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Submission + - Yoga for Geeks: I can haz wifi now? (itworldcanada.com)

Submitted by
NewsCloud
NewsCloud writes: "itWorld Canada reports on a yoga class geared for those who spend their lives around and in front of computers: 'No Lululemon required in Yoga for Geeks which includes postures for head and shoulder mobility, opening up the connective tissue in the upper body and opening up the hips, which get tight if you're sitting all day. The class also includes breathing and relaxation.' Laptop pain is serious business so don't be a laptop loser (pdf), work safely and mind your boyz. See also I can haz wifi now? and photos from Linux Fest and Penguin Day."
Media (Apple)

Submission + - The largest underground Mac community faces coup (macserialjunkie.com)

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "In a palace coup only imaginable in one of Shakespeare's tragedies, a moderator faction of one of the largest underground Mac communities was shut out this weekend after it was discovered many staff members were staging a coup, including an attempt to surreptitiously acquire the domain. (http://www.macserialjunkie.com/) In an Steve Jobs-like "Open Letter to the Community", the founders of MSJ explain how a number of people at the highest levels of the underground planned their takeover activities for almost two years, only to be foiled at the last minute. In an age of terrorism, are Western societies now taking cues from hostile countries instead of the other way around?"
PHP

Submission + - PHP5 vs. CakePHP vs. RubyOnRails - Choose 1

Submitted by OldJavaHack
OldJavaHack writes: If you could start a website (with MySQL for persistence) from scratch and you had a choice of PHP5, CakePHP, or RubyOnRails (RoR) — which would you choose and why?
Things to consider in your decision:
  • 1. Maturity of solution
  • 2. Features
  • 3. Size of community of skilled users (to build a team)
  • 4. Complexity/ease of use (for neophytes to master)
  • 5. Greatest strength of your choice, and the greatest weakness for the other 2 non-choices.
Thanks for your feedback!
See comparison of capabilities here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_app lication_frameworks
Media

Submission + - Third contender in the HD format war? (pcworld.com)

Submitted by Fishead
Fishead writes: As the fight heats up between HD DVD and Blu-ray, and as consumers seem to care less and less, a new contender has entered the fray.

Next month, New Medium Enterprises will be selling a 1080p player through Amazon, and stores such as Radio Shack and Costco for around $150.

The difference of this new HD VMD (Versatile Multilayer Disc) format and HD DVD or Blu-ray is that the discs are created with the same laser as DVD's. Unlike HD DVD and Blu-ray which use a blue laser.

From the article:
"HD VMD discs, which hold up to 30GB on a single side, are encoded with a maximum bit rate of 40 megabits per second; that's within halfway between HD DVD's 36 mpbs and Blu-ray's 48 mbps. The format uses MPEG-2 and VC1 video formats to encode at 1080p resolution for the time being, and will possibly move to the H.264 format in the future."
Privacy

Submission + - Police busted after tracking device found on car (stuff.co.nz)

Submitted by uh oh
uh oh writes: A New Zealand police operation to covertly follow a Central Otago man came to an abrupt halt this week when the man found tracking devices planted in his car, ripped them out and listed them for auction on Trade Me. Ralph Williams, of Cromwell, said he found the devices last week in his daughter's car, which he uses, and in his flatmate's car after the cars were seized by police and taken away for investigation.
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA Complaint Dismissed as "Boilerplate"

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The decision many lawyers had been expecting — that the RIAA's "boilerplate" complaint fails to state a claim for relief under the Copyright Act — has indeed come down, but from an unlikely source. While the legal community has been looking towards a Manhattan case, Elektra v. Barker, for guidance, a case in which amicus briefs had been submitted by various industry groups and the US Department of Justice (see case file, and from Warner v. Cassin, a similar motion in the same Court's Westchester division, the decision instead came from Senior District Court Judge Rudi M. Brewster of the US District Court for the Southern District of California, in a decision denying a default judgment (i.e. the defendant had not even appeared in the action). Judge Brewster not only denied the default judgment motion but dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim. Echoing the words of Judge Karas at the oral argument in Barker , Judge Brewster held (pdf) that "Plaintiff here must present at least some facts to show the plausibility of their allegations of copyright infringement against the Defendant. However, other than the bare conclusory statement that on "information and belief" Defendant has downloaded, distributed and/or made available for distribution to the public copyrighted works, Plaintiffs have presented no facts that would indicate that this allegation is anything more than speculation. The complaint is simply a boilerplate listing of the elements of copyright infringement without any facts pertaining specifically to the instant Defendant. The Court therefore finds that the complaint fails to sufficiently state a claim upon which relief can be granted and entry of default judgment is not warranted.""
Communications

Submission + - Opposition to Net-Neutrality

Submitted by Arnold Enil
Arnold Enil writes: Following the US DoJ's quite ridiculous ruling that commends a two-tier internet as a good idea and ensuing (surprisingly positive) big-media attention, the possiblity of a two-tier internet with different pricing rates, speeds, and available bandwidth is steadily becoming more and more of a real threat. Here are ten very real reasons why a two-tier internet is a very bad thing, for everyone from end-users, to ISP retailers, to webhosts alike. Users are encouraged to submit their own. And, of course, the obligatory petition.
The Courts

Submission + - Darl McBride: SCO isn't dead yet (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "Computerworld has an interview with Darl McBride, the SCO CEO who launched a series of lawsuits against IBM, Novell, and several large Linux users, relating to SCO's claim that its IP rights were violated. Despite last week's court ruling that found Novell to be the owner of the Unix and UnixWare copyrights, McBride says in the interview that "some very encouraging things" came out of the ruling, and "it's one of the more exciting times for this company." He compares SCO with Apple in the mid-1990s and Apple's subsequent comeback, and describes SCO's current plans for developing Unix for mobile devices. Of his many critics in the media, McBride says "I think this thing has been overplayed just a tad." Meanwhile, Frank Hayes says one of the critics — Groklaw — deserves credit for making available documents and analysis that has kept this story in the spotlight for the past five years, and filtering out the PR noise from the various players in the case:

Once documents in the lawsuits started to pile up, it was possible to draw hard conclusions based on the evidence presented to the court, rather than public-relations bluster. Which explains why so many analysts were able to tell their clients there wasn't much legal risk to worry about with Linux — and tell them that literally years before the hammer finally fell on the litigation. All thanks to the Groklaw crowd's desire to pile up every suit-related document they could find. Did Groklaw really have an impact on those court cases? Naaah. The impact was on the rest of us. That collection of documents gave SCO's suits a transparency that's impossible to come by with most IT industry litigation.

McBride says SCO is looking at filing an interlocutory appeal, which would deliver an immediate ruling even as the trial proceeds.
"
Education

Submission + - UI shifts classes to Friday to curb drinking (wqad.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Associated Press is reporting that The University of Iowa is shifting some mandatory classes to Friday in the hopes that it can curb binge drinking by its students. The story states that "The U.S. Surgeon General recommends more Friday classes." In other news, the university's website states it's holding a "block party" on Thursday.
Security

Submission + - Hackers using YouTube to spread latest Trojan

Submitted by thefickler
thefickler writes: Social engineering attacks are showing a strong rise this Summer. The latest trick is manipulating YouTube users to infect their PCs with a Trojan known as the Fake Codec. For most media, a certain codec is required to encode and decode a digital stream such as audio or video. When a user tries to view a video that requires a specific codec, they'll usually get the message, "Codec not found" or "The proper codec to play this media is not installed." Some sites will usually direct you to another website to download the codec; however, an increasing trend in late August is for hackers to direct users to download a fake codec, which will in turn install malicious software on the user's machine.
Security

Submission + - Is benchmarking a website you don't own illegal? 2

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: As a web developer, I'm constantly benchmarking my own sites to optimise for speed and stability. But recently, I was curious about the performance of a 3rd party website, and ran a benchmark against it. It was taking a while, so I went out to do some errands, and when I got back, the site was completely down, and had been for hours. I'd totally wiped them out, using nothing but ApacheBench.

My question is: is this illegal? I did nothing except request their own public URL, from one computer, a few thousand times. And yet, the effect was a total DOS. Could simply running AB be a crime, and can I expect the Feds at my door someday soon?
Security

Submission + - Osama Stunt Embarasses APEC

Submitted by GrpA
GrpA writes: The Chaser's War On Everything, possibly best known previously for their booking flights under the names Terry Wrist and Al Kyder have been arrested at the APEC Summit for what could be one of the most audacious stunts yet performed by the team. Their latest work involved them driving a fake motorcade through the restricted APEC Summit zone, with Chaser "Chas Licciardello" emerged from the vehicle dressed as Osama Bin Laden, embarassing security forces that were guarding world leaders, including Chinese President Hu Jintao and US President George W Bush. I guess our current world leaders haven't learned from lessons of the past.

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