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Open Source

Submission + - Desura Linux Client Can be Open Sourced (ubuntuvibes.com)

Submitted by
dartttt
dartttt writes: "Desura client for Linux may go open source. At the moment, there is only one developer who is working on the client and he shared his thoughts on making Desura Linux client open source in a recent forum post. No decision has been taken yet but he has invited comments from the community and there has been a hugely positive reaction. If all goes well Desura client for Linux can be open sourced eventually"
Games

Submission + - The Universe is Ending (lego.com)

Submitted by CmdrStone
CmdrStone writes: The Universe is Ending in the eyes of Lego. Cheap pun I know.

"We are very sad to announce that LEGO Universe will be closing on Janurary 31, 2012. This was a very difficult decision to make, but unfortunately LEGO Universe has not been able to attract the number of members needed to keep the game open. "

Bummer. I enjoyed playing this game with my kids. Open sourcing the game would be nice.

Comment Re:AmigaOS (Score 0) 258

by james.mcarthur (#37814978) Attached to: Hyperion Promises An AmigaOS Netbook
"At this point in history they should be using an emulator on standard hardware. No really."

The writing has been on the wall for PowerPC since before Apple jumped to Intel, but Hyperion and some of the Amiga community still want to believe.

Want to see rabid fanboi's? Post on AmigaWorld or Amiga.org asking why there isn't x86/ARM based Amiga's.
Science

Submission + - Doubts over dark matter (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Hope Thelps
Hope Thelps writes: The BBC is reporting that studies of dwarf galaxies suggest that their formation is inconsistent with the most common theories on dark matter.

Submission + - Court Reinstates $675k File Sharing Verdict (wired.com)

Submitted by FunPika
FunPika writes: A federal appeals court on Friday reinstated a whopping $675,000 file sharing verdict that a jury levied against a Boston college student for making 30 tracks of music available on a peer-to-peer network. The decision by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a federal judge who slashed the award as “unconstitutionally excessive.” U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner of Boston reduced the verdict to $67,500, or $2,250 for each of the 30 tracks defendant Joel Tenenbaum unlawfully downloaded and shared on Kazaa, a popular file sharing peer-to-peer service. The Recording Industry Association of America and Tenenbaum both appealed in what has been the nation’s second RIAA file sharing case to ever reach a jury. The Obama administration argued in support of the original award, and said the judge went too far when addressing the constitutionality of the Copyright Act’s damages provisions. The act allows damages of up to $150,000 a track.
Google

Submission + - Google Buys Motorola for $12.5 Billion (mashable.com)

Submitted by mhh91
mhh91 writes: "Google announced Monday morning that it will acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.

Motorola is one of 39 manufacturers of handsets that use Google’s Android operating system.

Buying a hardware company is an unusual move for Google. The acquisition, Google said in a statement, “will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem.”

Will this strengthen Google's position in the ongoing patent war with Apple and Microsoft?
Apple

Submission + - Prior Art Can Make Apple's iPad Design Invalid (muktware.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: The heart of the issue is the 'generic/broad' design of a tablet that Apple got approved as EC community design. One may wonder how such a generic design, which cover an entire range of product and overlaps with other already existing products be patented to one single company?

I lot of bloggers like Ken Hess and Apple fans are defending Apple. Ken has defended Apple for patenting the iPad design. The question is how unique is the iPad's design, are there prior arts?

Muktware has gather prior art examples which may make the iPad design patent invalid.

Submission + - New tool lets police find porn on WiFi (katu.com)

Submitted by katarn
katarn writes: The article is a little scant on details, but is touting http://www.flukenetworks.com/enterprise-network/network-testing/AirCheck-Wi-Fi-Tester as a device for police to use in finding WiFi setups engaged in the transfer of child porn. The article tries to give the impression this tool is some great new thing which can singlehandedly track down child porn, but backtracks to state that the police need “a lead on a child predator”, so assuredly the transfer of porn has already been verified by other means, and all the device does is narrow down the location of the device in use. Not to pass this article along as a free advertisement for fluke, but my question to those in the networking field who have used this device is: The writeups present this device as a no-brains method of finding child predators. How easy would it be for someone with actual networking knowledge to trick the device into falsely implicating someone else? There is always the concern that police/judge/jury may blindly accept the apparent evidence presented by a tool like this, even though the details may be more complex than indicated.
Intel

Submission + - Sandy Bridge-E CPUs too hot for Intel? (extremetech.com)

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "Intel’s next consumer CPUs — the Sandy Bridge-E — will ship without a heatsink and fan. These new chips, which will feature up to 15MB of L3 cache and integrated four-channel DDR3 and 32x PCI 3.0 controllers will run very hot — potentially up to 180W TDP. Is Intel unable to cool these extreme chips, or is there another reason for the shift? Curiously, Intel will still offer "sold separately" own-brand cooling solutions for the new chips — so is this merely Intel trying to cut costs for enthusiasts who don't need a stock cooler — or is this the beginnings of Intel branching out into the cooling business?"
Hardware

Submission + - HP Holds Navy Network Hostage for $3.3 Billion (wired.com)

Submitted by Tootech
Tootech writes: military An anonymous reader writes "From the This could only happen to the Gov't Dept: Someday, somehow, the U.S. Navy would like to run its networks — maybe even own its computers again. After 10 years and nearly $10 billion, many sailors are tired of leasing their PCs, and relying on a private contractor to operate most of their data systems. Troops are sick of getting stuck with inboxes that hold 150 times less than a Gmail account, and local networks that go down for days while Microsoft Office 2007 gets installed in 2010. But the Navy just can’t quit its tangled relationship with Hewlett-Packard. The admirals and the firm recently signed another $3.3 billion no-bid contract that begins Oct. 1st. It’s a final, five-year deal, both sides promise, to let the Navy gently wean itself from its reliance on HP. But that’s what they said the last time, and the time before that.

It’s become a Washington cliché that the military and the intelligence community rely too much on outside contractors. Everyone from President Obama to Defense Secretary Robert Gates has promised to cut back on Pentagon outsourcing. But the Navy’s ongoing inability to separate itself from Hewlett-Packard – after years of trying – shows how difficult that withdrawal is going to be.

Just to make sure its core networks keep running – to make sure marines and sailors can keep e-mailing each other on Oct. 1st — the Navy is paying Hewlett Packard $1.788 billion. (Booz Allen Hamilton, another outside contractor, handled the negotiations with Hewlett-Packard for the military.) The service will spend another $1.6 billion to buy from HP the equipment troops have worked on for years, and to license the network diagrams and configuration documents, so that the Navy can begin to plan for a future in which they’re not utterly reliant on HP for their most basic communications. In essence, the Navy is paying to look at the blueprints to the network it has been using for a decade.

“HP is holding the Navy hostage, and there isn’t a peep about it,” one Department of the Navy civilian tells Danger Room. “We basically had two recourses: pay, or send in the Marines.”"

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