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Programming

Apple Crippled Its DTrace Port 476

Posted by kdawson from the nothing-to-see-here dept.
Linnen writes in to note that one of developers of Sun's open source system tracing tool, DTrace, has discovered that Apple crippled its port of the tool so that software like iTunes could not be traced. From Adam Leventhal's blog: "I let it run for a while, made iTunes do some work, and the result when I stopped the script? Nothing. The expensive DTrace invocation clearly caused iTunes to do a lot more work, but DTrace was giving me no output. Which started me thinking... did they? Surely not. They wouldn't disable DTrace for certain applications. But that's exactly what Apple's done with their DTrace implementation. The notion of true systemic tracing was a bit too egalitarian for their classist sensibilities..."
Internet Explorer

Microsoft Confirms IE8 Has 3 Render Modes 525

Posted by kdawson from the no-i'm-an-expert-really-i-am dept.
Dak RIT writes "In a blog post this week, Microsoft's IE Platform Architect, Chris Wilson, confirmed that IE8 will use three distinct modes to render web pages. The first two modes will render pages the same as IE7, depending on whether or not a DOCTYPE is provided ('Quirks Mode' and 'Standards Mode'). However, in order to take advantage of the improved standards compliance in IE8, Web developers will have to opt-in by adding an additional meta tag to their web pages. This improved standards mode is the same that was recently reported to pass the Acid 2 test, as was discussed here."
Space

The Secret of the Sun's Heated Atmosphere 158

Posted by kdawson from the ooh-shiny dept.
eldavojohn writes "There has long been speculation on why the Sun's surface is a mere ten thousand degrees while the atmosphere can reach millions. Space.com is reporting that the mystery has now been solved. Researchers looked for Alfven waves in the solar chromosphere and found them. Followup studies employing simulations demonstrated that the energetics work out to transfer energy from the Sun's surface to its overlying corona.. The magnetic waves may also be the power source behind the solar wind."
Google

Submission + - Google Reneges on Video DRM (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by
mr_jrt
mr_jrt writes: "It seems Google is going to play out that which any sane person knew was inevitable — paid-for DRM-shackled media can be taken away on a whim, as Google announces that it is closing it's video purchasing and rental service. It seems that the individual in the article will get a $2 Google credit checkout, but doesn't specify how much they paid initially. Whilst it may seem like there is a valid argument that they are doing this because they had so few sales, if external factors were to intervene with other, more successful services, there could be trouble ahead... ( and whilst there may well be moonlight, the music will be DRMed, so your love and romance will have to find something else to dance to. )"
Java

Submission + - Java Urban performance legends

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Pop quiz: Which language boasts faster raw allocation performance, the Java language, or C/C++? The answer may surprise you — allocation in modern JVMs is far faster than the best performing malloc implementations. This article pokes some holes in the oft-repeated Java performance myth of slow allocation in JVMs.
Security

Worm Threat Forces Apple To Disable Software? 201

Posted by Zonk from the batten-down-the-hatches dept.
SkiifGeek writes "After the debacle that surrounded the announcement and non-disclosure of a worm that targets OS X, the vulnerability in mDNSResponder may have forced Apple to remove support for certain mDNSResponder capabilities with the recently released Security Update 2007-007. 'Seeming to closely follow the information disclosed by InfoSec Sellout, Apple's mDNSResponder update addresses a vulnerability that can be exploited by an attacker on the local network to gain a denial of service or arbitrary code execution condition. Apple goes on to identify that the vulnerability that they are addressing exists within the support for UPnP IGD... and that an attacker can exploit the vulnerability through simply sending a crafted network packet across the network. With the crafted network packet triggering a buffer overflow, it passes control of the vulnerable system to the attacker. Rather than patching the vulnerability and retaining the capability, Apple has completely disabled support for UPnP IGD (though there is no information about whether it is only a temporary disablement until vulnerabilities can be addressed).'"
Media

Submission + - UK rejects lengthening of copyright (yahoo.com)

Submitted by timrichardson
timrichardson writes: The British Government has rejected extending copyright for sound recordings. This is an important development in the face of trends to extend copyright duration, although it leaves British copyright protection for music recordings at a shorter duration than for written works. The decision was despite fierce lobbying from the large British music industry. The music industry will now lobby direct to the European Commission, but without the support of the national government, its position is significantly weakened. British copyright for music recordings therefore remains at 50 years after the death of the artist, in contrast to 95 years in the US and 70 years in Australia.
Programming

Submission + - Before HTML: The History of HyperCard (siliconuser.com)

Submitted by Gammu
Gammu writes: Before HTML, HyperCard was the hypertext framework of choice for consumers. At a time when Apple was the largest PC manufacturer in units shipped, HyperCard was bundled with every Macintosh, PowerBook and Apple IIgs sold to the public. This initial popularity died down after Apple unsuccessfully tried to release the program under the Claris brand. HyperCard continued receiving updates until 1998 and was being sold on the Apple website until 2004. Despite HyperCard's long, drawn out death, it was notable for bringing the concept of hypertext to consumers and making it possible to create programs without learning a programming language.
Data Storage

Can CDs Be Recycled? 136

Posted by Cliff from the better-than-a-landfill dept.
An anonymous reader asks: "I was recently doing a closet-cleaning and came across literally hundreds of old software CDs that are no longer usable — both manufactured CDs and CD-Rs. Note that by 'not usable', I mean that many of them simply couldn't be read anymore, possibly due to the fact that they'd been stored rather ineptly (no, I wasn't responsible for how they were stored). It seems wrong to just throw them out, but are there other things that can be done with them that will allow their raw materials to be reused in some way?Is it possible to reclaim CDs for raw materials?"
Google

Google Earth Highlights Darfur 328

Posted by samzenpus from the genocide-from-space dept.
jc42 writes "Google Earth, in cooperation with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum now presents details of the growing disaster in Darfur. They give a virtual tour of the area, with details of events in many villages in the words of local residents. So in addition to their "Do no evil" motto, they apparently now have a policy of exposing evil. Needless to say, the Sudan government didn't exactly cooperate with this project."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Woman offers herself in exchange for WoW gold

Submitted by aneeshm
aneeshm writes: A Spanish website writes about a woman who offered sexual services to any man who would give her 5,000 gold in World of Warcraft. The woman, a female Night Elf, Level 70 (the highest level), offered one night of sex to any guy who would give her the gold necessary to purchase the new Epic Flying Mount of the expansion The Burning Crusade. The woman finally accepted one guy's offer, and after the transaction was completed, he gave her the WoW money.
Announcements

Submission + - Kurt Vonnegut dies

Submitted by
ina_kulot
ina_kulot writes: "Kurt Vonnegut, author, humanist, and geek extraordinaire, died Wednesday at the age of 84. I'm sure the fact that his death was published in the Showbiz section of CNN amuses him in the afterlife to no end. He was the author of several best-selling books, and refused to be pigeonholed to a specific genre. While his earlier works, such as Piano Player, and The Sirens of Titan, had a distinct science fiction edge to it, most of his works, such as Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle, were known more for their black humor and distinct moral tone despite the fact that they featured time travel and scientific breakthroughs. His humor never wavered, and his honesty never censored, and I was hoping that we would still have his insight around for a few more years in these dark times. Alas, it wasn't meant to be."

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