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Submission + - Former Dev Gives Gloomy Outlook on Linux Support for the Opera Browser (ycombinator.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It doesn't take a Columbo to figure out that the "previous employer, a small browser vendor that decided to abandon its own rendering engine and browser stack" is referring to Opera in this comment answering the question "Do you actually use the product you are working on?". It appears to originate from Andreas Tolfsen, former Opera developer and now part of the Mozilla project.

From releasing a unified architecture browser including Linux support since 2001, Opera decided to put Linux development on indefinite hold, communicated through blog comments, and focus on Windows and Mac for their browser rewrite centered around the Blink engine that had its first beta release last spring. The promise to bring back the Linux version in due time was met with growing skepsis as the months went by, and clear answers have been avoided in the developer blog. The uncertainty has spawned user projects such as Otter browser in an attempt to recreate the Opera UI in a free application.

Tolfsen's statement seem to be in line with what users have suspected all along: Opera for Linux is not something for the near future.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Life After N900 2

Submitted by Rydia
Rydia writes: Since it first released, I have been in love with my Nokia N900, and it has satisfied all my needs for a mobile with a high degree of control and utility. Sadly, the little guy is showing his age, both in battery life (even with the powersaving kernel options enabled), and performing in general has been left far, far in the dust by phones that are now considered quite old. The time has come to find its successor, but after a thorough search of smartphone options, I can't find any handset that offers everything for the power user that the N900 did (much less a hardware keyboard). I'd like to avoid supporting Google/Android, but there don't seem to be many options. Have any other techies found a replacement for their N900?

Submission + - The Mystery Of The $3 Million Google Engineer (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: Recently Business Insider caused a minor stir among developers with dreams of riches with a story about a nameless Google engineer who's making $3 million a year. Who is this person, and is his or her compensation typical of pay scales inside the Googleplex? Blogger Phil Johnson uses public information to try to figure out the answer. His conlusion: the $3 million engineer may exist, but is a rare bird indeed if so.

Submission + - Nintendo announces record-breaking 2013 (playerattack.com)

Submitted by dotarray
dotarray writes: Nintendo has celebrated a record-breaking year of handhelds, reporting that more than 16 million 3DS games were sold in 2013 — around 5 million more than were sold in 2012, bringing the worldwide lifetime total to more than 122 million.

Submission + - Man Jailed for Gmail Invite to Ex-Girlfriend

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: ABC News reports that a Massachusetts man has been jailed for sending his ex-girlfriend an email invitation to join Google+. But Thomas Gagnon, who has a restraining order against him, contends he didn't send it; Google did, without his knowledge or consent. When his ex-girlfriend received the invitation, according to the Salem News, she went to the police, complaining Gagnon had violated the restraining order by sending her the email. Police agreed and arrested him, the News reported. He was jailed then released on $500 bail. Gagnon’s attorney says his client has no idea how the woman he once planned to marry — popping the question with a $4,000 ring earlier this month — got such an invitation, suggesting that it's entirely possible Gagnon is telling the truth — that he did not intentionally or knowingly send the invitation. "If he didn't send it — if Google sent it without his permission and he was jailed for it — Google could be facing major liability." Shear pointed out a Google product forum from 2011 and 2012 titled "Prevent automatic email invitations to Google+?" that contains a number of angry complaints by Google+ users about the automatic invitation feature. In response these complaints, a Google Community Manager calling herself "Natalie" responded: "Thanks for your feedback. Right now the emails that go out alert people of your activity on Google+, and more importantly the sharing of content with them. We send them an email when they aren't yet on Google+ so they know that you are out there in the world [of] G+. They should only incur this email once." Shear noted: "Google is going through every one of your contacts and sending them an invitation, whether it's your doctor, your lawyer, your mistress, or your ex-fiancee who's got a restraining order against you." He called this, "a perfect example of what happens when a company oversteps its bounds."

Submission + - Intel Challenges Manufacturers to Avoid "Conflict Metals" (nationalgeographic.com)

Submitted by retroworks
retroworks writes: Several news outlets, CBS, Verge, Engadget, National Geographic, MarketWatch, etc. report on Intel's announcement that the chips it produces will avoid purchases of rare earth minerals and metals, such as tantalum, sourced from high conflict areas such as Congo basin. Will recycled content follow? Will manufacturers begin stating the percentage of their boards which are made from recycled boards, like recycled paper greeting cards, closing the loop on the environmental conflict-mine-to-ewaste chain? Or is another De Caprio "Blood Diamonds" film in our future?

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/06/all-intel-microprocessors-conflict-mineral-free/

Submission + - When Slashdot Beta goes mainstream, where will you go? 5

Submitted by EzInKy
EzInKy writes: I'm sure most of you have checked it out, and am just as sure most of you don't like what they are plan to force upon us. So my question is, where do you plan on getting your Slashdot fix once the beta becomes the default? I know I'm trying to learn CSS so I can undo the damage they are inflicting.

Submission + - Feedly Forces its Users to Create Google+ Profiles

Submitted by somegeekynick
somegeekynick writes: Feedly users, a lot of whom migrated from the now-defunct Google Reader, are now finding out that they will not be able to login to the service without a Google+ Profile. In a blog post from Edwin Khodabakchian, which was posted almost at the same time the change rolled out, the reason for the change is stated as following Google's own move from using OAuth to Google+ for authentication. What has riled up a lot of users, as can be read in the comments, is that this change has come without warning and a lot of feeds are now being "held hostage" by Feedly, especially for users who are reluctant to create Google+ Profiles.

Submission + - Apple Issues First Transparency Report

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: In a new report detailing the number and kind of requests for user information it’s gotten from various governments, Apple said it has never received a request for information under Section 215 of the USA PATROT Act and would likely fight one if it ever came. The company also disclosed that it has received between 1,000 and 2,000 requests for user data from the United States government since January, but it’s not clear how many of those requests it complied with because of the restrictions the U.S. government places on how companies can report this data.

Right now, companies such as Apple, Google and others that issue so-called transparency reports only are allowed to report the volume of requests they get in increments of 1,000. So Apple’s report shows that although it received 1,000-2,000 requests for user data so far in 2013, the number that it complied with is listed as 0-1,000. Apple, along with a number of other companies, including Google and Microsoft, have asked the government in recent months for permission to disclose more specific numbers of requests, including specific numbers of National Security Letters.

Submission + - Why is India Sending a Probe to Mars when it Has so Many Poor People? (yahoo.com)

Submitted by MarkWhittington
MarkWhittington writes: The recent launch of India's first mission to Mars has ignited a debate in that country that has parallels of a debate that was once raging in the United States. The question arises, why does a country with a severe poverty problem have a space program?

The Economist points out that India's space program, of which the Mars mission is a small part, costs about $1 billion a year. It claims that spending on things like public health in that country is "abysmally low."

On the other hand, most of India's space program is directed toward communications and other satellites that have a direct benefit to its people.

The BBC adds that the inspirational and national prestige aspects of the Mars mission are not to be sneezed at. India has a growing middle class, technically trained, and a good space program is part of a mix of policies that encouraged that development.

Submission + - http://istumblrdown Shuttered by Cease and Desist Order (istumblrdown.com)

Submitted by TrueSatan
TrueSatan writes: Blogging platform Tumblr has issued a Cease and desist notice to http://istumblrdown.com/ a rather trivial and harmless site that simply offered status updates for Tumblr. The site owner claims this to be symptomatic of Tumblr's disregard for users needs quoting http://zachinglis.com/posts/why-tumblr-sucks and their fixation on banning users rather than any more positive improvements they might make to their platform. http://www.dailydot.com/news/missing-e-banned-tumblr/

Submission + - New canon-faithful Star Trek series is in pre-production. (indiegogo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Star Trek veterans such as Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Robert Picardo (the Doctor) and others are busy in pre-production of a professionally produced pilot episode for a suggested new online Star Trek series named Star Trek: Renegades, which will be faithful to the original Star Trek canon. The events of the series are placed a decade after Voyager's return from Delta Quadrant. They have also opened an Indiegogo campaign, seeking more funds from Star Trek fans to help make the production even more professional.

Submission + - GNUstep Kickstarter (kickstarter.com)

Submitted by DMJC
DMJC writes: A kickstarter has been created to fund development of the GNUstep desktop system. Major goals include complete compatibility with Cocoa from Mac OSX 10.6 which will allow programs written for Mac OSX 10.6 to compile and run on Linux and BSD platforms. Stretch goals include a complete port of Webkit/webcore to Linux and BSD.

Comment Fair licensing; the system works. (Score 1) 121

by Xenex (#39611635) Attached to: CSIRO Develops 10 Gbps Microwave Backhaul

CSIRO develop technologies, patent them, then license them at fair terms. They then use that licensing revenue to develop new technologies, patent them, and license them at fair terms. And repeat.

It's not like CSIRO are patent trolls. The WLAN thing only got dragged out in course because greedy companies were not interested in fair licensing terms.

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