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Games

Submission + - GameStop Wants To Sell Secondhand Digital Download Video Games (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "GameStop makes a killing selling used videogames, but what happens to that business model when digital distribution platforms run physical media out of town? That's not anything to worry about today, tomorrow, next week, or even next year, but at some point, GameStop will have to deal with the direction the games industry is headed, and it may already have a solution. GameStop CEO Paul Raines recently brought up the possibility of reselling used digital downloads."
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook Abstainers could be labeled Suspicious 2

Submitted by bs0d3
bs0d3 writes: According to this article printed in tagesspiegel.de, not having a facebook account should be the first sign that you are a mass murderer. As examples they use Norwegian shooter Anders Breivik, who used myspace instead of facebook and the newer Aurora shooter who used adultfriendfinder instead of facebook. They already consider those with facebook accounts, who lack friends to be suspicious, but now they are suggesting that anyone who abstains from facebook altogether may be even more suspicious. While it is already established that sites like facebook and google+ are no good for political activists, abuse survivors, and people in the witness protection program; abuse survivors will have to take a back seat while more and more insane articles like this come out. This line of thinking could sure help facebook's stock value.
Android

Submission + - Apple v. Samsung: Surprising Reveals in Latest Court Documents (wired.com)

Submitted by Nerdfest
Nerdfest writes: "The lawyers behind the upcoming Apple v. Samsung trial have been hard at work filing docket after docket as their court battle looms closer, and many of those dockets have just been released to the public. We’re now seeing a lot of previously secret information about the early days of iPhone and iPad R&D, and what’s happened behind closed doors at both Apple and Samsung."

Surprises include the iPhone design being 'inspired' by Sony product ideas, and that Samsung was warned that it was copying Apple.
ISS

Submission + - Space Fish: ISS Aquatic Habitat Delivered by HTV-3 (discovery.com)

Submitted by
astroengine
astroengine writes: "Yes, it's the moment we've all (secretly) been waiting for: Fish In Space! But before you go getting too excited and start asking the big questions — like: if there's a bubble in a microgravity aquarium, what happens if the fish falls into it? Let's ponder that for a minute... — it's worth pointing out that the fish aren't actually in space right now (their habitat has just been delivered to the space station by the unmanned Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle "Kounotori 3") and this fishy experiment isn't just to see how fish enjoy swimming upside down, there's some serious science behind it."

Submission + - OAuth 2.0 standard editor quits, takes name off spec (theregister.co.uk) 1

Submitted by tramp
tramp writes: Eran Hammer, who helped create the OAuth 1.0 spec, has been editing the evolving 2.0 spec for the last three years. He resigned from his role in June but only went public with his reasons in a blog post on Thursday."
"At the end, I reached the conclusion that OAuth 2.0 is a bad protocol," Hammer writes. "WS-* bad. It is bad enough that I no longer want to be associated with it."
And he ends with "I think the OAuth brand is in decline," he writes. "This framework will live for a while, and given the lack of alternatives, it will gain widespread adoption. But we are also likely to see major security failures in the next couple of years and the slow but steady devaluation of the brand. It will be another hated protocol you are stuck with."
Android

Submission + - John Romero's doomy view on Android and Ouya (pcworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Romero is willing to give Ouya the benefit of the doubt, but he sees it filling a niche for neither gamers and developers. I think it's cool that they're making a platform, but it's not really the answer that's coming from Apple about the next generation of consoles. Developers really want to invoke the spirit of the Apple II, Android isn't the operating system with which to do it., Romero said. There are two platforms: [iOS] makes money [and] is still very programmable, like the Apple II, and then the other is Android, which is a piracy platform, and you're not doing anything new with it.
Apple

Submission + - Did Apple Buy Fingerprint Security Firm for Mobile Wallet?

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Reuters reports that Apple will buy fingerprint sensor technology developer AuthenTec for about $356 million, striking a deal that could help Apple bring fingerprint technology, already used in mobile phones in Japan for authentication of mobile payments, to markets such as the United States, where mobile-wallet services have been slow to catch on. Some analysts expect the iPhone 5 to include some form of mobile payments technology. "In the past 5 years, the growth of iPhone and Android smartphones has made mobile data security essential, not just a 'nice-to-have' feature," says Ben Yu, Managing Director of Sierra Ventures, one of the early investors in AuthenTec. "People have their whole lives on the phones." AuthenTec's embedded fingerprint scanners and other identity-related software is particularly useful now that Near Field Communications, or NFC-enabled, phones have begun to appear in the market. At the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas this week, security experts demonstrated ways to attack Android smartphones using NFC. BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis says AuthenTec technology could potentially also help Apple combat problems such as theft of its more portable products such as iPhones. "If they could have a way where they could tie the phone to a user more tightly, that would make sense for them," says Gillis. The price tag for AuthenTec is a drop in the bucket of Apple's cash pile of $117.2 billion. "We'll see if it's a one-off or if Tim Cook will start to level his cash balance and acquire talent," adds Gillis."
Cellphones

Submission + - Fighting the iCrime Wave

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: 'What's the point of a mobile device,' asks WSJ reporter and iPad-beatdown-victim Rolfe Winkler, 'if people don't feel safe using it while they're mobile?' A lucrative secondhand market for today's electronics devices — a used iPad or iPhone can fetch $400+ — has produced an explosion in 'Apple picking' by thieves. So, how big is the iCrime wave? In New York City alone, there were more than 26,000 incidents of electronics theft in the first 10 months of 2011 — 81% involving mobile phones — according to an internal NYPD document. And plenty of the crimes are violent. The best way to deter theft is to reduce the value of stolen device — the wireless industry is moving to adopt a national registry that would deny service to such devices. A remote kill switch has been discussed as another approach. For its part, Apple says the company 'has led the industry in helping customers protect their lost or stolen devices,' although some are unimpressed. Could the estimated $575 in profit per iOS device be part of the problem?"

Submission + - 6 IT Projects are $8 Billion Over Budget at the Dept of Defense (federaltimes.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: The Federal Times has the stunning but not surprising news (http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20120723/DEPARTMENTS01/307230001/At-DoD-6-projects-8-billion-over-budget) that a new audit has found that Six Defense Department modernization projects are a combined $8 Billion — or 110 percent — over budget. The projects are also suffering from years-long schedule delays.

In 1998, work began on the Army’s Logistics Modernization Program (LMP). In April 2010, the General Accounting Office (GAO) issued their report "Actions Needed to Improve Implementation of the Army Logistics Modernization Program" (http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-461) about the status of LMP. LMP is now scheduled to be fully deployed in September 2016, 12 years later than originally scheduled, and 18 years after development first began! (Development of the often-maligned Duke Nukem Forever (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Nukem_Forever) only took 15 years.)

Prime contractors Computer Sciences Corp, Accenture, IBM and CACI obviously have learned the "If you're not a part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem" lesson! (http://www.despair.com/consulting.html)
Games

Submission + - Games could predict whether you're color blind, a gambler, or have ADD (venturebeat.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Lukasz Twardowski, a young Polish entrepreneur, recently made an unexpected discovery. By analyzing data from video games, he thinks he’ll be able to predict whether players are color blind, have Alzheimer’s disease, or suffer from various learning and development disorders. He can already use this data to tell whether players are gamblers, cheaters, or minors, so the profiling of medical conditions is not that distant, Twardowski claims.

“Games are the richest and the most meaningful form of human computer interaction,” said Twardowski in an interview with VentureBeat. “We can use [them] to build a full user behavioral profile.”
Encryption

Submission + - Sudoku Inspired Algorithm used for Encrypting Images (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: Sudoku puzzles, solved the world over by millions of users every day, have managed to grab attention of mathematicians allowing them to use the underlying mathematics as a means for scrambling or encrypting images. Yue Wu at Tufts University in Medford along with a couple of friends has used Sudoku’s 9x9 grid to formulate a completely new type of matrix mathematics. For readers who are not so mathematics savvy, a matrix is a rectangular array of numbers wherein each element can uniquely identified by its row and column number – in other words, its grid reference. As Sudoku is the reference for new technique, according to Wu and co it is possible to identify elements in an array such that each of the elements contains a digit from 1 to 9 and that it satisfies the rules of Sudoku. This means that each element can now be identified by a row reference, a column reference and a digit. According to the team there are a total of six different ways of representing each element according to Wu. Through the use of simple mathematical functions [PDF], the co-ordinates in one system can be converted to that of the other. When we consider encryption, these simple conversion functions are the key to scrambling images. So, how to go about it? One can start with an image made up of 9x9 pixels. Next, superimpose a Sudoku solution onto this grid such that each of the pixels can now be represented by the new coordinate systems. Now using any one of the conversion functions swap the position of pixels. This will effectively scramble the image.
Games

Submission + - Square Enix releases new website for revamped FFXIV (square-enix.com)

Submitted by sandytaru
sandytaru writes: Square Enix has released a new website and trailer for version 2.0 of its failed second flagship MMORPG, dubbed FFXIV: A Realm Reborn. The handful of players who still participate in the current version of the game say that the replacement director, Yoshi P, has done great things to improve gameplay and version 2.0 will be essentially a brand new MMO. But when an MMO failed so hard on initial release, will anyone be willing to give it a second chance?
Security

Submission + - Defcon researchers show how a 3-year-old can open store-bought gun safes (forbes.com)

Submitted by bupbin
bupbin writes: We are providing a detailed report and analysis of eleven different popular gun safes produced by Stack-On, GunVault, and Bulldog to warn the public of the dangers inherent in some of these products because the manufacturers nor their major retailers will do so. In that report you can view eight different Stack-On models, one produced by Bulldog, and one manufactured by GunVault. A similar design defect is demonstrated in an inexpensive safe for storing valuables that is sold by AMSEC, a very reputable safe manufacturer in the United States. Unfortunately, their digital safe with their claim of a “state-of-the-art electronic lock” can also be opened (literally) by a three year old because of a common mechanism used in the industry that is subject to circumvention.
Hardware

Submission + - OnLive is coming to the Ouya console (tech-stew.com)

Submitted by
techfun89
techfun89 writes: "The cloud gaming platform OnLive will be coming to the Kickstarter-Funded console Ouya in 2013 when Ouya debuts, according to both companies. In a post on the OnLive official blog today, OnLive general manager Bruce Grove stated that OnLive would be available on Ouya when the console hits the market in March of 2013.

General Manager of Ouya, Bruce Grove stated this about the merger: "OUYA is rethinking the console business, making waves by using standard technology to make gaming for your living room accessible, affordable and more innovative than ever, in OnLive's case, we pioneered a groundbreaking, cloud-based system that instantly delivers games to any device on demand.""
Businesses

Submission + - Mark Zuckerberg's Big Facebook Mistake

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Nathan Vardi writes in Forbes that in the last two months, Mark Zuckerberg has had a rude introduction to the capital markets and with Facebook’s stock in free-fall, down more than 40% from its IPO price, Zuckerberg has a big problem. "Zuckerberg did not want to deal with the pressures of being a public company. Like many entrepreneurs these days he viewed the capital markets with suspicion," writes Vardi. "So Zuckerberg made a fateful decision, he decided to keep Facebook a privately-held company for much longer than other success stories like Google or Amazon." But waiting eight years to conduct an IPO has turned out to be an impossible problem to manage. The bankers at Morgan Stanley applied all the lessons of the last 15 years and priced the IPO at $38, which was very aggressive, in an attempt to avoid leaving any money on the table and the embarrassment that a huge IPO pop would represent. With such a big valuation at IPO time, Facebook had to show some results but the numbers that Facebook announced in its first quarterly earnings report were underwhelming and the trading hordes drove Facebook’s stock down by 15% in Friday morning trading. Now the early institutional investors are heading for the exits and it's hard to imagine morale at Facebook won’t take a hit that correlates with the loss in value of the shares belonging to the employees. "The lesson of the Facebook fiasco for Silicon Valley is clear. Start-up entrepreneurs cannot evade the discipline of the capital markets any more than can the prime ministers of Spain and Italy.""
Google

Submission + - Researchers Beat Google's Bouncer (net-security.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: When earlier this year Google introduced Bouncer — an automated app scanning service that analyzes apps by running them on Google’s cloud infrastructure and simulating how they will run on an Android device — it shared practically nothing about how it operates, in the hopes of making malicious app developers' scramble for a while to discover how to bypass it. As it turned out, several months later security researchers Jon Oberheide and Charlie Miller discovered — among other things — just what kind of virtual environment Bouncer uses (the QEMU processor emulator) and that all requests coming from Google came from a specific IP block, and made an app that was instructed to behave as a legitimate one every time it detected this specific virtual environment. Now two more researchers have effectively proved that Bouncer can be rather easily fooled into considering a malicious app harmless.
Google

Submission + - Google didn't delete all Street View Wi-Fi data (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by
nk497
nk497 writes: "Google is in more trouble over the Street View Wi-Fi data slurping incident. Two years ago Google admitted it had collected snippets of personal data while sniffing for Wi-Fi connections. The UK's data watchdog, the ICO, didn't fine Google, but did demand it delete the collected data. Following the FCC's investigation, the ICO double-checked with Google that the data was deleted, receiving confirmation that it had. Except... it hadn't all been deleted, Google has now admitted. That breaches the deal between the ICO and Google, and the watchdog has said it's in talks with other regulators about what to do next."

Submission + - Clean up my work computer before I leave 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I'm leaving my current job for a new one. I've been at this job for 10+ years so I'm sure there is tons of personal stuff stored on my machine. Since I can't take it with me does any one have a suggestions of tools or practices to clean off all of that data. I've already got my personal documents and files. I'm most worried about CC, debit card numbers and web site passwords I've used in browsers. Does clearing the cache, cookies, temp files do a good enough job? BTW it's a Windows 7 system if that makes a difference.
Censorship

Submission + - Man claims cell phone taken by DC police for taking photos (myfoxdc.com)

Submitted by hawkinspeter
hawkinspeter writes: Just one day after Chief Cathy Lanier made it illegal for MPD cops to take recording equipment, a 26-year-old local man had his phone taken as he was trying to record a violent arrest. They eventually gave back his phone, but without the memory card which also contained photos of his daughter along with the record of the alleged police brutality.
Twitter

Submission + - Pual Chambers tweet conviction overturned by Appeal Court (independent.co.uk)

Submitted by Kupfernigk
Kupfernigk writes: Pauil Chambers was the man who was convicted (in England) of a terrorist offense based on a tweet threatening to "Blow up" Robin Hood Airport because they couldn't get snow cleared. Despite the fact that it was obviously a (feeble) joke, the Crown Prosecution Service actually went ahead with a prosecution and were able to convince a junior judge sitting with magistrates. The senior judges, including the Lord Chief Justice, said

"We have concluded that, on an objective assessment, the decision of the Crown Court that this 'tweet' constituted or included a message of a menacing character was not open to it. On this basis, the appeal against conviction must be allowed." In effect, they have said that the original decision was not made objectively, which can be considered a severe slap for the Crown Prosecutor.

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