Reber Is Reber - Slashdot User

+ - Hackers Steal Millions in Emissions Certificates-> 0

Submitted by Reber Is Reber on Thursday February 04, 2010 @04:15PM

Reber Is Reber writes "Credit cards numbers? Please. Medical records? Booooring. The modern hacker knows that the real money's in carbon emission trade credits. No, seriously: it's estimated that in a recent phishing expedition the hackers stole 250,000 carbon credit permits from six companies worth more than $4 million.

The hackers sent emails to 2,000 companies in Germany alone, claiming to be from the German Emissions Trading Authority, which keeps track of carbon credits and transactions. The email requested that the companies re-register their accounts, and the information the duped employees provided was then used—you guessed it—to access the companies' GETA accounts and and clean them out.

It's unclear who the thieves sold the credits to, but the buyers are assumed to have thought they were making a legal transaction. And it's also possible to see how it would have taken some time to see that something was amiss: four million bucks is a lot of money, but it's a drop in the bucket of $130 billion of CO2 emissions that were traded in Europe last year.

So remember, kids: lock up your gasses. People will steal just about anything these days."
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+ - Sony Interested in Challenging Apple's IPad-> 0

Submitted by Reber Is Reber on Thursday February 04, 2010 @02:11PM

Reber Is Reber writes "Sony hinted on Thursday that it's preparing a challenger to Apple's upcoming iPad.

"That is a market we are also very interested in. We are confident we have the skills to create a product," said Nobuyuki Oneda, Sony's CFO, who was speaking at a Tokyo news conference held to announce the company's quarterly financial results.

Oneda didn't provide any details of any planned products but did say Sony is eyeing a similar market to the upcoming Apple gadget. "Time-wise we are a little behind the iPad but it's a space we would like to be an active player in," said Oneda.

Sony said in October that it plans to launch a number of new mobile products that are built around network-based services. The devices will connect into Sony's new online service, an Internet-based store that will bring music, movies, games and electronic books to a range of Sony products including Bravia TVs, Vaio PCs, Walkman music players and Reader e-book readers."
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+ - Romania to host US missile shield 1

Submitted by Reber Is Reber on Thursday February 04, 2010 @12:47PM

Reber Is Reber writes "Romania has agreed to host missile interceptors as part of a new US defence shield, its president says. President Traian Basescu said the plan was approved by the supreme defence council. It still needs parliamentary approval. President Barack Obama last year scrapped a previous version of the shield, based in Poland and the Czech Republic, which had infuriated Russia.

He said the US would now concentrate on a smaller-scale version. Mr Basescu said the system would "protect the whole of Romania's territory", but stressed that it "is not directed against Russia".

The US has insisted that its defence shield was designed to protect its allies against attack from "rogue states" like Iran, and was not aimed at Russia. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, however, said the system would upset the strategic balance. They threatened to train nuclear warheads on Poland and the Czech Republic in response."

+ - Verizon Emasculates the Palm Pre Plus in New Ads-> 0

Submitted by Reber Is Reber on Thursday February 04, 2010 @12:02PM

Reber Is Reber writes "Did you know the Palm Pre Plus is a phone for ladies? Specifically, for moms? Well, it is, you sissy! If you were a real man, you'd buy a Droid! That's a phone for men!

Actually, that's far from the truth. Both phones are pretty damned gender neutral, unless you're the type of person who believes only men appreciate hard lines and ladies are drawn to curves. And apparently that's what Verizon believes, based on their advertising.

If you ask us, the Palm Pre Plus pretty much sells itself. So if we were working out a promo campaign for it, we'd just display the competitive pricing front and center and get the hell out of the product's way. But that just wouldn't do for Verizon. After all the machismo it attached to the Droid, the wireless provider is back with a set of ads for the Pre Plus targeted at the modern lady. We're not told why two slabs of plastic and silicon with comparable sliding keyboards and similar internals must be compartmentalized by gender, but we don't really care. The new ads are crazy enough in themselves, so just go see 'em after the break.

Check out the video for yourself at Gizmodo"
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+ - Why HTML5 will not be our savior anytime soon-> 0

Submitted by Reber Is Reber on Wednesday February 03, 2010 @01:20PM

Reber Is Reber writes "Gizmodo has a great article on why HTML5 will not be our savior anytime soon.
"The beardier parts of the web-o-sphere have been abuzz about HTML5, the next version of the language that powers our internet. Will it revolutionize web apps? Will it kill Flash video? Will it fix our gimpy iPads? Yes... and no.

The tech press recently transformed HTML5 from a quiet inevitability to an unlikely savior: When YouTube and Vimeo started testing it, it's was invoked as a Flash-killer, and the emancipator of web video. When Google used it to design a new Google Voice web app, among others, it was framed as the murderer the of the OS-specific application. When the iPad was announced with no Flash support, HTML5 was immediately pegged as a salve, not to mention a way to get around the "closed system" of Apple's App Store.

For the foreseeable future, video on the internet is going to remain almost exactly as-is. If anything, Flash will become more entrenched in the short term, as the YouTubes and Hulus of the world expand their catalogs with more DRM'd content, and continue building their desktop content platforms around the plugin. As for mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad, for whom Flash seems eternally out of reach, video delivery will move increasingly toward apps, which content companies can tightly control, and not toward HTML5 video, which—all other problems aside—they really can't.""
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+ - Wi-Fi Direct Could Be the Death of Bluetooth-> 0

Submitted by Reber Is Reber on Thursday October 15, 2009 @11:33AM

Reber Is Reber writes "The Wi-Fi Alliance announced a new wireless networking specification which will enable devices to establish simple peer-to-peer wireless connections without the need for a wireless router or hotspot. Wi-Fi Direct has a wide array of potential uses, many of which encroach on Bluetooth territory and threaten to make the competing wireless protocol obsolete.

"Wi-Fi Direct represents a leap forward for our industry. Wi-Fi users worldwide will benefit from a single-technology solution to transfer content and share applications quickly and easily among devices, even when a Wi-Fi access point isn't available," said Wi-Fi Alliance executive director Edgar Figueroa. "The impact is that Wi-Fi will become even more pervasive and useful for consumers and across the enterprise."

Ad hoc wireless networking has always been more complex and cumbersome than it is worth, and it maxes out at 11 mbps. Wi-Fi Direct will connect at existing Wi-Fi speeds-- up to 250 mbps. Wi-Fi Direct devices will also be able to broadcast their availability and seek out other Wi-Fi Direct devices.

Wi-Fi Direct overlaps into Bluetooth territory. Bluetooth is a virtually ubiquitous technology used for wireless connection of devices like headphones, mice, or the ever-popular Bluetooth earpiece sticking out of everyone's head. Bluetooth uses less power, but also has a much shorter range and slower transfer speeds. Wi-Fi Direct can enable the same device connectivity as Bluetooth, but at ranges and speeds equivalent to what users experience with existing Wi-Fi connections."
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+ - Apple Announces June 17th iPhone Version 3 Softwar 0

Submitted by Reber Is Reber on Monday June 08, 2009 @03:16PM

Reber Is Reber writes "Apple has just announced the release of version 3 of the iPhone software: the new version of the iPhone's built in software willb e available on the 17th of June. The new version was announced for general release at the Apple developer's conference, but had previously only been available for software developers. The new software includes a number of long-awaited features, including the ability to cut and paste, the ability to undo a past and a range of new APIs that allow for better access to the iPhone's hardware by applications." Check out the full article here"