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The 57 Lamest Tech Moments of 2010 123

harrymcc writes "When it comes strange blunders, failed dreams, pointless legal wrangling, and other embarrassments, the technology industry had an uncommonly busy 2010. I compiled a list of the most notable examples--including the lost iPhone prototype, the short life of Microsoft's Kin, the end of Google Wave, the McAfee security meltdown, a depressingly long list of lawsuits over mobile patents, and much more."

Comment Re:Computer science... (Score 2) 564

Same here. At my school keyboarding was a 9th grade "business" credit, as a vestige of the old secretarial program.

The standard was the same as in the summary - 30 words per minute. I finished the course being able to type 95wpm and earned the "academic" achievement award. It definitely wasn't worthless, though - I easily doubled or tripled my typing speed over the course of the year, which has done me more good than a lot of the things I learned in more "serious" courses.

Comment Re:This one's been posted on Slashdot before... (Score 3, Interesting) 240

What I find exceptionally absurd about this is that author of the article, Riyad Kalla, is complaining about fake reviews on Amazon, but the TFA has a link to another article in the "related articles" section, by the same author, celebrating that Denon one you mention. So he finds fake reviews hilarious, except when he doesn't. And writes articles about them in both cases.

Comment Re:I'm sticking with VGA (Score 2) 356

From my experience there usually is, but they don't document it very well.

For example, I have a Samsung TV with a PC hooked up by HDMI. To turn off overscan and rescaling, I have to go into the menu to rename the input and rename that HDMI port "DVI/PC". Everything in the UI suggests that's just the name I'll see on the input menu, and for every other combination of input type and possible name I've tried, that's all it is. The manufacturer's docs say I should do this when connecting a PC but don't say anything as to why. But the problem isn't that there's no option to do this, just that the option seems to be deliberately buried.

I imagine many other TV manufacturers have similarly stupid systems.

Comment Re:Measurement opportunity (Score 1) 446

When Android games are 1 dollar and still pirated heavily it is hard to believe that those pirates would have paid for the data plan but not bought any games. Pirates should not be given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to software that is affordable.

Any games? You're probably right. But a specific game? I dunno... there are lots of things in this world I wouldn't pay a dollar for but would gladly accept for free. The fact that I'll pay a dollar for some things does not make this any less true.

Comment Re:Tom Flanagan, Hilarious Idiot (Score 4, Interesting) 579

And this guy's an adviser to the Canadian PM? What kind of advice does he provide? "Well, sir, I think you should grow wings and save the internet or at least threaten to break its kneecaps if it doesn't shape up."

Former adviser. Media outside of Canada likes to leave that part out, I guess because it makes it seem like our government is reacting to WikiLeaks.

No one in Canada takes him seriously, he just goes on CBC and says outrageous things. It's pretty amusing that he was taken seriously internationally.

Transportation

China Defends Its IP Practices, Says 'We Paid Up' 214

hackingbear writes "Countering accusations that China's high-speed rail technologies are knockoffs, the head of China's Intellectual Property Administration in a conference said (paraphrasing): "We bought technologies from German, Japan, France, and Canada. We paid up. It is perfectly legal. We then innovate on top of them like most other inventions in the world. Why is that pirating?' (Link is to a Google translation; here is the original.) He cited China's ability, the world's first, to build high-speed rail in a high mountain area as an example of additional innovation."

Comment Re:But but (Score 2, Informative) 290

But when was the Bible not translated? Ulfilas translated it to Gothic in the 4th century, and there are English and French translations from later in the middle ages. A quick wiki search shows up that the ban on translation was made by Pope Gregory IX in the 13th century, and it doesn't seem to have stopped much.

Maybe "translating" really means "owning" and people didn't own it because it was prohibitively expensive until the printing press. If you can't afford a book, what does it matter what language it's in?

Also, what does this have to do with TFA? I'll be quiet now.

Submission + - Cross-Site Scripting Attack hits Twitter (sophos.com)

RJHelms writes: As those of you who use Twitter may have notices, the social media site appears to have been hit with cross-site scripting attacks this morning. From Sophos:

"The Twitter website is being widely exploited by users who have stumbled across a flaw which allows messages to pop-up and third-party websites to open in your browser just by moving your mouse over a link. Messages are also spreading virally exploiting the vulnerability without the consent of users."

As of 9:20AM EST, I have also seen attacks doing the same thing using an overlay, making simply viewing your account reproduce the offending messages. PC Magazine's Larry Seltzer's blog claims the attacks were stopped around 9AM but began again around 9:15. Perhaps the original fix only blocked onmouseover.

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