BEA's Kodo engine is also being built off of their contribution of Kodo to the Apache OpenJPA project. Hibernate now has two open source competitors, each with signficant install bases and years of commercial investment.
Security

Submission + - Exploit code targets WordPress bloggers

Submitted by
criticalmass24
criticalmass24 writes: "Attackers have injected exploit code into the downloadable software for the WordPress blogging service. The open source software allows users to set up and publish postings to a blog. The company has issued an update that repairs the vulnerability. Although blogging services such as Blogger, TypePad and WordPress allow users to publish blog postings directly from a browser, client software offers users more flexibility."
Microsoft

Submission + - FAA Vista shun indicates Linux and Google rise

Submitted by Tookis
Tookis writes: A report in Information Week that the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) may shun the idea of upgrading to Windows Vista and Microsoft Office in favor of Linux and Google Apps must be giving the big software company air sickness. The FAA is worried about two major things with a Vista upgrade: compatibility with existing applications and cost. Looks like the FAA will stick with XP for some time though. http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/10276/1023/
Media

Submission + - Ubuntu Ultimate Gamers Edition

Submitted by
Usser
Usser writes: "What is Ubuntu Ultimate Gamers Edition ?screenshots.

Due to the increased popularity of each prior release Ubuntu Christmas Edition (~15,000 downloads in 2 weeks), Ubuntu Ultimate 1.2 has seen over 50,000 downloads in 3 days. I have decided to make another distro I'm calling "Ubuntu Ultimate Gamers Edition" it has everything included from any of the prior distros plus many many games & a few enhancements. I have however removed Java, Flash and Acrobat reader due to licensing agreements. Please freat not included in the release is my custom repo which contains all the software and much more. Firefox's homepage will give a detailed description on obtaining all additional software from the repo.

Ubuntu Ultimate Gamers Edition is here http://ubuntusoftware.info/ubuntu_ultimate_gamers/ "
Editorial

Submission + - Is GNU/Linux for you? Probably not

Submitted by FranklinDelanoBluth
FranklinDelanoBluth writes: Sam Varghese has an article at iTWire about why Linux may not be for you: either at work or at home. The article includes this special shoutout to /. folk:

From time to time, it is not uncommon to encounter a confession on the net, a bleating essay that says "I can't run Linux, though I'd love to", and advances a host of assorted "reasons" for this act of commission.

Nine times out of ten, this kind of tripe ends up being linked off a dozen or so so-called technology websites, and Linux fanbois begin to vent. The site where one is most likely to find this kind of "I love Linux but I can't use it for no fault of my own" rubbish is the American website Slashdot.


Though I personally think his reasoning might be a bit circular (e.g. the argument that Windows-only apps are a reason not to change, but if no one ever switches to GNU/Linux, no GNU/Linux apps will be developed...), he does make some interesting points about the guilt that many of us may feel when we aren't able to use Linux as a primary OS.

NASA Making Plans To Save the Earth 226

Posted by kdawson from the deep-armageddon dept.
aluminumangel writes, "Taking a page out of a Michael Bay movie, NASA is considering a manned mission to land on an asteroid, 'poke one with a stick,' and see how feasible it would be to deflect it from its course. Obviously, the application would be valuable in a doomsday situation and hopefully could keep us from going wherever the dinosaurs went." The article makes oblique reference to another goal such a mission could serve: giving us something to do in space, something to engage the paying public, between the time we return to the Moon and the time we get to Mars.

Managing Money With Linux Apps 142

Posted by kdawson from the accounting-for-it dept.
lisah writes, "As part of a series of special reports this week, Linux.com is reviewing several ways to manage your money using Linux apps. First up is a review of GnuCash 2.0, a personal and small business accounting package. Though it has a bit of a learning curve, the reviewer says the application is 'stable and robust' and an upgrade from previous versions is well worth it for the program's new features and improved online banking support." Linux.com and Slashdot are both part of OSTG.

EU Fines for Microsoft Approved, Off the Record 692

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the whatever-that-means dept.
mattaw writes "The Register is carrying a report that all 25 member states of the EU have found Microsoft guilty of non-compliance, off the record. Microsoft is in line for a fine of $2.51 million per day backdated to December 15th 2004 for failing to meet the terms of the EU commission's ruling."

BumpTop, Pushing the Desktop Metaphor 213

Posted by timothy from the slide-'em-around dept.
Alranor writes "BumpTop is a new way of manipulating your GUI desktop with a graphics pen. Documents can be moved and piled (among other actions) as if they were real pieces of paper on a physical desktop. Simulated real physical interactions, such as documents pushing others out of the way as you move them around, are intended to increase the intuitiveness of the layout tool. Given the messiness of my desks at work and home, I'm not so sure this will work for me, but it's an interesting idea."

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