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Google

Submission + - No Set-Top TV Device Market Domination for Google (itworld.com) 2

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, returns of the Logitech Revue (Google's set-top box) exceeded sales in the first quarter. Explaining why sales were so poor, Logitech Chairman Guerrino De Luca went way out on a limb, saying: 'There was a significant gap between our price and the value perceived by the consumer.' So significant that 'Logitech must take a $34 million charge in the first quarter, which more than comprises the company's Q1 net loss of $30 million,' writes blogger Chris Nerney. 'In other words, Google TV is pushing Logitech into the red!'"

Submission + - Volkswagen Temporary Auto Pilot goes live in demo (everythingnew.net)

Submitted by
hasanabbas1987
hasanabbas1987 writes: "A month back we told you about the Temporary Auto Pilot system in cars in development by Volkswagen, now they have taken it to the next level and demonstrated it in real time. The new Volkswagen Passat was selected for the demonstration and the car was equpped with a radar system, laser scanner, cameras, ultrasonic sensors and an “electronic horizon”, giving the car a sense of its location on the road."
Data Storage

Submission + - WD's Terabyte Scorpio Notebook Drive Tested (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "Recently, Western Digital stepped out and announced their new
1TB 9.5mm Scorpio Blue 2.5-inch notebook drive. The announcement was significant in that it's the first drive of this capacity to squeeze that many bits into an industry standard 9.5mm, 2.5" SATA form-factor. To do this, WD drove areal density per platter in their 2.5" platform to 500GB. The Scorpio Blue 1TB drive spins at only 5400RPM but its performance is actually surprising. Since areal density per platter has increased significantly, the drive actually bests some 7200RPM drives."
Databases

Submission + - Unified NoSQL query language launched (arnnet.com.au)

Submitted by splitenz
splitenz writes: Hoping to unify the growing but disparate market of NoSQL databases, the creators behind CouchDB and SQLite have introduced a new query language for the format, called UnQL (Unstructured Data Query Language). It has Microsoft's backing.
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook to pay hackers for bugs (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Facebook is going to pay hackers to find problems with its website — just so long as they report them to Facebook's security team first. The company is following Google and Mozilla in launching a Web "Bug Bounty" program. For security related bugs — cross site scripting flaws, for example — the company will pay a base rate of $500. If they're truly significant flaws Facebook will pay more, though company executives won't say how much. "In the past we've focused on name recognition by putting their name up on our page, sending schwag out and using this an avenue for interviews and the recruiting process," said Alex Rice, Facebook's product security lead. "We're extending that now to start paying out monetary rewards."
The Internet

Submission + - Tens of thousands flee from BT and Virgin (itpro.co.uk)

Submitted by
twoheadedboy
twoheadedboy writes: "The two biggest ISPs in the UK are losing thousands of customers. Earlier this week Virgin reported it had lost 36,000 cable broadband customers. BT, meanwhile, has seen around 125,000 active consumer line customers flee this quarter. With that many customers leaving, where are they going?"

Comment Dysfunctional Family Circus (Score 2) 169

by mykepredko (#36904608) Attached to: Better Copyright Through Fair Use and Ponies

I'm showing my age, but I still miss the "Dysfunctional Family Circus" and it is probably a great example of copyright owners shutting down a parody site rather than rolling with it.

You could argue that it was over the top (dad as a drug addled, homosexual S&M freak) but I daresay it didn't damage the brand and, in my own case, it gave me reason to start looking at the strip again (I thought it was nauseating when I was 10 years old) simply to start thinking about captions to contribute.

myke

Comment Re:On The Other Hand/You can only go so far (Score 1) 684

by mykepredko (#31118858) Attached to: How Easy Is It To Cheat In CS?

We're just finishing a project in which image data (RGB and YUV) has to be blended together. The SoC we were working with had blending libraries that took advantage of blending hardware built into the processor.

Unfortunately, the blending was of poor quality and very slow.

The solution was to have an engineer write routines that would perform a custom blending algorithm that could be tweaked to provide the best image. In this case, he did a superior job and not only provided better image quality than the manufacturer's library but also ran faster.

I agree that management will want you to use existing code wherever possible, but when it comes down to it, if the existing pieces don't meet requirements, the coders have to know how to replicate the functions.

myke

Submission + - Transplanted windpipe renews Belgian woman's life

Submitted by mykepredko
mykepredko writes: While an organ transplant might now sound important, the CBC is reporting on Linda De Croock who has a working windpipe after surgeons implanted the trachea from a dead man into her arm, where it grew new blood vessels before being transplanted into her throat. For about eight months, she took drugs to stop her immune system from rejecting the new organ. Though some of the tissue from the windpipe's male donor remains, enough of De Croock's own tissue now lines the organ that she no longer needs anti-rejection medicines.
Security

Submission + - IE 0-day attack used in Chinese attack (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by
bheer
bheer writes: "A zero-day attack on IE was used to carry out the cyber attack on Google and others that's been getting so much ink recently, reports The Register quoting McAfee's CTO. While the web (and security) community has been pointing out the problems with IE's many security flaws (and its sluggish update cycle) in the past, IE shows no sign of vanishing from the corporate landscape. Will this latest, high-profile incident open CIO's eyes to the risk they're facing?"
Patents

Submission + - Kodak sues Apple, RIM over camera patents (idg.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "Kodak has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission charging Apple and Research In Motion with infringing patents in products with cameras. The suit claims that the iPhone and BlackBerry devices with cameras infringe a Kodak patent that allows image previews. Kodak recently settled a similar case against Samsung. In that case, an ITC judge issued an initial determination ruling that Samsung had infringed the image preview patent."
Security

Submission + - Yahoo reportedly hit by China hackers (goodgearguide.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "Yahoo was one of more than 30 companies hit by a sophisticated online attack from China, designed to steal intellectual property and collect information on Chinese dissidents. The news follows revelations that Google and Adobe had also been targeted by the hackers, who are thought to be from China. According to sources familiar with the matter, 34 companies in total have been affected — and more names are expected to come to light in the next few days."
Google

Submission + - IE Flaw -- Not PDF -- Fueled Google Cyberattacks (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: Hackers exploited an unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser in a widespread attack that compromised Google's and Adobe's corporate networks last year and earlier this month, McAfee said on Thursday. Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at McAfee, said the unpatched vulnerability in IE was the only exploit — not a flaw in PDF as reported earlier this week — used to hack into several of the companies attacked starting last month. Other researchers have said that as many as 33 firms were attacked, their networks compromised and in some cases, data stolen. Alperovitch said that Microsoft would release additional information about the IE vulnerability in a security advisory later on Thursday. "Microsoft is investigating these reports and will provide more information when it is available," a Microsoft spokesman said in an e-mail. The attacks have also been fingered as part of widespread spying effort from China.

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